Curriculum Vita

Jody Myers Department of Religious Studies California State University Northridge, CA 91330-8316 (818) 677-3007 [email protected] April 2017 Education 1985 Ph.D., History, University of California, Los Angeles 1977 M.A., History, University of California, Los Angeles 1975 B.A., cum laude, History, Brandeis University Teaching and Administration 1986- Department of Religious Studies, California State University, Northridge. Present rank: Professor. 1986- Director, Jewish Studies Interdisciplinary Program, California State University, Northridge. 2002-2005 Adjunct Faculty, Academy for Jewish Religion, Los Angeles, California Publications Eating at God's Table: Purity, Charity, and Community in an Orthodox Jewish Neighborhood (in preparation). Food and Jewish Traditions, co-editor with Aaron Gross and Jordan Rosenblum (in preparation). “Kabbalah in the Modern Era,” in Cambridge History of Judaism, Vol. VIII: The Modern Period, c. 1815 – c. 2000, eds. Mitchell B. Hart and Tony Michels (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). Book review: Veronique Altglas, From Yoga to Kabbalah: Religious Exoticism and the Logics of Bricolage, in Journal of Contemporary Religion, 31(1) (2015). “Kabbalah Centre: Marketing and Meaning,” for Controversial New Religions, Second Edition, eds. James R. Lewis and Jesper Aagaard Petersen (Oxford University Press, 2014). “Educational Travel and Student Learning,” in AJS News: The Travel Issue (July 2014). “Purity, Charity, Community: The Power of Kashrut in an Orthodox Jewish Neighborhood,” in Reconstructing Jewish Identity in Pre- and Post-Holocaust Literature and Culture, Lucyna Aleksandrowicz-Pędich and Małgorzata Pakier, eds. (Peter Lang, 2012). “Jewish Service-Learning Partnerships between Hillel and the Public University: A Case Study,, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Vol. 87, (Winter/Spring 2012). Co-authored with Renée Cohen Goodwin. “Kabbalah at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century,” in Jewish Mysticism: New Insights and Scholarship, Frederick E. Greenspahn, ed. (New York University Press, 2011) “Kabbalah for the Gentiles: Diverse Souls and Universalism in Contemporary Kabbalah,” in Kabbalah and Spiritual Revival: Historical, Sociological and Cultural Perspectives, Boaz Huss, ed. (Ben-Gurion University Press, 2011). Book Review: Arie Morgenstern, Hastening Redemption: Messianism and the Resettlement of the Land of Israel, in Studies in Contemporary Jewry: An Annual (Oxford University Press, 2011). “Teaching Contemporary Israel through the Internet and Student Blogs” in Coping with Diversity: Language and Culture Education, eds. Hanna Komorowska and Lucyna Aleksandrowicz-Pędich (Academica, Warsaw, 2011). “Marriage and Sexual Behavior in the Teachings of the Kabbalah Centre,” in Kabbalah and Modernity: Interpretations, Transformations, Adaptations, Boaz Huss, Marco Pasi, and Kocku von Stuckrad, eds. (Brill, 2010). “The Kabbalah Centre and Contemporary Spirituality,” Religion Compass (Vol. 3, May 2008), online journal. Kabbalah and the Spiritual Quest: The Kabbalah Centre in America (Praeger Publishers, 2007). “Phasing In: American Jewish Women’s Ritual Celebrations for the New Moon (Rosh Hodesh)” in Women Remaking American Judaism, Riv-Ellen Prell, ed. (Wayne State University Press, 2007). “The Kabbalah Centre,” Encyclopaedia Judaica (2006). “Feminist Haggadot,” Encyclopaedia Judaica (2006). “Contemporary Female Rosh Hodesh Groups,” Encyclopaedia Judaica (2006). Book Review: Ava F. Kahn and Marc Dollinger, eds., California Jews, in Southern California Quarterly 86, no. 3, 2004. Book Review: Yosef Salmon, Religion and Zionism: First Encounters, in AJS Review (The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies) 28, no. 2 (November 2004). “Of Goats and Scapegoats,” Kerem: Creative Explorations in Judaism 9 (5764 - 2004). Seeking Zion: Modernity and Messianic Activism in the Writings of Zevi Hirsch Kalischer (Oxford and Portland, Oregon: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2003). Service-Learning in the Jewish Community: Connecting the Community and Jewish Studies (Jewish Studies Interdisciplinary Program, California State University, Northridge, 2002). Co- authored with Terry Hatkoff. “On the Current Renaissance in Jewish Spirituality,” Sh'ma, 31 (November 2000). “The Midrashic Enterprise of Contemporary Jewish Women,” Studies in Contemporary Jewry, volume XIV (2000). “Religion Despite Fashion: A Proposal for Rabbinic Education in the Nineteenth Century,” in Judaism and Education: Essays in Honor of Walter I. Ackerman,ed. Haim Marantz , ed. (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press, 1998). "The Myth of Matriarchy in Contemporary Jewish Women's Spiritual Writings, ” Jewish Social Studies, vol.4, no. 1 (Fall, 1997). “The Altared Table: Women and Food in Judaism, ” in Life Cycles: Jewish Women