by Ron RubinForeword by Jonathan D. Sarna
Developed by Peri Devaney
Softcover, 232 Pages
Urim Publications, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-60280-328-2
Strangers and Natives: A Newspaper Narrative of Early Jewish America, 1734 –1869 focuses on the daily life and customs of the Jewish community and the Jewish people; the formation of Jewish congregations and organizations; and the involvement of Jews in education, literature, journalism, politics, the marketplace, the military, and history itself. While there are numerous historical accounts of early American Jewry quoting documents, diaries and memoirs, this is the first that uses periodicals from that time period. Using scans of the original newsprint, most from the author’s own extensive collection, Strangers and Natives displays the actual written words – the first blush of history – in visual form.
About the Author:
Ron Rubin, PhD, a political science
professor emeritus at the Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City
University of New York, is a well-published author. Rubin retired from BMCC
after fifty years as the political science department’s most senior professor.
A graduate of Yeshiva University High School, New York University (BA and
Ph.D.) and Brown University (MA), he was first published in 1959 as Editor-In-Chief
of the NYU Huntington Hill Historical Society’s Historian.
A
prolific writer, Rubin has had more than 100 works published globally since
then. His books include Controversies Over the Objectives of
the U.S. Information Agency
(Praeger, 1968), The Unredeemed:
Anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union (Quadrangle Books, 1968), Rudy, Rudy, Rudy: The Real and the Rational
(Holmes & Meier, 2000) and Anything
for a T-Shirt: Fred Lebow and the New York City Marathon (Syracuse
University Press, 2004). In 2013 more than 75 of Dr. Rubin’s commentaries – focusing
solely on topics relating to Israel, the global Jewish community and the
American Jewish community – were anthologized in A Jewish Professor's Political Punditry: Fifty Plus Years of Published
Commentary by Ron Rubin, edited by Peri Devaney (Syracuse University
Press).
Rubin resides with his wife,
Miriam, in Riverdale, New York, where he is an active member of the Jewish
community.
Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History and Chair of the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program at Brandeis University, as well as Chief Historian of the new National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. He is the National Jewish Book Award author of American Judaism: A History.
Peri (Perel Chana) Devaney is an editorial, marketing and
administrative consultant with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer
science from the State University of NY at Buffalo. Her editorial career includes
more than 30 years of writing and editing newsletters and brochures as a
volunteer for non-profit organizations and schools. In the late 1980s, as Executive Director of a major
international association, AFCOM, she
served as Founding Editor of its
highly acclaimed magazine and was responsible
for editorial content, design, advertising and staff development.
Devaney left association work to form PERIodicals and devote more time
to her editorial work and to the Jewish community. Under the PERIodicals
banner, in addition to continuing her work for non-profit organizations, she
served as editorial
consultant and rewrite editor on two books by Harvey Rosenthal: Diary of a Dirty Little War: The Spanish
American War of 1898 [Praeger, 2000] and Richmond Pearson Hobson: Naval Hero from Magnolia Grove [Yucca Tree
Press, 2001]. From 2000-2013, in addition to her work with PERIodicals, she
served as Administrator for Jews for Judaism, an international non-profit
organization dedicated to strengthening and preserving Jewish identity and
counteracting deceptive proselytizing.
A native
of Long Island, NY, Devaney lived in Buffalo, NY, Albany, NY and Vermont before
moving to California.
Praise for Strangers & Natives:
"From the earliest colonial printings to the rise of newspapers as a serious political force in the 19th and 20th centuries, newspapers are among the most significant sources of information with respect to the American past. Ron Rubin's new book, Strangers and Natives, based exclusively on newspaper accounts, plumbs these great resources in a fascinating and thought-provoking account of American Jewry. The book traces some of the direst moments in this history - for example, Grant's infamous expulsion of Jews from Tennessee - as well as some of the happiest, including Jewish political and social triumphs and holiday celebrations. A must-read for anyone interested in learning how the media portrayed, understood, and promoted the Jewish experience in early America."
-Louise Mirrer, Ph.D., President and CEO, New York Historical Society
"Professor Ron Rubin has produced a truly extraordinary and colorful compendium of newspaper stories that transport the reader back in time to experience Jewish life in early America. This fascinating and diverse array of newspaper accounts - written both by Jews and about Jews - sheds new light on what E pluribus unum really meant to our American forebears. General readers and scholars alike will find a treasure-trove of interesting facts in this page-turning documentary volume."
-Dr. Gary P. Zola, Executive Director, The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, and the Edward M. Ackerman Family Distinguished Professor of the American Jewish Experience, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
