Jewish Studies Commons^™

Forum: Feminism In German Studies, Elizabeth Loentz, Monika Shafi, Faye Stewart, Tiffany Florvil, Kerry Wallach, Beverly Weber, Hester Baer, Carrie Smith, Maria Stehle

German Studies Faculty Publications

From Professor Wallach's contribution entitled "Jews and Gender":

To consider Jews and gender within German Studies is to explore the evolution of German‐Jewish Studies with respect to feminist and gender studies. At times this involves looking beyond German Studies to other scholarship in Jewish gender studies, an interdisciplinary subfield in its own right. Over the past few decades, the focus on gender within German‐Jewish Studies has experienced several shifts in line with broader trends: an initial focus on the history of Jewish women and feminist movements gradually expanded to encompass the study of gender identity, masculinity, and sexuality. Historical and …

20th Anniversary Of The Vatican Document On The Shoah (Holocaust), Lawrence Frizzell

Selected Works of Lawrence E. Frizzell

In light of the 20th anniversary of the Vatican document, “We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah” (March 16, 1998), the Rev. Dr. Lawrence Frizzell analyzes this and other related Church publications and presentations and reflects on what lessons have been learned over the past two decades and what challenges still lie ahead.

20th Anniversary Of The Vatican Document On The Shoah (Holocaust), Lawrence Frizzell

Department of Religion Publications

In light of the 20th anniversary of the Vatican document, “We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah” (March 16, 1998), the Rev. Dr. Lawrence Frizzell analyzes this and other related Church publications and presentations and reflects on what lessons have been learned over the past two decades and what challenges still lie ahead.

Rabbi Eliezer Of Beaugency, Commentaries On Amos And Jonah (With Selections From Isaiah And Ezekiel), Robert A. Harris

TEAMS Commentary Series

Rabbi Eliezer of Beaugency represents the pinnacle of twelfth-century rabbinic exegesis of the Bible. A proponent of the literal school, Eliezer completely abandoned traditional rabbinic midrash in his explication of biblical texts and innovated a literary approach that anticipated the fruits of modern scholarship in virtually every paragraph. This volume presents, for the first time in English translation, an extended window into the oeuvre of this master interpreter.

The Imperial Legacy: An Examination Of The Trends Of Empire And Genocide From German Southwest Africa To The General Government, Laura Guebert

Scholars Week

This project is an examination of the correlations between imperial enterprises of the Second German Empire and the Nazi Reich through the lenses of global and imperial critiques. By studying the realities and experiences of German Southwest Africa, the Ober Ost, and Nazi-occupied Easter Europe, this paper attempts to identify the common elements of German imperialism: pathos, frantic improvisation, cognizance of contemporaries, and industrial modernity. To help elucidate these elements, this research studied the themes and theories developed by leading historians of modern German and Eastern European history, including Timothy Snyder, Ben Kiernan, Shelley Baranowski, Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, and Christopher …

From Swing King To Swing Kids: The Jazz Era Of ‘Big Band Orchestras’ In World War Ii, Katie Victoria Burnopp

Student Scholar Showcase

Known as the ‘King of Swing’, clarinetist and band leader Benny Goodman (1909-1986) threatened the Nazi cause during WWII. With intent of improving music pedagogy, the purpose of this research was to investigate swing music during World War II. The particular problems of this study were to: (1) identify how the swing music of Benny Goodman (1909-1986) influenced adolescents in the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Germany; (2) explore the Nazi party view on ‘swing’ music of the era; (3) examine how the music of Charlie and his Orchestra became used as a tool for Nazi propaganda; and …

From Swing King To Swing Kids: The Jazz Era Of ‘Big Band Orchestras’ In World War Ii, Katie Victoria Burnopp

Student Scholar Showcase

Known as the ‘King of Swing’, clarinetist and band leader Benny Goodman (1909-1986) threatened the Nazi cause during WWII. With intent of improving music pedagogy, the purpose of this research was to investigate swing music during World War II. The particular problems of this study were to: (1) identify how the swing music of Benny Goodman (1909-1986) influenced adolescents in the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Germany; (2) explore the Nazi party view on ‘swing’ music of the era; (3) examine how the music of Charlie and his Orchestra became used as a tool for Nazi propaganda; and …

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures: Anti-Semitism, Hopelessness, And The Rise Of The Nazi Party, Benjamin E. Bruster

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

This paper explores the rise the Nazi Party (NSDAP) as a function of compounded poverty, unemployment, economic stagnation, and long-tenured anti-Semitism. In doing so, I aim to understand the Nazis and their supporters not as demons, but as products of their unique historical situation. This perspective offers a greater understanding of Nazism's rise, and it also offers helpful means of thinking about possible fascist regimes in the future.

