Judith Laikin Elkin has been credited with creating a new field of scholarship, Latin American Jewish Studies. This book traces her paths from childhood in Jewish Detroit to the United States Foreign Service in Asia and Europe, to scholarly research in South America, and the founding of LAJSA, an academic association with members in more than 20 countries. Her experiences as vice consul at the American Embassy in London, as a lone traveler in Spain and Latin America, teaching at American universities at home and abroad, are described with humor, enthusiasm, and relevance for today’s world.

Judith earned a BA in English, MA in International Affairs, and while raising two daughters returned to the University of Michigan to earn a Ph.D. in history. She is the author of Krishna Smiled: Assignment in South Asia; The Great Lakes Colleges Association: Twenty-One Years in Higher Education; and The Jews of Latin America, the foundational text for this subject. She has taught history and political science at Wayne State University, Albion College, Ohio State University, and The University of Michigan, where she is presently associated with the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies in Ann Arbor.