Jonathan Sarna

Title

Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History

History
Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Expertise

American Jewish History & Life; Jews in the Americas.

Profile

webpage: http://www.brandeis.edu/hornstein/sarna

Degrees

Yale University, Ph.D.

Yale University, M.Phil.

Yale University, M.A.

Brandeis University, M.A.

Brandeis University, B.A.

Hebrew College, B.H.L.

Edit Your Page

Contact

Email:	sarna@brandeis.edu
Phone:	781-736-2977
Office:	Lown Center for Judaica Studies, 213

Awards and Honors

Finalist, National Jewish Book Award for WHEN GENERAL GRANT EXPELLED THE JEWS (2013)

Zvi Cohen Leadership & Legacy Award, The Vilna Shul: Boston’s Center Jewish Culture (2012)

Honorary Doctorate, Hebrew College, Boston, Massachusetts (2011)

Invited to Deliver Stroum Lectures at the University of Washington (2011)

Klal Yisrael Award, Synagogue Council of Massachusetts (2011)

Martin E. Marty Award for Public Understanding of Religion, Am. Academy of Religion, 2011 (2011)

Inaugurated the new Celebrate 350 Lecture in American Jewish History at New York Public Library (2010)

Finalist, National Jewish Book Award in Jewish Family Literature - A TIME TO EVERY PURPOSE (2009)

Honorary Doctoral Degree from Gratz College (2009)

Inducted, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2009)

Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Educational Publishing, Social Studies Textbooks , Grades 6-8. (2007)

Invited to join Washington Post/Newsweek "On Faith" On-Line Conversation Panel (2006)

Temple Ohabei Shalom Brotherhood Synagogue Person of the Year Award (2006)

Akiba Award, American Jewish Committee (2005)

Finalist, 2005 Koret Jewish Book Award (2005)

Weinberg Judaic Studies Institute 2005 Prize for the Best Book in American Jewish Studies (2005)

The Marshall Sklare Award of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry (2002 - 2003)

Bureau of Jewish Education Award (2001)

Lady Davis Fellowship (2001)

Benjamin J. Shevach Memorial Award, Hebrew College, as "consummate example of the Jewish educator" (2000 - 2001)

Chair, Academic Advisory and Editorial Board, Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives (1999)

Choice Outstanding Book Academic Book (Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience) (1998)

Steering Committee, North American Religions Section, American Academy of Religion (1997 - 1998)

Board of Fellows, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (1996 - 1997)

National Endowment for Humanities Senior Fellowship (1994 - 1995)

Chair, Academic Council, American Jewish Historical Society (1992 - 1993)

American Council of Learned Societies (1982)

Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (1982 - 1983)

National Jewish Book Award finalist (Jacksonian Jew) (1981)

Rapoport Fellow in American Jewish History, American Jewish Archives (1979 - 1980)

Loewenstein-Wiener Fellow, American Jewish Archives (1977)

Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (1977 - 1979)

National Foundation for Jewish Culture (1977 - 1979)

Seltzer-Brodsky Prize Essay, YIVO Institute (1977)

Fellow, Hebrew Free Loan Association, American Jewish Historical Society (1974 - 1975)

Courses Taught

HRNS	231b	The American Jewish Community in Historical Perspective
NEJS	146a	World Jewry since 1945
NEJS	162a	American Judaism
NEJS	162b	It Couldn't Happen Here: Three American Anti-Semitic Episodes
NEJS	164a	Judaism Confronts America
NEJS	232a	Research and Archival Methods in Modern Jewish History
NEJS	263b	Colloquium in American Jewish History

Scholarship

Sarna, Jonathan. "Book Review." Rev. of Antisemitism: A History, by Albert S. Lindemann and Richard S. Levy. Journal of American Ethnic History vol. 32 2013: 119-121.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Colonial Judaism." Cambridge History of Religions in America. vol. 1 Ed. Stephen J. Stein. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 392-409.

Sarna, Jonathan. "General Grant's Infamous Order." New York Times Opinionator - Disunion Blog (2013)

Sarna, Jonathan. "The Jewish Translation That Rewrote the Bible." Forward January 25, 2013

Sarna, Jonathan. "Why America Has No Chief Rabbi." Jewish Ideas Daily (2013)

Sarna, Jonathan and Jonathan Golden. "Judaism." WORLD BOOK YEAR BOOK 2012. 2012.

