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Material Culture and Jewish Thought in America

Material Culture and Jewish Thought in America 136 book reviews “Jewish thought is a cultural practice, and that prac- tice generates compelling accounts of an identity steeped in material culture” (2–3). Ken Koltun- Fromm, whose previous books include a highly original study on Moses Hess and Modern Jewish Identity (2001) and a no less formidable work on Abraham Geiger’s Liberal Judaism (2006), has moved his scholarly allegiances to twentieth-century America and its “material temptations.” Ambitious in scope, learned and engaging in style, Material Culture and Jewish Thought in America is a timely book, for it reflects the broader trend in studying spaces, practices, rituals, and material objects that has shaped our understand- ing of religion since the 1980s, and which has become a rapidly expanding field in our days. In many ways, Koltun-Fromm’s new book is a tribute to the works of Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblet, Robert Orsi, David Morgan, Jenna Weismann Joselit, and others who have transformed the study of religion, including Judaism, by turning away from text and theology towards the impurities of things we can touch and see and make holy in unpredictable places. But it is a tribute also to the reconsideration of Jewish practice and its implications for new ritual, nostalgia, tradition, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Images Brill

Material Culture and Jewish Thought in America

Biemann, Asher D.
Images , Volume 4 (1): 136 – Jan 1, 2010
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2010 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1871-7993
eISSN
1871-8000
DOI
10.1163/187180010X547693
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

136 book reviews “Jewish thought is a cultural practice, and that prac- tice generates compelling accounts of an identity steeped in material culture” (2–3). Ken Koltun- Fromm, whose previous books include a highly original study on Moses Hess and Modern Jewish Identity (2001) and a no less formidable work on Abraham Geiger’s Liberal Judaism (2006), has moved his scholarly allegiances to twentieth-century America and its “material temptations.” Ambitious in scope, learned and engaging in style, Material Culture and Jewish Thought in America is a timely book, for it reflects the broader trend in studying spaces, practices, rituals, and material objects that has shaped our understand- ing of religion since the 1980s, and which has become a rapidly expanding field in our days. In many ways, Koltun-Fromm’s new book is a tribute to the works of Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblet, Robert Orsi, David Morgan, Jenna Weismann Joselit, and others who have transformed the study of religion, including Judaism, by turning away from text and theology towards the impurities of things we can touch and see and make holy in unpredictable places. But it is a tribute also to the reconsideration of Jewish practice and its implications for new ritual, nostalgia, tradition,

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Images – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2010

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