Jenna Weissman Joselit

Jenna Weissman Joselit teaches American studies and modern Judaic studies at Princeton University. Her many publications include Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community; The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880–1950, which received the National Jewish Book Award in History; Immigration and Religion and A Perfect Fit: Clothes, Character and the Promise of America. She is currently at work on a book about America’s fascination with the Ten Commandments.

Articles by this author

Jewish Training School Sewing Class, Chicago, 1892

Vocational Training Schools in the United States

In the years prior to World War I, few institutions enchanted the members of American Jewry’s philanthropic community as much as the vocational training school. Combining education with charity and moral uplift with sociology, these school generally focused on teaching domestic skills. Despite their popularity, they were criticized for their lack of religious education and strictly gendered structure.

The Jewish Family in Early Twentieth-Century United States

As poor Jewish immigrant families poured into the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, concerned social workers, rabbis, sisterhood presidents and journalists sounded an alarm about the state of the Jewish family. Women often bore the blame for what was seen as the weakening of the Jewish home, and communal organizations devoted much attention to strengthening the Jewish family.
Young Woman's Hebrew Association

Leisure and Recreation in the United States

In the late nineteenth century, Jews started creating their own spaces to vacation, as a reaction to the discrimination and exclusion they faced at many established leisure spots. While vacationing was initially criticized for the lack of modesty it supposedly fostered, particularly in women, over time Jewish vacation spots and summer camps incorporated religious practices into the leisure environment.

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Jenna Weissman Joselit." (Viewed on April 25, 2024) <http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/author/joselit-jenna>.