Constructing Jewish Belonging through Mass Tourism: Self-Narration in Israel Experience Programs

2011. An exploration of how identity narratives are constructed on Birthright Israel. Shaul Kelner. 2011. “Constructing Jewish Belonging through Mass Tourism: Self-Narration in Israel Experience Programs.” Chapter 9 in Harvey E. Goldberg, Steven M. Cohen and Ezra Kopelowitz, eds. Dynamic Belonging: Contemporary Jewish Collective Identities. New York: Berghahn Books. Pp. 171-187.

Posted by kelnersj on December 10, 2011 in Articles, Chapters, Research, Birthright Israel, chapters, israel, tourism

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Beyond the Field Trip: Teaching Tourism through Tours

2009. Teaching Sociology 37(2):136-150. With George Sanders. A course in the sociology of tourism offers an opportunity to examine a world-transforming force that is penetrating more and more aspects of social life. It also offers an opportunity to create a learning environment that uses the object of study as the medium of study. This article…

Posted by kelnersj on September 23, 2011 in Articles, Research, articles, pedagogy, SOC 218, tourism

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Ritualized Protest and Redemptive Politics: Cultural Consequences of the American Mobilization to Free Soviet Jewry

2008. Jewish Social Studies 14(3): 1-37. The significance of the worldwide movement to free Soviet Jewry cannot be measured solely by its success in achieving its goals vis-à-vis Soviet Jews. It was also influential in shaping American Jewish political culture during the years it was active. During the 1960s and 1970s, and to a lesser…

Posted by kelnersj on September 22, 2011 in Articles, Research, articles, ritual, social movements, Soviet Jewry Movement

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From Shrine to Forum: Masada and the Politics of Jewish Extremism

2008. Israel Studies 13(2): 146-63. With Theodore Sasson. Zionist collective memory has long associated Masada with the struggle to secure Jewish sovereignty over the land of Israel. This article examines the effects of the political upheavals of the Oslo and post-Oslo periods on the meanings ascribed to Masada. It documents the popularity of a critical…

Posted by kelnersj on September 21, 2011 in Articles, Research, articles, collective memory, israel, tourism

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Jewish Educational Travel

2008. Drawing on anthropological research on travel and tourism, this chapter offers a theoretical groundwork for articulating a program of research in Jewish educational travel, broadly conceived. Shaul Kelner. 2008. “Jewish Educational Travel.” Pages 423-432 in What We Now Know About Jewish Education: Perspectives on Research for Practice. Edited by Roberta Louis Goodman, Paul J….

Posted by kelnersj on September 21, 2011 in Articles, Chapters, Research, chapters, pedagogy, tourism

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Who is Being Taught? Jewish Early Childhood Education’s Adult-Centered Approach

2007. Chapter 3 in Family Matters: Jewish Education in an Age of Choice. Edited by Jack Wertheimer. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England. Pp. 59-79. Studies in the sociology of education: One of three chapters analyzing the roles played by families, schools, communities, and advocacy groups in Jewish education. To read the chapter, click…

Posted by kelnersj on September 21, 2011 in Articles, Chapters, Research, chapters, education, foundations

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Why Jewish Parents Send Their Children to Day Schools

2007. (with Steven M. Cohen). Chapter 4 in Family Matters: Jewish Education in an Age of Choice. Edited by Jack Wertheimer. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England. Pp. 80-100. Studies in the sociology of education: One of three chapters analyzing the roles played by families, schools, communities, and advocacy groups in Jewish education. To…

Posted by kelnersj on September 21, 2011 in Articles, Research, chapters, education

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Toward the Study of Community Effects on Jewish Engagement: The Case of Educational Enrollment

2007. (with Steven M. Cohen). Chapter 9 in Family Matters: Jewish Education in an Age of Choice. Edited by Jack Wertheimer. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England. Pp. 257-74. Studies in the sociology of education: One of three chapters analyzing the roles played by families, schools, communities, and advocacy groups in Jewish education. To…

Posted by kelnersj on September 21, 2011 in Articles, Chapters, Research, chapters, education

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Reconceptualizing Religious Change: Ethno-Apostasy and Change in Religion among American Jews

2006. Sociology of Religion 67(4): 507-24. With Benjamin Phillips. Drawing on data from the NJPS 2000-1, we argue that traditional approaches to the study of religious mobility – both apostasy and switching – are increasingly problematic. Apostasy from ethno-religious communities, in particular, must be refomulated to incorporate an ethnic dimension. Analyses using this revised concept…

Posted by kelnersj on September 21, 2011 in Articles, Research, articles, methodology

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The Impact of Israel Experience Programs on Israel’s Symbolic Meaning

2003-4. Contemporary Jewry 24: 124-154. Ethnographic study of Israel experience programs reveals processes by which Israel becomes cognitively and affectively meaningful to American Jews. A Durkheimian analysis suggests that feelings generated by an intense group experience are preserved in symbolic residue that re-evokes these feelings. For American Jewish travelers, Israel comes to serve as a…

Posted by kelnersj on September 20, 2011 in Articles, Research, articles, Birthright Israel, israel, tourism

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