Samuel D. Kassow

Israeli art and literature reflected the emergence of a distinctive indigenous culture and moved from collectivist Zionist narratives toward individualism.

The years between 1939 and 1973 witnessed unprecedented tragedy and transformation for the Jewish people.

Jewish communities in North and South America, South Africa, and Australia navigated complex local politics while creating literature that preserved their Jewish heritage.

Postwar Jewish culture developed unevenly across regions, and language and political concerns shaped local interests.

Jewish literature developed individual rather than collective voices, as postwar Jewish identity was transformed by the forces of modernism and assimilation.

Life writing and reportage captured individual Jewish experiences in a period of conflict and uncertainty. 

As European Jewish communities tried to rebuild after the Holocaust, they faced new challenges and forged identities distinct from those in Israel and the United States.

American Jews entered a "golden age" of cultural expression and self-confidence after World War II, with declining antisemitism and increasing political and cultural representation.

As Judaism moved into the American mainstream, Jewish religious definition grappled with the social movements of the 1960s.

Jewish American writers gained mainstream success writing about immigrant experience, assimilation, and the trauma of the Holocaust.

Language shifts transformed Jewish culture in the postwar period, as Yiddish declined and Hebrew and English gained prominence.

Postwar Jewish communities created new spaces globally, as American Jews moved to suburbs, Israel established sovereign spaces, and a new European Jewish identity emerged.

Life writing in the postwar period explored the Holocaust, displacement and migration, cultural identity, and the deteriorating situation of Jews behind the Iron Curtain.

Israelis struggled to integrate Holocaust memory into national identity, as survivor literature challenged a preference for heroic resistance narratives.

Early Israeli statehood balanced collectivist Zionist ideals with growing individualism and saw the emergence of a vibrant but conflicted national culture.

Jewish writing in Nazi-occupied areas documented ghetto life, moral questions, and Jewish identity, while writers in free zones grappled with the unfolding tragedy.

Jewish visual art flourished and diversified in the postwar period, reflecting the social and political transformations taking place in the world.