Jenna Weissman Joselit

Jenna Weissman Joselit, the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of History at the George Washington University, is currently at work on a biography of Mordecai M. Kaplan.

The Rise of the Jewish Grocer
From kosher butchers, fruit peddlers, and herring dealers on the Lower East Side to supermarket innovators across the country
byJenna Weissman Joselit
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About American Jews—a Century Ago
Launched in 1901, the Jewish Encyclopedia cost $27 million in today’s dollars to produce—and even more in human resources
byJenna Weissman Joselit
Prayers for Our Country
How Jews brought blessings for their government into their religious services
byJenna Weissman Joselit
Tisha B’Av’s Camp Revival
How a holiday once largely ignored by American Jews made a comeback in an unlikely place
byJenna Weissman Joselit
Synagogues’ Absent Fathers
For decades, rabbis urged dads to play a bigger role in their children’s Jewish education
byJenna Weissman Joselit
The Rise of the ‘Survivors’
And the increasingly forgotten story of the Shoah’s displaced persons
byJenna Weissman Joselit
How Fur and Feathers Went in and out of Fashion
And what it had to do with the Jews
byJenna Weissman Joselit
Holiday Spirit
Questions of how Jewish children can or should engage with Christmas are nothing new. A battle over the holiday erupted in American public schools more than a century ago.
byJenna Weissman Joselit
The Heyday of Vocational Training
Not all Jews dreamed of becoming doctors or lawyers. More than a century ago, schools taught a generation of immigrants ‘manual education’—to increase their own job prospects, and to aid assimilation into American culture.
byJenna Weissman Joselit
The Rise of the Yom Kippur Appeal
Why synagogues turned away from weekly ‘shnuddering’ and adopted an annual donation campaign instead
byJenna Weissman Joselit
The Evolution of Jewish Education
Over the past century, different pedagogical theories have transformed classrooms and teaching methods
byJenna Weissman Joselit
First Resorts
The history of the Jewish Catskills before the Borscht Belt was born
byJenna Weissman Joselit
Fitting In on the Fourth of July
For Jewish immigrants more than a century ago, Independence Day offered a chance to demonstrate their American identity—quietly
byJenna Weissman Joselit
‘The Jewess and the Synagogue’
The discussion about women’s roles in American synagogues began more than a century ago
byJenna Weissman Joselit
When Jews Got Green Thumbs
Suburban living planted the seeds of gardening as a communal pastime
byJenna Weissman Joselit
America’s Original Bestselling Haggadah
Before there was Maxwell House, there was Mrs. Philip Cowen’s ‘Seder Service’
byJenna Weissman Joselit
Found in Transliteration
However awkward it may be, rendering Hebrew in English letters allowed generations of American Jews to pray in Hebrew without ever learning to read it
byJenna Weissman Joselit
A Day—or Two—to Remember the Holocaust
Two different models for commemorating the past
byJenna Weissman Joselit