Jewish-American, American-Jew: The Complexities and Joys of Living a Hyphenated Identity”
Date: Mar 13, 2023
Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Sponsor: Online Learning | Public Lectures and Events
Location: Online
Category: Online Learning Public Lectures & Events
Jewish-American, American-Jew: The Complexities and Joys of Living a Hyphenated Identity
Part of our spring learning series, The Space In-Between: Borders, Thresholds, and Transition in Jewish Life and Thought.
This session is generously sponsored by Yale Asbell, JTS Trustee
and Harriet P. Schleifer in memory of her parents, Rubin and Frances Partel.
Monday, March 13, 2023
1:00–2:30 p.m. ET
Online
With Dr. Arnold Eisen, chancellor emeritus and professor of Jewish Thought, JTS
The Pew Reports and many scholars use the first description of who we are; JTS (and I myself) prefer the second. It matters a great deal to a person’s identity whether “Jew” and “American” are adjective or noun; it matters still more how Jews and non-Jews understand the hyphen that links the two parts of these (and other religious and ethnic identities) one to another. We will explore that “liminal space” of the self through analysis of a wide range of books, essays, films, and literary characters.
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.
Note: The Zoom link for this session will be in the confirmation email that you will receive after you register.
ABOUT THE SERIES
The Space In Between: Thresholds and Borders in Jewish Life and Thought
We are living in an undefined time: our daily existence is no longer dominated by the pandemic, yet neither have we settled into a new normal. This sense of being in transition—neither here nor there—can feel destabilizing; but is the time in between really temporary, or are we always living in between moments, identities, and phases of life?
In this series, JTS scholars will delve into the idea of liminality—the time or space in between—which we encounter often in Jewish ritual, identity, law, and life. Join us to consider what these many manifestations of “in-between-ness” can teach us about ourselves and about Judaism, and to explore how we might find strength and meaning in an orientation not of “either/or” but of “both/and.”
