Social groups: religious groups and communities Books

Book SynopsisTo this day, the commentaries on the Bible and Talmud written by the eleventh-century scholar known as Rashi remain unsurpassed. His influence on Jewish thinking was, and still is, significant. His commentary on the Pentateuch was the first Hebrew book to be printed, giving rise to hundreds of supercommentaries. Christian scholars, too, have relied heavily on his explanations of biblical texts. In this volume Avraham Grossman presents a masterly survey of the social and cultural background to Rashi’s work and pulls together the strands of information available on his life, his personality, his reputation during his lifetime, and his influence as a teacher. He discusses each of his main commentaries in turn, including such aspects as his sources, his interpretative method, his innovations, and his style and language. Attention is also given to his halakhic monographs, responsa, and liturgical poems. Despite Rashi’s importance as a scholar and the vast literature published about him, two central questions remain essentially unanswered: what was Rashi’s world-view, and was he a conservative or a revolutionary? Professor Grossman considers these points at length, and his in-depth analysis of Rashi’s world-view—particularly his understanding of Jewish uniqueness, Jewish values, and Jewish society—leads to conclusions that are likely to stimulate much debate.Trade ReviewReviews ‘Grossman draws heavily from the current Israeli scholarship on Rashi, including his own scholarly works, to present a well-rounded picture of Rashi. It is a work of synthesis; explicating clearly more arcane studies. Gross is a very good teacher, making his arguments clearly and using examples which clarify his own even further. He is especially helpful to explain Rashi’s relationship with the midrashic literature whether in the commentary of the Torah or elsewhere. Recommended for libraries with comprehensive undergraduate programmes and any synagogue library.’ Roger S. Kohn, Association for Jewish Libraries Reviews‘The leading authority of his generation in this field.’ Marc Saperstein, European Judaism‘Avraham Grossman, one of the world's foremost scholars of medieval Judaica . . . reads some famous texts very closely in an attempt to make Rashi come to life for twenty-first century readers . . . a tour de force . . . Grossman’s book, just like the works of Rashi, can be read with profit and enjoyment by both scholars and amateurs.’ Martin Lockshin, H-Judaic‘Arguably the most learned scholar today writing about the life and works of Rashi . . admirable book . . . the scholarly achievements of Avraham Grossman, to which this book attests on every page.’ Ivan G. Marcus, Jewish Review of Books‘The current volume is largely based on Grossman’s earlier and very extensive work, but he has succeeded not only in abbreviating it for present purposes but also in updating various aspects of his impressive scholarship. The result is a volume that will undoubtedly become the standard work in English, for use as much (perhaps, in truth, even more) by scholars as by non-specialists. There is little here that Grossman has not covered . . . his contribution to the topic goes far beyond the thorough and well-sourced provision of sound data and careful assessment. He is also able to offer fresh insights into Rashi the man, the scholar, the rabbi, and the teacher . .. splendid.’ Stefan C. Reif, Journal of Jewish Studies‘An amazing volume that gives the reader a thorough understanding of who Rashi was through his many writings... Grossman’s book is an impressive one... very readable, accessible, and fascinating.’ Ben Rothke, Times of IsraelTable of ContentsTranslator’s Note Note on Transliteration 1 The Social and Cultural Background of Rashi’s Work The Jews’ Political, Economic, and Social Status • The Troyes Community and the Jewish Centre in Champagne • The Twelfth-Century Renaissance • The Jews’ Social Ties to their Surroundings • Jewish--Christian Religious Polemics 2 Rashi: A Biographical Sketch Rashi’s Life • Character Traits • Standing and Fame 3 Rashi’s Beit Midrash Growth of the Beit Midrash • ‘The Great Rabbi’ • Library and Sources 4 Literary Works: Commentary on the Torah The Text of Rashi’s Commentary on the Torah • Rashi’s Interpretative Method • Rashi’s Profound Affection for Midrash • General Characteristics of the Commentary 5 Literary Works: Commentaries on the Prophets and the Writings (Nakh) Language, Grammar, and References to Daily Life • Style of the Commentaries • General Characteristics of the Commentaries 6 Literary Works: Commentary on the Talmud For Whom Did Rashi Write his Commentary on the Talmud? • Extent of the Commentary • Interpretative Characteristics • Connections with Other Interpretative Traditions • Versions and Editions of the Commentary • Changes and Contradictions • Halakhic Rulings in Rashi’s Commentary on the Talmud 7 Literary Works: Rulings, Responsa, Liturgical Poems, and Commentaries on Liturgical Poems Rulings • Responsa • Liturgical Poems • Commentaries on Liturgical Poems 8 Rashi’s World-View: The Uniqueness of the Jewish People Methodological Introduction • The Election of Israel • The Land of Israel • Miracles • Exile and Redemption • The Nations of the World 9 Rashi’s World-View: Values Torah and Torah Study • Reasons for the Commandments • Prayer • Truth and Humility • Human Dignity • Peace and Factionalism 10 Rashi’s World-View: Society Scholars • Community Leaders • Forced and Voluntary Converts from Judaism • The Status of Women and their Place in Society and the Family 11 Postscript: Between Innovation and Conservatism Innovation and Mission • How Did Rashi Attain his Historic Status? Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisArs Judaica is an annual publication of the Department of Jewish Art at Bar-Ilan University. It showcases the Jewish contribution to the visual arts and architecture from antiquity to the present from a variety of perspectives, including history, iconography, semiotics, psychology, sociology, and folklore. As such it is a valuable resource for art historians, collectors, curators, and all those interested in the visual arts.Contributors: Matthew Baigell, Rutgers University of New Jersey, Batya Brutin, Beit Berl Academic College, Zofit, Warren Zev Harvey, Department of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Moshe Idel, Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem; Department of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Sara Offenberg, Department of Jewish Art, Bar-Ilan University, Nils Roemer, University of Texas at Dallas, Debra Higgs Strickland, School of Culture and Creative Arts, University of Glasgow, Annette Weber, Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Heidelberg Volumes of Ars Judaica are distributed by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization throughout the world, except Israel. Orders and enquiries from Israeli customers should be directed to: Ars Judaica Department of Jewish Art Bar-Ilan University Ramat-Gan 52900 telephone 03 5318413 fax 03 6359241 email ajudaica@mail.biu.ac.ilTable of ContentsEditors' Note‘The Masorah is a Fence to the Torah’ Monumental Letters and Micrography in Medieval Ashkenazi Bibles ANNETTE WEBERVisualization of Colours, 1: David ben Yehudah he-Hasid’s Kabbalistic Diagram MOSHE IDELThe Boy from the Warsaw Ghetto as Holocaust Icon in Art BATYA BRUTINRobert Kirschbaum’s Art: Abstract, Intellectual, Spiritual MATTHEW BAIGELLBook ReviewsDreaming of MichelangeloAsher D. Biemann, Dreaming of Michelangelo: Jewish Variations on a Modern ThemeNIELS ROEMERThe Jewishness of Christian ArtHerbert L. Kessler and David Nirenberg (eds), Judaism and Christian Art: Aesthetic Anxieties from the Catacombs to ColonialismDEBRA HIGGS STRICKLANDMicrographic Midrash in Fourteenth-Century BarcelonaDalia-Ruth Halperin, Illuminating in Micrography: The Catalan Micrography Mahzor MS Heb. 806527 in the National Library of IsraelWARREN ZEV HARVEYFormer Synagogues and Host-Miracle Shrines in Germany and AustriaMitchell B. Merback, Pilgrimage and Pogrom: Violence, Memory, and Visual Culture at the Host-Miracle Shrines of Germany and AustriaSARA OFFENBERG

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Book SynopsisArs Judaica is an annual publication of the Department of Jewish Art at Bar-Ilan University. It showcases the Jewish contribution to the visual arts and architecture from antiquity to the present from a variety of perspectives, including history, iconography, semiotics, psychology, sociology, and folklore. As such it is a valuable resource for art historians, collectors, curators, and all those interested in the visual arts. Contributors: Zsofia Buda, Andreina Contessa, Monika Czekanowska-Gutman, Basema Hamarneh, Moshe Idel, Sharman Kadish, Reuven Kiperwasser, Rudolf Klein, Susan Nashman Fraiman, Ido Noy, Larry Silver, Ronit Sorek, Sharon Weiser-Ferguson Volumes of Ars Judaica are distributed by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization throughout the world, except Israel. Orders and enquiries from Israeli customers should be directed to: Ars Judaica Department of Jewish Art Bar-Ilan University Ramat-Gan 52900 telephone 03 5318413 fax 03 6359241 email ajudaica@mail.biu.ac.ilTable of ContentsEditors' NoteSacrifice in Balance: The Akedah—An Eschatological Perspective ZSOFIA BUDAThe Fleuron Crown from Neumarkt in Silesia (Środa Śląska): Christian Material Culture in a Jewish Context IDO NOYVisualization of Colours, 2: Implications of David ben Yehudah he-Hasid's Diagram for the History of Kabbalah MOSHE IDELThe Mantua Torah Ark and Lady Consilia Norsa: Jewish Female Patronage in Renaissance Italy ANDREINA CONTESSAChallenging the Non-Jewish Images of a Jewish Queen: Portrayals of Esther by Early-Twentieth Century Jewish Artists MONIKA CZEKANOWSKA-GUTMANHumour in Architecture: Jewish Wit on Béla Lajta’s Buildings RUDOLF KLEINChagall's Stained-Glass Syncretism LARRY SILVERSpecial ItemZoya Cherkassky's Aachen Passover Haggadah: A Subversive Illuminated Manuscript RONIT SOREKBook ReviewsMosaics Mirror of FaithRina Talgam, Mosaics of Faith: Floors of Pagans, Jews, Samaritans, Christians, and Muslims in the Holy LandBASEMA HAMARNEHRabbis as Visual BeingsRachel Neis, The Sense of Sight in Rabbinic Culture: Jewish Ways of Seeing in Late AntiquityREUVEN KIPERWASSERJewish Sanctuary in the Old and New WorldsBarry L. Stiefel, with the assistance of David Rittenberg, Jewish Sanctuary in the Atlantic World: A Social and Architectural HistoryBarry L. Stiefel, Jews and the Renaissance of Synagogue Architecture, 1450-1730SHARMAN KADISHExhibition ReviewsLooking Back on a Forward Thinker: Moshe Zabari RetrospectiveMoshe Zabari: Retrospective, curator and catalogue editor Nitza Behroozi BarozBezalel: In and Out in Jewish Contemporary Art, curator and catalogue editors Shiriat-Miriam Shamir and Ido NoySHARON WEISER-FERGUSONThe Second Jerusalem Biennale for Contemporary Jewish Art 2015SUSAN NASHMAN FRAIMAN

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Book SynopsisFollowing current developments in contemporary art history, historians of Jewish art increasingly redefine themselves as studying Jewish visual culture and also distance themselves from any single definition of ‘Jewish’. Focusing instead on the range and flexibility of both individual and collective Jewish self-identification, the trend today is to consider artistic creativity, messages, and reception in multiple intracultural settings. Reflecting this trend, the volume presents a round-table discussion and selected papers from Constructing and Deconstructing Jewish Art, an international symposium held at Bar-Ilan University in 2015. Accordingly, Steven Fine questions the role of ideologies and the limits of semantic analysis in contemporary readings of ancient Jewish art. Sergey Kravtsov traces the transmission of legends about the Jewish past through cultures and artistic practices. Larry Silver proposes that in modern societies, all artists of Jewish origin are marked by their Jewishness and develop a minority self-consciousness. Ben Schachter notes how criticism of religious art has neglected the material and artistic process and focused only on spirituality and theology. Kathrin Pieren discusses the role of public displays in negotiating the relationship between art and identities. The volume also includes two articles on the effects of displacement on the art of twentieth-century Jewish artists of Russian origin; description of a forgotten masterpiece by Hermann Struck; and book reviews. Ars Judaica is an annual publication of the Department of Jewish Art at Bar-Ilan University. It showcases the Jewish contribution to the visual arts and architecture from antiquity to the present from a variety of perspectives, including history, iconography, semiotics, psychology, sociology, and folklore. As such it is a valuable resource for art historians, collectors, curators, and all those interested in the visual arts.Contributors: Ziva Amishai-Maisels, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Maya Balakirsky Katz, Touro College, New York, Samantha Baskind, Cleveland State University, Asher Biemann, University of Virginia, Monika Czekanowska-Gutman, University of Warsaw, Marina Dmitrieva, Leibniz-Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des Östlichen Europa, Leipzig, Steven Fine, Yeshiva University, New York, Eva Frojmovich, University of Leeds, Batsheva Goldman-Ida, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, William L. Gross, collector, Tel Aviv, Felicitas Heiman-Jelinek, independent scholar and curator, Vienna, Ahuva Klein, independent researcher, Tel Aviv, Rudolf Klein, Szent István University, Budapest, Lola Kantor Kazovsky, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Katrin Kogman-Appel, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Sergey R. Kravtsov, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Shulamit Laderman, Schechter Institute for Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, Irit Miller, University of Haifa, Kathrin Pieren, University of Southampton, Mirjam Rajner, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Ilia Rodov, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Ben Schachter, Saint Vincent College, Pennsylvania, Larry Silver, University of Pennsylvania, Daniel Sperber, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Annette Weber, Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Heidelberg, Gil Weissblei, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, Bracha Yaniv, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-GanVolumes of Ars Judaica are distributed by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization throughout the world, except Israel. Orders and enquiries from Israeli customers should be directed to:Ars JudaicaDepartment of Jewish ArtBar-Ilan UniversityRamat-Gan 52900telephone 03 5318413fax 03 6359241 email ajudaica@mail.biu.ac.ilTable of ContentsSymposium: Constructing and Deconstructing Jewish Art 1. The Round Table Discussion 2. From Synagogue Furnishing to Media Event: The Magdala Ashlar Steven Fine 3. Polish-Jewish Discourse in Art History: Standpoints, Objectives, Methodologies Sergey R. Kravtsov 4. Jewish Art and Modernity 5. Contemporary Jewish Art Criticism Ben Schachter The Role of Exhibitions in the Definition of Jewish Art and the Discourse on Jewish Identity Kathrin Pieren Articles 6. In Search for a New Jewish Art: Leonid Pasternak in Jerusalem Gil Weissblei 7. Evacuation Amination: Jewish Geographies and Sindbad the Sailor in Crimea Maya Balakirsky Katz Special Item The Wanderings of Hermann Struck's 'Ahasver' Mirjam Rajner and Ahuva Klein Book Reviews Elana Shapira, Style and Seduction: Jewish Patrons, Architecture, and Design in Fin de Siècle Vienna Asher Biemann Carol Zemel, Looking Jewish Samantha Baskind Lola Kantor-Kazobsky, Grobman (in Russian) Marina Dmitrieva PRIZES REVIEWS

