Jodi Eichler-Levine writes about how people make meaning through everyday actions, and how the stories we tell shape our reality — whether they are stories of a family heirloom, a beloved children’s book, or a trip to Disney World.
She is the author of Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis: How Jews Craft Resilience and Create Community (University of North Carolina Press, Oct. 2020) and Suffer the Little Children: Uses of the Past in Jewish and African American Children’s Literature (NYU Press, 2013). Her edited volume, Disney and Religion: A Small Spiritual World, After All, is forthcoming from Wiley.
Her academic home is Lehigh University, where she is the Berman Professor of Jewish Civilization and a Professor of Religion Studies. At Lehigh, she teaches courses in Jewish studies, North American religions, and gender studies, among other fields. You can read her full curriculum vitae.
Jodi’s work on the intersections of religion, popular culture, politics, race, and gender has appeared in The Washington Post, Salon, The Revealer, Killing the Buddha, Kveller, and Religion Dispatches, among other venues.