The Jewish Self-Image in the West

About the Author MICHAEL BERKOWITZ is a Reader in Modern Jewish History in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College, London. Product Description From horned devils to greedy money lenders, images have been used as weapons against Jews for thousands of years. Even photojournalist social reformers of the early twentieth century reinforced derogatory stereotypes of Jews as wretched, immoral, and dirty. Little attention has focused, however, on the ways in which Jews themselves have attempted to counteract these views and to construct their own ethnic and political identities. In The Jewish Self-Image in the West, Michael Berkowitz examines dozens of visual renderings from the fin-de-siècle to the beginning of the Second World War to argue that Jews have exercised some control over representations of their own national communities and aspirations. In the decades before the Holocaust, organized segments of Jewry enthusiastically appropriated modern media in order to exert a greater influence over their public images. Presenting photographs and graphic images by Jews as attempts to disrupt or undermine prevailing perceptions, Berkowitz reconstructs the development of the Jewish self-image in the West over a crucial half-century. Review ."..It is a MUST read for any educator." -"The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues","A very thoughtful analysis of the need to move beyond the traditional black/white paradigm to address the dynamic aspects of racialized inequalities. . . . This provocative book will be widely discussed and debated."-William Julius Wilson, Harvard University"Offers fascinating new insights to the longstanding debate over racial discrimination in the United States. This important book will undoubtedly be influential in helping us analyze some of the most pressing civil rights issues of the twenty-first century."-Kevin R. Johnson, University of California, Davis, School of Law"This book joins a growing body of work that challenges essentialist ideas about race while also rejecting the colorblind and end-of-racism theses of conservative commentators...The authors have done an excellent job of articulating the implications of what it means to bring class back into critical race theory."-"Choice",