Background

Joshua Plaut was born on April 4, 1957 in New York, United States. He is the son of Walter H., a rabbi as well, and Hadassah (Yaweh) Plaut, who served as a teacher.

Education

Plaut graduated from Beloit College as a Bachelor of Arts in 1979. He also attended Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1981. He obtained master's degree from the University of California in Los Angeles in 1982. The next educational establishment, which Plaut attended was Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, he was educated there in 1989. He also did doctoral study at New York University.

Career

Plaut’s career started in 1977, when he began to work as an archivist at the Jerusalem Center for Public Policy. Next year he served at the position of analyst of investment aid at the U.S. Department of State. Only five years later he continued his work as a rabbinic intern in Selma, holding that position for one year. That same year he began to hold that position in Sydney, simultaneously serving as a rabbinic intern in Jonesboro, as well, where he stayed for 2 years. In 1986 Plaut changed his working position to become a B’nai B’rith Hillel director at Trinity College, he left that post seven years later. At the same time he served as a rabbi at the Congregation Kol Haverim. In 1993 he held two working positions – the first – rabbi at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, and the second - Hillel Jewish chaplain at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Nowadays Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut is an Executive Director of American Friends of Rabin Medical Center, representing Israel's premier hospital in the USA. He works as a historian, photo-ethnographer, and cultural anthropologist, and is the author of the forthcoming book, Silent Night: Being Jewish at Christmas Time in America: Proclaiming Identity in the Face of Seasonal Marginality.

Achievements

• Plaut received grants from Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, American Jewish Archives, Joseph Myerhoff Fund, Skirball Foundation, Scheuer Foundation, Baron de Hirsch Fund, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, and National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Greek Jewry in the Twentieth Century, 1913-1983: Patterns of Jewish Survival in the Greek Provinces Before and After the Holocaust

    (Greek Jewry In The Twentieth Century 1913-1983: Patterns ...)

    2000
  • A Kosher Christmas: 'Tis the Season to be Jewish

    (Christmas is not everybody’s favorite holiday. Historical...)

    2012

Connections

Plaut married Lori Epstein on April 7, 1995.

Father:

Walter H. Plaut

Mother:

Hadassah (Yawen) Plaut

Wife:

Lori Epstein