As a social historian and scholar of religion in America, Revel Professor Jeffrey Gurock investigates how secular cultural phenomena entered into the lives of Jewish men and women in America and the conflicts that ensued as Jews attempted to be part of American environments while maintaining connections to their faith.
The Jewish encounter with American sports鈥攁 robust example of what Professor Gurock calls 鈥渃ultural clamor and religious conflict鈥濃攊s the subject of his new article, 鈥淭he Clothes They Wear and the Time They Keep: The Orthodox Athletes鈥 Tests of Tolerance in Contemporary America,鈥 which appeared in , ed. Raanan Rein and David M.K. Sheinin (Leiden and Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2014), pp. 68-84. This study looks closely at the challenges traditional Jewish men and women faced over several generations in entering the arenas of sports. It also points out how changing American attitudes towards minority religions have generally facilitated religious Jews鈥攁nd others of deep faith commitment鈥攑articipating in sports without violating their religious scruples.
For the full text of Professor Gurock鈥檚 new article, click here.
