I am interested in the history of East European and Russian Jewry, as well as modern Jewish History and modern Russian History more generally. My first book, The Moscow State Yiddish Theater: Jewish Culture on the Soviet Stage examined how and why a Yiddish theater received support from Stalin and the Soviet government until after World War II, and why it was suddenly destroyed after the war. I am now finishing a book tentatively entitled The Jews of This World: Jewish Public Culture in the Late Russian Empire. This book looks at the means by which Jewish voluntary associations, such as drama circles, literary clubs, historical societies, and even fire brigades, helped define Jewish cultural identity within the Russian Empire. I am also co-director of AHEYM (The Archive of Historical and Ethnographic Yiddish Memories), a project that collects videotaped oral histories of Yiddish speakers in Eastern Europe, mostly about Jewish life in the region before the Second World War. I have published articles and reviews on Jewish cultural and intellectual history in numerous periodicals, including Slavic Review, Studies in Jewish Civilization, Ab Imperio, Kritika¸ Jews in Eastern Europe, East European Jewish Affairs, Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook, Cahiers du Monde Russe, and others. I teach courses in Jewish history and Russian history, and serve as Associate Director of the Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program.
Education
- B.A. at McGill University, 1993
- Ph.D. at Georgetown University, 1998
Selected Awards
- "Top Young Historian" History News Network
- National Jewish Book Award for The Moscow State Yiddish Theater
- Barnard Hewitt Award for Outstanding Research in Theatre History for The Moscow State Yiddish Theater
- ACLS/SSRC/NEH International and Area Studies Fellowship
- National Endowment for the Humanities Grant to Preserve and Create Access to Humanities Collections for Documenting Yiddish Culture and Language in Ukraine
Research Interests
- Modern Jewish history
- East European Jewish history
- Modern Russian history
- Cultural history
Publication Highlights
Books
The Moscow State Yiddish Theater: Jewish Culture on the Soviet Stage. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
Articles
“Even Beyond Pinsk: Yizker Bikher [Memorial Books] and Jewish Cultural Life in the Shtetl” in Studies in Jewish Civilization Volume 16 (2005): The Jews of Eastern Europe, 175-189.
“Simon Dubnow Recontextualized: The Sociological Conception of Jewish History and the Russian Intellectual Legacy.” Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook 3 (2004): 411-427.
“From Boston to Mississippi on the Warsaw Yiddish Stage,” in Kathleen Cioffi and Bill Johnston, eds., The Other in Polish Theatre and Drama. Indiana Slavic Studies 14 (2003): 141-163.
“The Historical and Ethnographic Construction of Russian Jewry,” Ab Imperio 2003, no. 4: 165-184.
