Shari Rabin (Religion alum 2009) 2014 Kaiserman Summer Fellow
Posts By: Ariella Y. Werden-Greenfield
Shari Rabin, a PhD candidate at Yale University is the 2014 Kaiserman Summer Fellow. Her dissertation, “Manifest Jews: Mobility and the Making of American Judaism, 1820-1877,” argues that American Judaism was not formed in twentieth century cities, but rather was a product of nineteenth century mobility and dispersion. Whereas in Europe Jews suffered severe residency and travel restrictions, in the United States migrants were confronted with an expanding frontier in which there were few limitations on movement, but a host of challenges for the practice of traditional Judaism. The eclectic religious practices of mobile Jews throughout the continent, along with various attempts by local and national leaders to foster order and consistency, resulted in new institutional and ideological modes intended to make Judaism compatible with the mobile American environment.