Ava F Kahn

Transnational Traditions: New Perspectives on American Jewish History Ava F Kahn

Marc Notes: Despite being the archetypal diasporic people, modern Jews have most often been studied as citizens and subjects of single nation states and empires - as American, Polish, Russian, or German Jews. This national approach is especially striking considering the renewed interest among scholars in global and transnational influences on the modern world. Editors Ava F. Kahn and Adam D. Mendelsohn offer a new approach in this book as contributors use transnational and comparative methodologies to place American Jewry into a broader context of cultural, commercial, and social exchange with Jews in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and South America. Biographical Note: Ava F. Kahn is a former research associate at the Western Jewish History Center of the Magnes Museum and fellow at the California Studies Center, Berkeley. Her publications include "Jewish Voices of the California Gold Rush: A Documentary History 1849-1880" (Wayne State University Press, 2002), "Jewish Life in the American West, California Jews, "co-edited with Marc Dollinger, and "Jews of the Pacific Coast: Reinventing Community on America's Edge, " co-authored with Ellen Eisenberg and William Toll. At present she is working on a documentary film on Jewish reinvention in post-1960s America and researching the role of American Jews in the military and in the home front during WWI. Adam D. Mendelsohn is associate professor of Jewish studies and director of the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture at the College of Charleston. He is the author of "The Rag Race: How Jews Sewed their Way to Success in America and British Empire "(New York University Press, 2014) and editor, with Jonathan D. Sarna, of "Jews and the Civil War: A Reader."Publisher Marketing: Demonstrates the variety, complexity, and ramifications of the contacts and connections between Jews in America and their co-religionists abroad.

Contributor Bio:  Kahn, Ava F Ava F. Kahn is a visiting scholar at the California Studies Center, University of California, Berkeley. Other contributors to Jewish Life in the American West are Hasia R. Diner, William Toll, Ellen Eisenberg, and Moses Rischin. Contributor Bio:  Mendelsohn, Adam D Adam D. Mendelsohn is Director of the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture and Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at the College of Charleston. Contributor Bio:  Rutland, Suzanne D Suzanne Rutland is Chair of the Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies at the University of Sydney. Highlights from her major publications include Edge of the Diaspora: Two Centuries of Jewish Settlement in Australia, Pages of History: A Century of the Australian Jewish Press and 'If you will it, it is no dream': the Moriah Story. She has held numerous leadership positions within the Jewish and academic communities, including being current president of the Australian Jewish Historical Society, Sydney, and immediate past president of the Australian Association for Jewish Studies. Contributor Bio:  Goldstein, Eric L Eric L. Goldstein is associate professor of history and Jewish studies at Emory University. He is also the editor of the quarterly scholarly journal "American Jewish History."Contributor Bio:  Goldstein, Jonathan Jonathan Goldstein won the Watts Prize at the University of Pennsylvania, where he took his PhD. He has written for Korea Focus and Ch'ing-shih wen-t'i.