Social groups: religious groups and communities Books

Book SynopsisFor a Jew, describing a place as 'home' conveys connotations of heritage as well as of residence. Additionally, feeling 'at home' suggests a sense of comfort in one's social surroundings. The questions at the heart of this volume are: what things make a home 'Jewish', materially and emotionally, and what is it that makes Jews feel 'at home' in their environment? The material dimensions are explored through a study of the symbolic and ritual objects that convey Jewishness and a consideration of other items that may be used to express Jewish identity in the home-something that the introduction identifies as 'living-room Judaism'. The discussion is geographically and ethnically wide-ranging, and the transformation of meaning attached to different objects in different environments is contextualized, as, for example, in Shalom Sabar's study of {h.}amsa amulets in Morocco and Israel. For diasporic Jewish culture, the question of feeling at home is an emotional issue that frequently emerges in literature, folklore, and the visual and performing arts. The phrase 'at-homeness in exile' aptly expresses the tension between the different heritages with which Jews identify, including that between the biblical promised land and the cultural locations from which Jewish migration emanated. The essays in this volume take a closer look at the way in which ideas about feeling at home as a Jew are expressed in literature originating in Brazil, Argentina, and the United States, and also at the political ramifications of these emotions. The question is further explored in a series of exchanges on the future of Jews feeling 'at home' in Australia, Germany, Israel, and the United States. Jews at Home is the first book to examine the theme of the Jewish home materially and emotionally from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including literature, history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, art history, and folk and popular culture. The essays in the collection use the theme of home and the concept of domestication to revise understanding of the lived (and built) past, and to open new analytical possibilities for the future. Its discussion of domestic culture and its relevance to Jewish identity is one with which readers should feel right at home.Table of ContentsNote on TransliterationPreface and AcknowledgementsIntroduction: The Dualities of House and Home in Jewish Culture SIMON J. BRONNERPart I: In and Out of the Home1 The Domestication of Urban Jewish Space and the North-West London Eruv JENNIFER COUSINEAU2 Every Wise Woman Shoppeth for her House: The Sisterhood Gift Shop and the American Jewish Home in the Mid-Twentieth Century JOELLYN WALLEN ZOLLMAN Part II: Sacred, Secular, and Profane in the Home3 Reimagining Home, Rethinking Sukkah: Rabbinic Discourse and Its Contemporary Implications MARJORIE LEHMAN4 From Sacred Symbol to Keychain: The Hamsah in Jewish and Israeli Societies SHALOM SABAR5 770 Eastern Parkway: The Rebbe's Home as Icon GABRIELLE A. BERLINGER6 From the Nightclub to the Living Room: Party Records of Three Jewish Women Comics GIOVANNA P. DEL NEGROPart III: Writing Home7 Samuel Rawet's Wandering Jew: Jewish Brazilian Monologues of Home and Displacement ROSANA KOHL BINES8 Home in the Pampas: Alberto Gerchunoff's Jewish Gauchos MONICA SZURMUK9 Domesticity and the Home(Page): Blogging and the Blurring of Public and Private among Orthodox Jewish Women ANDREA LIEBERPart IV: Forum: Feeling at HomeIntroduction10 Culture Mavens: Feeling at Home in America JENNA WEISSMAN JOSELITResponses11 At Home in the World DAVID KRAEMER12 The Co-Construction of Europe as a Jewish Home JOACHIM SCHLÖR13 'Culture Mavens' from an Australian Jewish Perspective SUZANNE D. RUTLAND14 There's No Place Like Home: America, Israel, and the (Mixed) Blessings of Assimilation MICHAEL P. KRAMER15 The Last Word: A Response JENNA WEISSMAN JOSELITNotes on ContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisOften overlooked as routine or even dismissed as odd customs, ritual in its many guises demands attention as a central strategy for embodying experience. Like other groups, Jews rely on ritual to provide an inventory of social meanings and a context for negotiating the challenges of everyday life. Ritual for Jews has historically carried special meanings for conveying what is Jewish about Jewishness. It is not enough, however, simply to document customs: for a full understanding of ritual and its meaning for participants we need to analyse how ritual expressions such as liturgies, holidays, life-cycle events - even political rallies - change in response to developments in the wider society, or are adapted to meet new needs. The innovative studies of adapted, invented, and evolving rituals presented in this volume, that include the Tunisian Jewish celebration of Se'udat Yitro, liturgical prayers for Israel Independence Day, shiva observance in an old-age home, transplanted Ethiopian Jewish wedding events, and same-sex marriage rituals. thus interpret the Jewish enactment of ritual and uses of tradition in everyday life against the background of modernity and community. It is the complexities of ritual - the dynamics of negotiating the religious and the secular, the traditional and the modern, the social and the political, performance and practice - that form the core of the book. Together, the contributors show ritual action to be key to the maintenance of Jewish identity and to the expression of a distinctive world-view.Table of ContentsNote on TransliterationIntroduction: Ritualizing Jewishness SIMON J. BRONNERPART I THE RITUAL YEAR1 The Riddle of Se'udat Yitro (Jethro's Feast): Interpreting a Celebration among Tunisia's Jews HARVEY E. GOLDBERG and HAGAR SALAMON2 Ritual and History: The Order of Prayers for Israel Independence Day (Yom Ha'atsma'ut) SETH WARD3 The Masquerade of Ideas: The Purimshpil as Theatre of Conflict JEAN R. FREEDMAN4 Be Worthy of Your Heritage: Jews and Tradition at Two New England Boarding Schools MICHAEL HOBERMANPART II REVISIONING WEDDINGS AND MARRIAGE5 Engendering Halakhah: Rachel Adler's Berit Ahuvim and the Quest to Create a Feminist Halakhic Praxis GAIL LABOVITZ6 Same-Sex Marriage Ceremonies in a Time of Coalescence VANESSA L. OCHS7 The Power of Discourse: Orthodox Women in Israel Negotiating Modernity and Tradition in the Jewish Wedding IRIT KOREN8 Tradition in Intercultural Transition: Marriage Rituals in Ethiopia and Israel RACHEL SHARABYPART III REVISIONING MOURNING AND DEATH9 Kaddish for Angels: Revisioning Funerary Rituals and Cemeteries in Nineteenth-Century Jewish Warsaw AGNIESZKA JAGODZINSKA10 Rituals of Mourning among Central Asia's Bukharan Jews: Remembering the Past and Addressing the Present ALANNA E. COOPER11 Shiva as Creative Ritual in an Institutional Home JILLIAN GOULDPART IV RITUAL PERFORMANCE12 Are You Just What You Eat? Ritual Slaughter and the Politics of National Identity SANDER L. GILMAN13 Social Movements and the Bureaucratization of Ritual Innovation: The Ritual Cycle of the American Mobilization for Soviet Jewry SHAUL KELNER14 New Israeli Rituals: Inventing a Folk Dance Tradition NINA S. SPIEGELNotes on ContributorsIndex

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Book Synopsis National Jewish Book Awards Finalist for the Barbara Dobkin Award for Women’s Studies, 2013.The encounter of Jews with the Enlightenment has so far been considered almost entirely from a masculine perspective. In shifting the focus to a group of educated Jewish women in Berlin, this engaging study makes an important contribution to German Jewish history as well as to gender studies. Natalie Naimark-Goldberg's study of these women's letters, literary activities, and social life reveals them as cultivated members of the European public. Their correspondence allowed them not only to demonstrate their intellectual talents but also to widen their horizons and acquire knowledge—a key concern of women seeking empowerment. Her descriptions of their involvement in the public sphere, a key feature of Enlightenment culture, offer important new insights: social gatherings in their homes served the purpose of intellectual advancement, while the newly fashionable spas gave them the opportunity to expand their contacts with men as well as with other women, and with non-Jews as well as Jews, right across Europe. As avid readers and critical writers, these women reflected the secular world-view that was then beginning to spread among Jews. Imbued with enlightened ideas and values and a new feminine awareness, they began to seek independence and freedom, to the extent of challenging the institution of marriage and traditional family frameworks. A final chapter discusses the relationship of the women to Judaism and to religion in general, including their attitude to conversion to Christianity—the route that so many ultimately took. ‘A major contribution to German Jewish history and to gender studies . . . It becomes clear that . . . Jewish women participated in the European Enlightenment as well, although usually in a different and unique way . . . [Naimark-Goldberg] enhances our view of the history of German Jewry and Jewish women, the processes of modernization and secularization, and the cultural history of the Jews at the onset of modern times.’ Shmuel Feiner, Bar Ilan University ‘This book is of great interest and significance. Dr Naimark-Goldberg’s approach is part of a newer historiographical tradition in the study of women and culture. Her book takes a new angle of research and makes a significant contribution to understanding Jewish women’s history and Jewish culture as a whole.’ Shulamit Magnus, Oberlin CollegeTrade ReviewReviews 'A major contribution to German Jewish history and to gender studies ... It becomes clear that ... Jewish women participated in the European Enlightenment as well, although usually in a different and unique way ... [Naimark-Goldberg] enhances our view of the history of German Jewry and Jewish women, the processes of modernization and secularization, and the cultural history of the Jews at the onset of modern times.' Shmuel Feiner, Bar Ilan University 'This book is of great interest and significance. Dr Naimark-Goldberg's approach is part of a newer historiographical tradition in the study of women and culture. Her book takes a new angle of research and makes a significant contribution to understanding Jewish women's history and Jewish culture as a whole.'Shulamit Magnus, Oberlin College'Ably demonstrates that women played a significant role within the history of enlightenment thinking and activity within the Jewish community . . . The author argues that there is more to the history of the Jewish Enlightenment than the male-dominated Haskalah. Naimark-Goldberg posits that the female-centred Enlightenment of the end of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century constituted another legitimate strand of the Jewish Enlightenment, despite its difference in focus.'David Tesler, AJL Reviews‘Fascinating, in-depth analysis . . . important, comprehensive, and engaging.’ Yemima Chovav, NashTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsNote on the Translation of Sources and the Use of NamesNote on TransliterationIntroduction1 Private Letters: An Alternative Sphere for Cultural Discourse2 Jewish Women and the Reading Public3 Going Public: Jewish Women in the Field of Literature and Publishing4 Sociability and Acculturation in German Spas5 Social Gatherings in Private Homes6 Female Emancipation7 Between Acculturation and Conversion8 ConclusionBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisNational Jewish Book Awards Winner of the Mimi S. Frank Award in Memory of Becky Levy for Sephardic Culture, 2012.Early modern Amsterdam was a prosperous city renowned for its relative tolerance, and many people hoping for a better future, away from persecution, wars, and economic malaise, chose to make a new life there. Conversos and Jews from many countries were among them, attracted by the reputed wealth and benevolence of the Portuguese Jews who had settled there. Behind the facade of prosperity, however, poverty was a serious problem. It preoccupied the leadership of the Portuguese Jewish community and influenced its policy on admitting newcomers: the struggle to keep poverty under control and ensure that finances were available for welfare was paramount. Tirtsah Levie Bernfeld looks at poverty and welfare from the perspective of both benefactors and recipients. She analyses benefactors’ motives for philanthropy and charts its dimensions; she also examines the decision-making processes of communal bodies and private philanthropists, identifying the cultural influences that shaped their commitment to welfare. At the same time her detailed study succeeds in bringing the poor to life: she examines what brought them to Amsterdam, aspects of their daily life in the petitions they sent to the different welfare institutions, and the survival strategies offered by work, education, and charity. She also considers the related questions of social mobility and the motivation of the poor for joining the Amsterdam Portuguese community. Her research takes her, finally, beyond the margins of the established community to the small but active groups of Sephardi bandits who formed their own clandestine networks. Special attention is also paid to poor women, whether arriving alone or left behind and sometimes heading small family units, who were often singled out for relief. In this way the book makes a much-needed contribution to the study of gender, in Jewish society and more generally. This ground-breaking, multi-faceted study of the dynamics of the relationship between the rich and the poor adds a nuanced new dimension to our understanding of Jewish life in the early modern period.Trade Review'This volume offers the first systematic study of the poor and poor relief among the Sephardi Jews of early modern Amsterdam. It is a rich, thorough, and often touching exploration of the topic, and goes far in correcting the impression that all Jews in this community belonged to wealthy merchant families. Levie Bernfeld has given a voice to a largely silent but important population, in a work of meticulous scholarship.'Miriam Bodian 'The wealthiest Jewish community in the early modern period has finally received a comprehensive and detailed study of its poor, based on a meticulous analysis of a broad variety of sources. Tirtsah Levie Bernfeld has painted a colourful and fascinating historical portrait of the poor and ordinary people of the Sephardic community of Amsterdam, with their social and cultural profile, their distress, and the ways that the community leadership and its social elite dealt with their disturbing presence. This is one of the most important contributions in recent years to historical research on Dutch Jewry as well as on the western Sephardic diaspora.'Yosef Kaplan'The first systematic study of the poor and poor relief in Sephardic Amsterdam . . . a pioneering work . . . based on a thorough grasp of all the archival and historical sources . . . convincingly shows that the poor made up an increasingly greater percentage of the population than previously thought . . . this major study of Dutch Jewry is highly recommended.' Harvey Sukenic, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews‘Explores and maps new territory in such an astonishingly thorough manner . . . a splendid example of prodigious research producing a result that illuminates an important aspect of a great Jewish community.’ Marc Saperstein, European Judaism'I consider this to be one of the best and most important theses I have had the privilege of examining in my career and one of fundamental importance not just for early modern Dutch Jewish history but for all early modern Jewish history. I have no doubt at all that her book, which is well written and clearly set out, will be a landmark in Jewish historiography, an outstanding work of research which will at the same time be very widely referred to by Jewish historians of many different kinds. The book is also impressively erudite, showing a good working knowledge of virtually the entire primary and secondary published literature pertaining to the Portuguese Jewish community of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Amsterdam, whether in English, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, or Hebrew. No one has systematically researched the problem, dimensions, and history of poor relief in the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam before, and Tirtsah Levie Bernfeld has carried out this task carefully, thoroughly, and convincingly. She has skillfully utilized the data she has extracted from the community records and other archival materials to expand and (in a number of cases) importantly correct our knowledge of the general demographic, organizational and financial history of the congregation. Since a majority of those in receipt of poor relief in the Amsterdam Sephardi community were female, the thesis also makes a relevant and notable contribution to the history of gender, and of the family, within a Jewish context.'Jonathan IsraelTable of Contents List of Figures Note on Transliteration and Orthography 1 In the Beginning Terminology: The Definition of Poverty • What Precisely Are We Trying to Establish? • Sources 2 Migration of the Poor Introduction • Poor Relief and Admission Policy • Country of Origin • The Journey to Amsterdam from the Iberian Peninsula • The Journey from Other Centres • Emigration • Female Migration • The Migration Balance 3 Demographic Outline Introduction • The Scope of Poor Relief • Financial Strength • Family Composition • Conclusion 4 Organization of Welfare Introduction • The Theory: Modern Elements in a Traditional Approach • Poor Relief in Practice: Communal and Private • Conclusion 5 Financing Charity The Public Sector • Reforms • The Private Sector • Conclusion 6 The Motives behind Charity Charity Sustained by Piety • Inspiration in Action • The Family as the Main Object of Charity • Civic Sense and Charitable Gifts • Prestige • Social Concern and Mutual Responsibility • Conclusion 7 The Poor in Daily Life Introduction • Housing • Work • Appeals for Help: Petitions • The Level of Poor Relief • Protest • Life on the Fringe • Conclusion: A Motley Crowd 8 Epilogue Appendices Tables Four Key Figures Glossary Archives Consulted Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisChanging the Immutable focuses on how segments of Orthodox society have taken upon themselves to rewrite the past, by covering up and literally cutting out that which does not fit in with their contemporary world-view. For reasons ranging from theological considerations to internal religious politics to changing religious standards, such Jewish self-censorship abounds, and Marc Shapiro discusses examples from each category, In a number of cases the original text is shown alongside how it looked after it was censored, together with an explanation of what made the text problematic and how the issue was resolved. The author considers how some Orthodox historiography sees truth as entirely instrumental. Drawing on the words of leading rabbis, particularly from the haredi world, he shows that what is important is not historical truth, but a 'truth' that leads to observance and faith in the sages. He concludes with a discussion of the concept of truth in the Jewish tradition, and when this truth can be altered. Changing the Immutable also reflects on the paradox of a society that regards itself as traditional, but at the same time is uncomfortable with much of the inherited tradition and thus feels the need to create an idealized view of the past. It considers this practice in context, showing the precedents for this in Jewish history dating back to talmudic times. Since the subjects of censorship have included such figures as Maimonides, Bahya ibn Pakuda, Rashi, Naphtali Herz Wessely, Moses Mendelssohn, the Hatam Sofer, Samson Raphael Hirsch, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, A. I. Kook, and J. B. Soloveitchik, as well as issues such as Zionism, biblical interpretation, and attitudes to women and gentiles, Changing the Immutable also serves as a study in Jewish intellectual history and how the ideas of one era do not always find favour with future generations.Trade Review‘A thought-provoking if not provocative study . . . an invaluable addition to collections concerned with Jewish intellectual history.’Randall C. Belinfante, Association for Jewish Libraries Reviews‘Shapiro’s scholarship has been so important, in part because of Orthodoxy’s own success at covering up inconvenient aspects of its past.’Ezra Glinter, Forward (also published in Haaretz)‘Most impressive for its command of so many textual genres and overall breadth of knowledge. His examination of texts leaves no Judaica library's stack untouched . . . a welcome and substantial contribution to the anthropological study of contemporary Orthodox life . . . an essential work as historians continue to probe how Orthodox Judaism differed in specific epochs and locations.’Zef Eleff, H-Judaic‘An encyclopedic discussion of the complex evolutionary processes involved in creating and shaping Jewish tradition . . . The book is a cri de coeur, suggesting that truth should be a timeless commodity. Yet, the nook has another, larger meaning. It outlines how Jewish tradition, a highly decentralized and in a modest way, a plastic entity, is shaped and changed.’Susan M. Chambré, Jewish Book Council Reviews‘Another significant achievement for Professor Shapiro . . . a fascinating—and for Shapiro, typically exhaustive—presentation of literary, photographic, and political examples of self-censorship within the Orthodox world . . . his work is unique in that it offers a comprehensive, structured compilation of examples side-by-side with an evaluation of the underlying motivations . . . a fascinating and readable work, a touch polemical in places, yet a worthy addition to a modern Jewish library.’Harvey Belovski, Jewish ChronicleReviews ‘I can attest to the rigour and transparency of his scholarship. With his most recent work Changing the Immutable, he has once again rocked the Jewish community with his erudition and brilliant scholarship . . . [he] explores with impeccable details twentieth-century attempts by some parts of the ultra-Orthodox world to re-shape history to fit their own religious ideologies . . . a must read for all who want to understand how the current “slide to the right” is radically reforming Judaism to fit within the cacophonous landscape of contemporary values . . . Shapiro has given readers a snapshot for understanding the Orthodox world of today, allowing them to grapple with a problem that is long overdue and urgently needs to be addressed.’Shmuly Yanklowitz, Jewish Journal‘One of the most popular and controversial writers in the Modern Orthodox world today, most famous perhaps for publicizing little-known—and often radical—positions in Jewish law and thought.’ Elliott Resnick, Jewish Press‘Brilliant.’Mitchell Abidor, Jewish Currents‘Remarkably erudite . . . fascinating and remarkably learned.’ Allan Nadler, Jewish Review of Books‘I’ve been eagerly awaiting this book for years. Surely it is the most anticipated Jewish book of 2015 . . . It is chock-filled with examples, illustrations, and interesting ideas. There’s not an unnecessary word. It has the high quality that you would expect from American Judaism’s premier intellectual. I feel great joy in engaging with a work that stimulates both my love of Torah and my love of truth.’ Luke Ford‘Professor Shapiro is a precise, knowledgeable, and sometimes unconventional scholar. He attempts to demonstrate and to analyse how God-fearing writers and printers through the ages . . . “correct” texts or historical accounts so as to present them as they should have been rather than as they actually were . . . The bibliography and extensive indexes cover scores of pages. Professor Shapiro’s diligence has produced most interesting and praiseworthy results.’Hama'ayan‘The outstanding product of a master of rabbinic literature and an extraordinarily sharp-eyed and meticulous scholar. The book should be accessible to the widest possible readership, including traditionalists.'Adam Ferziger, Marginalia: Los Angeles Review of Books‘An impressive work of detailed and seminal scholarship . . . a major contribution to Judaic studies and is highly recommended to as a critically important addition to synagogue and academic reference collections and supplemental reading lists.’ Micah Andrew, Midwest Book Review‘Thorough, comprehensive, based on the painstaking examination and comparison of primary sources, Changing the Immutable is an impressive feat of scholarship.’Andrew Koss, Mosaic‘An outstanding work’Fred Reiss, San Diego Jewish World‘Fascinating . . . meticulous.’Jack Riemer, South Florida Jewish Journal‘Fascinating and well researched.’Ben Rothke, Times of IsraelM. Shapiro provides in the last chapter a remarkable glossary of well-known and less well known references that illustrate that serve as a base to a philosophical reflection yet to come. Jean-Pierre Rothschild, Revue des études juivesTable of ContentsNote on Transliteration 1 Introduction 2 Jewish Thought 3 Halakhah 4 Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch 5 Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook 6 Sexual Matters and More 7 Other Censored Matters 8 When Can One Lie? Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTraditional Jews encounter the prayer-book—the Siddur—more often in their daily lives than any other text, yet it is mysteriously absent from their otherwise nearly comprehensive curriculum of study. In addition, they tend to recite it mantrically, more for its sound than its meaning. The neglect of meaning is so complete that no edition of the prayer-book has yet appeared with a comprehensive range of commentaries. The present work, the first to examine this paradox, explains it as a reluctance to engage with the intellectual and emotional questions that lie just beneath the surface of the text. An analysis of the opening sequences of the daily ritual reveals that the prayer-book, far from representing one side of a deferential dialogue with an attentive deity, actually challenges God to allow access to the revelation on which human safety depends and to keep his side of the covenant. Confronting the chaotic unpredictability of the human condition, this undercurrent of protest allows Jews to question why God’s urgently needed intervention seems absent. Anger at this apparent absence is qualified only by gratitude at being alive. The core of this book consists of a novel examination of the opening sections of the traditional daily morning liturgy according to the Ashkenazi rite. The analysis is based on mostly untranslated medieval and later commentaries identifying the biblical and rabbinic echoes from which the liturgy is woven, and employs analytical methods of the kind traditionally applied to talmudic and midrashic texts. It shows how each citation and echo imports aspects of its original context into the new composition, forming a countertext to the words on the page. It examines each textual layer, as well as the surface meaning that is usually the only one to be noted, and relates these to the speaker’s actual location—home and later the synagogue—as well as to the time of day when the prayers are recited, as the worshipper faces the dangers of the day ahead. The resulting chorus of ideas—linking everyday life to the sacred narrative from creation to exile—demonstrates the philosophical sophistication of rabbinic spirituality in offering poetic insight into an ultimately tragic vision of reality.Trade Review'Breathtakingly original'- Cambridge Day Limmud Handbook'Schonfield presents pathways of curiosity and historical/poetical exegesis, as well as multilayered readings—which can raise the reader's thoughtfulness and delight in the traditional texts of our siddur . . . Readers of this book will appreciate the detail of Littman Library publications. There is full indexing by topic, as well as extensive indexing of biblical and rabbinic references. One who adds this beautiful work to a professional library will also appreciate the very heavy paper and quality binding that are not so very common these days. This is a serious and meaningful work, satisfying in its thoughtful and thorough text, and its physical realization that will stand as an admired reference.'- Robert Scherr, Conservative Judaism'A remarkable attempt to explain and analyse the morning prayers . . . provides the reader with a tremendous amount of interesting information . . . gives several interesting insights into developments in synagogues in Great Britain.'- Andreas Lehnardt, European Journal of Jewish Studies'The author with impressive scholarship draws on insights from many different traditions . . . there is no doubt that it adds a wholly new dimension to our sense of what Jewish prayer, and possibly every form of prayer, is about.'- Fred Morgan, Gesher'Schonfield asserts his undeniable right to be accepted into the first rank of Jewish liturgical scholars . . . no-one who completes this superb book will be able to look at a prayer book in the same way again.’- Charles Middleburgh, Jewish Chronicle'Challenges the customary devotional attitudes and behaviour of most Jews . . . should establish Jeremy Schonfield . . . as one of the most innovative and unsettling scholars in the world of Jewish studies . . . absorbing and intellectually exhilarating . . . [his] familiarity with Jewish sources is intimate, comprehensive, and meticulous. Not only are arguments penetrating, but his findings often jar with our preconceptions . . . The gains of this heady, bracing exploration of sources of the Jewish quotidian are manifest.'- Haim Chertok, Jewish Quarterly'His comments are rich in data, comprehensible and interesting for a broad readership, well written and cogently argued . . . The physical production of the volume is also impressive in many ways . . . readers will undoubtedly find here numerous insights into the traditional Jewish liturgy . . . we are here being treated not just to the views of a serious literary critic with a good knowledge of the scientific and historical study of Jewish liturgy but also to a very personal expression of devotion that is familial as well as ethnic . . . we are likely to learn much from the volume and to be deeply grateful to the author for carefully guiding us into what is often novel, and sometimes even exciting, territory.'- Stefan C. Reif, Journal of Jewish Studies'a captivating analysis . . . Whatever one makes of the author’s conclusions, the journey well repays the traveler. And for the regular shulgoer, reading Schonfield will ensure that the Siddur is never read cursorily again.'- Jeff Bogursky, Jewish Book CouncilTable of ContentsNote on Transliteration and Conventions Used in the Text Note on Extracts from the Liturgy List of Extracts Part I 1 The Incuriousness of the Jewish Worshipper 2 The Reticence of the Ideal Reader 3 The Liturgical Narrative: Modern and Traditional Views Part II Birkhot Hashahar 4 The Darkness of waking 5 The Bonds of Freedom 6 The Silence of Language 7 Buildinh in Babel 8 The Scattering 9 The Imagined Temple PESUKEI DEZIMRA 10 Hope in Words Part III 11 The Liturgical Argument Encapsulated 12 Other Versions, Other Readings Appendix: Photographs of Ritual Objects Used in Prayer Bibliography Index of Biblical and Rabbinic References Index of Subjects and Names

