I study how people make religious meaning in everyday spaces like Jewish knitting circles and extraordinary places like Disney World. To do this, I use history, ethnography, literature, and more. I'm most interested in how this happens from approximately 1865 to the present in the area we now call the United States. Some of my work focuses on Jewish Americans. Some is about everyone.
Jodi Eichler-Levine
Berman Professor of Jewish Civilization
Professor
Director, Berman Center for Jewish Studies
jeichlerlevine@lehigh.edu
Education:
B.A. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University
Ph.D. in Religion, Columbia University
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Research Areas
Additional Interests
- Jewish Studies
- Religions of North America
- Gender Studies
Research Statement
Biography
Jodi Eichler-Levine is a professor of Religion Studies and serves as the Berman Professor of Jewish Civilization. Her work is located at the intersection of Jewish studies, religion in North America, literature, material culture, and gender studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Columbia University and a B.A. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. Before coming to Lehigh, she spent eight years as a professor of Religious Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.
Professor Eichler-Levine is the author Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis: How Jews Craft Resilience and Create Community (UNC Press, October 2020). Building upon three years of ethnography around the U.S., this book explores how everyday acts of creativity are a crucial part of making religious lives. It was a finalist for the American Academy of Religion's Religion and the Arts book award (2021). Her first book, Suffer the Little Children: Uses of the Past in Jewish and African American Children’s Literature (NYU Press, 2013), was widely reviewed. In this work, she analyzes what is at stake in portraying religious history for young people, particularly when the histories in question are traumatic ones. Her publications have appeared in American Quarterly, Shofar, and other journals and edited volumes. Additionally, she has written for CNN, The Washington Post, Salon,The Revealer, Killing the Buddha, The Immanent Frame, AJS Perspectives, Kveller, Religion Dispatches, Tikkun, Religion in American History (where her work was also featured), and the Christian Century.
Dr. Eichler-Levine is also the current director of the Berman Center for Jewish Studies.
Her next project will be a book length study of the intersections between religion and the Walt Disney Company.
When she is not wearing her professional hats, Professor Eichler-Levine enjoys running, knitting, or a good book, preferably one by N.K. Jemisin or Julia Quinn. She lives in Allentown with her husband and teenage daughter. In 2021 she completed the New York City Marathon for Fred's Team.
Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis: How Jews Craft Resilience and Create Community (University of North Carolina Press, October 2020)
Finalist: American Academy of Religion, Religion and the Arts Book award, 2021
Reviewed in: AJS Review, American Jewish History, Contemporary Jewry, Images, Jewish Culture and History, Library Journal, Material Religion, Reading Religion
Suffer the Little Children: Uses of the Past in Jewish and African American Children’s Literature
(New York: NYU Press, April 2013).
(Paperback release: April 2015)
Reviewed in: American Literary History Advance, American Jewish History, Catholic Library World, Children’s Literature, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, Choice, The Lion and The Unicorn
Manuscript-in-progress: No Church on Main Street: How Disney Became Its Own Religion
Chapters in Peer-Reviewed Edited Volumes
“Teaching American Jewish Children’s and Young Adult Literature,” in Roberta Rosenberg & Rachel Rubinstein, eds., Teaching Jewish American Literature (MLA, 2020), 99-107.
“American Judaism and Race,” in Paul Harvey and Kathryn Gin Lum, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 191-204.
“Maurice Sendak’s Jewish Mother(s),” in Jane Kanarek, Marjorie Lehman, and Simon Bronner, eds., Mothers in the Jewish Cultural Imagination (Oxford, UK: Littman Library of
Jewish Civilization, 2017), 149-168.
“Golems and Goblins: The Monstrous in Jewish Children’s Literature,” in Stephen Parker, Susan Ridgely, and Ann Strhan, eds. The Bloomsbury Reader in Religion and Childhood. (London: Bloomsbury, 2017), 259-266. (invited)
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Academic Journals
“Imagining Mary Magdalene: The Discourse of Hidden Wisdom in American Popular Culture.” Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts and Contemporary Worlds (April 2011).
“The Curious Conflation of Hanukkah and the Holocaust in Jewish Children’s Literature.” Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies (Winter 2010), 92-115.
“‘As Americans Against Genocide’: The Crisis in Darfur and Interreligious Political Activism,” with Rosemary R. Hicks. American Quarterly 56:3 (September 2007), 711-735.
Chapters in edited journals and books
“Hooked on Feelings: The Story of My Jewish Pathologies.” CrossCurrents 71:1 (March 2021), 5-18.
“Minyan-less in Oshkosh: Or, How the JWA Brought Yiddishkeit to Northeast Wisconsin,” in Joyce Antler, ed., Why Jewish Women’s History Matters: An Archive of Stories in Honor of
“Dancing Out the Torah: Body, Ritual, and Transitions in Transparent,” in Blessings Beyond the Binary:
Transparent and the Queer Jewish Family, edited by Nora Rubel and Brett
Krutszch (Rutgers University Press, September 2024), (19 pages, 5789 words) (forthcoming)
“Jewish Objects and Jewish Affects: A Conversation.” With Rachel B. Gross, Laura A. Leibman,
and Laura S. Levitt. CrossCurrents 71:1 (March 2021), 82-94. (invited) Gail Reimer (Boston: Jewish Women’s Archive, 2014).
Book Reviews in Academic Journals
Review of Dainy Bernstein, ed., Artifacts of Orthodox Jewish Childhoods, in In Geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies (2023), June 21, 2023.
