Does it Matter if Authenticity is Authentic?

Does it Matter if Authenticity is Authentic? Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish Ideas, December 2011, p 9-10. “Authentic? Get Real” read a recent New York Times headline (in the Fashion & Style section). The article highlighted the obsession with authenticity in our popular culture (one example cited Katie Couric claiming, “I think I love to be my authentic self.”) The piece concluded with a snarky critique of the authenticity trend as a highly calculated form of self-presentation more... Read More

Jewish Review of Books Review

This current issue of the Jewish Review of Books contains a review essay that includes Zionism and the Road’s Not Taken. You can read the review at http://www.jewishreviewofbooks.com/about_us/login.asp?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jewishreviewofbooks.com%2Fpublications%2Fdetail%2Fstate-and-counterstate Here are some snippets: “[David] Myers and Pianko are learned historians and deeply committed Jews who write with their people’s best interests at heart and deserve our careful attention.... Read More

The Big Jewcy: Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum – Jewish Engagement Through Empowerment by Hayley Goldstein | Jewcy.com

The Big Jewcy: Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum – Jewish Engagement Through Empowerment by Hayley Goldstein | Jewcy.com. Share and Enjoy:  Read More

American Jewish Archives Book Review

“[The book] is a timely and ambitious attempt to unearth approaches to Zionism that sought to embrace the concept of Jewish nationhood outside of the purely statist model.” —American Jewish Archives Journal (2010, vol 62, No 2) Download the full review. Share and Enjoy:  Read More

Post-Ethnic, But Not Post-Peoplehood

My article in this month’s Sh’ma (March 2011) explores possibilities for peoplehood in a post-ethnic age. Here is a brief blurb–you can read the entire article on the Sh’ma website. Recently, I have been interested in the resurgent popularity of the term “Jewish peoplehood” as a new buzzword for evaluating Jewish identity. To get a better sense of the trend, I have had Google send me a daily alert with a link to every new Web reference to the term. The alerts I’ve... Read More

Haverford Conversation about Kaplan, Peoplehood, and Post-Ethnicity

Thanks to Ken Koltun-Fromm for inviting me to join his class via Skype to discuss my work and trends in modern Jewish thought. He has students blogging about our conversation–what a great idea. You can see their thoughts here. Share and Enjoy:  Read More

New Hans Kohn Article in Leo Beack Journal

Did Kohn Believe in the “Kohn Dichotomy”? Reconsidering Kohn’s Journey from The Political Idea of Judaism to the Idea of Nationalism Leo Beack Institute Yearbook (2010) 55(1): 295-311 The recent reprinting of Hans Kohn’s classic 1944 study The Idea of Nationalism: A Study in Its Origins and Background (2005) reflects renewed interest among scholars of nationalism in the man regarded as one of the founders of the field. In his introduction to this re-publication, sociologist Craig... Read More

Summer in the Garden

Believe it or not, these tomatoes came directly from my backyard garden and neighborhood p-patch. Yes, I have come a long way from the days when my college roomates poked fun at me for not knowing what “mulch” was. Growing up in New York City, Central Park was the great wilderness and all food grew at Zabars or Fairway. Things have changes since I moved to Seattle and began experimenting in the garden. I had to start with the very basics. At my first Seattle Tilth spring sale, Rachel... Read More

“Counting Can Be Counterproductive” Sh’ma Magazine

Sh'ma Magazine October 2010 The October 2010 issue of Sh’ma magazine focuses on counting. Editor, Susan Berrin, writes, “since the days of King David, our numbers have been a source of contention; today is no different.” My article in the issue argues that “numbers and data galavanize a sense of demographic emergency by pointing to dwindling participation or shrinking populations. But they do so while implicitly promoting outdated paradigms of Jewish membership.” Read... Read More

UW Jewish Studies Program to Pilot Service Learning Course

During Spring Quarter 2010, SJSP Professor Noam Pianko received a grant to design a new service-learning course on social justice and Judaism. Repair the World, a national non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring young adults to give their time and effort to serve those in need, granted the funds to Professor Pianko and the SJSP to pilot this new class and format for replication across the country. Download the complete Stroum Jewish Studies Program newsletter article here. Share and Enjoy:  Read More