Beth Abraham Scholar-in-Residence Jenna Weissman Joselit’s fascination with American Jewish history & culture

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

Dr. Jenna Weissman Joselit describes herself as a girl with a mission.

“Whatever I do, whether it’s in the context of a scholar-in-residence weekend or a column or teaching, my whole point is to underscore the richness and complexity of American Judaism,” she says.

The director of George Washington University’s Program in Judaic Studies and a professor in GW’s history department, Joselit will present three talks for Beth Abraham Synagogue’s Susan and David Joffe Scholar-in-Residence Weekend, Dec. 5-7.

Joselit is the author of The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880-1950 (a recipient of the National Jewish Book Award in History) and A Perfect Fit: Clothes, Character and the Promise of America. For 15 years, she has written The Wonders of America column for the Forward.

She takes a keen interest in everyday Jewish life, particularly how American Jews raise their children, decorate their homes, and make sense of being Jewish in the modern world.

“It’s like everything that relates to the Jewish culture,” Joselit says. “There’s this lovely dance between the outside world and the inside world. I think Jews are extraordinarily mindful of what’s going on, but they adapt it to their own needs.”

Her fascination extends to Jewish contributions to this lovely dance: the influence Jews have had on shaping mainstream American culture.

Joselit is halfway through writing her latest book, about America’s embrace of The Ten Commandments.

In it, she’ll explore the visual and cultural presence of The Ten Commandments in America, and how The Ten Commandments moved from being a Jewish phenomenon to what she calls an American foundational document.

“The argument is essentially an old-fashioned American national character study, trying to seek out why Americans seem to value The Ten Commandments much more heavily than many Christian countries, and why they insist on seeing it everywhere: in films and on bracelets and statuary. That’s what I’m after.”

Her new book, she says, will explore and pull together possible reasons for this phenomenon.

“Whether it’s a new wrinkle on the age-old notion that America is a providential place — the new Promised Land — or whether it has to do with the Judeo-Christian heritage, or whether it has to do with the fact that there are very few things that Americans can agree on up until recently — The Ten Commandments is one of them. Or maybe The Ten Commandments are so orderly and offers that kind of promise of taming the unruly, bringing people together, there’s something very affirming about The Ten Commandments.”

America’s embrace of The Ten Commandments will form the topic of Joselit’s talk on Saturday, Dec. 6 following Shabbat morning services and kiddush lunch at noon.

The evening before, on Friday, Dec. 5 following 6:15 p.m. Shabbat services and a 7 p.m. dinner, Joselit will present the talk Taking Stock: An Inventory of the American Jewish Experience.

And during brunch on Sunday, Dec. 7 at 10 a.m., she will present Merry Chanukah: The Americanization of Tradition.

“I thought it would be fun to look at Chanukah, which is just around the bend, and is a holiday that went from being barely a blip on the calendar into kind of a major movement,” Joselit says. “And it (the topic) touches on childhood and commercialism and improvisation.”

Though she’s been on the GW faculty for five years, Joselit commutes via train to her home in New York each weekend.

“My husband is in New York, my life is in New York,” she says, but she’s involved with the Jewish Historical Society of Washington, Theatre J, and the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, helping them generate innovative programming.

She oversees two master’s degree programs at GW: Jewish cultural arts, and Jewish cultural arts and experiential education.

In the latter program, Joselit says she digs into the challenges and impact of new media on the Jewish community.

Next semester she’ll teach a course called Multiple Lives, about how a particular form of Jewish culture lives on through various emerging media.

The class will study the media iterations of The Diary of Anne Frank since its initial publication.

“One of the most fascinating components is this online museum that uses the house, Anne Frank’s house,” Joselit says. “It allows you, from the comfort of your chair, to make your way through the house, but it’s all virtual. This is something we study at great length: what does it mean not to really inhabit space, but to inhabit virtual space and how does that ‘mediate’ Anne Frank?”

Beth Abraham Synagogue Joffe Scholar-in-Residence Weekend with Dr. Jenna Weissman Joselit. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. R.S.V.P. for Friday dinner and Sunday brunch to 293-9520.

• Fri., Dec. 5, 6:15 p.m. Kabalat Shabbat, 7 p.m. dinner followed by Taking Stock: An Inventory of the American Jewish Experience. $22 adults, $7.50 children.

• Sat., Dec. 6, noon kiddush lunch followed by Rock Solid: America’s Embrace of The Ten Commandments.

• Sun., Dec. 7, 10 a.m. brunch followed by Merry Chanukah: The Americanization of Tradition.

To read the complete December 2014 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.