Jewish Studies Commons^™

Documenting Death: A Question Of Sovereignty In The Cairo Geniza, Thomas Adkins

Theses and Dissertations

How can death offer a case study for the question of sovereignty in eleventh to thirteenth century Egypt as it was performed by sovereigns, officials, and subjects alike, and, in this context, how can the documentary practices preserved in the Geniza be understood as an instrument to perform sovereignty? This thesis uses death as a case study in the same way that scholars of the medieval Islamic world have studied taxation, administration, and ceremonials to understand sovereignty as it was performed by the state, officials, and subjects. This performance of sovereignty by each implicated actor left a rich documentary trail, …

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 …

“The Scepter Shall Not Depart From Judah”: Jews And Imperial Power In Benjamin Of Tudela’S Book Of Travels, Azriel Elul

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

This paper, written as a final project for Professor Shay Rabineau's class “Walking the Land,” examines the relationship of medieval Jews to the imperial powers to which they were subject, as expressed in Benjamin of Tudela's Book of Travels. It focuses on the two imperial cores of Rome and Baghdad, and contextualizes the representation of these two cities within the world of imperial power in which the text was produced. As a work of medieval travel literature, I analyze the Book of Travels not as a factual account of history, but rather as a discursive and imaginative text which …

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 …

Jewish Mobile's Narrow Bridge, Deborah Gurt

University Faculty and Staff Publications

Mobile, Alabama, is home to a Jewish community formally established in 1841 when members purchased land for a burial ground. Approximately 1,000 in number, today’s Jewish residents are deeply entwined with the fabric of the city—in business, education, medicine, and civic life. Among them are Holocaust survivors and their descendants, families who have lived here for generations, Jews of color, transplants from the North, LGBTQ Jews, and converts to Judaism, unified primarily by their experiences as members of a religious and cultural minority in Alabama.

Review: The Art Of The Jewish Family: A History Of Women In Early New York In Five Objects, Jeanne E. Abrams

Center for Judaic Studies: Faculty Scholarship

Review of The Art of the Jewish Family: A History of Women in Early New York in Five Objects by Laura Arnold Leibman.

Whose Line Is It Anyway? Rhetoric, Pathology, And The Jewish Race In Late Victorian England, Stephanie G. Pokras

Senior Independent Study Theses

This thesis examines how both late Victorian Anglo-Jews and Gentiles used rhetoric of race science and Jewish pathology to encode lines of difference, as well as the relationship between these discourses. My first chapter analyzes the role of Gentile discourse of disease and disability as the foundation of late Victorian anti-Semitism. My second chapter focuses on Jewish ‘expert’ engagement with race science. In this chapter, I argue that contrary to the dominant historical narrative, not only was the Jewish community engaged with race science, but their scholarly conversations were dynamic and diverse. Ideas about race and pathology became central to …

The Future Of The German-Jewish Past: Memory And The Question Of Antisemitism, Gideon Reuveni, Diana University Franklin

Purdue University Press Books

Germany’s acceptance of its direct responsibility for the Holocaust has strengthened its relationship with Israel and has led to a deep commitment to combat antisemitism and rebuild Jewish life in Germany. As we draw close to a time when there will be no more firsthand experience of the horrors of the Holocaust, there is great concern about what will happen when German responsibility turns into history. Will the present taboo against open antisemitism be lifted as collective memory fades? There are alarming signs of the rise of the far right, which includes blatantly antisemitic elements, already visible in public discourse. …

Recife: The Cradle Of Jewish America, P.V. Viswanath

Faculty Working Papers and Articles

Recife is the location of the first synagogue and the first Jewish community in the New World. The original Jewish community was formed during the period of the Dutch occupation and was mostly Sephardic. It wasn't until the second decade of the twentieth century that Jewish life in Recife was rekindled, this time mostly Ashkenazi. Even though the two periods of Jewish life are distinct, they both show signs of a similar underlying vitality.

Online Archive Of The Jewish Chronicle, Robert H. Ellison, Larry Sheret

English Faculty Research

The Jewish Chronicle (JC), a weekly newspaper based in London, England, offers free access to the text and video content on its website and subscription-based access to its full-text archive, which dates back to its founding in 1841. The search interface and the OCR underlying the page scans can be problematic at times, but this is nonetheless a valuable resource; over 175 years’ worth of material on Jewish history and the larger social culture will be of interest to scholars in a variety of fields.

