Jewish Studies Commons^™

February 2020, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: tu B'Shavat; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Book Group; Announcements; Community Notices

Holding On To History, Jesse A. Cromer

Georges Lieber Essay Contest on Resistance

When I searched for the story of Georges Lieber, the very man whose drive to resist inspired the concept for this essay, I could not find it. The only trace of him was his record on the Yad Vashem database which merely states that he was a student and that he was transported from Lyon, France to Auschwitz in 1944. His story, along with much of Holocaust history, remains unknown or misunderstood for many people, both from my generation and those before us. As a long-term student of history and an aspiring educator, I have chosen to resist the sliding …

Resisting The Tradition Of Sexism, Tobi N. Farbstein

Georges Lieber Essay Contest on Resistance

I stood there, or rather wobbled, standing on a plastic chair, peering over the division of a wall. Three feet away, I saw a boy reading from the Torah. There were men embracing, women cheering from across the wall, and rounds of applause on both sides. I stepped down from the chair and glanced at the sky. In my view, a large barrier towered over me, piercing the blue-- the Western Wall. My haze was then suddenly interrupted by a woman frantically mounting the chair I had previously been standing on. She was desperate to get a view of the …

Feminist Theology And The Fantastic In Jewish Poetics And Children's Literature (1960s–Present), Meira S. Levinson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation traces the development of Jewish fantasy rhetoric in post-WWII British and American literature, focusing on three genres: kabbalistic Beat poetry, children’s fantasy, and graphic novels/comics. Despite increasing scholarly attention to all these areas, little work has focused on fantasy rhetoric or issues of gender and sexuality within non-canonical Jewish literature, or on interplays of religion and fantasy in children’s literature. Jewish kabbalistic poetry and children’s fantasy speak to each other in their mutual engagements with the otherworldly, mystical and monstrous, interrogations of gender, and complex portrayals of feminist theological potentialities. I identify and analyze Jewish-hermeneutic themes and methodologies …

Mimicry As Movement Analysis, Rosa Abrahams

Faculty Publications

The analysis of movement to music often stems from examinations of video-recorded events. This allows the analyst an opportunity to re-watch, pause, and slow down the movements of their participants, and to produce descriptive notation that appears alongside a score (e.g., Roeder and Tenzer 2012). Unlike prescriptive forms of dance notation (e.g., Laban 1928), such transcriptions of movement often illuminate metrical connections between music and movement. However, when video-recording is not permissible, other methods of movement analysis must be developed. This paper pilots a new technique for rigorous analysis of the interaction between movement and music, which may be used …

Media Technology And The Dissemination Of Hate, Fordham University

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ijcs News, Volume 8, The Institute Of Judaeo-Christian Studies

Newsletters

The 2020 issue of IJCS News, the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies' annual newsletter, Vol 8.

Book Review: Monsters And Monstrosity In Jewish History: From The Middle Ages To Modernity Edited By Iris Idelson-Shein And Christian Wiese, David B. Levy

Touro University Libraries Publications and Research

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:

• David B. Levy

Monsters and Monstrosity in Jewish History: From the Middle Ages to ModernityEdited by Iris Idelson-Shein and Christian Wiese. Oxford: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. xiv + 269 pp.

The past two decades have witnessed a surge of interest in monsters and the monstrous, but none from the perspective of Jewish studies except for some of the work of David Ruderman, who in a number of pioneering articles in the 1970s and 1980s analyzed early modern Jewish representations of conjoined twins, unicorns, and child …

Bibliography: Prepared For “The Commentary Of Rashi On The Humash: The First Dated Hebrew Edition Published In Reggio Di Calabria In 1475 By Rabbi Abraham Ben Garton", David B. Levy

Touro University Libraries Publications and Research

Bibliography prepared for a permanent exhibit at Museo Castello Aragonese, Piazza Castello - 89125 Reggio Di Calabria (RC) Italy

Citation for exhibit: Penchassi Debora (Scrittrice e ricercatrice storia Ebraica Italiana). Esibizione permanente della copia anastatica “Il Commentario di Rashi al Pentateuco” Il primo libro ebraico datato, stampato in Reggio di Calabria in 1475. Lo stampatore Abraham ben Garton, il commentatore Rabbi Shlomo YItzhaki, De Rossi, Giovanni Bernardo ebraista e bibliografo.

Spiritual Exploration: Gender, Human Frailty And Interfaith Realities, Elizabeth Iobst

Charles Rice Post-Graduate Research Fellowship

This collection of essays details personal experiences, religious beliefs, gender roles and interviews conducted during a research fellowship in England and Israel.

