Jewish Studies Commons^™

Shapiro, Sandra "Sandy", Theodora Omotayo

Bronx Jewish History Project

Sandy discusses her experiences during World War II as a young girl and how those experiences shaped her life. Also, Sandy recounts her childhood memories of blackouts and brownouts during the war and her later discovery of the Holocaust's devastation, including the betrayal of Jewish residents in Amsterdam. She emphasized that her experience was more historical than personal memory. She also shares personal stories of friends and family affected by the Holocaust. Sandy reflects on how the influence of her parents' honesty, kindness, and activism, the idealism of post-WWII democracy, and the importance of seeking evidence over belief shaped her …

New Trends In The Study Of Haredi Culture And Society, David N. Myers, Nechumi Malovicki-Yaffe

The Jewish Role in American Life: An Annual Review

Who are Haredim? And why are they the source of both increasing attention and continuing misunderstanding? New Trends in the Study of Haredi Culture and Society draws on the innovative research of leading scholars from a variety of disciplines—including history, religious studies, demography, linguistics, and geography—to trace the growing prominence of Haredi (often called ultra-Orthodox) Jews in Jewish life. Haredi Jews are committed to preserving a measure of segregation from the rest of society consistent with the guiding principles of their forebears; yet increasingly, they are appearing more visibly and assertively in public spaces. Demographic analysis suggests that they will …

Eleven Are The Stars Of Joseph’S Dream; His Coat, Many Colors, Alexander B. Bloom

Capstones

At the Conservative synagogue where I attended Saturday school for part of my childhood in the 90s I recall the teachers’ reimagination of the popular Michael Jackson song “We Are the World,” taught to the seven and eight year-olds who were made to sing it in chorus at some holiday celebration that year.

“We are the Jews,” we bleated out, in concert, “We are the Chosen.”

From my place among them I remember the unsettled feeling I had, to consider my non-Jewish friends at school, teachers and babysitters who knew not of tefillin, my maternal grandparents in the pews of …

Lazarin, Burt, Caitlin Omey

Bronx Jewish History Project

Summarized by Avi Frank

Burt Lazarin was born in 1944 and grew up in the Bronx in the Highbridge and Williamsbridge neighborhoods. His family came from Eastern European Jewish backgrounds, with his father’s side immigrating from Lithuania and his mother’s from a region that later became part of Belarus. Lazarin describes growing up in a working to lower-middle-class household, first in a small apartment in Highbridge and later, in 1952, moving to a larger two-family home in Williamsbridge with his parents, brothers, and extended family. Although not religious, Lazarin recalls a strong sense of Jewish identity shaped by family traditions, …

Singer, William, Joseph Kobeck Ii

Bronx Jewish History Project

William Singer was born in 1949 in a neighborhood known as Far Rockaway, Queens. When Mr. Singer was five years old, his parents moved to the Bronx, and he began living at 214 East 163rd Street. An area that Mr. Singer remembers is about 95% Jewish. An important element of his parents' decision to move into the Bronx was being closer to his grandparents, who lived at 1155 Grand Concourse. While his family's story is quite interesting, during his early childhood, he attended Public School 35, located across the street from what used to be St. Anne'sAnne's Elementary School. He …

The Pagan Reception Of Judaism From The Sibylline Oracles: Insights From Pseudo-Seneca’S Octavia Regarding The Creation And Circulation Of Oral Sibylline Oracles By The Plebs, Kenneth Atkinson

Faculty Publications

According to tradition, the original collection of Sibylline Books ac­quired by the Roman monarch Tarquinius Priscus, which were kept in the Temple of Jupiter in the capital, were lost in the fire of 83 BCE. In 76 BCE, the Senate ordered the college of the quindecimviri to travel to the traditional centers of Sibylline activity in the East to find Sibylline Oracles to replace those destroyed in the fire. According to Lactantius, these officials collected many Oracles from private individuals. This reference suggests that Sibylline Oracles circulated widely. However, based on the witnesses regarding their consultation, it appears that the …

Roman History In Sibylline Oracle 13: A Palestinian Jewish Perspective On Emperors, Usurpers, And Saviors During The Third Century Ce (Part One: From Maximus I “Thrax” To Philip I “The Arab”), Kenneth Atkinson

