The Making of the Jewish Middle Class

American Historical Association Group on Central European History Prize 1992. National Jewish Book Award 1992 (US Prize)

A cultural study which traces the evolution of the Jewish middle class from the woman's perspective. The author examines a variety of activities in which Jewish women were traditionally engaged, and presents a detailed view of their everyday lives, comparing them to Gentile counterparts.This comprehensive study of Jewish women in Imperial Germany (1871-1918) addresses the complex interrelationships of ethnicity, sex, and class. It examines the changing lives and roles of women who were part of an urbanizing, economically mobile, but socially spurned minority group, and also looks at their relationship with the rest of society. The author identifies German-Jewish women's `double burden' as females - discriminated against in both German and Jewish traditions - and as Jews - objects of the increasing anti-Semitism of their era. She also points out the ambiguous, often contradictory role that Jewish women played: they were powerful agents of acculturation, encouraging their families to adapt outwardly to German customs and norms, and also determined upholders of tradition, maintaining family rituals, kin networks, and Jewish communal organizations.