Jews and Booze

At the turn of the century, American Jews and prohibitionists viewed one another with growing suspicion. Jews believed that all Americans had the right to sell and consume alcohol, while prohibitionists insisted that alcohol commerce and consumption posed a threat to the nation’s morality and security. The two groups possessed incompatible visions of what it meant to be a productive and patriotic American--and in 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution made alcohol commerce illegal, Jews discovered that anti-Semitic sentiments had mixed with anti-alcohol ideology, threatening their reputation and their standing in American society. Though their connection to alcohol had once been a subject of communal pride, prohibition compelled Jews to choose between abandoning this historical and cultural connection and remaining outside the American mainstream. In Jews and Booze, Marni Davis examines American Jews’ long and complicated relationship to alcohol during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the years of the national prohibition movement’s rise and fall. Bringing to bear an extensive range of archival materials, Davis offers a novel perspective on a previously unstudied area of American Jewish economic activity--the making and selling of liquor, wine, and beer-- and reveals that alcohol commerce played a crucial role in Jewish immigrant acculturation and the growth of Jewish communities in the United States. But prohibition’s triumph cast a pall on American Jews’ history in the alcohol trade, forcing them to revise, clarify, and defend their communal and civic identities, both to their fellow Americans and to themselves.

"Davis brings to life the stories of Jewish saloon keepers, rabbis, and alcohol producers faced with the temperance movement and increased anti-Semitism... Davis focuses uniquely on the implications and impact of this period on one ethnic and religious population." Library Journal

"Focusing on America’s late-nineteenth-century temperance movement and the passage into law of the Eighteenth Amendment establishing Prohibition in 1919, Davis illuminates the dilemma facing many American Jews of the time: the desire to maintain traditions – often livelihoods – or to assimilate further into mainstream society.... There are enough interesting anecdotes, facts and figures in the charming history to make the reader thirsty for another round” - Evan Rail, Times Literary Supplement, July 27th 2012 "...a provocative study of Jews’ complicated relationship to alcohol and Prohibition in American history, Georgia State assistant history professor Davis records that as early as the 1870s, American religious, cultural, and business issues created debates within the Jewish community: many Jews saw the temperance and prohibition movements as a mission to impose white Protestant values on American politics and culture.... Provocative, well-researched, and potentially intriguing study.

" Publishers Weekly "The liquor business always proved attractive to our people, despite the fact that they themselves are universally known as a temperate people…. Liquor is a stable and marketable product.

" Jewish Criterion, 1918, Pittsburgh, PA "In her debut, Davis suggests that anti-Semitism and Prohibition were parallel expressions of political disquiet during the turn of the last century...A fascinating, nuanced social history.

" Kirkus "Marni Davis’s book Jews and Booze is worth reading.

" David Strom, San Diego Jewish World "Okay, granted, it’s pretty late for a Hanukkah shopping tip, but the book Jewdar is recommending doesn’t come out until January anyway, so consider this an early Tu B’Shvat recommendation. We know we’re not supposed to judge books by their cover, but there’s something we gotta love about a book by a university press with a title like Jews and Booze, which sounds more like a Heeb party than a dissertation.

" Heeb.com "Engrossing and well written

" Jewish Book Council "a thoughtful, instructive and often insightful

" The New York Times "...It was probably inevitable that someone had to ask if Prohibition was good for the Jews. Sure enough, Marni Davis has come along not only to raise the question but also to provide intriguing answers in Jews and Booze...

" Moment Magazine "...A comprehensive look at a little-discussed historical subject that can't help but have a spring in its step.

" Forward "Davis, an assistant professor of history at Georgia State University, turns the facts of American Jews in the liquor trade—from bootleggers and saloon keepers to kosher vintners and the very rare Jewish Prohibition enforcer—into a tale of prejudice, negotiation, and assimilation.

" The Tablet "Informative and entertaining

" Glenn C. Altschuler, San Francisco Chronicle, 5th February 2012 "This fascinating, academically sophisticated, and superbly written exposition of the intricate, often precarious, role that Jews played in every aspect of the American alcohol industry—from production in industrial stills to retail sale in bars and speakeasies across the land, and finally to bootlegging, a crime that created the fortunes of some of North America’s most prominent Jewish philanthropic families—turns out to be a wonderful historical companion to HBO’s most explosive series since The Sopranos and to the recent PBS airing of Ken Burns’ documentary Prohibition.