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The Desecration Of Sacred Spaces In The Dead Sea Scrolls And Pre-Nicene Latin Christianity: A History Of Interpretation Of The Eschatological Motif Of The Defiling Enemy In Apocalypticism, Rodrigo De Galiza Barbosa

Dissertations

Problem

The motif of the polluting enemy in the sanctuary is an important point of departure in the articulation of community boundaries in Hebraic-Christian culture. This particular motif has the potential to explain, at least in part, how Jewish and Christian communities would have understood the apocalyptic evil other and, from this understanding, set boundaries for their holy communities. Texts such as Dan 8 and 2 Thess 2 have been the locus classicus of the so-called antichrist, and ever since their interpretation has shaped how Christians and Jews have understood the enemy to their respective communities. In the history of …

A Mixed Methods Study Of Teacher Job Satisfaction And Principal Support In Private Jewish Day Schools Through The Lens Of Self-Determination Theory, Abigail E. Moyal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This mixed methods study investigated how principal support influences teacher job satisfaction in private Jewish day schools through the lens of Self-Determination Theory (SDT). SDT asserts that motivation and well-being depend on the fulfillment of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Using an explanatory sequential design, quantitative data were first collected from 68 teachers across five Jewish day schools in the Southwestern United States using the Teaching and Learning Survey (TALIS) Teacher Job Satisfaction Scale (TJSS) and the Principal Support Scale (PSS). Results showed moderate to high satisfaction levels and a strong positive correlation between principal support and …

Fear, Trembling, And Wonder: Psalms Of Awe, Solomon Aleph

University Honors Theses

This thesis proposes an expansion of genre form criticism within the Book of Psalms to include an additional category: Psalms of Awe. Building on scholarship that emphasizes the Psalms as expressions of religious experience, it draws from philosophical, theological, and critical scholarship to define the experience of awe as a distinct religious experience not fully captured by form critical scholarship. The thesis argues that awe is reflected in the Psalms through the combination of three key Hebrew roots: ירא (fear/reverence), פחד (fear/dread), and פלא (wonder). This is done by analyzing several psalms to explicate how each term captures a different …

“From The Synagogue To The Streets”: Outsider Rabbis, Mississippi, And The Civil Rights Movement, Holli Elaine Parker

Master's Theses

The historiography of Jews in the Civil Rights Movement is extensive, and recent scholarship has reevaluated the relationships between Jews and civil rights organizations. The role of southern Jews in critical states, such as Mississippi, is often amalgamated into one category: supportive but scared. The focus on two rabbis known for their outspokenness regarding racial equality, Charles Mantinband of Hattiesburg and Perry Nussbaum of Jackson, is central to most southern Jewish studies. However, it neglects aspects of their background. Neither rabbi was a native Mississippian nor accepted as truly Southern due to the stances they took regarding racial equality. Charles …

A Life In Documents: A Case Study In Building Information Literacy Skills Through The Processing And Creation Of A Finding Aid For The Helen Fagin Archive Collection At The Jane Bancroft Cook Library, Fiona White

Theses & ETDs

This thesis covers the work done during the Dr. Helen Fagin Archival Internship Project while reflecting on the interaction of the project with information literacy skills, and how it can serve as an exercise in building said skills. The internship itself focuses on the processing of the personal collection donated to the Jane Bancroft Library by Dr. Fagin, with the primary goals being to complete the physical processing of the collection, thereby appraising, arranging, and preserving the collection, and endeavoring to work its amplification, raising awareness of and accessibility to the collection. A synthesis of these two objectives is embodied …

What We Talk About When We Talk About Race: Racial Discourses, Nationalism And Identity In Nineteenth Century Ireland, Timothy Werlinger

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The 19th century witnessed the rise of race and racism as a dominant framework of worldwide identity politics. These politics shaped the various social hierarchies and nationalist contexts across Europe and the world. Racial constructs adopted cultural, economic, and political components and did not rely exclusively on biological determinism. This had the effect of reinforcing or hardening boundaries between groups. This dissertation examines how racial identity was negotiated within an Irish context. It does this by considering social, scientific and nationalist discourses that engaged race as a device of inclusion and exclusion. By examining how racialized language permeated the Irish …

Perspectives On The Value Proposition Of K-8 Non-Orthodox Jewish Day Schools In Toronto, Amy Goldsweig

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to better understand the value proposition of K-8 nonOrthodox Jewish day school education in Toronto by examining enrolment information and reasons for attrition to non-parochial private schools. These findings led to recommendations to help improve the value proposition. Future research was also suggested.

