A Time for Building

The five volumes in this excellent history of Jews in the United States are a tribute to the foresight and dedication of Henry Feingold who more than a decade ago decided that the best way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the American Jewish Historical Society (1892) would be to produce a multi-volume account of Jewish experiences in this nation. Feingold devoted the bulk of his professional life in the 1980s to obtaining this goal, and the publication of these books attests to his intelligence, perseverance, and judgement. As entrepreneur Feingold did all of the right things. His choices for the authors of the volumes were superb and each of the individuals has written a thoroughly engaging, carefully researched, and professionally impressive synthesis of an aspect of the American Jewish past.