Eating at God's Table: How Foodways Create and Sustain Orthodox Jewish Communiti

Description: Eating at God's Table by Jody Myers, Matt Goldish How do contemporary American Orthodox Jews use food to create boundaries, distinguishing and dividing groups from each other and from non-Orthodox communities? How does food symbolize beliefs, sustain and grow communities, and represent commitment to God? This explores answers and examples from ten years of ethnographic research. FORMAT Paperback CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description How do contemporary American Orthodox Jews use food to create boundaries, distinguishing and dividing groups from each other and from non-Orthodox communities? How does food symbolize beliefs, sustain and grow communities, and represent commitment to God? Eating at Gods Table explores answers and examples from ten years of ethnographic research in the Orthodox enclave in the west Los Angeles Pico-Robertson neighborhood. Author Jody Myers explores the food-centeredness of Orthodox Jewish religious practice and the evolutionary development of todays demanding kosher laws. Opening with four scenarios based on real observations, Myers illustrates how many Orthodox residents religious beliefs and practices around food are integrated into, even inseparable from, their daily activities. While the shared commitment to the kosher diet creates an overall sense of community, Orthodox sub-affiliations in the neighborhood use foodways to construct smaller, intimate communities, and individuals use food to fashion personal identities within the larger group. This rich exploration of kosher Orthodox foodways and their meanings demonstrates the inadequacy of limited or simple definitions of Orthodox Jewishness and offers insight into the religious diversity in American communities. Author Biography Jody Myers (1954–2022) served as director of the Jewish Studies Interdisciplinary Program at California State University, Northridge. She is the author of books on Tzevi Hirsch Kalischers messianic activism and the Kabbalah Centre and coeditor of a book on Jewish foodways and ethics. She authored numerous articles on these and other topics including contemporary womens rituals and education. Review With a remarkable combination of scholarly rigor, empathy, exacting analysis, and love, Eating at Gods Table uses an exploration of foodways to make vividly present the lived religious world of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. Its seemingly narrow focus on the foodways of one Los Angeles neighborhood becomes a kind of keyhole through which one can view an entire religious universe. Dr. Myers shows that to understand religious foodways requires us to delve into history, the interpretation of scripture, gendered and racialized social dynamics, ethical worldviews, and much else. This is the most meticulously researched and fertile study of any Jewish communitys foodways Ive ever encountered, and a model of how a religious studies approach to food can cut to the heart of the complexities through which humans make meaning, revealing things both beautiful and disturbing and a great deal in between.--Aaron Gross "author of The Question of the Animal and Religion and coeditor of Feasting and Fasting: The History and Ethics of Jewish Food" (6/28/2023 12:00:00 AM)Eating at Gods Table employs the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles as an ethnographic laboratory for studying the wide range of Orthodox Jewish approaches to eating and sharing food. Focusing on women, lived religion, and the rules and customs associated with keeping kosher, it shows how Orthodox communities use food as a marker of identity and tool for survival. A major contribution to Jewish studies and the study of religion.--Jonathan D. Sarna "university professor and Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University, and author of American Judaism: A History" (6/28/2023 12:00:00 AM)In Eating at Gods Table, Jody Myers takes us inside the kitchens of Orthodox communities in Pico-Robertson. When we open the pages of this book, we sit at their tables and enter her wonderfully curated conversation about the vibrant dynamics and lived religion of these communities.--Jordan Rosenblum "Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism, University of Wisconsin-Madison" (6/28/2023 12:00:00 AM) Promotional The practice and meaning of kosher Orthodox foodways in sustaining a vibrant and diverse community. Details ISBN0814349544 Author Matt Goldish Publisher Wayne State University Press Year 2023 ISBN-13 9780814349540 Format Paperback Imprint Wayne State University Press Subtitle How Foodways Create and Sustain Orthodox Jewish Communities Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2023-11-28 NZ Release Date 2023-11-28 UK Release Date 2023-11-28 ISBN-10 0814349544 Series Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology Place of Publication Detroit, MI Audience Professional & Vocational Pages 386 DEWEY 296.7 Publication Date 2023-11-30 US Release Date 2023-11-30 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:159624134;

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