Jewish Studies Commons^™

Putting (Inter)Faith Into Practice: Reflections Of A Jewish Scholar In Residence At A Canadian Lutheran Seminary, Daniel Maoz

Consensus

No abstract provided.

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 …

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."

Finding Lost & Found: Designer’S Notes From The Process Of Creating A Jewish Game For Learning, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This article provides context for and examines aspects of the design process of a game for learning. Lost & Found (2017a, 2017b) is a tabletop-to-mobile game series designed to teach medieval religious legal systems, beginning with Moses Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah (1180), a cornerstone work of Jewish legal rabbinic literature. Through design narratives, the article demonstrates the complex design decisions faced by the team as they balance the needs of player engagement with learning goals. In the process the designers confront challenges in developing winstates and in working with complex resource management. The article provides insight into the pathways the team …

Introduction: Jewish Gamevironments – Exploring Understanding With Playful Systems, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

The study of Judaism, Jewish civilizationi, and games is currently comprised of projects of a rather small set of game scholars. A sample of our work is included in this issue.

Profile Interview With Pamela K. Sari, Keslee Diiorio

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Pamela K. Sari is a PhD candidate in American studies at Purdue University. She also is affi liated with the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Program and the Anthropology Department. Her research, teaching, and engagement interests relate to how individuals and communities navigate issues of “home” and “belonging.” Her dissertation research examines a transnational connection between a Charismatic megachurch in central Java, Indonesia, and its American church partners, particularly Indonesian immigrant churches in southern California. Through her experience living in Indonesia and the United States where religious practices are prevalent, she is interested in the intersectionality between religion and …

From Rochel To Rose And Mendel To Max: First Name Americanization Patterns Among Twentieth-Century Jewish Immigrants To The United States, Jason H. Greenberg

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There has been a dearth of investigation into the distribution of and the alterations among Jewish given names. Whereas Jewish surnames are a popular topic of study, first names receive far less analysis. Because Jewish immigrants to the United States frequently changed their names, this thesis can serve as a guide to genealogists and other scholars seeking to trace the paths of Jewish immigrants from Europe. Data was drawn from about 1500 naturalization records from Brooklyn in order to determine the correspondences between the given names featured on passenger lists and their Americanized counterparts. More than three-quarters of surveyed immigrants …

Public Health Measures Derived From The Jewish Tradition: Ii. Washing And Cleaning, Noam Zeffren, Tova Chien, Robert Stern

Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (New York) Publications and Research

The authors discuss public health measures that are described in the Torah and rabbinic literature, focusing on hand washing and cleaning.

Book Review: The Grammar Of Messianism: An Ancient Jewish Political Idiom And Its Users, David B. Levy

Touro University Libraries Publications and Research

The author reviews the book The Grammar of Messianism: An Ancient Jewish Political Idiom and Its Users.

To See In Color, Sarah Rebban

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

No abstract provided.

Jewish Families In The United States, Trevan Hatch, Loren Marks, David C. Dollahite

Faculty Publications

As mentioned in chapter 8, the rich context of religious minority families offers the chance to highlight issues like identity formation in youth and emerging adults, the importance of social support from their religious community, and the unique challenges religious minorities face as they strive to live their religion. In this chapter we feature Judaism and the 30 Jewish families from the American Families of Faith project.

Book Review: The Question Of The Animal And Religion: Theoretical Stakes, Practical Implications, A. G. Holdier

Between the Species

No abstract provided.

Realtors, Resistance, And White Roses, Casey Trattner

SURGE

I remember driving to school with my mother, eyes wide. I thought, as we passed by buildings and stores and little cafes with seats outside, that the small suburban town we were driving through was beautiful.

And when I told my mom, she looked at me out of the corner of her eyes and told me:

“Did I ever tell you how Dad and I were going to move here?”

“Here?” I said. “No… I don’t think so.”

“We were looking at a house that we both liked, but when I asked the real estate agent about how I heard …

Mishpachah: The Jewish Family In Tradition And In Transition, Leonard J. Greenspoon

Purdue University Press Book Previews

Dictionary definitions of the term mishpachah are seemingly straightforward: “A Jewish family or social unit including close and distant relatives—sometimes also close friends.” As accurate as such definitions are, they fail to capture the diversity and vitality of real, flesh-and-blood Jewish families.

Families have been part of Jewish life for as long as there have been Jews. It is useful to recall that the family is the basic narrative building block of the stories in the biblical book of Genesis, which can be interpreted in the light of ancient literary traditions, archaeological discoveries, and rabbinic exegesis. Rabbinic literature also is …

Shelo Yigamer L’Olam: La Construcción De Identidades Compuestas En La Comunidad Judía De Iquitos, Perú / Shelo Yigamer L'Olam: The Construction Of Composite Identities In The Jewish Community Of Iquitos, Peru, Beatrice Waterhouse

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Este informe trata de la comunidad judía en Iquitos, Loreto, Perú, y como compara al marco estándar de la identidad judía como diseñado por Simon Herman (1977) y Altman, Fine, Ritter, Inman, y Howard (2010). A través de observación a primera mano y entrevistas con una muestra de participantes en la comunidad organizada, analiza varias facetas de la identidad judía: etnia, religión, relaciones con la comunidad no-judía, nacionalidad, y sentimientos sobre el Estado de Israel. Este estudio de caso encuentra que la comunidad de Iquitos generalmente sigue ese marco con algunas diferencias claves, especialmente con referencia a la prominencia de …

Judaism And The West, Robert Erlewine

IWU Authors Bookshelf

From Indiana University Press:

Grappling with the place of Jewish philosophy at the margin of religious studies, Robert Erlewine examines the work of five Jewish philosophers—Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Joseph Soloveitchik—to bring them into dialogue within the discipline. Emphasizing the tenuous place of Jews in European, and particularly German, culture, Erlewine unapologetically contextualizes Jewish philosophy as part of the West. He teases out the antagonistic and overlapping attempts of Jewish thinkers to elucidate the philosophical and cultural meaning of Judaism when others sought to deny and even expel Jewish influences. By reading the …

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.

