Jews at Home: The Domestication of Identity. Volume 2 of Jewish Cultural Studies (review)

What is a Jewish home? What makes a home "Jewish" and how do Jews make themselves feel at home—socially, culturally, spiritually, and physically? Jews at Home: The Domestication of Identity, the second volume in the Jewish Cultural Studies Series of the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, aims to expand the parameters of the conversations around the domestication of Judaism and Jewish domesticity. Of course, the function and definition of "home" has always been fraught with significance for the Jewish people, given the Jews' long history of wandering, dwelling, expulsion, and exile. However, Jews at Home offers a wide variety of essays from a range of disciplines that examines previously unexplored areas of interest around Jews and domesticity.

The volume is divided into four sections: In and Out of the Home; Sacred, Secular, and Profane in the Home; Writing Home; and Forum: Feeling at Home. The scholars in each section generally focus on the symbolic, social, and spiritual meaning of material objects found within many Jewish homes. Such domestic objects have not received much attention until now, so these essays offer unique insights on fresh topics within the study of postmodern American Jewish culture. Joellyn Wallen Zollman, for example, describes the role of sisterhood synagogue gift shops and the postwar consumer spending behavior of Jewish women; Shalom Sabar traces the evolving function of the hamsa good luck charm; and Giovanna P. Del Negro discusses the recording and performing careers of three Jewish women comics in 1950s America. These scholars outline how domestic objects could infuse Jewish homes with "Jewishness" and how, in turn, Jews could make the objects "Jewish" simply by using them within new contexts.

Jews at Home: The Domestication of Identity also includes several essays of particular interest to those who study Orthodox and/or Hasidic Judaism. Jennifer Cousineau's "The Domestication of Urban Jewish Space and the Northwest London Eruv" examines the consequences of erecting an eruv around an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in London. As a ritual enclosure, the eruv expands the domestic sphere and thus gives more freedom of movement to those whom the restrictions of Shabbat would otherwise confine to their homes. The eruv in this particular neighborhood changed the entire atmosphere of the community, and Cousineau's exploration of its social, physical, and political implications illuminates the consequences of spatially and symbolically expanding the boundaries of one's Sabbath domicile, one's Sabbath "home."

Babrielle A. Berlinger's essay "770 Eastern Parkway: The Rebbe's Home as Icon," examines Chabad Lubavitch's practice of building replicas of the late Lubavitcher rebbe's Brooklyn synagogue in various locations around the world. Berlinger notes that the late rebbe's spiritual energy at 770 Eastern Parkway makes what would otherwise be an ordinary synagogue and office building the famous spiritual epicenter of a worldwide Hasidic movement. Building replicas of 770 Eastern Parkway in various far-flung locations makes the late rebbe's followers feel that they can connect with him at "home." In this enterprise, "home" is something that can be replicated and transported across geographical boundaries, and a particular Jewish man, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, uses the force of his spiritual power to transform an ordinary building into a holy "home" for thousands of followers. Does the home make a Jew, or does a Jew make the home?

The last essay of particular interest to those who study Orthodox and/ or Hasidic Jews is Andrea Leiber's outstanding "Domesticity and the Home (Page): Blogging and the Blurring of Public and Private among Orthodox Jewish Women." Leiber discusses how some women from Orthodox Jewish and Hasidic communities use blogging to build online communities with others who share their interests, problems, and concerns. By voicing these concerns on the Internet, Leiber argues, these women expand the boundaries of what is considered "home" or what may only be articulated within the walls of one...