Jewish Studies Commons^™

Schaechter Viswanath, Gitl, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Gitl Schaechter Viswanath was born into a Yiddish-speaking family. Her father came from Romania to the United States in 1951, becoming a renowned Yiddish linguist and Columbia professor. He and his wife wanted to raise their children speaking Yiddish within a Yiddish community, and so they created this community with two other families living near one another on Bainbridge Avenue in the north-central Bronx, the Fishmans and the Gottesmans. The families were primarily secular but focused on Jewish culture and tradition.

Schaechter Viswanath attended PS 56 and describes the school and area as primarily Jewish. After school, she went to …

Traces Of The House Of The Catechumens In The Plot Against America, Roy Humlicek-Spindler

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

The purpose of this paper is to give readers of the novel The Plot Against America by Philip Roth background information to better understand the novel. It argues that Philip Roth was aware of the Jewish to Catholic conversion institution of the early modern period known as the “House of the Catechumens,” and uses his knowledge of it to inform the experiences of the character Sandy Roth, a Jewish teenager, in the novel. Sandy’s experiences with the institution called the “Office of American Absorption” in a historically fictitious 20th-century America bear striking resemblances to the Jewish experience in the House …

Recent Trends In The Development Of Jewish Life And Heritage Tourism In Trani, Italy, Andrea Corsale

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper focuses on the recent revival of Jewish religious and cultural activities in the coastal town of Trani, in Southern Italy, after several centuries of substantial interruption. The specific events which led to the re-establishment of an institutional Jewish community and the restoration and reclamation of the local synagogues, along with the renewed visibility of the well-preserved Jewish district, of Medieval origins, are unique to this case study. However, at the same time, they reflect similar phenomena of restoration of Jewish sites and revival of Jewish communities in southern and eastern Europe, and beyond. As the case study analysis …

Radical Hospitality: Height And Excess Of The Other And The New Host Self, Diako Alikhani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Drawing on Emmanuel Levinas’ ethical framework and its emphasis on the “height and excess” of “the Other,” this thesis explores and develops a sense of “radical hospitality” in Levinas and across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In particular, the thesis explores how encounter with the Other is not only marked by an overwhelming excess, but one which transforms the subject into what I call a “New Host Self:” Where the self is the host who greets the stranger with hospitality, it is ultimately the stranger—the refugee, the migrant—who transforms the host into someone new. Here, the host ultimately receives a gift …

New Paths In Jewish And Religious Studies: Essays In Honor Of Professor Elliot R. Wolfson, Glenn Dynner, Susannah Heschel, Shaul Magid

Purdue University Press Books

The work of Elliot R. Wolfson has profoundly influenced the fields of Jewish studies as well as philosophy and religion more broadly. His radically new approaches have created pioneering ways of analyzing texts and thinking about religion through the lens of gender, sexuality, and feminist theory. The contributors to New Paths in Jewish and Religious Studies: Essays in Honor of Professor Elliot R. Wolfson, many of whom are internationally renowned scholars, hearken from diverse fields. Each has learned from and collaborated with Wolfson as student or colleague, and each has expanded the new scholarly directions initiated by Wolfson’s groundbreaking …

Klipper, Stuart, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Stuart Klipper was born in 1941 and grew up in the Bronx, first living on Hoe Avenue and later on the Grand Concourse. His family background reflects Eastern European Jewish heritage, with his father’s side from Lithuania and his mother’s side from Galicia. Klipper’s childhood was shaped by the rich cultural life of the Bronx, frequent visits to the Bronx Zoo and the Botanical Garden, and an early interest in art and photography. He recalls a deep love for reading, art, and exploring New York City’s museums, which would later influence his career as a photographer.

Klipper attended P.S. 66 …

The History Of Jewish Cemeteries In Cleveland And Cuyahoga County, Jeffrey S. Morris

Cleveland Memory

This book documents the history of the sixteen Jewish cemeteries in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, using primary sources such as recorded deed transfers, records of incorporation, and plat maps to trace ownership from the time of acquisition to today. It facilitates an understanding of the correlation between each cemetery and its governance with a synagogue or benevolent organization.

Memoriam, Mira Helena Darham

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

The chasm between past and present is a constant reminder of the perilous journey one takes through the fissures of memory. While on this expedition the forms surrounding you, the memories themselves, are a constantly changing landscape that make navigation a difficult and dangerous task. Is a memory a recall or a remembrance, truth, or construction? Are all memories as they happened or are we the “rememberer,” the architect of their composition? This dilemma has been the impetus of my academic pursuits and creative endeavors. For Memoriam I have chosen an event in my past, a wildfire, as the catalyst …

