Jewish Cultural Studies charts the contours and boundaries of
Jewish cultural studies and the issues of Jewish culture that make
it so intriguing-and necessary-not only for Jews but also for
students of identity, ethnicity, and diversity generally. In
addition to framing the distinguishing features of Jewish culture
and the ways it has been studied, and often misrepresented and
maligned, Simon J. Bronner presents several case studies using
ethnography, folkloristic interpretation, and rhetorical analysis.
Bronner, building on many years of global cultural exploration,
locates patterns, processes, frames, and themes of events and
actions identified as Jewish to discern what makes them appear
Jewish and why. Jewish Cultural Studies is divided into three
parts. Part 1 deals with the conceptualization of how Jews in
complex, heterogenous societies identify themselves as a cultural
group to non-Jews and vice versa-such as how the Jewish home is
socially and materially constructed. Part 2 delves into
ritualization as a strategic Jewish practice for perpetuating
peoplehood and the values that it suggests-for example, the rising
popularity of naming ceremonies for newborn girls, simhat bat or
zeved habat, in the twenty-first century. Part 3 explores
narration, including the global transformation of Jewish joking in
online settings and the role of Jews in American political culture.
Bronner reflects that a reason to separate Jewish cultural studies
from the fields of Jewish studies and cultural studies is the
distinctiveness of Jewish culture among other ethnic experiences.
As a diasporic group with religious ties and varying local customs,
Jews present difficulties of categorization. He encourages a
multiperspectival approach that considers the Jewish double
consciousness as being aware of both insider and outsider
perspectives, participation in ancient tradition and recent
modernization, and the great variety and stigmatization of Jewish
experience and cultural expression. Students and scholars in Jewish
studies, cultural studies, ethnic-religious studies, folklore,
sociology, psychology, and ethnology are the intended audience for
this book.
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