Jewish Home-Grown History: Immigration, Identity, Intermarriage

FAIN: GE-50004-08

University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA 90089-0012)
Marsha Kinder (Project Director: September 2007 to June 2009)

Planning of interactive history software, a website, a multimedia traveling exhibition, and "database documentary" television programs about Jewish American immigration and cultural identity issues.

This project creates an interactive mode of history that enables people to engage in writing Jewish cultural history by creating a dialogue between their own stories and the public record. Through its "home-grown history" software, it allows users to collaborate on documenting their stories. By focusing on "immigration, identity and intermarriage," themes that the American Jewish community shares with other ?migre? communities, the project appeals to a broad audience?both Jews and non-Jews?and encourages inter-generational learning. The initial implementation includes three kinds of public media presentations: a website that collects histories from users; an immersive museum installation starting in California and traveling to New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and other places; and a series of "database documentaries" screened on television. Together these diverse modes comprise a "transmedia network," a series of networked public spaces engaging the same materials in different ways.