Jenna Weissman Joselit, the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of History at the George Washington University, is a distinguished historian of the American Jewish experience and a former columnist for the Forward.
Jenna Weissman Joselit
By Jenna Weissman Joselit
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Culture When Mom and Pop Owned the Shop
Food, glorious food is what virtually everyone I know talks about incessantly. What we ate, where we ate it and who made it constitutes a hefty chunk of our daily conversational fare. But were it not for the urban grocery store, that all-but-vanished institution, we wouldn’t be singing the praises of mozzarella, olive oil and…
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The Schmooze Israeli Film Production, From ‘Exodus’ On
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Over the past half century or so, Israel has been associated in the public mind with lots of things, but movie-making has not been among them — at least not until recently. As the Forward observed this week, that’s about to change. Israel now harbors high hopes of becoming…
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The Schmooze How Anne Frank Became an Industry
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree I learned recently of a brand new app, “Anne’s Amsterdam,” which provides all sorts of digital details, both personal and geographical, about Anne Frank and her city. I can’t say I’m surprised. In the years since the publication of her diary, Anne Frank’s life and times — and above…
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Culture Where Have All the Nurses Gone?
One of my favorite television programs is “Nurse Jackie,” which casts a rueful eye on the complicated life of an emergency nurse in a contemporary urban hospital. My husband’s formidable great-aunt, Vera Libo Grinspoon, was a nurse, too — a head nurse at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital in the years leading up to the birth of…
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Books What Archivists Are Worth
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Like the making of history, the writing of history is a collaborative venture. It may look as if ideas are entirely the product of the individual imagination but, as any honest, straight-talking historian will tell you, they are the result of a group effort. The writer-cum-historian gets all the…
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Culture Through Stained Glass, Brightly
If you were to poll the average American Jewish man and woman on the street about what constitutes normative American synagogue architecture, stained glass windows would probably be the very last thing that comes to mind. Some folks might be quick to conjure an image of an elaborately decorated Moorish-like interior; others, jokingly, might bring…
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The Schmooze White and Jewish, by the Numbers
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree At first blush, numbers seem to be nothing if not neutral, especially when compared with words. Language makes known its intentions from the get-go; numbers, in contrast, don’t freely divulge their meaning and are susceptible to all manner of manipulation. Little wonder, then, that modern-day Jews have had a…
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The Schmooze ‘Starriest’ of Silent Film Stars Back on Screen
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree When you combine the sizzling artistry of violinist Alicia Svigals with the smoldering film presence of Pola Negri, the silent film star and Hollywood darling of the interwar years, sparks are sure to fly. Building on the current fascination with the world of silent films, which “The Artist” and…
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