ChaeRan Freeze

ChaeRan FreezeFrances and Max Elkon Chair in Modern Jewish History

Degrees

  • Brandeis University, PhD

  • Brandeis University, MA

  • University of California, Irvine, BA

Profile

ChaeRan Freeze is the Frances and Max Elkan Chair in Modern Jewish History. She has focused her research on the history and culture of the Jews in Russia, Jewish family history, and women's and gender studies. Her most recent courses taught include Early Modern Jewish History; and Russian Jews in the Twentieth Century. Professor Freeze has also taught Who is a Jew: Identity, Conversion, and Citizenship; Women and Gender in Culture and Society; and Feminisms: History, Theory, and Practice.

Selected Publications

Professor Freeze's articles have appeared in a variety of academic journals and edited collections. Her first book was Jewish Marriage and Divorce in Imperial Russia, which examines the impact of modernization on Jewish family practices and patterns in Imperial Russia based on newly-declassified archival materials from the former Soviet Union. Her most recent book, Everyday Jewish Life in Imperial Russia, 1825-1914: Select Documents (coauthored with Jay Harris), documents the "everyday" (Alltags) as a site of interaction with modernity where Jews confronted the unfamiliar and negotiated their environment in strategic and creative ways.