Jacksonian Jew: The Two Worlds of Mordecai Noah

by Jonathan D. Sarna

The life of Mordecai Noah is part of a larger story, one which might be titled "The Making of the American Jew." American Jews have become a unique community-different from other Americans, different from other Jews. The forces that shaped these American Jews were many of the same forces that shaped Mordecai Noah. To understand Noah is to begin to understand the process which transformed radically dissimilar Jews, from very different backgrounds, into the vibrant and creative American Jewish community it is today.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1981

About the author

Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and chief historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History. He has written, edited, or co-edited more than twenty books and is best known for the acclaimed American Judaism: A History, which received the Jewish Book Council’s Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year Award in 2004. He lives in Massachusetts. His latest work, When General Grant Expelled the Jews, was published in March of 2012. The PBS documentary Jewish Soldiers in Blue & Gray, which features Jonathan Sarna, explores the hidden stories of American Jews during the Civil War. Presented by the Shapell Manuscript Foundation, it is available for purchase on DVD at www.shapell.org.

Reviews

[Helyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.5] This book is regarded as the authoritative biography of Mordecai Noah. It's not much to read cover to cover, but if you're doing research the bibliography is excellent.

[Nate Portnoy]

What Helyn said!