Faculty Publications

The period commonly known as the “Crisis of the Third Century” (235-284 CE) began with the assassination of the Roman emperor Severus Alexander (222-235 CE), the last ruler of the Severan dynasty. This turbulent era was marked by nearly fifty years of civil war, barbarian invasions, rebellions, and political and social unrest caused by approximately twenty-six claimants to the imperial throne. Although the end of this age of disorder under Diocletian (284-305 CE) is well-known, we have little information about much of the third century CE, particularly its first decades. This study examines book 13 of the Sibylline oracles, which …

Roman History In Sibylline Oracle 13: A Palestinian Jewish Perspective On Emperors, Usurpers, And Saviors During The Third Century Ce (Part Two: From Decius To Odenath Of Palmyra), Kenneth Atkinson

Faculty Publications

Sibylline Oracle 13 is a remarkable historical document that contains a unique perspective on the poorly documented period of Roman history known as the “Crisis of the Third Century (235-284 CE), which began with the assassination of the Roman emperor Severus Alexander (222-235 CE), the last ruler of the Severan dynasty. This turbulent era was marked by nearly fifty years of civil wars, barbarian invasions, rebellions, and approximately twenty-six claimants to the throne. Although the end of this turmoil under Diocletian (284-305 CE) is well known, we have little information about much of this century, particularly its first decades. The …

Disease And Discrimination: The Persecution Of Jews In The Holy Roman Empire During The Black Death, Abigail M Stanger

The Cardinal Edge

The Black Death, the second major plague pandemic caused by the spread of the bacteria Yersinia pestis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire in 1348. Throughout its spread until 1352, the plague devastated residents of the Holy Roman Empire regardless of demographic features. However, Christians at the time believed that members of Jewish communities died at significantly lower rates than themselves, and already existing sentiments of antisemitism grew into the assignment of blame onto Jews. This concurrent spread of plague and antisemitism resulted in pogroms and other forms of mass violence against Jewish communities across Europe, but specifically in the …

Wolf, Jay, Gavin Fryer

Bronx Jewish History Project

Summarized by Gabriella Luongo

Jay Wolf was born in 1941 in Coney Island, Brooklyn, to parents of Ukrainian and Austrian Jewish descent. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to the West Bronx, now commonly referred to as the South Bronx, where he was raised on 174th Street and Popham Avenue. He attended P.S. 104, Macombs Junior High School (JHS 82), and later the High School of Industrial Arts in Manhattan, though he describes himself as a frequent truant who ultimately did not complete high school.

In this interview, Wolf shares his experience of growing up in the Bronx in …

The Rise And Fall Of An Aryanization Bank: The Romanian Credit Institute, 1941–1951, Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Probably the most important domestic project of the pro-Nazi Antonescu regime, the policy of Romanianization of the economy had ambitious goals. It aimed to seize Jewish-owned real estate and to redistribute it to “deserving” Romanians, state agencies, and welfare organizations and to increase the share of ethnic Romanian entrepreneurs and skilled employees through purchasing Jewish companies, adopting business and labour restrictions against Jews and “foreigners,” training and funding ethnic Romanian professionals and would-be entrepreneurs, and establishing new companies to displace minority and foreign competitors. While this project looked feasible on paper, in practice, it faced major obstacles, including a lack …

Book Review - Peddlers, Merchants, And Manufacturers: How Jewish Entrepreneurs Built Economy And Community In Upcountry South Carolina, Rebekah F. Darrah

South Carolina Libraries

Peddlers, Merchants, and Manufacturers: How Jewish Entrepreneurs Built Economy and Community in Upcountry South Carolina by Furman University professor emerita Diane Catherine Vecchio weaves the story of Jewish innovation and business in the Upstate from the antebellum period to the modern day. Largely focusing on Greenville and Spartanburg, the book follows Upstate Jewish communities as they helped shape the state’s economy for over a hundred years.

