Passing Fancies in Jewish American Literature and Culture

Judith Ruderman is Visiting Scholar of English at Duke University. She is the winner of the 2017 Harry T. Moore Award for lifetime contributions to D. H. Lawrence studies and author of four previous books, including Race and Identity in D. H. Lawrence: Indians, Gypsies, and Jews.

• AcknowledgmentsChapter One: Jews and Their Complex Identities: "O Brave New World, That has Such People In't!"Chapter Two: The "Jewish Nose" and the Nose Job in Nathan Englander's The Ministry of Special Cases: "The Most Unkindest Cut of All"Chapter Three: Jewish American Women and the Nose Job: "God Hath Given You One Face, and You Make Yourself Another"Chapter Four: Renaming as a Strategy for Passing in Thyra Samter Winslow's "A Cycle of Manhattan": "A Ros[s] by Any Other Name"Chapter Five: Renaming and Reclaiming: "To Thine Own Self be True" Chapter Six: Jews and Gentiles Becoming the Other: "Neither a Borrower nor a Lender be" Chapter Seven: Racial Crossings Between Jews and Blacks: "That You Might See Your Shadow" Chapter Eight: The Use of Clothing in Passing Narratives: "The Fashion Wears out More Apparel than the Man"Chapter Nine: In Search of an "Authentic" Jewish American Identity: "Who is it Who Can Tell me Who I am?"Works CitedIndex

"The recent attacks on minority identities have revived older, anti-Semitic stereotypes. The concomitant construction of 'white' identity (a construction which excludes Jews) and its alliance with political power makes Judith Ruderman's work particularly relevant. Until recently, we might have assumed that the place of Jews in American society was resolved, but I dare say this is no longer the case."—Diane Sasson, author of Yearning for the New Age: Laura Holloway-Langford and Late Victorian Spirituality