Negotiating Both Sides of the Hyphen

Sun 31 May, 3-5 pm. Vilna Shul, 18 Phillips Street, Boston, 02114. Steven Greenberg, Director, 617 523 2324. Boston Center for Jewish Heritage - [email][events]

Contact: rachel 617-523-2324 Suggested Donation: $10 Sylvia Barack Fishman will speak on the subject “Negotiating both sides of the Hyphen: Juggling American-Jewish lives”. Sylvia Barack Fishman is Professor of Contemporary Jewish Life in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department at Brandeis University, as well as co-director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and is a Faculty Affiliate of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and the Steinhardt Social Research Institute.

Her newest study, Matrilineal Ascent/ Patrilineal Descent: The Growing Gender Imbalance in American Jewish Life, looks at the impact of gender on Jewish family choices and warns about the exodus of men from a broad spectrum of Jewish engagements. Her recent book, The Way Into the Varieties of Jewishness, explores diverse understandings of Jewish identity, religion and culture across the centuries, from ancient to contemporary times. Her interview research with Jewish and non-Jewish men and women, as reported in two recent books, Choosing Jewish: Conversations About Conversion and Double Or Nothing? Jewish Families and Mixed Marriage, has precipitated lively scholarly and communal discussion.
Prof. Fishman is the author of seven books and numerous monographs and articles on the interplay of American and Jewish values, transformations in the American Jewish family, the impact of Jewish education, gender studies focusing on the changing roles of Jewish men and women, and contemporary Jewish literature and film. She has written analyses of portrayals of Jews in Jewish literature, film and popular culture, and her literary studies range from biblical characters to the novels of Philip Roth.
Prof. Fishman’s previous books include: Follow My Footprints: Changing Images of Women in American Jewish Fiction; A Breath of Life: Feminism in the American Jewish Community; and Jewish Life and American Culture. Prof. Fishman received her BA from Stern College at Yeshiva University and her Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, where she wrote on the way English poets have used the Hebrew Bible.