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 The Forgotten Gizmo That Brought Us Closer to the Holy Land
Some academics I know have been quick to avail themselves of the latest digital tools so that they might communicate more effectively with their tech-savvy students. Others are more apt to roll their eyes or dig in their heels at the prospect of actively integrating technology into their teaching. Hoping to convince the skeptics among…
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Art At the Jewish Museum’s Mizrahi Exhibit, a Missed Opportunity
Many years ago, my colleague Maurice Berger and I proposed an exhibition on fashion and the Jews to the powers-that-be at the Jewish Museum. Nothing came of it, save countless meetings and drafts and redrafts of our proposal. The project was shelved. I was delighted, then, to learn of “Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History,” an…
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Culture How Golf Became a Tool of Assimilation
I’ve gone to South Florida to give a talk. But first, there’s lunch with the relatives whom I haven’t seen in over a decade. We meet at “the club.” The centerpiece of my cousins’ lives, everything is oriented around it, from their homes to their calendars. We keep the conversation light, and talk of children…
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Culture Why Isn’t There More of a Hoohah About Kosher Bacon?
A recent culinary phenomenon has caught my eye: the steady advance of “kosher bacon,” a meat product that looks and tastes like the real thing. What intrigues me is not its popularity, or the ways in which once intact boundaries between kosher cuisine and its nonkosher counterparts have been increasingly erased. What I find most…
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Culture Why An 1855 Jewish Conference Is Still Worth Conferring About
This past month I’ve been to more conferences than I care to remember. In this, I’m not alone. Taking to the road, the rails and the air to attend one or another confab has become routine — just one of the ways most of us conduct business, circulate ideas and products, and get into the…
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Culture Friday The Rabbi Solved Crimes
Looking for a rabbi? Someone who’s accommodating but firm? Quick on his or her feet and scholarly, too? Capable of holding his or her own at both interfaith gatherings and synagogue board meetings? Familiar with the Talmud as well as with the most current literature? As it happens, I have the perfect candidate for you:…
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Culture The Lewisohn Sisters Put the Ooomph in Do-Gooding
Manhattan’s Lower East Side of yesteryear conjures up images of dense and inhospitable streets filled with immigrants determined to get on with the business of becoming American, as well as with social reformers equally determined to accelerate that process. Though well intentioned and good hearted, these reformers, we’re apt to think, were often tone deaf…
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Culture Jews Go Back to the Land (Again)
Eco-Judaism is in full swing these days. You don’t have to go too far afield to find a lively array of Jewish institutions that tout the virtues of both farm-fresh produce and the farming life. From marking Sukkot by heading to the nearest orchard for an afternoon of apple-picking to mounting art exhibitions on shmita,…
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