Ellen Smith

lecturer, Brandeis University

Ellen Smith is Lecturer in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program and the associate director of its Gralla Fellows Program for Religion Journalists. She is also principal of Museumsmith, a firm specializing in museum exhibitions and historic site interpretations throughout the nation. Trained as an academic historian and a museum curator, Smith has published more than three dozen books, articles and catalogs including *The Jews of Boston*, co-edited with Jonathan D. Sarna. Among her recent work are publications and exhibitions *The Jews of Rhode Island*, *Seattle Jewish Women* (Museum of History and Industry, Seattle); *Jewish New Year Postcards*; *American Yiddish Theater *(Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York City); *Colonial American Jewish Portraits* (Jewish Museum, New York City); historic immigrant synagogues; and three exhibitions on the Jews of Boston. Smith was also the Chief Historical Consultant to the Emmy Award-winning WGBH *The Jews of Boston *television production. She was one of twelve nationally selected scholars participating in "The Visual Culture of American Religions" project (1996-2000) funded by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Lilly Endowment. Smith is the former Curator of the American Jewish Historical Society and the National Museum of American Jewish History, and has taught courses in American Jewish Women's History, American Jewish Material Culture, and American Jewish History at Brandeis and Northeastern Universities. In 2005 she toured the country as one of the United Jewish Community's key speakers during the 350th anniversary celebration of Jews in America.