Books coverage is supported by a generous grant from The Milton and Sophie Meyer Fund. Rachel B. Gross can pinpoint the exact moment the idea for her book was planted. It was when one of her undergrad professors introduced herself as “an anthropologist of Jews.” “I just thought that was the coolest thing possible, that you could study contemporary Jews for a living,” Gross told J. “I wanted to grow up to be that, to study living people and the ordinary things they did.” It was the genesis for what started as a master’s thesis, developed into her doctoral dissertation and then, after many revisions, into a book, just published by NYU Press and available locally from Afikomen.