on Biblical Themes in Contemporary Life, eds. Debra Orenstein and Jane Rachel Litman (Festival Lights Press, Woodstock, Vermont, 1997). “The Secret of Jewish Femininity: Hiddenness, Power, and Physicality in the Theology of Orthodox Women in the Contemporary World,” in Gender and Judaism: The Transformation of Tradition, ed. T.M. Rudavsky, (New York University Press, 1995). Co-authored with Jane Rachel Litman. “Messianism and Zionist Ideologies,” in Studies in Contemporary Jewry, volume VII (Oxford University Press, for the Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1991). “Zevi Hirsch Kalischer and the Origins of Religious Zionism," From East to West: Jews in a Changing Europe 1750-1870, edited by David Sorkin and Frances Malino (Basil Blackwell, 1990). Reissued as Profiles in Diversity: Jews in a Changing Europe, 1750-1870, edited by David Sorkin and Frances Malino (Wayne State University Press, 1998). “Zevi Hirsch Kalischer,” The Blackwell Companion to Jewish Culture, ed. Glenda Abramson (Basil Blackwell, 1989). “Zevi Hirsch Kalischer,”The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade et al. (Macmillan Publishing Co., 1987). “Attitudes Toward a Resumption of Sacrificial Worship in the Nineteenth Century,” Modern Judaism, vol. 7, no. 1 (Feb. 1987). Presentations at Academic and Other Conferences (a selection) Food History and Jewish Studies. Presented at the Western Jewish Studies Association Conference, Vancouver, Canada, May, 2015. Orthodox Rabbinic Discourse on Kosher Meat Slaughtering, AJS, December 2014 Modern Kosher Meat Slaughtering Controversies and Orthodox Jewish Identity. Presented at conference in Warsaw, Poland, November 13, 2013, Jewishness in National Cultures— European, North American, Israeli—Perceptions, Interactions, and Memories. Eating in Holiness: Teaching Kashrut and Jewish Foodways. Melton Coalition for Creative Interaction Conference: The Transmission of Jewish Culture Outside the Classroom, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, February 10-11, 2013. Eating in Holiness: The Tension between Ethics and Command in Orthodox Kosher Practice. Society of Jewish Ethics Annual Conference, January 6, 2013. Kabbalah in Israel Today. Presented at Israel in 3D, a program exploring multiple dimensions of Israel sponsored by the UCLA Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, January 29, 2012. Purity, Charity, Community: The Dimensions of Kashrut in an Orthodox Jewish Neighborhood. Jewishness in Contemporary Culture: American and European Perspectives conference in Warsaw, Poland, May 17-18, 2011. Purity and Community: Dimensions of Kashrut in an Orthodox Jewish Neighborhood. Presented at the Western Jewish Studies Association Conference, April 10, 2011. Israel Online: Teaching Contemporary Israel through the Internet and Student Blogs. Presented at Western Jewish Studies Association annual conference, Arizona State University, March 2010. Spirituality, Kabbalah, and Popular Culture. Scholar-in-Residence for Minneapolis, Minnesota Synaplex, March 27-29, 2009. Religious Terrorism in Judaism. One of three presenters at a program at California State University, Northridge, Religious Terrorism in Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism Today, March 17, 2009. Contemporary Forms of Popular Kabbalah. Presented at conference held at Florida Atlantic University, Jewish Mysticism: New Insights and Scholarship, February 15-16, 2009. Crossing Boundaries: Kabbalah for Non-Jews. Paper presented at the conference New Judaisms: Conversations with Scholars, Skidmore College, February 8-11, 2009. A similar version of this presentation was made at the American Association for Religion annual conference, Chicago, Illinois, November 3, 2008. Understanding God in the 21st Century. Guest teacher for Kol Tikvah Temple, Woodland Hills, California, October 7, 2008. Kabbalah for the Gentiles: Diverse Souls and Universalism in Contemporary Kabbalah. Paper presented at Kabbalah and the Contemporary Spiritual Revival, conference held at Ben Gurion University, Israel, May 20-22, 2008. Marriage and Sexual Behavior in the Teachings of the Kabbalah Centre, conference held at University of Amsterdam, July 4-6, 2007. Israel and Zionism in Regional Context. Seminar leader for program jointly sponsored by Jewish Federation and the Melton Judaic Studies Program, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. New Age and Old Judaism in Kabbalah Centre Teachings. Paper presented at the American Academy of Religion, November 2006. Divining the Light: The Popularization of Kabbalah in America. University of Arizona, Shaol Pozez Memorial Lectureship Series. February 2006. The Popularization of Kabbalah in America: The Contributions of Levi I. Krakovsky. Paper presented at the Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference. December

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