American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise

Dr. Shulamit Reinharz is the Potofsky Professor of Sociology at Brandeis University, where she serves as founding director of both the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and the Women’s Studies Research Center. She is coauthor of The JGuy’s Guide: The GPS for Jewish Teen Guys and The JGirl’s Guide: The Young Jewish Women’s Handbook for coming of Age (both Jewish Lights).

Mark A. Raider is Professor of Modern Jewish History in the Department of History (College of Arts & Sciences) and Director of the Center for Studies in Jewish Education and Culture (College of Education). He is past President of the University’s Academy of Fellows for Teaching and Learning. He serves as Visiting Professor of American Jewish History at the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Dr. Raider earned his BA at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1988 and his Master’s and PhD degrees at Brandeis University in 1993 and 1996, respectively. He also studied at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Before joining the University of Cincinnati, he was the Founding Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York from 2000 to 2006. From 2007 to 2012, he served as Director of the Posen Foundation Education Project, a countrywide interdisciplinary teacher education initiative for middle school and high school teachers interested in Jewish history, culture, and literature.

Dr. Raider’s articles have appeared in various anthologies and scholarly journals including the American Jewish Archives Journal, American Jewish History, CCAR Journal, Iyunim betkumat yisrael, Jewish Social Studies, Journal of Israeli History, Judaism, Quest: Issues in Contemporary Jewish History, and elsewhere.

Dr. Raider’s books are New Perspectives in American Jewish History: A Documentary Tribute to Jonathan D. Sarna, with Gary Phillip Zola (Brandeis University Press, 2021); The Essential Hayim Greenberg: Essays and Addresses on Jewish Culture, Socialism, and Zionism (University of Alabama Press, 2017); Nahum Goldmann: Statesman Without a State (State University of New York Press, 2009); American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise, with Shulamit Reinharz (Brandeis University Press, 2005); The Plough Woman: Records of the Pioneer Women of Palestine. A Critical Edition, with Miriam B. Raider-Roth (Brandeis University Press, 2002); The Emergence of American Zionism (New York University Press, 1998); and Abba Hillel Silver and American Zionism, with Jonathan D. Sarna and Ronald W. Zweig (Frank Cass, 1997). He completed a book-length history of the American Jewish experience for the prize-winning second edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica (vol. 20, 2006).

Dr. Raider is currently working on two book projects. The Israeli Hero in the American Mind: The Changing Image of Zionism and Israel in American Culture examines the protean trope of the Zionist and Israeli hero from roughly the fin-de-siecle until today. This study traces the evolution of American society’s perception of the archetype of the Jewish hero – from the latter’s biblical significance to its modern-day complexity. America’s Rabbi: Stephen S. Wise is a biographical study of one of the twentieth century’s most important American Jewish and Zionist leaders. Closely associated with Louis D. Brandeis, Woodrow Wilson, Felix Frankfurter, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Stephen S. Wise (1874-1949) played a key role in American and world Jewish affairs as well as the founding of the State of Israel.