Ruth Ellen Gruber is an award-winning American writer, editor and photographer who has long been based on Europe. She has chronicled European Jewish issues for more than twenty years and works on cultural topics including an ongoing project called "Sturm, Twang and Sauerkraut Cowboys" documenting how Europeans embrace the mythology of the American Wild West. A former correspondent for United Press International, she has written for the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, JTA, Tablet Magazine, The Forward, Hadassah Magazine, Moment, the New Leader, the London Independent and many other publications. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Hadassah Brandeis Institute, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, and others. She coined the term "Virtually Jewish" to describe the way the so-called "Jewish space" in Europe is often filled by non-Jews: klezmer music, culture festivals, museums, tourism, and kitsch as well as serious and sensitive study and involvement. Her books include National Geographic Jewish Heritage Travel: A Guide to Eastern Europe, (2007), Letters from Europe (and Elsewhere) (2008), Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe (2002), and Upon the Doorposts of Thy House: Jewish Life in East-Central Europe, Yesterday and Today (1994).