Key Texts in American Jewish Culture.(Book Review)(Brief Article)

Rutgers Univ. May 2003. c.264p, ed. by Jack Kugelmass. illus, index. LC 2002012411. ISBN 0-8135-3220-5. $60; pap. ISBN 0-8135-3221-3. $24. REL

Although the title is likely to provoke the question of why certain American Jewish cultural texts are considered more essential than others, in his excellent introduction Kugelmass (Holocaust and modern Jewish studies, Arizona State Univ.) makes clear that these essays, emerging from a conference at Arizona State University, are neither representative nor protean texts of American Jewish culture. Instead, this is a collection of diverse scholarly pieces on issues in Jewish American culture as seen through specific examples in …