Jewish Studies Commons^™

Germans, Jews And Turks (Spring 2010), Robert D. Tobin

Syllabi

This class studies the expression of cultural identity in central European literature. How have people come to think of themselves or others as “Germans,” “Jews,” “Turks,” or some combinations thereof? While the Holocaust is obviously central to the German-Jewish relationship, it is not the only focus of this course—we will read literary reflections of the emancipation of the Jews, of German-Jewish assimilation and symbiosis, of the rise of anti-Semitism and Zionism, as well as attempts to remember the past. And while the long history of the relationship between Jews and non-Jews in Germany will be a major component of our …

A Story Without An End: The Resilience Of Yiddishism In Australia, Deborah Gurt

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Holocaust-Denial Literature: A Sixth Bibliography, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

This bibliography is a supplement to five earlier ones that were published in the Bulletin of Bibliography. Holocaust denial is a body of literature that seeks to prove that the Jewish Holocaust did not happen. This bibliography includes both works about Holocaust denial and works of Holocaust denial.

Legalists, Visionaries, And New Names: Sectarianism And The Search For Apocalyptic Origins In Isaiah 56–66, Brian R. Doak

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

This essay re-examines the difficult questions concerning the origins of apocalyptic literature and the rise of Jewish sectarianism. Since the publication of O. Plöger’s Theokratie und Eschatologie and P. Hanson’s The Dawn of Apocalyptic, the search for proto-apocalyptic origins in early post-exilic period sectarian conflict has generated a fair amount of debate. The most cogent and sustained response to Hanson’s and Plöger’s theories, S. Cook’s Prophecy & Apocalypticism (1995), attempted to purge the influence of “deprivation theory” from the field of biblical studies, and, more broadly, social anthropology. The present essay makes a fresh study of some central lines of …

Judy Holliday's Urban Working Girl Characters In 1950s Hollywood Film, Judith E. Smith

American Studies Faculty Publication Series

A Jewish-created urban and cosmopolitan working girl feminism persisted in the 1950s as a cultural alternative to the suburban, domestic consumerism critiqued so eloquently by Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique. The film persona of Jewish, Academy Award-winning actress Judy Holliday embodied this working girl feminism. Audiences viewed her portrayals of popular front working girl heroines in three films written by the Jewish writer and director Garson Kanin, sometimes in association with his wife, the actress Ruth Gordon, and directed by the Jewish director George Cukor in the early 1950s: Born Yesterday (1950), The Marrying Kind (1952), and It …

Interview No. 1639, Itzhak Kotkowski

Combined Interviews

Itzhak Kotkowski is an author that wrote about his experiences in the Holocaust during World War II; he was born in Warsaw, Poland on December 25, 1921; his family was Jewish, attended private school; Mr. Kotkowski addresses anti-Semitism among Polish people, personally never experienced it; he lived in the Jewish section, enjoyed life there until the German invasion on September 1, 1939; he recalls being at home when Warsaw was occupied, had always respected German culture; he explains his father worked hard to give them an education; he describes his three sisters, one was in Mexico, one immigrated to the …

Polish Influence On American Synagogue Architecture, Samuel D. Gruber

Religion - All Scholarship

Hundreds of thousands of Jews from Poland came to America after 1880. Many built synagogues with details recalling synagogues in their homeland. Immigrant artisans brought motifs and methods of Poland. Many of these synagogues were small, so the relationship to Polish art was on the inside in the painted and carved decoration. Established architects also had access to Polish synagogues as sources. With publication of the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-06) images of Polish synagogues, such as the Warsaw’s Tlomackie Street Synagogue, became part of many Jewish libraries. More Polish influence came in the 1950s. Most architects were building modern synagogues, …

Medieval Synagogues In The Mediterranean Region, Samuel D. Gruber

Religion - All Scholarship

Throughout the Middle Ages, the synagogue developed as the central identifying institution and physical building for Jews, replacing the still yearned for but increasingly distant Jerusalem Temple as the focus of Jewish identity. Equally important, the synagogue became the symbol par excellance of the Jews and their community for the Christian (or Muslim) majority populations in the countries where Jews were settled. For Christians, the synagogue was a Jewish church, but much more so, it came to symbolize in opposition all that the church represented.

Though relatively little known today, medieval synagogues were not symbolic abstractions to the men and …

“Two Jews Walk Into A Coffeehouse”: The “Jewish Question,” Utility, And Political Participation In Late Eighteenth-Century Livorno, Francesca Bregoli

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The "Place" Of Rhetoric In Aggadic Midrash, David Metzger, Steven B. Katz

English Faculty Publications

An essay is presented on the examination of Aggadic midrash as a particular mode of Jewish rhetoric. It offers a discussion of the utility and merit of aggadah within rabbinic literature which require a cluster of analysis of a larger collection of imagery to identify the dominant themes. The author explores on how textualization is treated as steps in the establishment of discursive spaces, which is limited by scripture, tradition, or the authority of the rabbis.

Shulchan Arukh, Amy Milligan

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

[First Paragraph] The Shulchan Arukh, literally translated as "The Set Table," is a compilation of Jewish legal codes. Written in the sixteenth century, it represents the first codification of Jewish law that is universally accepted by religiously observant Jews. It encompasses laws observed by both Ashkenazic Jews, those with German and eastern European roots, and Sephardic Jews, those with Spanish and Middle Eastern roots. Rabbi Yosef Karo composed the work in an effort to provide an authoritative legal text that would help to guide Jews in properly observing religious obligations. Although he composed the text before subdivisions of Judaism existed, …

My Name And My Face, Stuart Ewen

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

But Where Will They Build Their Nest? Liberalism And Communitarian Resistance In American Cinematic Portrayals Of Jewish-Gentile Romances, Holly A. Pearse

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation analyzes approximately fifty American films that feature predominantly heterosexual interfaith/intercultural romantic, sexual or marital relations between Jewish and Gentile protagonists. It asks what political or social ideals can be illustrated by these portrayals, and how these films can be taken cumulatively to explore trends in modern life. The author places liberalism at the heart of the mainstream Hollywood discourse on intermarriage, and shows how films that run counter to the expectations of liberal romances may reflect communitarian critiques of liberal tenets.

The issue of intermarriage is contextualized with a discussion of the endogamous tradition in Judaism, and by …

Family Values In The Jewish Tradition, J. David Bleich

Articles

In Family Values in the Jewish Tradition, Professor J. David Bleich presents Judaism as a religion of law. He describes the family unit, "both as a social unit and as a legal institution," and how it helps to provide comfort, companionship, and stability. He discusses the role of reproduction within the family unit, artificial insemination, and the homosexual act (not the homosexual as a person). Professor Bleich concludes with a discussion of the phrase, "be fruitful and multiply." He notes that this phrase is understood as both a commandment and a blessing.