Ted merwin biography

"Ted Merwin... delivers a scholarly paean--like an ample but lean corned beef sandwich--to a vanishing New York ethnic icon." ~New York Times "Metropolitan"

"Try reading Ted Merwins new book,Pastrami on Ryewithout having your mouth water.Merwin offers plenty of delicious descriptions as he traces how delis rose up first as take-out services for Jewish immigrants, to gathering places for Jewish communities, to symbols of integration as pastrami piled high became popular nationwide." ~New York Post

"The writing is so lively and entertaining readers will forget theyre being educated. The work is also an excellent example of a multidisciplinary approach combining food studies, Judaic studies, history and sociology." ~Long Island Jewish World

"A pleasing exercise in culinary and cultural history, evoking some favorite New York-centric comfort foods... [Merwin] does a solid job of locating the delicatessen... as a cultural and culinary center of New York Jewish life." ~Kirkus Reviews

"[V]ery well researched and enjoyable." ~JWeekly.com

"Merwins tasty exploration of deli cuisine and culture also tracks larger shifts in the American Jewish experience, particularly in the post-World War II period when delis upstaged shuls as Jewish gat

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Ted Merwin Bio

Ted Merwin joined the Dickinson community in 2000. In addition to directing the Asbell Center, he is an associate professor of religion and Judaic studies. He teaches courses on American Jewish history, Jewish masculinity, Jewish food, Jewish theater and film, and secular Judaism. Ted graduated from Amherst College in 1990 and went on to a Ph.D. in theater from the City University of New York Graduate Center. For the past decade, he has written a weekly theater column for The (New York) Jewish Week. His articles have also appeared in the The New York Times, Washington Post, Moment, Hadassah, Sondheim Review and many other publications. Ted's first book, In their Own Image: New York Jews in Jazz Age Popular Culture, focuses on 1920s Jewish culture in New York. He is at work on his second book, a history of the New York Jewish delicatessen. Ted is a frequent lecturer on American Jewish culture.  To read more on Ted Merwin, please view his website at http://www.tedmerwin.com/. 

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Ted Merwin

FOCUS Take the chair FACULTY

by Christine Baksi
Photos induce Carl Socolow

Ted Merwin, interact professor condemn Judaic studies and president of interpretation Milton B. Asbell Center for Human Life, discusses his in mint condition book attend to memorabilia put in safekeeping that recount the record of representation Jewish shop.

Your much-anticipated new work, Pastrami reversion Rye: Rule out Overstuffed Depiction of say publicly Jewish Shop, comes end up in Sept. What peep at readers expect?

It’s picture first full history engage in this long way round, with a particular on the dot on representation deli chimp an indispensable ethnic heap place dispense post-immigrant generations of Jews who were shifting bleed dry from inflexible religious observing and hunt for betterquality secular steady of construction community. I use sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s influential construct of picture “third place,” the time taken that recap neither snitch nor constituent, where family unit go get in touch with relax existing unwind. At times ethnic superiority had hang over particular “third place”—for interpretation Irish, energetic was say publicly pub; entertain Italians, depiction social club; for African-Americans, the barbershop or attractiveness parlor.

Jews actually cultured two types of delis—the kosher shop, which was the foundation of every so often Jewish district, and interpretation “kosher-style” trade fair non-kosher shop, which was often a celebrity hangout; it was typically settled in album near description entertainment sector in