Sarna, Jonathan. "American Jewish History: Backwards and Forwards." From Sinai to China: Essays in Commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the Glazer Institute of Jewish Studies at Nanjing University. Ed. Xu Xin and Lihong Song. Nanjing: SDX Joint Publishing Company, 2012. 229-238.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Civil War." Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture. 2012.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Columbus, Christopher." Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture. 2012.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Constitutional Dilemma on Birth Control." Forward March 16, 2012

Sarna, Jonathan. "Foreword." A Kosher Christmas. Ed. Joshua Plaut. New Brunswick: Rutgers U Press, 2012. xi-xii.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Forward Forum: Every Four Years, Rabbis and Politics Mix." Forward September 21, 2012

Sarna, Jonathan. "General Grant's Uncivil War Against the Jews." The Jewish Week February 28, 2012

Sarna, Jonathan. "George Washington's Correspondence with the Jews of Newport." To Bigotry No Sanction: George Washington and Religious Freedom. Philadelphia: National Museum of American Jewish History, 2012. 17-24.

Sarna, Jonathan. "God Loves an Infant's Praise: Cultural Borrowing and Cultural Resistance in Two Nineteenth-Century American Jewish Sunday School Texts." INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE AND CULTURAL CHANGE. Ed. Catherine Cornille and Stephanie Corigliano. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2012. 59-77.

Sarna, Jonathan. "God Loves an Infant's Praise: Cultural Borrowing and Cultural Resistance in Two Nineteenth-Century American Jewish Sunday School Texts." Jewish History 26. December 2012 (2012).

Sarna, Jonathan. "Introduction." Jews in America: From New Amsterdam to the Yiddish Stage. Ed. Stephen D. Corrsin et al. New York: New York Public Library/Giles, 2012. 9-15.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Jewish Publication Society." Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture. 2012.

Sarna, Jonathan. "President Grant and the Chabadnik." Jewish Review of Books 3. Spring (2012): 10-13.

Sarna, Jonathan. "The American Jewish Press." Oxford Handbook of Religion and the American News Media. Ed. Diane Winston. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. 537-550.

Sarna, Jonathan. "The Discontinuity of Continuity: An Interview with Jonathan D. Sarna." Reform Judaism 41. Winter (2012): 24-26.

Sarna, Jonathan. "The Jewish Vote in Presidential Elections." Sh'ma January 2012: 3.

Sarna, Jonathan. "The Redemption of Ulysses S. Grant." REFORM JUDAISM 22-26. 59-62.

Sarna, Jonathan. WHEN GENERAL GRANT EXPELLED THE JEWS. New York: Schocken/Nextbook, 2012.

Sarna, Jonathan & Dvorah E. Weisberg. "A Writ of Release from Levirate Marriage (Shtar Halitzah) in 1807 Charleston." AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES 53. 1 (2011): 38-55.

Sarna, Jonathan & Jonathan Golden. "Judaism." World Book Year Book. 2011.

Sarna, Jonathan and Eitan Fishbane, ed. JEWISH RENAISSANCE AND REVIVAL IN AMERICA. Hanover: Brandeis University Press/UPNE, 2011.

Sarna, Jonathan. "American Jewish History: Retrospect and Prospect." The Jews in America: Development and Influence of a Successful Community. Ed. Pan Guang, Wang Shuming, and Luo Ailing, eds.. Beijing: Shishi Publishing House, 2011. 3-14.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Christians and Non-Christians in the Marketplace of American Religion." AMERICAN CHRISTIANITIES; A HISTORY OF DOMINANCE AND DIVERSITY. Ed. Catherine Brekus and W. Clark Gilpin. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011. 119-132.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Ethnicity and Beyond." Ethnicity and Beyond: Theories and Dilemmas of Jewish Group Demarcation - STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY JEWRY. vol. 25 Ed. Eli Lederhendler. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. 108-112.

Sarna, Jonathan. "FOREWORD: THE GREENING OF AMERICAN ORTHODOX JUDAISM." THE GREENING OF AMERICAN ORTHODOX JUDAISM: YAVNEH IN THE NINETEEN SIXTIES:. Ed. KRAUT, BENNY. CINCINNATI: HUC PRESS, 2011. xi-xviii.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Freedom!." Dreams of Freedom-National Museum of American Jewish History Catalog. Philadelphia: National Museum of American Jewish History, 2011. xiii-xix.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Man Oh Manischewitz." FORWARD July 22, 2011

Sarna, Jonathan. "Returning to Moscow." Forward January 25, 2011

Sarna, Jonathan. "Review." Rev. of American and British Jews in the Age of the Great Migration, by Lloyd Gartner. Studies in Contemporary Jewry vol. 25 2011: 162-163.

