Jewish Studies Commons^™

Invoking The Holocaust At The Border: Holocaust Museums, Commemoration And Community Activism In The Southwest., Mayra A. Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis is a localized study that engages with the literature on Holocaust memory and memorialization in the U.S. and asks how the themes and methodologies of those scholars elucidate Holocaust memorialization and education along the U.S.-Mexico border. During 2018-2019, the U.S. witnessed migrant Caravans from Central America, Haiti, Africa, and South Asia as migrants fled violence, displacement, and extreme poverty to cross multiple borders and perilous terrain to seek refuge at the U.S.-Mexico border. During these same years, Holocaust analogies and Holocaust memory were instrumentalized by human rights advocates, descendants of survivors, and public officials who either linked migrant …

Woman, Queer, Jewish: The Sociopolitical Importance And Impact Of Identity Labels, Megan Polun

Honors Projects in English and Cultural Studies

In this thesis, I trace and analyze the historical, social, and political uses of three identity labels: woman, queer, and Jewish. These three identity categories are personally important to me because I identify as a queer, Jewish woman. The questions motivating this analysis are as follows: How have these words been defined and who gets to define them? What has it meant historically to move through the world with one of these labels, and what does it look like today? What qualifies someone to identify with one of these labels, and what experiences or qualities do we share? What challenges …

"Len", Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

“Len” was born in the Bronx to Hungarian immigrants who immigrated to the United States in their early twenties. Len’s mother was a housekeeper in Brooklyn until she married Len’s father, a factory worker. After marriage, Len’s mother became a homemaker, and both of Len’s parents moved to the Bronx. Len’s mother had aspirations for him to become a rabbi, and as a result, he attended yeshiva before electing to leave parochial school for high school. Len’s family lived within two blocks of the yeshiva for the first fourteen years of his life, and Len describes his childhood as insular …

Hochberg, Herbert, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Herbert Hochberg, born in 1930, spent the first 10 years of his life in economic hardship because of the Great Depression. Both his parents migrated from Western Ukraine and lived in the Bronx since their marriage in 1928. They took in an infant to make end’s meet, and after the war his father went into the business of building two-family homes in the Bronx, while his mother stayed at home. Hochberg grew up across from Bronx Park until 1939 when his family moved to the newly developed Northeast Bronx near Allerton Avenue and Pelham Parkway. He describes the area as …

Silverstein, Helen "Lyn", Reyna Lee Stovall

Bronx Jewish History Project

Helen "Lyn" Silverstein was born in 1944 and grew up in the Melrose area. Her family was not observant growing up but she remembers certain dietary rules her family followed that were kosher-style. Her family was not close-knit and as a result, she knew very little about her extend family. Her mother and aunt would speak Yiddish together when they didn’t want Silverstein to know what they were saying. As a result, Silverstein knows certain words and phrases in Yiddish but cannot speak or understand it fluently.

Silverstein went to PS 35 for elementary school, Jordan L. Mott, Junior High …

Adler, Lucille, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Her mother born in Poland and her father raised in Manhattan, Lucille Adler grew up in a two family house on Morris Avenue and 174 Street. She describes the neighborhood as 99% Jewish, with a few Black students in her public school. They would go shopping on 174 Street and she loved walking up and down to see all the shops. Her mother taught math at a Jewish school and her father had an insurance company. She envied the other girls whose mothers stayed at home, because she was a latchkey girl and would come home to an empty house …

Between Faith And Nation: The Complexities Of Jewish Identity In Interwar Austria, Sarah E. Townsend

Honors College Theses

During the period between the First and Second World Wars, the people of the newly established Austrian Republic faced many changes: the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Habsburg Monarchy, economic hardships during and following the First World War, and the question of German ethnic nationalism and unification with Germany. The question of national identity was relevant to the entire Austrian population and Austrians had to make an important decision about their nationality: Austrian or German? For Austrian Jews, the dilemma was more complicated. Zionism promoted the idea of Jewish statehood and a solely Jewish identity. This thesis explores the …

Rothstein, Richard, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Richard Rothstein, born in 1942, was born in Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan, and lived on Webster Avenue with his parents who initially moved to the Bronx from Manhattan. Rothstein’s mother was a Hungarian immigrant, and he spoke Hungarian at home until the age of eight. The family later moved to Harrison Avenue, where he remembers having many Italian and Irish neighbors but very few Jewish ones. However, as Rothstein’s family was not religious, their lack of Jewish neighbors was not a bother. Rothstein remembers being bullied as a kid by some of his Irish and Italian peers and recalls …

Redefining The Agency Of Jewish Communities Through Ghetto Humor, Addison E. Lomax

Student Publications

While the Holocaust is remembered by historians and victims as a time of suffering and genocide, Jewish ghetto survivors recall numerous occasions in which humor was used to combat the oppression of Nazi authorities. Although many historians emphasized the physical hardships and tragic conditions faced by Jewish victims of the Holocaust, the existence of jokes throughout Eastern European ghettos articulated the legitimacy of humor within the greater context and discussion of coping, resistance, and unification for the preservation of Jewish life and identity in the post-war period. Rather than depicting Jews as solely victims, humor returns agency to the Jews …

The Jews Of Harlem, Dimitry Ekshtut

Open Educational Resources

This is a syllabus for JWST 31919 - The Jews of Harlem, offered by the Jewish Studies Department at City College of New York. "The Jews of Harlem" is an interdisciplinary class focusing on the story of Jews in the neighborhood of Harlem, New York, their historic connection to the neighborhood (when it was the 3rd largest Jewish community in the world), and the flowering of new Jewish life in Harlem today.

