Oren Kroll-Zeldin

Oren Kroll-Zeldin is the Anne and Nick Germanacos Associate Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies and serves as the Assistant Director of the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice. He is the author of Unsettled: American Jews and the Movement for Justice in Palestine (New York University Press) and the co-editor of This Is Your Song Too: Phish and Contemporary Jewish Identity (Penn State University Press). Oren is a cultural anthropologist and scholar of contemporary Jewish life whose research explores the intersections of identity, culture, politics, and social justice. His work focuses on American Jewish engagement with Palestine/Israel, Jewish social movements, activism, and nonviolence, with particular attention to how political and ethical commitments shape individual and collective identities. He is also interested in the role of music, popular culture, and community formation in shaping contemporary Jewish identities and experiences.

Oren is a founding member of the Phish Studies Association and currently serves as its Vice President for Research. He is also the co-founder and lead curator of Mapping Jewish San Francisco, a digital humanities project of the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice that takes a collaborative approach to examining the complex history and unique religious, cultural, and political identity of the Jewish San Francisco Bay Area. He was previously the director of the Beyond Bridges: Israel-Palestine program with the Center for Global Education at USF and the Center for Transformative Education and has led numerous study trips to Palestine/Israel. He is an experienced facilitator for groups in conflict and was trained by the former director of the pre-eminent School for Peace in Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salaam (Oasis of Peace).

Oren's writing has appeared in numerous journals, books, and online publications including Jerusalem Quarterly, Tikkun, Truthout, J Weekly, International Journal of Education for Social Justice, and +972 Magazine.

• Palestine/Israel Studies
• Contemporary Jewish Life and Identity
• Anthropology of Religion and Politics
• Jewish Ethics, Nonviolence, and Peace Studies
• Religion, Popular Culture, and Music

• Contemporary Jewish Studies
• Middle East Studies
• Social Movements, Activism, and Social Justice
• Anthropology of Religion and Politics
• Phish Studies

• Anne and Nick Germanacos Associate Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies
• Assistant Director, Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice

• California Institute of Integral Studies, PhD in Cultural Anthropology and Social Change
• California Institute of Integral Studies, MA in Cultural Anthropology and Social Change
• Skidmore College, BA in Religious Studies

• USF Distinguished Adjunct Teaching Award, 2017

• Co-Resistance Activism in Palestine/Israel After October 7.” In Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice 34(4): 1-7, 2024.
• Unsettled: American Jews and the Movement for Justice in Palestine (NYU Press), 2024.
• This Is Your Song Too: Phish and Contemporary Jewish Identity, co-edited with Ariella Werden-Greenfield (Penn State University Press), 2023.
• “Impermeable Borders and the Futility of Walls.” In Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice 32(2): 190-197, co-authored with Abby C. Wheatley, 2020.
• “Does Israel Function as an Apartheid State?: Critically Engaging the Complexities of the Apartheid Debate in Palestine/Israel.” In Social Justice and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Foundational and Contemporary Debates, edited by Mira Sucharov and Aaron J. Hahn Tapper: 175-187. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019.
• “Institutionalized Separation and Sumud in Jerusalem’s Periphery: Survival and Resistance in Sheikh Sa’ad.” In Jerusalem Quarterly 73: 101-116, 2018.