Jewish Studies Commons^™

Holocaust Si Gulag – Variante Ale Conceptului De Genocid? Intre Dreptul International Si Teoriile Contemporane Privind Violenta Colectiva [Holocaust And Gulag – Varieties Of The Concept Of Genocide? Between International Law And Current Theories Of Collective Violence]., Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Articles and Research

This article examines the concept of genocide from the point of view international legislation, its applicability to the mass violence phenomena known as Holocaust and Gulag, the difficulties of interpretation and the various solutions proposed by contemporary scholars. It seems that there is a need for a change in the definition of genocide in the international law, in the sense of updating this definition to the political and social developments in the world. The current concept of genocide, regulated by the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide poses a series of impediments that makes …

A Challenge To Sexual And Marital Propriety And Communal Reaction, Kenneth Stow

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The selection of sources from the early 1550's Rome deal with the question of honor of young women and their fathers.

The Jewish Community of Rome was unimpressed. It wanted it made clear that one did not make accusations that could harm the well-being, in fact, mostly financial, but also the honor, of young women. Indeed, the bride Ricca was herself awarded what amounted to a hefty fine; we know that among Christians, it was the father’s honor that was considered impugned, and any monetary sanctions would go to him. Not here.

Finally, we learn something about sacred and profane. …

Two Cases Of Apostasy In Dubno In 1716 Jews, Christians, And Family Life, Magda Teter

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

This text relates a trial of two Christian women who accepted to Judaism that took place in the city of Dubno in eastern Poland in 1716. The text presented here comes from a collection of primary sources published in Kiev [now Kyiv] in 1869, as part of effort by scholars at the time to collect and publish primary source materials about Ukraine. The collection is called Arkhiv Iugo-zapadnoi Rossii, or The Archive of South-Western Russia, and contains documents from the South-Western part of Ukraine.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Two Cases of Apostasy in Dubno in 1716

The Role Of Marriage And Marital Sexuality In Lurianic Kabbalah, Lawrence Fine

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The presentation situates the development of Lurianic Kabbalah in its context of sixteenth-century Safed. Focusing on two texts by Hayyim Vital, Lawrence Fine discusses sexuality and marital relations in Lurianic Kabbalah and among the Kabbalists themselves.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Ta'amei Mitsvot, Parshat Bereshit (Reasons for the Commandments concerning “Be Fruitful and Multiply”) by Hayim Vital (1570s)
• Sha'ar Kavvanot (The Gate of [Contemplative] Intentions, Concerning Sabbath Eve) by Hayim Vital (1570s)

“The First Duty Of Nature Is To Preserve Life” A Jewish Woman’S Plea For Divorce In Late 18th-Century Trieste, Lois Dubin

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The presentation discusses a letter from Relle [Rachele] Morschene (1770-1844) of Trieste to Chief Rabbi Raffael Natan Tedesco, written in the throes of her three-year long effort to extricate herself from her marriage to husband Lucio Luzzatto (1755-1801). From 1793 to 1796, Morschene pursued separation and civil divorce through the Habsburg courts at the same time as a Jewish religious divorce. Indeed, she was one of the first European Jewish women to seek and obtain a civil divorce. Her legal situation was novel because Jews in the Habsburg Monarchy were among the first to be subjected to civil marriage regulation …

The Woodstruck Deed The Documentation Of Accidental Defloration Among The Jews Of Early Modern Italy, David Malkiel

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The “woodstruck” (mukat ets) deed, a Hebrew document that officially records the accidental defloration of a young girl, appears in sixteenth-century Italy, in a block of deeds recorded by Jewish notaries in Rome, in a rabbinic responsum and in the record book of the Padua community. Prior to that, there is no record of such an instrument anywhere in Jewish history and literature, despite the fact that the frequency of accidental defloration must have been a constant. Moreover, the registers of the Jewish notaries of sixteenth-century Rome contain over a hundred such deeds for the sixteenth century alone. The appearance …

Jewish Women And Economic Encounters With Christians, Debra Kaplan

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

R. Yair Hayyim ben Moses Samson Bacharach (1638-1702) is well-known for his knowledge of halakha and Kabbalah. Over the course of his lifetime, he served as the rabbi in several locations in the Holy Roman Empire. In these two responsa, Bacharach deals with one of the halakhic problems surrounding women’s trade with non-Jews. Such trade inevitably caused women to enter into seclusion (yihud) with non-Jews, especially since according to Jewish law, the presence of the non-Jew’s wife did not alleviate the prohibition of seclusion with a non-Jew.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Havvot Yair, Responsum 66
• Havvot Yair, …

Unequal Opportunities The Economic Possibilities Open To Jewish Women In 18th Century Poland-Lithuania, Adam Teller

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The following texts present an image of economic opportunities, and gender roles in Jewish society in eastern Europe. The first text is an 18th-century supplication by a Jew, Bunim Szlomowicz, against his wife; the second is a 1751 decree by the Council of Lithuania regulating women's roles in trade.

