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About Me

Rachel B. Gross is Associate Professor and John and Marcia Goldman Chair in American Jewish Studies in the Department of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University. She is a religious studies scholar who studies twentieth- and twenty-first-century American Jews. Her book, Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice, is a 2021 National Jewish Book Award finalist in American Jewish Studies and received an Honorable Mention for the 2021 Saul Viener Book Prize, given by the American Jewish Historical Society. She is currently working on a religious biography of the twentieth-century immigration writer Mary Antin.

Recent Publications

Book

• Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice. New York: New York University Press, 2021. Finalist, 2021 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies, awarded by the Jewish Book Council. Honorable mention, 2021 Saul Viener Book Prize, awarded by the American Jewish Historical Society.

Articles and Book Chapters

• “Feeling Jewish: Nostalgia and American Jewish Religion.” CrossCurrents 71, no. 1 (April 2021): 19–33.
• “Jews, Schmaltz, and Crisco in the Age of Industrial Food.” In Feasting and Fasting: The History and Ethics of Jewish Food, edited by Aaron S. Gross, Jody Meyers, and Jordan D. Rosenblum. New York: New York University Press, 2020.
• “Table Talk: American Jewish Foodways and the Study of Religion.” Religion Compass 13, no. 4 (March 2019).
• “Moving Parts: Contraptions and Jewish Traditions.” In Contraption: Rediscovering California Jewish Artists, edited by Renny Pritikin and Mark D. Johnson. Munich, Germany: Hirmer Publishers, 2018.
• “People of the Picture Book: PJ Library and American Jewish Religion.” In Religion and Popular Culture in America, 3rd edition, edited by Bruce David Forbes and Jeffrey H. Mahan, University of California Press, 2017.
• “Field Trip to the Kosher Kitchen: Religion and Politics in the University Dining Hall.” Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy 25, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2014), 128–137.
• “‘Draydel Salad’: The Serious Business of Jewish Food and Fun in Postwar America.” In Religion, Food, and Eating in North America, edited by Benjamin E. Zeller, Marie W. Dallam, Reid L. Neilson, and Nora L. Rubel, Columbia University Press, 2014.

Online Contributions

• “Is American Girl a Religious Authority?” Society for U.S. Intellectual History Blog. November 22, 2021.
• “If You’re Asking American Jews If They’re Religious, You Don’t Understand American Jews.” Jewish Telegraphic Agency. May 11, 2021.
• “The Politics of Nostalgia.” Religion & Politics. February 2, 2021.
• “How Children’s Books Keep the Jewish American Immigrant Story Alive.” Alma. January 13, 2021.
• “How to Pick the Fictional Bubbe and Zayde Who Are Right for You.” In Geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies. December 1, 2020.
• “Memory.” In “A Universe of Terms” series, edited by Mona Oraby and Daniel Vaca. The Immanent Frame: Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere. May 29, 2020.
• “Crisco and Jews: A Story ‘4,000 years’ in the Making.” J. The Jewish News of Northern California. March 2, 2020.
• “A Million Matzo Balls.” Co-authored with Jessica Kirzane. The Yiddish Book Center’s Great Jewish Books Teacher Resources. March 30, 2018.
• “Jewish Food Does Not Begin and End with Kosher.” JTA, February 15, 2018.
• “‘An Unjustified S(ch)mear Campaign’: Narratives of American Jewish Food.” Stroum Center for Jewish Studies E-Journal, University of Washington, November 16, 2017.
• “Is the Statue of Liberty a Jewish Woman?” J. The  Jewish News of Northern California, July 3, 2017.
• “‘Anne ♥ Peter’ and the Rise of Anne Frank Fan Videos.” The Jewish Daily Forward, The Sisterhood blog, November 17, 2015.
• “Who Counts as a Jew?” Religion & Politics, October 8, 2013.

Media Coverage

NPR, JTA, The Forward, The Jewish Week (New York), J. The Jewish Week of Northern California, The Takeout

Social Media

@rachelbethgross

Country Focus

United States

Expertise by Geography

United States

Expertise by Chronology

20th century, 21st century

Expertise by Topic

Disability, Food History, Material Culture, Museums, Public History, Religion