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Book SynopsisNational Jewish Book Awards Finalist for the Barbara Dobkin Award for Women’s Studies, 2017.The ‘Jewish mother’ figure is a hallmark of Jewish culture, one which appears in the works of rabbis, artists, poets, and activists across time and place. While depictions of mothers and motherhood abound in Jewish writings, they vary significantly according to social context. These representations therefore offer important insights into the Jewish cultural imagination, and the ways in which writers resort to the figure of the Jewish mother to comprehend and construct their world. The contributors to this volume highlight the complex network of symbols and images associated with Jewish mothers and motherhood as well as the vast array of social, historical, and cultural patterns that characterizations of mothers reflect. Each essay treats the topic from a specific perspective, spanning from mother--daughter relationships in the Talmud to depictions of mothers in twentieth-century American Jewish children’s literature. Collectively, they present a provocative examination of the ways mothers shape and problematize Jewish identity. This volume seeks to give the figure of the mother a new and enhanced place at the heart of Judaism: not only as a central figure in family life, but also as a key agent in the transmission of Jewish religion and culture.Table of ContentsNote on TransliterationIntroduction: Reimagining Jewish Mothers Marjorie Lehman, Jane L. Kanarek, and Simon J. BronnerPART I . IDEALIZED MOTHERS1 Cooking, Cuddling, and Candle-Lighting: Motherhood in Award-Winning Jewish Children’s Literature Emily Sigalow2 The Jewish Mother’s Prayer: Mothers in Late Nineteenth-Century Hungarian Jewish Women’s Prayer Books Krisztina Frauhammer3 Nene Mesl-e Na¯n—‘Mother is Like Bread’: The Perception of Motherhood and Folklore Expressions among the Jews of Afghanistan Tsila Zan-Bar Tsur4 Mothers and Children in Ottoman Jewish Society as Reflected in Hebrew Sources of the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries Ruth LamdanPART II . CONSTRUCTIONS AND CONTESTATIONS OF MOTHERS5 Like Mother Like Daughter: Mother–Daughter Relations in Babylonian Talmudic Stories Moshe Lavee6 The (Re)production of a Maskilah: The Mother–Daughter Bond between Menuhah and Hava Shapiro Carole B. Balin and Wendy I. Zierler7 Maurice Sendak’s Jewish Mother(s) Jodi Eichler-Levine8 The Jewish Mother as Metonym for Community in Postwar America Josh LambertPART III . ACTIVIST MOTHERS9 The ‘Mothers’ Who Were Not: Motherhood Imagery and Childless Women Warriors in Early Jewish Literature Caryn Tamber-Rosenau10 Motherhood as Motivation: American Jewish Women in Action, 1890–1940 Melissa R. Klapper11 ‘Two Voices Heard in Castile’: Rachel and Mary Weep for Their Children in the Age of the Zohar Sharon Koren12 ‘Where Was Sarah?’ Depictions of Mothers and Motherhood in Modern Israeli Poetry on the Binding of Isaac Dalia MarxPART IV . RE-EMBODYING MOTHERS13 Depictions of Childbirth in Rabbinic Literature: The Innovation of a Genizah Midrashic Text Shana Strauch Schick14 Upending the Curse of Eve: A Reframing of Maternal Breastfeeding in BT Ketubot Miriam-Simma Walfish15 The Biblical Root ’mn: Retrieval of a Term and Its Household Context Deena AranoffPART V . RECASTING MOTHERS16 Mothers and Ma’asim: Maternal Roles in Medieval Hebrew Tales Elisheva Baumgarten17 On Teachers, Rabbinic and Maternal Mara H. BenjaminContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisThough the existence of Jewish regional cultures is widely known, the origins of the most prominent groups, Ashkenaz and Sepharad, are poorly understood, and the rich variety of other regional Jewish identities is often overlooked. Yet all these subcultures emerged in the Middle Ages. Scholars contributing to the present study were invited to consider how such regional identities were fashioned, propagated, reinforced, contested, and reshaped—and to reflect on the developments, events, or encounters that made these identities manifest. They were asked to identify how subcultural identities proved to be useful, and the circumstances in which they were deployed. The resulting volume spans the ninth to the sixteenth centuries, and explores Jewish cultural developments in western Europe, the Balkans, North Africa, and Asia Minor. In its own way, each contribution considers factors—demographic, geographical, historical, economic, political, institutional, legal, intellectual, theological, cultural, and even biological—that led medieval Jews to conceive of themselves, or to be perceived by others, as bearers of a discrete Jewish regional identity. Notwithstanding the singularity of each essay, they collectively attest to the inherent dynamism of Jewish regional identities.Trade Review‘[The essays] make unexpected and intriguing links between Jewish and non-Jewish literature and ideas, and (rightly) raise as much questions as they seek to answer. In that respect, they have helpfully indicted possible directions of future research.’ Stefan C . Reif, Journal of Jewish Studies'Provides a wealth of new information… a first quality working tool.'Jean-Pierre Rothschild, Revue des études juives'Many of the contributions make unexpected and intriguing links between Jewish and non-Jewish literature and ideas and […] raise as many questions as those they seek to answer. In that respect, they have helpfully indicated possible directions of future research.'Stephan C. Reif, Journal of Jewish StudiesTable of ContentsList of ContributorsNote on TransliterationIntroduction - Talya FishmanPart I. Identity Claims1.  The Emergence of the Medieval Jewish Diaspora(s) of Europe from the Ninth to the Twelfth Centuries, with Some Thoughts on Historical DNA Studies - Michael Toch2. Medieval Jewish Legends on the Decline of the Babylonian Centre and the Primacy of Other Geographical Centres - Avraham GrossmanPart II. The Impact of Non-Jewish Cultures on Regional Traditions3. The Sacrifice of the Souls of the Righteous upon the Heavenly Altar: Transformations of Apocalyptic Traditions in Medieval Ashkenaz - Paul Mandel4. The Bifurcated Legacy of Rabbi Moses Hadarshan and the Rise of Peshat Exegesis in Medieval France - Hananel Mack5. A New Look at Medieval Jewish Exegetical Constructions of Peshat in Christian and Muslim Lands: Rashbam and Maimonides - Mordechai Z. Cohen6. The ‘Our Talmud’ Tradition and the Predilection for Works of Applied Law in Early Sephardi Rabbinic Culture - Talya FishmanPart III. Geopolitical Boundaries and Their Impact on Jewish Regional Identities7. From Germany to Northern France and Back Again: A Tale of Two Tosafist Centres - Ephraim Kanarfogel8. Rabbinic Politics, Royal Conquest, and the Creation of a Halakhic Tradition in Medieval Provence - Pinchas Roth9. Mediterranean Regionalism in Hebrew Panegyric Poetry - Jonathan Decter10. Framings of Sephardi Identity in Ashkenazi Prayer Books - Elisabeth Hollender11. Minhag and Migration: Yiddish Custom Books from Sixteenth-Century Italy - Lucia RaspePart IV. Cultural Content as a Marker of Jewish Regional Identities12. A Collection of Jewish Philosophical Prayers - Y. Tzvi Langermann13. Prophets and Their Impact in the High Middle Ages: A Subculture of Franco-German Jewry - Moshe IdelIndex

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Book SynopsisAt the beginning of the twentieth century, the Jewish communities of Poland and Hungary were the largest in the world and arguably the most culturally vibrant, yet they have rarely been studied comparatively. Despite the obvious similarities, historians have mainly preferred to highlight the differences and emphasize instead the central European character of Hungarian Jewry. Collectively, these essays offer a different perspective. The volume has five sections. The first compares Jewish acculturation and integration in the two countries, analysing the symbiosis of magnates and Jews in each country’s elites and the complexity of integration in multi-ethnic environments. The second considers the similarities and differences in Jewish religious life, discussing the impact of Polish hasidism in Hungary and the nature of ‘progressive’ Judaism in Poland and the Neolog movement in Hungary. Jewish popular culture is the theme of the third section, with accounts of the Jewish involvement in Polish and Hungarian cabaret and film. The fourth examines the deterioration of the situation in both countries in the interwar years, while the final section compares the implementation of the Holocaust and the way it is remembered. The volume concludes with a long interview with the doyen of historians of Hungary, István Deák.Table of ContentsPART IPOLAND AND HUNGARY: JEWISH REALITIES COMPAREDIntroductionFrançois Guesnet, Howard Lupovitch, and Antony PolonskyJEWISH ACCULTURATION AND INTEGRATIONThe Magnate–Jewish Symbiosis: Hungarian and Polish Variations on a ThemeHoward LupovitchEthnic Triangles, Assimilation, and the Complexities of Acculturation in a Multi-ethnic SocietyKristian GernerBetween Poland and Hungary: The Process of Jewish Integration from a Comparative PerspectiveGuy MironThe Ashkenaz of the South: Hungarian Jewry in the Long Nineteenth CenturyVictor KarádyJews and Poles, 1860–1914: Assimilation, Emancipation, Antisemitism Theodore R. WeeksJewish Women in Poland and HungaryKatalin FenyvesMorality, Motherland, and Freedom: The Arduous and Triumphant Journey of Michael Heilprin to AmericaFerenc Raj and Howard LupovitchGender and Scholarship in the Goldziher Household: Jewish Men and Women in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Hungarian AcademiaKatalin Franciska RacJEWISH RELIGIOUS LIFEPolish Hasidism and Hungarian Orthodoxy in a Borderland: The Munkács RabbinateLevi CooperPolish ‘Progressive’ Judaism and Hungarian Neolog Judaism: A ComparisonBenjamin MatisJEWS IN POPULAR CULTUREIntegration and Its Discontents: Humorous Magazines and Music Halls as Reflections of the Ambiguous Transformation of Budapest Jews into Magyars of the Jewish FaithMary GluckCabaret Nation: The Jewish Foundations of Kabaret Literacki, 1920–1939Beth HolmgrenThe Politics of Exclusion: The Turbulent History of Hungarian and Polish Film, 1896–1945Susan M. Papp and Antony B. PolonskyTHE INTERWAR YEARSAbnormal Times: Intersectionality and Anti-Jewish Violence in Hungary and Poland, 1918–1922Emily GioielliSuicides of the Polish and Hungarian Types: Jewish Self-Destruction and Social Cohesion in Interwar Warsaw and BudapestDaniel RosenthalTHE HOLOCAUST AND ITS AFTERMATHOn the Margin of a Historic Friendship: Polish Jewish Refugees in Hungary during the Second World WarTamás Kovács Placing the Ghetto: Warsaw and Budapest, 1939–1945 Tim ColeWarsaw and Budapest, 1939–1945: Two Ghettos, Two Policies, Two OutcomesLaszlo KarsaiPolish and Hungarian Poets on the Holocaust George Gömöri ‘Anti-Fascist Literature’ as Holocaust Literature? The Holocaust in the Hungarian Socialist Literary Marketplace, 1956–1970Richard S. EsbenshadeHolocaust Remembrance in Hungary after the Fall of CommunismZsuzsanna Agora‘Nicht vor dem Kind!’ Testimonies on the Yellow-Star Houses of BudapestGwen Jones ‘Non-Remembering’ the Holocaust in Hungary and PolandAndrea PetőJews in Museums: Narratives of Nation and ‘Jewishness’ in Post-Communist Hungarian and Polish Public MemoryAnna ManchinPERSONAL REFLECTIONSPolish and Hungarian Jews: So Different, Yet So Interconnected: An Interview with István DeákHoward LupovitchPART IINEW VIEWSPolish National Antisemitism Ireneusz Krzemiński

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Book SynopsisWith its five thematic sections covering genres from cantorial to classical to klezmer, this pioneering multi-disciplinary volume presents rich coverage of the work of musicians of Jewish origin in the Polish lands. It opens with the musical consequences of developments in Jewish religious practice: the spread of hasidism in the eighteenth century meant that popular melodies replaced traditional cantorial music, while the greater acculturation of Jews in the nineteenth century brought with it synagogue choirs. Jewish involvement in popular culture included performances for the wider public, Yiddish songs and the Yiddish theatre, and contributions of many different sorts---technical and commercial as well as creative---in the interwar years. Chapters on the classical music scene cover Jewish musical institutions, organizations, and education; individual composers and musicians; and a consideration of music and Jewish national identity. One section is devoted to the Holocaust as reflected in Jewish music, and the final section deals with the afterlife of Jewish musical creativity in Poland, particularly the resurgence of interest in klezmer music. The essays in this collection do not attempt to to define what may well be undefinable---what ‘Jewish music’ is. Rather, they provide an original and much-needed exploration of the activities and creativity of ‘musicians of the Jewish faith’.CONTRIBUTORS: Eliyana R. Adler, Michael Aylward, Sławomir Dobrzański, Paula Eisenstein-Baker, Beth Holmgren, Sylwia Jakubczyk-Ślęczka, Daniel Katz, James Loeffler, Michael Lukin, Filip Mazurczak, Bożena Muszkalska, Julia Riegel, Ronald Robboy, Robert Rothstein, Joel E. Rubin, Adam J. Sacks, Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel, Eleanor Shapiro, Carla Shapreau, Tamara Sztyma, Bella Szwarcman-Czarnota, Joseph Toltz, Maja Trochimczyk, Magdalena Waligórska, Bret Werb, Akiva Zimmerman Trade Review"The essays in Jews and Music-Making in the Polish Lands offer rich examinations of a vast and under-studied scholarly terrain. [...] Future scholarship that embraces both the particularity of the Polish-Jewish context and the broad resonance of its themes will best advance the admirable work of this volume’s editors and contributors."J. Mackenzie Pierce, Music and LettersReviews"This is an essential contribution to the fields of musicology, ethnomusicology, Jewish studies, cultural studies, and European studies. The publication indeed explores Jews and music-making in Poland that is engaging and accessible."Mark Kligman, Yearbook of Traditional MusicTable of ContentsIntroduction François Guesnet, Benjamin Matis, and Antony Polonsky PART I. CANTORIAL AND RELIGIOUS MUSIC A Chestnut, a Grape, and a Pack of Lions: A Shabbos in Płock with a Popular Synagogue Singer in the Early Nineteenth Century Daniel Katz Moshe Koussevitzky (1899–1966) in Vilna, Warsaw, and Russia Akiva Zimmerman The Art of Cantorial Singing in the Polish Territories Bożena Muszkalska PART II. JEWS IN POPULAR MUSICAL CULTURE IN POLAND Musical Afterthoughts on Shmeruk’s Mayufes Bret Werb Servant Romances: Eighteenth-Century Yiddish Lyric and Narrative Folk Songs Michael Lukin Broder Singers: Forerunners of the Yiddish Theatre Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel Gimpel’s Theatre, Lwów: The Sounds of a Popular Yiddish Theatre Preserved on Gramophone Records, 1904–1913 Michael Aylward The Polish Tin Pan Alley—A Jewish Street Robert Rothstein On the Dance Floor, on the Screen, on the Stage. Popular Music in the Interwar Period: Polish, Jewish, Shared Tamara Sztyma The Jews in the Band: Anders Army’s Special Troupes Beth Holmgren Szpilman, Bajgelman, and Barsht: The Legacy of an Extended Polish Jewish Klezmer Family Joel E. Rubin Władysław Szpilman’s Post-War Career in Poland Filip Mazurczak Abraham Ellstein’s Film Scores: Some Less Obvious Sources Ronald Robboy PART III. JEWS IN THE POLISH CLASSICAL MUSIC SCENE The ‘Lust Machine’: Recording and Selling the Jewish Nation in the Late Russian Empire James Loeffler Leo Zeitlin and the Flourishing of Jewish Art Music in Early 1920s Vilna Paula Eisenstein-Baker ‘Jewish musicians are the crowning achievements of foreign nations’: Jewish Identity and Yiddish Nationalism in the Writings of Menachem Kipnis Julia Riegel Ostbahnhof Berlin: Jewish Music Students of East European Origin at the Berlin Conservatory, 1918–1933 Adam J. Sacks Jewish Music Institutions and Organizations in Interwar Galicia Sylwia Jakubczyk-Ślęczka Jewish Composers of Polish Music after 1939: A Story in Lists and Numbers Maja Trochimczyk Tadeusz Zygfryd Kassern’s American Years Sławomir Dobrzański PART IV. THE HOLOCAUST REFLECTED IN JEWISH MUSIC ‘My song, you are my strength’: Personal Repertories of Polish and Yiddish Songs from Young Survivors of the Łódź Ghetto Joseph Toltz Singing Their Way Home Eliyana R. Adler The Nazi-Era Confiscation of Wanda Landowska’s Musical Collection and Its Aftermath Carla Shapreau Music as a ‘Paper Bridge’ between Generations before and after the Holocaust Bella Szwarcman-Czarnota PART V. KLEZMER IN POLAND TODAY The Klezmer Revival in Poland as a Contact Zone Magdalena Waligórska The Sound of Change: Performing ‘Jewishness’ in Small Polish Towns Ellie Shapiro