An Early 17th Century Ketubah From Sefer Tikun Sofrim By Rabbi Itzhak Zabakh, Ruth Lamdan

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

In Jewish Law, the halakha, there is an extensive importance to the accurate scribing of legal documents (shtarot). Any slight deviation from the standard formula of one word, or even of one character, might invalidate a formal bill or cancel a personal or commercial obligation. The importance bestowed on each word encouraged many famous rabbis to write and edit books of standard legal bills, and Hebrew scribes used to copy samples of bills for their personal use in the future. Qualified scribes made exemplary collections of documents for their students, and young trainees would copy such samples – as well …

Family Ties & Political Structure In Pisa And Livorno, Bernard D. Cooperman

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

In his presentation of two documents pertaining to Jews in Pisa and Livorno, Bernard Cooperman discusses the link between family connections and the construction of a new formal Jewish community and explores the connection between family and business networks. Cooperman argues here that new communities in early modern Italy were often structured as merchant companies, and it was a family that was a base of trade networks. Family also became a method of joining the community, while at the same time families and individuals used membership in a community to legitimize a family. The presentation further explores interracial marriages and …

Marriage And Networkbuilding, Claudia Ulbrich

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

In eastern France Jewish marriages are well documented in the eighteenth century. Following a decree by Louis XIV in 1701 that Jewish marriage contracts had to be deposited with notaries within 15 days of marriage, these documents were registered with increasing frequency in the entire French-German region. Registration became generally obligatory in that time, so that we have large amounts of documents both for Christian as for Jews. Historians have never fully analyzed these files. Jean Fleury, who was prompted by genealogical interests, surveyed the 8500 items in the Metz archive, and compiled 2021 marriage contracts from the seventeenth and …

How Family Wealth And Power Are Organized, Moshe Rosman

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The following is a translation of Todros Kozuchowski's will. Originally written in Polish, then translated into Hebrew, the will was translated into English by Moshe Rosman.

Pinkas Shamash Altona (1766-1767), Elisheva Carlebach

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

Elisheva Carlebach's presentation discusses excerpts from the Pinkas Shamash Altona, providing a glimpse on an aspect of Jewish life that usually remained obscured--illegitimate children born to Jewish domestic servants, and the servants themselves, held very marginal status in the community. One of the pertinent issue was death. If they died the responsibility for buying them was contested between many different parties.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Pinkas Shamash Altona (1766-1767)

Click here for a video presentation.

Rural Jews Of Alsace, Debra Kaplan

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

From 1348/9-1477, the Jews of Alsace were expelled from the cities in which they had lived throughout the Middle Ages. While many opted to leave the Empire for centers in Eastern Europe and Italy, some Jews remained, moving to the towns and villages in the countryside. By the 1470's, the majority of Alsatian Jews lived in rural areas. Quotas often dictated residential policies in towns and villages, so it was not uncommon to find one or two Jewish families per village/town. The following documents detail the relationship of rural Alsatian Jews, as represented by their communal leaders, with two Alsatian …

The Boom Of Testimony After Communism: The Voices Of The Holocaust Survivors In Romania: 1989-2005, Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Articles and Research

"In this article I intend to deal with the relation between Jewish survivors and Holocaust remembrance in post-communist Romania. Therefore I will investigate the consequences of the Holocaust experience on Jewish survivors from the perspective of how, when and why they remember the catastrophe. My investigation will not particularly focus on the level of the trauma and sufferings they have to live with, but rather on how the political, social and cultural factors have managed to influence the public recollection of the war sufferings and the survivors’ attitude towards Holocaust remembrance. I am interested in discovering mainly the way these …

Early Modern Jewries, Emw 2004

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The 2004 workshop’s goal was to look broadly at the early modern period, and develop a number of themes that might be pursued at subsequent workshops. At the workshop, a number of scholars worked together for three days trying to define the parameters of this chronological period in Jewish history. Participants have covered a broad, if still necessarily limited, range of geographic, thematic, and disciplinary topics, resulting in the first collection of impressive texts on early modern Jewish history. They include privileges granted by monarchs and lords to Jews (privileges granted to Jews of Great Poland in 1453, to a …

The Holocaust, Gulag, And Sociology: Why Is There Less Scholarly Interest In The Soviet Repressive System?, Rachel Schroeder

Honors Theses

The Soviet Gulag and the Holocaust are two formative events that claimed millions of victims in the twentieth century; however, the Gulag has received markedly less interest from scholars. Why does such a major discrepancy exist in the amount of attention that is focused on the Gulag as compared to the Holocaust? This paper offers a response to the above question. It explores the scale and dimensions of the discrepancy through a comparative analysis of a Gulag bibliography and a Holocaust bibliography. The paper also offers a response to the question of why the discrepancy exists by inquiring into the …

Money Versus Morality: The Failure Of The Joint Boycott Council And The Anti-Nazi Boycott Movement In The United States, Michelle D. Ward

History Theses & Dissertations

The Nazis' wise to power elicited responses from a multitude of Jewish and non- Jewish organizations around the world. Like their respective counterparts, American Jewry adopted a variety of strategies both in the United States and abroad to combat Nazism. The purpose of this study is to examine the boycott movement instituted by the Joint Boycott Council. Although the boycott had a limited short-term effect on the German economy, it failed in its overall goals. It never contributed to an economic collapse in Germany or forced the Nazis to turn away from discriminatory practices and decrees targeting Jews and other …

Ua12/2/1 In The Spirit . . . Of Humanity, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

In the Spirit . . . of Humanity special College Heights Herald section regarding the holiday season.