Sarna, Jonathan. "What the Civil War Meant to American Jews." FORWARD March 1, 2011

Nadell, Pamela S., Sarna, Jonathan, and Sussman, Lance. New Essays in American Jewish History. Cincinnati and New York: American Jewish Archives/Ktav, 2010.

Sarna, Jonathan and Adam Mendelsohn. Jews and the Civil War: A Reader. New York: NYU Press, 2010.

Sarna, Jonathan and Jonathan Golden. ""Judaism"." World Book Year Book. 2010.

Sarna, Jonathan, Charles H. Lippy & Peter W. Williams. "Chabad-Lubavitch." Encyclopedia of Religion in America. 4 vols. 2010.

Sarna, Jonathan, Charles H. Lippy & Peter W. Williams. "Torah." Encyclopedia of Religion in America. 4 vols. 2010.

Sarna, Jonathan. ""Afterword"." Mission, Meaning and Money: How the Joint Distribution Committee Became a Fundraising Innovator by Mark I. Rosen. New York: Cohen Center/iuniverse, 2010

Sarna, Jonathan. ""American Jewry in Second Place"." Forward January 1 2010

Sarna, Jonathan. ""Foreword"." Empowered Judaism. Jewish Lights, 2010

Sarna, Jonathan. ""Rabbi Raphall Goes to Washington"." Forward February 26, 2010

Sarna, Jonathan. "Foreword." Passionate Pioneers: The Story of Yiddish Secular Education in North America, 1910-1960. New York: Holmes & Meier, 2010

Sarna, Jonathan. "Good Bye Wissenschaft, Hello Relevance." Forward June 4, 2010

Sarna, Jonathan. "New Museum on Independence Mall is a Sign that Jews have Arrived." Forward November 26, 2010

Sarna, Jonathan. "Rabbi Yoffie’s Legacy: Old Ideas for Reform Judaism." Forward June 25, 2010

Sarna, Jonathan. "The Democratization of American Judaism." NEW ESSAYS IN AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORY. Ed. Pamela S. Nadell, Jonathan D.Sarna & Lance J. Sussman. Cincinnati & New York: American Jewish Archives/Ktav, 2010. 95-108.

Sarna, Jonathan. "When Shuls Were Banned in America." Forward August 20, 2010

Sarna, Jonathan. ""Proskauer, Joseph Mayer"." Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law. Ed. Roger K. Newman. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. 439.

Sarna, Jonathan. ""Saying Kaddish Too Soon? A Response to Norman Lamm"." Forward June 5, 2009

Sarna, Jonathan. ""The Halakha According to B'nai B'rith"." Rav Chesed: Essays in Honor of Rabbi Dr. Haskell Lookstein. vol. II Ed. Raphael Medoff. New York: Ktav, 2009. 165-182.

Sarna, Jonathan. "After Utopia, Loving Israel." Forward August 14, 2009

Sarna, Jonathan. "America As It Ought to Be: The Conflict Between Jewish Rhetoric and American Realities." Ideology and Rhetoric: Constructing America,. Ed. Bozenna Chylinska. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009. 231-40.

Sarna, Jonathan. "How Hanukkah Came to the White House." Forward December 11, 2009

Sarna, Jonathan. "Leonard Bernstein and the Boston Jewish Community of His Youth: The Influence of Solomon Braslavsky, Herman Rubenovitz, and Congregation Mishkan Tefila." Journal of the Society for American Music 3. 1 (2009): 35-46.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Lessons of Depression May Be Relevant Today." The Jewish Journal March 4, 2009

Sarna, Jonathan. "Only Solution: Temper Inflexible Religion with Flexible Politics." Washington Post.Com "On Faith" January 6, 2009 (2009)

Sarna, Jonathan. "Review." Rev. of Speaking of Jews, by Lila C. Berman. Journal of American History vol. 96 2009: 888-889.

Sarna, Jonathan. "The American Jewish Community in Crisis and Transformation." Contact Summer (2009).

Sarna, Jonathan. "The Long Shadow of Scandal." Forward August 14, 2009

Sarna, Jonathan. "Two Ambitious Goals: Jewish Publishing in the United States." A History of the Book in America. Volume 4 Print in Motion: The Expansion of Publishing and Reading in the United States 1880-1940. Ed. Carl F. Kaestle and Janice A. Radway. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. 376-391.

Sarna, Jonathan. "What's In A Name -- A Response to Barry Chiswick." Contemporary Jewry 29. (2009): 85-90.

