Product Details

Jaeh

Unique in how it covers Jewish Americans and Japanese Americans in the same time and place, this book offers a fresh perspective on familiar figures, events, and sources related to internment (e.g., the Tolan Committee hearings). It is an excellent example of how bringing together separate ethnic histories sharpens our understanding of historical experiences….Eisenberg presents her arguments with clarity and fairness, yet she is not afraid to make bold interpretations.

Shana Bernstein - Southwestern University

Eisenburg's discovery adds to historical understanding of the incarcerations. More generally, by revealing Jews' contributions to the policy's formulation, Eisenburg also implicitly illuminates how "minority" history is also majority history. She succeeds in what she recognizes to be a difficult task; explaining historical silence, specifically "the constant omission of Japanese Americans from stories in which their plight was the obvious context." Scholars will benefit from this rich, thoughtful examination of a previously unrecognized aspect of the tragic episode in U.S. history.

American Jewish History

Eisenberg's discovery adds to historical understandings of the incarceration…. She succeeds in what she recognizes to be a difficult task: explaining historical silence…. Scholars will benefit from this rich, thoughtful examination of a previously unrecognized aspect of a tragic episode in U.S. history.

American Historical Review

I heartily welcome the number of recent histories on the internment of Nikkei as an indication of a new scholarly generation's (re)appraisal of known or original sources in relation to other racialized and ethnic groups. This is exactly what Ellen M. Eisenberg has done with Jewish America….Eisenberg handles this regional history quite artfully….Eisenberg's interracial, western history uncovers and airs dirty laundry of one putative "model minority" vis-à-vis its ostensible successor to that mythical mantle in such meticulous and engaging fashion.

American Jewish Archives Journal

Eisenberg has done commendable work, both by her research in organizational archives and her close readings of the Jewish press. Her thesis is solid and well-presented, her examination of regional ethnic responses to Japanese American removal not only illuminates a vital aspect of the wartime events but opens up a new chapter of Western history.

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents