Jenna Weissman Joselit: Being Jewish in America [American Jewish History 3/4]

July 7, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In 1950, the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly issued a legal responsum permitting Jews to drive to synagogue on Shabbat. It was an attempt to save the Sabbath from extinction in the new suburban landscape, where synagogues had been built on zoned campuses far from homes. The decision backfired: rather than filling the pews, it let people off the hook. As historian Jenna Weissman Joselit explains, the episode became a perfect case study for the central tension of American Jewish life—the ongoing struggle between formal religious practice (Judaism) and the broader culture of Jewish belonging (Yiddishkite or Jewishness).

The Scholar of Daily Life

Joselit, a professor of American Jewish history and material culture at George Washington University, describes herself as a historian of daily life. Her work focuses not on the big decisions made by rabbis and communal leaders but on the intimate details of how ordinary Jews lived, ate, decorated their homes, and raised their children. “The ways in which people make history, not even realizing that they’re making history,” she says, “or the ways in which history makes itself felt.” This approach has led her to write about everything from Jewish gangsters in New York to the evolution of the tallit (prayer shawl) in America, and most recently a biography of the controversial theologian Mordecai Kaplan.

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What you'll learn

1 (05:09) **The Core Tension: Judaism vs. Jewishness** - David introduces the central conflict of American Jewish history, quoting Jonathan Sarna’s distinction between a focus on “Judaism and faith” versus “Jewishness and peoplehood.”
2 (16:24) **Defining the Scholar’s Lens: Material Culture and Daily Life** - Joselit defines her central academic interest as the intersection of daily life, material culture (“stuff”), and religion.
3 (18:57) **The Interplay of Yiddishkeit and Judaism** - Joselit explains why she deliberately focuses on the relationship between cultural Jewishness (Yiddishkeit) and formal religion (Judaism).
4 (22:39) **Reverse Engineering a Scholar’s Upbringing** - David attempts to guess Joselit’s communal background from her work, leading to a discussion of her own biographical journey.
5 (30:36) **Consequential Decision #1: The Responsum on Driving (She'elot u-Teshuvot)** - Joselit identifies the Conservative movement’s 1950 decision to permit driving to synagogue on Shabbat as a landmark moment.
6 (38:36) **Consequential Decision #1.5: The Elevator Shabbat (She'elot u-Teshuvot)** - Joselit adds the rabbinic ruling allowing the use of elevators on Shabbat as another key decision.
7 (39:31) **Consequential Decision #2: Patrilineal Descent** - Joselit identifies the Reform movement’s 1983 decision on patrilineal descent as the second most consequential internal decision.

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Show Notes

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Jenna Weissman Joselit, a professor of Jewish studies and history, about the everyday expressions of Judaism that reinforce the identity and distinctiveness of the Jewish People.

In this episode we discuss:

—What consequential institutional decisions shaped the trajectory of American Judaism?
—What overlooked personalities and phenomena contributed to the development of American Judaism?
—What is the role of the tallis in American Jewish aesthetics?

Interview begins at 10:42.

Tune in to hear a retrospective reflection on modern Jewish life and culture.

Jenna Weissman Joselit is the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of History at The George Washington University. She specializes in the history and culture of America’s Jews, U.S. cultural history, and the relationship between material culture and identity. She is the author of Set in Stone: America’s Embrace of the Ten Commandments, The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880–1950, which received the National Jewish Book Award in History, and A Perfect Fit: Clothes, Character, and the Promise of America. She writes a monthly column on American Jewish culture for Tablet and has been a frequent contributor to the Jewish Review of Books, The New Republic, TNR Online, Gastronomica, and the Forward.

References:

American Judaism: A History by Jonathan D. Sarna

Mordecai M. Kaplan: Restless Soul by Jenna Weissman Joselit

New York's Jewish Jews: The Orthodox Community in the Interwar Years by Jenna Weissman Joselit

Our Gang : Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community, 1900-1940 by Jenna Weissman Joselit

Set in Stone: America's Embrace of the Ten Commandments by Jenna Weissman Joselit

Jenna Weissman Joselit in Tablet

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