The One Ring Of King Solomon, Giovanni Carmine Costabile

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Tolkien source criticism has long been looking for the source of the One Ring in the wrong places. Neither the historical ispiration from World War II and the Atomic Bomb nor the proposed literary influences such as the Ring of the Nibelungs, Wagner's Ring, or the several examples of invisibility rings found in world literature may suffice to explain the complexity of Tolkien's unique creation. Nonetheless, the same cannot be said so easily with regards to another possible source once we survey the richness of the related legends: it is the fabled signet ring of King Solomon.

Out Of Exile: The Evolution Of Moroccan Jewishness, Yana Levy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Morocco once had the largest Jewish population of any Islamic country, but in 1948 the creation of the Israeli state drew Jews out of Morocco in massive numbers. Since then the Jews have a ghostly presence, spoken about but hardly seen. Curiously, the void left by their flight has been filled by a conscious effort on the part of Moroccan historical institutions to retain the presence of Jews in collective memory. Well maintained sites, and spaces such as the Jewish quarter that are linked to Jewish presence continue to contribute to a discourse which presents Moroccan and Jewish histories as …

Stern, Mark, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Mark Stern was born in 1961 in the South Bronx. His paternal grandfather moved to the Bronx from Germany because of the Nazis. Stern’s maternal grandfather was from Turkey and a Ladino speaker. He moved to the Bronx where he met Stern’s paternal grandmother and got involved in the laundry business. Stern’s maternal grandmother’s family lived on Warner Street and owned a bakery, however because of local competition from Pectoris and a lack of enthusiasm for continuing the family business, the bakery closed. As a kid, Stern remembers visiting the industrial laundry building and visiting his grandparent's home in Clawson …

Brock, Joan, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Joan Brock, born 1943, grew up on Bryant Avenue between 173 and 174 Streets in the Bronx. The East Bronx was considered poorer than the West Bronx, split by the Grand Concourse. Both of her parents were born and raised in New York, and they met while they were both working in a tea factory. Her father would get into the business of selling vending machines until Brock was 13 and he bought a hardware store. Her mother never worked after marrying except to help her husband with the store.

Brock describes the neighborhood as predominantly Jewish and Italian, though …

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone For Holocaust Survivor Otto Heimann/Bob Hymann, Bochum/German, Toronto/Kanada Und New York, Ny, Usa, Courtney Conte, Mona Eikel-Pohen

Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics - All Scholarship

The documentation tries to capture the life of Holocaust survivor Otto Heimann/Bob Hyman who spent his youth in Bochum-Langendreer, Germany, and was forced by the National Socialists to leave parents, home, and country. The documentation does not claim to give a full picture, just an insight into Otto Heimann's/Bob Hyman's life.

It will be read out on June 6, 2023 in Bochum, Germany when a Stolperstein, a stumbling stone, will be place near Alte Bahnhstraße 6 in Bochum-Langendreer, Germany, to commemorate Otto Heimann/Bob Hyman, so that we and future generations may learn from history.

Diese Dokumentation versucht, das Leben Bob …

Resisting Nazism Within Hitler’S Germany, Patricia M. Mische

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Salinger, Marianne, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Marianne Salinger was born in Berlin, Germany in 1923 and moved to New York with her family when she was 15. Fleeing from the Nazis, her family first moved to England, then to Philadelphia, and then to Kew Gardens in Queens, New York. Salinger lived in Kew Gardens for the largest portion of her life. She remembers how initially, Kew Gardens was filled with immigrants, primarily Jewish immigrants, but became more Hispanic and Russian over time. She moved to the Bronx in 2016.