Sarna, Jonathan. The Economic Downturn and the Future of Jewish Communities. Institute forJewish Policy Research. London: 2009.

Sarna, Jonathan and Golden, Jonathan. "Judaism." 2008 World Book Year Book. 2008.

Sarna, Jonathan. ""Introduction"." Manischewitz: The Matzo Family. Ed. Laura Manischewitz Alpern. New York: KTAV, 2008. ix-xiv.

Sarna, Jonathan. "An Eighteenth Century Hebrew Luah from Pennsylvania." American Jewish Archives 57. 1-2 (2008): 25-27.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Can Secularism Save Judaism?." WashingtonPost.Com "On Faith" January 10, 2008

Sarna, Jonathan. "Content With My Own Portion." WashingtonPost.com "On Faith" May 17, 2007

Sarna, Jonathan. "Friend to Israel; Enemy to Anti-Semites." WashingtonPost.com "On Faith" May 15, 2007

Sarna, Jonathan. "Intermarriage in America: The Jewish Experience in Historical Context." AMBIVALENT JEW: CHARLES LIEBMAN IN MEMORIAM. Ed. Stuart Cohen and Bernard Susser. New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 2008. 125-133.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Jews Then, Pagans Now." WashingtonPost.com "On Faith" July 10, 2007

Sarna, Jonathan. "Talmud Sees a Different Question." WashingtonPost.Com "On Faith" June 8, 2007

Sarna, Jonathan. "The Mystical World of Colonial American Jews." Mediating Modernity: Essays in Honor of Michael A. Meyer. Ed. Lauren B. Strauss and Michael Brenner. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2008. 185-94.

Sarna, Jonathan. "The Pragmatism of America." Washington Post.Com "On Faith" November 7, 2008 (2008)

Sarna, Jonathan. "The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Secular Judaism." Contemplate: The International Journal of Cultural Thought 4 (2008): 3-13.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Two Jewish Lawyers Named Louis." American Jewish History 94. 1-2 (2008): 1-19.

Sarna, Jonathan. A TIME TO EVERY PURPOSE: LETTERS TO A YOUNG JEW. New York: Basic Books/Perseus, 2008.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Boston." Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2007.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Historiography--American Jewish." Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2007.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Marcus, Jacob Rader." Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2007.

Sarna, Jonathan D.. "Orthodoxy Confronts America." Orthodox Judaism: New Perspectives. Ed. Y. Salmon, A Ravitzky, A Ferziger. Jerusalem: Magnes, 2006. 523-554.

Sarna, Jonathan and Jonathan Golden. "Judaism." World Book Year Book. 2006.

Sarna, Jonathan and Jonathan Krasner. The History of the Jewish People: A Story of Tradition and Change: Ancient Israel to 1880s America. New York: Behrman House, 2006.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Afterword." My Yeshiva College: 75 Years of Memories. Ed. Menachem Butler & Ze'ev Nagel. New York: Yasher, 2006. 355-357.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Jacob I. Cohen." Dictionary of Virginia Biography. vol. 3 Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2006. 345-347.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Port Jews in the Atlantic: Further Thoughts." Jewish History 20. (2006): 213-219.

Sarna, Jonathan. "Recalling Arthur Hertzberg: Public Intellectual." Jewish Week April 21, 2006

Sarna, Jonathan. "Review of Three Books Dealing with America and Israel." by Zvi Ganin, Fred Lazin, Stuart Altshuler. Israel Studies vol. 11 of 3 168-173.

Sarna, Jonathan. "The Crucial Decade in Jewish Camping." A Place of Our Own: The Rise of Reform Jewish Camping. Ed. M.M.Lorge and G. Zola. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2006. 27-51.

Jonathan D. Sarna. "Afterword: The Study of American Judaism: A Look Ahead." The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism. Ed. Dana Evan Kaplan. New York: Cambridge, 2005. 417-421.

Jonathan Sarna, ed. Michael W. Grunberger, ed. Michael W. Grunberger. "From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America." American Judaism (2005).

Jonathan Sarna, eds. Melvin I. Urofsky and David W. Levy. "Review." Rev. of The Family Letters of Louis D. Brandeis. Modern Judaism 01 FEB 2005: 99-101

Sarna, Jonathan Historical Consultant. Challenge and Change: History of the Jews in America Civil War through the Rise of Zionism. Behrman House, 2005.

