As I began work on my book, A PEOPLEHOOD | AMIUT YEHUDIT, in 2018, I thought I had a clear sense of what I was creating. I was exploring a double helix question: how can one illustrate the multiplicity of contemporary Jewish identity, and at the same time document the impact of antisemitism on identity?

The project was a consideration of not only how Jews see and express themselves, but also how present-day Jewish life is interpreted, projected upon, or politicized by the world beyond the community.

OPINION: I set out to document Jewish identity. Then the ground shifted Back to video

My goal wasn’t simply to document what was unfolding, but to move beyond the headlines and statistics, and into the lived texture of this moment.

The impetus for the work was my observation in the early 2000s of the reemergence of overt antisemitism and how it was shaping contemporary Jewish life. It was around this time that security guards became a regular presence at Jewish Day Schools and........

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