MOSHE KORNFELD

mkornfeld@gmail.com
(585) 330-4949
www.moshekornfeld.com

EDUCATION

Ph.D. University of Michigan. Anthropology, 2015.

M.A. University of Michigan. Anthropology, 2010.
B.A. University of Rochester. Anthropology, 2004.

APPOINTMENTS

2018-2019 Visiting Scholar, Center for Judaic Studies, University of Denver.

2016-2018 Postdoctoral Research Associate, John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics,
Washington University in St. Louis.
2015-2016 Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Lecturer, Program in Jewish Studies, University of
Colorado Boulder.

RESEARCH

Book

Terms of Service: Jewish Community after Katrina, soon to be under review by Rutgers University Press.

Articles and Chapters

n.d. “Discipline and Comfort: Jewish Philanthropy in the Domestic Sphere.” Part of a
volume on religion and philanthropy, edited by David King and Philip Goff (in
process).
2018 “Identity Projects: Philanthropy, Neoliberalism, and Jewish Cultural Production.”
with Joshua Friedman. American Jewish History 102.4 (forthcoming).
2017 “Rebuilding Justice: Jewish Philanthropy and the Politics of Representation in Post-
Katrina New Orleans,” in Cultures of Doing Good: Anthropologists and NGOs, edited by
Amanda Lashaw, Christian Vannier, and Steven Sampson. University of Alabama
Press.
2017 “Funding Meaning on Jewish Service Trips to Post-Katrina New Orleans,” in The
Request and the Gift in Religious and Humanitarian Endeavors, edited by Frederick Klaits.
Palgrave.

Essays and Reviews

2017 “The Mystic’s Fight Against Injustice: Abraham Heschel as a Bridge Between Two
Impulses.” Review of Michael Marmur’s Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Sources of
 Wonder. The Common Reader.
2016 “Who Are You Calling an Anti-Semite?: Jewish Debate in Trump’s America.” Religion
& Politics.
2016 “Jewish Identity in the Age of Extreme Philanthropy.” Merkur Blog, translated by
Helmut Muller-Sievers.
2010 “The Jewish Service Mecca: New Orleans and the Jewish Community,” with Joshua
Lichtman. PresenTense Magazine.

Exhibit

Freedom Seder: American Judaism and Social Justice. Lead Curator. University of Colorado Boulder, 2015.

Invited Presentations

2018 “Discipline and Comfort: Jewish Philanthropy in the Domestic Sphere.” Religion
and Philanthropy Conference. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
2018 “From Vulnerability to Privilege: The Shifting Landscape of Jewish Responsibility."
Sacred Cultures of Care: Judaism, Islam, and the Politics of Poverty and Justice
Conference. University of Illinois at Chicago.
2018 “Seeking Sanctuary in Jewish New Orleans.” The Logic of Sanctuary: Religious
Mobilization in Non-Sovereign Spaces. Duke University.
2015 “Re-enchantment and The Freedom Seder.” Freedom Seder: American Judaism and
Social Justice Symposium. University of Colorado Boulder.
2015 “Reciprocating Justice: Political Dissidence and Jewish Privilege.” Lake Institute
Network of Emerging Scholars Workshop. Indiana University-Purdue University
Indianapolis.
2015 “Will the Revolution Be Funded? Jewish Social Activism and the New Gilded Age.”
Symposium in honor of Ayala Emmet. University of Rochester.
2014 “The Past, Present, and Future of Jewish Memory: Reconsidering
Holocaust Memory.” Invited Panelist. University of Denver.
2010 “Inventing Jewish Social Justice.” Program in Jewish Communal Service Workshop.
University of Michigan.
2009 “Kosher Taboos: The Industrialization and Globalization of the Kosher Food
Industry.” Guest lecturer for Comparative Study of Culture course. University of
Michigan.

Conference and Workshop Presentations

2017 “Jews and the Alt-Right.” Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference,
Washington, DC.
2017 “From Vulnerability to Privilege: The Shifting Landscape of Jewish Progressivism.”
NGOs and Nonprofits Conference, Washington, DC.

