Jewish Studies Commons^™

Wikipedia’S Intentional Distortion Of The History Of The Holocaust, Jan Grabowski, Shira Klein

History Faculty Articles and Research

This essay uncovers the systematic, intentional distortion of Holocaust history on the English-language Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia. In the last decade, a group of committed Wikipedia editors have been promoting a skewed version of history on Wikipedia, one touted by right-wing Polish nationalists, which whitewashes the role of Polish society in the Holocaust and bolsters stereotypes about Jews. Due to this group’s zealous handiwork, Wikipedia’s articles on the Holocaust in Poland minimize Polish antisemitism, exaggerate the Poles’ role in saving Jews, insinuate that most Jews supported Communism and conspired with Communists to betray Poles (Żydokomuna or Judeo–Bolshevism), blame …

Jud Ms 25 Nathan F. Cogan Collection Finding Aid, Katelynn Paul

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Biographical Note

Nathan Franklin Cogan was born in Bath, Maine in 1937 and was the youngest of seven children. Nathan’s father, Morris Cohen, had originally arrived in Maine in 1914, following the outbreak of World War I. Nathan spent his childhood in Bath, where his father and family members assisted immigrants to Maine as a part of the Hebrew Benevolent Society. Nathan ultimately moved to Portland, Oregon in 1956 to attend Reed College. Nathan served two years in the U.S. Army, and upon ending service he pursued a doctorate in English at UC-Berkeley. Nathan became a professor emeritus of English …

Jud Ms 24 Frederic C. Weinberg Collection, Katelynn Paul

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Biographical Note:

Frederic Weinberg was born in Metuchen, New Jersey. He graduated from Metuchen High School and pursued a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Connecticut in 1969. After receiving his initial degree in English, he enrolled in the University of New Hampshire’s program in Library Science. In 1972 he was accepted into a special program in Educational Media at Boston University where he received a master’s degree in Education. In 1977 Frederic and his family joined the Beth Israel Congregation. He later assisted the congregation as a researcher and archivist. Currently Frederic is a regional coordinator for …

Jud Ms 26 Israel Bernstein Writings, Emily Margaret Newell

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Provenance: These papers were donated by Beth B. Schneider, on April 15, 2021.

Ownership and Literary Rights: The Israel Bernstein Writings Collection are the physical property of the University of Southern Maine Library. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the creator or her legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Special Collections Librarian.

Cite as: The Israel Bernstein Writings Collection, The Judaica Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, Special Collections, University of Southern Maine Library.

Restrictions on access: This collection is open for research.

Creating Cultural Capital: The Education Of Jewish Females At The Alliance Israélite Universelle (Aiu) School For Girls In The City Of Tunis, 1882–1914, Joy A. Land Phd

Published Articles

Based on rarely viewed images from the fin de siècle, this article will contribute to the burgeoning field of Jewish women in the world of Islam. At the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) School for Girls in the city of Tunis, 1882–1914, after a seven-year course of study, Jewish and non-Jewish girls acquired certification of their academic or vocational skills through a certificate or diploma of couture. Such credentials, according to Bourdieu (1986), constitute “cultural capital.” Furthermore, “cultural capital … is convertible … into economic capital and may be institutionalized in the forms of educational qualifications.” A young woman could create …

A Literary Analysis Of The Origin Of Human Embryonic Stem Cells, Its Advancements, Philosophical, Ethical, Sociocultural, And Political Aspects; An Investigation Of The Underlying Attributes That Affect One’S Views On Hesc Research To Resolve Turkey And Brazil’S Hesc Policy, Religious, And Cultural Conflicts, Haleema Shamsuddin

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are cells derived from 5-day human embryos and are self-renewing cell lines that change into any type of cell in the body, a trait called pluripotency. hESCs have almost unlimited clinical and medical research potential. Despite the great therapeutic promise of hESC research, it comes with a controversial ethical debate due to its involvement with the destruction of the human embryo. The central argument revolves around the question of whether or not these human embryos should be ascribed equal moral status to fully developed humans. This thesis aims to analyze the origin and advancements of …

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

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 …

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.

Review Of Levis Sullam, Simon, The Italian Executioners: The Genocide Of The Jews Of Italy, Shira Klein

History Faculty Articles and Research

A book review of Simon Levis Sullam's The Italian Executioners: The Genocide of the Jews of Italy.

