The Jews of Harlem

"This well-written volume makes clear that the Harlem Jewish community significantly influenced American Jewry as a whole . . . This is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of American Judaism." (Publishers Weekly) "What stays with you long after you have finished [The Jews of Harlem] is Gurock's steadfast devotion to his subject." (Jewish Review of Books) "The Jews of Harlem skillfully traces Jewish Harlem from its tentative beginnings to the years when Jewish life there rivaled that of the Lower East Side, and from the massive migration elsewhere to the community's even more tentative reemergence today. It's an important piece of American Jewish history." (Segula Magazine) "Nearly forty years after the publication of his first monograph,When Harlem Was Jewish, 18701930(1979), Jeffrey S. Gurock has returned to Harlem, revisiting the story of the Jewish communitys beginnings in the 1870s and 1880s, its heyday in the early twentieth century, and its rapid decline after World War I, and adding something that seemed unlikely in the 1970s: the return of Jews to the neighborhood." (The American Historical Review) "Athoughtful and comprehensive history of Jewish Harlem." (American Jewish Archives Journal) "The studies by Gurock are very valuable not only for anyone interested in American Jewish history, but they also make a significant contribution to other fields. Scholars and general readership who are interested in the history of New York, as well as urban history in general and African American history, will find Gurock's volume an indispensable addition to those fields." (American History) "The Jews of Harlem is a masterful work of scholarship that further concretizes Jeffrey Gurock's position as a preeminent academic practitioner. In parallel, it offers the reader a unique perspective from which to witness transitions in American Judaism, as well as the way one of its prime chroniclers interfaces with the story he tells." (Journal of Religion) "Gurock traces anew the history of Jewish Harlem, a subject he first explored in When Harlem Was Jewish, 1870-1930. While the earlier work told the story of an important, but largely forgotten, community, this well-written, comprehensive study examines a neighborhood whose history "is not over, but rather a work in progress"... this book is not merely a localized case study, but one that has great significance for Jewish American as a whole." (Journal of American Ethnic History) "Jeffrey Gurock is the historian of Jewish Harlem, but he is also its anthropologist and sociologist. He chronicles the fortunes of this storied neighborhood treasured by blacks and Jews and now home to both groups with the fresh-eyed relish of an explorer discovering a new land yet with the authority of an old-timer intimately familiar with every block and alley. He has populated his fascinating tale of Jewish Harlem's development, decline, and resurgence not just with events and institutions but with flesh and blood people who bring the community to vivid life." - Joseph Berger,author of The Pious Ones: The World of Hasidim and Their Battles with America "Jeffrey Gurock offers an evocative account of the evolution of Jewish Harlem. This book is a 'must read' for anyone interested in race, religion, and culture in New York's ever-changing neighborhood." - Beth S. Wenger,Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania "No one knows the history of the Jews in Harlem as well as Jeffrey S. Gurock, and this latest book recounts in wonderful detail not only their move uptown from the Lower East Side early in the 20th century, but their important role in the revival of the neighborhood in the 21st century. The Jews of Harlem is engagingly written and persuasively argued, and it will soon be recognized as a classic account of community change in a contested environment." - Kenneth T. Jackson,Barzun Professor of History, Columbia University "

"Jeffrey Gurock has done it again! His well-crafted narrative presents a convincing history of Parkchesters transition from a whites-only melting pot to a complex and racially diverse alternative to suburbia. Gurock raises significant questions that are persuasively answered by his solid research and clear-eyed analysis. His chapters throb with real life tensions and controversies, and finally with lessons about how reason and comity ultimately can prevail over intolerance.

" - Thomas Kessner,The Graduate Center, City University of New York "Taking the long view, across the twentieth century and beyond, allows Gurock to show how Harlem's history encapsulates the 'crucial variances in fates' (246) between Jews and African Americans—the former, progressively absorbed into whiteness and middle-class property ownership, while the latter remained in the grip of racial injustices including housing and employment discrimination—as well as the complex, sometimes tense relations between them." (Journal of Modern Jewish Studies)