Speaker: Jonathan Boyarin, PhD



 
What do we mean when we talk about Jewish families? From the stories of Abraham, Sarah and their children, through the Middle Ages and on to modern Jewish communities, the family has been considered key to transmitting Jewish identity. But what we call "the Jewish family" has varied greatly through the times and places where Jews have found themselves. This talk will look at some big questions: How did Jewish family patterns compare to those of their non-Jewish neighbors? What is at stake for us in the present when we recall or reconstruct families from the past? How will changing forms of the family affect the very idea of Jewish identity--and what will our descendants think of us?

Jonathan Boyarin is the Diann G. and Thomas A. Mann Professor of Modern Jewish Studies in the Department of Anthropology at Cornell University. His work centers on Jewish communities and on the dynamics of Jewish culture, memory and identity. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including, Jewish Families, Mornings at the Stanton Street Shul: A Lower East Side Summer; The Unconverted Self: Jews, Indians, and the Identity of Christian Europe; and Powers of Diaspora: Two Essays on the Relevance of Jewish Culture.