• Blandford, Scarlet. Spirit of Sharing
• Davis, Rochelle. Students Make Children’s Christmas Brighter
• Craig, Ryan. Take Time to Remember, Treasure Loved Ones
• Mayo, Travis. Cultures Offer Diversity in Celebration
• Mayo, Travis. Myths of Hanukkah Dissolved
• Craig, Ryan. Sharing Christmas Memories – Paul Sanderford, Howard Bailey, Barbara Burch & Debby Cherwak
• Goetz, Kristina. Sometimes Jail is ‘Dignified’ – Mark Hopper
• Stevens, Chad. ‘I Need to Get Our Life Back’ – Ursula Tron
• Doss, Desiree. Campus Christmas Tree Creates Feeling of Home
• Browning, Michelle. Love, Kindness …

New Odessa, 1882-1887: United We Stand, Divided We Fall, Helen E. Blumenthal

Dissertations and Theses

The Oregon Territory and later the State of Oregon have had a well-deserved reputation for encouraging free thought and liberal ideas. By tradition, Oregon has been the scene of rugged individualism, a proving ground for ideas and movements. The commune of New Odessa was one of the lesser known attempts of a group of immigrants coming from persecution in Russian to a new way of life in America.

This thesis is a study starting with the background of Russian Jewry, the social climate in the United States and particularly Oregon which allowed for the development of communes, the story of …

Ua68/10/1 Sociological Symposium No. 1 – The Sociology Of Death, Wku Sociology

WKU Administration Documents

Table of Contents

• Fulton, Robert L. & Gilbert Geis. Social Change & Social Conflict: The Rabbi & the Funeral
• Kane, John J. The Irish Wake: A Sociological Appraisal
• Loveland, Glenn G. The Effects of Bereavement on Certain Religious Attitudes & Behaviors
• Morgan, Al. The Bier Barons
• Porter, William H., Jr. Some Sociological Notes on a Century of Change in the Funeral Business
• Salomone, Jerome J. An Empirical Report on Some Controversial American Funeral Practices
• Spilka, Bernard, Robert J. Pelligrini & Kathryn Dailey. Religion, American Values & Death Perspectives
• Strauss, Anselm L., Barney G. Glaser & Jeanne C. Quint. The Nonaccountability …

The Changing Attitudes Towards The Jews Of England 1066-1660, Bernard Glassman

History Theses & Dissertations

Abstract unavailable.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 46, No. 21, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. Regular features include:

• Clubs Calendar
• WKU and Me
• Alumni News
• Coming Events Calendar
• Toppertalk
• West on Western Sports
• Dear Mom

This issue contains articles:

• Ledford, Perry & Rick Sitler. Proposed Revisions of Attendance Rules Adopted by Council
• Talisman Distribution to Climax Annual Ball
• New Christy Minstrels on Campus Tomorrow
• Student Needs to Influence Fall Courses
• Glass Menagerie Opens Tonight
• Former Met Contralto to Sing Here Friday – Elena Nikolaidi
• Whitaker, Dave. Dr. Raymond Cravens Addresses WKU Chapter of American Association of University Professors
• American Marketing Association Honors Two Seniors …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 46, No. 20, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. Regular features include:

• Clubs Calendar
• WKU and Me
• Alumni News
• Coming Events Calendar
• Toppertalk
• West on Western Sports
• Dear Mom

This issue contains articles:

• Sitler, Rick. William Menser Triumphs in Landslide
• Williams, Vikki & Norah Stuart. Earl Edmonds to Lead Seniors
• Annual Kentucky Education Association Breakfast to Feature Both Sights and Sounds of Campus
• Attendance Proposal Closer to Adoption
• High Schoolers to Visit WKU During May
• Unopened Parcels to be Sold at Faculty Wives Club Auction
• Club News – Phi Mu Alpha, SNEA, Alpha Psi Omega, Cherry Country Life, …

05/31/1946, Israel Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter to Sumner Bernstein from father Israel regarding family visits; summer school; Kravchenko's I Chose Freedom.

05/29/1946, Sumner T. Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter to family from Sumner Bernstein regarding visit with family (Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Don, Aunt Esther, Ellen); summer school; court martial; Cluny Brown.

05/28/1946 B, Israel Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter to Sumner Bernstein from father Israel regarding attempt to call Senator Brewster; registration for Harvard.

05/28/1946 C, Rebecca Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter to Sumner Bernstein from mother Rebecca (Peggy) regarding attempts to move up Sumner's discharge date; Harvard summer school.

05/28/1946, Sumner T. Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter to family from Sumner Bernstein regarding meeting with Colonels; when he will leave the Army; registering for Harvard.

05/27/1946, Sumner T. Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter to family from Sumner T. Bernstein regarding meeting with Colonels on timing of his leaving the Army; life insurance.