Imagined Non-Jews

Racial passing has fascinated thousands of American readers since the end of the nineteenth century. However, the phenomenon of Jews passing as gentiles has been all but overlooked. This book examines forgotten novels depicting Jewish Americans masquerading as gentiles. Exploring two "waves" of publications of this subgenre—in the 1940s-1950s and 1990s-2000s—this book asks questions about the perceptions of Jewish difference during these periods.Looking at issues such as Whiteness, Americannes, gender, and race, it traces the changes in the presentation of Jewish identity during the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the new millennium.