History of Religion Commons^™

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 …

May 2021, Temple Shalom

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Temple Shalom Encounters a 20th Century Yiddish American Phenomenon; From the Rabbi; From the President; Book Group; Community Notices

April 2021, Temple Shalom

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Temple Shalom Celebrates Passover; From the Rabbi;From the President; Book Group; Community Notices

March 2021, Temple Shalom

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Temple Shalom Celebrates our Cherished Seniors; From the Rabbi; From the President; Book Group; Community Notices

February 2021, Temple Shalom

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Temple Shalom Travels to Europe; From the Rabbi; From the President; Book Group; Community Notices

January 2021, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Temple Shalom had a Great Fall; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Book Group; Community Notices

Playing At The Crossroads Of Religion And Law: Historical Milieu, Context And Curriculum Hooks In Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This chapter presents the use of Lost & Found – a purpose-built tabletop to mobile game series – to teach medieval religious legal systems. The series aims to broaden the discourse around religious legal systems and to counter popular depiction of these systems which often promote prejudice and misnomers. A central element is the importance of contextualizing religion in period and locale. The Lost & Found series uses period accurate depictions of material culture to set the stage for play around relevant topics – specifically how the law promoted collaboration and sustainable governance practices in Fustat (Old Cairo) in twelfth-century …

December 2020, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Mega-Chanukah Party; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Book Group; Community Notices

November 2020, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Temple Shalom Celebrates; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Book Group;Community Notices

October 2020, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Simchat Torah (and Sukkot), From the Rabbi, President's Message, Book Group, Commmunity Notices

September 2020, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Erev Rosh Hashanah Sacred Music Concert and Service; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Book Group; Community Notices

Designing Analog Learning Games: Genre Affordances, Limitations And Multi-Game Approaches, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Articles

This chapter explores what the authors discovered about analog games and game design during the many iterative processes that have led to the Lost & Found series, and how they found certain constraints and affordances (that which an artifact assists, promotes or allows) provided by the boardgame genre. Some findings were counter-intuitive. What choices would allow for the modeling of complex systems, such as legal and economic systems? What choices would allow for gameplay within the time of a class-period? What mechanics could promote discussions of tradeoff decisions? If players are expending too much cognition on arithmetic strategizing, could that …

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 …

August 2020, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: From the Rabbi; President's Message; Announcements; Book Group; Stan Tetenman,Community Notices

Book Review: Cyrus The Great: Life And Lore Ed. By M. Rahim Shayegan, David B. Levy

Touro University Libraries Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

June, July 2020, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Temple Shalom Strong; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Book Group; A Boy and His Blintzes; Community Notices

The Seventy-Weeks Prophecy Of Daniel 9:24–27 And First-Century Ad Jewish Messianic Expectation, David J. Hamstra

Andrews University Seminary Student Journal

For Christians who interpret the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24–27 by correlating the coming of the messiah with the arrival of Jesus Christ, the question of whether Jesus could have been identified as the predicted messiah at the time of fulfillment is theologically significant given biblical claims of prophetic intelligibility. There is a consensus among scholars affirming the view that interpretation of the seventy-weeks prophecy led to a climate of messianic expectation among certain sectors of first-century Jewish society. This position is supported by the explicit connection of the seventy weeks to the anticipated arrival of a messiah in Melchizedek …

Is It So Bad To Be Yourself?, Andrew S. Russell

Graduate Theses

Homosexuality has been a topic of recent controversial religious discourse, not only in America, but also world-wide. This begs the question: when did homosexuality become such a divisive issue in religious circles? The purpose of this thesis is to examine how ancient western cultures perceived homosexuality and treated homosexuals. Starting with the pagan civilizations of Greece and Rome, and then looking at how homosexuality was perceived in the ancient Judaic world and into the early Christian community, it seems that homosexuality only gradually became stigmatized as early Christians sought to distinguish themselves as unique in the ancient world.

March 2020, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Purim Perogies; Announcements; Book Group; Jewish Film Festival; Community Notices

Infancy Stories Of Jesus: Apocrypha And Toledot Yeshu In Medieval Europe, Natalie Latteri

Theology & Religious Studies

This conference proceeding was originally published by the University of San Francisco Press through the Joan and Ralph Lane Center for Catholic Social Thought and the Ignatian Tradition of the University of San Francisco. The Lane Center Series explores intersections of faith and social justice. Featuring essays that bridge interdisciplinary research and community engagement, the series serves as a resource for social analysis, theological reflection, and education in the Jesuit tradition.

Visit the Lane Center’s website to download each volume and view related resources at www.usfca.edu/lane-center

Review Of Colonialism And The Jews, Shira Klein

History Faculty Articles and Research

A review of the anthology Colonialism and the Jews, edited by Ethan B. Katz, Lisa Moses Leff, and Maud S. Mandel.

February 2020, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

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

January 2020, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

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

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 …

Jewish Time Jump: New York, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

Jewish Time Jump: New York (Gottlieb & Ash, 2013) is a place-based mobile augmented reality game and simulation that takes the form of a situated documentary. Players take on the role of time traveling reporters tracking down a story “lost to time” to bring back to their editor at the Jewish Time Jump Gazette. The game is played in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, New York City. Players’ iPhones become their time traveling device and companion. Based on the player’s GPS location, players receive digital images from their location from over a hundred years in the past as well …

October 2019, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Simchat Torah; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Book Group; Announcements; Community Notices

Finding A Common Ground Between Theology And Women’S Reproductive Rights: Assessing The Societal Levels Of Influence Of Religion On The Sexual And Reproductive Health Of Women, Natalie Montufar

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The principle aim of this study is to explicate and elucidate the intersection between religious beliefs and practices and Sexual and Reproductive Health throughout distinct levels of society in the developing world. A literature review identified relevant peer-reviewed and grey literature on religious beliefs held on sexuality and procreation, the landscape of influence of religion on laws and policies at a national and international level, the effects of religion on individual sexual behavior, and modern interventions aiming to be culturally and religiously sensitive. The intricacies and nuances of three Abrahamic faiths were assessed to highlight the dogma of sacred texts …

Review Of The Promise And Peril Of Credit: What A Forgotten Legend About Jews And Finance Tells Us About The Making Of European Commercial Society, Jared Rubin

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

A review of The Promise and Peril of Credit: What a Forgotten Legend about Jews and Finance Tells Us about the Making of European Commercial Society, by Francesca Trivellato, published by Princeton University Press.

September 2019, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Shabbat in the Woods; From the Rabbi; Preident's Message; Book Group; Announcements; Community Notices

The Perception Of Colors In Moses Chayyim Luzzatto’S 18th-Century Kabbalah, Federico Dal Bo

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The presentation concerns a passage from the 18th-century Italian Kabbalist Moses Chayyim Luzzatto’s 138 Doors to Wisdom - probably is one of his most important and ambitious works. Departing from premises of Luranic Kabbalah, Luzzatto’s 138 Doors to Wisdom consists in a number of principles - called «doors» - that are then commented and explained in detail, possibly echoing contemporary manuals of Catholic scholastic theology based on Aquinas’ Summa theologica. This work seek to offer a systematic treatment of many topics that he explain according to a general conceptual and rational framework. The main assumption of this work is that …