JESSICA COOPERMAN cooperman@muhlenberg.edu EDUCATION New York University, New York, NY. Joint Doctoral Program in European History and Hebrew and Judaic Studies Ph.D. in Modern Jewish History 2010 Dissertation Title: A Little Army Discipline Would Improve the Whole House of Israel: The Jewish Welfare Board, State Power and the Shaping of Jewish Identity in WWI America. Dissertation Advisor: Professor Hasia Diner. M.A. in Hebrew and Judaic Studies - Modern Jewish History May 2001 M.A. in Modern European History May 1999 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. 1987-1991 B.A. in Philosophy, Concentration in Art History RESEARCH INTERESTS Modern Jewish History, Modern American and European History, World War I, Progressive Era politics, diaspora studies, Zionism, nationalism, gender and masculinity, citizenship, interfaith movements, Holocaust Studies and military history. CURRENT POSITION Assistant Professor, Religion Studies Department Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA. 2013-Present TEACHING EXPERIENCE Visiting Assistant Professor, Religion Studies Department 2012-2013 Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA. Posen Foundation Teaching Fellow in Jewish Studies, 2006-2011 Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA. The Posen Foundation Fellowship was intended to help expand Muhlenberg College s course offerings in Modern Jewish Studies. Courses developed and taught under the auspices of the grant include: Jewish Experience in a Secular Age: A History of Jews in Modern Europe, American Jewish Life and Culture, From Zion to Zionism: A
History of Jewish Nationalism, Jewish Women s History and Jews and Money: Economics and Modern Jewish Life. Additional courses developed and taught at Muhlenberg College include: The Holocaust: The Third Reich and the Jews (Religion Studies Department), Religion in America (Religion Studies Department), Creating the Nation: A History of Nations and Nationalism. (History Department). Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. Instructor, 2006-2007 The Holocaust and Its Impact. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY. Instructor, Spring 2005 The Holocaust. Co-designed and co-taught advanced seminar on the Holocaust. Participant, Spring 2005 NEH Sponsored Educators Seminar on the Holocaust Lecturer/Guide, March 2003 The Jews of East Central Europe. Assisted in leading a student trip to Vienna, Prague, and Budapest and lectured on the history of the Jews of Central Europe. The Center for Jewish History, Samberg Family History Program, New York, NY. Program Manager 2004-2005 Lead Instructor of intensive seminar on Jewish History and Genealogy for high school students. Taught and designed seminars on European and American Jewish history, assisted students in independent genealogical and archival research, organized evening programs, guest speakers, and student field-trips. Successfully implemented student outreach and recruitment. New York University, New York, NY. Instructor Summer 2004 The Holocaust: The Third Reich and the Jews. Instructor Summer 2001 Western Civilization: European History from the French Revolution to 1945. Teaching Assistant to Professor Hasia Diner Spring 2001 Human Migration. Teaching Assistant to Professor Katherine Fleming Fall 2000 Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the Enlightenment. Instructor, 1998-2000 2
Expository Writing, Writing Workshop I & II. OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE The Remarque Institute, New York University, New York, NY. 2001-2005 Worked with Prof. Tony Judt to organize the Remarque Institute Forum, a meeting of cultural and intellectual leaders from across Europe and North America. Assisted Prof. Judt at Forums held in June 2003, on The Future of the West ; and in November 2004, on Faith and the State: The Politics of Religion Today. The Renaissance Society of America, New York, NY. 2000-2003 Copy editor for Renaissance Society publications, including The Poetic Works of Helius Eobanus Hessus, Harry Vredeveld, Ed., and Renaissance Quarterly Journal. New York University Archives, New York, NY. Summer 2000 Archival Assistant at the University Archives; worked on cataloguing and processing special collections. WNET Public Television, New York, NY. 1997-1998 Researcher and writer for the PBS Heritage Series Civilization and the Jews. Yad VaShem Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Memorial, 1995-1996 Jerusalem, Israel. Instructor, Education Department. Worked with student groups studying the Holocaust and 20 th century Jewish and Israeli history. The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. 1995-1996 Research Assistant to Prof. Yitzchak Reiter, Department of Middle Eastern Studies. Prepared maps and conducted research on Jewish holy sites in connection with Israeli- Palestinian-Jordanian proposal for the joint administration of holy sites in Jerusalem. PUBLICATIONS Book Manuscript in Progress: Serving Our Boys: World War I Jewish Soldiers Welfare Services and the Making of American Religious Pluralism World War I Jewish Soldiers Welfare Services and the Origins of American Religious Pluralism. American Jewish History (forthcoming). 3
Jewish Immigration 1870-1940, co-authored with Shira Kohn, in Immigrants in American History: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration, ed. Elliott Barkan (ABC Clio, 2013). The Great Migration and the transformation of American Jewry, in History of Jews and Judaism, ed. Alan Levenson (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011). Review of Louis Marshall and the Rise of Jewish Ethnicity in America, by M. M. Silver, Journal of Jewish Identities (forthcoming) Review of Henry Ford s War on Jews and the Legal Battle Against Hate Speech, by Victoria Saker Woeste, American Studies, Vol.52, no.3 (Fall 2013). Review of Translating a Tradition. Studies in American Jewish History, by Ira Robinson, The Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Vol. 11, issue 2 (July 2012). Review of Jewish Preaching in Times of War, 1800-2001, by Marc Saperstein, American Jewish Archives Journal, Vol. 62, no.1 (October 2010). Review of Forward: Immigrants, Socialism and Jewish Politics in New York, 1890-1917, by Ehud Manor, American Jewish History, Vol. 95, no.3 (September 2009). CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS State Power and the Shaping of American Jewish Identity in the Twentieth Century. Conference on Religion and the State, Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI, April 2013. Jews and the Creation of the USO. Presentation to the Board of Directors of the American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History, New York, NY, June 2012. World War I Jewish Soldiers Welfare Services and the Origins of American Religious Pluralism." Conference on the Politics of Military Service in Jewish History, Emory University, May 2012. Gearing Up for a Fight: the JWB and Jewish Preparation for WWII. Conference of the Association of Jewish Studies, Boston, MA, December 2011. The Faiths of Democracy: World War I and the Origins of a Judeo-Christian America. Conference of the Association of Jewish Studies, Boston, MA, December 2010. 4
