Jews and Human Rights with James Loeffler
James Loeffler discusses his book “Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century,” why the history of human rights matters, and how it fits into modern Jewish history.
Continue readingAmerican Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement with Sara Yael Hirschhorn
Sara Yael Hirschhorn joins us to discuss her book City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement, and the big questions that it raises for how we understand Israel, American Jewry, and those American Jews who have moved to Israel and participated in the settler movement beyond the Green Line in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Sinai Peninsula: Why so many Israeli Jewish settlers are of American origin, how we can understand them as real people and not caricatures, and how looking closely at this group can help unsettle assumptions or preconceived notions about the nature of the settlements in the occupied territories.
Continue readingMoving Beyond “Chrismukkah” with Samira Mehta
Samira Mehta joins us to discuss her book Beyond Chrismukkah: The Christian-Jewish Interfaith Family in the United States and the meaning and complexities of interfaith marriage: Why it matters beyond the question of continuity, how it relates to broader social and religious trends, and how thinking through interfaith marriage can help us to understand our world at large.
Continue readingWhy Teaching Jewish Studies Matters with Jenny Caplan
Jenny Caplan joins us to talk about why teaching and studying Jewish history and Jewish Studies matters. Listen to our conversation about how we teach and talk about Jewish studies and Jewish history, how we justify its study to our students, to our colleagues, and to the wider world, how we can reach diverse students—and the challenges and opportunities it presents.
Continue readingRoundtable on the Attack in Pittsburgh with Lila Corwin Berman, Maja Gildin Zuckerman, and Jacob Labendz
Lila Corwin Berman, Maja Gildin Zuckerman, and Jacob Labendz join us for a roundtable discussion about the attacks at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh: how we can try to contextualize, historicize, and respond to it, and to the broader rise of political violence and antisemitism.
Continue readingWhy American Jewish History Matters with Hasia Diner
Hasia Diner joins us to talk about the big issues that have driven the field of American Jewish history and her work in particular, how we understand American Jewish history in two contexts—in the context of Jewish history as a whole, and within the framework of American history—and also how the field has changed, what lies ahead, and why it matters today.
Continue readingThe Stakes of Jewish History with David N. Myers
David N. Myers joins us to talk about his two new books, The Stakes of History: On the Use and Abuse of Jewish History for Life and Jewish History: A Very Short Introduction, and about why Jewish history matters.
Continue readingColonialism and the Jews with Lisa Moses Leff, Ethan Katz, and Maud Mandel
Lisa Moses Leff, Ethan Katz, and Maud Mandel discuss “Colonialism and the Jews,” an volume of essays from a 2014 conference on the subject. We talk about the place of Jews in the history of colonialism, the role of empire in the varied Jewish experiences of modernity, how examining these topics helps us to rethink modern Jewish history, and the question of Zionism and colonialism.
Continue readingCafes and Modern Jewish Culture with Shachar Pinsker
Shachar Pinsker discusses his book A Rich Brew: How Cafes Created Modern Jewish Culture and the ways in which cafes provide a window into understanding modern Jewish culture and modernity: What it means for cafes to be sites of the production of Jewish culture, how cafes sold not just coffee but also a concept of modernity, and the transformation of cafes and Jewish culture.
Continue readingA German Jewish Cookbook with Sonya Gropman and Gabrielle Rossmer Gropman
Gabrielle Rossmer Gropman and Sonya Gropman talk about The German Jewish Cookbook: Recipes and History of a Cuisine, the ties between German and Jewish culture,what it means to document the everyday German Jewish experience and its food, and why it still matters.
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