Secrets Of Inheritance: Modernism And The Afterlives Of Jewish Literature, Evan Goldstein

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

This dissertation offers a new theory of the relationship between Jewish literature and Jewish identity in European modernity. Taking up the perennially troubling case of literary modernism, I argue that Jewish writers reject the reproductive logics of Jewish identity politics by theorizing a literary mode of relationality. I term this mode of relationality aesthetic afterlife. This concept refuses the figures of blood, descent, and race that dominate Jewish identity discourse in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Amid a biopolitical imaginary that privileges the legibility of Jewish bodies as the sign of Jewish collective vitality and continuity, Jewish modernists celebrate the …

The New Antisemitism, Edgar G. Soto

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Following the Second World War, antisemitism appeared to be on a decline. Presently, however, there is an uptick in antisemitic hate crimes, worldwide. Modern-day Islamic antisemitism in particular is in large part recycled European Christian antisemitism adapted for Islamic audiences and intensified by the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict. This iteration of anti-Jewish bigotry is not the same as the “old,” but neither is it different. As will be explained, antisemitism has, throughout history, amounted to an anomaly in Islamic culture and in what may be called “normative” Islam.

Indeed, Muslims and Jews lived together amicably for centuries. In fact, within dar-al-Islam, …

Material Culture In The Mediterranean: An Exploration And Examination Of Anti-Judaic And Antisemitic Spanish Medieval Cultural History, Madison Elizabeth Tarleton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Author Gavin Langmuir produced two monographs during his career, both published in 1990. Across both texts, one a proper monograph and one a compilation of essays, he offers a bifurcation of anti-Judaism and antisemitism. These texts illuminate his definitions of the terms and his differentiations on the basis of reason and rationality. Using the bones of these theories, I propose a different kind of bifurcation of these terms as it relates to Mediterranean (medieval) material culture using a cultural historical lens. By applying Gavin Langmuir's theoretical model of nonrational anti-Judaism and irrational antisemitism to material culture, I argue that visual …

Publishing The Pan-Jewish: The First Hebrew Newspaper And Its Modernities, Philip E. Keisman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Publishing the Pan-Jewish emerges from a question about sites of synthesis between claims of sacred continuity and novel forms of communication. It centers on the first ten years of Hamagid (1856-1866), acknowledged within the historiography as history’s first Hebrew-language newspaper. Eliezer Lipman Silberman, an Orthodox butcher founded Hamagid in East Prussia as a bulwark of his vision of traditional Judaism. The first chapter of this dissertation examines the formal elements of the newspaper as a medium, demonstrating the myriad ways in which it presented novel experiences for its reading public. Chapter two narrates an untold history of the newspaper’s early …

Divine Justice, Human Injustice: The Legal Bifurcation Of Israeli And Jewish Law, Its Impact On The Palestinian Child, And Judaism’S Biblical Obligation To Protect The Non-Jew, Chloe Arizona Fodor

Theses & ETDs

Law and human rights research regarding the Palestinian child has long focused on physical abuse by Israeli security forces and the Israeli state’s violation of international human rights law. A small but emergent field works to problematize the legal structures that enable the abuse of Palestinian children, critiquing both Israeli law and the international human rights structures that fail to adequately address such abuses. This thesis contributes to that body of research by examining the legal bifurcation of Israeli and Jewish law into “rules” and “exceptions.” Building upon the work of Heidi Viterbo, Orna Ben-Naftali and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, this thesis …

Forgotten Grievers: Perspectives On Childhood Grief In The Baptist Church In Kenya, Esther Wambui Kiarie

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project was aimed at developing a ministry care model for grieving children for the Baptist church in Nairobi, Kenya. Three Baptist churches with an active children’s ministry were identified. A study of the spiritual support available to the broken-hearted and the biblical view of children provided this project's biblical and theological foundation. Special attention was given to Psalm 23, John 10:1-21 and Luke 7: 11-17. The researcher discovered that children grievers can receive spiritual comfort, care, and community support to facilitate effective coping and grief resolution. The researcher then reviewed the literature on theories of child grief and bereavement, …

An Exegetical Analysis Of The Johannine Jesus’S Son-Father Relationship In The Fourth Gospel With The Theological Significance And Implications In Contemporary Context, Jing Yih Hsieh

Theses

This exegetical study focuses on the distinctive characteristics of the Johannine Jesus’s unique cognitive perception, his claims of equality with God in the language of oneness in the Son-Father relationship in the Fourth Gospel, and with theological significance and implications in contemporary context.

Exodus 14–15 As An Anti-Baal Polemic And Its Implications For Interpreting Exodus 15:17 And Dating These Chapters, Brent Olson

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Olson, Brent, M. “Exodus 14–15 as an Anti-Baal Polemic and Its Implications for Interpreting and Dating These Chapters.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2020. 257 pp.

