History Commons^™

Dogma: How A Convenient Narrative Led To The Holocaust, Morgan R. Schroeder

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

No abstract provided.

Sonic Salvation: A Neuroscientific Exploration Of Music's Role In Cultural Preservation In The Wake Of The Holocaust, Regan K. Recklaus

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

As easy as it would be to begin this essay with a succinct “music is” statement (e.g. “music is life” or “music is power”), it would be akin to encapsulating the boundless expanse of the cosmos in a single photograph. It would fail to honor the immeasurable richness and complexity of the force which has transformed humanity from a group of disparate apes into a symphony of interconnected souls. For all of history, music has served as a means for humans to tap into and express the very things that make them human—their emotions, culture, and individual identities. Its profound …

Jews And Urban Life, Leonard J. Greenspoon

Studies in Jewish Civilization

Jews and Urban Life recognizes that throughout their long history, Jews have often inhabited cities. The reality of this urban experience ranged from ghetto restrictions to robust participation in a range of civic and social activities. Essays in this collection present relevant examples from within the Jewish community itself, moving historically from the biblical period to the modern-day State of Israel. Taking a comparative approach while recognizing the particulars of individual instances, authors examine these phenomena from a wide variety of approaches, genres, and media. Interdisciplinary and accessibly written, the articles display a multitude of instances throughout history showing the …

Interpreting Spain's Jewish Past: Jewish Heritage Tourism And The Politics Of History, Ana C. Berman

History Honors Projects

This honors project explores Jewish heritage tourism in twenty-first-century Spain and how the politics of historiography permeate all aspects of the tourism experience. It argues that Jewish heritage sites in Spain are deeply entrenched in global, centuries-long historiographical debates about Spanish empire, nationalism and legacy. This, in turn, has shaped decisions about which Jewish spaces Spanish entities preserve for future generations and how Spanish entities represent present-day Jews, Jewishness, and Judaism. To demonstrate the reach of academia beyond the classroom, I use on-site signage, heritage management initiatives, and souvenirs to trace the influence of historiographical narratives, like Spanish Black and …

Between Faith And Nation: The Complexities Of Jewish Identity In Interwar Austria, Sarah E. Townsend

Honors College Theses

During the period between the First and Second World Wars, the people of the newly established Austrian Republic faced many changes: the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Habsburg Monarchy, economic hardships during and following the First World War, and the question of German ethnic nationalism and unification with Germany. The question of national identity was relevant to the entire Austrian population and Austrians had to make an important decision about their nationality: Austrian or German? For Austrian Jews, the dilemma was more complicated. Zionism promoted the idea of Jewish statehood and a solely Jewish identity. This thesis explores the …

The Economic Life Of Jews In The City Of Jerusalem In The Light Of Records Of The Sharia Court Register No. (397) Date (1319-1324ah / 1901-1906ad) Agencies As A Model, Hanan Malkawi

Association of Arab Universities Journal for Arts مجلة اتحاد الجامعات العربية للآداب

This study sheds light on an important aspect of the Jewish life in the city of Jerusalem, which is the agencies. These agencies are to give the authorization of a specific person to act on the property of the client as agreed between the parties, so as to determine the nature of the powers to which the agent is entitled to act. This study focuses on the arguments of the agencies listed in record no. 397, one of the records of the Shari'a Court of Jerusalem during the period (1321 H / 1904- 1322 AH / 1905), which gives a …

The Nazis, The Vatican, And The Jews Of Rome, Patrick J. Gallo

Purdue University Press Books

On October 16, 1943, the Jews of Rome were targeted for arrest and deportation. The Nazis, the Vatican, and the Jews of Rome examines why—and more importantly how—it could have been avoided, featuring new evidence and insight into the Vatican’s involvement. At the time, Rome was within reach of the Allies, but the overwhelming force of the Wehrmacht, Gestapo, and SS in Rome precluded direct confrontation. Moral condemnations would not have worked, nor would direct confrontation by the Italians, Jewish leadership, or even the Vatican.

Gallo underscores the necessity of determining what courses of actions most likely would have spared …

Gettysburg Historical Journal 2023

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Complete Issue of the Gettysburg Historical Journal 2023

To Bigotry No Sanction, To Persecution No Assistance: Jews In The American Revolutionary Period, Ziv R. Carmi

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

While Jews were a small minority in the American colonies, they nonetheless participated in the American Revolution on both sides. This paper aims to evaluate the role of Jewish people in the conflict, contextualizing the experiences of this small minority within the larger narrative of the American Revolution and establishing their importance in the development of religious freedom in the United States. Through the examination of these topics, this paper aims to explore the Revolutionary period from the perspective of the Jewish-American, discussing their often-overlooked experiences in this watershed period within U.S. history.

Jews And Science, Sander L. Gilman

The Jewish Role in American Life: An Annual Review

Jews and Science examines the complicated relationship between Jewish identities and the evolving meanings of science throughout the history of Western academic culture. Jews have been not only the agents for study of things Jewish, but also the subject of examination by “scientists” across a range of disciplines, from biology and bioethics to anthropology and genetics. Even the most recent iteration of Jewish studies as an academic discipline—Israel studies—stresses the global cultural, economic, and social impact of Israeli science and medicine.