Jewish Worship, Music, And Technology During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jeffrey A. Summit

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

This article examines the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Jewish worship and considers a range of worshippers’ reactions to livestreamed and Zoom prayer services. Focusing on the Jewish Emergent Network, innovative communities who are known for cultivating vibrant, participatory music in worship, leaders discuss the challenges of not being able to sing together online, the Jewish legal ramifications of using technology on the Sabbath and the on-going changes they believe could occur as virtual worship returns to in-person prayer. These leaders also discuss surprisingly positive developments in online prayer, as congregants deepened interpersonal relationships in discussion breakout rooms, discovered …

Fleischer Cohen, Gloria, Kathryn Amend

Bronx Jewish History Project

Summarizer: Sophia Maier

Gloria Fleischer Cohen, b. 1934, was raised by foreign born parents on Thieriot Avenue. Her family had moved there when she was very young after their apartment was robbed; the area around Thieriot Avenue, conversely, was safer. Fleischer Cohen describes the neighborhood as primarily Jewish, with others like Italians and Irish, with apartment houses like her own and private houses. As a child she would play in the street, games like jump rope, punch ball, and roller skating. In the summers, she went to Castle Hill Pool and Orchard Beach. She attended PS 102 and later Hunter …

The Promise Of Scriptural Reasoning, David F. Ford

The Mahle Lectures Journal

Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Selwyn College, Dr. David F. Ford OBE, one of the co-founders of Scriptural Resaoning, addresses ‘The Promise of Scriptural Reasoning’, in the context of 2024 Spring Mahle Lecture Series on ‘Interreligious Peacebuilding through Study.’ In what follows he does two things as part of this keynote lecture. First, he speaks about his experience of Scriptural Reasoning, its origins, its character, and its spread up to now. Second, he reflects on the future and promise of Scriptural Reasoning, culminating with an expansive vision of its potential.

"Bp", Gavin Fryer

Bronx Jewish History Project

BP was born in 1937 in Pelham Parkway, and moved to the Parkchester housing development in 1941, where he grew up. He recalls the convenient amenities such as nearby shopping and playgrounds, but notes the occasional shortages and power outages connected to World War II. He also shares his experiences with antisemitism, citing the 4.7% quota on Jewish tenants and taunts from children while coming home from school.

BP led a busy, studious childhood at JHS 98 and the Bronx High School of Science, from which he graduated in 1954. He continued his education at New York University’s University Heights …

"Is There Any Possibility That They Might Have Remained Alive?": The George Barlaz Papers And The Search For Family After The Holocaust, Jacob Kahn-Samuelson

Student Publications

The paper explores the topic of American Jews searching for their families after the Holocaust. The paper uses the George Barlaz Papers, to argue that after the Holocaust Jews used Jewish organizations to search for family. Charity organizations like HIAS, Jewish newspapers like The Forward and various Landsmanshaftn were all used by George Barlaz to look for his family. From the search for family, new relationships were formed between searchers and those who were helping them find their family. George Barlaz developed a strong friendship with Moses Feinblüt who helped him search for his family and connect him with the …

Silver. Jerry And Irene, Reyna Lee Stovall

Bronx Jewish History Project

Jerry Silver grew up in the Bronx after moving from Brooklyn in the mid-1930s. His family rented an apartment on Kruger Avenue before buying a home on Holland Avenue during the Depression. Jerry attended PS 96 and PS 76 before graduating early from Christopher Columbus High School and later earning his undergraduate and law degrees from NYU. He fondly remembers playing in the street, working part-time jobs, and being passionate about baseball, often attending games. He served in the military from 1952 to 1954, started a small law practice in the Bronx, and worked extensively with the Legal Aid Society. …

Contributors, Jewish Folkore & Ethnology Editors

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

Contributors to Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Volume 2

In Memoriam: Tamar Alexander-Frizer (1945–2023), Eli Yassif

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

Memorial Essay for Professor Tamar Alexander (1945-2023)

(Candle)Sticks On Stone: The Representation Of Women In Jewish Tombstone Art, Ruth Ellen Gruber

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

Candles and candlesticks are a common and potent symbol on the gravestones of Jewish women because lighting the Sabbath candles is one of the three so-called “women’s commandments” carried out by female Jews; it is the only one easily represented in visual terms. This essay describes the author’s field research, photographic, and writing project, “(Candlesticks) on Stone,” carried out mainly in 2009–2011, to explore the variety of ways candles and candlesticks are depicted on women’s gravestones in Eastern Europe. It also questions the transmission of the candle-lighting tradition from her East European ancestors to later generations.

