The Hebrew Orient: Palestine in Jewish American Visual Culture, 1901-1938 by Jessica L. Carr

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Hebrew Orient: Palestine in Jewish American Visual Culture, 1901-1938 by Jessica L. Carr Mira Katzburg-Yungman (bio) The Hebrew Orient: Palestine in Jewish American Visual Culture, 1901-1938. By Jessica L. Carr. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2020. 299 pp. Jessica L. Carr's highly analytic book aims at understanding Jewish Americans' self-image from the beginning of the twentieth century up to the Second World War through their visual culture of the "Hebrew Orient," the term she uses for Jewish Americans' view of Palestine. The author assumes that the self-image is well reflected through viewing others and aims to explore multiple self-images and identities, particularly in terms of cultural and gender identities. A broad systematic introduction depicting the analytic approach of the author explains the aims, major terms, and concepts used in the book. It is here that the term "visual culture" is defined as "everything that the eye can see, as well as mental processes brought at the moment of seeing" (13). The book is full of illustrations, photographs, and other images presented and analyzed in depth. Chapter 1, "'The Orient' as Jewish Heritage" discusses the book's key term "Hebrew (or Jewish) Orient" in vast detail. The author highlights the "Hebrew Orient" as a tool to reveal American Jews' cultural self-image through viewing their understanding of their "Hebrew Oriental" Jewish heritage and the contemporary inhabitants (pioneers, Mizrahim, and Arabs) of Palestine. This is the raison d'être of the author's preference for using the term Hebrew Orient rather than Palestine. Carr acknowledges her inability to include all Jewish American groups of the time under examination (1901-1938) and consequently decided to choose five representatives, or case studies. The book's chapters are constructed accordingly: Chapter Two explores the Orientalist visual culture of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA—initially, the Federation of American Zionists) as reflected in its publications. The third chapter explores the visual culture of the "Hebrew Orient" of the Reform National Federation of Temple Sisterhood (NFTS) through the lens of the NFTS's chapter conferences, yearbooks, letters, posters, and newsletters. Here and in other places in the book the author exceeds her declared aim and reaches additional valuable conclusions. In this case she analyzes among other things how the organization's women "created a new space for themselves in the practice of Reform Judaism without challenging traditional roles of men" (25). Chapter Four focuses [End Page 203] on the vision of (Ashkenazi) Jewish heritage as reflected in the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906). Chapter Five next focuses on the popular arena to explore "how Jewish Americans transformed historical Jewish narratives into popular forms at the 1933 'Century of Progress World's Fair' in Chicago" (26). Finally, Chapter Six addresses the visual culture of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. Similar to many other gender scholars, Carr views gender analysis as leading "to a better understanding of both women and men" (16). To reach such an understanding, she explores two Zionist organizations, the male-led largest organization, the ZOA, and Hadassah, the major American women's Zionist organization. The non-Zionist American organizations are also represented by male and female representatives: the NFTS and the scholarly milieu of the Jewish Encyclopedia, although in different years. However, while the other Jewish groups of the time may have their own representation within the groups explored in the book, most of the Yiddish-speaking immigrants — a very large sector at the time — has no representation, although the Yiddish press could have been used quite easily. The reason might be the author's view of them as immigrants, not fully Jewish Americans. Nevertheless, the book fulfills its author's promise to bring a rich and varied panorama of envisioning the "Hebrew Orient" by various Jewish groups. It also shows how various Jewish identities and self-images are reflected through their visual culture. In doing so the author shows, for example, how Hadassah women's self-image as "modern westerners" is reflected through the organization's images. In the same vein the author's analysis demonstrate how the Jewish Encyclopedia's scholars aspired to integrate the Orient into the...