From Europe to America: The Birth of Modern American Jewish Movements
Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel
8339 Old York Road
Elkins Park, PA 19027
The most prominent divisions within the Jewish landscape in America today—between the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox movements—are not native to the United States, but rather reflect a crisis of nineteenth-century Judaism, centered in Germany, in which Jews questioned long-held assumptions about Jewish learning, prayer, and community. How did European Jewish immigrants import new models of Jewish life, and how were they transformed on American soil, to shape a new Jewish culture?
Rabbi Lance Sussman, PhD, of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, joins Dr. Mirjam Thulin of the Leibniz Institute of European History (Mainz, Germany) and the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (University of Pennsylvania), in a conversation about the origins and ongoing evolution of the largest American Jewish denominations.
With an appearance by DUO Stephanie and Saar performing works by Felix Mendelssohn on piano, and a reception including fine German desserts.
A real taste of nineteenth-century European culture!
Featuring
Mirjam Thulin
Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG)
Mirjam Thulin is a member of the academic staff in the Department of the History of Religion at the Institute of European History in Mainz. Her research interests include the history of knowledge and science, the history and culture of Jews in the early modern and modern period, and the history of Jews in the US.
Thulin received her DPhil in History from the University of Leipzig with a thesis titled "Kaufmann’s News Service: A Jewish Scholarly Network in the 19th Century." She has previously held fellowships at Goethe University, Frankfurt-on-Main and at the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies at Vanderbilt University.
