Material Culture and Jewish Thought in America

Acknowledgments

ix I enjoy telling my friends that finally, after a rather long and circuitous search, I have found my authorial voice in this book. But that voice has been deeply inflected by the far more melodious tones of friends, family , colleagues, and students. My voice, as I have come to understand it, resonates with those whom I admire and trust. It echoes, but also travels beyond those who have influenced me as a writer and person. I want to acknowledge some of those voices here, and dedicate this book to one very eloquent voice in particular. In temperament I am still a student at Haverford College, and so I find many of my most valuable colleagues among the student body here. Josh Mikutis and Carolyn Warner read this book in its entirety, offered trenchant critique when I needed it most, tracked down footnotes and missing citations, and provided support and courage to carry forward. They represent the very best that Haverford has to offer. Jessie Post helped to polish this manuscript into a readable form, and I am very grateful for her generosity. Karen Terry and I have worked closely together over the past two years. She knows how much this book resounds with her influence , and for that I am deeply grateful. Students in my Jewish Images, Material Religion, and American Judaism courses never fail to remind me of the richness of a college that still prizes creativity, demands intellectual energy, and cultivates honorable lives. Like the students, my colleagues are hard working, generous with their time, and dedicated to their profession. The members of the Haverford Religion Department—David Dawson, Naomi Koltun-Fromm, Acknowledgments x · acknowledgments Tracey Hucks, Terrence Johnson, Anne McGuire, and Travis Zadeh— are, to my mind, family in the most meaningful way. Comfort at home allows me to venture out in new and sometimes uncertain paths. Colleagues beyond my institutional home have been supportive, encouraging , and committed. A special and heartfelt appreciation to Lila Corwin Berman, Zak Braiterman, Nathaniel Deutsch, Andrew Heinze, Leah Hochman, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Laura Levitt, John Modern , David Morgan, Robert Orsi, Riv-Ellen Prell, Nora Rubel, Jonathan Sarna, Jenna Weissman-Joselit, and Michael Zank. My collaborators in the Works in Progress Group in Modern Jewish Studies have also guided and challenged my work from its inception, and it is that much better for their effort. My friends at Indiana University Press, especially Janet Rabinowitch and Joyce Rappaport, have moved this project along with speed, humor, and dedicated work. I thank all of you for your generosity and passion. I have been undeservedly supported by the Mellon New Directions grant, Haverford Research grants, and the Hurford Humanities Center at Haverford College. The folks at the Hurford Center have tirelessly supported my projects from the beginning, and to Emily, James, Kim, and Richard I owe far more than I have received. A portion of chapter 1 appeared in “Performing the Material Self: Mordecai Kaplan and the Art of Writing,” AJS Review 31, no. 1 (2007): 109–31, and I am grateful for the permission to reproduce much of that article here. Support comes in many forms, of course, and I feel that sense of gratitude for those closest to me. My daughter Talia will tell you I spend too much time at the computer, and she is undoubtedly right. But playing whatever sport that includes a ball with her, and running after Isaiah while imagining new railroad scenes and birds along the horizon with Ariel—all this brings me back to what is really important and central in my life. Without them and Naomi, all of whom live more fully than I, working at the computer would be lonely indeed. Some fifteen years ago I first read many of the texts discussed in this book with my teacher and friend, Arnold Eisen. Though both Arnie and I have traveled far from those first days at Stanford University, in many ways this book returns me to that time of initial fascination and concern. Arnie did not teach me to read these texts as I do (I cannot blame him for that), but he did guide me in listening well, in cherishing learned texts, acknowledgments · xi in cultivating disciplined habits, and in writing with care and integrity. But more, far more than all that, Arnie modeled then, and continues to demonstrate now the life of commitment, of Jewish engagement, of honest living, and...