https://michaelscottalexander.com/jazz-age-jews daily 0.75 2020-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/1595019474458-J29HJSL91YB7LEGQM6QU/51ud8Sr3cKL._SX329_BO1%2C204%2C203%2C200_.jpg Jazz Age Jews - Jazz Age Jews Winner of the National Jewish Book Award. By all economic, political, and cultural measures of the day, by the 1920s Jews were making it in America. But as these children of immigrants took their places in American society, many deliberately identified with groups that remained excluded. Despite their success, Jews embraced resistance more than acculturation, preferring marginal status to assimilation. The stories of Al Jolson, Felix Frankfurter, and Arnold Rothstein are told together to explore this paradox in the psychology of American Jewry. All three Jews were born in the 1880s, grew up around American Jewish ghettos, married gentile women, entered the middle class, and rose to national fame. All three also became heroes to the American Jewish community for their association with events that galvanized the country and defined the Jazz Age. Rothstein allegedly fixed the 1919 World Series — an accusation this book disputes. Frankfurter defended the Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. Jolson brought jazz music to Hollywood for the first talking film, The Jazz Singer, and regularly impersonated African Americans in blackface. Each of these men represented a version of the American outsider, and American Jews celebrated them for it. Michael Alexander's gracefully written account profoundly complicates the history of immigrants in America. It challenges charges that anti-Semitism exclusively or even mostly explains Jews' feelings of marginality, while it calls for a general rethinking of positions that have assumed an immigrant quest for inclusion into the white American mainstream. Rather, Alexander argues that Jewish outsider status stemmed from the group identity Jews brought with them to this country in the form of the theology of exile. Jazz Age Jews shows that most Jews felt culturally obliged to mark themselves as different--and believed that doing so made them both better Jews and better Americans. https://michaelscottalexander.com/bio daily 0.75 2020-08-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/1595012560180-9WFPY3IMWV73MOQ39UEZ/IMG_7254.jpeg Bio https://michaelscottalexander.com/contact daily 0.75 2020-07-17 https://michaelscottalexander.com/making-peace daily 1.0 2020-12-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/1595007661958-0HL9T3A0J3RYVGKQGI21/Alexander.v.2.2.jpeg Michael Scott Alexander - Making Peace with the Universe Did you know that Genghis Khan sought spiritual counseling as he approached retirement? — or that Socrates turned to spiritual exploration after a debilitating personal crisis, as did Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, William James, jazz genius Mary Lou Williams, the current Pope Francis, and indeed myriad brilliant minds, ancient and contemporary, across all borders of cultural diversity? In Making Peace with the Universe, Michael Scott Alexander considers human spirituality as the original form of therapy. Mixing scholarly learning with episodes from his own skeptical quest, he recasts classic spiritual confessions as psychological case histories, showing how they remain radical and deeply meaningful even in an age of scientific psychology. These classic spiritual confessions offer a model of therapy through spiritual adventure. Alexander writes: “Somewhere along the path of life’s journey, these capable and successful people lost track of themselves. In their darkest moments of confusion and indirection they all did something very normal, even reasonable: they sought spiritual grounding. Their confessions ultimately portray the achievement of a kind of spiritual mood, a peace with the universe and with one’s place in it.” https://michaelscottalexander.com/select-articles daily 0.75 2020-07-18 https://michaelscottalexander.com/making-peace-questions daily 0.75 2020-08-05 https://michaelscottalexander.com/media daily 0.75 2025-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/1608141684714-LYUFGLECI1CO6ZDJVS46/deep-background-with-noah-feldman-549-300x300.jpg Media - Finding Peace in Turbulent Times Longtime listener, first time caller! Thanks to Noah Feldman of Deep Background podcast for this holiday interview https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/0f5fca89-3f56-4c80-a590-924a64fceca3/cover_medium.jpg Media - Episode 45: “Before there was therapy, there was religion.” Thanks to Prof. Rachel Gordan of the University of Florida and the “Writing It!” podcast for the chance to discuss some of the nuts and bolts of putting a book together. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/1619648090935-URDBP73V7CMFMEGUK1D6/Sapiro-Headshot-crop-circle.jpg Media - Clinical Implications of Spiritual Therapy Delighted to discuss with Dr. Michael Sapiro, PsyD, some clinical uses and implications of spiritual therapy. Interview on Radio Awakened. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/1619213020294-46MYNMKF9JZC2QKER6P9/51SnJg0tWxL._SX332_BO1%2C204%2C203%2C200_.jpg Media - Prof. Bruce D. Haynes discusses Black Jews My interview of Prof. Haynes regarding his remarkable book on Jews of African Descent in America. At the forefront of 21st Century Jewish Studies. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/1611346911359-Q5R9XP6JEV0OU58NP1L1/image0.jpeg Media - How the pianist Mary Lou Williams found God (and made it to the Vatican) An excerpt of “Making Peace with the Universe” published in America Magazine: The Jesuit Review. A real honor. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/1608679252375-6KRS5S7M6W2MAAL6ZUYC/Unknown.jpeg Media - The Gist, Part I Being interviewed by Mike Pesca of The Gist is like getting cross-examined by Lenny Bruce. Loved it! Part II below … https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/1608679252375-6KRS5S7M6W2MAAL6ZUYC/Unknown.jpeg Media - The Gist, Part II Peace with the universe? Still working on it …. Wrapping up a great conversation with Mike Pesca. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/1608077815453-IETD690Z22YWDTBGB3PU/Dault_FrankFX.jpg Media - A Spiritual Form of Therapy Thanks to Dr. David Dault of “Things Not Seen” for this interview. David gets into the nitty gritty! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/1608078514583-UD1SA99GDSIKEZ8OLIGV/0enbCdvaAKdl5WoLL8dG1Hi6kS5g4hpczUDptoZc.jpeg Media - Have You Made Peace With The Universe? Honored to be with Pat McMahon on “The God Show.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/1605834017164-FF8NHR4FZ3TKIII3FOT5/9780520376953.jpg Media - Reflexive Interview! This was really fun. Dr. Amanda Lucia and I interviewed one another on 11/18/2020 about our new books at the Center for Ideas and Society at UC Riverside. Amanda’s book: White Utopias: The Religious Exoticism of Transformational Festivals https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/1605131957174-LOUC42EBRNZJ853KA37X/iu.jpeg Media - Why Hurt People turn to Spirituality in times of Crisis A short excerpt of “Making Peace with the Universe” published in Elephant Journal. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f11e0a5714e954fbd050f77/1607544565837-TZU4LRB3B9TXSZI9CGVY/alexander_blog_post.jpg Media - American Academy of Religion post Short piece about the origin of the book.