Ted merwin biography

"Ted Merwin... delivers a scholarly paean--like an ample but lean corned beef sandwich--to a vanishing New York ethnic icon." ~New York Times "Metropolitan"

"Try reading Ted Merwins new book,Pastrami on Ryewithout having your mouth water.Merwin offers plenty of delicious descriptions as he traces how delis rose up first as take-out services for Jewish immigrants, to gathering places for Jewish communities, to symbols of integration as pastrami piled high became popular nationwide." ~New York Post

"The writing is so lively and entertaining readers will forget theyre being educated. The work is also an excellent example of a multidisciplinary approach combining food studies, Judaic studies, history and sociology." ~Long Island Jewish World

"A pleasing exercise in culinary and cultural history, evoking some favorite New York-centric comfort foods... [Merwin] does a solid job of locating the delicatessen... as a cultural and culinary center of New York Jewish life." ~Kirkus Reviews

"[V]ery well researched and enjoyable." ~JWeekly.com

"Merwins tasty exploration of deli cuisine and culture also tracks larger shifts in the American Jewish experience, particularly in the post-World War II period when delis upstaged shuls as Jewish gathering places." ~JTA

"Merwin has written a spectacularly funny, engaging and sharply analytical book." ~Forward

"[A]cultural history of American Judaism told through a particularly revealing culinary lens." ~Haaretz

"Avital addition to the academic literature in cultural history, American studies, American Jewish studies, food studies, and popular culture studies." ~Journal of American Culture

"Thorough and thoughtful, scholarly and readable, Ted Merwin's Pastrami on Rye provides a vital addition to the academic literature in cultural history, American studies, American Jewish studies, food studies, and popular culture studies." ~Journal of American Culture

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Ted Merwin Bio

Ted Merwin joined the Dickinson community in 2000. In addition to directing the Asbell Center, he is an associate professor of religion and Judaic studies. He teaches courses on American Jewish history, Jewish masculinity, Jewish food, Jewish theater and film, and secular Judaism. Ted graduated from Amherst College in 1990 and went on to a Ph.D. in theater from the City University of New York Graduate Center. For the past decade, he has written a weekly theater column for The (New York) Jewish Week. His articles have also appeared in the The New York Times, Washington Post, Moment, Hadassah, Sondheim Review and many other publications. Ted's first book, In their Own Image: New York Jews in Jazz Age Popular Culture, focuses on 1920s Jewish culture in New York. He is at work on his second book, a history of the New York Jewish delicatessen. Ted is a frequent lecturer on American Jewish culture.  To read more on Ted Merwin, please view his website at http://www.tedmerwin.com/. 

FOCUS ON FACULTY

by Christine Baksi
Photos by Carl Socolow

Ted Merwin, associate professor of Judaic studies and director of the Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life, discusses his new book and memorabilia collection that tell the history of the Jewish deli.

Your much-anticipated new book, Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli, comes out in September. What can readers expect?

It’s the first comprehensive history of this subject, with a particular focus on the deli as an essential ethnic gathering place for post-immigrant generations of Jews who were shifting away from scrupulous religious observance and looking for more secular ways of building community. I use sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s influential idea of the “third place,” the space that is neither work nor home, where people go to relax and unwind. Every ethnic group had its particular “third place”—for the Irish, it was the pub; for Italians, the social club; for African-Americans, the barbershop or beauty parlor.

Jews actually developed two types of delis—the kosher deli, which was the cornerstone of every Jewish neighborhood, and the “kosher-style” or non-kosher deli, which was often a celebrity hangout; it was typically located in or near the entertainment district in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami Beach. Given the tremendous involvement of Jews in the entertainment industry, the relationship between the deli and show business was (and is) quite strong; I focus quite a bit in the book on the depiction of delis in American pop culture—theatre, film, television, music and stand-up comedy. This enables me to discuss how one form of culture, like food, can be ensconced within another form of culture, such as popular entertainment. And it allows me, in all of my lectures on the book, to show the infamous “fake orgasm” scene from When Harry Met Sally, which represents the climax (pun definitely intended) of the use of the deli in cinema.

How