Shaul Kelner
Professor of Jewish Studies & Sociology · Vanderbilt University
A leading cultural sociologist of American Jewish life. Author of two award-winning books. His scholarship connects the Soviet Jewry movement, contemporary antizionism, and the deeper currents of American Jewish life.
Two Award-Winning Books
A Cold War Exodus
National Jewish Book Award · NYU Press, 2024
The story of the most effective human rights campaign of the Cold War. How American Jewish activists — using Passover seders, bar mitzvah twinnings, Freedom Runs, and thousands of Americans smuggling contraband across the Iron Curtain — defeated Soviet antizionism and freed more than a million Jews.
Tours That Bind
Jordan Schnitzer Book Award · NYU Press, 2010
The definitive study of Birthright Israel. Seven years of firsthand observation reveal how diaspora tourism shapes American Jewish identity — and how young American Jews, souvenir shopping and hotel bar in tow, engage in something ancient and something entirely new.
National Jewish Book Award ceremony · Central European University, Vienna · Wende Museum Soviet Jewry Symposium
Speaking Topics
Available for keynotes, scholar-in-residence programs, panels, workshops, and corporate & ERG programming. All talks available in-person or virtual.
Antizionism & Antisemitism
Contemporary threats to Jewish life — sociological analysis, workplace and classroom impacts, frameworks for response.
The Soviet Jewry Movement
History and stories from the most effective human rights campaign of the Cold War.
Cold War Lessons for Today
What the struggle against Soviet antizionism teaches us about resilience, identity, and fighting back.
American Jewish Life
Sociology, culture, Israel connections, and continuity — a celebratory and analytically honest portrait.