Jodi Eichler-Levine | Lehigh University (original) (raw)

Papers by Jodi Eichler-Levine

Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis, 2020

The prologue to my last book, Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis: How Jews Craft Resilie... more The prologue to my last book, Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis: How Jews Craft Resilience and Create Community.

Mothers in the Jewish Cultural Imagination, 2017

This chapter explores the power of Jewish writers to use mothers in their work in order to subver... more This chapter explores the power of Jewish writers to use mothers in their work in order to subvert culture. It offers an analysis of bestselling children's author Maurice Sendak's images of Jewish mothers that are destabilizing because of their complexity. It also reviews the work Sendak, which constructs Jewish mothers who dwell outside the typically Jewish legal constructions of motherhood and the gendered institutional confines of American Jewish life. The chapter reflects on Sendak's own American experience against the backdrop of the post-Holocaust world of his mother, drawing and writing mothers with all of the complexities he experienced. It investigates Sendak's stories that echo the overbearing Jewish mother and convey the limited power and emotional absence of his own mother.

The prologue explores the author’s personal connection with crafting through the heirlooms her ow... more The prologue explores the author’s personal connection with crafting through the heirlooms her own Jewish American family has passed down in the twentieth century, including a matzah cover and a wedding canopy. Using her grandmother’s kitschy mid-twentieth century needlepoint of a rabbi as a starting point, it lays out emotional resonance carried by tactility. Tactile memory is a central part of American Judaism.

Jewish Culture and History, 2020

Using a Passover matzah cover called “Old Plagues on Them, New Plagues on Us” as its centrepiece,... more Using a Passover matzah cover called “Old Plagues on Them, New Plagues on Us” as its centrepiece, the book’s conclusion expands upon the themes of memory and intergenerational transmission to ponder what one stitcher called “the fabric of forever.” Through objects, Jewish crafters create a sustainable Judaism, one that is always in progress, connecting people separated by both space and time through vibrant materiality.

The history of American musical theater is deeply interwoven with the history of American Jews. T... more The history of American musical theater is deeply interwoven with the history of American Jews. This course examines how Jews have taken part in musical theater on multiple levels-as composers, lyricists, producers, and performers, among other roles. It also examines how Jews are depicted in Broadway musicals, with particular attention to gender and ethnicity.

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2018

Thinking about American Jews, race, and religion entails confronting the instability of those ter... more Thinking about American Jews, race, and religion entails confronting the instability of those terms. This chapter examines the history of Jews and race in the United States through three lenses. First, it looks at the history of how Eastern European Jews have been “raced” in America, and in particular how they became “white.” Second, it considers Jewish interactions with other groups, such as blacks, Native Americans, and Asians, and how Jewish identity has been co-constituted with and against that of other groups. Third, the chapter looks at internal Jewish diversity and the challenges presented by Euro-centric models of Jewishness. The chapter concludes by considering Jews, race, and religion in the age of Ferguson.

Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 2010

In recent years, a large number of Jewish children's books have twinned Hanukkah stories wit... more In recent years, a large number of Jewish children's books have twinned Hanukkah stories with Holocaust narratives. What brings these two groups of narratives together, and what meanings are provoked by their combination? In this article, I examine several children's selections, dating from 1990 to the present, through the lenses of memory studies and Bakhtinian literary criticism, focusing on three major themes: the interplay of trauma and nostalgia, the representation of intergenerational dialogue, and the use of literary artifacts ...

Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis

This chapter focuses on the idea of memory in order to understand how Jewish crafters generate me... more This chapter focuses on the idea of memory in order to understand how Jewish crafters generate memory through their creations. It studies the role of Holocaust memory in crafting, the use of heirloom fabrics in making family treasures, and the complex ways the ethnographer herself became enmeshed in networks of memory. The author also analyses Louise Silk’s work on memory quilts and attends to the way fabric “holds” memory. Ultimately, the members of the Pomegranate Guild and other interviewees seek ways of maintaining Jewish legacies not only in words, but also in thread.

Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis

This chapter explores the dynamics of crafting communities among Jewish American women, with a pa... more This chapter explores the dynamics of crafting communities among Jewish American women, with a particular focus on the Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework—a North American organization founded in 1977. For the women of the Pomegranate Guild and other people in the study, the power of making things takes on extra meaning when it is done in groups, so much so that one participant called stitching together “magic.” The chapter also includes a study of a Pennsylvania synagogue knitting circle, and comparisons with Christian crafting groups such as the Prayer Shawl Ministry.

Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis

Craft and technology are intimately intertwined. This chapter exams how craft happens in a digita... more Craft and technology are intimately intertwined. This chapter exams how craft happens in a digital age. Through interviews with Jewish craft bloggers, studies of Jewish knitters whose work has gone viral, and meditations on how the history of craft is in fact connected to the history of computers, the author shows that the combination of material crafting and digital communication tethers communities together across a sea of pixels.

Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis

This chapter examines examples of activism among crafters (also known as “craftivism”) from 2016-... more This chapter examines examples of activism among crafters (also known as “craftivism”) from 2016-2019, with some earlier historical context. Some of these social justice actions, such as the hats accompanying the 2017 Women’s March, were created by Jewish women; others, like the Jewish Hearts for Pittsburgh, were created with specific Jewish communities in mind. All of these examples share the goal of building meaning and community through activism, a repair of the world in literal stitches and metaphorical, even mystical, ideas about human connection.

Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis

Beginning with handmade yads (torah pointers) in Macon, Georgia, this chapter analyzes the emotio... more Beginning with handmade yads (torah pointers) in Macon, Georgia, this chapter analyzes the emotional bonds that handmade gifts forge between giver and recipient. As one Jewish grandmother said, “You have to give them emotion.” After examining gifts given (and occasionally, returned) by her interviewees, the author also reflects on the gifts she received when she became a cancer patient midway through the course of her research, and how they made her more attuned to the power of resilience through material religion.

Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis

In the beginning, there was a handkerchief. This chapter examines how Jewish women generate resil... more In the beginning, there was a handkerchief. This chapter examines how Jewish women generate resilience through the activity of crafting. From a Los Angeles octogenarian who describes the meditative nature of sewing a wimpel, or Torah binder, to reflections on gender and Judaism from a working mother, the story of this chapter is the story of how generativity is gendered. Rather than taking a biological connection between women and fecundity for granted, it unsettles the ways we think about both human reproduction and the production of objects.

Exploring a contemporary Judaism rich with the textures of family, memory, and fellowship, Jodi E... more Exploring a contemporary Judaism rich with the textures of family, memory, and fellowship, Jodi Eichler-Levine takes readers inside a flourishing American Jewish crafting movement. As she travelled across the country to homes, craft conventions, synagogue knitting circles, and craftivist actions, she joined in the making, asked questions, and contemplated her own family stories. Jewish Americans, many of them women, are creating ritual challah covers and prayer shawls, ink, clay, or wood pieces, and other articles for family, friends, or Jewish charities. But they are doing much more: armed with perhaps only a needle and thread, they are reckoning with Jewish identity in a fragile and dangerous world. The work of these crafters embodies a vital Judaism that may lie outside traditional notions of Jewishness, but, Eichler-Levine argues, these crafters are as much engaged as any Jews in honoring and nurturing the fortitude, memory, and community of the Jewish people. Craftmaking is not...

Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis, 2020

Mothers in the Jewish Cultural Imagination, 2017

Jewish Culture and History, 2020

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2018

Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 2010

Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis

What does Crisco have to do with Jewish history? What is ecokashrut? And why do so many Jews eat ... more What does Crisco have to do with Jewish history? What is ecokashrut? And why do so many Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas? This course explores Jewish life through the diverse history of Jewish foods. From New York deli to matzah ball gumbo, we will dig into a rich stew of diverse Jewish practices, regions, genders, ethics, and rituals.

In its vast scope, power, forms of consumer products, and enormous intellectual property holdings... more In its vast scope, power, forms of consumer products, and enormous intellectual property holdings (including Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as its recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox), the Walt Disney Corporation has tremendous influence over modern American-and global-society. This course uses the rubric of "religion" to investigate both the fan culture surrounding Disney and its many properties, and the company's corporate aspirations, structure, and ethos. Learning Objectives Students in this course will: 1)Acquire knowledge about how humans theorize life, the universe, and everything (aka basic "religious literacy") 2)Develop core competencies in writing and speaking 3) Become adept at project-based learning, which will be the core of the course and will require a great deal of time, motivation, group work, and creativity

This class provides an introduction to the connections between religion and fantasy literature by... more This class provides an introduction to the connections between religion and fantasy literature by examining some of its classic and more recent series. We will begin with selections from The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, continue with Harry Potter and His Dark Materials, and conclude with The Magicians. Through our reading, writing, and discussion of these series and some secondary materials, we will explore key themes in the study of religion, including: creation myths; innocence and experience; ritual; and sacred texts. We will also consider how fan cultures and perhaps even the concept of fantasy itself may (or may not!) resemble whatever it is we mean when we use the term " religion. " Like Lyra's alethiometer in The Golden Compass, this syllabus is a very helpful guide. Consult and re-consult it regularly.

A piece in Tikkun on the stakes of remembering suffering children.

Exploring a contemporary Judaism rich with the textures of family, memory, and fellowship, Jodi E... more Exploring a contemporary Judaism rich with the textures of family, memory, and fellowship, Jodi Eichler-Levine takes readers inside a flourishing American Jewish crafting movement. As she traveled across the country to homes, craft conventions, synagogue knitting circles, and craftivist actions, she joined in the making, asked questions, and contemplated her own family stories. Jewish Americans, many of them women, are creating ritual challah covers and prayer shawls, ink, clay, or wood pieces, and other articles for family, friends, or Jewish charities. But they are doing much more, Eichler-Levine shows: armed with perhaps only a needle and thread, they are reckoning with Jewish identity in a fragile and dangerous world.

The work of these crafters embodies a vital Judaism that may lie outside traditional notions of Jewishness, but, as Eichler-Levine argues, these crafters are as much engaged as any Jews in honoring and nurturing the fortitude, memory, and community of the Jewish people. Craftmaking is nothing less than an act of generative resilience that fosters survival. Whether taking place in such groups as the Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework or the Jewish Hearts for Pittsburgh, or in a home studio, these everyday acts of creativity—yielding a needlepoint rabbi, say, or a handkerchief embroidered with the Hebrew words tikkun olam—are a crucial part what makes a religious life.

Material Religion, 2021

Laura Arnold Leibman’s The Art of the Jewish Family: A History of Women in Early New York in Five... more Laura Arnold Leibman’s The Art of the Jewish Family: A History of Women in Early New York in Five Objects is an intricate, engaging examination of Jewish women in early America that incorporates the social, racial, and religious worlds around them. Leibman argues that attending to these lives requires scholars to “expand our definition of evidence” and “listen to the silences in the archive” (5). By beginning with objects, from the quotidian to the extraordinary, Leibman centers women in the historian’s frame. In the process, we learn how these women contributed to the formation of early American Jewish culture, imbricated in networks of kin and trade that spanned the Atlantic world.