The Media Matrix Of Early Jewish And Christian Literature, Nicholas Andrew Elder

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study compares two seemingly dissimilar ancient texts, the Gospel of Mark and Joseph and Aseneth. The former is a product of the nascent Jesus movement and influenced by the Greco-Roman βίοι (“Lives”). It details the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of a wandering Galilean. The latter is a Hellenistic Jewish narrative influenced by Jewish novellas and Greek romances. It expands the laconic account of Joseph’s marriage to Aseneth in Genesis 41 into a full-blown love story that promotes the romantic, theological, and ethical incentives of spurning idols and converting to Judaism. Generically, theologically, and concerning content the two texts …

The Problem With David: Masculinity And Morality In Biblical Cinema, Kevin M. Mcgeough

Journal of Religion & Film

The King David of the Bible, and especially as portrayed in the books of Samuel, is one of the most complex characters in ancient literature. We are told his story from his youth as a shepherd until his death as king of Israel. He kills a mighty warrior with a slingshot, goes to war with his king and later his son, and has an affair that threatens to throw his kingdom into disarray. The stories surrounding David seem perfect for cinematic adaptation yet what makes this character so compelling has been problematic for filmmakers. Here, three types of Biblical filmmaking …

Turning “Bad Jews Into Worse Christians”: Hermann Adler And The London Society For Promoting Christianity Amongst The Jews, Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

This paper explores how sermons contributed to Jewish-Christian relations in Victorian England. I begin with a rhetorical analysis of sermons preached on behalf of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, the largest and best known missionary organization of its kind. I then examine a collection of sermons in which Hermann Adler, then rabbi of London’s Bayswater Synagogue and later Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, pushes back against their efforts, offering the “true explanations” of passages which, in his view, had been improperly employed by Christian preachers. Finally, I trace a kind of “feedback loop” in which …

Of Levinas And Shakespeare: "To See Another Thus", Sandor Goodhart, Moshe Gold, Kent Lehnhof

Purdue University Press Book Previews

Scholars have used Levinas as a lens through which to view many authors and texts, fields of endeavor, and works of art. Yet no book-length work or dedicated volume has brought this thoughtful lens to bear in a sustained discussion of the works of Shakespeare. It should not surprise anyone that Levinas identified his own thinking as Shakespearean. "The play’s the thing" for both, or put differently, the observation of intersubjectivity is. What may surprise and indeed delight all learned readers is to consider what we might yet gain from considering each in light of the other.

Comprising leading scholars …

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

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

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

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

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 …

Book Review: The Failures Of Ethics: Confronting The Holocaust, Genocide, And Other Mass Atrocities, James J. Snow 4995784

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Review: John K. Roth, The Failures of Ethics: Confronting the Holocaust, Genocide, and Other Mass Atrocities

Vicarious Victimhood As Post-Holocaust Jewish Identity In Erica Fischer's Auto/Biography Aimée And Jaguar, Anne Rothe

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Vicarious Victimhood as Post-Holocaust Jewish Identity in Erica Fischer's Auto/Biography Aimée and Jaguar" Anne Rothe reads the Austrian-Jewish journalist's interview-based dual biography in autobiographical terms. Taking recourse to such para-texts as the preface and epilogue, in which Fischer reflects on her own subject position, in addition to the auto/biographical narrative itself, Rothe critiques the notion of constructing secular Jewish identity based on the notion of vicarious or hereditary Holocaust victimhood. This provocative new reading reveals that the biography Fischer wrote constitutes a counter-narrative to the story her main collaborator, Lilly Wust, told the author about her …

The Bronx Was Brewing: A Digital Resource Of A Lost Industry, Michelle Zimmer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Bronx: a bucolic oasis laden with history, a suburb within city-limits, an urban warzone, and thanks to the recent renaissance, a phoenix of progress rising from the proverbial ashes of the fires that burned through the borough in the 1970’s. But many people are unaware that the Bronx also brewed.
Uncovering the brewing industry of the Bronx tells not only the story of the lost industry, but it also communicates the narrative of the development of the Bronx. The brewers were German immigrants who developed a thriving industry by introducing lager beer to the United States by taking advantage …

Klezmer Elements In Paul Schoenfield’S Trio For Clarinet, Violin, And Piano: A Violinist’S Perspective, Hannah Phyllis Urdea Marcus

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Paul Schoenfield’s Trio for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano draws extensively on the traditional Klezmer music of the Ashkenazi Jewish people of Eastern Europe. The blending of three very different instruments, as well as the Klezmer elements, unusual for the classically trained musicians, creat difficulties, as well as opportunities, for the composer and for the performers alike.