January 2020, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Shabbat Together; From the Rabbi; President's Message; MLK Day; Book Group; Announcements; Community Notices

"To Bloom In Empty Space": An Introduction And Commentary On The Petichta To Esther Rabbah, Ethan Nosanow Levin

Religious Studies Honors Projects

The petichta to Esther Rabbah (c. 6^th century CE) reflects a pessimistic rabbinic response to the physical and theological displacement of the Jews in an increasingly Christianized Roman Palestine. Using the covenantal curses (specifically Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26) as a frame, the rabbis situate the book of Esther and their current socio-political context into the rabbinic paradigm of the Four Kingdoms, representative of ongoing imperial oppression. According to Esther Rabbah, Jews living under Roman rule–even those in Palestine–are living in a state of “exile” characterized by the ongoing impact of the covenantal curses. For the rabbis, Israel cannot …

After The Golem: Teaching Golems, Kabbalah, Exile, Imagination, And Technological Takeover., Temma F. Berg

English Faculty Publications

The golem is an elusive creature. From a religious perspective it enacts spirit entering matter, a creation story of potential salvation crossed with reprehensible arrogance. As a historical narrative, the golem story becomes a tale of Jewish powerlessness and oppression, of pogroms and ghettoization, of assimilation and exile, and sometimes, of renewal. As the subject of a course in women, gender and sexuality studies, the golem narrative can be seen as a relentless questioning of otherness and identity and as a revelation of the complex intersectionalities of gender, class, sexuality, race, disability, and ethnicity. As a philosophical motif, the ambiguous …

Lost & Found: New Harvest, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Presentations and other scholarship

Lost & Found is a strategy card-to-mobile game series that teaches medieval religious legal systems with attention to period accuracy and cultural and historical context.

Set in Fustat (Old Cairo) in the 12th century, a great crossroads of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. The Lost & Found games project seeks to expand the discourse around religious legal systems, to enrich public conversations in a variety of communities, and to promote greater understanding of the religious traditions that build the fabric of the United States. Comparative religious literacy can build bridges between and within communities and prepare learners to be responsible citizens …

The Book Of Ezekiel And The Speculative Design, Ian Gonsher

Scholarly Research

In this essay, the origins of speculative literature are situated within the prophetic tradition of Jewish mysticism, particularly in the Book of Ezekiel. The Book of Ezekiel is also a text about design. We investigate how these ancient sources align with contemporary design discourses, particularly Speculative Design, and propose new strategies for the readings of historical progress.

The Residential Location Choices Of Chabad Households: An Analysis Of Decision Making With Non-Price Constraints, Chasity A. Mcfadden

Honors Theses

Where an individual chooses to live informs many of their economic decisions and may be the single largest economic decision one makes in their lives. Through understanding the way that people choose their residential locations, we are able to better understand the opportunities available to them. Within the Chabad community, there is a large focus on emissary work, which calls Chabad Jews to move outside of large Jewish communities in order to help secular Jews become more religious. There are also certain religious amenities that are necessary to live a Chabad life, such as a local synagogue. So the question …

"'In A Distant Unknown Country': A New Historicist Look At James Joyce’S “Eveline,” Argentina, And The Zwi Migdal In The Early 1900s.", M Laura Barberan Reinares

Publications and Research

This article analyzes James Joyce’s story “Eveline” (1904) looking at the moral panic about “white slavery” in Europe and the new continent, especially focusing on Argentina, the foremost recipient of trafficked women between 1880 and 1930 (and, of course, Joyce’s destination of choice for Eveline). It was precisely at the turn of the twentieth century that, along with the popularity of transatlantic migration, sex trafficking went fully global and news about international “dangers” for single white women reached the general public, provoking all kinds of repressive reactions through what became known as the “social purity” movement.

Jewish Lawyers And The U.S. Legal Profession: The End Of The Affair?, Eli Wald

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

La Transmission De Pesiqta Rabbati Dans La France Du Xie Siècle À Narbonne Et En Champagne / The Transmission Of Pesiqta Rabbati In 11th Century France In Narbonne And In Champagne: Borderlands Theories, Rivka Ulmer

Faculty Journal Articles

La Pesiqta Rabbati est une œuvre homilétique rabbinique qui a connu une transmission et une rédaction complexes. Originaire de Palestine, le texte s’est diffusé en Italie, en Rhénanie et dans le sud de la France à l’époque byzantine, à l’aube de la conquête musulmane du Moyen-Orient. Au XIe siècle en Provence, la Pesiqta Rabbati fut citée par Moïse Ha-Daršan dans Berešit Rabbati et en Champagne par Rashi (R. Salomon b. Isaac, 1040-1105) dans ses commentaires bibliques. D’autres références se trouvent dans le Maḥzor Vitry de Simhah b. Samuel de Vitry (mort en 1105). La Pesiqta Rabbati présente des recoupements textuels …

Creating Jewish Mothers: A Feminist Ethnographic Investigation Of The Mothers Circle Of Coastal Virginia And The Interfaith Parents Circle, Amy K. Milligan

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

This feminist ethnographic investigation of the Mothers Circle of Coastal Virginia and the Interfaith Parents Circle utilizes the lens of feminist folkloristics to analyze the role that women have had in the foundation and evolution of the groups. Ultimately, this essay argues that the Mothers Circle of Coastal Virginia / Interfaith Parents Circle create a space for women to navigate the tensions faced by southern Jews; that they center Jews-by-choice and non-Jewish mothers parenting Jewish children by creating safe spaces for caregivers; and that, through a horizontal peer education model, these groups offer a sustainable and transferable model of programing …