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.
(Greek Jewry In The Twentieth Century 1913-1983: Patterns ...)
Greek Jewry In The Twentieth Century 1913-1983: Patterns Of Survival In The Greek Provinces Before And After The Holocaust examines the events and living situation of Greek Jewry before, during, and after the Second World War. Drawing upon archival documents, oral histories, photographs and more, Rabbi Plaut suggests seven principles that contribute to the survival of small-town Jewish communities in Greece. Closely researched, with appendices that include deportation testimonies and the Greek national constitution, Greek Jewry In The Twentieth Century is an involving, informative look the history of a community struggling between national, ethnic, and religious identities.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1611472202/?tag=2022091-20
2000
(Christmas is not everybody’s favorite holiday. Historical...)
Christmas is not everybody’s favorite holiday. Historically, Jews in America, whether participating in or refraining from recognizing Christmas, have devised a multitude of unique strategies to respond to the holiday season. Their response is a mixed one: do we participate, try to ignore the holiday entirely, or create our own traditions and make the season an enjoyable time? This book, the first on the subject of Jews and Christmas in the United States, portrays how Jews are shaping the public and private character of Christmas by transforming December into a joyous holiday season belonging to all Americans. Creative and innovative in approaching the holiday season, these responses range from composing America’s most beloved Christmas songs, transforming Hanukkah into the Jewish Christmas, creating a national Jewish tradition of patronizing Chinese restaurants and comedy shows on Christmas Eve, volunteering at shelters and soup kitchens on Christmas Day, dressing up as Santa Claus to spread good cheer, campaigning to institute Hanukkah postal stamps, and blending holiday traditions into an interfaith hybrid celebration called “Chrismukkah” or creating a secularized holiday such as Festivus. Through these venerated traditions and alternative Christmastime rituals, Jews publicly assert and proudly proclaim their Jewish and American identities to fashion a universally shared message of joy and hope for the holiday season. See also: http://www.akosherchristmas.org Christmas is not everybody’s favorite holiday. Historically, Jews in America, whether participating in or refraining from recognizing Christmas, have devised a multitude of unique strategies to respond to the holiday season. Their response is a mixed one: do we participate, try to ignore the holiday entirely, or create our own traditions and make the season an enjoyable time? This book, the first on the subject of Jews and Christmas in the United States, portrays how Jews are shaping the public and private character of Christmas by transforming December into a joyous holiday season belonging to all Americans. Creative and innovative in approaching the holiday season, these responses range from composing America’s most beloved Christmas songs, transforming Hanukkah into the Jewish Christmas, creating a national Jewish tradition of patronizing Chinese restaurants and comedy shows on Christmas Eve, volunteering at shelters and soup kitchens on Christmas Day, dressing up as Santa Claus to spread good cheer, campaigning to institute Hanukkah postal stamps, and blending holiday traditions into an interfaith hybrid celebration called “Chrismukkah” or creating a secularized holiday such as Festivus. Through these venerated traditions and alternative Christmastime rituals, Jews publicly assert and proudly proclaim their Jewish and American identities to fashion a universally shared message of joy and hope for the holiday season. See also: http://www.akosherchristmas.org
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813553806/?tag=2022091-20
2012
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.
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.
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.
(Greek Jewry In The Twentieth Century 1913-1983: Patterns ...)
2000(Christmas is not everybody’s favorite holiday. Historical...)
2012Plaut married Lori Epstein on April 7, 1995.