Eddy Portnoy
Professor and Reboot Faculty
Eddy Portnoy is a historian of unusual Jewish phenomena. His 2017 book, Bad Rabbi and Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press, was described by the New York Times as “a succession of outlandish misadventures, a wild panorama populated by an astonishing array of characters.” An occasional contributor to the Forward and Tablet Magazine, his headier publications can be found in numerous academic journals. He currently serves as Academic Advisor and Director of Exhibitions at the YIVO Institute, where his exhibits, Yiddish Fight Club and Jews in Space, among others, have won plaudits from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Forward, Tablet, and Vice.
Marisa Scheinfeld
Author
Marisa Scheinfeld was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1980, and raised in the Catskills. She received a B.A. from the State University at Albany in 2002, and a MFA from San Diego State University in 2011. Her work is highly motivated by her interest in the ruin, or site and the histories embedded within them. Marisa’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is among the collections of The Center for Jewish History, The National Yiddish Book Center, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art & Life, The Simon Wiesenthal Center, The Dorot Jewish Division at the New York Public Library and The Edmund and Nancy K. Dubois Library at the Museum of Photographic Arts. On October 4th, 2016 Cornell University Press released her first book entitled The Borscht Belt: Revisiting the Remains of America’s Jewish Vacationland.
Her book is available here.
Jessica Chaffin
Actress, comedian, and writer
Jessica Chaffin is a writer/performer, Emmy-Nominated Consulting Producer on HBO’s Hacks, and host of the popular podcast ASK RONNA.
Dan Crane
Host of The Kibitz
Dan Crane is a journalist, musician, Jew (lax, loves lox) and retired professional air-guitarist. He writes about culture and travel for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, California Sunday, Slate, and numerous other publications. He’s the author of “To Air is Human” and stars in the documentary, Air Guitar Nation.