Jenna Weissman Joselit

Jenna Weissman Joselit is the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of History at The George Washington University. She specializes in 20th-century American Jewish history, U.S. cultural history from the late 19th to mid-20th century, and the interplay between material culture and identity. She directs a graduate program in Jewish cultural arts and has been a visiting professor at Princeton University.

• Ph.D., Columbia University, 1981

Her research focuses on American Jewish life, gender, religious expression, and cultural assimilation. She explores how everyday objects, fashion, religious symbols, and public rituals reflect and shape Jewish identity in America. Her work bridges academic history and public scholarship, making her a leading voice in Jewish cultural studies.

Her publications span books and articles that analyze the cultural significance of religion, consumerism, and artistic expression in American Jewish life. Her work shows a consistent trend toward interdisciplinary inquiry, combining history, art, religion, and material culture to understand the evolution of Jewish identity in the modern era.

• National Jewish Book Award in History for The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880–1950

Professor Joselit has held fellowships at Princeton University’s Center for the Study of American Religion, Yale University’s Center for Art and Material Culture, the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Judaic Studies, and served as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Library of Congress. She is a founding member of NYU’s Working Group on Jews, Media and Religion.

She is an active public intellectual, writing a monthly column for Tablet: The Online Magazine of Jewish Culture and having contributed for sixteen years to The Forward. Her commentary appears in The New Republic, Jewish Review of Books, and Gastronomica, among others.