West Bloomfield Lecture Series on Wrestling with Angels: The Struggle Between Sacred and Secular in Jewish Life

The American Jewish campaign for Soviet Jewry not only paved the way for a mass exodus from the USSR, it also shaped the culture of American Jews in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. In homes, in synagogues and on the streets, the movement mobilized Jewish holidays and rituals to make protest a mitzvah, framing political action as a religious imperative. This talk will look back at a time of great cultural creativity as it explores the whats, whys and hows of American Soviet Jewry movement rituals.

Shaul Kelner is Associate Professor of Sociology and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University, and past director of VU’s Jewish Studies Program. An alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, he is the author of the award-winning Tours That Bind: Diaspora, Pilgrimage and Israeli Birthright Tourism (NYU Press, 2010). He is currently a Fellow of the University of Michigan’s Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, where he is writing a book on the culture of the American Soviet Jewry movement.

Sponsored by: Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies and JCC's Seminars for Adult Jewish Enrichment