Carefully arguing that many common assumptions about the traditional Jewish family are mistaken, this outstanding collection of essays--many previously unpublished--by thirteen leading scholars, explores the subject both in its historical reality and as it has been perceived and imagined by Jews over the centuries. Writing for a conference held at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America the contributors, including Robert Alter, Mordecai Friedman, Paula Hyman, and Moshe Idel, reveal the Jewish family to be a variegated, rich, and complicated institution that has adapted and responded to the many different cultures in which Jews have made their homes. Individual essays examine Jewish marriage in rabbinic, medieval, and modern times; marriage as a literary and artistic metaphor; childhood and adolescence in Judaism and the role of the mother as ethical instructor; and the Jewish family in the community, where different Jewish cultures have preserved central elements of the tradition while developing unique expressions of family life.