This dissertation seeks to answer the following questions: What is the relationship of Baal-zephon worship and its governing narrative, the Baal Myth, to the accounts of the Sea Event in Exodus 14–15? Secondly, what are the implications of this relationship for interpreting and dating these chapters? Building upon scholarship’s engagement with these questions since the Ras Shamra discoveries, the dissertation makes the case that Exodus 14–15 function in part as an anti-Baal polemic. Four pieces …

The Glory Of The Lord Whose Likeness Is As The Appearance Of A Human Being/Adam: A Study Of Ezekiel’S Son Of Man/Adam Anthropology, Timothy R. Schmeling

School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses

Ezekiel has often been criticized as a dehumanizing book. Still it is alternative humanisms that have done so much to dehumanize mankind with the totalitarianism of self-deifying individualism or the totalitarianism of collectively-imposed manmade metanarratives. Far from being a dehumanizing book, the objective of the son of man/Adam is certainly to purge his hearers of all anthropologies of autonomy and license, but this Adamic priestly prophet does this to eschatologically resurrect in them an anthropology of dependence and true freedom. Reasserting the creation theology and anthropology of Genesis, Ezekiel insists that authentic humanism, Edenic humanism (i.e., the original humanism), is …

Luke Was Not A Christian: Interdisciplinary Perspectives On The Jewish Authorship Of Luke And Acts, Joshua Paul Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation challenges the long-held assumption that the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles were written by a gentile Christian, arguing instead that the author of these texts was an educated follower of “the Way” who was raised and enculturated within a Hellenistic Jewish context. Advancing from a consciously interdisciplinary perspective, it probes the question of Lukan authorship variously from reception history and social memory theory, intertextuality studies, thematic analysis informed by historical and literary criticism, and incorporates emerging insights from the field of cognitive linguistics. It concludes with a reflection upon some of the potential ethical …

The House Of Yisrael Cincinnati: How Normalized Institutional Violence Can Produce A Culture Of Unorthodox Resistance 1963 To 2021, Sabyl M. Willis

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the racial, socio-economic, and political factors that shaped The House of Yisrael, a Black Nationalist community in Cincinnati, Ohio. The members of this community structure their lives following the Black Hebrew Israelite ideology sharing the core beliefs that Black people are the "true" descendants of the ancient Israelites of the biblical narrative. Therefore, as Israelites, Black people should follow the Torah as a guideline for daily life. Because they are the "chosen people," God will judge those who have oppressed them. This ideology, which began in the U.S. during the nineteenth century, has recently been growing more …

Expectancy-Value Theory During Challenging Moments: A Narrative Inquiry Into Classroom Dialogic Discussions, Malka Alter Ungar

Theses and Dissertations

This problem solution narrative inquiry explored how expectancy-value theory impacts teachers’ decisions during dialogic discussions. This paper delved into challenging moments teachers faced during dialogic discussion implementation. The purpose was to use this data to better inform the development of teacher-centered and more supportive professional learning opportunities. Participants from two parochial schools were invited to be interviewed about their dialogic discussion experiences. Data was coded using constant-comparative coding and was then restoried within problem solution narrative framework. The narratives were then coded for themes of expectancy, value, and self-efficacy. This study was intended to impact professional development to guide teachers …

Understanding The Professional Experiences Of White Jewish Women In Higher Education: An Intrinsic Case Study Analysis, Janna M. Bernstein

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The exploration of female professionals’ experiences within the realm of higher education is steadily increasing, yet researchers have yet to analyze, much less include, Jewish women. Following a qualitative intrinsic case study approach, this study assesses the lived experiences of ten white Jewish women professionals to better understand how they engage in the world of higher education differently than their non-Jewish counterparts. Using racial formation theory and intersectional analysis as theoretical frameworks, the research examined the current and historical literature on Jewish identity, the role of Jews and Jewish women in higher education, and the relevant methodological research. The study …

Understanding Evangelical Support For, And Opposition To Donald Trump In The 2016 Presidential Election, Joseph Thomas Zichterman

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis addressed the conundrum that 81 percent of evangelicals supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, despite the fact that his character and comportment commonly did not exemplify the values and ideals that they professed. This was particularly perplexing to many outside (and within) evangelical circles, because as leaders of America's "Moral Majority" for almost four decades, prior to Trump's campaign, evangelicals had insisted that only candidates who set a high standard for personal integrity and civic decency, were qualified to serve as president.