The Jewish Response To The Nuremberg Trials, Melody Pruitt

History Class Publications

World War II was characterized by extreme violence and hardship. People from all over the world faced incredible circumstances of hunger, destitution, disease, and death. Millions of lives were lost both through the waging of war and the extermination of people groups. World War II characterized the globe in several different respects that still affect it today. Political systems, societies, and policies would forever be changed by the war, and people began to see each other quite differently. Perhaps the most well-known example of this is the mass murder of millions of Jews by the Nazi regime known as the …

Jud Ms 04 Rosalyne S. Bernstein Papers Finding Aid, Susannah Clark

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Description:

Rosalyne (Spindel) Bernstein (b. 1928) grew up in the Bronx, N.Y. and Fall River, MA, the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Poland, and attended Radcliffe College as an economics major. She and her husband, Sumner Thurman Bernstein (a Portland native), moved to Portland in 1949. There, she played an active role in the community and was involved with numerous organizations, such as: National Council of Jewish Women (president); Head Start program in Portland (founder); Bowdoin College; University of Southern Maine; Maine Health Care Finance Commission; Maine Medical Center; American- Israeli Public Affairs Committee; New England Board of Higher Education; …

Jud Ms 05 Sumner T. Bernstein Papers Finding Aid, Susannah Clark

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Description:

Sumner Thurman Bernstein (1924 - 2002) grew up in Portland, Maine, the son of lawyer parents. He served in the South Pacific in the U.S. Army during World War II (achieving the rank of Captain) and attended Harvard University for his undergraduate education and for law school. He returned to Portland after marrying Rosalyne Spindel in 1949, to join his father and uncle’s law practice, which he helped to grow into Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer and Nelson in 1964. He was very engaged with the community, participating in the following organizations, among others, often serving as president or chair of …

Using Wikipedia In Israel Studies Courses, Shira Klein

History Faculty Articles and Research

Instructors of Israeli history or literature, like professors in other areas, complain about students’ use of Wikipedia—and with good reason. Unlike peer-reviewed scholarship, many Wikipedia articles contain information that is both incomplete and wrong. Most instructors will warn their students that relying on Wikipedia is a sure recipe for failing assignments. Yet there is a way to mobilize this giant encyclopedia for pedagogical purposes. When students in Israel Studies classes are assigned to edit Wikipedia articles, they achieve multiple goals: they gain critical reading skills, shape public knowledge about Israel, and engage in active learning. This article explains how to …

Your Iphone Cannot Escape History, And Neither Can You: Self-Reflexive Design For A Mobile History Learning Game, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This chapter focuses on the design approach used in the self-reflexive finale of the mobile augmented reality history game Jewish Time Jump: New York. In the finale, the iOS device itself and the player using it are implicated in the historical moment and theme of the game. The author-designer-researcher drew from self-reflexive traditions in theater, cinema, and nonmobile games to craft the reveal of the connection between the mobile device and the history that the learners were studying. Through centering on this particular design element, the author demonstrates how self-reflexivity can be deployed in a mobile learning experience to …

Lg Ms 042 Am Chofshi Archives, Anthony Marvullo

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Administrative Information

Provenance:

The Am Chofshi Archives were donated by Gail Kass and Susan Horowitz in 2004. Kass was Am Chofshi’s treasurer and as such these archives contain financial documents and fundraising materials, some of which are restricted.

Total Boxes: 3

Linear Feet: 4.25

Time Travel, Labour History, And The Null Curriculum: New Design Knowledge For Mobile Augmented Reality History Games, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This paper presents a case study drawn from design-based research (DBR) on a mobile, place-based augmented reality history game. Using DBR methods, the game was developed by the author as a history learning intervention for fifth to seventh graders. The game is built upon historical narratives of disenfranchised populations that are seldom taught, those typically relegated to the 'null curriculum'. These narratives include the stories of women immigrant labour leaders in the early twentieth century, more than a decade before suffrage. The project understands the purpose of history education as the preparation of informed citizens. In paying particular attention to …

The Jews Of Italy (1650-1815), Francesca Bregoli

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

On Saints, Sinners, And Sex In The Apocalypse Of Saint John And The Sefer Zerubbabel, Natalie Latteri

Theology & Religious Studies

The Apocalypse of St. John and the Sefer Zerubbabel [a.k.a Apocalypse of Zerubbabel] are among the most popular apocalypses of the Common Era. While the Johannine Apocalypse was written by a first-century Jewish-Christian author and would later be refracted through a decidedly Christian lens, and the Sefer Zerubbabel was probably composed by a seventh-century Jewish author for a predominantly Jewish audience, the two share much in the way of plot, narrative motifs, and archetypal characters. An examination of these commonalities and, in particular, how they intersect with gender and sexuality, suggests that these texts also may have functioned similarly as …

Eleff On Katz, 'Bringing Zion Home: Israel In American Jewish Culture, 1948-1967', Zev Eleff

Hebrew Theological College Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Jud Ms 07 Casco Bay Tummlers Finding Aid, Natalie Hill

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Provenance: The Casco Bay Tummlers Archives represent materials related to the organization Casco Bay Tummlers from 1989-2008. The Archives was donated by Julie Goell of Peaks Island, ME in 2009.

Ownership and Literary Rights: The Casco Bay Tummlers Archives is the physical property of the University of Southern Maine Libraries. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the creator or her/his legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Head of Special Collections susie.bock@maine.edu.

