The Wandering Jew

Welcome to My Blog

Hi everyone!

This is my first attempt at writing about myself in any kind of autobiographical form ever, so you’re going to have to be patient with me as I figure out my narrator voice. 

Consider this my formal announcement that I’ve decided to write a blog, if only temporarily, because I’m going to be doing a lot of travelling over the next year for dissertation research. And I figure a lot of you will want to know about the adventures I find and the trouble I discover along the way.

I will publish when I have good stories to share or wisdom to bestow. Sometimes the posts will be super dorky—and only my grad school friends will have any clue what I’m saying. 

Later today, you will get a post or two dedicated to my summer in DC. I lived here before, and it’s domestic, so it feels less blog-worthy. But I do have some stories to tell.

For those of you with whom I have not been in touch in a while, you may not be all that clear about the topic of my dissertation. I’m not going to bore you with details, but suffice it to say I’m looking at Jewish organizations in Britain, France and the U.S. and their engagement with international human rights from 1945-1975. If you keep reading the blog, you might learn a little bit. Or you can just enjoy my drinking stories. Either way works.

I should also warn some of you: I may play around with some very insidious anti-Semitic stereotypes on here. After all, I am researching some Jews who actually wished they had the powers of a world Jewish conspiracy on their side.

For example, the title of my blog is a nod to a longstanding trope dating back to medieval times which suggests (to oversimplify) that Jews are rootless, always on the move, and don’t actually belong anywhere. 

Finally, here my schedule for the year, so those of you not keeping track of me via GPS can have a clue where I am:

Southampton, UK: August 5 - September 6

New York (Conference): September 7-10

New Haven: September 11-13

North Carolina (Friend’s Wedding): September 14-16

London, UK: September 17-October 6

Jerusalem, Israel: October 7-December 15

Paris, France: January ? - May 31 (with trips to Geneva, Switzerland)

Cincinnati, Ohio: June 1-June 30 

Looking forward to sharing my journey with you all! 

NK