<p> My thesis is focused on the formation of Jewish Intentional Communities (JICs) in the United States. What is a Jewish Intentional Community (JIC)? I define a Jewish Intentional Community as a group of households that come together to form a cooperative housing and or shared economic structure. The form of capital exchanged may be labor, land, wisdom, tradition-al knowledge, skills, and or finances. </p><p> In this paper I use Grounded Theory to encounter the specific reasons why American Jews choose to live in JICs. JIC is a loose term. As the reader will find in many cases it means a co-housing-kibbutz development, in other cases it's an economic development, a havurah type socially focused development, or in more cases than not, some combination of all. </p><p> Kavanah means intentionality. The sages suggest that there is nothing done that is Jewish that is without kavanah, thus community is always an intentional act. Thus, it is well worth not-ing that the idea of a Jewish Intentional Community in Diaspora is nothing short of an ancient concept. Stories within Tanakh speak of making community in exile. In the days before the Inquisition, Sephardic Jews excelled in business, scholarship, and medicine. Prior to the Shoah, Yiddish culture was thriving. In the United States Yiddish Theater is considered a major contributor in contemporary comedy. This thesis delves into the history of the movement, it's influences, and specifically why millennial Jews in America are drawn this way of doing Jewish community.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation, &ldquo;Towards a Poetics of I/Eye-Witness: Documentary Expression and Jewish American Poetry of the 1930s,&rdquo; explores the ways in which a lens of witnessing can shed light on the ethical and aesthetic concerns embedded in the work of three Jewish-American poets. The study begins with the English writing and verse of Charles Reznikoff (1894-1976) and Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980), and continues to the Yiddish poetry of Berish Weinstein (1905-1967). It situates their poetry and ancillary writings from the early thirties within the culture of documentary expression that permeated artistic creation, social action and public discourse throughout the Depression era. By focusing on poetry that deals with human catastrophe, including historical and contemporary contexts of racial injustice, Jewish persecution, personal loss and animal slaughter, my analysis weighs the burden of representation on personal and universal levels. Transcending the visual and moral divide between the &ldquo;eye&rdquo; and the &ldquo;I,&rdquo; the poets in this study use verse to document the memories, experiences, histories and testimonies of Others; in doing so, they uphold their own ethical ideals of reparation, truth and justice. In the prologue, I set the stage for the dissertation by examining the link between lynching photography and Jewish poetry embodied by the famous Jazz song &ldquo;Strange Fruit.&rdquo; The introduction presents the theoretical framework and historical background central to the literary analysis of the dissertation. I offer an overview of the Great Depression and the American documentary scene and demonstrate how the visual and ethical ideas of &ldquo;documentary&rdquo; and &ldquo;witness&rdquo; have been utilized in various contexts. Chapter One builds a case for a Jewish poetics of I/eye-witness in the work of Objectivist poet Charles Reznikoff. I trace the intersections of documentary form, historical consciousness, personal rectitude and justice through a selection of poetic texts and archival materials, including two long works published by The Objectivist Press in 1934, Testimony and In Memoriam: 1933. Chapter Two reflects on the emerging sense of poetic witness in Muriel Rukeyser&rsquo;s early poetry and documentary writing. I locate her ideas about responsibility, utility and truth in her Jewish upbringing and education at the Ethical Culture-Fieldston School. I then offer a comparative reading of the three genres Rukeyser utilized to represent her experiences as a witness to the second Scottsboro Trial: diary entry, reportage and poetry. Chapter Three contributes new translations and an in-depth analysis of a selection of Yiddish poems from Berish Weinstein&rsquo;s first published collection, Brukhvarg (1936). I focus on Weinstein&rsquo;s representation of the slaughterhouse as the symbolic locus of modern suffering, and the relevance of such a trope for the historical barbarism against African Americans, as well as Jews. </p>

<p> There is a lack of research regarding nutrition knowledge, behaviors, and perceptions among Jews in the United States. This knowledge gap may contribute to nutritional or other health-related problems in this cohort. The purpose of this study was to investigate knowledge, behavior, and perceptions of nutrition among Jewish men and women in the United States using a mixed methods approach. Quantitative analysis demonstrated relationships between nutrition knowledge and religious affiliation (Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform), average frequency intake of protein by religious affiliation, and average frequency intake of protein by kosher status. Qualitative interview themes revealed the cultural and ritual aspects of Judaism influence on food choices and behaviors, the multitude of factors that influence food choice such as peer pressure, preconceived notions of food, and the healthiness of food, and further enlightened how the media negatively portrays body image for both Jewish men and women.</p><p>