Restrictions on access: Some materials are restricted until the year 2076.

Design Research: Typography Within The Israeli Linguistic Landscape, Shayna Tova Blum

Faculty and Staff Publications

A linguistic landscape signifies language used within a physical or virtual public space, in which communication is presented in typographic form, portraying a message to an audience. Within the state of Israel, the linguistic landscape presents a unique situation in which it is common to view municipal and commercial multilingual signs that are designed using Hebrew, English, and Arabic letterforms. By studying the diverse linguistic landscape within Israeli urban environments, the article offers perspectives on the use of multilingual visual language, based on discussions with five Israeli designers in the summer of 2015.

Jud Ms 06 Myer Marcus Interview Finding Aid, Katharine Renolds Thomas

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Description:

Myer M. Marcus was born in Portland, Maine in 1914, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants Saul Marcus, a Portland clothier, and his wife Bertha Marcus, nee Goldstein. As a boy he enjoyed spending his free time at the Portland Boys Club on Plum Street. He attended North School and Portland High School, then spent one year at the University of Virginia before transferring to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Marcus earned his LL.B. in 1937 from Boston University School of Law, then returned to Portland to open the Marcus and Marcus law office on Exchange Street with his younger …

The San Nicandresi Jews: A Brief Bibliographic And Photographic Essay, Michael C. Vocino

Technical Services Department Faculty Publications

Brief bibliographic, photographic essay on the conversion story of the Southern Italian Jews known as the Jews of San Nicandro.

Formation Of Public Sphere(S) In The Aftermath Of The 1908 Revolution Among Armenians, Arabs, And Jews, Bedross Der Matossian

Department of History: Faculty Publications

Revolutionary theories are most useful when they attempt to define and interpret the causes and mechanisms of revolutions. However, when they attempt to forecast the outcomes and the impact of revolutions on their indigenous societies, they are largely unsuccessful. This article deals with the impact of the Young Turk revolution on three non-dominant ethnic groups in the Ottoman Empire: Armenians, Arabs, and Jews. It will argue that the revolution resulted in the creation of a multiplicity of public spheres among the ethnic groupS.1 This multiplicity of public spheres became the main medium through which these ethnic groups internalized the Young …

The Impact Of Melbourne's Yiddishists, Deborah Gurt

University Faculty and Staff Publications

Carlton, the gritty inner-city section of Melbourne, served as a first point of entry for many new immigrants to Australia, my father among them. It also was a center of intellectual activity emblematic of the emerging Jewish culture in Australia in the 1930s and 40s. Its cheap rents and proximity to public transit and the city center made it a logical place for immigrants to cluster as they strove to secure their footing in Australia. The immigrants stuck together for support, companionship, and common language, as the cultural gap yawned between new Polish and German immigrants and most established Australian …

Jud Ms 03 Macabee Club Archives Finding Aid, Marieke Van Der Steenhoven

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Description:

Macabee Club was a club of Jewish high school students in Portland from 1955 to the 1970s. The Archives contains organizational records of the group, including meeting minutes, newsletters, and event programs.

Date Range:

1955-1972

Size of Collection:

1 ft.

Jud Ms 02 Portland Jewish Community Center Uso Guest Book Finding Aid, Karin A. France

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Description:

The Jewish Community Center on Cumberland Avenue in Portland, Maine was the site of United Service Organization (USO) social events, held regularly from at least October 1943 to September 1946. Most of the servicemen (and some women who were nurses) who attended events at the Community Center were in the Navy, stationed on shops docked or anchored in Casco Bay. These social events were sometimes held out on the islands. Although hosted by the Jewish Community Center, anyone was welcome, regardless of religion. Eleanor Edison Taft saved this ledger listing the names of attendees at the USO events when …

Jud Ms 01 Annetta Kornetsky Girl Scout Collection Finding Aid, Karin A. France

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Description:

Annetta Kornetsky was the Scout leader of Girl Scout Troops 109 and 177, sponsored by the Portland Jewish Community Center, between 1956 and 1958. The Collection contains records of Troops 109 and 177, including meeting agendas, finances, handbook pages, and minutes from November 1956 to March 1958.

Date Range:

1956-1958

Size of Collection:

0.08 ft.

An Army Of Housewives: Women’S Wartime Columns In Two Mainstream Israeli Newspapers, Shira Klein

History Faculty Articles and Research

At the height of Israel's 1948 war, women's columns in the newspapers Ha'aretz and Ma‘ariv offered readers advice, stories, and letters. They focused on domestic practices such as preparing food, sewing clothes, dressing fashionably and providing comfort. At first glance, they completely ignored the war raging around them. However, this essay shows that the columnists portrayed housewives' roles, no less than men's front-line fighting, as an important part of the nation's wartime effort. The columnists and their responding readers took the housewives' domestic practices, which made them seem so unfit for battle and turned them into a battlefield of their …