Expanding The Corpus Of Vocalized Hebrew Text: Compiling An Unvocalized Text Corpus And Building An Online Interface For Vocalization Annotation, Rachel Shanblatt Bloch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Written modern Hebrew presents a unique challenge for training computational models for language processing because modern Hebrew text often lacks vocalization. The lack of available vocalized Hebrew data can lead to ambiguity in training these models and generally hinders work on natural language processing problems. The goal of this project is to contribute to the collection of vocalized Hebrew text by collecting and preprocessing a large corpus of unvocalized Hebrew text and building an online annotation tool. The annotation tool allows people to upload unvocalized Hebrew text, to annotate by adding Hebrew vocalization, and to download comma-separated values files of …

The Creation Of An African American Jewish Culinary Tradition: Michael Twitty And The Passover Seder As A Vehicle For Remembering Trauma And Celebrating Survival, Samira Mehta

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

The Exodus of the Israelites has long held meaning for African American Christians, as noted by scholars of African American religious history. Jewish studies scholars, meanwhile, have written about both Passover and Jewish relationships to the Exodus. Michael Twitty, public historian, James Beard award-winning author, and memoirist, has fused an identity for himself by drawing on the foodways of both traditions to remember and memorialize the trauma of both traditions While Twitty uses food to create meaning in the context of holidays, his memoirs, Kosher Soul and The Cooking Gene, explore how the food of trauma, poverty, and resilience provide …

“Praying And Eating”: The Preservation Of Jewish Food Traditions In The Wake Of Brexit Trauma, Angela Hanratty

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

This research examines the impact that Brexit, the Northern Ireland Protocol, and the Windsor Framework have had on the food traditions of the Jewish population of Ireland, through focusing on the lived experience of the Jewish communities of Belfast and Dublin and their collective memory. While there has been much debate on the lasting effect of the UK leaving the EU on industry and agriculture, the deleterious impact on the kosher observant in Ireland has been less documented, with specific challenges for the preservation of food traditions in a community with a history “full of praying and eating” (Maurice Cohen, …

Cooking In Times Of Oppression, Dorota Koczanowicz

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

In 2017, Marije Vogelzang's interactive performance at the Museum of Rotterdam, 'Black Confectti', was designed to enable the experience of a difficult wartime past. Using authentic recipes from the war press, she prepared dishes based on the creativity of the crisis. In the face of starvation and the struggle for life, the selflessness of creative action in the kitchen and the effort of documentation in the form of recipes from the past and culinary fantasies from the past proved to be a helpful tool for surviving the most oppressive situation. The effectiveness of this strategy is clearly demonstrated not only …

Genis, June, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Summarizer: Sophia Maier

June Genis lived in the Bronx from the time she was three years old until she left for college in 1963. When he father, who had been a dentist, passed away, Genis and her mother moved to Creston Avenue and 192^nd Street near Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse to be closer to her family. At the time, the area was predominantly Jewish, with some Irish and Italians. They were surrounded by major shopping areas on Fordham and Kingsbridge Roads, and across the street from St. James park where Genis played as a child. Starting in …

The Holocaust's Legacy: Influencing Jewish Political Identity, Jordan Eskew

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis addresses the intricate relationship between the historical persecution of the Holocaust and its enduring influence on contemporary Jewish political engagement, a subject of significant contemporary relevance in political and international relations. Despite broad recognition of the Holocaust’s impact, the specific ways in which its memory affects Jewish political attitudes and actions around the world in the modern day have not been sufficiently thoroughly examined. Utilizing qualitative methods, including interviews with 20 individuals—public figures, Holocaust survivors, their descendants, and broader members of the Jewish diaspora— this study focuses on understanding the interplay between historical trauma, community cohesion, and the …

Schonbrun, Joshua, Kathryn Amend

Bronx Jewish History Project

Rabbi Joshua Schonbrun was born in 1930 and grew up on Clinton Avenue in the Bronx, part of a close-knit, heavily Jewish neighborhood. His upbringing was deeply shaped by Jewish education, family tradition, and the presence of immigrant culture. His father was a Polish immigrant who came to the U.S. in the 1920s, and his mother was of Romanian and Hungarian descent. Rabbi Schonbrun attended Jewish day school and later the Yeshiva of the Bronx, eventually pursuing his rabbinical ordination at Yeshiva University.

As a young man, he witnessed the transformation of Jewish life in the Bronx, including the shift …

Moral Exemplars Of Note - Teresa Langness, Sam And Pearl Oliner

Moral Exemplars Study

No abstract provided.

Moral Exemplars Of Note - Dr. Susan Osborn, Sam And Pearl Oliner

Moral Exemplars Study

No abstract provided.

Moral Exemplars Of Note - Rodney Paul Gilliam, Sam And Pearl Oliner

Moral Exemplars Study

No abstract provided.

Moral Exemplars Of Note - Mary Larson, Sam And Pearl Oliner

Moral Exemplars Study

No abstract provided.

Moral Exemplars Of Note - Dr. Mimi Silbert, Sam And Pearl Oliner

Moral Exemplars Study

No abstract provided.