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Book SynopsisAbout 350,000 Jewish children are currently enrolled in Jewish day schools, in every continent other than Antarctica. This is the first book-length consideration of life in such schools and of their relationship both to the Jewish community and to society as a whole. It provides a rich sense of how community is constructed within Jewish schools, and of how they contribute to or complicate the construction of community in the wider society. The volume reframes day-school research in three ways. First, it focuses not just on the learner in the day-school classroom but sees schools as agents of and for the community. Second, it brings a truly international perspective to the study of day schools, viewing them in relation to the socio-cultural contexts from which they emerge and where they have impact. Third, it considers day-school education in relation to insights derived from the study and practice of non-parochial education. This cross-cultural and genuinely comparative approach to the study of Jewish schooling draws on research from the United States, the former Soviet Union, South America, and Europe, making it possible to arrive at important and original insights into parochial Jewish schooling. With contributions from outstanding scholars as well as practitioners of public education and of Jewish parochial schooling, the volume reveals conflicting conceptions of the social functions of schooling and also produces original insights into the capacity of schools to build community. The book is timely in that it studies questions about faith-based schooling and the public good that today are as much questions of public policy as they are of academic inquiry. It will appeal first and foremost to those with a particular interest in Jewish schooling but will also attract the attention of academics and professionals concerned with the place of parochial education in contemporary society. Contributors: Ami Bouganim, Erik H. Cohen, Ira Dashefsky, Howard Deitcher, Jay Dewey, Joshua Elkin, Yoel Finkelman, Zvi Gitelman, Scott J. Goldberg, Ellen B. Goldring, Yossi J. Goldstein, Eli Kohn, Jeffrey S.Kress, Binyamin Krohn, Jon A. Levisohn, Ilana Maryles Sztokman, Deborah Meier, Helena Miller, Christine Muller, Michal Muszkat Barkan, Alex Pomson, Joseph Reimer, Randal Schnoor, Susan L. Shevitz, Asher Shkedi, Claire Smrekar, Uriel Ta'ir, Michael Turetsky, Rahel Wasserfall.Trade Review'Particularly relevant at this time when more Jewish children than ever, around the globe, attend Jewish day schools . . . comprehensive in its exploration of how schools and communities can be mutually influential in strengthening and developing Jewish identity . . . The book is optimistic about the future of Jewish day schooling and inspires belief in the breadth of opportunities to strengthen and develop Jewish communities and Jewish education . . . thorough and articulate . . . critically important as a reminder that when moulded the right way schools have a unique opportunity to breathe freshness, dynamism, and life into Jewish communities.'- Adele Stowe-Linder, Manna'Its cross-cultural and comparative approach reveals conflicting conceptions of the social functions of schooling, a new understanding of the capacity of schools to build community, and insights into faith-based schooling and the public good.'- ShofarTable of ContentsNote on Transliteration Introduction. Jewish Schools, Jewish Communities: A Reconsideration ALEX POMSON and HOWARD DEITCHER Part I Insights from Public and General Education 1 Building Community Within and Around Schools: Can Jewish Days Schools Measure Up? ELLEN B. GOLDRING 2 From Control to Collaboration: Mapping School Communities across Diverse Contexts CLAIRE SMREKAR 3 Corporate Conservatism: On School, Community, and Democracy DEBORAH MEIER 4 A Response to Deborah Meier JOSHUA ELKIN 5 Community as a Means and an End in Jewish Education JON A. LEVISOHN Part II Cross-Cultural Insights 6 Do Jewish Schools Make a Difference in the Former Soviet Union? ZVI GITELMAN 7 Jewish Pupils' Perspectives on Religious Education and Expectations of a Religious Community: A Case Study of the Jewish High School in Berlin CHRISTINE MA LLER 8 Mutual Relations between Shlihim and Local Teachers at Jewish Schools in the Former Soviet Union URIEL TA'IR and IRA DASHEFSKY 9 Community School versus School-as-Community: The Case of Bet El Community in Buenos Aires YOSSI J. GOLDSTEIN 10 Beyond the Community: Jewish Day School Education in Britain HELENA MILLER 11 Comparison of Attitudes, Behaviours and Values of French Jewish Families with Children Enrolled in Jewish Day Schools and Other School Systems ERIK H. COHEN 12 The School Ghetto AMI BOUGANIM Part III Insights through the Prism of Community 13 Relationships between Schools and Parents in Haredi Popular Literature in the United States YOEL FINKELMAN 14 The Impact of Community on Curriculum Decision-Making: A Case Study from a North American Jewish Day School ELI KOHN 15 Ideological Commitment in the Supervision of Jewish Studies Teachers: Which Community is Represented and Who Represents It? MICHAL MUSZKAT BARKAN and ASHER SHKEDI 16 Schooling for Change in the Religious World: An Educational Experiment amid Ethnic, Class, and Academic Hierarchies in a Religious Junior High School in Israel ILANA MARYLES SZTOKMAN 17 Home-Made Jewish Culture at the Intersection of Family Life and School ALEX POMSON and RANDAL SCHNOOR 18 Teacher Perspectives on Behaviour Problems: Background Influences on Behavioural Referral Criteria and Definitions of Rebellious Behaviour SCOTT J. GOLDBERG, BINYAMIN KROHN, and MICHAEL TURETSKY 19 Shabbatonim as Experiential Education in the North American Community Day High School JEFFREY S. KRESS and JOSEPH REIMER 20 Teaching Leadership through Town Meeting JAY DEWEY 21 Building Community in a Pluralist Jewish High School; Balancing Risk and Safety, Group and Individual, in the Life of a School SUSAN L. SHEVITZ and RAHEL WASSERFALL Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisIn his three-volume history, Antony Polonsky provides a comprehensive survey—socio-political, economic, and religious—of the Jewish communities of eastern Europe from 1350 to the present. Until the Second World War, this was the heartland of the Jewish world: nearly three and a half million Jews lived in Poland alone, while nearly three million more lived in the Soviet Union. Although the majority of the Jews of Europe and the United States, and many of the Jews of Israel, originate from these lands, their history there is not well known. Rather, it is the subject of mythologizing and stereotypes that fail both to bring out the specific features of the Jewish civilization which emerged there and to illustrate what was lost. Jewish life, though often poor materially, was marked by a high degree of spiritual and ideological intensity and creativity. Antony Polonsky recreates this lost world—brutally cut down by the Holocaust and less brutally but still seriously damaged by the Soviet attempt to destroy Jewish culture. Wherever possible, the unfolding of history is illustrated by contemporary Jewish writings to show how Jews felt and reacted to the complex and difficult situations in which they found themselves. This second volume covers the period from 1881 to 1914. It considers the deterioration of the position of the Jews during that period and the new political and cultural movements that developed as a consequence: Zionism, socialism, autonomism, the emergence of modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature, Jewish urbanization, and the rise of popular Jewish culture. Galicia, Prussian Poland, the Kingdom of Poland, and the Tsarist Empire are all treated individually, as are the main towns of these areas. Volume 1 covers the period 1350–1881; Volume 3 covers 1914–2008.Trade Review'A truly landmark study of east European Jewish history for the mid-fourteenth century to the outbreak of World War I. This work is an invaluable synthetic exposition of Jewish civilization in Poland and Russia that pays close attention to the larger historical context in which Jewish history unfolded in these areas. While exhaustive in presenting historical detail and utilizing available sources and data of all types, Polonsky is also masterful in conveying the texture of Jewish life in different regions during each period. His study weaves together numerous aspects of that life—among others, the relationship of Jewish communities to the states in the region and their governance mechanisms; Jewish religious and political movements; the evolving role of the synagogue in communities; the wide variety of Jewish organizations over time and space; cultural changes, including the development of the mass press, modern literature, and theatre; the experiences of Jewish women; and descriptions of the towns and cities in which Jewish history played out. The contribution of Polonsky's study, however, is not only an impressive synthesis of a vast topic and vast amount of information. In integrating all of this material, the author also deftly crafts his own interpretations of trends in the area and the timing of shifts in them. His marshalling of evidence and his own insights add up to a compelling set of arguments about the course of Jewish history. Polonsky addresses Jewish, Polish, and Russian historical developments all with great nuance, and that depth of understanding allows him to present the complexities of these intertwined histories with a subtlety rarely achieved in projects of such ambitious temporal and spatial scope. This study will become a “go to” reference for scholars of east European Jewish history for a long time to come.'From the citation for the 2011 Kulczycki Book Prize for Polish Studies, awarded to Volumes I and II 'This second volume of Polonsky's well-reseached, eloquently written study provides a finely distinct portrait of Jewish life in eastern Europe in the years leading up to the Great War . . . Highly recommended.'- R. K. Byczkiewicz, Choice'Succeeds admirably. Simply put, these volumes are required reading for anyone with a serious interest in East European history or for anyone looking for a scholarly assessment of a particular feature of Polish or Russian Jewish history. Handsomely produced, with extensive maps and tables, and a glossary . . . will remain a standard work in the field for some time . . . a body of work that, in summarizing the current state of our knowledge, effectively sets the agenda for future scholars. Polonsky is perhaps the scholar most responsible for the growth of Polish Jewish studies in the late twentieth century . . Very few historians could write a series of volumes like this . . . [he] has armed scholars with a formidable tool that will help them dispel stereotypes . . . Just as these volumes are destined to become the starting point for the work of many students, they will be the touchstone for scholars working in the field at all levels.'- Sean Martin, European History Quarterly 'Combines a masterful grasp of Jewish history with that of eastern Europe. While underlining the unique features and achievements of the Jewish communal experience he authoritatively integrates them into the history of the countries in which Jews lived . . . Incorporating current, ground-breaking scholarship from North America, Israel, and Europe these beautifully narrated volumes should not only be seen as a staple of university courses, but also as a must-read for anyone attempting to understand any aspect of modern Jewish history and religious tradition, wherever it may be playing out . . . With this extremely important book, Antony Polonsky not only writes history but, following the example of his illustrious predecessors, makes it.'- Katarzyna Person, European Judaism'The first two volumes of Antony Polonsky's magisterial The Jews in Poland and Russia trilogy provide a much-needed addition to the landscape of Jewish historical studies . . . [a] significant achievement in presenting the most modern findings in a clear, readable, comprehensive survey . . . his narrative is grand and his analysis tight . . . an excellent synthesis of this community's history, incorporating much of the groundbreaking scholarship of the last few decades. Repeatedly, the volumes remind us of the many lost opportunities for real reform in the region. They help correct the nostalgic and romanticized portraits of what is sometimes considered a lost civilization, while simultaneously demonstrating the vibrancy and diversity of Jewish life in the region . . . essential reading for those seeking a thorough and balanced understanding of Jewish life in pre-twentieth century Eastern Europe.' - Jeffrey Veidlinger, H-Judaic'For several decades now, Antony Polonsky has been at the forefront of Polish–Jewish studies . . . It is thus fitting that Polosnky, who has nurtured young scholars, especially in Poland itself and North America, should bring together old and new work in this remarkable multi-volume synthesis of Jewish history and culture . . . These volumes will provide the first port of call for any student of east European Jewry.' - Tony Kushner, Jewish Chronicle'We can only commend Antony Polonsky for his massive effort to explain seven centuries of Jewish history in a mere 2,000 pages . . . Polonsky's strength lies in his ability to illuminate intellectual and cultural developments . . . Because of the excellent bibliographies, extensive annotation, and wonderful maps included in each volume, any reader wishing to read in greater detail about Polish and Russian Jewry will have plenty of resources to enable the search.' - Alexandra S. Korros, Jewish Quarterly'An excellent synthesis of recent research on east European Jewish culture and history. As such it fills a definite need for an accessible introduction to the current scholarship and thinking about the Jews of Poland and Russia . . . should be on the reading list of anyone interested in the history and folk cultures of eastern Europe, whether they work specifically with Jewish history and folk culture, or with other regional cultures.'- David Elton Gay, Journal of Folklore Research'Any reader who invests the time and money to read the book . . . will find it very rewarding—and not just because of the wealth of information it contains. What Polonsky's book brings home, in a way that a narrower study could not, is the sheer complexity and vitality of Jewish life in that time and place . . . this broader picture is needed to make sense of the social changes that were accelerating by the late nineteenth century—above all, in the situation of women, the subject of one of Polonsky's best chapters . . . Polonsky's panoramic book, which packs so much vivid detail and statistical information into its 500 pages, helps to show just how rich, and how difficult, that life really was.'- Adam Kirsch, The New Republic and Tablet Magazine'Polonsky's magisterial The Jews in Poland and Russia is one of those rare works that can hope to bridge the gap between specialist and “intelligent general reader”, providing a strong narrative and appealing prose for the latter as well as an up-to-date distilled knowledge of both primary and secondary sources for the former. No one interested in Jewish, Polish, or Russian history can afford to be without these volumes . . . will long remain the standard work on this crucial Jewish community . . . While a survey of this sort requires a goodly bit of politics . . . Polonsky has gone out of his way to include culture, religious life, gender, Jewish mass culture, and social history . . . The books' structure is entirely appropriate for its primary purpose: to provide a basic overview of this Jewish community's history . . . strikingly high level of scholarship . . . [The publisher] is particularly to be commended on its allowing Polonsky to cite at length from the Jewish literary sources he is considering and not begrudging space for a dozen pages of useful statistics (not a small thing in a publishing world where bibliographies are often considered superfluous!) . . . This history, written by a major scholar of both Polish and Jewish history and a person profoundly attached to both communities, is exemplary in its efforts to integrate Jews into Polish history, neither white-washing sources of friction nor painting an overly rosy picture. The most important thing one can say about Antony Polonsky's The Jews in Poland and Russia is: get it and read it!'- Theodore R. Weeks, The Polish Review'This superb and very up-to-date book is very well written, carefully documented, balanced, and will be a standard reference in the field. It has a glossary and a wide-ranging bibliography, very useful maps, and statistical tables, all of which make it a good starting point for any reading on east European Jewry.'- Shaul Stampfer, Religious Studies Review'Exemplary and formidable . . . Polonsky, as much as anyone else, has created the field of modern Jewish history as a subject to be considered and understood rather than simply a tragic past to be mourned. He is too good a historian to confuse the history of Jewish life with the German policies that brought Jewish death . . . The barely visible commitment in these three wonderful volumes is to rescue a world from polemic, for the sake of history.' - Timothy Snyder, Wall Street Journal‘The first serious, and most successful, effort thus far to summarize the history of the Jews of “Eastern Europe” . . . the first book to synthesize the vast research that has emerged since the seventies . . . comprehensive and multidisciplinary . . . there is no book today that can compare to its scope and to the vast and new materials that he brings forth and analyzes with a broad imagination, an intensive approach, and a moderate style.’