Fictionalizing Israel in Jewish-American Literature, 1948–2020s

Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has occupied a central yet deeply contested place in Jewish-American literature. Celebrated as a refuge after the Holocaust, criticized for its treatment of Palestinians, and imagined as both a source of Jewish renewal and a site of ideological conflict, Israel has become one of the principal frameworks through which Jewish-American writers have explored questions of belonging, memory, nationalism, and Jewish selfhood.

How has Israel’s role in the Jewish-American imagination changed over time? How have literary representations of Israel reflected shifting attitudes toward Zionism, antisemitism, assimilation, and Jewish continuity? Can Jewish-American identity be imagined apart from Israel?

Addressing these questions, Fictionalizing Israel in Jewish-American Literature, 1948–2020s: Love–Hate Relations examines novels by writers such as Philip Roth, Joshua Cohen, and Nicole Krauss to demonstrate that while Jewish-American attitudes toward Israel have evolved toward increasing ambivalence from the Founding of Israel to the 2020s, Israel remains a significant point of reference in the literary imagination. Bringing together literary criticism, Jewish studies, and Israel studies, this book offers a new perspective on the evolving relationship between Israel and American Jewry.