Pho­to: Charles Haynes

Ted Mer­win teach­es reli­gion and Juda­ic stud­ies at Dick­in­son Col­lege (Carlisle, Penn­syl­va­nia), where he is the found­ing direc­tor of the Mil­ton B. Asbell Cen­ter for Jew­ish Life. He is the author of In Their Own Image: New York Jews in Jazz Age Pop­u­lar Cul­ture (pub­lished in 2006) and Pas­tra­mi on Rye: An Over­stuffed His­to­ry of the Jew­ish Deli, which won the 2015 Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award in the cat­e­go­ry of Jew­ish Edu­ca­tion and Iden­ti­ty. His arti­cles on Jew­ish cul­ture have appeared in the New York Times, New York Post, New York Dai­ly News, Wash­ing­ton Post, Lon­don Jew­ish Chron­i­cle, Haaretz, Hadas­sah, Moment, New York Jew­ish Week and oth­er pub­li­ca­tions across the Eng­lish-speak­ing world. He has giv­en more than 100 pub­lic lec­tures on Jew­ish cul­ture over the last sev­er­al years. He lives with his wife and three daugh­ters in Har­ris­burg, Penn­syl­va­nia, where he is cur­rent­ly writ­ing a book about the mush­room­ing adop­tion by non-Jews of Jew­ish cus­toms and rit­u­als. Ted Mer­win is avail­able to be booked for speak­ing engage­ments through Read On. Click here for more information.