1 - Encountering the Idea of America

Summary

This chapter tracks the dynamic interaction between Jews and America or, more precisely, with the idea of America as they understood it during the nation's first century of existence. It focuses on three foundational figures: Mordecai Manuel Noah, Isaac Mayer Wise, and Emma Lazarus. Noah portrays Jews as beneficiaries of the American system and also describes them as bearers of an ancient tradition that produced America in the first place. While Noah sees America as a new phase in Jewish national existence, Wise emphasizes America's role in purifying Judaism as a religion. Lazarus devoted herself to celebrating Jewish heroism and galvanizing a sense of collective purpose among American Jews. In the glorious visions of Noah, Wise, and Lazarus, as in those moments in subsequent American Jewish culture when their rhetoric resurfaces, the chapter explores an America that represents an ideal, a promise of Jewish self-determination and fulfillment.