Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis

“A tactile engagement with religion and crafting, in which handmade objects convey ancestral relationships across the generations. . . . A fascinating argument for crafts as a conduit to memory and as an aide to healing.”—Library Journal

“The interweaving of the personal and professional allows Eichler-Levine to walk the reader along an analytical path that appreciates deeply what it examines and which pairs insight with empathy. . . . Because the ethnic, cultural and demographic limitations of her study are taken as an opportunity to reflect on the diversity of gender and Judaisms, the explorations of Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis have much to give to other fields of ethnography-based studies of religion.”—Jewish Culture and History

“The book can be enjoyed by both academics in fields of religion who employ oral histories for much of their research and laypeople as the conversational writing style makes the book highly accessible.”—Atlanta Jewish Times

“A well-written and carefully argued book. . . . An insightful and compelling view into how with the help of objects American Jewish women make memories, craft resilience, and create community.”—Reading Religion

“This well-written ethnography, based on three years of fieldwork, gracefully interweaves the author’s presence.”—Material Religion

“An engrossing . . . study of the power of homemade, crafted objects to create a reply felt sense of memory, identity, and Jewishness.”—AJS Review

“This is a book that moves from strength to strength and will be of great use to both scholars and teachers. . . . [R]eaders and scholars for years to come will be fortunate to have this time capsule, and there is much more to be said about this historic moment that Eichler-Levine’s work will help frame and articulate.”—Contemporary Jewry

“Eichler-Levine’s compelling account of how to experience religion outside the traditional spaces of focus illuminates how American Jews create and craft a Judaism as a form of resilience, a material encounter with memory, and a physical desire for continuity. This book is testimony and witness to these lives and to these practices.”—Ken Koltun-Fromm, author of Imagining the Jewish God

“Taking a diligent yet delightful approach, and keeping in view her personal imbrication in her own family’s ways, Jodi Eichler-Levine advances a remarkably comprehensive view of Jewish identities in the United States today. Analyzing the various ways Judaism and Jewishness can be understood in cultural, social, political, and religious contexts, she opens up new directions and reveals overlooked spaces, from the personal to the social and back.”—S. Brent Rodríguez-Plate, author of A History of Religion in 5½ Objects