Nomi M. Stolzenberg and David N. Myers, "American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York" (Princeton UP, 2022)

New Books in Sociology · Feb 1, 2022 · 1h 1m

Settled in the mid-1970s by a small contingent of Hasidic families, Kiryas Joel is an American town with few parallels in Jewish history—but many precedents among religious communities in the United States. This book tells the story of how this group of pious, Yiddish-speaking Jews has grown to become a thriving insular enclave and a powerful local government in upstate New York. While rejecting the norms of mainstream American society, Kiryas Joel has been stunningly successful in creating a world apart by using the very instruments of secular political and legal power that it disavows. Nomi…