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Book SynopsisFollowing tremendous advances in recent years in the study of religious belief, this volume adopts a fresh understanding of Jewish religious life in Poland. Approaches deriving from the anthropology, history, phenomenology, psychology, and sociology of religion have replaced the methodologies of social or political history that were applied in the past, offering fascinating new perspectives. The well-established interest in hasidism continues, albeit from new angles, but topics that have barely been considered before are well represented here too. Women’s religious practice gains new prominence, and a focus on elites has given way to a consideration of the beliefs and practices of ordinary people. Reappraisals of religious responses to secularization and modernity, both liberal and Orthodox, offer more nuanced insights into this key issue. Other research areas represented here include the material history of Jewish religious life in eastern Europe and the shift of emphasis from theology to praxis in the search for the defining quality of religious experience. The contemporary reassessments in this volume, with their awareness of emerging techniques that have the potential to extract fresh insights from source materials both old and new, show how our understanding of what it means to be Jewish is continuing to expand.Trade Review'The insights brought to the knowledge of the Orthodox and especially Hasidic tradition are considerable and always based on the use of unpublished documents. The contribution of No. 33 of the journal Polin is therefore essential in its field.'Daniel Tollet, Revue des études juivesTable of ContentsIntroduction - Ada Rapoport-Albert and Marcin Wodziński PART I: THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Leah Horwitz’s Tkhine Imohos: A Proto-Feminist Demand to Increase Jewish Women’s Religious Capital - Moshe Rosman ‘A girl! He ought to be whipped’: The Hasid as Homo Ludens - David Assaf Individualism, Truth, and the Repudiation of Magic as the Tsadik's Prerogative: Pshiskhe-Like Elements in the Theology of Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Kosov - Benjamin Brown Table Talk and the Bond of Reading: A Jewish Broadsheet for Meals - Avriel Bar-Levav PART II: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Shtrayml: An Ethnographic Tale of Law and Ritualization - Levi Cooper The Narcissism of Small Differences? On Rituals and Customs as Hasidic Identity-Markers - Gadi Sagiv The Vilna Talmud as a Reflection of Changing Patterns of Study - Edward Fram Popular Religion and Modernity: Jewish Magical Books in Eastern Europe in the Nineteenth Century - Uriel Gellman Hasidic Performance as a Reconstruction of Biblical Life - Daniel Reiser Preserving a Synagogue: Cultural, Material, and Sacred Values - Sergey R. Kravtsov The Laws of Moses and the Laws of the Emperor: Austrian Marriage Legislation and the Jews of Galicia - Rachel Manekin A Forgotten Network? New Perspectives on Progressive Synagogues in Galicia and the Kingdom of Poland - Alicia Maślak-Maciejewska PART III: 1914–1939 To Enlist the Enthusiasm of the Young: Orthodox Jewish Non-Political Responses to the Challenges of Interwar Poland - Gershon Bacon The Scroll of 19 Kislev and the Construction of an Imagined Habad Lubavitch Community in Interwar Poland - Wojciech Tworek At the Centre of Two Revolutions: Beit Ya’akov in Poland between Neo-Orthodoxy and Ultra-Orthodoxy - Iris Brown (Hoizman) PART IV: HOLOCAUST AND POST-HOLOCAUST Gerer Youths in the Holocaust: A Representative Blind Spot in Holocaust Research - Havi Dreifuss The Afterlife of Religion: Orthodox Memoirs of the Holocaust and the Haredi Spiritualization of Modernity - Naftali Loewenthal Being and Becoming: Polish Conversions to Judaism and the Dynamics of Affiliation - Jan Lorenz PART V: NEW VIEWS Foul-Weather Friends: Reinterpreting Jewish–Christian Urban Interaction in the Final Decades of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Curtis G. Murphy The Vilna Pogrom of 19–21 April 1919 - Szymon Rudnicki Jewish Medical Activity in the Ghettos under the Nazi Regime: Characteristics and Broad Historical Context - Miriam Offer

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Book SynopsisFollowing tremendous advances in recent years in the study of religious belief, this volume adopts a fresh understanding of Jewish religious life in Poland. Approaches deriving from the anthropology, history, phenomenology, psychology, and sociology of religion have replaced the methodologies of social or political history that were applied in the past, offering fascinating new perspectives. The well-established interest in hasidism continues, albeit from new angles, but topics that have barely been considered before are well represented here too. Women’s religious practice gains new prominence, and a focus on elites has given way to a consideration of the beliefs and practices of ordinary people. Reappraisals of religious responses to secularization and modernity, both liberal and Orthodox, offer more nuanced insights into this key issue. Other research areas represented here include the material history of Jewish religious life in eastern Europe and the shift of emphasis from theology to praxis in the search for the defining quality of religious experience. The contemporary reassessments in this volume, with their awareness of emerging techniques that have the potential to extract fresh insights from source materials both old and new, show how our understanding of what it means to be Jewish is continuing to expand.Trade Review'The insights brought to the knowledge of the Orthodox and especially Hasidic tradition are considerable and always based on the use of unpublished documents. The contribution of No. 33 of the journal Polin is therefore essential in its field.'Daniel Tollet, Revue des études juivesTable of ContentsIntroduction - Ada Rapoport-Albert and Marcin Wodziński PART I: THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Leah Horwitz’s Tkhine Imohos: A Proto-Feminist Demand to Increase Jewish Women’s Religious Capital - Moshe Rosman ‘A girl! He ought to be whipped’: The Hasid as Homo Ludens - David Assaf Individualism, Truth, and the Repudiation of Magic as the Tsadik's Prerogative: Pshiskhe-Like Elements in the Theology of Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Kosov - Benjamin Brown Table Talk and the Bond of Reading: A Jewish Broadsheet for Meals - Avriel Bar-Levav PART II: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Shtrayml: An Ethnographic Tale of Law and Ritualization - Levi Cooper The Narcissism of Small Differences? On Rituals and Customs as Hasidic Identity-Markers - Gadi Sagiv The Vilna Talmud as a Reflection of Changing Patterns of Study - Edward Fram Popular Religion and Modernity: Jewish Magical Books in Eastern Europe in the Nineteenth Century - Uriel Gellman Hasidic Performance as a Reconstruction of Biblical Life - Daniel Reiser Preserving a Synagogue: Cultural, Material, and Sacred Values - Sergey R. Kravtsov The Laws of Moses and the Laws of the Emperor: Austrian Marriage Legislation and the Jews of Galicia - Rachel Manekin A Forgotten Network? New Perspectives on Progressive Synagogues in Galicia and the Kingdom of Poland - Alicia Maślak-Maciejewska PART III: 1914–1939 To Enlist the Enthusiasm of the Young: Orthodox Jewish Non-Political Responses to the Challenges of Interwar Poland - Gershon Bacon The Scroll of 19 Kislev and the Construction of an Imagined Habad Lubavitch Community in Interwar Poland - Wojciech Tworek At the Centre of Two Revolutions: Beit Ya’akov in Poland between Neo-Orthodoxy and Ultra-Orthodoxy - Iris Brown (Hoizman) PART IV: HOLOCAUST AND POST-HOLOCAUST Gerer Youths in the Holocaust: A Representative Blind Spot in Holocaust Research - Havi Dreifuss The Afterlife of Religion: Orthodox Memoirs of the Holocaust and the Haredi Spiritualization of Modernity - Naftali Loewenthal Being and Becoming: Polish Conversions to Judaism and the Dynamics of Affiliation - Jan Lorenz PART V: NEW VIEWS Foul-Weather Friends: Reinterpreting Jewish–Christian Urban Interaction in the Final Decades of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Curtis G. Murphy The Vilna Pogrom of 19–21 April 1919 - Szymon Rudnicki Jewish Medical Activity in the Ghettos under the Nazi Regime: Characteristics and Broad Historical Context - Miriam Offer

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Book SynopsisChaim Waxman, a prominent sociologist of contemporary Orthodoxy, is one of the keenest observers of American Jewish society. In illustration of how Orthodoxy is adapting to modernity, he presents a detailed discussion of halakhic developments, particularly regarding women’s greater participation in ritual practices and other areas of communal life. He shows that the direction of change is not uniform: there is both greater stringency and greater leniency, and he discusses the many reasons for this, both in the Jewish community and in the wider society. Relations between the various sectors of American Orthodoxy over the past several decades are also considered.Trade Review'Wonderful..... An invaluable synthesis and a fine analysis of recent developments.'Jonathan Sarna, Brandeis University'The book was a pleasure to read, as well as insightful and interesting... The book is very well written – wonder of wonders, a sociology book without jargon!'Professor Menachem Kellner, Chair, Dept of Philosophy and Jewish Thought at Shalem College, Jerusalem'Along with his careful sociological analysis, [Waxman] brings an impeccable knowledge of Jewish history, law, and practice. His writing displays no perceivable bias for or against any denomination or sub-denomination of Judaism. He writes sociology without jargon, and, when necessary, explains fine points of Jewish law so that any reader can understand them.'Martin Lockshin, The Canadian Jewish News'Professor Chaim Waxman, a prominent and highly respected sociologist of contemporary Orthodoxy, has made a superb assessment of the history, development, and current and future situation of Orthodoxy in his relatively short but comprehensive 178-page book.'Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin, Ideals'Lucid and insightful overview... a wonderful guide to the change occurring in both directions and, ultimately, to the battle for the soul of Orthodox Judaism.'Steven Bayme, Director of Contemporary Jewish Life at AJC‘[The] data and demographical research [are] superbly synthesized by Chaim I. Waxman… By providing us with a clear, comprehensive picture of American Orthodoxy’s past and present, Chaim Waxman helps us understand what the future may look like – and what Orthodoxy must do to remain as vibrant then as it is now.’Daniel Ross Goodman, Public Discourse 'One of the most trenchant observers of the American Jewish scene, Professor Chaim I. Waxman, the distinguished sociologist, has written a wide-ranging, engaging and comprehensive analysis that examines changes in conduct as well as halachic behavior in Orthodox Judaism in America, from a social and psychological perspective... a valuable addition to anyone interested in understanding the past, present, and future directions of Orthodox Judaism in America.’ Alan Rosenbaum, Jerusalem Post ‘Chaim Waxman, one of the most renown and astute observers of the Jewish community, has written an excellent work on the social changes and halachic evolution of the American Orthodox community.’ David Tesler, Association of Jewish Libraries'This is a valuable book, and anyone interested in American Jewish studies and halakhic development will gain much from Waxman’s analysis... I highly recommend it.'Marc. B. Shapiro, American Jewish History'Veteran observers will find Waxman’s formulations enlightening and convincing while newcomers to the field will find his descriptions fascinating. This is a wise book that is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand an important American Jewish religious movement.'Shaul Stampfer, Religious Studies Review'A significant and enlightening work... Contrary to popular belief, Waxman found that American Modern Orthodoxy is hardly unchanging.'Alex Grobman, Jewish Link'Students of all varieties of Judaism in the modern world as well as Orthodox Judaism in America are surely indebted to Waxman for Social Change and Halakhic Evolution in American Orthodoxy. It will enrich the understanding of all who study religious traditionalism in the contemporary setting.'David Ellenson, AJS ReviewTable of ContentsNote on TransliterationIntroduction1. Group Size, Social Class, Religion, and Politics2. The Contemporary Orthodox Jewish Family in America3. It’s Kosher to be Orthodox in America4. American Orthodoxy Adopts Stringency5. Tensions within Modern Orthodoxy6. Halakhic Change and Meta-Halakhah7. Revival of the BibleConclusionBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisMoshe Rosman's revolutionary approach has become a cornerstone of Polish Jewish historiography. Challenging conventions, he asserts that the 'marriage of convenience' between the Jews and the Polish--Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dynamic relationship that, though punctuated by crisis and persecution, developed into a saga of overall achievement and stability. With that fundamental message this book forges a thematic survey of Jewish history in early modern Poland. These essays, written by Rosman over the course of a distinguished career, have all been updated and enhanced with new detail and nuanced arguments, taking account not only of new archival material and research but also of the ongoing evolution of the author’s own knowledge and perspectives. Some appear here in English for the first time. The volume's structure highlights key topics for understanding the Polish Jewish past: relations between Jews and other Poles; Jewish communal life; Polish Jewish women; and hasidism. One section analyses how this past has been presented in both scholarly and popular modes. The essays are crafted to place them in dialogue with each other. Analytical introductions weigh their significance in the light of modern and postmodern Jewish and Polish historiography. An extensive general introduction sets the context of the history portrayed here, while a thoughtful conclusion elucidates the larger motifs that emerge.Trade ReviewReviews'This is a book I myself would want!'Antony Polonsky, author of the three-volume History of the Jews in Poland and Russia'The pieces . . . are all of high quality, and bringing them together fills the need for a book that can supplement existing narrative histories, especially for graduate students who need to learn not only the history but the historiography of the subject. The inclusion of pieces that have not previously appeared in English is a real contribution.'David Engel, New York University‘In a rare and fascinating overview of his field, Rosman evaluates changes in the study of Polish Jewry and the perceptions altered by his own distinguished research as well as others’.’ Sara Jo Ben Zvi, SegulaTable of ContentsIntroduction PART I HISTORIOGRAPHY Introduction 1. A New Scholarly Foundation: The Historiography of Polish Jewry Since 1945 2. The Verdict of Israeli Historiography on Hasidism 3. POLIN: The Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the New Polish Jewish Metahistory PART II JEWS AND OTHER POLES Introduction 4. Jewish Perceptions of Persecution and Powerlessness in the Commonwealth 5. A Minority Views the Majority: Jewish Attitudes Towards the Commonwealth and Interaction with Poles 6. Dubno in the Wake of Khmelnytsky 7. The Question of the Jews in the Constitution of the Third of May PART III THE JEWISH COMMUNITY Introduction 8. Jewish Autonomy in Poland and the Polish Regime 9. The Authority of the Council of Four Lands Outside Poland--Lithuania 10. The Indebtedness of the Lublin Kahal in the Eighteenth Century 11. Everyday Violence in Jewish Communities of the Commonwealth 12. The Image of Poland as a Torah Centre after 1648 PART IV WOMEN Introduction 13. History of Jewish Women in the Commonwealth I: An Assessment 14. History of Jewish Women in the Commonwealth II: From Facilitation to Participation 15. A Proto-Feminist Demand to Increase Jewish Women’s Religious Capital: Leah Horowitz’s Tkhine Imohos PART V HASIDISM Introduction 16. The Rise of Hasidism 17. Międzybóż and Rabbi Yisra’el Ba’al Shem Tov 18. Stories that Changed History: The Unique Career of Shivḥei habesht 19. Hasidism as a Modern Phenomenon Conclusion: Theme Decoding

