East European Jews in Two Worlds: Studies from the Yivo Annual

These essays, which first appeared in the YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science , limn a complex portrait of a centuries-old Eastern European Jewish community that was the cornerstone of Judaism until the Holocaust. The noted Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel provides an exemplary appraisal of the impact of the Eastern European era on the course of Jewish history: ``In Eastern Europe the Jewish people has come into its own. It does not live like a guest in someone else's house . . . the people itself becomes a source of Jewishness.'' Other scholarship details the social, cultural, religious and even criminal aspects in various segments of this population. The entries reflect how ultimately, in spite of relentless adaptability, the Eastern European Jews were unwelcome in Europe. The collection concludes with depictions of the radicalized immigrant population in America and its immediate force on the surrounding culture, even as the immigrants redefined themselves in terms of American values. Moore, a Vassar College religion professor, wrote At Home in America: Second Generation New York Jews. (Mar.)