L57 RelPol 325

Food Fights: The Politics of American Jewish Consumption, 1890-2014

, T/Th 2:30–4:00PM

This course explores the politics of religion, food, and eating among Jews in the United States from the late 19th century through the present day.

WUCRSL
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This course explores the politics of religion, food, and eating among Jews in the United States from the late 19th century through the present day. The subject is not Jewish food per se but instead American Jewish foodways – the cultural, social, historical, political, and economic practices relating to the production and consumption of food. The course is organized chronologically but also by themes that loom large in American Jewish history: the great wave of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe from 1890 to 1924; contention over kashrut, including its increasing industrialization and commercialization; iconic American Jewish foods; and the present-day “new Jewish food movement,” which aims to align Jewish foodways with sustainability and the slow foods movement. The course focuses attention not only on narratives of American Jewish foodways but on core issues of American Jewish identity politics: where are the sources of power and who is recognized as an authority? What is at stake in delineating between Judaism (the religion) and Jewishness (the culture)? How do American Jews present themselves to non-Jewish Americans and how do they respond to Jews who are different from them? How have the politics of place affected the distribution and reception of Jewish food and how have these politics changed over time?