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Book SynopsisHow Jews use media to connect with one another has profound consequences for Jewish identity, community, and culture. This volume explores how the use of media can both create communities and divide them because of how different media shape actions and project anxieties, conflicts, and emotions. Taken together, the essays presented here consider how Jewish use of media at home and in the street, as well as in the synagogue and in school, affects the individual’s sense of ethnic and religious affiliation. They include closely observed case studies, in various national contexts, of the role of popular film, television, records, the Internet, and smartphones, as well as the role of print media, now and historically. They raise fascinating questions about how Jews and Jewish institutions harness, tolerate, or resist media to create their sense of social belonging as Jews within the wider society.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Media, Mediation, and Jewish CommunitySimon J. Bronner and Caspar BattegayPart I. The Impact of Texts on, and in, Jewish Community1. Sixteenth-Century Jewish Makers of Printed Books and the Shaping of Late Renaissance Jewish Literacy Pavel Sládek 2. Settings of Silver: The Feminization of the Jewish Sabbath, 1920--1945Amy K. Milligan3. Contemporary Israeli Midrash and the Construction of a Dialogic Intragroup DiscourseTsafi Sebba-ElranPart II. Media, Performance, and Popular Discourse in the Formation of Jewish Community4. The Jewish Atlantic: Diaspora and Popular MusicCaspar Battegay5. The Hidden Legacies of Jewish Traditions and the Global Allure of Psychotherapy: A Case Study of the Israeli TV Series BetipulDiana L. Popescu6. Propagating Modern Jewish Identity in Madagascar: A Contextual Analysis of One Community’s Discursive StrategiesNathan P. Devir7. Telling Jokes: Connecting and Separating Jews in Analogue and Digital CultureSimon J. BronnerPart III. Virtual Spaces for Jews in a Digital Age8. Going Online to Go ‘Home’: Yizkor Books, Cyber-Shtetls, and Communities of LocationRachel Leah Jablon9. The Second Life of Judaism: A History of Religious Community and Practice in Virtual SpacesJulian Voloj and Anthony Bak Buccitelli10. Rethinking Jewishness in Networked Publics: The Case of Post-Communist HungaryAnna ManchinContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisThoroughly researched, this study highlights the historical scholarship that is one of the lasting legacies of interwar Polish Jewry and analyses its political and social context. As Jewish citizens struggled to assert their place in a newly independent Poland, a dedicated group of Jewish scholars fascinated by history devoted themselves to creating a sense of Polish Jewish belonging while also fighting for their rights as an ethnic minority. The political climate made it hard for these men and women to pursue an academic career; instead they had to continue their efforts to create and disseminate Polish Jewish history by teaching outside the university and publishing in scholarly and popular journals. By introducing the Jewish public to a pantheon of historical heroes to celebrate and anniversaries to commemorate, they sought to forge a community aware of its past, its cultural heritage, and its achievements---though no less important were their efforts to counter the increased hostility towards Jews in the public discourse of the day. In highlighting the role of public intellectuals and the social role of scholars and historical scholarship, this study adds a new dimension to the understanding of the Polish Jewish world in the interwar period.Trade ReviewReviews'This is an important subject not only for those concerned with the modern history and culture of Polish Jews but also for anyone interested in the relations between academy and community or in the social role of scholars and scholarship'.David Engel, New York University'Historical scholarship was a main feature of Polish-Jewish culture between the wars and is one of the main legacies of Polish Jewry. This book, analysing the political and social context and the metahistory of that work, promises to be a landmark piece of scholarship.'Moshe Rosman, Bar-Ilan University‘Natalia Aleksiun’s important new book […] gives voice to these largely unknown historians who may have doubted the efficacy of their enterprise but never their right to undertake it […] Thanks to Aleksiun’s carefully researched and evocative book, we now know their names and their scholarship.’Nancy Sinkoff, Sources'Aleksiun weaves a powerful narrative about public intellectuals, historical scholarship, and Polish-Jewish relations... Conscious History is an innovative and exemplary contribution to scholarship about Polish Jews and interwar Poland that deepens our understanding of many of the questions that continue to animate historians today.'Joanna Sliwa, H-Poland'Pioneering in many aspects... Aleksiun’s book serves as a collective biography of the Jewish historians working in Poland at the turn of the century and during the Second Republic. The author skillfully describes their legacy as well as their complicated and sometimes tragic relations with the Poles.'Rafał Stobiecki, H-Soz-Kult'[Conscious History's] strength is exactly where it deals with the richness of Jewish history in Polish, Yiddish and Hebrew, bringing to life a largely forgotten community... it is a must-read both for those interested in the Jewish history of Central Europe and historians of scholarship from and of the region.' Jan Surman, Jewish Culture and History‘Aleksiun’s Conscious History is an important book and essential read for anyone interested in the history of Polish Jewry, its writers, and inter‐war Poland more broadly. Its relevance goes beyond the classroom and its academic audience. The rise of nationalism worldwide reminds us of the importance of historical debates in the public sphere, as well as our own duty as civic activists.’ Oskar Czendze, H-Judaic‘This book is great on many levels. But for me the most important is cultural inheritance. The people about whom Professor Aleksiun has written have acquired a voice anew through her and she has demonstrated her membership in the club; she too is a Polish-Jewish historian, just like the ones about whom she writes. And her book is not only about historians, but is also a testament to them.’ Brian Horowitz, Gal-EdTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Historical Beginnings 2. The Making of Professional Polish Jewish Historians 3. Becoming Mainstream 4. Beyond the Ivory Tower 5. Themes and Trends of Historical Enquiry Epilogue Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThrough a detailed analysis of ghost tales in the Ashkenazi pietistic work Sefer ḥasidim, Susan Weissman documents a major transformation in Jewish attitudes and practices regarding the dead and the afterlife that took place between the rabbinic period and medieval times. She reveals that a huge influx of Germano-Christian beliefs, customs, and fears relating to the dead and the afterlife seeped into medieval Ashkenazi society among both elite and popular groups. In matters of sin, penance, and posthumous punishment, the infiltration of Christian notions was so strong as to effect a radical departure in Pietist thinking from rabbinic thought and to spur outright contradiction of talmudic principles regarding the realm of the hereafter. Although it is primarily a study of the culture of a medieval Jewish enclave, this book demonstrates how seminal beliefs of medieval Christendom and monastic ideals could take root in a society with contrary religious values—even in the realm of doctrinal belief.Trade Review‘This exceptional piece of work demonstrates almost beyond question that elements of Sefer Hasidim’s perception of key aspects of the afterlife were influenced by an array of beliefs current in the larger society involving both theology and folklore... The theses proffered are persuasive, grounded in a command of rabbinic material and familiarity with both Christian doctrines and European folktales... This is an eye-opening work that will have a significant impact on medieval Jewish studies.David Berger, Yeshiva University'Weissman’s work is a masterpiece of history, splendidly written. It displays a rare maturity and a high degree of mastery of the sources cited, but more important, a high degree of historical intuition and intelligence in their interpretation ... I am confident that it will become a classic of medieval Jewish studies; by the same token, I am sure that medieval researchers and students of Christian cultural space will also find in this book both matters of substance and stimulation that will enhance the general understanding of the period'.Sylvie Anne Goldberg, cole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales'Weissman’s study, as remarkable for its erudition as for its precision in textual analysis, sheds new light on key concepts that the Ashkenazi Jews of the high Middle Ages shared with local Christians. It shows how Sefer {h.}asidim reflects ideas that contradict rabbinic and talmudic tradition, a development that Weissman attributes to Jewish contact with the dominant Christian culture. ... An outstanding work likely to be of enduring importance'.Jean Claude Schmitt, École des Hautes Études en Sciences SocialesA superb study of how Germanic and even Christian ideas about the nature and time of divine judgment and the complex relationship between the living and the vibrantly alive dead influenced Jewish thought. It is the first serious proof of common cultural notions of an entire area of human experience (and not simply of an idea or ceremony or two) since Trachtenberg's Jewish Magic and Superstition. It makes a major contribution to our understanding of medieval Ashkenaz.Haym Soloveitchik, Yeshiva University'A fascinating examination of ghost tales in Sefer Hasidim.'Rabbi Dr. Stu Halpern, Straus CenterTable of ContentsIntroductionPart I. The Dead of Sefer Ḥasidim1. The Dangerous Dead2. The Sinful Dead3. The Holy Dead4. The Neutral Dead and the Pietist DeadAppendix I. Burial in Talit of TsitsitPart II. The Afterlife in Sefer Ḥasidim5. Status in the Hereafter6. On Sin, Penance, and Purgation7. Bonds Between the Living and the Dead I8. Bonds Between the Living and the Dead IIAppendix II. A Report Regarding Prayer for the Undeserving Dead in the Name of R. Judah the Pious9. ConclusionBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThe Portuguese Jewish diaspora was born out of a double tragedy: the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and the forced conversion/expulsion of the Jews from Portugal in 1497. The potent combination of expulsion, Inquisition, and crypto-Judaism left people neither wholly Jewish nor wholly Christian in their identity. Subsequently many left the Iberian peninsula; some found refuge in the Caribbean, but succeeded in maintaining strong connections with Portuguese Jews in western Europe, the Ottoman empire, and the Far East, while they also forged ties with the surrounding peoples and cultures. This book looks at many different aspects of this complex past. Its interdisciplinary approach allows a wealth of new information to be brought together to create a comprehensive picture. Part I sets the context, and also considers the relationship of Caribbean Jewry to European trading systems; its special ties to Amsterdam and Dutch-ruled Curaçao; and the role of Jewish merchants in Jamaica’s commerce. Part II examines the material and visual culture of Jews in the British and Dutch Caribbean, while Part III looks at Caribbean Jewish identity and heritage and their modern manifestations. Part IV contains archival studies that illuminate other subjects of importance—adventure and piracy, Jewish participation in a nineteenth-century revolt of black slaves and in the first Jamaican elections after Jews were granted the right to vote, and questions of concubinage and sexual relations between Jews and blacks. Part V moves from the local to the international, in particular the connection with mainland America. In their diversity, the contributions to this volume suggest the many ways in which the formation of the Caribbean Jewish diaspora can be understood today: as a Jewish diaspora dispersed under different European colonial empires; as a Jewish cultural entity created by a set of shared traditions and historical memories; and as one component in a web of relationships that characterized the Atlantic world. Defining it is no simple matter: like all diaspora identities it was constantly in flux, reinventing itself under changing historical circumstances. CONTRIBUTORS: Aviva Ben-Ur, Miriam Bodian, Judah M. Cohen, Eli Faber, Rachel Frankel, Noah L. Gelfand, Jane S. Gerber, Josette Capriles Goldish, Matt Goldish, Jonathan Israel, Stanley Mirvis, Gérard Nahon, Joanna Newman, Ronnie Perelis, Jackie Ranston, James Robertson, Jessica Roitman, Dale Rosengarten, Barry L. Stiefel, Hilit Surowitz-Israel, Karl Watson, Swithin WilmotTrade ReviewReviews ‘The broadest spectrum of scholars and scholarship on this subject since the 1993 publication of Sephardim in the Americas, explaining that book’s US-centred focus with a global perspective . . . Highly recommended.’ J.L. Elkin, Choice‘This outstanding collection of papers opens a window into the world of the Portuguese Jewish diaspora in the Caribbean. Accompanied by illustrations, notes, and bibliographies, this work is essential for those seeking to understand the circumstances which led to the specific patterns of development, communal organization, and personal life of the Sephardim in this region.’ Randall C. Belinfante, Interdisciplinary Journal of Portuguese Diaspora Studies‘This volume has many strengths, not the least of which are its wide-ranging scope, attention to new methods, inclusion of primary sources, and interdisciplinary approach to the field. One of the joys of the collection is the broad approach it takes to the Caribbean . . . The volume is similarly expansive in its methods. Some of the best of the essays in the collection lay out new theories and provide new archival sources . . . equally rich in its interest in a broadly defined approach to Jewish life. It includes essays that draw from religious, cultural, social, political, and economic history. Credit should go to the publisher for the book’s beautiful design and for its inclusion of not only rare translations of archival works but also the colour plates, black and white figures, maps, and tables that complement the chapters . . . the essays are strong and well edited . . . an innovative collection produced by both established and up-and-coming scholars. It will be invaluable for any scholar of Jewish studies who is seriously interested in either American Jewish history or Atlantic world history. The work should also be of interest not only to researchers but also to students of American and European history who want to learn new methods and theoretical models.’ Laura Arnold Leibman, Jewish History‘Monumental . . . The subject matter is diverse and varied, and ranges from history, culture, politics, to race and Jewish identity, among many other interesting topics . . . The chapters are written from a broad range of disciplines and socio-cultural perspectives, both theoretical/scholarly and creative . . . Carefully written and well documented . . . this mammoth work is a huge undertaking and its analysis is truly interesting, since it illuminates the reader's path to understanding the development of the Jews in this region, as well as those factors and events that have shaped them. This book offers a skilful overview of the history and historiography of these Jews and their environments. It does not leave many questions unexplored, without reconceptualizing or analyzing them. It is without a doubt a valuable and important contribution.’ Paulette Kershenovich Schuster, Sephardic HorizonsTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Note on Transliteration Introduction - JANE S. GERBER PART I The Historical Background of the Caribbean Sephardi Diaspora 1 The Formation of the Portuguese Jewish Diaspora - MIRIAM BODIAN2 Curaçao, Amsterdam, and the Rise of the Sephardi Trade System in the Caribbean, 1630–1700 - JONATHAN ISRAEL3 To Live and to Trade: The Status of Sephardi Mercantile Communities in the Atlantic World during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries - NOAH L. GELFAND PART II Authority and Community in the Dutch Caribbean 4 Amsterdam and the Portuguese Naçao of the Caribbean in the Eighteenth Century - GÉRARD NAHON5 ‘A flock of wolves instead of sheep’: The Dutch West India Company, Conflict Resolution, and the Jewish Community of Curaçao in the Eighteenth Century - JESSICA ROITMAN6 Religious Authority: A Perspective from the Americas - HILIT SUROWITZ-ISRAEL PART III Material and Visual Culture 7 Jonkonnu and Jew: The Art of Isaac Mendes Belisario (1794–1849) - JACKIE RANSTON8 Testimonial Terrain: The Cemeteries of New World Sephardim - RACHEL FRANKEL9 Counting the ‘Sacred Lights of Israel’: Synagogue Construction and Architecture in the British Caribbean - BARRY L. STIEFEL PART IV Jews and Slave Society 10 The Cultural Heritage of Eurafrican Sephardi Jews in Suriname - AVIVA BEN-UR11 Shifting Identities: Religion, Race, and Creolization among the Sephardi Jews of Barbados, 1654–1900 - KARL WATSON12 Sexuality and Sentiment: Concubinage and the Sephardi Family in Late Eighteenth-Century Jamaica - STANLEY MIRVIS13 The ‘Confession made by Cyrus’ Reconsidered: Maroons and Jews during Jamaica’s First Maroon War (1728–1738/9) - JAMES ROBERTSON14 Jewish Politicians in Post-Slavery Jamaica: Electoral Politics in the Parish of St Dorothy, 1849–1860 - SWITHIN WILMOT PART V Reassessing the Geographical Boundaries of Caribbean Jewry 15 The Borders of Early American Jewish History - ELI FABER16 Port Jews and Plantation Jews: Carolina–Caribbean Connections - DALE ROSENGARTEN Part VI Personal Narratives 17 The Strange Adventures of Benjamin Franks, an Ashkenazi Pioneer in the Americas - MATT GOLDISH18 Daniel Israel López Laguna’s Espejo fiel de vidas and the Ghosts of Marrano Autobiography - RONNIE PERELIS19 ‘My heart is grieved’: Grace Cardoze—A Life Revealed through Letters - JOSETTE CAPRILES GOLDISH PART VII The Formation of Contemporary Caribbean Jewry 20 Refugees from Nazism in the British Caribbean - JOANNA NEWMAN21 Inscribing Ourselves with History: The Production of Heritage in Today’s Caribbean Jewish Diaspora - JUDAH M. COHENNotes on ContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisFifteen years into a successful career as a college professor, Ilana Blumberg encounters a crisis in the classroom that sends her back to the most basic questions about education and prompts a life-changing journey that ultimately takes her from East Lansing to Tel Aviv. As she explores how civic and religious commitments shape the culture of her humanities classrooms, Blumberg argues that there is no education without ethics. When we know what sort of society we seek to build, our teaching practices follow. In vivid classroom scenes from kindergarten through middle school to the university level, Blumberg conveys the drama of intellectual discovery as she offers novice and experienced teachers a pedagogy of writing, speaking, reading, and thinking that she links clearly to the moral and personal development of her students. Writing as an observant Jew and as an American, Blumberg does not shy away from the difficult challenge of balancing identities in the twenty-first century: how to remain true to a community of origin while being a national and global citizen. As she negotiates questions of faith and citizenship in the wide range of classrooms she traverses, Blumberg reminds us that teaching - and learning - are nothing short of a moral art, and that the future of our society depends on it.Trade Review"In this remarkable memoir, Ilana Blumberg insists that classroom instruction entails moral commitments illuminated, in her case, through immersion in the humanities. A gift to anyone interested in the art and practice of teaching, and a powerful pedagogic manifesto." -- Jonathan D. Sarna * Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University *"This extraordinary book is part memoir, part discussion of the ethics and praxis of education, and part detailed accounts of Blumberg’s teaching experiences – poignant, dramatic, profound in their implications. Ranging from pre-school to college, these narratives show how redemptive the act of writing can sometimes be. Blumberg herself thinks and writes her way through crises that interrogate her own assumptions. Here lies the generative drama of her book. A large-hearted and clear-minded document. Highly recommended." -- Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg * author of Moses: A Human Life *"A smart, compelling, significant memoir. I enthusiastically recommend this particularly timely book as it makes a spiritual and ethical case for the humanities in action and for fact-based, rational discourse...Ultimately, Blumberg champions the sacred art of teaching and the power of reading and writing to make worlds and moral selves." -- Helene Meyers * author of Identity Papers: Contemporary Narratives of American Jewishness *"A powerful reflection on this teaching life...engaging, reflective, and honest. Open Your Hand will appeal to those interested in grappling with what the connection is--or should be--between worlds inside and outside of the classroom." -- Tahneer Oksman * author of "How Come Boys Get to Keep Their Noses?" *"Reading Open Your Hand is an exhilarating experience. Beautifully written, passionately argued, this is a profound meditation on education, morality, identity. Blumberg takes us through an astonishing range of educational experiences and reminds us why education is an exalted adventure. In a relativistic era, she insists on the urgency and possibility of a moral education. Open Your Hand is an essential book on what it means to be an educator." -- Yossi Klein Halevi * senior fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute *"Open Your Hand will restore your faith in the power of teachers to make a difference. Blumberg offers her readers a thoughtful meditation on moral education by way of an entertaining and often poignant tour of the institutions in which she has taught. She describes her students with a level of empathy and insight that makes you wish that you had studied with her." -- Jonathan Krasner * Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Associate Professor of Jewish Education Research, Brandeis University *"Goodnight, Tween: Why I’m Still Reading Out Loud to My Kids," by Ilana Blumberg * Medium *"12 New Books About Contemporary Jewish Identity — All by Women!" by Elana Rebitzer and Lilith Staff * Lilith *Chronicle of Higher Education "Selected New Books on Higher Education" compiled by Ruth Hammond * Chronicle of Higher Education *"Her book is a compelling argument for the power of education to change lives. It reminds us that in Israel or America, as a Jew or as an American, learning can and should inspire compassion, combat racism, and balance fear with courage." * Jewish Book Council *"A beautiful, moving book....A timely brief for the humanities. Blumberg’s defense of education is necessary reading." * The Forward *"Compelling reading because of [Blumberg’s] open and honest discussions of her successes and failures. She admits her own learning curve – recognizing that she will always have to adjust her expectations and teaching style in order to help different types of students. Readers will rejoice in her successes, while discovering that even the best teachers may not be able to help students overcome all their obstacles.” * The Reporter Group *Excerpt of Open Your hand in Hayidon, "In These Times" issue * Hayidion *Open Your Hand mentioned in "Briefly Noted" round-up * The Pennsylvania Gazette *"Writing the Unspeakable: Teaching Literature of the Shoah and American Slavery," except of Open Your Hand on the ProsenPeople blog * Jewish Book Council *"This book chronicles her experiences as a teacher in many settings – at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, as well as at the cutting-edge Jewish day school in New York, Beit Rabban. Some of the most moving passages in this book describe her work as a volunteer in an American inner-city public middle school where she worked with disadvantaged children with spotty attendance records who almost invariably had experienced violence in their lives." * Jewish Canadian News *"As she negotiates questions of faith and citizenship in the wide range of classrooms she traverses, Blumberg reminds us that teaching - and learning - are nothing short of a moral art, and that the future of our society depends on it." * Jewish Media Review *"Open Your Hand is at once the story of one woman’s life in classrooms and a pedagogical education in itself." * Life Writing *The 929 Podcast interview with Ilana Blumberg https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ilana-blumberg-teaching-as-an-american-in-israel/id1476736520?i=1000457889957fbclid=IwAR2wv7vGnsF4lvHH8jEUwLsVzIEs0nc7JsgyfdtNcRpMbxkbygNxJvZFyWw * The 929 Podcast *"It’s the best book on teaching that I’ve read in a very long time, so I’ve already given away several copies of Ilana Blumberg’s Open Your Hand: Teaching as a Jew, Teaching as an American. What I found in this book astonished and surprised me. Blumberg, who has taught in colleges, elementary and secondary schools, and a university in Tel Aviv, writes about a classroom crisis she encountered and the ways in which it awakened her to what truly matters in teaching: the formation of character." * Christian Century *"Blumberg weaves together memoir with reflections on education and pedagogy and their meanings within a broader societal and cultural context [and] invites us into a consideration of education that probes the inescapable questions of how to be a person in the world." * Christian Scholar's Review *Table of ContentsContents Introduction Part One: Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn: Kindergarten to College, Beit Rabban and Michigan State University Part Two: Choosing to Learn, Learning to Choose: “Smith” Middle School Part Three: “It’s the land”: Smith School and Jerusalem Postscript: Shadow Schools: Kindergarten to College, America and Israel

