Ruth Fredman Cernea hs been researching the history of the Baghdadi Jews of Southeast Asia since her first visit to Burma (Myanmar) in 1987. She has authored several studies of immigrant Shepardic communities in the US, including the Cosmoplitans at Home: The Separdic Jews of Washington DC as well as other articles on the Jewish experience in Myanmar and on Jewish rituals and symbolism. She is the author of The Passover Seder: Afikoman in Exile, an anthropological prespective on Jewish culture and editor fo the collection The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate (2006). For many years, she served as Director of Research and Publications for the Hillel Foundations in Washington, DC.