Transnational Traditions

Together, [. . .] Kahn and Mendelsohn make a refreshing contribution to the field of migration studies by pushing historians and social scientists to pay attention to specific phenomena and use these to interrogate theoretical concepts and approaches developed in the previous generation’s work on Jewish migration and American Jewish history.

~Hannah Holtschneider

These ten authors write with the expected enthusiasm of academics breaking new ground in historical research, as they bring to life the migration of people and traditions in wonderful images of transnationalism from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries and from the Old World to the New. The book highlights the global nature of the Jewish experience, with Part I focusing on the part played by Australian Jewry in terms of the Jewish transnational profile.

~Helen Bersten

Overall, this is a significant, sometimes fascinating, compendium.

~R. C. Cottrell

Overall, the contributions to the volume do an excellent job of demonstrating how the study of global cultural, commercial, and human connections can add new depth and complexity to familiar topics in both Jewish and American history.

~Lawrence Charap

In short, Transnational Traditions offers a modern definition to the word "Diaspora," now a world-wide phenomenon that embraces not only Jews but people of many religions and many lands who seek a new and better life...

~Abraham Hoffman

Transnational Traditions shows with breadth and depth the extensive bonds that flourished among Jews around the world, linked through the United States, the most popular destination spot in the great age of migration. This volume proves both the fluidity of national boundaries and the centrality of the United States in modern Jewish history.

~Hasia R. Diner, New York University, Author of We Remember with Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence After the Holocaust and Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration

A path-breaking collection of essays that examines American Jewish history from broader and unfamiliar perspectives, showcasing new directions in the field.

~Jonathan D. Sarna, Joseph Engel Visiting Professor of American Jewish Studies, Harvard University and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University