- Moshe Rosman, ZionTable of ContentsList of MapsList of TablesNote on TransliterationMapsIntroduction1 The Position of the Jews in the Tsarist Empire, 1881-19052 Revolution and Reaction, 1904-19143 The Kingdom of Poland, 1881-19144 Galicia in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century5 Prussian Poland, 1848-19146 Jewish Spaces: Shtetls and Towns in the Nineteenth CenturyStatistical Appendix7 Modern Jewish Literature in the Tsarist Empire and Galicia8 Jewish Religious Life from the Mid-Eightteenth Century to 19149 Women in Jewish Eastern Europe10 The Rise of Jewish Mass Culture: Literature, Press, TheatreConclusionGlossaryBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisWith great vigour and from the vantage point of long experience of writing and teaching Jewish history, Moshe Rosman treats the key questions that postmodernism raises for the writing of Jewish history. What is the relationship between Jewish culture and history and those of the non-Jews among whom Jews live? Can we-in the light of postmodernist thought-speak of a continuous, coherent Jewish People, with a distinct culture and history? What in fact is Jewish cultural history, and how can it be written? How does gender transform the Jewish historical narrative? How does Jewish history fit into the multicultural paradigm? Has Jewish history entered a postmodern phase? How can Jewish history utilize the methodologies of other disciplines to accomplish its task? All these are questions that Jewish historians need to think about if their work is to be taken seriously by mainstream historians and intellectuals, or indeed by educated Jews interested in understanding their own cultural and historical past. While engaging with the questions raised by postmodernists, the author adopts a critical stance towards their work. His basic claim is that it is possible to incorporate, judiciously, postmodern innovations into historical scholarship that is still based on documentary research and critical analysis. The resulting endeavor might be termed 'a reformed positivism'. Rosman presents a concentrated, coherent, cogent argument as to what considerations must be brought to bear on the writing of Jewish history today. By highlighting in one book the issues raised by postmodernism, How Jewish is Jewish History? provides those in the field with a foundation from which to discuss how it should be practiced in light of this generation's challenges. It is a valuable resource for students of Jewish history and historiography and a handy tool for scholars who must confront the issues aired here in their own more narrowly focused scholarly works.Trade Review'Moshe Rosman’s How Jewish Is Jewish History is a lucid, engaged, but also dispassionate work certain to become a crucial point of departure for future discussions of fundamental questions facing Jewish studies. It asks, and sets out to offer some answers to the question as to whether historians can maintain the continuity and distinctiveness of the Jewish experience. Rosman sees Jewish historiography as having been altered at its core by postmodernism, and offers an incisive and original “polythetic approach” to this dilemma grounded in a “reformed” positivism. This is a wise, courageous, challenging book, subtle, made of many different parts, all of which are insightful, and likely to be of enduring significance.' From the citation for the 2010 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award'While addressing the issues raised by postmodernism, Rosman provides a starting point from which to discuss how this generation might tackle these challenges. For students of Jewish history and historiography, this is a most worthwhile read . . . Recommended.'- S. D. Benin, Choice'Provides clear and insightful expositions of some central contemporary theoretical and methodological issues as they relate to some crucial themes in Jewish history in particular. It provides a learned and highly articulate defence of a pragmatic, moderate, and 'centrist' position by one of the influential practitioners of Jewish history writing . . . a highly valuable attempt to confront some of the major challenges posed by recent innovations from a firm position and in a coherent way. What is more, this collection has much to contribute to the definition of a badly needed common ground between supporters and opponents of postmodernism and thereby helps to diffuse much of the unpleasant polemic that has often surrounded the emergence of postmodern critiques.'- Ferenc Laczó, European Journal of Jewish Studies'His brief, incisive, and welcome conversation with contemporary Jewish historiography will be of inordinate use to the perplexed of our time.'- Steven Bowman, H-Judaic'Both thought-provoking and entertaining . . . thoroughly engaging and makes one ponder deeply on the basic issues of Jewish historiography. It should be read by all Jewish historians whether they are contemplating writing a grand narrative or a micro-study.'- John Cooper, Jewish Historical Studies'He presents a comprehensive work in English on the problems and challenges of writing Jewish history under the impact of postmodern ideas and multiculturalism, for which he deserves credit . . . The book's strong points include its extensive bibliography and excellent documentation.'- Rivkah Duker Fishman, Jewish Political Studies Review'Excellent . . . it is a most important and essential book for anyone interested in Jewish affairs. It is an overview of how academic theories of modernism are changing and have changed perceptions. It is a vital analysis of how many different approaches to Jewish history there are . . . Rosman raises all the fascinating issues.'- Jeremy Rosen, The Jewish Press‘Cogently written, remarkably combining depth of analysis with clear, straightforward writing . . . Rosman has confronted the sharpest challenges for Jewish historiography laid down by contemporary modes of thinking.’- Michael A. Meyer, Jewish Quarterly Review‘Rosman reviews the newest developments in Jewish historiography in the context of the historical theoretical debates of postmodern and postcolonial studies. In particular, he focuses on the definition of “self” and “other” in Jewish culture and history and on the relationship between them.’- Ekaterina Emeliantseva, Osteuropa'Absolutely essential reading for any student thinking of writing a thesis or even a serious paper on Jewish history. It is a profound analysis of what the academic study of Jewish history is and what should be taken into consideration in setting out to do research in the field. Rosman asks penetrating questions regarding the possibility of objective study of Jewish history in the light of the issues raised by postmodernist thinking and he sensitively explores ways of dealing with these questions. He applies his wide and perceptive reading in general historiography to clarify the challenge of new modes of historical thought to students of Jewish history. His mastery of the Jewish past, especially but not only of Jewish life in eastern Europe, keeps the discussion from being purely theoretical . . . While Rosman deals with complex issues, his writing is lucid and his examples are fascinating. There is nothing like this book on the market and it is therefore a crucial introduction for students. While Rosman's examples are drawn from the context of Jewish history, the issues he raises apply to the historiography of other religious and cultural groups. Therefore, while this brilliant book should be required reading for all serious students of Jewish studies, it should be equally interesting to students of other traditions.'- Shaul Stampfer, Religious Studies Review'Rosman's erudite volume ranges over more theoretical ground than can be explained in a brief review . . . a useful introduction to the heat that history and historiographical disputes generate in contemporary Israel.'- Michael C. Hickey, Shofar'Incisive.'- Nils Roemer, Studies in Contemporary Jewry'Rosman helps us understand how history has become, in the hands of postmodern awareness, more complicated, less unitary, and still deeply fascinating . . . an important entry in an important debate over the understanding of our multiple pasts in the complex present.'- David Wolpe, Tablet Magazine‘Moshe Rosman is one of the few Jewish historians who can deal with the theoretical issues besetting Jewish historiography, particularly in the light of postmodernist thought. This book sets an agenda that will be discussed for many years hence.’- Shmuel Feiner, Bar Ilan UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Note on Transliteration Introduction: Writing Jewish History in the Postmodern Climate 1 Some a priori Issues in Jewish Historiography 2 The Postmodern Period in Jewish History 3 Hybrid with What? The Relationship between Jewish Culture and Other People's Cultures 4 The Jewish Contribution to (Multicultural) Civilization 5 Prolegomenon to the Study of Jewish Cultural History 6 Methodological Hybridity: The Art of Jewish Historiography and the Methods of Folklore 7 Jewish Women's History: First Steps and a False Start-The Case of Jacob Katz Conclusion: Jewish History and Postmodernity-Challenge and Rapprochement Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis is a book of unexpected drama: all eleven chief rabbis appointed in this period of unprecedented change in the Jewish communities of the Fertile Crescent became the subject of controversy and were subsequently dismissed. This took place against a background of events rarely discussed in the context of Jewish society: crime, hooliganism, slander, power struggles, sexual promiscuity, and even assaults and assassination attempts on rabbis. Using a wide range of testimonies gleaned from Ottoman Jewish, Arabic, and European sources, Yaron Harel paints a colourful picture of these upheavals set firmly in the social and political context of the time and far removed from the commonly accepted image of Jewish communities in the Ottoman empire. Jews were also affected by modernization and political conflict in the wider society of the time, and these too gave rise to power struggles. The chief rabbis were at the forefront of these confrontations, especially those that resulted from the new inclination towards Western culture. Most of them recognized that the challenges of modernization had to be met, although in a way that did not endanger religious principles. Their openness to change stemmed from a concern for the future of the communities for which they were responsible, but they were often vociferously opposed by those who were free from such responsibility. The communal politics that ensued were sometimes heated to the point of violence. In the latter years of the empire, many Jews came to support the Young Turks, with their promise of liberty and equality for all. The atmosphere of the time was such that rabbis had to develop political awareness and engage in Ottoman politics. This was another source of tension within the community since the new regime punished anyone suspected of opposition severely.This lively and fascinating study based on little-known sources offers a lens through which to view the Jewish society of the Ottoman empire at a time when all the traditional norms were being challenged.Trade ReviewReviews ‘Fascinating . . . Harel focuses on the main cities of the countries known today as Iraq and Syria, but the reader gains important knowledge and understanding of other regions as well, mainly Jerusalem and Turkey. The author thoroughly perused the available records of the period . . . Harel's mastery of rabbinical literature and its somewhat enigmatic language has enabled him to unearth a treasury of data which he successfully cross references with other historical records . . . The book is written in a clear language, analyzing the intricate histories of the rabbis of the three communities in chronological order, moving from city to city and from period to period deftly and seamlessly. The translation is fluid and engaging, not an easy task given the nature of the book and many rabbinic texts quoted. The author is to be commended for this thorough investigation of a period which has left an indelible mark on the religious life and practices of hundreds of thousands of Jews.' Haim Ovadia,Sephardic Horizons FROM REVIEWS OF THE HEBREW EDITION 'Harel's book is destined to become the fundamental starting point for research into many aspects of the Jewish communities it discusses, and of others too. It makes an outstanding contribution in at least four areas: the history of the three communities that are discussed and those which they were in contact; the multi-faceted nature of the rabbinate as an institution; Jewish identity and self-understanding; and the work of historian in the post-modern age . . . Harel's strength as a historian lies not only in how he uses his sources, but also in his ability both to ask stimulating new questions and to resolve them, thanks to the breadth of his knowledge, his intellectual honesty, and his empathy for the people about whom he is writing.' Nachem Ilan, Pe'amimTable of ContentsNote on TransliterationIntroductionPART I: Harbingers of Upheaval 1 The Failure of R. Sadkah Houssin’s Struggle for Control over the Baghdad Community 2 The Roots of the Struggle in Aleppo against the Inheritance of the Rabbinate by R. Raphael Shlomo Laniado PART II: The Rabbis of the Reform 3 The Saga of Hakham Raphael Kassin: From Hakham Bashi in Baghdad to Reform Rabbi in Aleppo 4 The Baghdad Community Torn between Rabbis Sassoon Samoha and Elisha Dangoor 5 Avraham Dweck Hacohen Khalousi: the last Hakham Bashi who was born in Aleppo 6 Rabbi Yitzhak Abulafia’s Difficult Path to the Rabbinic Office in Damascus 7 The Appointment and Deposition of Rabbi Yitzhak AbulafiaPART III: Rabbis of The Revolution 8 The Appointment and Removal of Rabbi Solomon Eliezer Mercado Alfandari in Damascus 9 Rabbi Yaakov Danon’s Appointment as Rabbi of Damascus and its Consequences 10 Rabbi Hezekiah Shabbetai’s Struggle against those who would depose him 11 The Removal of the Hakham Bashi of Baghdad, David Pappo, from his position by the Young Turks EpilogueGlossaryBibliography

