Youth in the Making of American Jewish History
Date: May 11, 2026
Time: 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm
Location: Online
Category: America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment Online Learning
Youth in the Making of American Jewish History
Part of Our Summer 2026 Learning Series, America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment
Monday, May 11, 2026
Online
1:00–2:15 p.m. ET
With Dr. Sandra Fox, Robert S. Rifkind Chair in American Jewish History, JTS
If you have previously registered for another session in this series, your registration admits you to all sessions in the series, and you may attend as many as you’d like.
In the mid-twentieth century, the American Jewish community emerged as what scholars have broadly labeled “child-centered,” with rabbis, educators, and communal leaders focusing their concerns over the future of Judaism on children, teens, and young adults. In narratives of American Jewish history, however, the experiences of the young are typically overlooked, the focus placed instead on how their elders hoped to shape their identities and stem the tides of assimilation.
In this webinar, Dr. Sandra Fox makes a case for why the actions, desires, and behaviors of young Jews have mattered in the making of American Jewish culture, and how new American conceptions of childhood and youth as life-stages have shaped Jewish history.
About the Series
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, our Summer 2026 Learning Series explores the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped—and been shaped by—the American experiment.
