Jews/America: A Representation [Hardcover]

Simon Schama (Author), Frederic Brenner (Author, Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1996

For many years, French photographer Frederic Brenner has travelled the world, documenting the lives of Jews on five continents to create a visual anthology of the Jewish diaspora. This book chronicles the American portion of his odyssey, recording the extraodinary diversity of Jewish life in large cities and small communities in 32 states. He photographed the faces of ordinary people as well as the famous and accomplished, such as Isaac Stern, Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand, Walter Annenberg, Saul Bellow, Ruth Bader-Ginsberg and Estee Lauder. This mosaic of a widely-varied cultural experience incorporates the Psychoanalytic Society of New York City, Jewish Harley-Davidson enthusiasts in Miami Beach, the Hebrew Academy in Las Vegas, and a spiritual gathering of Navajos and Jews in Monument Valley. Introducing the photographs is an essay by a cultural historian, Simon Schama, who is English and thus brings another perspective to bear on the American Jewish experience.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A photographic celebration of the diversity of the Jewish religion and Jewish people in America--from "Jews with Hogs," a portrait of a motorcycle group astride their Harley Davidsons outside a Miami Beach Synagogue, to "Passover 5754," which captures the observance of the holiday feast in a maximum-security women's prison, to "Marxists," a group portrait of a boisterous band of Groucho Marx imitators. Photographer Frederic Brenner goes beyond the confines of conventional Judaism to depict the practical application of the religion in everyday America. A visual catalogue of signs, ritual objects, artifacts, and kitsch rounds out this book.

From Publishers Weekly

French photographer Brenner spent two years criss-crossing the U.S. to produce this freewheeling, provocative and intriguing portrait of Jewish-American life, from Alaska fur traders to a Miami Beach auto shop owner and Persian immigrants in New Jersey. Imaginative and sometimes artfully posed, his 801 photos often express mordant irony or cultural juxtapositions: a Passover seder, with its emphasis on freedom from bondage in a maximum-security women's prison; Soviet-Asian cab drivers in Coney Island; a chorus line of glamorously dressed Broadway stars at a sukkah feast on a skyscraper roof overlooking the Empire State Building. Brenner exuberantly narrates or reenacts real-life dramas, as in his group portrait of a sheriff and citizens of Billings, Mont., who showed solidarity with a Jewish family whose house had been vandalized. His celebrity portraits of Steven Spielberg, Betty Friedan, Jerry Lewis, Saul Bellow and others subtly ironize the sitters' sense of themselves. Noted cultural historian Schama thoughtfully discusses Brenner as an artist who celebrates the diversity of Jewish- American life and the ambiguous, shifting border between the Jewish and Gentile worlds.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 93 pages
• Publisher: Harry N Abrams; 1St Edition edition (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810935228
• ISBN-13: 978-0810935228
• Product Dimensions: 16.3 x 11.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,750,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning photographs of Jews in America and American Jews, September 27, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Jews/America: A Representation (Hardcover)

This oversize coffee table book caught my eye in the bookstore. With a price of $67.50, its gotta be great to sell -- and it is. The photographs are truly outstanding and many outlandish. Jews on Harleys in front of a synogoge in Florida, Holocaust survivors visiting LA's holocaust museum, and a family of persian, jewish immigrants seated on a flying carpet in their neighborhood. The best part of this book is not that the photographer manages to capture the diversity of jews in the states but that each of the pictures he presents is stunning in its own right. Brenner managed to gain access to an unbeliveable number of private, Jewish forums, from Jewish Civil War buffs who get together in costume to re-enact period battles to Lesbian Jewish families, the collection is fresh, provocative, and rich

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely, April 17, 2005

By 

Shloma ben Avram HaKohain "Threat to the Stat... (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jews/America: A Representation (Hardcover)

Surprising, moving, magical. Brenner's photographs speak volumes. I was most moved by a picture that includes not a single Jew. It features instead a panoramic shot of the main street of Billings, Montana, the citizens of which had filled the streets, each holding a menorah aloft in protest against a violent attack on a Jewish resident's home. A book that claims to, and succeeds at, framing the diversity of American Jewish experience also succeeded in reaffirming my faith in the decency of humankind.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Jews do not control the banks, newspapers and movies., December 29, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Jews/America: A Representation (Hardcover)

All stereotypes are broken with this unique view of a people and their eclectic influence on the American scene. The mostly black & white panoramic viewpoint maximizes the visual impact. The outstanding photo technique, large page size and strong composition make this a center piece of your home coffee table books to be enjoyed for years to come. I only wish several pages were devoted to the actual technical aspects of the shots