Public Health Measures Derived From The Jewish Tradition, Noam Zeffren, Tova Chein, Robert Stern

Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (New York) Publications and Research

The authors discuss public health measures that are described in the Torah and rabbinic literature.

Divine Providence And Free Will, Stanley Boylan

New York School for Career and Applied Studies (NYSCAS) Publications and Research

The author responds to a recent article ("God, Man, Chaos and Control: How God Might Control the Universe") by Dr. Alan Kadish. He refers to Special Divine Action, determinism, and free will, particularly as they are discussed in Judaism.

Response To Letters To The Editor, Alan H. Kadish

Office of the President Publications and Research

The author responds to letters to the editor about his article "God, Man, Chaos and Control: How God Might Control the Universe."

Occupy Judaism: Religion, Digital Media, And The Public Sphere, Ayala Fader, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This article provides an analysis of Occupy Judaism, an explicitly religious expression of Jewish protest, which occurred simultaneously with Occupy Wall Street, the direct-democracy movement of 2011. Occupy Judaism, like Occupy Wall Street, took place both in physical spaces of protest in New York City and digitally, through mobilizing and circulating debate. The article focuses on the words and actions of Daniel Sieradski, the public face and one of the key founders of Occupy Judaism, supplemented by the experiences of others in Occupy Judaism, Occupy Wall Street, and Occupy Faith (a Protestant clergy-led initiative). We investigate what qualified as religion …

Jewish Games For Learning: Renewing Heritage Traditions In The Digital Age, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

Rather than a discontinuity from traditional modes of learning, new explorations of digital and strategic games in Jewish learning are markedly continuous with ancient practices. An explication of the close connections between traditional modes of Jewish learning, interpretive practice, and gaming culture can help to explain how Jews of the Digital Age can adopt and are adapting modern Games for Learning practices for contemporary purposes. The chapter opens by contextualizing a notion of Jewish Games and the field of Games for Learning. Next, the chapter explains the connections between game systems and Jewish traditions. It closes with a case study …

Ni Francaise, Ni Juive, Ni Arabe: The Influence Of Nineteenth Century French Judaism On The Emergence Of Franco- Jewish- Arab Literature, Deborah Rosalind Gruber

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study proposes that the influence of nineteenth century French Judaism on the Jewish communities of the Middle East from approximately 1910­‐1956 has had an indelible influence on the evolution of Franco- Jewish‐Arab literature today. From the late nineteenth century, the education of the Jews of the Ottoman Empire was provided by the Paris based Alliance Israélite Universelle, an organization established by French Jews with the purpose of emancipating disadvantaged Jewish communities outside of France. The result was the establishment of Franco­‐Jewish-Arab communities that regarded French education as a means of both social and economic advancement. Although the curriculum of …

Book Review: New Heavens And A New Earth: The Jewish Reception Of Copernican Thought, David B. Levy

Touro University Libraries Publications and Research

The author reviews the book New Heavens and a New Earth: The Jewish Reception of Copernican Thought.

Intermarriage In The Early Modern Period, Judith Bleich

Graduate School of Jewish Studies Publications and Research

The author discusses the history of intermarriage and Jews.

God, Man, Chaos And Control: How God Might Control The Universe, Alan H. Kadish

Office of the President Publications and Research

The purpose of this article is to review the problem of free will and divine intervention from the prism of Jewish sources, within the context of modern science. Among the many lenses the Jewish tradition provides for us to frame history is the division between times of open miracles and hidden miracles. The Bible is full of open miracles, divine revelation, and prophecies. Whereas there is controversy among rabbinic scholars and theologians about whether the miracles happened through natural or supernatural forces, either way, the miracles were still immediately recognizable as acts of God. However, since the destruction of the …

Shtetl, Franklin I. Lieberman

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Shtetl looks at the Jewish community as a whole by focusing on the individuals within it. Jews are an incredibly diverse people. They come from all walks of life and racial backgrounds. Contrary to popular belief, there is no stereotypical Jewish person. Not all Jews are rich, nor do they all have curly dark hair and big noses. By being forced to look at the individuals within the community together, it becomes clear that while all of these individuals are Jewish, and therefore bound to each other because of it, they are all different and break this stereotypical mold.

Fearless: Ben Litwin, Benjamin S. Litwin

SURGE

Volunteering with different groups and organizations through Alpha Phi Omega, creating spaces for religious expression at the college, and interning at a coalition to serve low-income housing families, Ben Litwin ’14 fearlessly promotes social change on and off campus. [excerpt]

To The Jew First: A Socio-Historical And Biblical-Theological Analysis Of The Pauline Teaching Of `Election' In Light Of Second Temple Jewish Patterns Of Thought, Anthony Thornhill

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Paul's "doctrine" of election has remained a controversial and enigmatic topic for centuries. Few studies, however, have approached Paul's doctrine through the context of Second Temple Judaism. This study examines Paul's view of election through the lens of Second Temple Jewish texts written prior to 70 CE. In doing so, it is argued that the best framework through which to view Paul's discussion of election is through a primarily corporate model of election. While such a model is rooted in Judaism, Paul departs from his Jewish contemporaries in arguing that the locus of election is in God's Messiah, Jesus.

Leading Through Listening: Racial Tensions In 1968 New York, Janice W. Fernheimer

Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.