The 2022 volume of the Casden Institute’s Jewish Role in American Life series tackles a range of issues that …

Umaine Office For Diversity And Inclusion_Holocaust Remembrance Day 2022 (And Everyday) Email, Anila Karunakar

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Email from the UMaine Office for Diversity and Inclusion with various details of the Office's work and Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Jewish People And Relationships With Christians In The Antebellum Us, Elizabeth Klein

Undergraduate Research Awards

In surveys of American history, the presence of Jewish people is usually not mentioned more than twice. The first time is with the late 19th-century’s major wave of Jewish immigration, and the second is with the onset of the Second World War and the Holocaust. Although discussing the history of Jewish immigration and anti-semitism in the United States is important, these stories are not the only ones that comprise Jewish American history. Little attention is paid to the Jewish population in America during the antebellum era, yet it is clear that Jewish people were here, and their presence was only …

Instrumentalizing The Past: The Politics Of Holocaust Memory In Contemporary Poland, Jonathan Zisook

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigates Poland’s politics of Holocaust memory from the contentious Jedwabne debate in the early 2000s through the present and shows how the history of the Holocaust has been both distorted and exploited in contemporary Polish politics and culture. It pays special attention to the most recent period of Law and Justice Party rule (2015-2020) and considers the varying ways that the government has constructed its approach to the past by asserting a “policy on history” (polityka historyczna) in state-sponsored research, the educational system, legislation, museum narratives, and more. In so doing, this work argues that the …

Life Is Beautiful, Or Not: The Myth Of The Good Italian, Shira Klein

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"Life is Beautiful illustrates a popular misconception about Italy's role in the Holocaust. The film features the good Italian and the warped view that Italy treated Jews kindly in the late 1930s and during World War II. Historians have proven this claim to be grossly exaggerated, arguing that Italians persecuted Jews vigorously. Yet popular representations of the past-films, novels, museum exhibits, and websites-continue to give credence to the notion that Italians were overwhelmingly good to Jews. Although France and Germany cultivated similar self-acquitting myths in the decades immediately after the war, they eventually moved on to accept the more …

Germans-Jewish Culture And Modern Multiculturalism In Germany (Intersession 2021), Robert D. Tobin

Syllabi

"This class studies the expression of cultural identity in central European literature. How many people come to think of themselves or others as "Germans", "Jews", "Turks", "Foreigners", "Immigrants"? While the Holocaust is obviously central to the German-Jewish relationship, it is not the only focus of this course -- we will read literary reflections of the emancipation of the Jews, of German-Jewish assimilation and symbiosis, of the rise of anti-Semitism and Zionism, as well as attempts to remember the past. And while the long history of the relationship between Jews and non-Jews in Germany will be a major component of our …

Italian Jews: A Surprising And Understudied Influence In The Enlightenment, Lura Martinez

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

The experience of Italian Jews during the Enlightenment is deserving of much more attention. Not only did Italian Jews such as Moshe Ḥayyim Luzzatto, a man born in a ghetto, later embrace a form of secularism, but his works and others written by his peers made an impact on the Italian Enlightenment and seemingly contributed to the practice of toleration that appeared in sporadic installments throughout Europe. While the Jewish experience in Europe hails from a long tradition of persecution, with sporadic and incomplete periods of toleration at various points in its history, it is clear that through a promotion …

Martin, Jerry Wayne, B. 1935 (Sc 3535), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3535. Two monographs by Dr. Jerry W. Martin, Bowling Green, Kentucky: “Reflections at the Wall,” presented at the Vietnam War Memorial, Washington, D.C. on 8 September 2001, and “A Bone Called Luz,” prepared in connection with a presentation to the EQB Club, Bowling Green, Kentucky.

The Last Step To Whiteness : American Jews, Civil Rights, And Assimilation, 1954-1988, Eric Morgenson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines the relationship between American Jews and African Americans through the prism of evolving Jewish whiteness. In the post-World War II period, American Jews were an outsider group that were moving into the mainstream. American Jews interested in assimilating tied themselves to the cause of African American civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. This was partially motivated by a desire to help an oppressed minority work towards equality in the United States. However, it was also motivated in part by a desire to aid in their own assimilation process. The idea of creating a colorblind American society …

Film Review: The Impure: An Abolitionist Documentary Film Of The 19th Century Traffic In Jewish Women, Caroline Norma

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Review: A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth Of Judeo-Bolshevism, Natalia Aleksiun, Paul Hanebrink

Touro Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Gothic Identity And The ‘Othering’ Of Jews In Seventh-Century Spain, Erica Buchberger

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

In 589, Reccared, king of the Visigoths in Spain, converted from Arian to Catholic Christianity. Arianism was banned, and after a brief period which saw the repression of rebellions, eliminated from the kingdom. All Goths were required to become Catholic. This watershed in Visigothic history both necessitated and facilitated a renegotiation of the parameters of Gothic identity. The entire kingdom was affected: the ruling Visigoths, the small population of recently conquered Sueves, and the Hispano-Romans who were left under the rule of the Goths when the Western Roman Empire fell apart.^[1] This Roman population also included some Jews. While …

Strahm Family Collection (Mss 655), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 655. Data, clippings and information about the Strahm family and related families. Most of the material relates to Franz J. Strahm, WKU music director from 1910-1941, and his son Victor H. Strahm’s career in military service. Includes photographs of Franz, Victor, and other family members.