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Book SynopsisHasidism, a Jewish religious movement that originated in Poland in the eighteenth century, today counts over 700,000 adherents, primarily in the U.S., Israel, and the UK. Popular and scholarly interest in Hasidic Judaism and Hasidic Jews is growing, but there is no textbook dedicated to research methods in the field, nor sources for the history of Hasidism have been properly recognized. Studying Hasidism, edited by Marcin Wodziński, an internationally recognized historian of Hasidism, aims to remedy this gap. The work’s thirteen chapters each draws upon a set of different sources, many of them previously untapped, including folklore, music, big data, and material culture to demonstrate what is still to be achieved in the study of Hasidism. Ultimately, this textbook presents research methods that can decentralize the role community leaders play in the current literature and reclaim the everyday lives of Hasidic Jews.Trade Review"Impressive..readers will learn new things about Hasidism even while their horizons broaden to see new ways of thinking about sources." -- Naomi Seidman * author of The Marriage Plot or, How Jews Fell in Love with Love, and with Literature *"The contributors to Studying Hasidism are the academic equivalent of an all-star team while the topics covered are the wish-list of anyone interested in Hasidism. Up to date, original and comprehensive–there is nothing like it." -- Shaul Stampfer * author of Lithuanian Yeshivas of the Nineteenth Century: Creating a Tradition of Learning *"Marcin Wodzinski has assembled eleven respected scholars for this work on Hasidism. Much more than an excellent textbook, it focuses on a wide range of important issues not generally emphasized in histories of this pious movement whose membership even now amounts to nearly a million people, roughly seven percent of the world’s Jewish population. Intellectually challenging and engagingly written, the book should appeal to everyone interested in the history of modern Jewry." -- Abraham Ascher * Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus, Graduate Center, City University of New York *"Comprised of thirteen erudite and informative articles by experts in Hasidic culture and customs, Studying Hasidism: Sources, Methods, Perspectives is an extraordinary, unique, and impressively informative contribution to the growing library of Hasidic literature and an invaluable addition to personal, community, and academic library Judaic Studies collections." * Midwest Book Review *"Studying Hasidism is certainly a valuable tool for both scholars and advanced students of Hasidism. It goes beyond the editor’s previous works in not only laying out a vision of what direction the historical analysis of Hasidism can take, by actually providing systematic tools with which to do so." * Tradition *Table of ContentsTable of Contents List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgments Note on Transcription and Place Names Introduction by Marcin Wodziński 1. Homilies by Gadi Sagiv 2. Halakhah by Levi Cooper 3. Stories by Uriel Gellman 4. Mitnagedim by Uriel Gellman 5. Maskilim by Jonatan Meir 6. Ego-documents by Marcin Wodziński 7. Folk narratives by Galit Hasan-Rokem and Shaul Magid 8. Archives by Yohanan Petrovsky Shtern 9. Press by David Assaf 10. Iconography by Maya Balakirsky-Katz 11. Music by Edwin Seroussi 12. Material culture by Vladimir Levin 13. Big data by Marcin Wodziński Note About the Authors Index

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Book SynopsisBy analyzing how various media told stories about Jewish celebrities and incest, Unsettling illustrates how Jewish community protective politics impacted the representation of white male Jewish masculinity in the 1990s. Chapters on Woody Allen, Roseanne Barr, and Henry Roth demonstrate how media coverage of their respective incest denials (Allen), allegations (Barr), and confessions (Roth) intersect with a history of sexual antisemitism, while an introductory chapter on Jewish second-wave feminist criticism of Sigmund Freud considers how Freud became “white” in these discussions. Unsettling reveals how film, TV, and literature have helped displace once prevalent antisemitic stereotypes onto those who are non-Jewish, nonwhite, and poor. In considering how whiteness functions for an ethnoreligious group with historic vulnerability to incest stereotype as well as contemporary white privilege, Unsettling demonstrates how white Jewish men accused of incest, and even those who defiantly confess it, became improbably sympathetic figures representing supposed white male vulnerability. Trade ReviewBromberg breaks the silence and pushes discomfort to the margins as he unpacks notions of American Jewish Ashkenazi exceptionalism without overlooking how Jewish whiteness, an embodied American process, exists as an anomaly... Innovative. -- Katya Gibel Mevorach * author of Black, Jewish and Interracial: It's Not the Color of Your Skin but the Race of Your Kin, *In this provocative and timely book, Eli Bromberg dares to examine how anti-Semitic sexual stereotypes centered on the incest taboo continue to shape representations of Jews and Jewishness in American culture. Bromberg brings oft-silenced topics to the fore, exposing the “protective politics” of Jewish communities and unsettling paradigms...a fascinating contribution to the fields of Jewish cultural studies and comparative race studies. -- Lori Harrison-Kahan * author of The White Negress: Literature, Minstrelsy, and the Black-Jewish Imaginary *"Bromberg presents a well-written critical analysis of the intersections of Jewish ethnoreligious identity, white racial identity, and gender that lays important groundwork for future work in the area. Those who read this text will have a more advanced understanding of the intersections of these categories in the context of the situations described....[A]n important contribution to the fields of race and ethnic studies and Jewish studies because it pioneers many previously undiscussed and under-discussed topics simultaneously." * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"Unsettling: Jews, Whiteness, Incest in American Pop Culture by Eli Bromberg" * New York Jewish Travel Guide *"A timely and theoretically sophisticated contribution to studies in Jewish social politics, popular culture, and critical race studies. It shines a bold light on the ways in which Jewish vulnerability to sexual antisemitism, rooted in centuries of anti-Jewish belief, has continued to enable and reward complacence with the demands of racist and patriarchal power structures as a requisite for American Jews’ own conditional inclusion within the paradox of 'universalist,' white-dominated American culture. It furthers contemplation about the predicaments of Jewish identity in a context that awards conditional privileges to those whose security is easily dismantled by underlying prejudice and who are thus compelled to reinforce existing power structures in the name of self-defense." * AJS Review *Table of ContentsContents Introduction Chapter 1: A Victorian Freud: A Rhetorical Analysis of Jewish Second-Wave Feminist Criticism of Freud Chapter 2: Incest, Exogamy, and Jewishness on Roseanne Chapter 3: Woody, Wood Yi, and Communion Wafers Chapter 4: Blood Libel Humor and Incest Easter Eggs Chapter 5: “Till a Khusin Comes Along” Conclusion Acknowledgments About the Author

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Book SynopsisBy analyzing how various media told stories about Jewish celebrities and incest, Unsettling illustrates how Jewish community protective politics impacted the representation of white male Jewish masculinity in the 1990s. Chapters on Woody Allen, Roseanne Barr, and Henry Roth demonstrate how media coverage of their respective incest denials (Allen), allegations (Barr), and confessions (Roth) intersect with a history of sexual antisemitism, while an introductory chapter on Jewish second-wave feminist criticism of Sigmund Freud considers how Freud became “white” in these discussions. Unsettling reveals how film, TV, and literature have helped displace once prevalent antisemitic stereotypes onto those who are non-Jewish, nonwhite, and poor. In considering how whiteness functions for an ethnoreligious group with historic vulnerability to incest stereotype as well as contemporary white privilege, Unsettling demonstrates how white Jewish men accused of incest, and even those who defiantly confess it, became improbably sympathetic figures representing supposed white male vulnerability. Trade ReviewBromberg breaks the silence and pushes discomfort to the margins as he unpacks notions of American Jewish Ashkenazi exceptionalism without overlooking how Jewish whiteness, an embodied American process, exists as an anomaly... Innovative. -- Katya Gibel Mevorach * author of Black, Jewish and Interracial: It's Not the Color of Your Skin but the Race of Your Kin, *In this provocative and timely book, Eli Bromberg dares to examine how anti-Semitic sexual stereotypes centered on the incest taboo continue to shape representations of Jews and Jewishness in American culture. Bromberg brings oft-silenced topics to the fore, exposing the “protective politics” of Jewish communities and unsettling paradigms...a fascinating contribution to the fields of Jewish cultural studies and comparative race studies. -- Lori Harrison-Kahan * author of The White Negress: Literature, Minstrelsy, and the Black-Jewish Imaginary *"Bromberg presents a well-written critical analysis of the intersections of Jewish ethnoreligious identity, white racial identity, and gender that lays important groundwork for future work in the area. Those who read this text will have a more advanced understanding of the intersections of these categories in the context of the situations described....[A]n important contribution to the fields of race and ethnic studies and Jewish studies because it pioneers many previously undiscussed and under-discussed topics simultaneously." * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"Unsettling: Jews, Whiteness, Incest in American Pop Culture by Eli Bromberg" * New York Jewish Travel Guide *"A timely and theoretically sophisticated contribution to studies in Jewish social politics, popular culture, and critical race studies. It shines a bold light on the ways in which Jewish vulnerability to sexual antisemitism, rooted in centuries of anti-Jewish belief, has continued to enable and reward complacence with the demands of racist and patriarchal power structures as a requisite for American Jews’ own conditional inclusion within the paradox of 'universalist,' white-dominated American culture. It furthers contemplation about the predicaments of Jewish identity in a context that awards conditional privileges to those whose security is easily dismantled by underlying prejudice and who are thus compelled to reinforce existing power structures in the name of self-defense." * AJS Review *Table of ContentsContents Introduction Chapter 1: A Victorian Freud: A Rhetorical Analysis of Jewish Second-Wave Feminist Criticism of Freud Chapter 2: Incest, Exogamy, and Jewishness on Roseanne Chapter 3: Woody, Wood Yi, and Communion Wafers Chapter 4: Blood Libel Humor and Incest Easter Eggs Chapter 5: “Till a Khusin Comes Along” Conclusion Acknowledgments About the Author

