The Jewish quarterly review.

Latest issue consulted: Vol. 94, no. 2 (spring 2004).

The Jewish quarterly review.

Latest issue consulted: Vol. 99, no. 4 (fall 2009).

American Manna: Religious Responses to the American Industrial Food System

“American Manna: Religious Responses to the American Industrial Food System” is an investigation of the religious complexity present in religious food reform movements. I conducted ethnographic fieldwork at four field sites. These field sites are a Jewish organic vegetable farm where the farmers begin their days with meditation, a Christian raw vegan diet center run by Messianic Jews, a Christian family that raises their cattle on pastures and sends them to a halal processing plant for slaughter, and a Jewish farm where Christian and Buddhist farm staff helped to implement shmita, the biblical agricultural sabbatical year.

The religious people of America do not exist in neatly bound silos, so in my research I move with the religious people to the spaces that are less clearly defined as “Christian” or “Jewish.” I study religious food reformers within the framework of what I have termed “free-range religion” because they organize in groups outside the traditional religious organizational structures. My argument regarding free-range religion has three parts. I show that (1) perceived injustices within the American industrial food system have motivated some religious people to take action; (2) that when they do, they direct their efforts against the American food industry, and tend to do so outside traditional religious institutions; and finally, (3) in creating alternatives to the American food industry, religious people engage in inter-religious and extra-religious activism.

Chapter 1 serves as the introduction, literature review, and methodology overview. Chapter 2 focuses on the food-centered Judaism at the Adamah Environmental Fellowship at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, CT. In Chapter 3, I discuss the Hallelujah Diet as prescriptive literature and as it is put into practice at the Hallelujah Diet Retreat Center in Lake Lure, NC. Chapter 4 follows cows as they move from the grassy hills of Baldwin Family Farms in Yanceyville, NC to the meat counter at Whole Foods Markets. In Chapter 5, I consider the shmita year, the biblical agricultural sabbatical practice that was reimagined and implemented at Pearlstone Center in Baltimore, MD during 2014-2015. Chapter 6 will conclude this dissertation with a discussion of where religious food reform has been, where it is now, and a glimpse of what the future holds.

Romantic relationships and adjustment in early adulthood: The role of cross-sex experience in the context of social norms and support

Attachment and interpersonal theory suggest a sequential pattern of relationships beginning in the earliest stage of development and progressing to social and eventually romantic relationships. Theoretically, cross-sex experiences have an important role in the progression of interpersonal relationships. Despite the prevalence of these theories about the nature of romantic relationship development, the linkage of cross-sex experience (CSE) to romantic relationships has not been established. Indeed, it is an intuitive assumption, especially within Western society and these theories do not consider socio-cultural factors that may influence CSE and relationship satisfaction. This study addresses the varying contextual factors that may contribute to relationship satisfaction and adjustment, aside from CSE, and is divided into two parts. Study 1, addresses CSE, relationship satisfaction, and adjustment in a unique population, ultra-Orthodox Jews. Among this population, social or romantic CSE is limited and sexes are effectively segregated. Study 2, expanded the study to a larger sample of U.S. college students, to assess the linkage of CSE to romantic relationship satisfaction in a more typical Western population. It included social norm and support variables to address the contextual nature of relationship development and satisfaction. Results demonstrated clear differences in the relation between CSE and relationship satisfaction in the two samples. In the first sample CSE was unrelated to relationship satisfaction; nevertheless, relationship satisfaction was associated with adjustment as it is for more typical populations with greater CSE. These results suggested the importance of specifying how social norms and social support relate to CSE, relationship satisfaction and adjustment. The results from the second sample were consistent with the theoretical framework upon which the social/romantic literature is based. CSE was directly connected to relationship satisfaction. As anticipated, CSE, relationship satisfaction, and adjustment also varied as a function of social norms and support. These findings further validate the influence of socio-cultural factors on relationship satisfaction and adjustment. This study contributes to the romantic relationship literature and broadens our understanding of the complex nature of interpersonal and romantic relationships.^

Experimental studies on comparison of microwave curing and thermal curing of epoxy resins used for alternative mould materials

In this present work attempts have been made to study the glass transition temperature of alternative mould materials by using both microwave heating and conventional oven heating. In this present work three epoxy resins, namely R2512, R2515 and R2516, which are commonly used for making injection moulds have been used in combination with two hardeners H2403 and H2409. The magnetron microwave generator used in this research is operating at a frequency of 2.45 GHz with a hollow rectangular waveguide. In order to distinguish the effects between the microwave and conventional heating, a number of experiments were performed to test their mechanical properties such as tensile and flexural strengths. Additionally, differential scanning calorimeter technique was implemented to measure the glass transition temperature on both microwave and conventional heating. This study provided necessary evidences to establish that microwave heated mould materials resulted with higher glass transition temperature than the conventional heating. Finally, attempts were also made to study the microstructure of microwave-cured materials by using a scanning electron microscope in order to analyze the morphology of cured specimens.