Clockwise from bottom left: From "Jewish Americans: The Immigrant Experience," Bilhah Abigail Levy Franks, c. 1740: Through her letters, Abigail Franks left us perhaps the most complete record of Jewish life in 18th-century America, demonstrating the commitment of early American Jews to their religious tradition and their increasing comfort in a religiously mixed society; Charles M. Strauss and son, c. 1886: Strauss was gaRGENCE oto,VicousNOWSTCREarYpe 1 elected mayor of Tucson, Ariz., in 1883; The Warner brothers — Sam, Harry, Jack and Albert, 1920s: This Yiddish- speaking family of Polish Jews started out as theater owners, moved into film distribution and eventually decided that producing films made more sense than buying and reselling them. BY THE EYE OF WORLD W.I. TFiE 9 5 MI IJOH AMERICAN JEWS HAP BECOME THE lABOEST JEW:SH COMMUNITY eT THE WOMO AMY THE RESTRZTAta915.RE BECOMING MORE FEARFUL OF THEM ORDWINO 1.4ABER-5 THEIR OLD 5IF.REOTYBE OF THE JEW A5 A FIBANCIAT SHYLOCK MOAN TO O. WAY TO A NEW 5 TEBEOB , E, IN 1903,A BBFEBENT BREED OF JEW (EYEN OF-FE/CENT IT. THEW. EASTERN EMMY. PREDECESSOE5) WAS EMU... THEY WERE THE JE ✓ WHO HAD LEFT THE 5sEE TO SETTLE IN THE 6W EITIES OF EUP.OPE ar.PCOL EM OSCATING—ARP ITIEY Wen IMMED WITH THE CONCEPTS SOCIAUST MIANCEI.0.1. THEY 04CLUCTED SCEM OF THE FOR= LEA*. OF THE AMERICAN U5.7R. MBYEMENT. 0 THE OtO POPULIST STEREOTYFE OF THE JEW A$ A FINANCIAL 3HYLOCK GAPE WAY TO THE NEW STEREOTYPE OF THE EATAGRANT. JEW A5 A DOME, THROWING 5 OLSHEYX 1. car icon's acceptance of the Grand Cross of the JEWS German Eagle from lin AMERICA Adolf Hitler. A CARTOoN HISTORY This Michigan connec- tion comes toward the end of Gantz's book, which starts out in England in 1189 and con- cludes with contemporary problems facing Jews in America. The author "Comics are almost a places himself among the medium between the cartoon images as he motion picture and serves as narrator. the book," says "I always thought that author/illustrator comic books had tremen- David Gantz. dous potential as a way of telling stories and were not being used to their fullest with superhero tales," says Gantz, 80, who just finished a similar history about former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Gantz, a children's book author, started Jews in America at the suggestion of editor Bruce Black. He took the material to an adult level at the sug- gestion of another editor, Ellen Frankel. Although Gantz originally had a prologue and epilogue for the book, Frankel asked him to take those out and place his commentary in the many segments he includes. For instance, his. pages on the Reform religious movement show him at his drawing board while the speech balloons are filled with narrative. "The visual aspect of my being there makes this project very personal for me," says Gantz, who calls himself a "Rosh Hashanah Jew" and recalls being very active with B'nai B'rith. "The use of a picture can eliminate a lot of description in the writing, and comics are almost a medium between the motion picture and the book," Gantz says. "When they produce a motion picture or a TV series, there's always an artist on hand doing the preliminary sketches, which came out of comic books. I'm deeply interested in forwarding this medium, and I think there'll be a lot more books like Jews in America." The Jews of Britain: 1656 to 2000' he years between 1759 and 1840, at the cen- ter of Todd Endelman's book, were known as the golden age of English caricatures. "Caricaturing was a major form of political expres- sion, and it developed into a kind of art form," says Endelman, William Haber Professor of Modern Jewish History and director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at U-M. Among the people shown and discussed in this unusual book are Hermann Adler, a prominent chief rabbi, and Polly de Symons, wife of a dia- mond broker. "There is a tremendous amount of [caricature art- work] available, and it's very characteristic of England but not so much of other countries at the time," Endelman says.'"There are hundreds of carica- tures of English Jews, and the [art form] continued into the Victorian period, particularly in Vanity Fair. "I don't focus on individuals [in the narrative]. It's not that individuals don't have a major impact on history. They do, but I'm more concerned with broader social and religious trends." Endelman was asked to write this book as part of a series of one-volume histories of the major Jewish communities in the world. He had written two other books on English Jewish history, an interest he acquired while in an exchange program at the University of Warwick in the 1970s. "British Jewry was very conservative," says Endelman, 55. "It was not very innovative. Most of the newer religious trends didn't originate in Britain and didn't have a great deal of impact in Britain. "Part of that is because Jews in Britain have had a very centralized system. Many British Jews prid- ed themselves on having a board of deputies and a As illustrated in "Jews in America: A Cartoon History," by the eve of World War I, "the old populist stereotype of the Jew as a financial Shylock gave way to the new stereotype of the immigrant Jew as bomb-throwing Bolshevik." James Gillray's 1801 caricature of Polly de Symons, wife of diamond broker Lyon de Symons, from "Jews of Britain: 1656-2000." chief rabbi." The author shows how BRLI AIN the history of the Jews in 1656 Great Britain — or in any 2000 other country — is inex- tricably linked to the larg- er history of that country. "For example, the place of religion in British soci- ety before World War II probably strengthened Jewish attachments," Endelman says, "because religion was very much a part of respectability in Although some British Britain." Jews came to America Although some British during the Colonial Jews came to America period, most remained in England. And, while during the Colonial peri- od, most remained in many Jews emigrated _ England. from England to the And, while many Jews United States in the emigrated from England 19th and early 20th centuries, most were not to the United States in the 19th and early 20th cen- native Britons. turies, most were not native Britons. - At a certain point in the mass migration from Eastern Europe, it was cheaper to sail from a north- ern European port to London and then go on, rather than taking the direct route to America. For this reason, Jewish immigrants to the United States often spent anywhere from two months to three years in England before continuing on to America. "What struck me while I was doing my research was how much more research has to be done on this subject,"- says Endelman, who has since edited Disraeli's Jewishness, a collection of essays, and is working on another text about assimilation in mod- ern Jewish history. "Instead of being a kind of final summation, my book is just as much a guide to the work that remains." JEWS SISZTTA. , ; , IETTTO ❑ 7/ 5 2002 61