Welcome to the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies’
Modern Jewish Literature resource page

At this site, you will find:

• Introductory material and discussion questions for eight works of modern Jewish literature
  The five works come from a wide variety of Jewish cultures and deal with many of the themes that have been central to Jewish experience in the 19th and 20th centuries, including immigration and assimilation, Zionism and the Shoah, gender, ethnic identity and family relations.

• The introductory material is designed to give prospective readers a sense of what the book is about and what its major themes are. We have also included information about the book’s historical context and biographical information about the author.

• The discussion questions are designed to draw your attention to interesting thematic, literary and historical aspects of the book. Some of the questions focus readers’ attention on particular elements of the book; others refer to elements of historical or literary context in order to give readers additional perspectives from which to think about the books. The questions were designed to meet the needs of a wide range of readers. We hope that some of them spark your interest!

Additional Titles
In addition to the five suggested books, the site also includes titles and brief descriptions of other works of modern Jewish literature that were recommended by top scholars in the field of Jewish literature.

Links to other Modern Jewish Literature Resources on the Web
We have listed some of the many resources for readers of modern Jewish literature on the web.

We hope that you find this site useful. If you have questions or comments, please e-mail Dr. Elsie Stern at erstern@sas.upenn.edu