Ted Merwin

Website: www.intheirownimage.com
Residence : Harrisburg, PA

Biographical information
Ted Merwin, Ph.D. is the author of the critically acclaimed "In Their Own Image: New York Jews in Jazz Age Popular Culture." He has spoken at the 92nd Street Y and at universities, JCC’s, synagogues, libraries and book festivals throughout the country. Ted teaches religion and Judaic Studies at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, where he also directs the Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life. He has moonlighted since 2000 as chief theater critic of the New York Jewish Week, the largest-circulation Jewish newspaper in the nation, where he has published close to 300 articles. His articles on Jewish culture also appear in the New York Times, Washington Post, Moment Magazine, Hadassah Magazine, and many other major publications. He is currently writing an illustrated history of the New York Jewish deli.

Discussion topics

• "Unbuttoned: Clothes and the Making of American Jewish Humor"
  Since their earliest days in this country, Eastern European Jewish immigrants were overwhelmingly involved with one industry—the garment trade. Not surprisingly, clothing became a major theme of American Jewish humor. This interactive, multimedia lecture traces the symbolic use of clothing in the work of such diverse entertainers as Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. If , as Mark Twain wrote, "clothes make the man," then how did clothes help "make" American Jewish comedy?
• "A Goyish Tevye?! Non-Jews Playing Jews on the Broadway Stage"
  Where have all the Jewish actors gone? Decades after the era of Paul Muni, Molly Picon, Phil Silvers and Zero Mostel, many major Jewish roles are nowadays cast with non-Jewish actors-witness the recent, controversial Broadway revival of "Fiddler on the Roof," starring Alfred Molina as the Yiddish patriarch. This interactive, multimedia lecture looks at the phenomenon of "Jewface" on the Broadway stage by first taking a look back in history and then focusing on the theatrical careers of Nathan Lane, Martin Short, and other non-Jews who specialize in Jewish roles. Can Jewish theater thrive without Jewish actors? And, more importantly, how are non-Jews taking increasing responsibility for the perpetuation of Jewish life and culture?
• "Noshtalgia: The History of the New York Jewish Deli"
  With only a handful of Jewish delis left in New York, it may be hard to remember that the deli was for most of the twentieth century the lifeblood and the linchpin of the Jewish community. Indeed, the deli became no less than a secular alternative to the synagogue, selling a Jewish "soul" food with the sweet and sour taste of Jewish life. This interactive, multimedia lecture traces the rise and fall of the Jewish deli, including the changing reflection of the deli in advertising, comic strips, film, and television.

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