CONTACT INFORMATION:
- email: jody.myers@csun.edu
Research Interest
Jody Myers’s research has focused on the transformation of traditional Judaism in the modern era. She has written extensively on the messianic idea and religious Zionism, including the book Seeking Zion: Modernity and Messianic Activism in the Writings of Tsevi Hirsch Kalischer (2003). Her other area of research is on contemporary religious expression during the last third of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries. This includes studies of women’s writings on the mikveh, midrash, and ritual innovations; and contemporary Kabbalah, and on this theme she wrote the volume Kabbalah and the Spiritual Quest: The Kabbalah Centre in America (2007). She has written numerous articles in academic journals and collective volumes. A complete list of publications is in her CV. She has recently co-edited a volume, Feasting and Fasting: The History and Ethics of Jewish Food (2019).
Current Research
She is working on a book, Eating at God’s Table: How Foodways Sustain and Nourish Orthodox Jewish Religious Life. This is an exploration of foodways and community among American Orthodox Jews, using the diverse communities in the western L.A. neighborhood of Pico-Robertson as a case study.
Former Organizer and Co-director, CSUN student summer trips to Eastern Europe
- 2012 Poland, including Jewish Culture Festival
- 2013 Poland and Germany
- 2014 Poland and Lithuania BLOG VIDEO
- 2016 Poland and Austria BLOG VIDEO
- 2018 Warsaw and Krakow (Poland), Prague (Czech Republic), and Amsterdam BLOG
- 2020 Poland and Germany
Personal Travel Blogs
- May 2011 Poland Blog
- Summer 2012 Romania Blog
- May 2012 Fulbright in Warsaw Blog