Passing Illusions: Jewish Visibility In Weimar Germany, Kerry Wallach

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Weimar Germany (1919–33) was an era of equal rights for women and minorities, but also of growing antisemitism and hostility toward the Jewish population. This led some Jews to want to pass or be perceived as non-Jews; yet there were still occasions when it was beneficial to be openly Jewish. Being visible as a Jew often involved appearing simultaneously non-Jewish and Jewish. Passing Illusions examines the constructs of German-Jewish visibility during the Weimar Republic and explores the controversial aspects of this identity—and the complex reasons many decided to conceal or reveal themselves as Jewish. Focusing on racial stereotypes, Kerry Wallach …

Time Travel, Labour History, And The Null Curriculum: New Design Knowledge For Mobile Augmented Reality History Games, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This paper presents a case study drawn from design-based research (DBR) on a mobile, place-based augmented reality history game. Using DBR methods, the game was developed by the author as a history learning intervention for fifth to seventh graders. The game is built upon historical narratives of disenfranchised populations that are seldom taught, those typically relegated to the 'null curriculum'. These narratives include the stories of women immigrant labour leaders in the early twentieth century, more than a decade before suffrage. The project understands the purpose of history education as the preparation of informed citizens. In paying particular attention to …

Book Review: The Menorah: From The Bible To Modern Israel, David B. Levy

Touro University Libraries Publications and Research

The author reviews the book The Menorah: From the Bible to Modern Israel.

Torah From The Years Of Wrath 1939-1943: The Historical Context Of The Aish Kodesh, Henry M. Abramson

Lander College of Arts and Sciences Books

Discovered in the rubble of the Warsaw Ghetto, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira's wartime writings exemplify the faith of Hasidic Jewry under the unimaginable conditions of the Nazi occupation. Published in 1960 under the Hebrew title Aish Kodesh, the notes of Rabbi Shapira's weekly Sabbath sermons and annotations have been studied by pious Hasidim and secular academics alike, seeking his answers to the searing theological questions posed by the war. Why do the righteous suffer? Where was God during the Holocaust?

Torah from the Years of Wrath provides a new and essential scholarly contribution by placing Rabbi Shapira's writings in their …

The Scapegoat, Katherine Ludwig

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

This essay responds to a claim made in the aftermath of an Anti-Semitic attack. It discusses the treatment of Jews in Europe around the time of the Holocaust and what may have motivated this treatment.

Book Review: The Most Tenacious Of Minorities: The Jews Of Italy, David B. Levy

Touro University Libraries Publications and Research

The author reviews the book The Most Tenacious of Minorities: The Jews of Italy.

The Impact Of Melbourne's Yiddishists, Deborah Gurt

University Faculty and Staff Publications

Carlton, the gritty inner-city section of Melbourne, served as a first point of entry for many new immigrants to Australia, my father among them. It also was a center of intellectual activity emblematic of the emerging Jewish culture in Australia in the 1930s and 40s. Its cheap rents and proximity to public transit and the city center made it a logical place for immigrants to cluster as they strove to secure their footing in Australia. The immigrants stuck together for support, companionship, and common language, as the cultural gap yawned between new Polish and German immigrants and most established Australian …

Dave Astor, David Astor

The Oral History Project of Documenting Maine Jewry

No abstract provided.

On The Double: The Hidden (Queer And Jewish) Career Of Danny Kaye, Michael Bronski

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Last year, in the early stages of applying for the Duberman Fellowship, I began by trying to discern a topic, a subject, that would involve me intellectually as well as emotionally. As a free-lance writer and cultural critic I am, more frequently than not, assigned subjects, books, movies, performances by my editors. If I received the Duberman I wanted to research and write about something that resonated with my life and current interests.

Robert Clenott, Robert Clenott

Portraits of the Past: The Jews of Portland

No abstract provided.

Mrs. Louis Black (Selma), Selma Frances Wolf Black

Portraits of the Past: The Jews of Portland

No abstract provided.

Jerome Goldberg, Jerome F. Goldberg

Portraits of the Past: The Jews of Portland

No abstract provided.

Mrs. Max Kaplan (Ethel), Ethel Harriet Kaplan

Portraits of the Past: The Jews of Portland

No abstract provided.

Daniel Epstein, Daniel Epstein

Portraits of the Past: The Jews of Portland

No abstract provided.

Barnett Shur, Barnett Shur

Portraits of the Past: The Jews of Portland

No abstract provided.

Louis Seavey, Louis Seavey

Portraits of the Past: The Jews of Portland

No abstract provided.

Mrs. Ben Thoen (Gertrude), Gertrude Lillian Troen

Portraits of the Past: The Jews of Portland

No abstract provided.

Louis Weisberg, Louis Weisberg

Portraits of the Past: The Jews of Portland

No abstract provided.

Harold Nelson, Harold Nelson

Portraits of the Past: The Jews of Portland

No abstract provided.

Mrs. Norman I. Godfrey (Ethel), Ethel Attman Godfrey

Portraits of the Past: The Jews of Portland

No abstract provided.