Ellen Eisenberg

Ellen Eisenberg has taught in Willamette’s History Department for over thirty years. A scholar of American Jewish history, she offers courses on the U.S. since the Civil War, with an emphasis on immigration, ethnicity and race, particularly in the West. She has recently developed several new courses that partner with local historical institutions as they work to diversify the stories they tell. Many of her courses serve as electives in the American Ethnic Studies program.

Her published work includes five monographs, one edited anthology and a number of articles on American Jewish history, with a focus on the American West. The First to Cry Down Injustice? Western Jews and Japanese Removal during WWII was a 2008 National Jewish Book Award finalist. Recent works include a two-volume history of Jews in Oregon and the edited anthology, Jewish Identities in the American West: Relational Perspectives, published in 2022 in Brandeis University Press’s series on American Jewish History, Culture and Life.