Sarah Ellen Zarrow is Associate Professor of History at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, where she also holds the Endowed Professorship in Jewish History. Her ongoing research focuses on Jewish life in Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland. She is especially interested in Jewish museum practices, language politics, and schooling. She previously was a Research Fellow at New Europe College Institute for Advanced Studies in Bucharest, Romania, and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies at New York University.
She holds a doctorate from the joint program of the Skirball Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies and the History Department at NYU. She has also served as a consultant to archival and museum projects at YIVO and Polin: Museum of the History of Polish Jews, designing exhibits and creating educational programming.
Her first book, Displays of Belonging: Polish Jewish Collecting and Museums, 1891-1941 (Cornell University Press, June 2025), considers the work of Polish Jews involved in creating Jewish museums between the turn of the 20th century and the Holocaust. Her current research examines the work of Cecylja Klaftenowa, an educator and activist who founded a network of vocational schools for Jewish girls in interwar Poland.
Sarah Zarrow is a peer review editor for In geveb.