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Book SynopsisThe historical consciousness of medieval Jewry has engendered lively debate in the scholarly world. The focus in this book is on the historical consciousness of the Jews of Spain and southern France in the late Middle Ages, and specifically on their perceptions of Christianity and Christian history and culture. In his detailed analysis of Jews’ understanding of the history of the communities they lived among, Ram Ben-Shalom shows that in these southern European lands Jews experienced a relatively open society that was sensitive to and knowledgeable about voices from other cultures, and that this had significant consequences for shaping Jewish historical consciousness. Among the topics that receive special attention are what Jews knew of the significance of Rome, of Jesus and the early days of Christianity, of Church history, and of the history of the Iberian monarchies. Ben-Shalom demonstrates that, despite the negative stereotypes of Jewry prevalent in Christian literature and increasing familiarity with that literature, they were more influenced by their interactions with Christian society at the local level. Consequently there was no single stereotype that dominated Jewish thought, and frequently little awareness of the two societies as representing distinct cultures. This book contributes to medieval Jewish intellectual history on many levels, demonstrating that, in Spain and southern France, Jews of the later Middle Ages evinced a genuine interest in history, including the history of non-Jews, and that in some cases they were deeply familiar with Christian and sometimes also classical historiography. In providing a comprehensive survey of the multiple contexts in which historiographical material was embedded and the many uses to which it was put, it enriches our understanding of medieval historiography, polemic, Jewish-Christian relations, and the breadth of interests characterizing Provencal and Spanish Jewish communities.Table of ContentsNote on TransliterationIntroduction1 Genres and Motives2 Rome: Images and Influence3 Jesus and the Origins of Christianity4 History of the Church5 History of the Iberian MonarchiesConclusionBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisRelations between Jews and their neighbours in eastern Europe have long been perceived, both in the popular mind and in conventional scholarship, as being in a permanent state of conflict. This volume counters that image by exploring long-neglected aspects of inter-group interaction and exchange. In so doing it broadens our understanding of Jewish history and culture, as well as that of eastern Europe. Whereas traditional historiography concentrates on the differences between Jews and non-Jews, the essays here focus on commonalities: the social, political, and economic worlds that members of different groups often shared. Shifting the emphasis in this way allows quite a different picture to emerge. Jews may have been subject to the whims of ruling powers and influenced by broader cultural and political developments, but at the same time they exerted a discernible influence on them - the social, cultural, and political spheres were ones that they not only shared, but that they also helped to create. This model of reciprocal influence and exchange has much to offer to the study of inter-group relations in eastern Europe and beyond. Designed to move the study of east European Jewry beyond the intellectual and academic discourse of difference that has long troubled scholars, this volume contributes to our perception of how members of different groups operate and interact on a multitude of different levels. The various contributions represent a wide cross-section of opinions and approaches - historical, literary, and cultural. Taken together they move our understanding of east European Jewry from the realm of the mythical to a more rational mode. In addition to essays considering interactions between Jews and Poles, other contributions examine relations between Jews and other ethnic groups (Lithuanians, Russians), discuss negotiations with various governments (Habsburg, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, and Soviet), analyse exchanges between Jews and different cultural realms (German, Polish, and Russian), and explore how the politics of memory affects contemporary interpretations of these and related phenomena. CONTRIBUTORS Karen Auerbach, Israel Bartal, Ela Bauer, Jan Blonski, Marek Edelman, Michael Fleming, Dorota Glowacka, Regina Grol, Francois Guesnet, Brian Horowitz, Agnieszka Jagodinska, Jeff Kopstein, Sergei Kravtsov, Rachel Manekin, Czeslaw Milosz, Karin Neuberger, Przemyslaw Rozanski, Kai Struve, Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, Jerzy Turowicz, Scott Ury, Kalman Weiser, Jason Wittenberg, Marcin Wodzinski, Piotr WrobelTable of ContentsNote on Place Names Note on Transliteration PART I: JEWS AND THEIR NEIGHBOURS IN EASTERN EUROPE SINCE 1750 Between Jews and their Neighbours: Isolation, Confrontation, and Influence in Eastern Europe ISRAEL BARTAL & SCOTT URY Reform and Exclusion: Conceptions of the Reform of the Jewish Community during the Declining Years of the Polish Enlightenment MARCIN WODZINSKI Praying at Home: The Minyan Laws of the Habsburg Empire RACHEL MANEKIN Overcoming the Signs of the 'Other': Visual Aspects of the Acculturation of Jews in the Kingdom of Poland in the Nineteenth Century AGNIESZKA JAGODZINSKA The Ideological Roots of the Polish Jewish Intelligentsia ELA BAUER Between Permeability and Isolation: Ezriel Natan Frenk as Historian of the Jews in Poland FRANCOIS GUESNET S. A. An-sky - Dialogic Writer BRIAN HOROWITZ Between Judaism and the West: The Making of a Modern Jewish Poet in Uri Zvi Greenberg's 'Memoirs (from the Book of Wanderings)' KARIN NEUBURGER Between State Loyalty and National Identity: Electoral Behaviour in Interwar Poland JEFFREY S. KOPSTEIN & JASON WITTENBERG Failed Integration: Jews and the Beginning of the Communist Movement in Poland PIOTR WROBEL The Jewel in the Yiddish Crown: Who Will Occupy the Chair for Yiddish at the University of Vilnius? KALMAN WEISER Rites of Violence? The Pogroms of Summer 1941 KAI STRUVE Nusekh Poyln? Communism, Publishing, and Paths to Polishness among the Jewish Parents of 16 Ujazdowskie Avenue KAREN AUERBACH Changing Images of 'the Jews' in Polish Literature and Culture, 1980-2000 DOROTA GLOWACKA PART II: NEW VIEWS Ogee Arcades in Synagogue Architecture of Volhynia and Podolia in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries SERGEI R. KRAVTSOV The Attitude of American Jews and American Diplomacy towards the Bill Banning Shehitah in Poland in the Second Half of the 1930s PRZEMYSLAW ROZANSKI Imagining Polish Jews: British Perspectives in the Period 1944-1946 MICHAEL FLEMING 'The Hanging of Judas'; or, Contemporary Jewish Subjects JOANNA TOKARSKA-BAKIR 1968; or, America! America! REGINA GROL 'Campo di Fiori' Fifty Years Later: The People Who Remain A discussion that took place on the fiftieth anniversary of the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto, between JAN BLONSKI, MAREK EDELMAN, CZESLAW MILOSZ, and JERZY TUROWICZ Obituaries Chimen Abramsky Marek Edelman Glossary Notes on the Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThis volume of Polin, based on scholarship that has emerged since the fall of communism, is a wide-ranging contribution to the complex history of the Jews in Lithuania. Focusing on the specific character of Lithuanian Jewry, the volume opens by examining how their relationship with the surrounding society developed after 1772, both under tsarist rule and then in independent Lithuania. Moving to more recent times, the devastating impact on the Jewish community of the Soviet and Nazi occupations during the Second World War is discussed, as are the further negative consequences on Jewish life of the reoccupation of the country by the Soviets between 1944 and 1990. The volume concludes with material on the slow revival of Jewish life since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the re-emergence of an independent Lithuania, which was accompanied by the revival of many disciplines, such as the study of Jewish history, repressed by Soviet censorship. This revived interest in the country's Jewish past is now playing a key role in the broader transformation of historical memory of the post-Soviet era and the problem of coming to terms with the widespread local collaboration in Lithuania during the Holocaust - a process which has led to important scholarly advances but also to bitter controversy. Collectively, the studies in this volume contribute to a better understanding of the complex history of the Jews in Lithuania and of Lithuanian - Jewish relations and constitute a part of the necessary process of creating a more rounded and inclusive history of the country. CONTRIBUTORS Aelita Ambruleviciute, Marta Aleksandra Balinska, Egle Bendikaite, Michael Casper, Ellen Cassedy, Immanuel Etkes, David E. Fishman, Jack Jacobs, Grigory Kanovich, Saulius Suziedelis, Andrey Krotau, Larisa Lempertiene, Aearunas Liekis, Miriam Offer, Avi Ohry, Karin Ohry-Kossoy, Ausra Pazeraite, Antony Polonsky, Anna P. Ronell, Vladas Sirutavicius, Darius Staliunas, Saulius SuA iedelis, Vytautas Toleikis, Anna Verschik, Theodore R. Weeks, Mordechai Zalkin.Table of ContentsNote on Place Names Note on Transliteration PART I: JEWS IN THE FORMER GRAND DUCHY OF LITHUANIA SINCE 1772 Introduction ŠARŪNAS LIEKIS AND ANTONY POLONSKY Lithuanian Jewry and the Concept of ‘East European Jewry’ MORDECHAI ZALKIN Economic Relations between Jewish Traders and Christian Farmers in the Nineteenth-Century Lithuanian Provinces AELITA AMBRULEVIČIŪTĖ The War of Lyady Succession: R. Aaron Halevi versus R. Dov Baer IMMANUEL ETKES Lithuanian Antisemitism in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries DARIUS STALIŪNAS ‘I Have Chosen the Belarusian Word . . .’: On the Life and Creative Career of Zmitrok Byadulya ANDREY KROTAU Authentic and National: Some Lithuanian–Jewish Correlations in the Search for ‘Folk Culture’ in the First Half of the Twentieth Century LARISA LEMPERTIENĖ Jewish Prayer Halls and Synagogues in Vilna, 1914–1920 AUŠRA PAŽĖRAITĖ Walking a Thin Line: The Successes and Failures of Socialist Zionism in Lithuania EGLĖ BENDIKAITĖ Jewish Converts in Independent Lithuania, 1918–1940: An Attempt at a Case Analysis SAULIUS KAUBRYS ‘A Close, but Very Suspicious and Dangerous Neighbour’: Outbreaks of Antisemitism in Inter-War Lithuania VLADAS SIRUTAVIČIUS The Bund in Vilna, 1918–1939 JACK JACOBS The Lithuanian-Language Jewish Periodicals Mūsų garsas (1924–1925) and Apžvalga (1935–1940): A Sociolinguistic Evolution ANNA VERSCHIK ‘Listen, the Jews are Ruling Us Now’: Antisemitism and National Conflict during the First Soviet Occupation of Lithuania, 1940–1941 SAULIUS SUŽIEDĖLIS Soviet Resistance and Jewish Partisans in Lithuania ŠARŪNAS LIEKIS The Vilnius and Kaunas Ghettos and the Fate of Lithuanian Jewry, 1941–1945 THEODORE R. WEEKS ‘To Transform Ourselves’: Lithuania Looks at the Holocaust ELLEN CASSEDY The Problem of Jewish National Symbols in Vilnius DAVID E. FISHMAN Some Remarks on the History of the New Lithuanian Jewish Community: The Road Travelled in Establishing a Litvak Identity VYTAUTAS TOLEIKIS The Recent Works of Grigory Kanovich ANNA P. RONELL The Dream of a Vanished Jerusalem GRIGORY KANOVICH REVIEWS Aušra Paulauskienė, Lost and Found: The Discovery of Lithuania in American Fiction MICHAEL CASPER Tomas Venclova, Vilnius: A Personal History MICHAEL CASPER PART II JEWS IN POLISH MEDICINE Dr Gershon Lewin (1868–1940): Pioneer of Public Health and Promoter of Jewish Culture in Poland KARIN OHRY-KOSSOY AND AVI OHRY Dedicated Physicians in the Face of Adversity: The Association of Jewish Physicians (ZLRP) and the Jewish Health Organization (TOZ) in Poland, 1921–1942 KARIN OHRY-KOSSOY AND AVI OHRY The Medical School in the Warsaw Ghetto, 1941–1942 MARTA ALEKSANDRA BALINSKA Ethical Dilemmas in the Work of Doctors and Nurses in the Warsaw Ghetto MIRIAM OFFER Notes on the Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisHabsburg Bukovina no longer exists, save in the realms of historiography, nostalgia, and collective memory. Remembered for its remarkable multinational, multi-faith character, Bukovina and its capital city Czernowitz have long been presented as exemplars of inter-ethnic co-operation, political moderation, and cultural dynamism, with Jews regarded as indispensable to the region’s character and vitality. This is not mere rhetoric: the Jews of Bukovina were integral to, and at home in, local society. David Rechter’s important new history conveys the special nature of Bukovina Jewry while embedding it in the broader historical and intellectual frameworks of Galician, imperial Austrian, and east central European Jewries. Carefully tracing the evolution of the tangled relationship of state and society with the Jews, from the Josephinian Enlightenment through absolutism to emancipation, he brings to light the untold story of the Jewish minority in the monarchy's easternmost province, often a byword for economic backwardness and cultural provincialism. Here, at the edge of the Habsburg monarchy, Jews forged a new society from familiar elements, a unique hybrid of eastern and western European Jewries. Bukovina Jewry was both and neither: understanding its history can help us grasp the east/west fault lines within European Jewry, a key element in the Jewish experience in Europe.Trade Review'Argues that Bukovina served as a unique site for Jewish integration. Its diverse character, frontier setting, and balance among its different ethnic groups created the conditions necessary for the development of the “supranational society” idealized in the politics of the Habsburg Empire. These conditions in turn enabled the formation of a unique form of Jewish society . . . written in fluid, readable prose that will appeal to both beginners and more advanced readers.' J. Haus, ChoiceTable of ContentsNote on Transliteration List of Abbreviations Map 1: The Habsburg Empire Map 2: Bukovina Introduction: A Jewish El Dorado? 1 A New Land 2 Military Rule, 1774 - 1786 3 The Making of Bukovina Jewry: The Galician Years, 1786 - 1848 4 Revolution, Absolutism, Emancipation, 1848 - 1867 5 The Rise of Bukovina Jewry 6 State, Society, and Minority: Jewish Politics Conclusion Gazetteer Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWritten at different times and for different audiences - some for scholars of rabbinic literature, some for laymen or for scholars not necessarily Jewish - the essays gathered together in this volume nevertheless have an inner coherence. They reflect the author's lifetime interest in the history of halakhah - not as intellectual history per se, but rather a concern to identify measurable deflection in the unfolding of halakhic ideas that could point to an undetected force at work. What was it that stimulated change, and why? What happened when strong forces impinged upon halakhic observance, and both the scholarly elite and the community as a whole had to grapple with upholding observance while adapting to a new set of circumstances? Haym Soloveitchik's elegant presentation shows skilfully that the line between adaptation and deviance is a fine one, and that where a society draws that line is revelatory of both its values and its self-perception. Many of the articles presented here are well known in the field but have been updated for this publication (the major essay on pawnbroking has been expanded to half again its original size); some have been previously published only in Hebrew, and two are completely new. An Introduction highlights the key themes of the collection and explains the underlying methodology. Having these essays in a single volume will enable scholars and students to consult all the material on each theme together, while also tracing the development of ideas. The opening section of the volume is a brief description and characterization of the dramatis personae who figure in all these essays: Rashi and the Tosafists. It covers the halakhic commentaries and their authors; the creativity of Ashkenaz; and the halakhic isolation of the Ashkenazic community. The second section focuses on usury and money-lending, including the practice of pawn-broking, while the third section deals with the ban on Gentile wine and how that connected to the development of money-lending. The final section presents general conclusions in the form of four studies of the communal self-image of Ashkenaz and its attitude to deviation and change.Trade Review‘In our generation the premier practitioner of history of, and through, halacha is Haym Soloveitchik . . . in addition to his many other merits, [he] is an elegant stylist . . . Part of the pleasure of reading him is that there is more learning and illumination to be found in his remarks dropped along the way than in the pages of a lesser scholar . . . profound, poignant essays.’ David Wolpe, Tablet MagazineTable of ContentsPart I. Overview of the Tosafist Movement1. The Printed Page of the Talmud: The Commentaries and their Authors2. Catastrophe and Creativity: Ashkenaz—1096, 1242, 1306, and 12983. The Halakhic Isolation of the Ashkenazic Community Part II. Usury and Moneylending4. Usury, Jewish Law5. The Jewish Attitude to Usury in the High and Late Middle Ages (1000–1500)6. Pawnbroking: A Study in Ribbit and of the Halakhah in Exile Part III. The Ban on Gentile Wine and its Link to Moneylending7. Can Halakhic Texts Talk History?8. Halakhah, Taboo, and the Origin of Jewish Moneylending in Germany Part IV. Some General Conclusions9. Religious Law and Change: The Medieval Ashkenazic Example10. ‘Religious Law and Change’ Revisited11. A Note on Deviance in Eleventh-Century Ashkenaz12. On Deviance: A Reply to David Malkiel Review Essay. Yishaq (Eric) Zimmer, ’Olam ke-Minhago Noheg Bibliography of ManuscriptsIndexes

