Jews on the Frontier is a religious history of the United States that begins in an unexpected place: on the road with mobile Jews. It follows them out of eastern cities and into the American frontier, where they found unprecedented economic opportunity but also anonymity, loneliness, instability, mistrust, scarcity, and diversity, all of which complicated the many legal obligations of traditional Jewish life. Against the backdrop of Manifest Destiny, ordinary Jews created religious life from scratch, expanding and transforming Jewish thought and practice within and outside newly developed netw ... More

Jews on the Frontier is a religious history of the United States that begins in an unexpected place: on the road with mobile Jews. It follows them out of eastern cities and into the American frontier, where they found unprecedented economic opportunity but also anonymity, loneliness, instability, mistrust, scarcity, and diversity, all of which complicated the many legal obligations of traditional Jewish life. Against the backdrop of Manifest Destiny, ordinary Jews created religious life from scratch, expanding and transforming Jewish thought and practice within and outside newly developed networks, markets, and institutions. The inconsistency and eclecticism of these efforts were a central concern of well-known leaders like Isaac Mayer Wise and Isaac Leeser, who worked to establish greater order and standardization. While they failed in their most ambitious projects, however, they succeeded in establishing the institutional and intellectual infrastructure of American Judaism. Jews on the Frontier vividly recounts these stories of a neglected era in American Jewish history, taking the reader far from the well-trodden ground of New York City. In the process, it offers a new interpretation of American religions, rooted not in congregations or denominations, but in the politics and experiences of mobility. Today’s unafilliated Jews—and the much-heralded “nones” of all stripes—are not the first Americans to practice religion through family, social ties, print culture, and unauthorized forms of knowledge. Rather, American religions have long been constituted by diverse individuals and groups assembling resources for stability, certainty, and identity in a nation where there was little to be found.