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the benign portrayal of the shtetl in books, theatre, and film, with Fiddler On the Roof being the most famous of these productions. Here, according to the myth, is Jewishness in its purest form, the kind of Judaism to which one should aspire. If not for the pogroms and conscription into the Czar's armies at the time, as the myth goes, Jews would have gone on living their simple, happy lives.

In his dissection of these works, Blecher exposes the distortions of history, and in some cases shoddy scholarship, underlying this idyllic vision. He cites more authoritative histories of life in Eastern Europe at the time that tell a different story, one of unrelenting poverty, unemployment, ignorance, and suffering. In fact, Jews left Eastern Europe to escape much of the same hardships as the Irish and Italian immigrants before them. So why romanticize the shtetl? The myth of the shtetl, says Blecher, provides a reference for Jewish identity. Combined with the other themes of continuity and survival, the theme of authenticity provide a world view that makes Jews in America unique and special. Without these themes, Jews are just like everyone else.

Building institutions and finding a minyan

The mainline Jewish denominations in the 20th century, according to Blecher, used these themes and underlying myths to build their institutions, develop their rituals, and establish their clergy. He tells how many of the common rituals and observances in modern American Judaism developed to meet practical or social needs, rather than evolving from some ancient or holy tradition. The bar mitzvah, for example, was originally a rite of passage for Jewish boys who earned the privilege of aliyah, or reading from the Torah during services. Blecher describes how this simple event became a major social ritual for which boys and later girls (who have bat mitzvahs) sometimes take many months or years to prepare. Not only are bar and bat mitzvahs important events to the families, they have become big income generators for the synagogues as well.

Blecher explains how the rabbinical clergy developed under the Jewish denominations. He points out that many Jewish rituals and ceremonies do not need a synagogue or rabbi. For example, any 10 Jewish men can form a minyan and have a service. (In December 2007, for example, I saw observant Jews reciting their afternoon prayers on a street corner in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv. If they had a rabbi among them, he looked like everyone else.) Blecher shows how

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