Dr. Shari Rabin to Speak on 20th Century Jewish Immigration

Shaker Library presents 20th Century Jewish Immigration & Its Effect on American Life with Dr. Shari Rabin at 7 pm Monday, July 20. Dr. Rabin is Assistant Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies at Oberlin College and she will discuss Jewish immigration to the United States around the turn of the 20th century and its ramifications on contemporary American life.

Dr. Rabin is a scholar of modern Judaism and American religions. She is especially interested in exploring religion, politics, and issues of space and place. Her first book, Jews on the Frontier: Religion and Mobility in Nineteenth-century America (New York University Press, 2017), was the winner of the National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies and a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.

Before teaching at Oberlin, Rabin was previously an assistant professor of Jewish studies and director of the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture at the College of Charleston. She was co-director of the 2019 NEH Summer Institute for College and University Professors, “Privilege and Prejudice: Jewish History in the American South.”

Dr. Rabin grew up in Wisconsin and Georgia. She earned a B.A. in Religion (summa cum laude with distinction) from Boston University and a Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale University in 2015.

This program is part of Coming to America: a Reading Group for Public Libraries funded by the Yiddish Book Center. As the program will be presented online via Zoom, please provide an email address when registering.

7 pm Wednesday, July 22 readers are invited to discuss the book, Enemies, A Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer. The story centers on Herman Broder, a refugee and survivor of the Holocaust who finds himself with three wives: Yadwiga, a Polish woman who sheltered him from the Nazis; Masha, his one true love and Tamara, his first wife who has miraculously returned from the dead. He must navigate a congested New York City while battling a constant sense of dread. Read the book or borrow the DVD to watch Paul Mazursky’s soulful adaptation of the novel and join the discussion.

“Coming to America” Reading Groups for Public Libraries is made possible by a gift from Sharon Karmazin.