Moral Exemplars Of Note - Kevin Morris, Sam And Pearl Oliner

Moral Exemplars Study

No abstract provided.

To The Dark Boundary: Holocaust Poetry As Testimony And Message, Gabriel Shapiro

Graduate Liberal Studies Theses and Dissertations

In the years after the Holocaust, there was concern that to write poetry after Auschwitz was, in the word of the philosopher Theodor Adorno, “barbaric,” that the lyrical aspects of poetry were not appropriate for the horror witnessed in the death camps. Despite Adorno’s warning, Holocaust poetry flourished out of the needs of poets to recount and honor a past that was passing out of survivors’ personal reflections into the twenty-first century. Holocaust poetry liberates the poet’s testimony as a message an empathetic reader can carry to fight dehumanization. This thesis discusses many of these poems in light of the …

Anonymous 1, Sonia Morris

Bronx Jewish History Project

Summarizer: Sophia Maier

“Anonymous 1” grew up in the Amalgamated Houses. Born in the 1940s, her grandparents had come over from Russia around 1910 and settled on the Lower East Side, and her parents grew up in the United States. Her father made ladies’ coats, and her mother was a stay-at-home mom until she became a bookkeeper. Anonymous 1 describes Amalgamated as almost entirely Jewish, with many Holocaust survivors, religious Jews, and Socialist Jews. Her father was among the anti-religious group, deciding to wash his car in casual clothing on the High Holidays. Anonymous 1 herself is still not religious …

With Love, ; An Interdisciplinary And Intersectional Look At Why Creativity Is Essential, Theo Starr Gardner

Whittier Scholars Program

My Whittier Scholars Program self-designed major, Teaching Creativity, is a mixture of Art, Literature, and Education classes. My research and praxis classes have been focused on the ‘how?’s and 'why?’s of creativity, so it felt only right that my project should be a constructivist, generative project. The project I have been working on throughout my time at Whittier, and that has just fully come to fruition on April 11th, 2024, was a solo art gallery/open mic event entitled ‘With Love,’. With Love, was conceptually inspired by the research I’ve conducted on creativity and creative arts education over the past few …

Shanas, Bert, Sonia Morris

Bronx Jewish History Project

Bert Shanas was born at Hunts Point Hospital in 1944. Having grown up in the Hunts Point neighborhood (residing at 930 Fox Street and attending PS 39, JHS 125, and Morris High School), he spent his childhood writing for the school newspaper, going to the Bronx Zoo and Yankee Stadium, and partaking in street games. In early childhood, Shanas remembers his neighbors and peers all being Jewish, but mentions that around the time of the Great Puerto Rican Migration there were a lot more Spanish speakers in the South Bronx. In high school Shanas recalls observing many interethnic friendships, though …

"Harriet", Caitlin Omey

Bronx Jewish History Project

Harriet, born in 1938 in the Bronx maternity hospital on 165th street, spent her childhood and early adult life living on the Grand Concourse. She was at the crossroads of the Concourse and 161st street, where she led a vibrant childhood playing with all of the local children. She was in a very diverse environment, but she did not experience very much ethnic or racial tension. She recalls playing lots of games with her friends, and living in a neighborhood with lots to do. She attended public schools—PS 35 and PS 22—for elementary school and junior high before going to …

Mussar And Esotericism In Revolutionary Russia, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper is an introductory comparative look at teachings of two spiritual figures in pre-revolutionary and revolutionary Russia: Rav Yoseph Yozel (Horowitz) and George Gurdjieff. Yozel founded the Novarodok school of Mussar; Gurdjieff founded the spiritual tradition known as “the Work” or “Fourth Way.” There are of course great differences between the Jewish tradition of Mussar, whose literature dates back to the Mishnah but which as a social movement was launched by Rabbi Israel Salantar in the late 19^th century, and the Work, with its affinities to Eastern Christianity, Buddhism, and Sufism but with no apparent connection to Judaism. …

Judaism, Conversion, And The Limits Of Christian Orthodoxy: The Jewish Identities Of Joseph Wolff And Michael Solomon Alexander As Detailed In Their Memoirs And Missions To Palestine, Michael Iodice

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the Jewish identities of the Anglican missionaries Joseph Wolff and Michael Solomon Alexander by examining their conversion memoirs and evangelical missions to Palestine. It argues that they used Protestant biblical exegesis to emphasize their Jewish heritage and its importance in Christian prophecy.

Dombeck, Peggy, Lydia Wampold

Bronx Jewish History Project

Peggy Dombeck grew up in the East Bronx near Parkchester. She greatly enjoyed her childhood and was always playing games with kids in the neighborhood. She especially enjoyed ice skating and rollerblading, often heading into Manhattan alone on the subway to go ice skate. She also fondly recalls the ice cream man coming by everyday in his truck when she was a child or walking to the candy store around the corner and getting an ice cream cone for 10 cents. The building she grew up in was mainly Jewish, however her family was not very religious. She does however …

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 …