Music is often considered a language. As with any language, in order to be fluent, one must understand the cultural aspects that shape that language and the people who speak it. The way the performers present a piece greatly influences the way it is …

Levine's Store Scrapbook, Wendy Miller, Julie Miller, Sara Miller Arnon

Levine Family of Waterville

Photos, clippings, and ephemera related to Levine's, a Waterville, Maine clothing store owned and operated by the Levine family.

Ijcs News, Volume 6, The Institute Of Judaeo-Christian Studies

Newsletters

The 2018 issue of IJCS News, the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies' annual newsletter, Vol 6.

Hospital Care For Jews In Nineteenth-Century Amsterdam: The Emergence Of The First Jewish Hospitals, Jack Y. Vanderhoek

Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

In the early seventeenth century, the Jews formally established two separate communities in Amsterdam, the Portuguese Sephardi and the High German Ashkenazi congregations. Until the end of the eighteenth century, medical care for the Amsterdam indigent Jews had been controlled and regulated by the powerful Parnasim, the de facto rulers, of each community. The primary communal organizations that were exclusively responsible for medical care for the poor were the Bikur Holim societies. This approach for the care of the indigent Jewish sick became ineffective in the nineteenth century and was replaced by a hospital-based system. This essay describes how …

Book Review: Equality Lost: Essays In Torah Commentary, Halacha, And Jewish Thought, David B. Levy

Touro University Libraries Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Pri Shamaryahu: A Torah Journal In Honor Of My Rebbe, Hagaon Harav Shamaryahu Meltzer Shlit"A, Avraham Friedman

Hebrew Theological College Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Translating The Torah Into Light, Ian Gonsher

Scholarly Research

There is an ancient mystical tradition that each character in the Hebrew alphabet also has a meaningful numerical equivalent. This tradition is called Gematria. It stands to reason that if a letter can be translated into a number, then that number can be given a chromatic value as well. By mapping each character’s position in the Hebrew alphabet to correspond with a color on the visible spectrum, we can translate these chromatic values from the text. We can translate the text into light.

Pri Shilo: A Torah Journal In Memory Of My Rosh Kollel Harav Hagaon Rav Shilo Rafael Zt"L, Avraham Friedman

Hebrew Theological College Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Art Of Jerusalem: Power And Piety In The Holy Land, Abby M. Kornfeld

Open Educational Resources

This course explores the art and architecture of Jerusalem from the reign of Herod through the Crusades, a period in which the city came under successive Jewish, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, and Latin domination. Particular attention will be given to the repeated transformation of the landscape of Jerusalem through the destruction, construction, and modification of important religious and cultural monuments. We will gauge the role of Jerusalem as an object of desire for the dispossessed and for pilgrims of three faiths. In addition, we will explore how the accretion of myth and memory shaped the city’s symbolic identity, and how this …

Theology, Phenomenology, And The Divine In King Lear, Kent R. Lehnhof

English Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"In what follows, then, I would like to think through Levinas's ideas on transcendence and ethics in such a way as to map out a new pathway for approaching Shakespeare's great tragedy. As unorthodox as it may sound, I propose to shed light on the darkling religiosity of King Lear by turning-not to the theological doctrines of early modem Christians-but to the postmodern ethics of a twentieth-century Jew."

What The Walls Say: Finding Meaning And Value In Tel Aviv’S Street Art, Rachel R. Bird

Honors Theses

This thesis explores street art in Tel Aviv, Israel through anthropological concepts of value. By defining street art as an interstitial practice—one that exists between permeable, socially defined boundaries and is characterized differently by different power structures—I attempt to define some of the different regimes of value that apply to street art. Using the emerging market of “street art tours” as a fieldwork site, I look at how street art is presented and re-presented to both tourists and locals. By situating my research in a historical and geographic context, I hope to understand the ways different value schema, from economic …

Outer Limits Of Biotechnologies: A Jewish Perspective, John D. Loike, Alan H. Kadish

Office of the President Publications and Research

A great deal of biomedical research focuses on new biotechnologies such as gene editing, stem cell biology and reproductive medicine, which have created a scientific revolution. While the potential medical benefits of this research may be far-reaching, ethical issues related to non-medical applications of these technologies are demanding. We analyze, from a Jewish legal perspective, some of the ethical conundrums that society faces in pushing the outer limits in researching these new biotechnologies.