“Most of these provocative essays draw on diverse scholarship and a range of primary and secondary sources. Their chronological and topic breadth is considerable, and together they make an undeniable case that in understanding the history and people of the American West—and by implication of the nation at large—the familiar dichotomy of Black and White is at once preposterous and quaint.”

American Jewish History

“Jewish Identities in the American West uses a well-theorized 'relational' approach to help readers understand how Jewishness has been construed, and sometimes racialized, in different ways in different times, in relation to other minorities’ experiences, construals and racializations. Complicating the simple “whitening” thesis, the contributors to this volume think of their Jewish subjects alongside Black, Chinese, Indigenous and Mexican peoples, resulting in a volume in deep dialogue with both Western U.S. and global Jewish diaspora studies’ scholars. Eisenberg offers a brilliant introduction, with fittingly nuanced perspective about Jewishness and difference in the American West. She also provides useful through-line section introductions that weave together the book’s timely, well-informed, fine-grained, readable, and fascinating case studies.”
 

David Koffman, J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry, York University, and author of The Jews' Indian: Colonialism, Pluralism, and Belonging in America