Review - American Jewish Archives

Book Reviews 217
provides valuable insights and covers important themes. On 'Kmer-
ica, Freedom, and Assimilation," Hyman investigates the complexi-
ties of Jewish women's roles, noting that, "In some ways, women
were agents of assimilation; in others, buffers against the disruptive
influence of the new societyn(g7). Hyman reiterates the work of re-
cent scholars in pointing 'out that for young immigrant Jewish
women clothing became a significant sign of their transformation
from a greenhorn to an American. In urban culture women gained
access to American fashions, pastimes, footways, while advertisers
sought these Jewish women as consumers. Most of Hyman's chapter
focuses only on the urban cultural world of Jewish American females,
yet some women participated in Jewish agricultural societies, after
coming to cities and then moving to Jewish farming communities in
Michigan and New Jersey, for example. Did exposure to "new styles
of clothing and new types of recreation" that "fostered a self-con-
scious separation of the immigrant from the Old Country and an as-
sertion of American identity" occur in areas outside major urban
ethnic centers? Exploring gender and the rural Jewish experience in
assimilation, as well as the urban Jewish experience, would add to
our understanding of assimilation in American society. Hyman de-
tails the ways the Jewish immigrant girls participated in more
heterosocial activities than did the previous generation of women,
and at times this involvement generated familial conflict over gender
relations. Many families perceived education for working-class
women to be "the most significant, though often frustratingly unat-
tainable, element of American freedoml'(lol-2). Hyman documents
the place of education in the lives of Jewish American girls through
memoirs of Jewish girls, semiautobiographical literature, and ex-
cerpts from the Jewish press.
The class and gender interests of American reformers promoting
Americanization of Jewish women focused on domestic concerns and
the appropriate moral behavior of girls. Hyman mentions the gen-
der aspect of women's and girls' opportunities for recreation and sport,
but she inaccurately portrays the kinds of physical recreation avail-
able to women at settlements like the Educational Alliance or Hull
House. In fact, Hyman draws on some of the earlier historical
scholarship on health, sport, and playground reformers of the Pro-
gressive Era, yet more current studies about sport and health his-