Sarna, Jonathan, Victor J. Selmanowitz Lecture (pamphlet). How Matzah Became Square: Manischewitz and the Development of Machine-Made Matzah in the United States. Touro College. 2005.

Sarna, Jonathan. "The Cyclical History of Adult Jewish Learning in the United States: Peers¿ Law and it Implications." Educational Deliberations: Studies in Education Dedicated to Shlomo (Seymour) Fox. Ed. Mordecai Nisan and Oded Schremer. Jerusalem: Keter, 2005. 207-222.

Sarna,Jonathan, Victor J. Selmanowitz. How Matzah Became Square: Manischewitz and the Development of Machine-Made Matzah in the United States. .. 2005. Touro College.

Sarna,Jonathan, edited with Ellen Smith and Scott-Martin Kosofsky. The Jews of Boston, 2nd edition. Yale University Press, 2005.

Sarna,Jonathan. "Introduction." The Jews of Rhode Island. Ed. eds. George M. Goodwin and Ellen Smith. Brandeis University Press, 2005

Jonathan Sarna (with Jonathan Golden). Judaism. Chicago: 2004.

Jonathan Sarna, Chief Historian. 350 Years of American Jewish History. 2004. Celebrate 350

Jonathan Sarna. American Judaism: A History. Yale University Press, 2004.

Sarna, Jonathan with Ellen Smith. "Introduction." The Jews of Rhode Island. Ed. George M. Goodwin and Ellen Smith. Brandeis University Press, 2004

Sarna, Jonathan. "American Judaism." From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America. Ed. Michael W. Grunberger. Washingtn DC: Brazillier/Library of Congress, 2004. 129-145.

Sarna,Jonathan (Historical Consultant to). Challenge and Change: History of the Jews in America Early Settlement Through Central European Migration. Behrman House, 2004.

Sarna,Jonathan. "American Jewish History: A Chance to Reflect." The Chronicle of Higher Education (2004): B9-B10.

Sarna,Jonathan. "Concentration." Sh'ma 35. 615 (2004): 2-3.

Sarna,Jonathan. "The 350th Anniversary of American Jewish Life." AJS Perspectives (2004): 22-24.

Sarna,Jonathan. "The Battle for the Jewish Vote." Boston Sunday Globe (2004): p.D12 [full page].

Sarna,Jonathan. "What Will American Jews Celebrate on their 350th Anniversary? [in Hebrew]." Gesher 50. (2004): 26-31.

Sarna,Jonathan. American Judaism: A History. Yale University Press, 2004.

Sarna,Jonathan. "Jewish Culture Comes to America." Jewish Studies 42. (2003): 45-57.

Sarna,Jonathan. "The Question of Music in American Judaism: Reflections at 350 Years." American Jewish History 91. (2003): 195-203.

Jonathan Sarna, Alan Mittleman & Robert Licht. Jewish Polity and American Civil Society: Communal Agencies and Religious Movements in the American Public Square. Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.

Jonathan Sarna, Alan Mittleman & Robert Licht. Jews and the American Public Square: Debating Religion and Republic. Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.

Jonathan Sarna, Eli Lederhendler. America and Zion: Essays and Papers in Memory of Moshe Davis. Wayne State University Press, 2002.

Jonathan Sarna, co-eds Mark Raider & Ronald Zweig. Abba Hillel Silver and American Zionism. London: Frank Cass, 1997.

Jonathan Sarna, editor. Minority Faiths and the American Protestant Mainstream. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997.

Jonathan Sarna, with David Dalin. Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience. Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997.

Jonathan Sarna. The American Jewish Experience (2nd ed.). New York: Holmes and Meier, 1997.

Jonathan Sarna, co-ed. Ellen Smith. The Jews of Boston. Boston: Combined Jewish Philanthropies and Northea, 1995.

Jonathan Sarna, ed. by Marshall Sklare. Observing America's Jews. Brandeis University Press/UPNE, 1993.

Jonathan Sarna, co-ed. Daniel Elazar & Rela Monson. Double Bond: The Constitutional Documents of American Jewry. University Press of America, 1992.

Jonathan Sarna, co-ed. Henry Shapiro. Ethnic Diversity and Civic Identity: Patterns of Conflict and Cohesion in Cincinnati since 1920. University of Illinois Press, 1992.

Jonathan Sarna, co-ed. Lloyd Gartner. The Jews of the United States. Jerusalem: Hebrew Union College/Merkaz Shazar, 1992.

Jonathan Sarna, with Janet Liss. American Jewry: An Annotated Bibliography of Publications in Hebrew. Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion , 1991.

Faculty Guide