About

Offering Intermarriage Analysis and Advice

Founder's Academic Bio

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Keren R. McGinity is an educator-activist who specializes in Jewish intermarriage and gender roles. She is the Interfaith Specialist at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism where she guides movement leaders about diversity and inclusion. Dr. McGinity is also affiliated with the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and teaches American Studies at Brandeis University. She was the founding director of the Interfaith Families Jewish Engagement program at Hebrew College in Boston.

Dr. McGinity was the inaugural Mandell L. Berman Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Contemporary American Jewish Life at the University of Michigan’s Frankel Center for Judaic Studies (2008–2010).

She earned her Ph.D. from Brown University where she subsequently held an appointment as a Visiting Assistant Professor of History (2005–2008). She also holds degrees from Harvard and Rutgers Universities. She has taught ethnic literature, history, sociology, American studies, gender studies, and Jewish studies.

Dr. McGinity’s pioneering book, Marrying Out: Jewish Men, Intermarriage, and Fatherhood (Indiana University Press, 2014), is the first gender history of intermarried Jewish men. Her earlier monograph, Still Jewish: A History of Women and Intermarriage in America (NYU Press, 2009), was selected as a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.

Interweaving contemporary ethnography with traditional archival sources, these books significantly broaden the understanding of intermarried women and men by elucidating the meanings behind their choices, the Christians who marry them, and the influential role of popular culture. Dr. McGinity was the guest editor of a special issue of the Journal of Jewish Identities on intermarriage and authenticity (January 2015) and has authored many articles.

Her research and writing have been generously supported by the Mandell L. Berman Foundation, the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, the National Women’s Studies Association, Wellesley College, Brown University, the University of Michigan, and the Association for Jewish Studies Women’s Caucus.

Dr. McGinity provides reviewing expertise to Sacred Spaces and serves on the Academic Advisory Council of the Jewish Women’s Archive. She served on the Board of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry and as an Ombud in the Office of Sexual Misconduct of the Association for Jewish Studies.

Mission

Love & Tradition is dedicated to opening hearts and broadening minds about intermarriage to build a fully inclusive Jewish Community.

Services Include:

  1. Conducting original research projects and disseminating new knowledge through public lectures, workshops, conferences, and small gatherings.
  2. Educating communities to Jewishly engage interfaith couples and families.
  3. Serving as a liaison between academia and communities about the #MeToo movement and Jewish intermarriage.