The Same Ideal that was handed down to us from Mt. Sinai : The Jewish Welfare Board, Progressive era Politics, and the Discourses of Democracy. Conference of the Organization of American Historians, Washington, DC, April 2010. The Representative of the Jewry of America: The WWI Jewish Welfare Board and the Power of the State. Conference of the Association of Jewish Studies, Los Angeles, CA, December 2009. Some Army Discipline Would Improve the Whole House of Israel : World War I and the Boundaries of Jewishness in the American Military, Conference of the American Studies Association, Washington, DC, November 2009. When I get down South : Training for the WWI Military in the American South. Conference of the Southern Jewish Historical Society, New Orleans, LA, October 2009. A Home Away from Home: Soldiers Welfare huts and Jewish homes in the WWI American Military. Conference of the Association of Jewish Studies, Washington DC, December 2008. The Jewish Welfare Board and Non-Sectarian Soldiers Services in the WWI American Armed Forces. Biennial Scholars Conference on American Jewish History, Los Angles, CA, June 2008. The Jewish Welfare Board, the YMCA, and the Provision of Morally Uplifting Soldiers Welfare Services during the First World War. Conference of the Western Jewish Studies Association, Los Angeles, CA, April 2008. American Maccabees: Patriotic Service and Recruitment for the World War I Jewish Legion, Conference for the Association of Jewish Studies, Chicago, IL, December 2004. The Jewish Welfare Board, World War I and the Battle for American Jewry, Conference of the Association of Jewish Studies, Boston, MA, December 2003. Preaching Politics: The National Jewish Welfare Board and the Politics of Jewish American Identity, The Center for Jewish History, October 23, 2003. Being the Same but Different: Jewish Masculinity, the American Jewish Chaplaincy and WWI, Yale University Conference on Diaspora, October 2002. Theorizing the Jewish Diaspora, Europeanists Colloquium, NYU, 2000. 5
FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS Legacy Heritage Jewish Studies Project and the Association of Jewish Studies 2012 Awarded a grant to create a year-long series of events and lectures at Muhlenberg College and throughout the Lehigh Valley. This grant is part of a national program intended to promote on-going Jewish studies programming in small to mid-sized cities, and to foster creative and productive relationships between Jewish Studies scholars and the wider communities in which they work. Association for Jewish Studies December 2008 Graduate Student Conference Travel Grant for 40th Annual Conference in Washington D.C The Posen Foundation for Secular Jewish Culture 2007-2011 Awarded a teaching fellowship designed to introduce three new courses in Secular Jewish Culture into the Jewish Studies curriculum at Muhlenberg College, to work with librarians to expand library collections in Jewish Studies, and to organize lectures and events to increase the visibility of Jewish studies on the Muhlenberg campus. The German Historical Institute, Washington, DC. Spring 2004 Awarded a fellowship for dissertation research at National Archives and NY Public Library. The America Jewish Archives, Hebrew Union College, 2003-2004 Cincinnati, Ohio. Received a Jacob Rader Marcus Fellowship to conduct dissertation research using the extensive collection of materials on American Jewry at the American Jewish Archives. The Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture, January 2004 University of Leipzig, Germany. Invited to the Simon Dubnow Center as a visiting Graduate Student Fellow (declined). Trans-Atlantic Summer Institute, University of Minnesota, Summer 2003 Ludwig Maximilian Universität, Munich, Germany, DAAD. Invited to Munich to participate in a seminar on German Citizenship in the 20 th Century. 6
Center for Jewish History, New York, NY. 2002-2003 Granted a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship to conduct research at the archives of the American Jewish Historical Society and the Leo Baeck Institute. The Remarque Institute, New York University, New York, NY. 2001-2003 Awarded a Graduate Student Fellowship to support dissertation research and to assist in the organization and selection of participants for the Remarque Institute Forum. The Remarque Institute, New York University, New York, NY. Summer Travel Grant Summer 2003 To conduct dissertation research at the Neue Synagogue, Centrum Judaicum in Berlin, and the Militärgeschichtliche Forschungsamt in Potsdam, Germany. American Academy of Jewish Research June 2001 Graduate Student Summer Seminar at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. June 1991 Philip Goldfein, Class of 1926 Prize for best student paper on Shakespeare. PROFESSIONAL SERVICE Co-Chair of the Women s Caucus of the Association for Jewish Studies ADDITIONAL EDUCATION Columbia University, New York, NY. Summer 2001 Uriel Weinreich / YIVO Institute Yiddish Language Summer Program. Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont. Summer 1999 German language immersion program. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel. 1994-1996 Master s program in European History. Nishmat College for Women, Jerusalem, Israel. 1992-1993 Text-based study of Jewish law and philosophy. Kings College, London, England. 1989-1990 College courses in English and Continental philosophy. 7
LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES Hebrew fluent German reading knowledge Yiddish reading knowledge French reading knowledge MEMBERSHIPS AND PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS Association for Jewish Studies Women s Caucus of the Association for Jewish Studies American Jewish Historical Society Organization of American Historians 8