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Book SynopsisIn this second volume of his essays on the history of halakhah, Haym Soloveitchik grapples with much-disputed topics in medieval Jewish history and takes issue with a number of reigning views. His insistence that proper understanding requires substantive, in-depth analysis of the sources leads him to a searching analysis of oft-cited halakhic texts of Ashkenaz, frequently with conclusions that differ from the current consensus. Medieval Jewish historians cannot, he argues, avoid engaging in detailed textual criticism, and texts must always be interpreted in the context of the legal culture of their time. Historians who shirk these tasks risk reinforcing a version that supports their own preconceptions, and retrojecting later notions on to an earlier age. These basic methodological points underlie every topic discussed. In Part I, devoted to the cultural origins of Ashkenaz and its lasting impact, Professor Soloveitchik questions the scholarly consensus that the roots of Ashkenaz lie deep in Palestinian soil. He challenges the widespread notion that it was immemorial custom (minhag kadmon) that primarily governed Early Ashkenaz, the culture that emerged in the Rhineland in the late tenth century and which was ended by the ravages of the First Crusade (1096). He similarly rejects the theory that it was only towards the middle of the eleventh century that the Babylonian Talmud came to be regarded as fully authoritative. On the basis of an in-depth analysis of the literature of the time, he shows that the scholars of Early Ashkenaz displayed an astonishing command of the complex corpus of the Babylonian Talmud and viewed it at all times as the touchstone of the permissible and the forbidden. The section concludes with his own radical proposal as to the source of Ashkenazi culture and the stamp it left upon the Jews of northern Europe for close to a millennium. The second part of the volume treats the issue of martyrdom as perceived and practised by Jews under Islam and Christianity. In one of the longer essays, Soloveitchik claims that Maimonides’ problematic Iggeret ha-Shemad is a work of rhetoric, not halakhah—a conclusion that has generated much criticism from other scholars, to whom he replies one by one. This is followed by a comprehensive study of kiddush ha-shem in Ashkenaz, which draws him into an analysis of whether aggadic sources were used by the Tosafists in halakhic arguments, as some historians claim; whether there was any halakhic validation of the widespread phenomenon of voluntary martyrdom; and, indeed, whether halakhic considerations played any part in such tragic life-and-death issues. The book concludes with two essays on Mishneh torah which argue that that famed code must also be viewed as a work of art which sustains, as masterpieces do, multiple conflicting interpretations.Trade ReviewReviews ‘Reading Soloveitchik is always a delight as his careful writing, perceptive insights, and vast scholarship and erudition can be found on every page.’ David Tesler, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews‘A very important work, especially since nine of the essays have never before appeared in print . . . There is so much learning in this book, and it is written in such an engaging style, that anyone with an appreciation for the history of halakhah will be spellbound.’ Marc B. Shapiro, Seforim blogTable of ContentsPart I. Re-evaluation of Eleventh-Century AshkenazIntroduction1. Agobard of Lyons, Megillat Aḥima’ats, and the Babylonian Orientation of Early Ashkenaz2. Dialectics, Scholasticism, and the Origin of the Tosafot3. Minhag Ashkenaz ha-Kadmon: An Assessment4. The Authority of the Babylonian Talmud and the Use of Biblical Verses and Aggadah in Early Ashkenaz5. On the Use of Aggadah by the Tosafists: A Response to I. M. Ta-Shma6. Characterizing Medieval Talmudists: A Case Study7. Communications and the Palestinian Origins of Ashkenaz8. The Palestinian Orientation of the Ashkenazic Community and Some Suggested Ground Rules for the Writing of Halakhic History9. The ‘Third Yeshivah of Bavel’ and the Cultural Origins of Ashkenaz—A ProposalA Response to David BergerPart II. Martyrdom Under Cross and CrescentIntroduction10. Between Cross and Crescent11. Halakhah, Hermeneutics, and Martyrdom in Ashkenaz12. Maimonides’ Iggeret ha-Shemad: Law and Rhetoric13. Responses to Critiques of ‘Maimonides’ Iggeret ha-Shemad: Law and Rhetoric’ Part III. Mishneh Torah14. Classification of Mishneh Torah: Problems Real and Imaginary15. Mishneh Torah: Polemic and ArtBibliography of ManuscriptsIndexes

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Book SynopsisContinuing his contribution to medieval Jewish intellectual history, Haym Soloveitchik focuses here on the radical pietist movement of Ḥasidei Ashkenaz and its main literary work, Sefer Ḥasidim, and on the writings and personality of the Provençal commentator Ravad of Posquières. In both areas Soloveitchik challenges mainstream views to provide a new understanding of medieval Jewish thought. Some of the essays are revised and updated versions of work previously published and some are entirely new, but in all of them Soloveitchik challenges reigning views to provide a new understanding of medieval Jewish thought.The section on Sefer Ḥasidim brings together over half a century of Soloveitchik’s writings on German Pietism, many of which originally appeared in obscure publications, and adds two new essays. The first of these is a methodological study of how to read this challenging work and an exposition of what constitutes a valid historical inference, while the second reviews the validity of the sociological and anthropological inferences presented in contemporary historiography. In discussing Ravad’s oeuvre, Soloveitchik questions the widespread notion that Ravad’s chief accomplishment was his commentary on Maimonides’ Mishneh torah; his Talmud commentary, he claims, was of far greater importance and was his true masterpiece. He also adds a new study that focuses on the acrimony between Ravad, as the low-born genius of Posquières, and R. Zerahyah ha-Levi of Lunel, who belonged to the Jewish aristocracy of Languedoc, and considers the implications of that relationship.Trade Review'Like all of Professor Soloveitchik’s studies, the book is distinguished by the thoroughness of its scholarship and attention to even the smallest details... reading Professor Soloveitchik’s three volumes of magisterial essays will certainly engage and educate the reader, and one can only hope that we will merit to see a fourth volume in the not too distant future.'Alan Jotkowitz, Lehrhaus 'In presenting new perspectives on medieval Jewish thought, these collected essays further underline Soloveitchik’s well deserved reputation as an adept, learned and gifted intellectual historian. Highly recommended for all libraries.' David B Levy, Association of Jewish Libraries News and Reviews Table of ContentsPART I. SEFER ḤASIDIMSpecific Studies1. Three Themes in Sefer Ḥasidim2. On Dating Sefer Ḥasidim3. Piety, Pietism, and German Pietism: Sefer Ḥasidim I and the Influence of Ḥasidei Ashkenaz4. Pietists and Kibbitzers5. The Midrash, Sefer Ḥasidim, and the Changing Face of God6. Two Notes on the Commentary on the Torah of R. Yehudah he-Ḥasid7. Topics in the Ḥokhmat ha-NefeshMethodological Issues8. On Reading Sefer Ḥasidim9. Sefer Ḥasidim and the Social Sciences PART II. RAVAD AND PROVENÇAL STUDIES10. Rabad of Posquières: A Programmatic Essay11. The Literary Remains of the Gedol ha-Mefarshim: A Study in Personal Rivalry and the Repulsion of Opposites12. A Response to R. Buckwold's Critique of 'Rabad of Posquières', Part I13. A Response to R. Buckwold's Critique of 'Rabad of Posquières', Part II14. Jewish and Roman Law: A Study in Interaction15. The Riddle of Me'iri's Recent Popularity16. Printing and the History of Halakhah17. Angle of Deflection Bibliography of ManuscriptsSource AcknowledgementsIndex of NamesIndex of PlacesIndex of Subjects

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Book SynopsisInsiders and Outsiders: Dilemmas of East European Jewry examines problems of Jewish cultural and political orientations, associations, and self-identification within a broad framework. The contributors approach the predicament of east European Jews in various settings: some focus primarily on the Jews' inner development and outlook, while others discuss how elements of the majority society viewed their presence. Scholars of history, art history, and literature display originality and insight in illuminating the nuances and intricacies of the Jewish ‘outsider’. Following an overview by the distinguished intellectual historian of German Jewry Steven Aschheim, who offers some comprehensive thoughts on the insider/outsider dilemma in modern times and its relevance to eastern Europe, the discussion evolves around three major themes: the cultural conundrum; modes of acculturation, assimilation, and identity; and the minority’s inclusion in or exclusion from the political agendas of certain east European societies. It concludes with a focus on two remarkable cities―Czernowitz and Vilnius―where the Jewish minority has often been conceived as being no less ‘inside’ than other groups. Contributors to the ‘cultural conundrum’ section deal with artists and writers from Romania and Poland who have gained wide public and critical attention over the years, including Reuven Rubin, Itzik Manger, Avot Yeshurun, and Mihail Sebastian. Other essays discuss the work of a group of writers from Poland, including Henryk Grynberg, Wilhelm Dichter, Joanna Olczak-Ronikier, Krzysztof Teodor Toeplitz, and Michal Glowinski, who reflected intensively on their experiences as Jews in the Second World War and tried to integrate these experiences into their often fractured identities. The complex personal evolution of these figures shows the multi-layered influences on their creativity and imagination, while underscoring the dilemmas they faced to find points of meeting between their Jewish background and their national identity. The section on modes of acculturation, assimilation, and identity offers detailed analyses of the ways in which multi-ethnic and multi-national situations demand that the ‘outsider’, consciously or unconsciously, develop inner strategies to fashion a specific identity. Surveying such vibrant areas as Czechoslovakia and Poland between the two world wars and the city of Lwów in the late nineteenth century, three essays present some of the choices Jews made in order to deal with the changing political and cultural context. Their meditations on belonging and not-belonging―on the constitution of identity and its fluidity, and on the formation, breakdown, and reconfiguration of physical, mental, social, and geographical borders―acquire a special relevance and urgency in these settings. How did Jews as ‘outsiders’ configure their political allegiance in eastern Europe? How prominent were they in the radical elements of the communist movement in Russia? What tactics did they employ to safeguard their future in such societies and what means did they employ to galvanize the ‘Jewish street’? These are some of the questions raised in the section on society and politics, which delves into such problematic terrain as ‘Jewish informers’, the ‘non-Jewish Jew’, and ‘Jewish politics’. The concluding essays examine the tensions, paradoxes, and ironies of the phenomenon of the Jewish outsider in Czernowitz and Vilnius, two cities where, indeed, Jews were often construed to be the true ‘insiders’.CONTRIBUTORS: Steven E. Aschheim, Karen Auerbach, Richard I. Cohen, Jonathan Frankel, Stefani Hoffman, Zvi Jagendorf, Hillel J. Kieval, Rachel Manekin, Amitai Mendelsohn, Joanna B. Michlic, Antony Polonsky, David Rechter, Scott Ury, Leon Volovici, Ruth R. Wisse, Mordechai ZalkinTrade Review'Intellectual provocations and controversial and new interpretations are very important, especially if they come together with solid scholarship. This is the case of the book under review, which is a must read for everybody interested in the assimilation of east European Jews.' Piotr Wróbel, H-Judaic'This volume, thanks to the high quality and diversity of its offerings, is clearly a major contribution to east European Jewish studies and to the larger fields of Jewish history and cultural studies.' Natan Meir, H-Judaic'All authors present well-grounded conclusions with regard to the specific problems they analyse and suggest that by using a methodological approach like that of “outsiders” and “insiders” it is possible to widen the scope of research on identity change and provide a fresh look at conflcts possibly based on individual choices, their contexts, and consequences. Thus, the articles in this book, each in their way, convincingly prove the viability and multi-functionality of this methodological apprach in research on modern east European Jewish culture and history.' Jurgita Siauciunaite-Verbickiene, JudaicaTable of ContentsNote on TransliterationReflections on Insiders and Outsiders: A General Introduction - Steven E. AschheimPART I: INSIDER/OUTSIDER: THE CULTURAL CONUNDRUM1 The Project of Jewish Culture and its Boundaries---Insiders and Outsiders - Richard I. Cohen2 Gott fun Avrohom: Itzik Manger and Avot Yeshurun Look Homewards - Zvi Jagendorf3 Agony and Resurrection: The Figure of Jesus in the Work of Reuven Rubin - Amitai Mendelsohn4 Mihail Sebastian: A Jewish Writer and his (Antisemitic) Master - Leon Volovici5 Insiders/Outsiders: Poles and Jews in Recent Polish Jewish Fiction and Autobiography - Karen Auerbach and Antony PolonskyPART II: ACCULTURATION, ASSIMILATION, AND IDENTITY6 Negotiating Czechoslovakia: The Challenges of Jewish Citizenship in a Multiethnic Nation-State - Hillel J. Kieval7 The Debate over Assimilation in Late Nineteenth-Century - Lwow Rachel Manekin8 The Culture of Ethno-Nationalism and the Identity of Jews in Inter-War Poland: Some Responses to 'the Aces of Purebred Race' - Joanna B. MichlicPART III: INCLUSION/EXCLUSION: SOCIETY AND POLITICS9 Urban Society, Popular Culture, Participatory Politics: On the Culture of Modern Jewish Politics in Congress Poland - Scott Ury10 The 'Non-Jewish Jews' Revisited: Solzhenitsyn and the Issue of National Guilt - Jonathan Frankel11 The Jewish Informer as Extortionist and Idealist - Ruth R. WissePART IV. TWO CITIES AND TALES OF BELONGING12 A Jewish El Dorado? Myth and Politics in Habsburg Czernowitz - David Rechter13 Wilno/Vilnius/Vilne: Whose City Is It Anyway? - Mordechai ZalkinNotes on ContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisMysticism, which transcends the boundaries of time and space and refers to a reality not grasped by means of ordinary human cognition, is one of the central sources of inspiration of religious thought. It is an attempt to decode the mystery of divine existence by penetrating to the depths of consciousness through language, memory, myth, and symbolism. Delving deep into the psyche, mystics strive to redeem perceived reality from its immediate meaning. Mystical texts constitute a history of this religious creativity, of man’s attempt to reveal the divine structure underlying the chaos of reality and thereby endow life with hope and purpose. By offering an alternative perspective on the world that gives expression to yearnings for freedom and change, mysticism engenders new modes of authority and leadership; as such it plays a decisive role in moulding religious and social history. For all these reasons, the mystical corpus deserves study and discussion in the framework of cultural criticism and research. This study is a lyrical exposition of the Jewish mystical phenomenon. It is based on a close reading of the hundreds of volumes written by Jewish mystics and incorporates mystical testimonies drawn from the different countries and cultural environments in which Jews have lived. Rachel Elior’s purpose is to present, as accurately as possible, the meanings of the mystical works as they were perceived by their creators and readers. At the same time, she contextualizes them within the boundaries of the religion, culture, language, and spiritual and historical circumstances in which the destiny of the Jewish people has evolved. The author succeeds in drawing the reader into a mystical world. With great intensity, she conveys the richness of the mystical experience in discovering the infinity of meaning embedded in the sacred text; teasing out the recurring themes, she explains the multivalent symbols. Using copious extracts from Jewish mystical sources, she illustrates the varieties of the mystical experience from antiquity to the twentieth century. She succeeds in eloquently conveying how mystics try to decipher reality by penetrating beyond its apparent boundaries: how they experience spiritual powers symbolically, imaginatively, or visually; how hidden truths are revealed in visions or dreams, in an epiphany or as ‘lightning’; how they are ‘engraved’ in the mind or illuminate in the soul. Most of the texts she draws on are written in very obscure language, but the skilful translations communicate the mystical experiences vividly and make it easy for the reader to understand how Elior uses them to explain the relationship between the revealed world and the hidden world and between the mystical world and the traditional religious world, with all the social and religious tensions this has caused. Trade Review‘Will greatly reward the non-specialist reader who is willing to put in some effort in order to receive a taste of this amazing Jewish literary tradition.’ Aaron Howard, Jewish Herald-Voice'A useful overview of Jewish mystical thought, overflowing with interesting insights.'James R. Davila, Journal of Jewish Studies'The book is extremely successful in delineating the existential meaning of the mystical phenomenon, and gives great insight into the popularity and attraction of this highly influential strand of Judaism.'TraditionTable of ContentsNote on Transliteration1 The Jewish Mystical Library and the New Vision of Reality2 The Infinity of Meaning Embedded in the Sacred Text3 The Mystical Figure: Life without Limits4 Mystical Language and Magical Language: 'Had I been using tongues of men and angels'Appendix: Historical and Literary Figures, Kabbalists, and Mystics Mentioned in Jewish Mystical LiteratureBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThis book offers the reader a voyage in the new world that opened up to the enlightened Jewish reader of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a time when the first glimmerings of emancipation and secular education were giving large numbers of Jews their first exposure to science, literature, and art, and opening their minds to new ideas. And as on any voyage led by a knowledgeable guide, there are fascinating side-trips along the way: insights into the world of scholarship, then and now, and into the nature of knowledge. All this was happening at a time when Jews’ civil status and place in society was undergoing great change in Europe. In this seminal work, Zeev Gries shows that although the history of the book in the Jewish world has long been regarded as the province of librarians and bibliophiles, it is in fact the history of the Jewish intellect. He starts by tracing the awakening of a dormant Jewish intelligentsia—men, women, and children who were thirsty for knowledge. Books were the magic kiss that opened new doors to the modern world; within a century, Jews were making invaluable contributions to the advancement of science and of culture more generally. By surveying the literary output of those years, the author is able to discover what books were being published, where they were published and distributed, and who was reading them. He surveys the fields of halakhic literature, ethical literature, kabbalistic and mystical literature, literature for children and women, and more general literature. He talks about the role of libraries and of book reviews. Above all, he considers the role of books as agents of culture: were they guardians of hallowed sanctity or harbingers of secularization? Gries shows how the types of books favoured by the Jewish reading public offer an insight into the changing nature of their ‘portable homeland’. He then goes on to discuss the Haskalah movement and the tensions between increasing secularization and the more traditional world-view, as well as how the resurrection of Hebrew as a secular literary language contributed to the awakening of Jewish nationalism. Nevertheless, he argues that the study of literary history of the period reveals that secular and Zionist leanings were not the only trends present; Jewish literature continued to be permeated with the spirit of religion.Table of ContentsNote on Transliteration Part I The Awakening of the Dormant Intelligentsia Introduction 1 Readers of Books and the Reading of Books 2 Halakhic Literature and High-Level Commentary 3 Ethical Literature in Hebrew and Yiddish 4 What Can be Learned from a Single Private Library and Something about Public Libraries 5 Kabbalistic Literature in General and its Appearance in Hasidism in Particular 6 Literature for Children and Women, or Literature Intended for Everyone? Part II The Book as Guardian of Sanctity or as Herald of Secularization 7 The New Hebrew Literature: Continuity or Revolution? 8 The Printing and Circulation of Jewish Books in the Nineteenth Century and the Identity of their Authors 9 Book Reviews in the Hebrew Press 10 A Bibliographer and Librarian as an Agent of Culture: The Contribution of Avraham Ya’ari to the Study of Jewish Printing in Eastern Europe Appendix ‘The Young Avraham Ya’ari’ by S. H. Bergman BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisModernity offers people choices about who they want to be and how they want to appear to others. The way in which Jews choose to frame their identity establishes the dynamic of their social relations with other Jews and non-Jews - a dynamic complicated by how non-Jews position the boundaries around what and who they define as Jewish. This book uncovers these processes, historically, as well as in contemporary behavior, and finds explanations for the various manifestations, in feeling and action, of 'being Jewish.' Boundaries and borders raise fundamental questions about the difference between Jews and non-Jews. At root, the question is how 'Jewish' is understood in social situations where people recognize or construct boundaries between their own identity and those of others. The question is important because this is by definition the point at which the lines of demarcation between Jews and non-Jews, and between different groupings of Jews, are negotiated. Collectively, the contributors to the book expand our understanding of the social dynamics of framing Jewish identity. The book opens with an introduction that locates the issues raised by the contributors in terms of the scholarly traditions from which they have evolved. Part I presents four essays dealing with the construction and maintenance of boundaries - two by scholars showing how boundaries come to be etched on an ethnic landscape and two by activists who question and adjust distinctions among neighbors. Part II focuses on expressive means of conveying identity and memory, while, in Part III, the discussion turns to museum exhibitions and festive performances as locations for the negotiation of identity in the public sphere. A lively discussion forum concludes the book with a consideration of the paradoxes of Jewish heritage revival in Poland, and the perception of that revival by Jews and non-Jews. *** ..".these essays help us understand the social dynamics of Jewish identity and how identity is constructed in modern life." -- AJL Reviews, February/March 2015 (Series: Jewish Cultural Studies - Vol. 4) [Subject: Jewish Studies, Cultural Studies]Table of ContentsNote on TransliterationIntroduction: Framing Jewish Culture  Simon J. BronnerPART I: BOUNDARY CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE1 Representing Jewish Culture: The Problem of Boundaries  Jonathan Webber2 Trickster’s Children: Genealogies of Jewishness in Anthropology  Jonathan Boyarin3 Selective Inclusion: Integration and Isolation of Jews in Medieval Civic Space  Samuel D. Gruber4 The Question of Hasidic Sectarianism  Marcin WodzinskiPART II: NARRATING AND VISUALIZING JEWISH RELATIONSHIPS5 Framing Father--Son Relationships in Medieval Ashkenaz: Folk Narratives as Markers of Cultural Difference  Magdalena Luszczynska6 Sites of Collective Memory in Narratives of the Prague Ghetto  Rella Kushelevsky7 Wearing Many Hats: The Boundaries of Hair-Covering Practices by Orthodox Jewish Women in Amish Country  Amy Milligan8 Chronic Dissatisfaction: Negative Interfaith Romances and the Reassertion of Jewish Difference  Holly PearsePART III: EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES OF JEWISH CULTURE9 ‘The Night of the Orvietani’ and the Mediation of Jewish and Italian Identities  Steve Siporin10 Jewish Museums: Performing the Present through Narrating the Past  David Clark11 Framing Jewish Identity in the Museum of Moroccan Judaism  Sophie Wagenhofer12 The Framing of the Jew: Paradigms of Incorporation and Difference in the Jewish Heritage Revival in Poland  Magdalena WaligorskaPART IV: HOW REAL IS THE EUROPEAN JEWISH REVIVAL?13 Beyond Virtual Jewishness: Monuments to Jewish Experience in Eastern Europe  Ruth Ellen Gruber14 Unsettling Encounters: Missing Links of European Jewish Experience and Discourse  Francesco Spagnolo15 Virtual Transitioning into Real: Jewishness in Central Eastern Europe  Annamaria Orla-Bukowska16 Virtual, Virtuous, Vicarious, Vacuous? Toward a Vigilant Use of Labels  Erica Lehrer17 Response  Ruth Ellen GruberContributorsIndex

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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 Synopsis Many books on Maimonides have been written and still more will appear. Few present Maimonides, as Menachem Kellner does against the actual religious background that informed his many innovative and influential choices. He not only analyses the thought of the great religious thinker but contextualizes it in terms of the ‘proto-kabbalistic’ Judaism that preceded him. Kellner shows how the Judaism that Maimonides knew had come to conceptualize the world as an enchanted universe, governed by occult affinities. He shows why Maimonides rejected this and how he went about doing it. Kellner argues that Maimonides’ attempted reformation failed, the clearest proof of that being the success of the kabbalistic counter-reformation which his writings provoked. Kellner shows how Maimonides rethought Judaism in different ways. It is in highlighting this and identifying Maimonides as a religious reformer that this book makes its key contribution. Maimonides created a new Judaism, ‘disenchanted’, depersonalized, and challenging; a religion that is at the same time elitist and universalist. Kellner’s analysis also shows the deep configuration of Judaism in a new light. If, as Moshe Idel says in his Foreword, Maimonides was able to ‘reform so many aspects of rabbinic Judaism single-handedly, to enrich it by importing such dramatically different concepts, it shows that the profound structures of this religion are flexible enough to allow the emergence and success of astonishing reforms. The fact that, great as Maimonides was, he did not overcome the traditional forms of proto-kabbalism shows that the dynamic of religion is much more complex than subscribing to authorities, however widely accepted.’Trade Review'One of the most important books on Maimonides to be published in the last thirty years and quite possibly one of the most important in the field of Jewish philosophy. The writing is clear and crisp, and the scholarship is impeccable. The book explains not just how radical Mamonides's dissatisfactions with the Judaism of his day was, but how radical his opinions are for most Jews today.'Kenneth Seeskind, AJS Review 'Impressive... lucid... that rare scholarly study that manages not to compromise on academic rigour while daring to state strongly-held convictions that are so relevant in times troubled by the many irrational "surges" of political, military, and religious fundamentalism.'Allan Nadler, Forward 'Kellner has contributed a study of great value not only for an academic audience but for lay and yeshivish audiences as well. The book is a welcome addition to the samizdats currently circulating within the underground yeshiva counter-culture.'James A. Diamond, Meorot 'A spirited, highly stimulating works that reads fluently and fully engages not only with the mind but also the reader's Jewish soul.'Haim Chertok, Midstream 'Interesting and important... extremely valuable in the way that it roots both Maimonides' legal code and his philosophy in the thought-world and social and religious practices of his own time, and dramatizes the ways in which some of his most characteristic formulations function as critical responses to what prevailed in his own culture and environment.'Aryeh Botwinick, Philosophy East & West 'One of those rare combinations of erudite scholarship and accessible style, treating an issue that is not only perennially meaningful, but also particularly salient today-features that characterize a number of his works... Throughout the book, Kellner devises a series of easy-to-follow dualities to structure his argument... many books have been written about Maimonides. What Menachem Kellner's book does uniquely is to isolate the ways in which Maimonides bumps against the mystical and mythical strains that run through ancient and medieval Jewish thought like a river. While any educated Jew knows that Maimonides stands out as a leading rationalist, Kellner presents us with a compelling portrait of the multi-faceted ways in which Maimonides expunges these mystical and mythical veins from the Jewish mine.'Joel Hecker, The Reconstructionist 'Kellner has refocused Maimonidean studies in a new way. In addition, he has done so in a very learned manner: his footnotes cover a vast area of Jewish scholarship; his summaries of scholarship are very concise; and his bibliography is very full... a very important book. It formulates clearly and comprehensively the hyperrationalist reading of Maimonides which is widely held by scholars of Jewish philosophy. It also offers a new proposal on the subject of the opponents against whom Maimonides wrote. Kellner's erudition has made this so, and his willingness to engage the present and the future has projected the issue beyond medieval philosophy.'David R. Blumenthal, Reviews in Religion & Theology 'The strengths of this book lie in its didactic and ideological clarity... For those interested in the medieval roots of a major dispute within modern Orthodox Judaism this is an extremely useful book packed with detailed examples of contentious topics.'Michael Fagenblat, Speculum 'A thought-provoking study that deals with rather more than its title suggests.'Jeremy Adler, Times Literary Supplement 'Perhaps no author in the last couple of decades has made Maimonides' theology more relevant for contemporary Orthodox dialogue than Menachem Kellner. His works on dogma, belief, rabbinic authority, and other central topics have generated significant debate and even his biggest detractors acknowledge the substantive and stimulating nature of his work... This is an extremely thought-provoking work that deserves serious attention, debate, and discussion.'Tradition Online'Intellectual tour de force... On the one hand, Kellner, in a work of objective scholarship, insightfully decodes what he takes to be two opposing religions that have contended for recognition as the Orthodox expression of Judaism from ancient to modern times. On the other hand, Kellner, as an engaged modern Orthodox thinker who has a stake in this conflict, applies wide learning, critical skills, and expansive control of traditional Jewish sources, intellectual history, and analytic philosophical tools in a sustained argument... Menachem Kellner’s study of Maimonides and the mystics will endure not because it explicates an antiquarian medieval debate; his study talks to moderns who struggle with ideas and ideals, who are both intellectually modern and Jewishly religious.'Alan J. Yuter, Review of Rabbinic Judaism'This is one of the most important books on Maimonides to be published in the last thirty years and quite possibly one of the most important in the field of Jewish philosophy. The writing is clear and crisp, and the scholarship is impeccable.'Israel Book ReviewTable of ContentsForeword by Moshe IdelPrefaceAcknowledgementsNote on Transliteration and Conventions Used in the Text1 Maimonides' Critique of the Jewish Culture of His DayIntroduction * The Judaism Maimonides Opposed * The Philospphical Basis of Maimonides' Opposition * Esotericism and Elitism * Maimonides' Failure * Elements of Proto-Kabbalah * Maimonides' Opposition to the World of Proto-Kabbalah * Excursus: Terminology2 The Institutional Character of HalakhahIntroduction * Two Opposing Views * Maimonides' View * Maimonides' Motivation * Mistakes and Errors in Halakhah / Science / Dogma * Error in 'Science' * Halakhah as Instrumental * Halakhah and Theology * God and Abraham: Who Chose Whom?3 HolinessIntroduction * A Glance at the Biblical Evidence * Maimonides on the Nature of Holiness in General * Holy Persons * The People of Israel * The Sanctity of the Land of Israel and of Jerusalem * Holy Things: Torah, Tefilin, Mezuzot * Holy Times4 Ritual Purity and ImpurityIntroduction: Two Ancient Views on Ritual Purity and Impurity * Judah Halevi on Ritual Purity and Impurity * Maimonides on Ritual Purity and Impurity * Maimonides on the Sacrifical Cult and the Laws of Ritual Purity and Impurity * Maimonides on the Moral Significance of the Laws of Ritual Purity and Impurity * Critiques of Maimonides' Account of the Sacrifices5 The Hebrew LanguageIntroduction * Judah Halevi on the Hebrew Language * Maimonides on the Hebrew Language * Why Did Maimonides Adopt His Position? * Nahmanides' Critique6 Kavod, Shekhinah, and Created LightIntroduction * Shekhinah, Kavod, and Created Light in Rabbinic Texts * Sa'adiah Gaon * Judah Halevi * Maimonides on Kavod in the Guide of the Perplexed * Maimonides on Shekhinah in the Guide of the Perplexed * Maimonides on Created Light in the Guide of the Perplexed * Shekhinah and Kavod in Mishneh torah and Commentary on the Mishnah7 Jews and Non-JewsIntroduction * Theory of the Acquired Intellect * Jews and Non-Jews * Digression: Which of the Thirteen Principles Must Actually Be Accepted to Achieve a Share in the World to Come? * Who is an 'Israelite'? * Wise Non-Jews and the World to Come * Was Maimonides Truly Universalist?8 AngelsIntroduction * Angels in Rabbinic Thought * Angels in Piyutim * Angels in Heikhalot Literature * Sa'adiah Gaon and Judah Halevi on Angels * Maimonides on AngelsAfterword: Contemporary Resistance to the Maimonidean ReformGlossaryIndex of Citations from Moses Maimonides and Judah HaleviBibliographyGeneral Index