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2017 “Whenever There are Jews in Need: New Orleans, Philanthropy, and the
American Jewish Mainstream.” Colloquium on American Religion, Politics, and
Culture, John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, Washington University in
St. Louis.
2017 “If Not Now: Politicizing Religious Time.” Society for the Anthropology of Religion
Biennial Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
2017 “Structure, Practice, and Agency in a Jewish Service Corps.” Colloquium on
American Religion, Politics, and Culture, John C. Danforth Center on Religion and
Politics, Washington University in St. Louis.
2016 “The Value of Jewish Story Time.” Association for Jewish Studies Annual
Conference, San Diego, CA.
2016 “The Neoliberal Jew: Episodes, Incubators, and Innovators.” Workshop on Religion
and Philanthropy, University of Colorado Boulder. With Joshua Friedman.
2015 “Jewish Philanthropy in the New Gilded Age.” Association for Jewish Studies
Annual Conference, Boston, MA.
2014 “Imagining Jewish Geography: New Orleans as Self and Other.” Association for
Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD.
2014 “The Question of Jewish Communal and Institutional Responsibility in Post-Katrina
New Orleans.” American Anthropological Association Annual Conference,
Washington, DC.
2013 “‘The New Mecca of Tikkun Olam’: Service Tourism to New Orleans.” Association
for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Boston, MA.
2013 “Theorizing Jewish Privilege.” Princeton Religion in the Americas Workshop,
Princeton, NJ.
2013 “Nongovernmental Politics.” The Future of NGO Studies Conference,
Chicago, IL.
2013 “Interfaith Synergies and Boundary Maintenance in Post-Katrina New Orleans.”
Society for the Anthropology of Religion Conference, Pasadena, CA.
2011 “The Jewish Social Justice Movement: History, Ethnography, and Networks of
Giving.” Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Washington, DC.

Community Presentations

2016 “Revisiting ‘The New Mecca of Tikkun Olam’: The Jewish Katrina Story a Decade
Later.” Congregation Bonai Shalom, Boulder, CO.
2016 Talkback following Martin Luther King Jr. Day screening of Rosenwald, Boulder
Jewish Film Festival, Boulder, CO.
2015 “The Freedom Seder: Tradition Collides with Social Action.” Boulder Jewish
Community Center, Boulder, CO.
2015 “The Jewish Response to Hurricane Katrina.” Congregation Shir Chadash, New
Orleans, LA.

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AWARDS, GRANTS, AND FELLOWSHIPS

External

2018 Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society Research Fellowship.

2016-2018 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Washington University in St. Louis.
2015 Lake Institute Network of Emerging Scholars Research Award.
2015 Participant, American Academy of Jewish Research Early Career Workshop, Rutgers,
The State University of New Jersey.
2013-2014 Lake Institute on Faith & Giving Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship.
2011-2012 Berman Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in Support of Research in the Social
Scientific Study of the Contemporary American Jewish Community.
2011 Dissertation Research Grant from Repair the World Foundation.
2003 Barth-Crapsey Undergraduate Research Award, University of Rochester.

Internal

2014 Milford Wolpoff Writing Award, University of Michigan.

2014 Rackham One Term Fellowship, University of Michigan.
2014 Rackham Block Grant, University of Michigan.
2012 Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant, University of Michigan.
2011 Department of Anthropology Research Grant, University of Michigan.
2010 Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant, University of Michigan.
2008 Department of Anthropology Research Grant, University of Michigan.
2008 Frankel Center for Judaic Studies Summer Funding, University of Michigan.
2008 Frankel Center funding to attend Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language,
Literature and Culture, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
2007-2008 First-Year Fellowship from the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of
Michigan.

TEACHING

Washington University in St. Louis.

Postdoctoral Research Associate, John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics
Spring 2018 Religion, Environmentalism, and Politics
Fall 2016 Black-Jewish Relations in the United States

University of Colorado Boulder

Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Lecturer, Program in Jewish Studies

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 Spring 2016 Introduction to Jewish Culture(s)
Spring 2016 Jewish Studies Internship
Spring 2016 Post-Holocaust American Judaism
Spring 2015 Post-Holocaust American Judaism

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Visiting Lecturer, Department of Anthropology
Spring 2013 Anthropology of Jews and Judaism
Fall 2012 Anthropology of the Contemporary United States

Tulane University
Visiting Lecturer, Department of Jewish Studies
Fall 2011 Anthropology of Jews and Judaism

University of Michigan
Graduate Student Instructor, Department of Anthropology
Spring 2010 Introduction to Anthropology (head graduate student instructor)
Fall 2009 Introduction to Anthropology (head graduate student instructor)
Spring 2008 The Comparison of Cultures
Fall 2008 Introduction to Anthropology

OTHER EXPERIENCE

2017 Organizer, panel on “Jews and Whiteness in Trump’s America,” Association for
Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Washington, DC.
2016 Organizer, Jewish Philanthropy Workshop, University of Colorado Boulder.
2013-2014 Participant, Religion in the Americas Workshop, Princeton University.
2013 Organizer, panel on “Episodic Jewish Culture,” Association for Jewish Studies
Annual Conference, Boston, MA.
2013 Respondent, panel on “Congregation-Based Community Organizing,” Jewish Social
Change Agents Meet Jewish Social Researchers Conference, New York, NY.
2012 Member, Editorial Committee, “People of the Book, Community of Action:
Exploring Jewish Service-Learning,” special issue of Journal of Jewish Communal Service.
2009 Research Assistant for Vanessa Ochs, Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University
of Michigan.

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

American Anthropological Association

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American Academy of Religion
Association for Jewish Studies
Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society
Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry
Member of Association Board, 2011-2015

LANGUAGES

Hebrew (fluent)
Aramaic (reading knowledge)
Yiddish (basic knowledge)