This study explores the nature of Jewish identity and identification in contemporary American society. It is anchored theoretically in an analysis of alternative models of the nature of ethnic relations. Traditional models, including the theory of the melting pot, cultural pluralism, and the dominant perspective, assimilation, are discussed in Chapter I and found to be inadequate for the depiction and explanation of the Jewish experience. An alternative model, called ethnogenesis, is developed, which emphasizes changes in group life and the creation of new definitions of what it means to be an ethnic group member as well as the partial maintenance of traditional group characteristics and behavior patterns. Chapter II explores the American Jewish experience in some detail, paying particular attention to the religious and ethnic duality of this group's attitudes and behavior. To test the applicability of the ethnogenesis model, a research strategy was devised which utilized a new survey as well as an existing, larger-scale survey of Jewish attitudes and behavior. The former survey sampled the beliefs and practices of Jews raised and confirmed in a Reform Jewish congregation in Erie, Pennsylvania. Members of the sample were adults aged thirty-one to forty-one; as many of those who were confirmed (at age fifteen) in this congregation from 1952 to 1962 were contacted and surveyed by means of a mailed questionnaire. A reform congregation was chosen in order to maximize the likelihood of assimilation and thus provide a severe test of the ethnogenesis model. To supplement data from this small sample, data from the 1970-71 National Jewish Population Survey, sponsored by the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, were also employed, and findings from the Erie survey were compared with findings from a comparable age group in the National survey. Chapters IV and V, the data analysis chapters, examine in detail the shape of contemporary Jewish ethnicity. Chapter V focuses on Jewish identity, which refers to the subjective or attitudinal dimension of being Jewish--the meaning of being Jewish to the individual Jew. Chapter V focuses on identification, which refers to the behavioral dimension--what people do in their lives to announce to themselves and to others the fact of their Jewishness. Both chapters examine these issues from the standpoint of both the religious and the ethnic component of Jewishness. Chapter VI attempts to bring together the detailed analyses of the preceding chapters and to examine the case for the ethnogenesis model. It concludes that ethnogenesis is a superior way of depicting and explaining patterns of contemporary Jewish life, and is probably a superior general model for the study of ethnic relations. Data from the Erie and national surveys indicate that new cultural patterns have emerged in this society that define Jewish identity and identification, and that, accordingly, an accurate portrayal of Jewish life cannot be made simply by examining the extent to which traditional group patterns of belief and behavior have persisted. While the shape of Jewish life has clearly changed, with many traditional beliefs and practices abandoned, Jews continue to identify as Jews, their Jewishness continues to have subjective importance to them, and they continue to act in ways that identify them to others as members of a distinct group. Despite the ease and potential for assimilation, Jews persist as a group, losing some ground to attribution and lower birth rates, but nevertheless preserving linked patterns of belief and action.

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<p> This paper explores the way contemporary American Conservative Jewish communities express ideas of egalitarianism and feminism through active use of specific ritual garments (tallit and tefillin). It addresses the meanings that these garments currently have on individual, communal, and institutional levels. Additionally, it considers women&rsquo;s changing roles regarding ritual and participation in these communities. It also considers that in this context, when women take on additional religious obligations they are simultaneously representing feminist and religious issues and actions, and the conversations between these ideas.</p>

<p> Postcolonial theory, while often reserved for analysis of modern political conditions, is often overlooked in biblical studies. The purpose of this thesis is to employ postcolonial analysis to the book of Ezekiel and demonstrate its value in biblical studies. Postcolonialism critiques national origin myths as political propaganda; seeks to retrieve the voices of those suppressed by hegemony; explores the power relations involved in ethnic and religious representation and authority; and examines how gender is used in hegemonic discourse. This study begins with an interrogation of the imperial politics behind several biblical national origin myths. A polyphony of contrapuntal voices are retrieved through archaeological, textual, and comparative evidence, demonstrating a plurality of Israelite religions for both the popular, illiterate, agrarian majority, as well as for officially state-sanctioned religions of the literate, urban, male elite. Finally, portions of the book of Ezekiel, a byproduct of imperialism itself, are analyzed for its use of gendered and sexualized language in continued polyphonic conflicts over religious representation and authority during a period of imperial crisis.</p>

<p> This document examines the musical performance practices of the Igbo Jews of Abjua, Nigeria. Amongst the 50 million Igbo, an estimated 5,000 are currently practicing Judaism. Despite prior research conducted by Daniel Lis (2015), William Miles (2013), Shai Afsai (2013), Edith Bruder (2012), and Tudor Parfitt (2013), there is little to no discussion of the role of music in this community. This study of the musical practices of the Igbo Jews of Nigeria reveals that the Igbo combine traditional Nigerian practice with modern Jewish and Christian elements. This combination of practices has led to the development of new traditions in an effort to maintain a shared sense of individualized Jewish identity and unity in a time of persecution and violence towards the Igbo from terrorist organizations. This study demonstrates that the Igbo Jews view the creation of this new music as serving to rejuvenate their Jewish identity while preserving Igbo traditions. The analysis draws upon theories of Eric Hobsbawm, Philip Bohlman and Alejandro Madrid to explain Igbo practice. Data includes material gathered from fieldwork conducted in the summer of 2014 in Abuja and in the cities of Kubwa and Jikwoyi. My observations focused on the musical properties of the Shabbat prayers and <i>zmirot </i> (para-liturgical table songs). While the Igbo are often considered one of &ldquo;the lost tribes of Israel,&rdquo; my research indicates that &ldquo;lost&rdquo; is not so &ldquo;lost&rdquo; as previously believed.</p>

<p> This project considers how postwar American Jewish leaders representing a diverse range of ideological commitments, including Zionism, Yiddishism, and liberal Judaism used summer camps to expose children to their ideologies. In the years following World War II, American Jewish leaders anxiously debated how to preserve and produce what they considered authentic Jewish culture, fearing that upward mobility and suburbanization threatened the integrity of Jewish life in America as they knew it. While their newfound social and economic mobility had clear benefits, a diverse grouping of American Jews participated in a communal conversation over how these changes threatened the modes by which Jews had previously affiliated with Judaism and acted as Jews. Without intervention, some argued, &ldquo;authentic&rdquo; Jewish culture would disappear altogether. </p><p> In search of solutions, Jewish educators looked towards the residential sleep-away camp, hoping to construct lived experiences for the youngsters as tools to counteract assimilation, and expecting to mold the increasingly suburban, affluent American youth into ideologically-imbued Jews who espoused one variant or another of Jewish authenticity. Through the elements of camps&rsquo; programs and schedules, Jews with varied ideological, political, and religious perspectives shared nearly identical goals, and aimed to meet them through nearly identical means. With a multi-generational perspective, this project aims to portray both a history of Jewish postwar anxieties and struggles for cultural preservation, and a provide an example of how second and third generation Americans more broadly negotiated their culture, purpose, and future through the intensive molding of youth.</p><p>