Customer Reviews

The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From the time that Gd spoke to Abraham, two questions have been bugging everyone, Who is a Jew? What is a Jew? The answer is that Jews are a religious and ethnic group (People) no different than Armenians or Greeks.

Ok that's my opinion but everyone else has to have their say and their opinion. And I do mean everybody. In reality, we are who we are and who we say we are, and everyone else can pound sand. Somethings are self defining, like being a member of the counter-culture in the 60s.

Professor Goldstein, being a professor, spends a lot of time telling us just about the same thing, but who's gonna read a one paragraph book. His thesis is well documented and thought out, but it's a little dry. (I guess he didn't get the jewish comedy gene.)

Academically the book is a fine addition to the discussion of Jews as whites but doesn't address the culture versus religion question.

Zeb Kantrowitz

An excellent chronological and logical overview of the development and complexity of Jewish Identity in the history of the United States, specifically as the immigrants from Europe attempt to end their own history of discrimination. The book introduces those who are first time readers in the subject to the name of the many Jewish organizations that have formed through the history of the US, representing different Jewish group interests. The book gives a beginning of an understanding to the complex relationship between Jews and Blacks, but leaves this topic barely on the surface. The book suffers from lack of depth in its analysis of this history but gives us from where to begin the study of this fascinating topic.

Eric Goldstein's book demonstrates the thoughtfulness and intellectual courage of a deep thinker. This pleasant and readable book is accessible to both lay readers and scholars alike. Kudos to a bright, young talent!

This engaging study should be required reading for anyone interested in the fields of American History, Jewish History, and Race Relations. Eric Goldstein's work is a tour-de-force that belongs on college syllabi and the bookshelves of intellectually curious readers.

This book is a fascinating read. I learned many new things about American Jewish history. Everyone should read this book.

This book deals with a number of different issues sourounding Jewish identity in America at least partly as it realtes to the white majority and the black minority between which they found themselves in New York City and during the civil rights movement.

The most original and inishgtful argument here is that Jews attached themselves to the white melieu and abandoned their 'coloured' identity of belonging to the minorities, such as Blacks, Asians and Hispanics. However this is where the major problem begins. It is not just Jewish identity that became connected to 'white, european western civilization' but rather a process whereby European-white civilization decided to craft the Jews into a white identity in the post-Holocaust period. Under the guise of arguing that Hitlers racial theories were lies there was a drive to create a 'new Jew' whereby Jews had to be assimilated into the white majoirty, thus the Jews became 'white'. But this book doesnt see the two sided process. It also doesnt ask the central question: "is race merely a contrived fake idea, created in the 19th century and perhaps worth abandoning?" The author assumes that whites see themselves as seperate from the 'others' but this is a ludicrous idea that only exists among the leftist-white upper classes who see everything in AMerica based on varying degrees of skin color. Logical people realize ethnicity and race are mostly self identity frauds.

Seth J. Frantzman

Great read. This book shows deep thought about the role of Jews in America. The author gives new insight to sensitive issues important to all races and religions. It is a welcome addition in my library.