The Last of the Ellis Island Jews

A Brooklyn Memoir

von Joel Dinerstein

274 Seiten, Taschenbuch

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

A tragicomic memoir of a Brooklyn Jewish family in the 1960s/1970s that offers a microcosm of social change, race, urban diversity, and rock-and-roll.The Last of the Ellis Island Jews is a tragicomic memoir of a dysfunctional working-class Brooklyn family that illuminates both the vitality of urban life in the twentieth century and the social turmoil of white flight. As a child of immigrants born to older parents, Dinerstein has a unique perspective on four generations-from his grandparents escaping Russia's pogroms to his parents' embattled marriage to his older Boomer siblings (split between feminist and Republican politics) to his own hippie hopes. As a white teenager in majority Black public schools, Dinerstein's firsthand experience led to his academic career as a scholar of race and music. Yet his family fits no paradigm of Jewish success due to a father with rage and gambling problems, resulting in the four siblings escaping early to the Brooklyn streets. As a family growing up with a diasporic identity, the Dinersteins provide a primer of ethnic Jewish culture through iconic scenes: a selfish Seder, a chaotic Bar Mitzvah, a videotaped bris, an allergy attack at Dachau, a staring contest with the Rebbe. Most of all, The Last of the Ellis Island Jews is a chronicle of lost worlds.

• Reihe: Excelsior Editions
• Themen: Biographie, Literatur und Literaturwissenschaft Biografien und Sachliteratur Memoiren, Berichte, Erinnerungen
• ISBN: 9798855808124
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 01.08.2026
• Größe: 229 x 152 mm
• Verlag: Excelsior Editions