Jackson, Carlton Luther, 1933-2014 (Mss 581), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 581. Research and manuscripts for books written by Western Kentucky University history professor Carlton Jackson. Includes some personal and professional correspondence, unpublished writing, and a partial memoir. Click on "Additional Files" below to see a listing of correspondents who provided information about the influenza pandemic of 1918. This correspondence is found in Boxes 13 and 14.

A Complicated Peace: Nationalism And Antisemitism In Interwar Poland, Joanna Dobrowolska

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis examines the roots of antisemitic rhetoric expressed by Polish nationalists between 1918 and 1939. I argue that nationalist rhetoric and political campaigns during this period focused on calling for Poles to defend themselves against Jewish economic and political domination. The first half of this work utilizes pamphlets, books, newspaper articles, and other written works wherein Polish nationalists, in particular members of the National Democratic Party(NDP), expressed a fear of Polish Jews and called for their eviction from the country. Fear that Poland, a country that had been partitioned by surrounding empires for the past two centuries, would not …

American Proto-Zionism And The "Book Of Lehi": Recontextualizing The Rise Of Mormonism, Don Bradley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Although historians generally view early Mormonism as a movement focused on restoring Christianity to its pristine New Testament state, in the Mormon movement’s first phase (1827-28) it was actually focused on restoring Judaism to its pristine “Old Testament” state and reconstituting the Jewish nation as it had existed before the Exile.

Mormonism’s first scripture, “the Book of Lehi” (the first part of the Book of Mormon), disappeared shortly after its manuscript was produced. But evidence about its contents shows it to have had restoring Judaism and the Jewish nation to their pre-Exilic condition to have been one of its major …

Jews: The Makers Of Early Modern Berlin, Conlan Vance

2018 Symposium

This paper will discuss how Jews fit into the economic policies of Brandenburg-Prussia in the later 16^th century. From Frederick William’s decree in 1671 to allow fifty Jewish families to settle in Brandenburg-Prussia to these families and their descendants becoming immersed in the economy of Berlin through their use in courts but more so through their trading, specifically, the ways in which they traded and how they used these to free themselves from some of the constraints of German Christian society. Thusly, this will be shown by looking at Jews in Brandenburg-Prussia in the later 17th century, Jews in …

The Republican Race : Identity, Persecution, And Resistance In Jewish Correspondence From The Concentration Camps Of Occupied France, 1933-1945, Stacy Renee Veeder

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACT

How To Be A French Jew: Proust, Lazare, Glissant, Paul J. Fadoul

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In my dissertation I use Auerbach's insights developed in his Mimesis to demonstrate that in A la recherche, Proust captures the political and racial concerns of his times, proposing as a solution a heterogeneous French society where cultural, ethnic, and religious groups live together in mutual respect and understanding. In his novel, Proust echoes ideas developed by Bernard Lazare in Le Nationalisme Juif (1897) as well as in the literary output of the first French Jewish Renaissance (early1900’s to the mid1930’s). These authors responded to the portentous mix of Nationalist and anti-Semitic politics by urging the creation of a separate …

A Boy In Hiding: Surviving The Nazis, Amsterdam 1940-1945, Stan Rubens

Zea E-Books Collection

A Boy in Hiding: Surviving the Nazis is a poignant, true-survival story of a young boy who hid for four years underground in Holland during World War II. A Boy in Hiding sheds a light on the difficult road that lay ahead for Anne Frank—had she survived. This book is written from the point of view of an eight-year-old boy growing up too fast during the five years of the war. Now, sixty years later, Rubens gives a voice to the young boy, who—despite the hard times and difficulties he encountered, never lost his positive view on life.

Sobrevivimos … Al Fin Hablo, Leon Malmed

Zea E-Books Collection

Esta es la historia real de Leon Malmed quien, junto a su hermana Rachel, escapó de Francia durante la época del Holocausto gracias a sus valientes y heroicos vecinos quienes, después de haber presenciado el arresto de los padres de nuestro protagonista en 1942, se ofrecieron a cuidarlo a él y a su hermana hasta que regresaran. Primero, los padres de Leon fueron llevados a Drancy, después a Auschwitz-Birkenau, y nunca volvieron. Mientras tanto sus vecinos, que vivían en el piso de abajo, Henri y Suzanne Ribouleau, los acogieron dándoles un hogar y una familia; protegiéndolos mientras la ocupación los …