Pioneer Jewish Families in New Mexico challenges the simplistic myth of the "tri-cultural" composition of New Mexico history, focusing on the contributions of German and Eastern European Jews to late 19th and early 20th- century New Mexico. Based on oral history interviews with descendants of these pioneers, supplemented with impeccable archival research, and richly illustrated with photographs, the authors of these family histories weave a rich tapestry documenting the historical contexts in Europe, which motivated young Jewish men and women to embark on the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, followed by the difficult overland trek by wagon train and rail to the US Southwest. The contributors to this volume contrast the closed, and oftentimes anti-Semitic culture of Europe with the more tolerant, and welcoming environment of New Mexico. This book is a "must" for inclusion on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the multiethnic history of the state.
Stanley M. Hordes, Ph.D., Former New Mexico State Historian and author of To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico (NY: Columbia University Press, 2005)