The Presidents of the United States and the Jews Book

Here, for the first time, an entire work is devoted to the interactions between those who have held the most powerful elective office in the land and the relatively small but politically and socially active Jewish community. From Theodore Roosevelt's historic 1906 appointment of Oscar Straus as secretary of commerce and labor to Bill Clinton's equally significant 1997 selection of Madeline Albright as secretary of state, this groundbreaking volume presents fascinating biographical information on major Jewish appointees to Cabinet and sub-Cabinet positions, to the Supreme Court, as well as to ambassadorships throughout the world.

Written in a popular style for the lay reader, The Presidents of the United States and the Jews will inform, inspire, and occasionally amuse. Most important, however, it will add new perspective to the way in which we view those who have served as leader of the Western world. Generously illustrated with black-and-white photographs. br>

About the Authors:
David G. Dalin, a widely-published American Jewish historian, is currently a visiting scholar in Judaic Studies at George Washington University. He received a B.A. degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa; M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Brandeis University; and rabbinical ordination, as well as a second M.A., from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Rabbi Dalin is the author or coauthor of five previous books in the field of American Jewish history and Jewish religious thought. His Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience, written with Professor Jonathan D. Sarna of Brandeis University, was selected by Choice as one of the best academic books of 1998.

Rabbi Dalin's articles and book reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including American Jewish History, Commentary, Moment, Midstream, Conservative Judaism, Journal of Reform Judaism, Modern Judaism, Hadassah Magazine, the Weekly Standard, and the American Jewish Year Book

. Alfred J. Kolatch, a graduate of the Teachers' Institute of Yeshiva University and its College of Liberal Arts, was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, which subsequently awarded him the Doctor of Divinity degree, honoris causa. From 1941 to 1948 he served as rabbi of congregations in Columbia, South Carolina, and Kew Gardens, New York, and as a chaplain in the United States Army. In 1948 he founded Jonathan David Publishers, of which he has been president and editor-in-chief since its inception.

Rabbi Kolatch has authored more than forty books, the most popular of which are the best-selling Jewish Book of Why and its sequel, The Second Jewish Book of Why, as well as The New Name Dictionaryand The Complete Dictionary of English and Hebrew First Names. His most recent works are Great Jewish Quotations: By Jews and About Jews and What Jews Say About God.

In addition to his scholarly work, Rabbi Kolatch has served as president of the Association of Jewish Chaplains of the Armed Forces and as vice-president of the interdenominational Military Chaplains Association of the United States.