Abstract:
Through examination of objects from the Jewish Museum of Maryland, Leo Baeck
Institute, and Yeshiva University Archives, this thesis explores the acculturation of
Eastern European immigrants in Baltimore, Maryland. From 1880 to 1930 Jewish
immigrants making a home in Baltimore underwent a fundamental shift in their folkways
(culture) as they accommodated the influence of American culture within the material
subculture of Jewish religious practice; affluent middle- class Jewish families, and their
poorer working-class counterparts, adopted and altered those American dining rules and
regulations established by the upper class to suit their religious practices and their
identities as upwardly mobile Jewish immigrants. Immigrants’ decisions to adhere to or
to modify the rules of gentility ultimately enabled some to use dining objects to maintain
their religious faith while for others the adoption of genteel rituals displaced it.
