Writer, independent scholar, photographer. Focus on Jewish cultural heritage, as well as on “the imaginary Wild West” in Europe, including the European country music scene. Honors and awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, NEH summer grant, Rockower Jewish journalism awards; fellowships/positions at the College of Charleston, Hadassah Brandeis Institute, and the Autry National Center; Poland’s Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit.
· Coordinator and co-developer of the web site www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu -- a project of the Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe (current). In this role, lead or co- organizer of several international conferences on Jewish heritage (in 2013; 2015; 2017; 2022)
· Arnold Distinguished Visiting Chair in Jewish Studies, College of Charleston, Spring semester, 2015
· Author of several books, mainly on Jewish culture and heritage topics; Editor, Collaborator or Contributor of chapters in over a score of other books. (See below)
· Articles & photographs published in newspapers, magazines, online publications, and scholarly journals
· Member of the Scientific Committee, the Foundation for the Jewish Museum in Padova; Member of the Advisory Committee, Holocaust Memorials Database Project; Member of the International Editorial Board, Jewish Cultural Studies; Member of the International Advisory Panel, Foundation for Jewish Heritage; Member of Scholarly Board, Rassegna Mensile di Israel (Rome, Italy); Member of International Jury, International Competition for the Preservation of Jewish Sites in L’viv, Ukraine (2010); Member of the Advisory Board, The Vienna Project
· Advisor/Consultant/Onscreen protagonist: Banjo Romantika – American Bluegrass Music & the Czech Imagination (documentary film completed 2013)
· Public speaker/scholar in residence at many international conferences, universities, museums, synagogues & other venues – including Zoom webinars
· Foreign Correspondent for United Press International based in Rome, Brussels, London, Belgrade, Warsaw, Vienna; 1974-1984
BOOKS: Authored/collaborated/edited
· Letters from Europe (and Elsewhere) (Krakow/Budapest: Austeria Press, 2008)
· National Geographic Jewish Heritage Travel: A Guide to Eastern Europe (Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2007) Previous editions: 1992/1994/1999.
· Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002)
· Upon the Doorposts of Thy House: Jewish Life in East-Central Europe, Yesterday and Today (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994)
· Live at the Fillmore East, a Photographic Memoir, by Amalie R. Rothschild with Ruth Ellen Gruber (New York: Thunders Mouth Press, 1999)
· Ebrei europei dieci anni dopo la fine del socialismo reale, 1990-2000: European Jews Ten Years after the End of Communism, 1990-2000. Co-edited with Laura Quercioli Mincer. Rome: UCEI, 2002
BOOK Chapters/Contributions
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· “Jewish. Jewish? ‘Jewish’ Jewish!” In Jewish Revival Inside Out Remaking Jewishness in a Transnational Age. (ed. Daniel Monterescu and Rachel Werczberger.) Wayne State University Press, 2022
· “Preservers/Rescuers/Keepers/Guardians of Memory: Recognizing non-Jewish Poles who preserve, protect, conserve, and promote Jewish history, heritage and memory.” In Jews and Slavs. Volume 27: Jewish-Slavic Cultural Horizons: Essays on Jewish History and Art in Slavic Lands (ed. Sergey R. Kravtsov, Polona Vidmar) Jerusalem, 2022
· “Foreword (Vorwort).” In Reiten Wir: Phantastikautoren für Karl May (ed. Alex Jahnke). Roter Drache, 2017.
· “Real Imaginary Spaces and Places: Virtual, Actual, and Otherwise.” In Space and Spatiality in Modern German-Jewish History (ed. Simone Lässig and Miriam Rürup). Berghahn Books, 2017.
· “Beyond Virtually Jewish: Monuments to the Jewish Experience in Eastern Europe.” Main Forum essay (and response) – Chapters 13 & 17. In Simon Bronner, ed. Jewish Cultural Studies 4: Framing Jewish Culture: Boundaries and Representations. (Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2014)
· “Post-trauma ‘Precious Legacies’: Jewish Museums in Eastern Europe after the Holocaust and before the Fall of Communism.” In Richard I. Cohen, ed. Visualizing and Exhibiting Jewish Space and History. (Oxford University Press, 2012)
· "George Oppen and Ted Berrigan, with the Novelist Marvin Cohen, Interviewed by Ruth Ellen Gruber, London, June 11, 1973." in Richard Swigg, ed. Speaking with George Oppen: Interviews with the Poet and Mary Oppen, 1968-1987. (Jefferson, NC: 2012)
· Introduction to A Second Soul: 20 Jewish Culture Festivals in Krakow, by Anna Dodziuk. (Krakow: Czarna Owca, 2010)
· “Non-Jewish, Non Kosher, Yet Also Recommended.” In Philo-Semitism in History, Adam Sutcliffe and Jonathan Karp, eds. (Cambridge University Press, 2011)
· Foreword to Jewish Cemeteries of Bucovina, by Simon Geissbuehler. (Bucharest: 2009)
· Introduction to Lost World of Small-town Jewish Cemeteries, by Tomasz Wisniewski. (Bialystok: Kreator, 2009)
· "Juedische und 'juedische' Cafés." In Michal Friedlander and Cilly Kugelmann, eds. Koscher & Co. Ueber Essen und Religion. (Berlin: Nicolai, 2009)
· Photographs -- illustrations and cover -- for The Verse Within: Conversing with the Hasidic Tales, poems by Lois Roisman. (Enfield, 2008)
· Sacred Places of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Most Peaceful and Powerful Destinations. (National Geographic, 2008)
· "Beyond Virtually Jewish…Balancing the real, the surreal and real imaginary places." In Monika Murzyn-Kupisz and Jacek Puchla, (eds.) Reclaiming Memory: Urban regeneration in the historic Jewish quarters of Central European cities. (Krakow: International Cultural Center, 2009)
· "Kitschy Jews," in Hanno Loewy (ed.), Gerüchte über die Juden. Antisemitismus, Philosemitismus und aktuelle Verschwörungstheorien. (Essen: Klartext Verlag, 2005)
· “The Jewish Culture Festival, Krakow,” in Polin (Oxford: Littman Library, 2003)
“A Virtual Jewish World,” in Jewish Studies Program Yearbook (Budapest: 2002)
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