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Abi Gezunt

Health and the American Jewish Dream (includes The Lindex Study: An Ethnic Database)

Jacob Jay Lindenthal author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Academic Studies Press

Published:30th Apr '17

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Abi Gezunt cover

This book consists of a series of investigations into the cultural and behavioral patterns of east European immigrant Jews known to promote health and prevent disease beginning in the late 19th and into the 20th centuries. Drawing on data pointing to health as an economic commodity, leading to economic strength and social development, the author suggests that the high value accorded to health played a role in the relative economic prosperity of American Jews. The book explores the implications of good health as a source of human capital worthy of investment and its significance for recent immigrants.

“Jacob Jay Lindenthal’s exploration of the historic linkage of Jews, health, and the American experience is boldly provocative. Having created a rich database to chart the disease experience of American Jews from 1874 to 1904, the author uses his data and a rich array of other sources to argue that Jews unique concern with health and healthy behaviors yielded their marked economic success following migration. His intriguing thesis should attract general readers even as it fuels rich scholarly debate among historians of American medicine, immigrant assimilation, and American Jewish life.” -- Alan M. Kraut, American University, Professor of History, author of Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the “Immigrant Menace”

ISBN: 9781618115362

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 825g

220 pages