An Urban History of Jews in Detroit after World War II

FAIN: FT-59531-12

Lila Corwin Berman
Temple University (Philadelphia, PA 19122-6003)

Jewish Urban Journeys Through an American City and Beyond argues that, between World II and the 1960s and 1970s, Jews refashioned their urbanism into a vision of self, community, and society--what I term--"suburban cosmopolitanism" that persisted well beyond city limits. The book embeds its narrative in the local context of Detroit to challenge historians' depiction of white, middle class disinvestment from city politics, culture, and people after World War II. It also erodes standard explanations of Jewish suburbanization as indicative of Jews' easy mobility and detachment from physical space. Archival sources and built space reveal the striking ambivalence that Jews felt about leaving the city. Suburban cosmopolitanism, characterized by new forms of political, cultural, spiritual, and economic activism, emerged in the breach between Jews' deep attachment to city life and their true reluctance to remain in cities with growing black populations and dwindling resources.

Associated Products

Metropolitan Jews: Politics, Race, and Religion in Postwar Detroit (Book)
Title: Metropolitan Jews: Politics, Race, and Religion in Postwar Detroit
Author: Lila Corwin Berman
Abstract: In this provocative and accessible urban history, Lila Corwin Berman considers the role that Detroit’s Jews played in the city’s well-known narrative of migration and decline. Taking its cue from social critics and historians who have long looked toward Detroit to understand twentieth-century urban transformations, Metropolitan Jews tells the story of Jews leaving the city while retaining a deep connection to it. Berman argues convincingly that though most Jews moved to the suburbs, urban abandonment, disinvestment, and an embrace of conservatism did not invariably accompany their moves. Instead, the Jewish postwar migration was marked by an enduring commitment to a newly fashioned urbanism with a vision of self, community, and society that persisted well beyond city limits. Complex and subtle, Metropolitan Jews pushes urban scholarship beyond the tenacious black/white, urban/suburban dichotomy. It demands a more nuanced understanding of the process and politics of suburbanization and will reframe how we think about the American urban experiment and modern Jewish history.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo19926774.html
Primary URL Description: University of Chicago book page.
Access Model: Fo purchase
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780226247977

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