In order to deal with this problem, I conducted a qualitative study, which followed …

Oregonian Holocaust Memory: Creating A Portal To The Past For Oregonians, Max Blust

University Honors Theses

Since the end of the Second World War, Holocaust Memorials have spread beyond Europe and become established in the United States. The genocide of European Jews and other ethnic minorities was an international event, spreading from Western Europe all the way into the Soviet Union. The international coalition which invaded Germany and ended the Second World War, resulted in Holocaust survivors resettling all across the globe. In the United States, where thousands of survivors joined existing Jewish communities, there arose interest for memorializing the victims of genocide and the trauma endured. The Oregon Holocaust Memorial (OHM) is a product of …

Kāḇôḏ (Glory) RûAḤ (Spirit) And Yaḏ (Hand) Divine Presence And Activity Of Ezekiel (Ezek 1-3; 8-11; 40-48) Thirdspacing The Exile And Its Implications To The Theology Of Divine Presence, Malachy Udochukwu Theophilus

Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations

In Ezek 1-3; 8-11 and 40-48, Ezekiel saw the ("visions of God"). In these visions one observes that the presence of YHWH is experienced in three different spaces: in the temple, in exile and on the mountain east of the city. These manifestations of the divine presence in different spaces challenged the traditional priestly understanding of YHWH as exclusively "tabernacled" in the Jerusalem temple. Thus in this research, I investigate, not only where God is really found, but also the implication of the movements of the (glory of God) from the sacred space to the non sacred space and back …

Immortal Combat: Iconoclasm And The Hebrew Bible, Albert L. Mcclure

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biblical iconoclasm is any biblical text that describes the disruption of religious observances by physical violence against cult materials. This can include removing cult objects from their appointed places, god-napping divine bodies, outright destruction, cult reform, etc. Biblical iconoclasm, understood this way, is one component of the Hebrew Bible’s iconic politics. Other components of biblical iconic politics – like Idol Parodies, Bildersverbot, and aniconism – have been well studied in the past thirty years. Biblical iconoclasm has not shared the popularity of its collaborators in this respect. This dissertation is necessary because no extended study of iconoclasm in the Hebrew …

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 …

An Analysis Of The Spiritual Narratives Of Formerly Observant Jews In Recovery, Matthew Milstein

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Addiction is a world-wide problem, and 12-step recovery programs are the most popular intervention, which incorporate a spiritual message in the recovery process. However, little research has explored how spirituality is experienced, and the meaning it has for individuals leading up to addiction, during active addiction, and in recovery using the 12-step model. Thus, this qualitative research study was conducted to explore the spiritual narratives of formerly observant individuals raised in the Orthodox Jewish community, who used a 12-step recovery program to recover from addiction and maintain sobriety. Cognitive dissonance theory and faith development theory were used to identify the …

A Re-Examination Of Pentateuchal Hamartiology And Atonement As A Hermeneutical Framework For Interpreting The Laying On Of Hands, Slavisa Milodar Jankovic

Dissertations

The ritual gesture of laying on of hands in Scripture has generated significant interest among theologians from rabbinic times until now. Still today, scholars assign various meanings to the ritual. In the second half of the 20th century, the fresh interest that put forward new meanings for this gesture came primarily through the introduction of the new sub-discipline of Ritualistics within Old Testament studies. This relatively new discipline is not founded upon premises found in biblical texts, but rather, upon those found in various secular social, philosophical sciences, and other disciplines such as sociology, philosophy, anthropology, literary criticism, and the …

The Americanization Of The Holocaust: Reconsidered Through Judaic Studies, Brie Green-Rebackoff

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This article explores how the Americanization of the Holocaust is in part responsible for the paradigm that the mention of the Holocaust is vital for a Jewish writer of postwar fiction to be taken seriously. In keeping with the need for people to find meaning in catastrophe, to derive humanity from inhumanity and order out of chaos, Jewish literature's apparent 'success' or international reach often depends on reflecting on the Holocaust as an empowering movement that pushed survivors and other Jews to feel a sense of unity and inclusiveness. By using the Holocaust to generate interest in audiences as opposed …

“Visiting Iniquity Of Fathers Against Sons” In Exodus, Thomas Egger

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Egger, Thomas J. “‘Visiting Iniquity of Fathers against Sons’ in Exodus.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2018. 665 pp.

In two of the most important passages in Exodus (20:5 and 34:7), Yahweh describes himself as “visiting iniquity of fathers against sons, even against members of the third and fourth generations.” Missing in nearly every treatment of this phrase has been any sustained consideration of the phrase within the context of the Exodus narrative itself. Apart from such interpretive grounding, “visiting iniquity of fathers against sons” has shown itself susceptible to widely varied and contradictory readings and, especially, maximally problematizing readings which …

Motivation For The Sharing Of Material Possessions In Acts, Philo's De Vita Contemplativa And The Didache: A Comparative Study, Lena V. Toews

Dissertations

Luke, in the book of Acts, depicts the sharing of possessions as a practice in the Jerusalem community of the first century. Several pericopes, occurring primarily in the first part of the book of Acts, embody the idea of shared property and seem to have important parallels to other sources of the time, including the Jewish author Philo’s work De vita contemplativa, where he describes a group he calls, “Therapeutae,” and in the Jewish Christian document Didache. This study seeks to identify beliefs correlated with the material sharing practices in the community of Acts and compare them with De vita …