No. 43: Nostalgic Religion, Religious Nostalgia

Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer is the President of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. Yehuda is a leading thinker and author on the meaning of Israel to American Jews, on Jewish history and Jewish memory, and on questions of leadership and change in American Jewish life. Yehuda led the creation of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America in 2010 as a pioneering research and educational center for the leadership of the North American Jewish

Rachel B. Gross

Rachel B. Gross (San Francisco State University) joins Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss her new book, Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice, and its central argument: that foodways, children’s literature, and Jewish nostalgia represent a defining feature of American Jewish religion today – and that that’s not a bad thing.

Identity/Crisis: The Ideas Behind the News is a podcast of the Shalom Hartman Institute presented in partnership with

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Launched in early 2020, Identity/Crisis is a weekly roundtable podcast that explores the ideas behind the news hosted by Shalom Hartman Institute of North America President Yehuda Kurtzer. Episodes cover a wide range of topics and feature experts and content related to news and current events.