Shaina Hammerman / Silver Screen, Hasidic Jews

The Bindery hosts Shaina Hammerman as she launches her first book, Silver Screen, Hasidic Jews. Joining her in conversation is Helene Wecker (The Golem and the Jinni). Don’t miss it!

Motivated by Woody Allen’s brief comedic transformation into a Hasidic Jew in Annie Hall, cultural historian Shaina Hammerman examines the effects of real and imagined representations of Hasidic Jews in film, television, theater, and photography. Although these depictions could easily be dismissed as slapstick comedies and sexy dramas about forbidden relationships, Hammerman uses this ethnic imagery to ask meaningful questions about how Jewish identity, multiculturalism, belonging, and relevance are constructed on the stage and silver screen.

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Shaina Hammerman teaches Jewish studies, cultural history, film, and literature at the University of San Francisco, Mills College, and San Quentin State Prison. She holds a Ph.D. in Jewish History and Culture from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.

Helene Wecker grew up in suburban Chicago, and received her Master’s in Fiction from Columbia University. Her first novel, the New York Times bestseller, The Golem and the Jinni, was published by HarperCollins in 2013. Its sequel, THE IRON SEASON, will arrive in 2019.