Jewish Studies Commons^™

Radical Hospitality: Height And Excess Of The Other And The New Host Self, Diako Alikhani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Drawing on Emmanuel Levinas’ ethical framework and its emphasis on the “height and excess” of “the Other,” this thesis explores and develops a sense of “radical hospitality” in Levinas and across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In particular, the thesis explores how encounter with the Other is not only marked by an overwhelming excess, but one which transforms the subject into what I call a “New Host Self:” Where the self is the host who greets the stranger with hospitality, it is ultimately the stranger—the refugee, the migrant—who transforms the host into someone new. Here, the host ultimately receives a gift …

Memoriam, Mira Helena Darham

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

The chasm between past and present is a constant reminder of the perilous journey one takes through the fissures of memory. While on this expedition the forms surrounding you, the memories themselves, are a constantly changing landscape that make navigation a difficult and dangerous task. Is a memory a recall or a remembrance, truth, or construction? Are all memories as they happened or are we the “rememberer,” the architect of their composition? This dilemma has been the impetus of my academic pursuits and creative endeavors. For Memoriam I have chosen an event in my past, a wildfire, as the catalyst …

Expanding The Corpus Of Vocalized Hebrew Text: Compiling An Unvocalized Text Corpus And Building An Online Interface For Vocalization Annotation, Rachel Shanblatt Bloch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Written modern Hebrew presents a unique challenge for training computational models for language processing because modern Hebrew text often lacks vocalization. The lack of available vocalized Hebrew data can lead to ambiguity in training these models and generally hinders work on natural language processing problems. The goal of this project is to contribute to the collection of vocalized Hebrew text by collecting and preprocessing a large corpus of unvocalized Hebrew text and building an online annotation tool. The annotation tool allows people to upload unvocalized Hebrew text, to annotate by adding Hebrew vocalization, and to download comma-separated values files of …

The Holocaust's Legacy: Influencing Jewish Political Identity, Jordan Eskew

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis addresses the intricate relationship between the historical persecution of the Holocaust and its enduring influence on contemporary Jewish political engagement, a subject of significant contemporary relevance in political and international relations. Despite broad recognition of the Holocaust’s impact, the specific ways in which its memory affects Jewish political attitudes and actions around the world in the modern day have not been sufficiently thoroughly examined. Utilizing qualitative methods, including interviews with 20 individuals—public figures, Holocaust survivors, their descendants, and broader members of the Jewish diaspora— this study focuses on understanding the interplay between historical trauma, community cohesion, and the …

Judaism, Conversion, And The Limits Of Christian Orthodoxy: The Jewish Identities Of Joseph Wolff And Michael Solomon Alexander As Detailed In Their Memoirs And Missions To Palestine, Michael Iodice

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the Jewish identities of the Anglican missionaries Joseph Wolff and Michael Solomon Alexander by examining their conversion memoirs and evangelical missions to Palestine. It argues that they used Protestant biblical exegesis to emphasize their Jewish heritage and its importance in Christian prophecy.

Gentile Foods: Rabbinic Prohibitions And The Fear Of Intermarriage, David Raab

Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a history of halakhah which looks to evidence from both within and outside of rabbinic literature to explain the provenance of a particular phenomenon. It suggests, contra traditional and academic understanding, that the original rationale behind the rabbinic prohibitions of eating Gentile bread and certain Gentile cooking was concern over the possible admixture of biblically impermissible ingredients, including idolatrous wine. It was only in Babylonia, possibly around the end of the amoraic period, that the rabbis added mišum ḥatnut, the fear of intermarriage, as the rationale for the prohibition of eating Gentile bread (but not cooking), thus …

An Evaluation Of The Book Of Hosea And Its Impact For Our Lives Today, Nathan Fulton

Honors Projects

The book of Hosea provides a rich story of the life of the prophet Hosea and the constant woes of the nation of Israel. Through analysis of commentaries from past theologians and modern psychological studies, the contents of Hosea will be reinforced as viable literature to learn from. Despite belief in the historical legitimacy of the book, through research, we find humanity’s deepest desire is to be fully loved and fully known. Analysis of attachment theory and Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs show us that the story of Hosea demonstrates our insecurities and the proper response to them.

Paul Celan And The Processes Of Survival In Post-Shoah Jewish Writing, Ari Savage

Theses

The following is a study of the poetry of Paul Celan as a representation of psychological and social processes present in the written works of Shoah survivors. It begins with an analysis of the place of writing in Jewish culture, then identifies three primary processes which operate in sequence: alienation, individuation, and integration. By examining Paul Celan’s highly personal and autobiographical texts in the context of his life experience as a Shoah survivor it is possible to discern the social and psychological forces at work which compel survivors to express their traumas in written form, and to gain a better …

Change Is Tradition: An Analysis Of The Passover Seder, Aviva Miller

Scripps Senior Theses

Through an examination of the origins of the Passover Seder and the Seder’s section on the four children, I argue that change and adaptation are essential components of the Passover traditions. These traditions have previously had to adapt, and must continue to adapt to the demands of changing historical circumstances. Creative adaptation that maintains roots in past iterations of the tradition will ensure that each generation feels the desire to continue passing down the Passover traditions.

To Strengthen The Words Of The Sages: An Analysis Of Rav Elyakum Getz’S Rappeduni Ba-Tappuḥim And Its Consonance With Seventeenth-Century Polish Rabbinic Thought, Mushka Steinmetz

Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Rappeduni Ba-Tappuḥim, Rabbi Elyakum Getz’s 17th-century commentary on the Aggadic passages in BT Bava Batra 73a-74b, known as the Aggadot of Raba Bar Bar Ḥanbna. The study positions Elyakum’s work within the broader tradition of Aggadic exegesis and defines its uniqueness. To achieve this, Rappeduni Ba-Tappuḥim is compared with two earlier 16th-century works on the same Aggadot: Rabbi Shmuel Eidel’s Ḥiddushei Aggadot and Ephraim Luntchitz’s Olelot Ephraim. While both were written in Poland, they represent contrasting approaches—Eidel's commentary is a sincere Talmudic exegesis, whereas Luntchitz’s work reflects his role as a preacher, using the text as a …

He Asks Me Why I Started This, These Paintings, Frankie Mazza Sere

Senior Projects Spring 2024

Historical fiction about Jews in Argentina ~1880, 1910, 1940; exploring queerness, color (& art), and interpersonal relationships & dynamics.

We Receive A New Name., Rae רחל Lipkind, Rae Lipkind

Senior Projects Spring 2024

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

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, …