Academic Books
and
Chapters
My Books
Migration has been a central, defining element of Jewish life since Antiquity. Over the centuries, it has become the subject of a rich and diverse mythology that re-imagines and re-interprets the movements of Jews across time and space in the past – whether distant or recent – according to the needs and concerns of the present. This volume considers the mythology of Jewish migration as a phenomenon in its own right, that reflects themes, concerns, and historical “realities” common to many Jewish communities. Employing methodologies from the fields of history, literary and cultural studies, and sociology, the essays interrogate mythologized narratives of Jewish migration drawn from a range of settings, exploring the diverse, yet often surprisingly similar “realities” that they represent.
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“Jews of Missouri” was written to reincorporate minorities into the history of the state. The book, which focuses on pre-World War I, is divided into four parts. The first looks at the creation of the state of Missouri. The second examines the history of Jews in the United States and the state in broad terms, along with examining issues of concern to the American Jewish community, like intermarriage, slavery and military service. The third part presents the story of four Jewish families who spread across the state. Finally, the appendix lists every town in Missouri that had a Jewish presence before the first World War.
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Creating Community expands the written histories of Springfield that have long overlooked this minority in the local community. It also adds to the growing study of small Jewish communities around the United States. Springfield is both Southern and Midwestern in flavor and this is reflected in the Jewish community's development that has examples of both. Jews have been part of the economic development of the town since the 1860s. Since then, they have also been involved in fraternal and social organizations, politics, and education. This is not a complete history, but its purpose is not to be encyclopedic, rather it is to exemplify how this minority group were part of the growth the Queen City of the Ozarks.
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This volume examines the development of the non-liturgical parts of the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ Haggadot. Through an understanding of the changes in American Jewish educational patterns and the CCAR's theology, it explores how the CCAR Haggadah was changed over time to address the needs of the constituency. While there have been many studies of the Haggadah and its development over the course of Jewish history, there has been no such study of the non-liturgical parts of the Haggadah that reflect the needs of the audience it reaches. How the CCAR, the first and largest of American-born Judaisms, addressed the changing needs of its members through its literature for the Passover Seder reveals much about the development of the movement. This in turn provides for the readers of this book an understanding of how American Judaism has developed.
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Jews arrived to the bustling town of Springfield shortly after its founding in 1838, only five years after the birth of the state of Missouri. The first Jews to live in Springfield were Victor and Bertha Sommers with her brother Ferdinand Bakrow. They opened Victor Sommers & Co., a dry goods store in 1860. The Jewish community grew as merchants brought their families, tying Springfield to other towns along the Mississippi River through marriages. The first congregation was founded in 1893 by the German Reform Jews. In 1918, the Eastern European Jews founded their Orthodox congregation. In the 1940s, the two merged. Unlike other small Jewish communities that have slowly perished because of their children's migration to larger Jewish communities where they could use their education, this Jewish community in the Ozarks continues to thrive because of the universities and hospitals in the region.
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My Book Chapters
“Changes in the Ashkanormative nature of SciFi stories,” with Valeria Frankel, in Jewish Fantasy Worldwide: Trends in Speculative Stories from Australia to Chile, Valerie Frankel, Ed. Lexington Pub., 2023, pp. 225-248
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“Golems in Television and Movies,” in Jews in Popular Science Fiction: Marginalized in the Mainstream, Valerie Frankel, ed. Lexington Pub., 2022, pp. 45-60.
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“Jewish Sioux Falls,” in The City of Hustle: A Sioux Falls Anthology, Jon Lauck and Patrick Hicks, ed., Belt Pub., 2022, pp. 105-110.
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“Jewish Homesteader Memoir: A Woman's Story,” in Jews and Gender, Leonard Greenspoon, ed., Purdue UP, 2021, pp. 123-134.
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“Exploring Midwestern v. Great Plains Regional Variation By Way of the Jewish Immigrant Experience,” in The Interior Borderlands: Regional Identity in the Midwest and Great Plains, Jon Lauck, ed., Augustana University Press, 2019.
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“The Community Memory of Springfield, Missouri Suppresses the City’s Jewish Past,” Jews and Non-Jews: Memories and Interactions from the Perspective of Cultural Studies, Warsaw Studies in Jewish History and Memory, vol. 3, Peter Lang,
2015, pp. 61-74.
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“Creating a Community: Who can belong to the Reform Synagogue?,” Who is a Jew, Leonard Greenspoon, ed., Purdue U.P., 2014, pp. 267-284.
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“Global Jewish Tourism,” with Dimitri Ioannides, in Tourism, Religion and Spiritual Journeys, Dallen Timothy, ed., Routledge, 2005, pp. 156-171.
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“Jewish Past as a ‘Foreign Country’; The Travel Experiences of American Jews,” with Dimitri Ioannides, in Tourism, Diasporas, and Space: Travels to promised lands, Dallen Timothy and Tim Coles, ed., I.B. Tauris, 2004, pp. 95-110.
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