Class, Networks, and Identity: Replanting Jewish Lives from Nazi Germany to Rural New YorkRowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001 - 195 pages This book documents a little-known aspect of the Jewish experience in America. It is a fascinating account of how a group of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany came to dominate cattle dealing in south central New York and maintain a Jewish identity even while residing in small towns and villages that are overwhelmingly Christian. The book pays particular attention to the unique role played by women in managing the transition to the United States, in helping their husbands accumulate capital, and in recreating a German Jewish community. Yet Levine goes further than her analysis of German Jewish refugees. She also argues that it is possible to explain the situations of other immigrant and ethnic groups using the structure/network/identity framework that arises from this research. According to Levine, situating the lives of immigrants and refugees within the larger context of economic and social change, but without losing sight of the significance of social networks and everyday life, shows how social structure, class, ethnicity, and gender interact to account for immigrant adaptation and mobility. |
Contents
Structural Adaptation Social Networks and Ethnic Identity The Untold Story of Rural German Jewish Immigrants | |
Old World Patterns Cattle Dealing and Jewish Life in Rural Germany | 13 |
Disrupted Lives From Nazi Germany to Washington Heights | 35 |
The Story of Milk | 55 |
Plowing New Fields Resettling in Rural New York | 69 |
Old Patterns in a New Setting Cattle Dealing and German Jews | 93 |
Getting Together Creating Community and Maintaining Ethnic Identity | 111 |
Continuities and Discontinuities | 131 |
Conclusion Finding Sociology in Unlikely Places | 153 |
References | 171 |
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adaptation patterns American Jews anti-Semitism bar mitzvah became Binghamton Cahnman cattle dealer recalled cattle dealing business Census Census of Agriculture chapter Chenango County Cortland County County cultural dairy farmers dairy industry daughter dealing cattle eastern European Jews economic Enclave ethnic identity ethnic networks farm father fluid milk gender German Jewish cattle German Jewish community German Jewish immigrants German Jewish refugees German Jewish women Get-Together Club Jewish Agricultural Society Jewish cattle dealers Jewish Farmers Jewish holidays Jewish identity kosher Kristallnacht lived milk cows milk market mother Nazi Germany Nazism non-Jewish non-Jews Norwich parents peasants percent Rabbi religious resettled Richarz role rural areas rural German Jewish rural German Jews rural Jews rural New York Sabbath second-generation slaughterhouse small towns Small-Town Jews south-central New York summer camps summer guest houses synagogue tle dealers U.S. Bureau U.S. Government Printing United University Press Washington Heights wife York City