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Book SynopsisAmerican Jews donate approximately $2.5 billion to Israel each year. Behind all that money and influence lies a power-sharing dynamic that has left an indelible mark on the relationship between Israeli and American Jews and on the direction of Israeli society to this day. Checkbook Zionism investigates how both parties have managed their interests, emotions, and attitudes about the important yet at times tense collaboration between them. By delving into the history of American Jews’ philanthropic giving to Israelis, Fleisch assesses the core nature of power sharing between both sides of the Jewish diaspora to the United States through in-depth contemporary case studies of the relationship between sixteen non-governmental organizations and their American Jewish donors. Field observation, document analysis, and interviews with leaders, activists, and select donors alike serve a critical role here, as Fleisch assesses whether these contemporary philanthropic associations repeat classic dynamics of power-sharing or whether they represent a marked departure from the Checkbook Zionism of old. The result is a new paradigm for evaluating power sharing that can be applied to future considerations of development in the Israel-Diaspora relationship. Trade Review"Checkbook Zionism 'follows the money' as it flows from American Jews to Israel. The result is one of the best-researched, most illuminating studies of American Jewish philanthropy ever written." -- Jonathan D. Sarna * author of American Judaism: A History *"Fleisch's groundbreaking work helps scholars and the public understand why, despite American Jews' significant investment in Israel, so many feel disempowered when it comes to the political future of the country. Even if there has been a major transformation in how American Jews support Israel, Fleisch reveals that the actual power they wield has remained remarkably restricted." -- Lila Corwin Berman * author of The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex: The History of a Multibillion-Dollar Institutio *Table of Contents Abbreviations Introduction PART IThe Rise and Fall of Checkbook Zionism 1 The Mechanics of Checkbook Zionism 2 The Culture of Checkbook Zionism 3 The Decline of Checkbook Zionism PART IIPower Sharing in the Contemporary Era 4 An Introduction to the Study of Contemporary Relationship Dynamics 5 Prospects for a New Era of Partnership? 6 Power Sharing in the Twenty-First Century in Direct Giving Arrangements 7 Power Sharing in the Twenty-First Century in New Federated Arrangements Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAmerican Jews donate approximately $2.5 billion to Israel each year. Behind all that money and influence lies a power-sharing dynamic that has left an indelible mark on the relationship between Israeli and American Jews and on the direction of Israeli society to this day. Checkbook Zionism investigates how both parties have managed their interests, emotions, and attitudes about the important yet at times tense collaboration between them. By delving into the history of American Jews’ philanthropic giving to Israelis, Fleisch assesses the core nature of power sharing between both sides of the Jewish diaspora to the United States through in-depth contemporary case studies of the relationship between sixteen non-governmental organizations and their American Jewish donors. Field observation, document analysis, and interviews with leaders, activists, and select donors alike serve a critical role here, as Fleisch assesses whether these contemporary philanthropic associations repeat classic dynamics of power-sharing or whether they represent a marked departure from the Checkbook Zionism of old. The result is a new paradigm for evaluating power sharing that can be applied to future considerations of development in the Israel-Diaspora relationship. Trade Review"Checkbook Zionism 'follows the money' as it flows from American Jews to Israel. The result is one of the best-researched, most illuminating studies of American Jewish philanthropy ever written." -- Jonathan D. Sarna * author of American Judaism: A History *"Fleisch's groundbreaking work helps scholars and the public understand why, despite American Jews' significant investment in Israel, so many feel disempowered when it comes to the political future of the country. Even if there has been a major transformation in how American Jews support Israel, Fleisch reveals that the actual power they wield has remained remarkably restricted." -- Lila Corwin Berman * author of The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex: The History of a Multibillion-Dollar Institutio *Table of Contents Abbreviations Introduction PART IThe Rise and Fall of Checkbook Zionism 1 The Mechanics of Checkbook Zionism 2 The Culture of Checkbook Zionism 3 The Decline of Checkbook Zionism PART IIPower Sharing in the Contemporary Era 4 An Introduction to the Study of Contemporary Relationship Dynamics 5 Prospects for a New Era of Partnership? 6 Power Sharing in the Twenty-First Century in Direct Giving Arrangements 7 Power Sharing in the Twenty-First Century in New Federated Arrangements Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWhen Cowboys Come Home: Veterans, Authenticity, and Manhood in Post–World War II America is a cultural and intellectual history of the 1950s that argues that World War II led to a breakdown of traditional markers of manhood and opened space for veterans to reimagine what masculinity could mean. One particularly important strand of thought, which influenced later anxieties over “other-direction” and “conformity,” argued that masculinity was not defined by traits like bravery, stoicism, and competitiveness but instead by authenticity, shared camaraderie, and emotional honesty. To elucidate this challenge to traditional “frontiersman” masculinity, Aaron George presents three intellectual biographies of important veterans who became writers after the war: James Jones, the writer of the monumentally important war novel From Here to Eternity; Stewart Stern, one of the most important screenwriters of the fifties and sixties, including for Rebel without a Cause; and Edward Field, a bohemian poet who used poetry to explore his love for other men. Through their lives, George shows how wartime disabused men of the notion that war was inherently a brave or heroic enterprise and how the alienation they felt upon their return led them to value the authentic connections they made with other men during the war. Trade Review"A fascinating story of three writers—veterans of World War II in search of authenticity." -- James B. Gilbert * author of Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s *"Beautifully written and sensitively wrought, When Cowboys Come Home rejects the images of WWII veterans as pugilists or Organization Men. Through neglected figures, including James Jones and Edward Fields, Aaron George audaciously insists that vets took from their war experience a thirst for male bonding, camaraderie, and intense relationships." -- David Steigerwald * author of The Sixties and the End of Modern America *Table of ContentsPreface: What We Bring Home Introduction: Hemingway's Shadow Part I Cowboys on the Wartime Frontier 1 Never a Secondhand Man: James Jones and the Perils of Homecoming 2 The Big Noise: Stewart Stern's Long March to Gar Naruah 3 The "Age of Heroes": Edward Field and Gay Authenticity in the Midst of War Part II Coming Home 4 The Hipster, the Prophet, and the Angel: Writers on the Edge of Eternity 5 The Men Who Came Running: James Jones and the Handy Writers' Colony 6 Waiting for Peter Pan: Adulthood and How to Attain It 7 The Continuing Adventures of Icarus: Edward Field's Life in the Postwar Closet Conclusion: A Nation of Gray Flannel Men Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2020 Ernst Fraenkel Prize from the Wiener Holocaust Library Jewish Childhood in Kraków is the first book to tell the history of Kraków in the second World War through the lens of Jewish children’s experiences. Here, children assume center stage as historical actors whose recollections and experiences deserve to be told, analyzed, and treated seriously. Sliwa scours archives to tell their story, gleaning evidence from the records of the German authorities, Polish neighbors, Jewish community and family, and the children themselves to explore the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland and in Kraków in particular. A microhistory of a place, a people, and daily life, this book plumbs the decisions and behaviors of ordinary people in extraordinary times. Offering a window onto human relations and ethnic tensions in times of rampant violence, Jewish Childhood in Kraków is an effort both to understand the past and to reflect on the position of young people during humanitarian crises.Trade Review"Sliwa’s book is an essential contribution to Holocaust scholarship, but even more significantly, she offers us the opportunity to learn about children’s experiences, which often are absent from Holocaust literature. Their concealed presence, which Sliwa spends so much time discussing, is precisely what makes it difficult to tell their stories. But Sliwa’s persistence and ability to dig through a multitude of sources to find even the smallest pieces of information resulted in this remarkable account that will hopefully encourage future scholars to explore the experiences of children in other parts of Poland and Europe." — Rachel Rothstein, H-Poland "A well-researched book. An important addition to Holocaust literature."— Jan T. Gross, author of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland "Joanna Sliwa offers a nuanced and compelling picture of what it meant to grow up Jewish under the German occupation of Kraków, one of the oldest Jewish communities in Poland. By giving voice to Jewish children and their fears, heartbreaks, loss, and survival, she allows readers to learn of children’s vulnerability and resilience, agency and helplessness firsthand. These voices will become central to the ways we think about Jewish children’s experiences during the Holocaust."— Natalia Aleksiun, author of Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians before the Holocaust :This well researched book on the history of Jewish Childhood in Kraków will become a standard work on the subject, inviting other scholars to investigate Jewish childhood in other ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe.:— Joanna Beata Michlic, author of Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the PresentTable of ContentsNote on Terminology Introduction 1 Navigating Shifts in the City 2 Adapting to Life inside the Ghetto 3 Clandestine Activities 4 Child Welfare 5 Concealed Presence in the Camp 6 Survival through Hiding and Flight Epilogue Acknowledgments Abbreviations Used in Notes Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2020 Ernst Fraenkel Prize from the Wiener Holocaust Library​Jewish Childhood in Kraków is the first book to tell the history of Kraków in the second World War through the lens of Jewish children’s experiences. Here, children assume center stage as historical actors whose recollections and experiences deserve to be told, analyzed, and treated seriously. Sliwa scours archives to tell their story, gleaning evidence from the records of the German authorities, Polish neighbors, Jewish community and family, and the children themselves to explore the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland and in Kraków in particular. A microhistory of a place, a people, and daily life, this book plumbs the decisions and behaviors of ordinary people in extraordinary times. Offering a window onto human relations and ethnic tensions in times of rampant violence, Jewish Childhood in Kraków is an effort both to understand the past and to reflect on the position of young people during humanitarian crises.Trade Review"A well-researched book. An important addition to Holocaust literature." -- Jan T. Gross * author of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland *:This well researched book on the history of Jewish Childhood in Kraków will become a standard work on the subject, inviting other scholars to investigate Jewish childhood in other ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe.: -- Joanna Beata Michlic * author of Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present *"Joanna Sliwa offers a nuanced and compelling picture of what it meant to grow up Jewish under the German occupation of Kraków, one of the oldest Jewish communities in Poland. By giving voice to Jewish children and their fears, heartbreaks, loss, and survival, she allows readers to learn of children’s vulnerability and resilience, agency and helplessness firsthand. These voices will become central to the ways we think about Jewish children’s experiences during the Holocaust." -- Natalia Aleksiun * author of Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians before the Holocaust *"A well-researched book. An important addition to Holocaust literature." -- Jan T. Gross * author of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland *:This well researched book on the history of Jewish Childhood in Kraków will become a standard work on the subject, inviting other scholars to investigate Jewish childhood in other ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe.: -- Joanna Beata Michlic * author of Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present *"Joanna Sliwa offers a nuanced and compelling picture of what it meant to grow up Jewish under the German occupation of Kraków, one of the oldest Jewish communities in Poland. By giving voice to Jewish children and their fears, heartbreaks, loss, and survival, she allows readers to learn of children’s vulnerability and resilience, agency and helplessness firsthand. These voices will become central to the ways we think about Jewish children’s experiences during the Holocaust." -- Natalia Aleksiun * author of Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians before the Holocaust *"Sliwa’s book is an essential contribution to Holocaust scholarship, but even more significantly, she offers us the opportunity to learn about children’s experiences, which often are absent from Holocaust literature. Their concealed presence, which Sliwa spends so much time discussing, is precisely what makes it difficult to tell their stories. But Sliwa’s persistence and ability to dig through a multitude of sources to find even the smallest pieces of information resulted in this remarkable account that will hopefully encourage future scholars to explore the experiences of children in other parts of Poland and Europe." -- Rachel Rothstein * H-Poland *Table of ContentsNote on Terminology Introduction 1 Navigating Shifts in the City 2 Adapting to Life inside the Ghetto 3 Clandestine Activities 4 Child Welfare 5 Concealed Presence in the Camp 6 Survival through Hiding and Flight Epilogue Acknowledgments Abbreviations Used in Notes Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisEvery year thousands of foreign-born Filipino and Indian nurses immigrate to the United States. Despite being well trained and desperately needed, they enter the country at a time, not unlike the past, when the American social and political climate is once again increasingly unwelcoming to them as immigrants. Drawing on rich ethnographic and survey data, collected over a four-year period, this study explores the role Catholicism plays in shaping the professional and community lives of foreign-born Filipino and Indian American nurses in the face of these challenges, while working at a Veterans hospital. Their stories provide unique insights into the often-unseen roles race, religion and gender play in the daily lives of new immigrants employed in American healthcare. In many ways, these nurses find themselves foreign in more ways than just their nativity. Seeing nursing as a religious calling, they care for their patients, both at the hospital and in the wider community, with a sense of divine purpose but must also confront the cultural tensions and disconnects between how they were raised and trained in another country and the legal separation of church and state. How they cope with and engage these tensions and disconnects plays an important role in not only shaping how they see themselves as Catholic nurses but their place in the new American story. Trade ReviewThis book is important for its examination of the role of Catholicism within the context of nursing in a U.S. government hospital. It will capture the attention of many audiences as we think about what it means to be Catholic and Asian American in the United States today. How Filipino and Indian American nurses have influenced nursing in America, and how they, in turn, have been challenged by American culture are vital issues of study. -- Barbra Mann Wall * author of American Catholic Hospitals: A Century of Changing Markets and Missions *"Cherry does an excellent job bringing us inside the experiences of nurses working at the Houston VA and putting their work there—and the VA itself—in broader historical contexts. The material gathered and shared is richly descriptive and informative. Every chapter made me think about something I had not before, and to consider the experiences of healthcare providers in new ways." -- Wendy Cadge * author of Religion on the Edge: De-centering and Re-centering the Sociology of Religion *This book is important for its examination of the role of Catholicism within the context of nursing in a U.S. government hospital. It will capture the attention of many audiences as we think about what it means to be Catholic and Asian American in the United States today. How Filipino and Indian American nurses have influenced nursing in America, and how they, in turn, have been challenged by American culture are vital issues of study. -- Barbra Mann Wall * author of American Catholic Hospitals: A Century of Changing Markets and Missions *"Cherry does an excellent job bringing us inside the experiences of nurses working at the Houston VA and putting their work there—and the VA itself—in broader historical contexts. The material gathered and shared is richly descriptive and informative. Every chapter made me think about something I had not before, and to consider the experiences of healthcare providers in new ways." -- Wendy Cadge * author of Religion on the Edge: De-centering and Re-centering the Sociology of Religion *Table of ContentsChapter One: Veterans and a Crisis of Care Chapter Two: Colonialism, Christian Culture and Nursing Care Chapter Three: New American Battlefields Chapter Four: Understanding and Coping with the Trauma of War Chapter Five: Faith and the Practice of Care Chapter Six: Extending Health and Care to Community Chapter Seven: Who Will Care for America?

