This set of eleven essays . . . tackles one of the most elusive and absorbing issues to confront both historians and the contemporary Jewish community.

American Jewish History

Inspired by the work of Arnold Eisen, this timely and provocative collection of essays explores the intersection between Judaism as a living culture and modern Jewish thought. Culture is represented by Jewish peoplehood, democratic solidarity, higher education, literature, photography, maternity, visuality, and works as diverse as the poetry of Paul Celan and The Jewish Catalogue. But what distinguishes these essays is the novel and intriguing ways in which these and other cultural venues in which Jews and Jewish life are invested raise questions for and provoke surprising reflections on modern Jewish thinkers from Buber, Rosenzweig, and Levinas to Soloveitchik, Heschel, Kaplan, and Wyschogrod. There are many perspectives one might take on these efforts, but surely one is to consider the future possibilities for understanding the Jewish experience in all its fullness. If this involves returning to canonical Jewish thinkers, we may find future students following the direction plotted by the book’s contributors, seeking to find their way to those thinkers from recent interest in art and technology, material culture, corporeality and gender, and the concreteness of everyday life.

Michael L. Morgan, Indiana University

Thinking Jewish Culture is a breakout volume in the continued transition of the study of Jewish thought from a purely textual to a cultural studies perspective. These essays integrate identity, literature, education, art and material culture, and history to broaden the way we should think about Jewishness and Judaism as both interrelated and distinct subjects of research. This book will certainly contribute to the systemic reassessment of Jewish Studies in the twenty-first century American Academy.

Jay and Jeannie Schottenstein, American Post-Judaism: Identity and Renewal in a Postethnic Society