Veneration and Critique: Israel, the Sociology of American Judaism and the Problematics of Sovereignty

2016. In Jewish Studies Quarterly 23, 194–221. Both the erosion of state sovereignty and the conceptual reassessments that have emerged in response to this erosion provide the context for this consideration of American Jewish religious engagement with the State of Israel. Theorizations of sovereignty can be helpful for thinking about the relationship between American Judaism…

Posted by kelnersj on October 18, 2018 in Articles, Research, articles, diaspora, israel, religion

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American Jewish Sociology

2014. In Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies. Ed. David Biale. New York: Oxford University Press. This online annotated bibliography with hundreds of references surveys the broad scope of research in the sociology of American Jews. Chapter headings: Introduction General Overviews Critical Histories of the Field Readers Journals and Book Series Research Centers, Archives, and Repositories…

Posted by kelnersj on October 18, 2018 in Articles, Research, articles, bibliographies

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Historical Perspectives on Diaspora Homeland Tourism: ‘Israel Experience’ Education in the 1950s and 1960s

2013. In Diaspora, Indigenous and Minority Education 7(2): 99–113. Homeland tourism is a powerful medium of diasporic education. Yet efforts to understand the enterprise are hampered by neglect of the field’s history. This article contributes to the historiography of diaspora homeland tourism by examining the emergence American Jewish educational tours of Israel in the 1950s and…

Posted by kelnersj on April 23, 2014 in Articles, Research, articles, Birthright Israel, diaspora, education, israel, pedagogy, tourism

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The Bureaucratization of Ritual Innovation: The Festive Cycle of the American Soviet Jewry Movement

2011. Jewish Cultural Studies 3:360-391. Since the 1960s, social movements have been key forces in the development of new religious rituals that are reshaping American Judaism. This article examines how the American movement to free Soviet Jews systematized and even bureaucratized the process of ritual innovation as it developed an annual calendar of activities pegged…

Posted by kelnersj on December 12, 2011 in Articles, Research, articles, ritual, social movements, Soviet Jewry Movement

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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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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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