What I think about all day...

For as long as I can remember, I've loved the stories of the Jews - our incredible history, the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and the role that history and collective memory have on our notions of who we are. Whenever I find myself in a bookstore, I always (consciously or unconsciously) gravitate to the sections where I can find books on Jewish-just-about-anything: history, philosophy, language, religion, etc. Even in academic settings, I couldn't/can't get enough of it - in college, my favorite research project was the one I did comparing how Hasidic Jewish and Amish communities respond to genetic diseases, and my main research in graduate school focused on how the notion of Jewish Peoplehood is currently being lassoed by Jewish communal organizations to forge community in a world where notions of Jewish identity are more fluid (and thus more ripe with possibility) than ever. What did I ask my parents for for my birthday? A cookbook examining modern notions of Jewish cooking (it's like all of my favorite things - Jewish history, food, books, pictures of food, and feeding people I love - wrapped up into one beautifully-bound volume. How could I not ask for that for my birthday??

I love learning deeply about topics related to the Jewish people - whenever my husband and I come home from a text study get-together hosted by a local synagogue, I always wonder whistfully (and audibly) "How hard would it be to get an honorary Ph.D in Jewish history? Can I just audit Jewish studies classes all day for fun?" Finally, after years of this, the other night he said to me "So then blog about it!"

He's right.

I'm going to use this space as a place to brain-dump about Jewish topics that fascinate me. I want to avoid turning this into a place where I make listicles about fun Jewish things - the internet is already really good at that - and instead use it as a place to dig deeper into ideas I find intriguing/confusing/perplexing. I want to keep my musings grounded in sources and fact as much as possible, and I welcome [constructive] comments and rigorous discussion. I want to give myself time to really do this right, so I'm going to plan for maybe a month to focus on a given topic. Maybe that's too little time, or too much - we'll see!

First of all, though, I kind of hate the working title that I have for the blog (Jew-storian? Really?) so I want to crowd-source. What would you, dear friend and reader, call this blog if you were naming it? I can't offer much in the way of a reward for the best title, other than the honor of naming rights and (if I know you and live close enough nearby) maybe some baked goods...