Published on the 350th anniversary of the first Jews to arrive in America, this comprehensive history of the Jews of Boston is now available in a revised and updated paperback edition. The stunning work combines illuminating essays by distinguished Jewish historians with 110 rare photographs to trace the community from its tentative beginnings in colonial Boston through its emergence in the twentieth century as one of the most influential and successful Jewish communities in America. The volume also presents fascinating information about Boston’s synagogues and Jewish neighborhoods as well as the evolution of Jewish culture in Boston and the United States.Praise for the previous edition: “The writing is engaging and lucid, and the superb, profuse illustrations enhance the text. While numerous community histories have been published, this volume is in a class by itself--and will set the standard for all future works of this kind.”—Library Journal“For those of us who grew up with anecdotes of what being a Jew was like in, say, the South End in 1910, or in Roxbury or Chelsea in 1920, this history, collected in one place for the first time, fills in the blanks. It gives us the context for our inherited folk tales.”—Alan Lupo, Boston Globe

"This book of essays and photographs, released in hardcover in 1995 to critical acclaim, is now available in an updated, revised paperback edition at less than half the hardcover asking price. The content is outstanding. The essays (by Brandeis University's Sarna, museum curator Smith, and a host of other scholars) are at once weighty and accessible to general readers who are interested in the history of Boston's Jews. From the first recorded Jew in the city (Solomon Franco, in 1649) to the 21st century, this volume organizes the Jewish experience into chronological and thematic order, with various essays addressing assimilation, synagogues, philanthropy, Zionism, education and culture. More than 100 illustrations and photographs bring history to life: we see images of community centers and synagogues, yes, but we also see Jewish life in action: customers waiting outside a kosher butchery in Brookline; a multiracial klezmer musical troupe at the New England conservatory; a ladies' auxiliary of Beth Israel hospital in 1915. The book contains some new material not in the 1995 edition, including an essay by a Boston College historian on Jewish-Christian relations, and a piece by Sarna and Kosofsky on developments since 1995. More than just a community history, this excellent book uses Boston's experience as a window into understanding American Judaism more generally." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University. Ellen Smith is curator at the American Jewish Historical Society. Thomas H. O’Connor is University Historian and Professor of History, Emeritus, at Boston College. He is the author of numerous books on Boston history, including Boston Catholics: A History of the Church and Its People and The Hub: Boston Past and Present.