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Book SynopsisReligion and nationalism are two of the most powerful forces in the world. And as powerful as they are separately, humans throughout history have fused religious beliefs and nationalist politics to develop religious nationalism, which uses religious identity to define membership in the national community. But why and how have modern nationalists built religious identity as the foundational signifier of national identity in what sociologists have predicted would be a more secular world? This book takes two cases - nationalism in both Ireland and Turkey in the 20th century - as a foundation to advance a new theory of religious nationalism. By comparing cases, Goalwin emphasizes how modern political actors deploy religious identity as a boundary that differentiates national groups This theory argues that religious nationalism is not a knee-jerk reaction to secular modernization, but a powerful movement developed as a tool that forges new and independent national identities.Trade Review"In an age where religious nationalisms and populisms are on the rise, Goalwin's comparative-historical work is a welcome contribution for comprehending how religious identities and politics interact. A valuable source for social scientists as well as non-specialists who are interested in this complex phenomenon." -- Efe Peker * co-author of Challenging Neoliberalism at Turkey’s Gezi Park: From Private Discontent to Collective Action *"In an age where religious nationalisms and populisms are on the rise, Goalwin's comparative-historical work is a welcome contribution for comprehending how religious identities and politics interact. A valuable source for social scientists as well as non-specialists who are interested in this complex phenomenon." -- Efe Peker * co-author of Challenging Neoliberalism at Turkey’s Gezi Park: From Private Discontent to Collective *Table of Contents1 Borders and Boundaries of the Nation: Constructing a Theory of Religious Nationalism 2 The Gospel of Irish Nationalism: Religion and Official Discourses of the Nation in Ireland 3 Religion on the Ground: Everyday Catholicism and National Identity in Ireland 4 Constructing the New Nation: Official Nationalism and Religious Homogenization in the Republic of Turkey 5 Religion and Nation Are One: Lived Experience and Everyday Religion on the Ground in Turkey 6 Conclusion AcknowledgmentsNotes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book analyzes the different conceptions of authenticity that are behind conflicts over who and what should be recognized as authentically Jewish. Although the concept of authenticity has been around for several centuries, it became a central focus for Jews since existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre raised the question in the 1940s. Building on the work of Sartre, later Jewish thinkers, philosophers, anthropologists, and cultural theorists, the book offers a model of Jewish authenticity that seeks to balance history and tradition, creative freedom and innovation, and the importance of recognition among different groups within an increasingly multicultural Jewish community. Author Stuart Z. Charmé explores how debates over authenticity and struggles for recognition are a key to understanding a wide range of controversies between Orthodox and liberal Jews, Zionist and diaspora Jews, white Jews and Jews of color, as well as the status of intermarried and messianic Jews, and the impact of Jewish genetics. In addition, it discusses how and when various cultural practices and traditions such as klezmer music, Israeli folk dance, Jewish yoga and meditation, and others are recognized as authentically Jewish, or not. Table of ContentsIntroduction Part 1: Theoretical Perspectives on Jewish Authenticity Chapter 1: The Changing Faces of Jewish Authenticity Chapter 2: Recognition and Authenticity: From Sartre to Multiculturalism Part 2: Authentically Jewish Religion Chapter 3: Orthodoxy and the Authentic Jew Chapter 4: Reforming Tradition and the Spiritual Quest Chapter 5: Authentic Experience and Spirituality: Meditation, Yoga, Kabbalah Chapter 6: The Messianic Heresy and the Struggle for Authenticity Part 3: Authentic Jewish Peoplehood Chapter 7: Creating Authentic Jewish Culture in Israel Chapter 8: Shtetl Authenticity: From “Fiddler” to the Revival of Klezmer Chapter 9: Becoming Jewish: Intermarriage and Conversion Chapter 10: Authentically Jewish Genes Part 4: Struggles for Recognition and Authentication Chapter 11: Lost Jewish Tribes in Ethiopia Chapter 12: Black Jews in the United States Chapter 13: Crypto-Jews of the Southwest Chapter 14: Newly-Found Jews and the Regimes of Recognition Conclusion Bibliography About the Author

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Book SynopsisThis volume provides new, groundbreaking views of Jewish life in various countries of the pro-Soviet bloc from the end of the Second World War until the collapse of Communism in late 1989. The authors, twelve leading historians and anthropologists from Europe, Israel and the United States, look at the experience of Jews under Communism by digging beyond formal state policy and instead examining the ways in which Jews creatively seized opportunities to develop and express their identities, religious and secular, even under great duress. The volume shifts the focus from Jews being objects of Communist state policy (and from anti-Jewish prejudices in Communist societies) to the agency of Jews and their creativity in Communist Europe after the Holocaust. The examination of Jewish history from a transnational vantage point challenges a dominant strand in history writing today, by showing instead the wide variety of Jewish experiences in law, traditions and institutional frameworks as conceived from one Communist country to another and even within a single country, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, and the Soviet Union. By focusing on networks across east-central Europe and beyond and on the forms of identity open to Jews in this important period, the volume begins a crucial rethinking of social and cultural life under Communist regimes. Table of ContentsContents Jewish Lives under Communism Kateřina Čapková, Kamil Kijek, and Stephan StachPeriphery and Center A New Life? The pre-Holocaust Past and post-Holocaust Present in the Life of Jewish Community of Dzierżoniów, Lower Silesia, 1945–50 Kamil Kijek Erased from History: Jewish Migrants in Postwar Czechoslovakia Kateřina Čapková On the Borders of Legality: Connections between Traditional Culture and the Informal Economy in Jewish Life in the Soviet Provinces Valery DymshitsPerceptions of Jewishness From Friends to Enemies? The Soviet State and Its Jews in the Aftermath of the Holocaust Diana Dumitru ‘I was not like Everybody Else’: Soviet Jewish Doctors remember the Doctor’s Plot Anna Shternshis ‘After Auschwitz you must take your origin seriously’: Perceptions of Jewishness among Communists of Jewish origin in the early German Democratic Republic Anna Koch Jewish in Soviet Birobidzhan: Between Stigma and Cynicism Agata MaksimowskaTransnationalism An Alternative World: Jews in the German Democratic Republic, Their Transnational Networks, and a Global Jewish Communist Community David Shneer Soviet Yiddish Cultural Diplomacy in the Post-Stalinist 1950s Gennady Estraikh Family Discourse, Migrations, and Nation-building in Poland and Israel in the Late 1950s Marcos SilberDissidents Three Jewish Social Networks: A (Non-)Encounter in Malakhovka Galina Zelenina The Opposition of the Opposition: New Jewish Identities in the Illegal Underground Public Sphere in Late Communist Hungary Kata Bohus Acknowledgements Index Notes on Contributors