Salinger did not know that she was Jewish until she was nine years old and considered herself …

Hochberg, Marc, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Marc Hochberg was born 1949. He grew up with parents, both the children of immigrants, in a six story apartment building on Holland Avenue, off the south side of Pelham Parkway. The area is remembered as 90% Jewish, with one Italian friend from elementary school. He attended Castle Hill Junior High School in Parkchester, which still had few non-white students at the time, and the Bronx High School of Science. When he was in high school his parents moved to Grand Concourse and 165th Street. Bronx Science is remembered as a top education, and he would go to Franklin and …

Several, Ruth, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Ruth Several was born in 1951 and grew up living on the Grand Concourse, where her parents were living at the time. Her father worked at the Concourse Center of Israel, an orthodox synagogue on the Grand Concourse. They lived in a large apartment in an art deco style building. She remembers 95% of the building as Jewish, not including the non-Jewish superintendent. The neighborhood had many mom and pop stores, no chain stores, and many synagogues. Several attend a Jewish Day School in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, so her mother was a bookkeeper nearby who would take …

Schwalb, Susan, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Susan Schwalb’s father was raised on the Lower East Side to immigrant parents, while her mother grew up on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. Her mother’s family was German immigrants from the mid-19th century, and owned and operated restaurants. Her grandparents would sell their restaurant and move to Miami, but her uncle owned a famous restaurant in Manhattan that Schwalb would visit as a child. Her mother’s family was wealthy for the time, with extravagant birthday parties that once involved an elephant. Her parents met in the Catskills and Schwalb was born in 1944.

Schwalb grew up in the …

Gruder, Vivian, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Vivian Gruder, born 1937, grew up on Fulton Avenue, across the street from Crotona Park. She fondly remembers the park and how, when her older siblings were young, people would take chairs and sit in the park to escape the heat. The area is described as a “Jewish Village,” though the schools were more mixed with Irish teachers and Italian and some classmates of color, though her friends were mostly Jewish. She remembers a baseball game of the Jewish boys versus the Italian boys. Gruder describes kosher butchers and shops along Bathgate Avenue. Her mother stayed at home, and her …

Katz, Gloria, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Gloria Katz’s family immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe, moving up from the Lower East Side to the Bronx on Park Avenue. She describes her many relatives coming to New York and making lives for themselves, including her parents meeting on a singles cruise around Manhattan for young immigrants and getting married. Her older brother was born in 1934, and was a rebellious and hyperactive child, getting kicked out of yeshiva and sent to public school. Katz was born in September 1944. She explains that because her father did not have stable employment in the fur industry during …

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 …

Making A Menorah, Maya Knoller

CAFE Symposium 2023

In my First Year Seminar Class, I designed and crafted a menorah and matching candles using the 3D printer and wax. I worked on this project over the course of a few weeks, facing construction obstacles along the way, but in the end I was thrilled with the results.

Under G-D, Dereck Daschke

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Under G-d (2022), directed by Paula Eiselt.

Community Oral History To Widen The Path: The Jewish Mobile Oral History Project, Deborah Gurt

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

This article presents the case study of the Jewish Mobile Oral History Project of the McCall Library at the University of South Alabama as an example of a participatory archival practice. With goals to build a collection centered on a minority experience, to engage with community members, and to foster inter-communal dialogue, the project highlights affect as one vital consideration for archival record keepers, users, and subjects.

Yelloz, Eva, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Eva Yelloz was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany and came to the Bronx in 1949 with her parents. They lived in the Melrose neighborhood in the Bronx, on Avenue St. John. Her mother was 19 when World War Two began, working as an apprentice in a non-Jewish home, and she heard her family was in the Warsaw ghetto. Her father had been killed and the family was sent to Treblinka, but she jumped off the train, escaping and being nursed back to life by a non-Jewish family before becoming a partisan for the remainder of the war. …

Beyond Film: #Mejew: Antisemitism, Authentic Representation And Jewish Identity In Hollywood, Dereck Daschke

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a report on the Sundance Film Festival panel from the BEYOND FILM program: "#MeJew: Antisemitism, Authentic Representation and Jewish Identity in Hollywood" which occurred in Park City on January 22, 2023.

Sex In The Bible: A Poetic Female Retelling, Gabriella Raffetto

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

In my poetic analysis, I tease out the differences between Biblical and modern conceptions of rape. Many of my ‘episodes’ feature rape narratives between a husband and wife or concubine/slave; in the Biblical narrative, these relations were not considered rape, because rape only constituted relationships outside of legal bounds. In this way, I attempt to diversify preexisting stories in the Biblical narrative, making monsters out of praised patriarchs; even God is not safe from becoming the villain. In this way, I paint the patriarchal system in the Bible as a gothic house disguised in tradition and spirituality that women must …

“I Am Not Going To Hide Who I Am”: How Jewish Girl Activists Navigate Their Relationship To Voice, Visibility, And Representation, Cheryl Weiner

Educational Studies Dissertations

This dissertation examined how 32 Jewish activist girls, aged 14 to 18, who were affiliated with Jewish communities navigated their relationship with voice, visibility, and representation. A primary goal of the study was to understand the challenges they faced in their everyday lives and to make their knowledge known. Research questions that guided the study included: 1) How do Jewish activist girls navigate their relationship to voice, visibility, and representation?; 2) What are the unique challenges experienced by Jewish girl activists?; and 3) How do Jewish girl activists exercise resistance against the challenges they experience? The literature that informed this …