Laura Newman Eckstein is the Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Curator of Early American Judaica Digital Humanities. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Pennsylvania. Her studies focus on the Jewish press in the mid-nineteenth century Western hemisphere with specific interests in material culture and economic history. In addition to a master’s in history from Penn, she holds a bachelor’s degree with the highest honors in religion from Haverford College.