Laura Arnold Leibman

THE ART OF THE JEWISH FAMILY: A HISTORY OF WOMEN IN EARLY NEW YORK IN FIVE OBJECTS 

New York: Bard Graduate Center, 2020, ISBN: 978-194-179-220-9

Reviewed by Annette B. Fromm¹

Women’s history is often neglected, left to the side while the accomplishments of men are documented and analyzed. This is particularly true of Jewish women in Colonial America. Laura Leibman takes five historic items, including a letter, wedding gifts, and artwork, and through deep scrutiny constructs the stories of five women in New York’s early Jewish community. Her deft and delving detective work leaves no stone or document unturned in order to bring to life these sometimes unknown or little known women, their families, and the multifaceted communities in which they lived. In this book, the work of the historian, cultural anthropologist, genealogist, and art historian merge in search of Jewish history, social history, fashion history, and contemporary practices and traditions. Her careful examination of the social milieux from which the objects came also speaks to the changing rules and status of Jewish women over one hundred years.

Five objects and five women are explored over the space of five chapters. Three of the women were from Sephardic families, the original backbone of Colonial America’s Jewish community. In the first chapter, Leibman closely examines several formal requests made by a widowed woman in need of financial assistance. The first is a fragment of a letter written in English requesting funds for provisions at the approach of the winter of 1761. This brief letter opens the door to the needs of the impoverished segment of the Jewish community in a young New York City. Using this brief appeal as a springboard, Leibman delves into the situation of single women whose survival is often at the behest of the communal organizations. From a partial document, the larger story of poverty in the colonial period and how it was dealt with emerges. Additional petitions by this woman reveal more about her and other Jewish women in late eighteenth century New York. Leibman also points to the language of the request and the writer’s penmanship. The supplicant’s signature on another letter indicates her descent from Spain and Portugal, as it is “…typical of signatures of Sephardim who learned to write in Spanish and Portuguese…” (41). She signs her name in Hebrew in yet another letter, showing that she had some rudimentary Jewish education.

Chapter Two moves to quite a different social milieu. A set of silver beakers made by one of the foremost silversmiths of the time, who was Jewish, represents the history of one of New York’s elite Jewish families. Through the substantial wedding gift, many aspects of Jewish marriages at this time are analyzed. Included are the state of arranged marriages, the material exchanges included in the bride’s trousseau, and the status of a widow. The families of the bride, groom, and silversmith are followed in the text, showing their continued interactions over a period of time. Leibman also tracks the travels of the beakers in the family as they are transformed from functional wedding gifts to heirlooms. The story of their dispersion informs readers about family relationships.

The women whose stories Leibman weaves around objects in the first two chapters were dependent upon men, whether a community leader or a spouse. Their accounts, while considering social history and interrelationships of Jewish families, are also filled with family trees and discussions of who descended from whom. Chapter Three considers origins and Jewish genealogy exemplified by two small early nineteenth century portraits of members of what would become part of the early Jewish American aristocracy. The focus is on two miniature ivory portraits of a brother and sister who eventually found themselves at the top of the social setting in New York. The siblings were the children of a significant Jewish trader in Barbados and a mixed-race woman. From the perspective of social history, Leibman offers a complex consideration of race as well as the role of miniatures in this elevated social context. Again, the situation of marriage negotiations arises, as this was one of the functions of miniatures. As an art historian, she carefully discusses the complex technique of painting on thin slivers of ivory and how color and technique were used to create skin tones as well as accentuate the fabrics of the garments.

A so-called commonplace book, which Leibman defines as “…an imaginative space where primarily women could create conceptions of themselves … pasted together to create pastiches over time,” (138) is at the center of Chapter Four. It is “a female-centered way of thinking about self, writing, and history” (ibid.). In the text, our protagonist’s maternal family tree is provided in order to understand the complexities of her descent. Her mother appears on this chart as “Sara Hay;” in the narrative, however, she is referred to as “Sara Ann.” This inconsistency made it somewhat difficult to follow the complex interrelations of this particular family.

Another work of art, an evocative family silhouette, is the center of attention in Chapter Five. It represents the change of New York’s Jewish community from its original Western Sephardic population to a predominantly Ashkenazi community. In fact, the character of the entire city in the mid-nineteenth century had changed with the influx of numerous Germans, Jewish and non-Jewish. Leibman carefully interprets the placement of the family members in this outlined portrait in great detail. In addition, the meaning behind the objects in the object is dissected; in other words: what each family member is shown holding, whether a female-oriented flower or a handkerchief or a more male-centered book. Her discussion of silhouette reflects on distinctive nineteenth century dress practices.

A close reading of the introduction shows that Leibman’s goals are ambitious. She points out that many studies of early American Jewish identity are “skewed” (5); she found that considerations of the family as well as of the synagogue and political involvement are missing. Among other topics, she is seeking to expose “love” in the context of the family through the analysis of select material culture items, non-ritual objects while adding women’s voices to the discourse. In each case study, the family structure and changing role of women in the Jewish family, Jewish community, and society is delved into. Indeed, in this dense text, Leibman unearths complex, multi-layered stories about five specific Jewish women in eighteenth and nineteenth century New York, stories which have previously not been explored in such detail.

In addition, through her research and writing, Leibman consciously or unconsciously highlights one of the basic functions of a museum; that is, preservation of material whether it is worthy of exhibition or not. Obscure, fragmentary collection items, such as the letter which is the focus of Chapter One or the commonplace book in Chapter Four, form the backbone of many museum collections. They may never be seen by the public but they are valuable silent documents that validate and expand the storytelling drawn from more presentable objects. Her discussion of the silver beakers in Chapter Two also reflects on museum practices as these precious items left the hands of the extended family to become significant items in several museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art among them. Thus, what the author interprets from the perspective of family legacy become transformed into pieces of art.

The Art of the Jewish Family is part of Bard Graduate Center’s Cultural Histories of the Material World series. Emphasis is on the material belongings of people and how they lend to the understanding a range of topics. Leibman’s work is a contribution to the paucity of colonial period documentation and fills a gap of information about Jewish American women prior to 1850. Her text reflects the growth and transformation of the Jewish community of Colonial America from Sephardi to Sephardi/Ashkenazi through intermarriage as well as the loss of strong identity while holding onto Jewish heritage. Through the analysis of objects associated with five women, she is able to interpret their lives (actually the women and the objects) and carefully place them into family, community, city, and, in some cases, world history.

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¹ Annette B. Fromm, Associate Editor and Review Editor of Sephardic Horizons, is a folklorist and lecturer in Romaniote and Sephardic studies. She recently wrote the introduction to the new book, Jewish Folktales from Morocco by Marc Eliany, Lexington Books, 2021.