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Jenna Weissman Joselit: Being Jewish in America
We talk to Jenna Weissman Joselit about the everyday expressions of Judaism that reinforce the identity and distinctiveness of the Jewish People.
Summary
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Jenna Weissman Joselit, a professor of Jewish studies and history, about the everyday expressions of Judaism that reinforce the identity and distinctiveness of the Jewish People.
In this episode we discuss:
—What consequential institutional decisions shaped the trajectory of American Judaism?
—What overlooked personalities and phenomena contributed to the development of American Judaism?
—What is the role of the tallis in American Jewish aesthetics?
Interview begins at 10:42.
Tune in to hear a retrospective reflection on modern Jewish life and culture.
Jenna Weissman Joselit is the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of History at The George Washington University. She specializes in the history and culture of America’s Jews, U.S. cultural history, and the relationship between material culture and identity. She is the author of Set in Stone: America’s Embrace of the Ten Commandments, The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880–1950, which received the National Jewish Book Award in History, and A Perfect Fit: Clothes, Character, and the Promise of America. She writes a monthly column on American Jewish culture for Tablet and has been a frequent contributor to the Jewish Review of Books, The New Republic, TNR Online, Gastronomica, and the Forward.
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References
American Judaism: A History by Jonathan D. Sarna
Mordecai M. Kaplan: Restless Soul by Jenna Weissman Joselit
New York’s Jewish Jews: The Orthodox Community in the Interwar Years by Jenna Weissman Joselit
Our Gang : Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community, 1900-1940 by Jenna Weissman Joselit
Set in Stone: America’s Embrace of the Ten Commandments by Jenna Weissman Joselit
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