Skip to main content
Contribution to Book
“Atlantic Jewish History: A Conceptual Reorientation”
Constellations of Atlantic Jewish History, 1555-1890: The Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica (2014)
  • Aviva Ben-Ur, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Abstract
This chapter explores the radical implications of an Atlantic perspective on American Jewish history, based on an analysis of select primary sources from The Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica, housed at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Such an Atlantic perspective allows us to revise the national interpretation of “American” Jewish history, commonly taken to mean the United States, reminding us of its plural hemispheric meaning (Americas) and allowing us to envision an Atlantic Jewish world connecting four continents: Europe, Africa, South and North America. Adopting a chronological-thematic approach, this chapter identifies three key areas for analysis: “Portuguese Jewish hegemony”; “slavery”; and “the triad of privileges, disabilities, and Emancipation.”
Keywords
  • Atlantic History,
  • Jews
Disciplines
Publication Date
2014
Editor
Arthur Kiron
Publisher
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014
Citation Information
Aviva Ben-Ur. "“Atlantic Jewish History: A Conceptual Reorientation”" PhiladelphiaConstellations of Atlantic Jewish History, 1555-1890: The Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica (2014)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/aviva_benur/20/