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Book SynopsisIn Global Visions of Violence, the editors and contributors argue that violence creates a lens, bridge, and method for interdisciplinary collaboration that examines Christianity worldwide in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. By analyzing the myriad ways violence, persecution, and suffering impact Christians and the imagination of Christian identity globally, this interdisciplinary volume integrates the perspectives of ethicists, historians, anthropologists, and ethnographers to generate new conversations. Taken together, the chapters in this book challenge scholarship on Christian growth that has not accounted for violence while analyzing persecution narratives that can wield data toward partisan ends. This allows Global Visions of Violence to push urgent conversations forward, giving voice to projects that illuminate wide and often hidden landscapes that have been shaped by global visions of violence, and seeking solutions that end violence and turn toward the pursuit of justice, peace, and human rights among suffering Christians. Trade Review"This seminal collection by Jason Bruner and David Kirkpatrick features essential insights and diverse interdisciplinary approaches from leading international scholarly voices. Taken together, they show us how the distinct paths that American Religious History and World Christianity each have charted share common trailheads distinctively marked by 'global visions of violence.' Neither field can be understood without the 'global' aspirations that motivate Christianity or the 'violence' that plagues its history and our present." -- John D. Carlson * co-editor of From Jeremiad to Jihad: Religion, Violence, and America *“This timely volume puts faces to the agents behind violence today. By interrogating Christian imaginaries of persecution, suffering, and martyrdom within increasingly polarizing, globalizing spaces—real or imagined—Global Visions of Violence expertly complexifies the gendered tropes of religious identities and social vulnerabilities within world Christianity.” -- Afe Adogame * co-editor of Fighting in God’s Name: Religion and Conflict in Local-Global Perspectives *Table of Contents Introduction: Locating Christian Agency in a World of Suffering JASON BRUNER AND DAVID C. KIRKPATRICK PART ONE Geographies 1 Of Numbers and Subjects: Empathic Distance in the American Protestant Missionary Agenda JOHN CORRIGAN 2 Saved by a Martyr: Media, Suffering, and Power in Evangelical Internationalism OMRI ELISHA 3 American Theodicy: Human Nature and Natural Disaster HILLARY KAELL PART TWO Bodies 4 Apartheid and World Christianity: How Violence Shapes Theories of “Indigenous” Religion in Twentieth-Century Africa JOEL CABRITA 5 Danger, Distress, Disease, and Death: Santa Muerte and Her Female Followers KATE KINGSBURY 6 Modern-Day Martyrs: Coptic Blood and American Christian Kinship CANDACE LUKASIK PART THREE Communities 7 Bishop Colenso Is Dead: White Missionaries and Black Suspicion in Colonial Africa HARVEY KWIYANI 8 Religion and the Production of Affect in Caste-Based Societies SUNDER JOHN BOOPALAN 9 From Persecution to Exile: The Church of Almighty God from China CHRISTIE CHUI-SHAN CHOW Afterword: Global Visions of Violence—A Response MELANI McALISTER Acknowledgments Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisIn Global Visions of Violence, the editors and contributors argue that violence creates a lens, bridge, and method for interdisciplinary collaboration that examines Christianity worldwide in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. By analyzing the myriad ways violence, persecution, and suffering impact Christians and the imagination of Christian identity globally, this interdisciplinary volume integrates the perspectives of ethicists, historians, anthropologists, and ethnographers to generate new conversations. Taken together, the chapters in this book challenge scholarship on Christian growth that has not accounted for violence while analyzing persecution narratives that can wield data toward partisan ends. This allows Global Visions of Violence to push urgent conversations forward, giving voice to projects that illuminate wide and often hidden landscapes that have been shaped by global visions of violence, and seeking solutions that end violence and turn toward the pursuit of justice, peace, and human rights among suffering Christians. Trade Review"This seminal collection by Jason Bruner and David Kirkpatrick features essential insights and diverse interdisciplinary approaches from leading international scholarly voices. Taken together, they show us how the distinct paths that American Religious History and World Christianity each have charted share common trailheads distinctively marked by 'global visions of violence.' Neither field can be understood without the 'global' aspirations that motivate Christianity or the 'violence' that plagues its history and our present." -- John D. Carlson * co-editor of From Jeremiad to Jihad: Religion, Violence, and America *“This timely volume puts faces to the agents behind violence today. By interrogating Christian imaginaries of persecution, suffering, and martyrdom within increasingly polarizing, globalizing spaces—real or imagined—Global Visions of Violence expertly complexifies the gendered tropes of religious identities and social vulnerabilities within world Christianity.” -- Afe Adogame * co-editor of Fighting in God’s Name: Religion and Conflict in Local-Global Perspectives *Table of Contents Introduction: Locating Christian Agency in a World of Suffering JASON BRUNER AND DAVID C. KIRKPATRICK PART ONE Geographies 1 Of Numbers and Subjects: Empathic Distance in the American Protestant Missionary Agenda JOHN CORRIGAN 2 Saved by a Martyr: Media, Suffering, and Power in Evangelical Internationalism OMRI ELISHA 3 American Theodicy: Human Nature and Natural Disaster HILLARY KAELL PART TWO Bodies 4 Apartheid and World Christianity: How Violence Shapes Theories of “Indigenous” Religion in Twentieth-Century Africa JOEL CABRITA 5 Danger, Distress, Disease, and Death: Santa Muerte and Her Female Followers KATE KINGSBURY 6 Modern-Day Martyrs: Coptic Blood and American Christian Kinship CANDACE LUKASIK PART THREE Communities 7 Bishop Colenso Is Dead: White Missionaries and Black Suspicion in Colonial Africa HARVEY KWIYANI 8 Religion and the Production of Affect in Caste-Based Societies SUNDER JOHN BOOPALAN 9 From Persecution to Exile: The Church of Almighty God from China CHRISTIE CHUI-SHAN CHOW Afterword: Global Visions of Violence—A Response MELANI McALISTER Acknowledgments Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisPowerful Devices studies spiritual warfare performances as an apparatus for disestablishing structures of power and knowledge, and establishing righteousness in their stead. Drawing on performance studies’ emphasis on radicality and breaking of social norms as devices of social transformation, the book demonstrates how Christian groups with dominant cultural power but who perceive themselves as embattled wield the ideas of performance activism. Combining religious studies with ethnography, Powerful Devices explores Nigerian Pentecostals and US Evangelicals’ praxis of transnational spiritual warfare. By closely studying spiritual warfare prayers as a “device,” Powerful Devices shows how the rituals of prayer enable an apprehension of time, paradigms of self-enhancement, and the subversion of politics and authority. A critical intervention, Powerful Devices explores charismatic Christianity’s relationship to science and secular authority, technology and temporality, neoliberalism, and reactionary ideology.Trade Review"A dazzling portrait of the contemporary Nigerian Pentecostal spiritual warfare prayer “showdown” with 'the new demons that modernity has vomited.' Adelakun shows how the rise of Pentecostalism is imbricated with neoliberalism, giving rise to new subjectivities, identities, and imaginaries ready for apocalyptic battle." -- Elizabeth McAlister * author of Rara! Vodou, Power and Performance in Haiti and its Diaspora *"Powerful Devices provides an original, nuanced counterpoint to prevailing scholarship on Pentecostal Christianity in Nigeria. With deep insights into the performative nature of prayer, Abimbola Adelakun charts a new course for understanding Pentecostalism’s growth in Nigeria and beyond that will continue to shape the field for years to come." -- Jacob K. Olupona * author of City of 201 Gods: Ilé-Ifè in Time, Space, and the Imagination *Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction: Spiritual Warriors: Powerful Devices and the Devices of PowerChapter 1: Aborting Satanic Pregnancies: Prayer as Apocalyptic DevicesChapter 2: Rehearsing Authority: Spiritual Warriors as God’s Human WeaponsChapter 3: The Noisome Pestilence: COVID-19 Pandemic and Conspirituality of “Fake Science”Chapter 4: Churches Going Virtual: Empty Auditoriums and the Essential Services of PrayerConclusion: Jesus Has WonAcknowledgmentsBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisMost of the roughly 140,000 Holocaust survivors who came to the United States in the first decade after World War II settled in big cities such as New York. But a few thousand chose an alternative way of life on American farms. More of these accidental farmers wound up raising chickens in southern New Jersey than anywhere else. Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is the first book to chronicle this little-known chapter in American Jewish history when these mostly Eastern European refugees – including the author’s grandparents - found an unlikely refuge and gateway to new lives in the US on poultry farms. They gravitated to a section of south Jersey anchored by Vineland, a small rural city where previous waves of Jewish immigrants had built a rich network of cultural and religious institutions. This book relies on interviews with dozens of these refugee farmers and their children, as well as oral histories and archival records to tell how they learned to farm while coping with unimaginable grief. They built small synagogues within walking distance of their farms and hosted Yiddish cultural events more frequently found on the Lower East Side than perhaps anywhere else in rural America at the time. Like refugees today, they embraced their new American identities and enriched the community where they settled, working hard in unfamiliar jobs for often meager returns. Within a decade, falling egg prices and the rise of industrial-scale agriculture in the South would drive almost all of these novice poultry farmers out of business, many into bankruptcy. Some hated every minute here; others would remember their time on south Jersey farms as their best years in America. They enjoyed a quieter way of life and more space for themselves and their children than in the crowded New York City apartments where so many displaced persons settled. This is their remarkable story of loss, renewal, and perseverance in the most unexpected of settings.Author Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/YiddishtoChickens) Trade Review"I grew up Jewish on a chicken farm. This book gets it right...Stern not only pinpoints the economic hardships and social dislocation the survivors experienced...The beauty of Speaking Yiddish to Chickens lies in Stern’s skill at conveying the ups and downs of some 1,000 survivors, each with their unique hardscrabble story." -- Barbara Finkelstein * The Forward *"Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is much more than one man’s story about his grandparents. Stern’s journalistic expertise allows him to broaden his scope, deftly layering different perspectives and narratives throughout the book." -- Rokhl Kafrissen * Tablet *"Seth Stern has cre­at­ed a nuanced, sen­si­tive, and even affec­tion­ate account of an impor­tant, albeit neglect­ed, out­growth of the Jew­ish dias­po­ra in North Amer­i­ca. It will be of great inter­est to any­one who has a per­son­al, social, or aca­d­e­m­ic inter­est in the post­war peri­od, oral his­to­ry, and/or post-Holo­caust immigration." * Jewish Book Council *“Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is attentive to the ways in which Holocaust survivors who took up poultry farming in Vineland built upon the achievements of their Jewish predecessors. Stern's individual stories are easy to follow, upbeat, and colorful. Stern is a seasoned and skilled journalist.” -- Ellen Eisenberg * author of Jewish Agricultural Colonies in New Jersey, 1882-1920 *“Seth Stern skillfully brings to life a remarkable chapter in the little-known history of modern Jewish farming in the Diaspora. Lovingly written, Speaking Yiddish to Chickens travels with Stern’s grandparents and other European Jews from the horrors of the Holocaust to new lives in and around Vineland, New Jersey’s poultry farms, where these survivors healed their wounds and embarked upon their American journeys. Through meticulous research, Stern captures the extraordinary cooperation between the American government, Jewish philanthropic agencies, and the farmers themselves who made this bold experiment possible.” -- Jonathan Dekel-Chen * author of Farming the Red Land: Jewish Agricultural Colonization and Local Soviet Power, 1924–1941 *Table of ContentsAuthor’s Note Prologue 1 Passage 2 New York 3 Finding a Farm 4 Settling In 5 Small-Town Jews 6 Word-of-Mouth Migration 7 Mixed Reception 8 Getting Noticed 9 Vicissitudes 10 Comfort Zones 11 Community Building 12 New Connections 13 Family and Friends 14 Downturn 15 Rural Childhoods 16 Hurricanes 17 Coping 18 Grief and Faith 19 Feed Men and a Record-Breaking Hen 20 Laborers 21 The Golden Egg 22 Seeking Help 23 Alternative Livelihoods 24 Teenagers 25 Valedictory 26 After Farming Postscript Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisMost of the roughly 140,000 Holocaust survivors who came to the United States in the first decade after World War II settled in big cities such as New York. But a few thousand chose an alternative way of life on American farms. More of these accidental farmers wound up raising chickens in southern New Jersey than anywhere else. Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is the first book to chronicle this little-known chapter in American Jewish history when these mostly Eastern European refugees – including the author’s grandparents - found an unlikely refuge and gateway to new lives in the US on poultry farms. They gravitated to a section of south Jersey anchored by Vineland, a small rural city where previous waves of Jewish immigrants had built a rich network of cultural and religious institutions. This book relies on interviews with dozens of these refugee farmers and their children, as well as oral histories and archival records to tell how they learned to farm while coping with unimaginable grief. They built small synagogues within walking distance of their farms and hosted Yiddish cultural events more frequently found on the Lower East Side than perhaps anywhere else in rural America at the time. Like refugees today, they embraced their new American identities and enriched the community where they settled, working hard in unfamiliar jobs for often meager returns. Within a decade, falling egg prices and the rise of industrial-scale agriculture in the South would drive almost all of these novice poultry farmers out of business, many into bankruptcy. Some hated every minute here; others would remember their time on south Jersey farms as their best years in America. They enjoyed a quieter way of life and more space for themselves and their children than in the crowded New York City apartments where so many displaced persons settled. This is their remarkable story of loss, renewal, and perseverance in the most unexpected of settings.Author Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/YiddishtoChickens) Trade Review"I grew up Jewish on a chicken farm. This book gets it right...Stern not only pinpoints the economic hardships and social dislocation the survivors experienced...The beauty of Speaking Yiddish to Chickens lies in Stern’s skill at conveying the ups and downs of some 1,000 survivors, each with their unique hardscrabble story." -- Barbara Finkelstein * The Forward *"Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is much more than one man’s story about his grandparents. Stern’s journalistic expertise allows him to broaden his scope, deftly layering different perspectives and narratives throughout the book." -- Rokhl Kafrissen * Tablet *"Seth Stern has cre­at­ed a nuanced, sen­si­tive, and even affec­tion­ate account of an impor­tant, albeit neglect­ed, out­growth of the Jew­ish dias­po­ra in North Amer­i­ca. It will be of great inter­est to any­one who has a per­son­al, social, or aca­d­e­m­ic inter­est in the post­war peri­od, oral his­to­ry, and/or post-Holo­caust immigration." * Jewish Book Council *“Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is attentive to the ways in which Holocaust survivors who took up poultry farming in Vineland built upon the achievements of their Jewish predecessors. Stern's individual stories are easy to follow, upbeat, and colorful. Stern is a seasoned and skilled journalist.” -- Ellen Eisenberg * author of Jewish Agricultural Colonies in New Jersey, 1882-1920 *“Seth Stern skillfully brings to life a remarkable chapter in the little-known history of modern Jewish farming in the Diaspora. Lovingly written, Speaking Yiddish to Chickens travels with Stern’s grandparents and other European Jews from the horrors of the Holocaust to new lives in and around Vineland, New Jersey’s poultry farms, where these survivors healed their wounds and embarked upon their American journeys. Through meticulous research, Stern captures the extraordinary cooperation between the American government, Jewish philanthropic agencies, and the farmers themselves who made this bold experiment possible.” -- Jonathan Dekel-Chen * author of Farming the Red Land: Jewish Agricultural Colonization and Local Soviet Power, 1924–1941 *Table of ContentsAuthor’s Note Prologue 1 Passage 2 New York 3 Finding a Farm 4 Settling In 5 Small-Town Jews 6 Word-of-Mouth Migration 7 Mixed Reception 8 Getting Noticed 9 Vicissitudes 10 Comfort Zones 11 Community Building 12 New Connections 13 Family and Friends 14 Downturn 15 Rural Childhoods 16 Hurricanes 17 Coping 18 Grief and Faith 19 Feed Men and a Record-Breaking Hen 20 Laborers 21 The Golden Egg 22 Seeking Help 23 Alternative Livelihoods 24 Teenagers 25 Valedictory 26 After Farming Postscript Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisFrom Popular to Insurgent Intellectuals explains how a group of Catholic lay catechists educated in liberation theology came to take up arms and participate on the side of the rebel FMLN during El Salvador’s revolutionary war (1980-92). In the process they became transformed from popular intellectuals to insurgent intellectuals who put their organizational and cognitive skills at the service of a collective effort to create a more egalitarian and democratic society. The book highlights the key roles that peasant catechists in northern Morazán played in disseminating liberation theology before the war and supporting the FMLN during it—as quartermasters, political activists, and musicians, among other roles. Throughout, From Popular to Insurgent Intellectuals highlights the dialectical nature of relations between Catholic priests and urban revolutionaries, among others, in which the latter learned from the former and vice-versa. Peasant catechists proved capable at making independent decisions based on assessment of their needs and did not simply follow the dictates of those with superior authority, and played an important role for the duration of the twelve-year military conflict. Trade Review"By showing us the complex interplay between peasants, peasant catechists, liberationist priests and guerrilla commanders, Binford’s study will become the foundational reference point for questions on the origins of peasant revolutionary consciousness in El Salvador." -- Erik Ching * author of Stories of Civil War in El Salvador: A Battle over Memory, Walter Kenneth Mattison Profess *"By telling the life stories of peasant catechists in El Salvador, this remarkable historical ethnography by Leigh Binford situates the readers in the world of these important actors during the armed conflict of the 1980s. Binford’s work deepens our understanding of how the teachings of Liberation Theology had a unique impact on the process. This book is history from below at its best." -- Hector Lindo-Fuentes * coauthor of Remembering a Massacre in El Salvador: The Insurrection of 1932, Roque Dalton, and the P *Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations Preface Introduction 1 From El Mozote to El Castaño, 1942–1974 2 Economy, Society, and Culture in Northern Morazán 3 Political Incorporation, 1974–1977 4 The Ligas Populares 28 de Febrero, 1977–1980 5 A Political Activist in the War, 1980–1988 6 Departure and Return, 1988–2010 Conclusion Appendix 1: On Fabio Argueta’s Political Formation Appendix 2: Interviews Cited Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisThis book highlights the changing dynamics of Muslim identity and integration in Britain, focusing on the post-9/11 era. Historically, Muslims faced discrimination based on ethnicity rather than religion. However, contemporary discrimination against Muslims is rooted in different reasons, with events like the Rushdie affair significantly impacting multicultural relations. This study analyzes the evolving multicultural landscape in Britain, exploring the shift from predominantly assimilationist policies to a more mutual process of integration. It delves into the emergence of interfaith dialogue as well as the complexities surrounding the intersection of race, religion, gender, and identity. The research examines two key themes: the discursive positioning of Islam beyond integration and terrorism narratives, and the operationalization of identity by Muslims in various contexts. The study employs empirical methods and cultural studies theories to understand how individual and social practices intersect in this context. By doing so, it contributes to Islamic studies, socio-political studies, and cultural studies, shedding light on the discourses that shape and are shaped by Muslim lives in Britain. The analysis encompasses diverse perspectives, from macro-level societal discourses to micro-level individual actions, thus providing a comprehensive exploration of the multifaceted experiences of Muslims in Britain.Table of ContentsSection I. Engagement In Social DynamicsChapter 1. Muslim Political Agency In British PoliticsJan Dobbernack, University Of Lincoln, Nasar Meer, University Of Strathclyde & Tariq Modood, Bristol UniversityChapter 2. Believing And Belonging: Media Representations Of Islam And Muslims In Britain And Its Relationship To British Civil ReligionLaurens De Rooij, University Of ChesterChapter 3. Politics, Public Relations And Islam In The UK Public SphereClaire Forbes, University Of KentChapter 4. Social Representations And The Threat To Worldview: A Socio-Psychological Perspective On IslamophobiaSamuel Fairlamb And Marco Cinnirella, Royal Holloway, University Of LondonChapter 5. Creating Shia Spaces In British Society: The Role Of Transnational Twelver Shia Networks In North-West LondonOliver Scharbrodt, University Of BirminghamSection II. Expressions Of Personal IdentityChapter 6. British Muslims, Music And Religious Authority: The Contested Ground Of Discourse And PraxisCarl Morris, Central Lancashire UniversityChapter 7. Civilising Attempts In Art And Islam: Muslim Artistic Performance Facing Social Orders In The UKYolanda Van Tilborgh, University Of AmsterdamChapter 8. Challenging Terrorist Ideologies Through EducationAngela Quartermaine, University Of WarwickChapter 9. The Agency Of Muslim Women As Mothers And MotheredHengameh Ashraf-Emami, University Of Nottingham & Laurens De Rooij, University Of ChesterChapter 10. Online Dating For British Muslims, And The Relationship With Their Islamic IdentitiesLaurens De Rooij, University Of Chester

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Book SynopsisDespite the historical and contemporary significance of the Sharia, it has not yet been possible to solve the puzzle of its origins. Whereas previous research has postulated a greater or lesser degree of endogenous Islamic development, the present study reaches a different conclusion, namely that at the end of the 8th century Muslim state lawyers in Baghdad codified an Islamic “Imperial Law”, oriented strongly towards Roman-Byzantine law. It is part of an Islamic-Byzantine context, and can only be explained against this intercultural background.

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A collection of seventeen essays on pre-modern Hebrew poetry in honor of Wout van Bekkum. The articles in this volume all seek to examine how the religious, cultural, and social context in which the poet functioned impacted on and is visible, either explicitly or more elliptically, in their poetical oeuvre. For this purposes a broad understanding of "world" has been accepted, including both the natural world and the constructed one (society, culture, language) as well as the spiritual and emotional world. History, a pillar of the man-made constructed world, has been used to determine the boundaries: from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, and—in instances where the topic connects to older traditions—to Early Modern Judaism, i.e. pre-modern Hebrew (and Aramaic) poetry. The articles in this volume, in the breadth of their temporal and spatial range and their multiplicity of approaches and methodologies, highlight the richness of contemporary scholarship on Hebrew poetry. The volume invites the reader to engage with this astonishing body of poetry, while providing a glimpse into the world of the payṭanim, and the cultures and societies from which they drew their ininspiration and to which they made such important contributions.

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Book SynopsisRuth Klüger (1931 – 2020) passed away on October 5, 2020 in the U.S. Born in Vienna and deported to Theresienstadt, she survived Auschwitz and the Shoah together with her mother. After living in Germany for a short time after the War, she immigrated to New York. She was educated in the U.S. and received degrees in English literature as well as her Ph.D. in German literature at the University of California, Berkeley. She taught at several American universities. She has numerous scholarly publications to her credit, mostly in the fields of German and Austrian literary history. She is also recognized as a poet in her own right, an essayist, and a feminist critic. She returned to Europe, where she was a guest professor in Göttingen and Vienna. Her memoir, entitled weiter leben (1992), which she translated and revised in an English parallel-text as Still Alive, was a major bestseller and highly regarded autobiographical account of a Holocaust survivor. It was subsequently translated into more than a dozen languages. It has also generated a vigorous critical discussion in its own right. Ruth Klüger received numerous prestigious literary prizes and other distinctions. The present volume, The Legacy of Ruth Klüger and the End of the Auschwitz Century, aims to honor her memory by assessing critically her writings and career. Taking her biography and writings as points of departure, the volume includes contributions in fields and from perspectives which her writings helped to bring into focus acutely. In the table of contents are listed the following contributions: Sander L. Gilman, "Poetry and Naming in Ruth Klüger’s Works and Life"; Heinrich Detering, "’Spannung’: Remarks on a Stylistic Principle in Ruth Klüger’s Writing"; Stephan Braese, "Speaking with Germans. Ruth Klüger and the ‘Restitution of Speech between Germans and Jews’"; Irène Heidelberger-Leonard, "Writing Auschwitz: Jean Améry, Imre Kertész, and Ruth Klüger"; Ulrike Offenberg, "Ruth Klüger and the Jewish Tradition on Women Saying Kaddish; Mark H. Gelber, "Ruth Klüger, Judaism, and Zionism: An American Perspective"; Monica Tempian, "Children’s Voices in the Poetry of the Shoah"; Daniel Reynolds, "Ruth Klüger and the Problem of Holocaust Tourism"; Vera Schwarcz, "A China Angle on Memory and Ghosts in the Poetry of Ruth Klüger."

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisJudaic cultures have a commitment to language that is exceptional. Language in many form – texts, books and scrolls; learning, interpretation, material practices that generate material practices – are central to Judaic conduct, experience, and spirituality. In this Judaic traditions differ from philosophical and theological ones that make language secondary. Traditional metaphysics has privileged the immaterial and unchanging, as unchanging truth that language can at best convey and at worst distort. Such traditional metaphysics has come under critique since Nietzsche in ways that the author explores. Shira Wolosky argues that Judaic traditions converge with contemporary metaphysical critique rather than being its target. Focusing on the work of Derrida, Levinas, Scholem and others, the author examines traditions of Judaic interpretation against backgrounds of biblical exegesis; sign-theory as it recasts language meaning in ways that concord with Judaic textuality; negative theology as it differs in Judaic tradition from those which negate language itself; and lastly outline a discourse ethics that draws on Judaic language theory. This study is directed to students and scholars of: Judaic thought, religious studies and theology; theory of interpretation; Levinas and other modern Jewish philosophical writers, placing them in broader contexts of philosophy, theology, and language theory. It is shown how Jewish discourses on language address urgent problems of value and norms in the contemporary world that has challenged traditional anchors of truth and meaning.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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