Jewish American Literature

For my final project I have decided to focus on Jewish American literature. There are several reasons I have decided to focus on this topic. This first one is that I myself am a Jewish American. Another reason is that growing up, the only books I had read that were related to my religion and culture were based on the holidays. These books often taught and being apart of the religion it was all repetitive and did not necessarily represent a character that I could relate too. This week we are reading Confessions of a Closest Catholic and so far, I have realized that there are books out there that are not focusing on teaching and sharing holidays. This book has more to deal with other than the Jewish holidays. Its about life and growing up which anyone could relate to Jewish or not.

While researching articles I came across Eric Kimmel's "Joy on Beale Street". Little did I know this was the article in our course pack. I enjoy that he "wasn't interested in explain or defending the holiday. [He] wanted to find its spirit". This is one of the reasons I have always enjoyed the book "Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins". This quote is exactly how I felt looking for books on Jewish American literature. I wanted more than the usual explanation. I wanted to be able to see myself in a character not only because they were Jewish.

For my project I am focusing on books that you may look at the cover and not realize they are Jewish American Literature. You may be able to tell by the authors last name or because the character has a Jewish background but I want it to represent Jewish Americans as well as every other student one way or another. I think there are more books out there that need to be incorporated into the classroom other than the books teaching the holidays. There is more to this religion and culture that is very interesting and highly underrepresented in literature.

For others who have chose this topic, I have found this site with a list of Jewish American literature http://www.multiculturalchildrenslit.com/jewishamericans.html .