Review of Matthew Baigell, Jewish Identity in American Art: A Golden Age since the 1970s, in American Jewish History 105:4 (2021), 566-568
Review of Laura A. Leibman, The Art of the Jewish Family: A History of Women in Early New York in Five Objects. Material Religion DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2021.1947033 (2021)
Review of Jennifer Glaser, Borrowed Voices: Writing and Racial Ventriloquism in the Jewish American Imagination. American Jewish History (2018), 444-446.
Review of Rebecca T. Alpert, Religion and Sports: An Introduction and Case Studies. Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art, and Belief. 12:4 (2016), 511-512.
Review of Erika Seamon, Interfaith Marriage in America. Theology and Sexuality 20:1 (2014), 83-84.
“Crossing National and Religious Boundaries.” (book review). Karen I. Leonard, Alex Stepick, Manuel A. Vasquez, and Jennifer Holdaway, eds., Immigrant Faiths: Transforming Religious Life in America for, H-net Reviews, March 2007
Public Scholarship: Bylines in Edited Venues (selected)
“Opinion: The right is right to fear Disney.” CNN. May 17, 2023. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/17/opinions/florida-disney-teacher-movie-de…- levine?fbclid=IwAR1PHM1-CHMaTbrCFBwmcU9heLrYSPh1aIhALj4Pcrcluf4MS-HdQrAlNtw
“Muppet Religion.” The Revealer. December 8, 2022. https://therevealer.org/muppet-religion/
“Don’t Judge Disney Adults. Try to Understand Them.” NBC Think. June 9, 2022.
“Disney’s brand is stories—and American stories keep evolving.” Made by History. The Washington
Post. May 9, 2022.
“Forget Bruno. ‘Dos Oruguitas’ is the Encanto song we really need.” Salon. February 19, 2022.
https://www.salon.com/2022/02/19/forget-bruno-dos-oruguitas-is-the-song…
“The Invisible Mehiza.” AJS Perspectives Spring 2021, 74-76. https://www.associationforjewishstudies.org/publications-research/ajs-p…- issue/the-profession-the-invisible-me%E1%B8%A5i%E1%BA%93ah
“In Memory of Touch.” April Online. November 28, 2020.
“A Link to Jewish History, RBG’s Iconic Collars Were a Beacon for the Marginalized.” Religion Dispatches. October 1, 2020. https://religiondispatches.org/a-distinctive-link-to-jewish-history-rbg…- for-the-marginalized/
“Why ‘Hamilton’ is the ‘Most Disney’ Disney Film.” Newsweek. July 3, 2020. https://www.newsweek.com/why-hamilton-most-disney-disney-film-opinion-1…
“What We Miss When We Miss Disney World.” The Revealer. June 3, 2020. https://therevealer.org/what-we-miss-when-we-miss-disney-world/
“Holy Shit.” Killing the Buddha. March 23, 2020. https://killingthebuddha.com/mag/confession/holy-shit/
“Why Christian nationalists think Trump is heaven-sent.” (Review of Katherine Stewart’s The Power Worshippers). The Washington Post. March 20, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/why-christian-nationalists-think…- sent/2020/03/20/a3c42734-5983-11ea-9b35-def5a027d470_story.html
“Blossoms (Hadeish Yameinu).” Killing the Buddha. April 29, 2019. https://killingthebuddha.com/mag/confession/blossoms-hadeish-yameinu/
“Returning to Mary Poppins, This Time with Stage 4 Cancer.” Kveller. January 11, 2019. https://www.kveller.com/returning-to-mary-poppins-this-time-with-stage-…
“Mary Poppins Can’t Return Fast Enough: An Adult in the Room is the Best Fantasy of 2018.” Salon. October 3, 2018 https://www.salon.com/2018/10/05/mary-poppins-cant-return-fast-enough-a…- is-the-best-fantasy-of-2018/
“Mediating Moses and Matzah.” AJS Perspectives. May 2018. http://perspectives.ajsnet.org/the-oldnew-media-issue/mediating-moses-a…
“The long, nasty moral war over sexuality in America.” (Review of Marie Griffith’s Moral Combat). The Washington Post. January 26, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-long-nasty-moral-war-over-se…- america/2018/01/26/2f900ade-dde5-11e7-8679- a9728984779c_story.html?utm_term=.60f198b2bc4f
“The Needle and the Planetarium.” The Immanent Frame. January 11, 2018. https://tif.ssrc.org/2018/01/11/the-needle-and-the-planetarium/
“Transparent Season 3: The Intersectional Messiah.” Religion Dispatches. September 30, 2017. http://religiondispatches.org/transparent-season-3-reaching-the-promise…- year/
Teaching
My teaching encompasses a wide range of topics, including Jewish studies, particularly in the United States context; religion and popular culture; children's literature; and religion and gender.
Courses
- REL 013: Religion and Food
- REL 032: Religion of Disney
- REL 079: Religion and Fantasy Literature
- REL 092: American Gods and Monsters
- REL 095: Religion and Science Fiction
- REL 098: Beyond Bagels: Jews and Food
- REL/AAS/ENGL/JST 102: Promised Lands: Jewish and African American Children's Literature
- REL/JST 156: Judaism and Comic Books
- REL/JST/WGSS 138: Sex, Gender, Jews
- REL/JST/THTR 177: Jews and the Broadway Musical