“In Proverbiis Non Semper Veritas”: Reflections On The Reprint Of An Antisemitic Proverb Collection, Wolfgang Mieder

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

This article concerns the highly questionable 2016 reprint of Ernst Hiemer’s antisemitic proverb collection Der Jude im Sprichwort der Völker (1942, The Jew in the Proverbs of the People). It begins with a glance at earlier antisemitic proverb collections while also reviewing some of the superb Yiddish and Jewish/Hebrew proverb collections and serious studies on this rich repertoire of proverbs. This is followed by a discussion of the misguided antisemitic publications of the nineteenth century that were precursors of even more slanderous and prejudiced collections that appeared during the time of National Socialism. It is shown that both traditional …

Why Were There No Jokes After The 2021 Meron Crowd Crush? On Israeli “Joking Relationships”, Tsafi Sebba-Elran

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

The vast research literature on disaster jokes demonstrates that no calamity is too horrific to be followed by jokes that typically recontextualize traumatic events and channel the threatening voices that these events provoke. Why, then, did no jokes circulate after the deadliest civil disaster in Israel’s history, which occurred on Mount Meron during the Lag Ba’Omer celebrations in April 2021? Drawing upon the ethnographic concept of “joking relationships,” this essay documents representations of ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim) in contemporary Israeli memes and explains the restraint that Israeli society shows toward this group with whom the Meron disaster is associated. …

The Besht As Ba’Al Shem: Magic In The Life And Legacy Of Israel Ba’Al Shem Tov, Elly Moseson

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

Israel Ba’al Shem Tov (the Besht), the purported founder of the Hasidic movement, achieved renown during his lifetime as a holy man and a ba’al shem—a magician and folk healer. This paper surveys the sources containing evidence pertaining to the Besht’s medico-magical activities, presents the variety of recipes and rituals that have been preserved in his name, and explores the implications these hold for understanding his life and legacy. It further argues that the centrality of magic we find in the life of the Besht did not disappear with his death but was maintained within the Hasidic movement that …

“Let Me Tell You Some Stories, And You Will Record Them”: Dan Ben-Amos And The Study Of Jewish Folklore And Ethnology, Simon J. Bronner

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

Dan Ben-Amos (1934–2023) was associated with groundbreaking work beginning during the 1960s on concepts of context and performance and the paradigm shift in folkloristics with his groundbreaking essay “Toward a Definition of Folklore in Context.” His odyssey from Israel to the United States, including formative experiences as a youth absorbing ideas about social reality and Jewish folklore as counterculture, has a profound influence on an equally profound shift in the understanding of Jewish experience as well as on the globalization of folkloristics as a discipline. In addition to interpreting his culminating work of the Folktales of the Jews series of …

Note On Transliteration

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

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Review Of Spiritual Audacity: The Abraham Joshua Heschel Story, John C. Merkle

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Aspis, Harold, Reyna Lee Stovall

Bronx Jewish History Project

Summarizer: Sophia Maier

Harold Aspis was born in 1954 to two American born parents. His father was a college professor of economics, and his mother returned to work as a secretary and administrator at Montefiore Hospital when Aspis was in junior high school. Aspis describes the movement of his family as “the Jewish neighborhood profession of the Bronx,” first living in University Heights and then in the North Bronx near the Bronx High School of Science, then his parents moved to Riverdale after Aspis had left the house.

Aspis attended PS 91, which he shares what a stable component of …

Langer, Eileen, Reyna Lee Stovall

Bronx Jewish History Project

Summarizer: Sophia Maier

Eileen Langer is a lifelong Bronxite. Despite her world travels, she identifies the Bronx as her home. As a child, she lived in Roosevelt Gardens on the Grand Concourse and remembers walking to see her grandmother across the Concourse. As she got older, Langer remembers going to the movies, going shopping, eating ice cream, and attending the Sephardic synagogue all along the Grand Concourse. Though she went to college at City College, she completed all of her other schooling in the Bronx, including a master’s degree from Lehman College. Becoming an educator herself, she has taught and …

Cohen, Marsha, Reyna Lee Stovall

Bronx Jewish History Project

Summarizer: Sophia Maier

Marsha Cohen’s parents grew up in New York City, her mother living in the Highbridge area of the Bronx and her father living first in East Harlem then the South Bronx. Her grandparents had immigrated from Eastern Europe. Her parents married in 1939 and, by the time Cohen was born in 1946, the family lived at 3050 Decatur Avenue, on the north side of Mosholu Parkway. The neighborhood had five and six story apartment buildings, like theirs, and private houses and was mixed Irish, Italian, and Jewish. Cohen describes her building as primarily Jewish, with all boys …