Journal Special Issues


When we titled this special issue of Shofar “What’s Jewish about Death?,” it was with this very ambivalence—what we see as a central and productive tension running through Jewish tradition and culture—in mind. This collection is made up of a series of creative and critical responses to our question, confirmation of how an ironically categorical inquiry can liberate if we remain open to where it may take us.
— Laura Limonic and Tahneer Oksman, "Introduction: Contemplating Death"

Cover by LENI DOTHAN. Mine, 2012.

What’s Jewish About Death?

What’s Jewish About Death? (read the full issue here)

A Special Issue of Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies

Edited by Laura Limonic and Tahneer Oksman

Volume 39, Number 1, Spring 2021

Read Excerpt

Read the editors’ introduction, “Contemplating Death”

This special issue, edited by a sociologist and a literary and visual culture scholar, is not just multidisciplinary but transdisciplinary. It includes essays incorporating scholarly research and methodology culled from Latin@ studies, Rabbinics, film studies, trauma studies, cultural studies, and literary studies. The creative compositions include photography, comics, the short story, poetry, and creative nonfiction writing.
— Laura Limonic and Tahneer Oksman, "Introduction: Contemplating Death"