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Book SynopsisThis volume provides a comprehensive and much-needed survey of the millennium-long history of Jews in the Ukrainian lands. The book challenges the stereotyped vision of the relationship between Jews and Ukrainians and offers in-depth studies of key periods and issues. The survey opens with a consideration of early Jewish settlements and the local reactions to these. The focus then moves to the period after 1569, when control of the fertile lands of Ukraine passed to the Polish nobility. Because it was largely Jews in the service of the nobility who administered these lands, they were inevitably caught up in the resentment that Polish rule provoked among the local population, and, above all, among the Cossacks and peasant-serfs. This resentment culminated in the great revolt led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky in the mid-17th century, in consequence of which the Jews were excluded from that part of Ukraine which eventually came under Russian rule when the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned. The Jewish response to the establishment of Russian and Austrian rule in the areas of Ukraine that had formerly been in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is a second major theme of the book, and particularly the Jewish reaction to the emergence of Ukrainian nationalism and the subsequent Ukrainian struggle for independence. A third overarching theme is the impact of the sovietization of Ukraine on Jewish-Ukrainian relations, with a chapter devoted to the 1932-33 Famine (Holodomor) in which millions perished. The book also gives special attention to the growing rift between Jews and Ukrainians triggered by the rise of radical nationalism among Ukrainians living outside the Soviet Union and by conflicting views of Germany's genocidal plans regarding the Jews during World War II. With contributions from leading Jewish and Ukrainian scholars on these complex and highly controversial topics, the book places Jewish-Ukrainian relations in a broader historical context and adds to the growing literature that seeks to go beyond the old paradigms of conflict and hostility. CONTRIBUTORS: Howard Aster, formerly taught Political Science, McMaster University; Rachel Feldhay Brenner, Max and Frieda Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Modern Hebrew Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Ivan Dzyuba, Ukrainian writer and literary critic; member, National Academy of Science of Ukraine; former Ukrainian Minister of Culture; Amelia Glaser, Associate Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature, University of California, San Diego; John-Paul Himka, Professor, Department of History, University of Alberta; Judith Kalik, teaches East European History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Myron Kapral, Director, Lviv Branch, Hrushevsky Institute of Ukrainian Archaeography and Source Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Vladimir (Ze'ev) Khanin, Chief Adviser on Research and Strategic Planning, Ministry of Absorption, Israel; Victoria Khiterer, Assistant Professor of History and Director, Conference on the Hilocaust and Genocide, Millersville University, Pennsylvania; Taras Koznarsky, Associate Professor, University of Toronto Sergey R. Kravtsov, Research Fellow, Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Taras Kurylo, independent scholar, Calgary; Alexander J. Motyl, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University-Newark; Jakub Nowakowski, Director, Galicia Jewish Museum, Kraków; Alexander Pereswetoff-Morath, Associate Professor and Academy Research Fellow, Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History, and Antiquities, Stockholm; Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, Crown Family Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Jewish History, Northwestern University; Antony Polonsky, Albert Abramson Professor of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Peter J. Potichnyj, Honorary Professor, East China University, Shanghai and Lviv Polytechnic National University; Professor Emeritus, McMaster University; Mykola Ryabchuk, Ukrainian writer and journalist; Vice President, Ukrainian PEN-Club; Raz Segal, doctoral student, Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Clark University; teaching fellow, International MA Program in Holocaust Studies, Haifa University; Dan Shapira, Professor of Ottoman Studies and Professor of the History and Culture of Eastern European Jewry, Bar-Ilan University; Myroslav Shkandrij, Professor of Slavic Studies, University of Manitoba; Mykola Iv. Soroka, Advancement Manager, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta; Yevhen Sverstyuk, theologian, translator, journalist, and literary critic; Chief Editor, Nas.Table of ContentsNote on Place Names Note on Transliteration PART I: JEWS AND UKRAINIANS Introduction Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern and Antony Polonsky The First Jews of Ukraine Dan Shapira Jews of Lviv and the City Council in the Early Modern Period Myron Kapral Christian Anti-Judaism and Jewish–Orthodox Relations among the East Slavs up to 1569 Alexander Pereswetoff-Morath Jews, Orthodox, and Uniates in Ruthenian Lands Judith Kalik Jews in Russian Travel Narratives of the Early Nineteenth Century Taras Koznarsky Between Nation and Class: Natalia Kobrynska’s Jewish Characters Amelia Glaser The Jewish Formations of Western Ukraine during the Civil War Yaroslav Tynchenko Jewish Themes in Volodymyr Vynnychenko’s Writing Mykola Iv. Soroka The ‘Jewish Question’ in the Ukrainian Nationalist Discourse of the Inter-War Period Taras Kurylo Breaking Taboos: The Holodomor and the Holocaust in Ukrainian–Jewish Relations Myroslav Shkandrij The Ukrainian Nationalist Movement and the Jews: Theoretical Reflections on Nationalism, Fascism, Rationality, Primordialism, and History Alexander J. Motyl The Ukrainian Free University and the Jews Nicolas Szafowal Imported Violence: Carpatho-Ruthenians and Jews in Carpatho-Ukraine, October 1938–March 1939 Raz Segal Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky and the Holocaust John-Paul Himka We Did Not Recognize Our Country: The Rise of Antisemitism in Ukraine before and after the Second World War, 1937–1947 Victoria Khiterer On the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Murders in Baby Yar Ivan Dzyuba Reminiscences About Friends Yury (Arye) Vudka Grains of Ukrainian–Israeli 'Solidarity' Yevhen Sverstyuk Ukrainian–Jewish Relations: A Twenty-Five-Year Perspective HOWARD ASTER and PETER J. POTICHNYJ Yiddish: Identity and Language Politics in the Post-Soviet Ukrainian Jewish Community Vladimir (Ze'ev) Khanin ‘A City Not Forgotten: Memories of Jewish Lwów and the Holocaust’ An Exhibition at the Galician Jewish Museum, Kraków, June 2010–January 2011 Jakub Nowakowski Eight Jews in Search of a Grandfather Mykola Ryabchuk A Note on the Names of the Golden Rose Synagogue in Lviv Sergey Kravtsov PART II: NEW VIEWS The Vagaries of British Compassion: Britons, Poles, and Jews after the First World War Russell Wallis The Merry-Go-Round on Krasiński Square: Did ‘the happy throngs laugh’? The Debate Regarding the Attitude of Warsaw's Inhabitants towards the Ghetto Uprising Tomasz Szarota Personal Accounts of the War by Polish Writers in Occupied Warsaw: The Case of Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz Rachel Feldhay Brenner Obituary Józef Życiński by Monika Rice Glossary Notes on the Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThe Kingdom of Poland, also known as the Congress Kingdom or Russian Poland, was created by a decision of the Congress of Vienna as part of its attempt to set up a post-Napoleonic European order. It incorporated lands that for many decades had been the most important centres of Polish politics, finance, education, and culture, and which also had the largest concentration of Jews in eastern Europe. Because of these factors, and because its semi-autonomous status allowed for the development of a liberal policy towards Jews quite different from that of Russia proper, the Kingdom of Poland became a fertile ground for the growth of Jewish cultural and political movements of all sorts, many of which continue to be influential to this day. This volume brings together a wide range of scholars to present a broad view of the Jewish life of this important area at a critical moment in its history. In the nineteenth century, tradition vied with modernization for Jews’ hearts and minds. In the Kingdom of Poland, traditional hasidic leaders defied the logic of modernization by creating courts near major urban centres such as Warsaw and Łódź and shtiblekh within them, producing innovative and influential homiletic literature and attracting new followers. Modernizing maskilim, for their part, found employment as government officials and took advantage of the liberal climate to establish educational institutions and periodicals that similarly attracted followers to their own cause and influenced the development of the Jewish community in the Kingdom in a completely different direction. Their immediate successors, the Jewish integrationists, managed to gain considerable power within the Jewish community and to create a vibrant and more secular Polish Jewish culture. Subsequently Zionism, Jewish socialism, and cultural autonomy also became significant forces. The relative strength of each movement on the eve of the rebirth of Poland is extremely difficult to measure, but unquestionably the ferment of so many potent, competing movements was a critical factor in shaping the modern Jewish experience.Table of ContentsNote on Place Names Note on Transliteration PART I: Jews in the Kingdom of Poland, 1815–1918 The Kingdom of Poland and her Jews: Introduction GLENN DYNNER & MARCIN WODZIŃSKI Jews in the in the Discourses of the Polish Enlightenment RICHARD BUTTERWICK-PAWLIKOWSKI The Jews in the Duchy of Warsaw: The Question of Equal Rights in Administrative Theory and Practice ALEKSANDRA ONISZCZUK ‘English Missionaries’ Look at Polish Jews: The Value and Limitations of Missionary Reports as Source Material AGNIESZKA JAGODZIŃSKA ‘Languishing from a Distance’: Louis Meyer and the Demise of the German Jewish Ideal FRANÇOIS GUESNET 'Each for his Own': Economic Nationalism in Łódź, 1864–1914 YEDIDA KANFER The Attitude of the Jews towards Poland’s Independence SZYMON RUDNICKI Anti-Jewish Pogroms in the Kingdom of Poland ARTUR MARKOWSKI Theology in Translation: Progressive Judaism in the Kingdom of Poland BENJAMIN MATIS 'Who Has Not Wanted Ro Be an Editor: The Yiddish Press in the Kingdom of Poland, 1905–1914 JOANNA NALEWAJKO-KULIKOV Jews in the Kingdom of Poland, 1861–1914: Changes and Continuities THEODORE WEEKS Feliks Perl on the Jewish Question JOSHUA D. ZIMMERMAN Yiddish Language Rights in Congress Poland during the First World War: The Social Implications of Linguistic Recognition MARCOS SILBER PART II: New Views The Anti-Favus Campaign in Poland: Jewish Social Medicine RAKEFET ZALASHIK Władysław Raczkiewicz and Jewish Issues JACEK PIOTROWSKI After Złote żniwa: An Attempt to Assess the Social Impact of the Book ANTONI SUŁEK Righteousness and Evil: Jedwabne in the Polish Theatre KATHLEEN CIOFFI From Brzeżany to Afula: A Child’s Journey from Pre-War Poland to Israel in the 1950s: A Conversation with Shimon Redlich GABRIEL N. FINDER Obituaries Jacob Goldberg Hasidism without Romanticism: Mendel Piekarz’s Path in the Study of Hasidism Paula Hyman Vitka Kempner-Kovner Roman Totenberg Zenon Guldon Notes on Contributors 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. The study of Jewish art frequently raises questions relating to Jewish survival and Jewish identity. These issues have always been of relevance throughout the Jewish diaspora, and as is evident from the articles in this volume they continue to concern Jewish artists to this day. The opening article, 'Illuminations of Kol Nidrei in Two Ashkenazi Mahzorim' by Sara Offenberg, deals with the hidden meanings expressed by groups of animals depicted in two medieval Ashkenazi prayer books for the Day of Atonement. By using allegorical animals in this way the Jews of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries could safely express their fear of the hostile Christian society in which they lived, as well as their trust in God and belief in redemption.A surprising link between the Middle Ages and modern times is made by Rachel Singer’s article, 'Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are: An Exploration of the Personal and the Collective'. Published in 1963, this classic children’s book, written and illustrated by the son of a Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn, is far removed, both chronologically and geographically, from the Ashkenazi Middle Ages. In her study, however, Singer prises out hidden sources of antisemitic perceptions rooted in medieval Christian Europe. This leads us to the volume’s third article, 'The Return of the Wandering Jew(s) in Samuel Hirszenberg’s Art' by Richard I. Cohen and Mirjam Rajner. The motif of the wandering Jew, a negative and frightening figure, is rooted in the late Middle Ages: it made its first appearance in Christian art, in printed books which disseminated the Christian legend all over Europe. In the nineteenth century, Jewish artists engaging with the image of the wandering Jew endowed it with new interpretations and presentations. One of these is revealed by the authors as they focus on the painting The Wandering Jew, created in 1899 by the Polish Jewish artist Samuel Hirszenberg. As is well known, emancipation and the Jewish national awakening in late nineteenth-century Europe were accompanied by diverse artistic activities. These included the establishment of Jewish societies promoting Jewish art and artists, exhibitions, documentation, and research. Among the most impressive efforts were the activities of Jewish artists in interwar Poland, recorded in contemporary local newspapers and periodicals. As these were published in Polish and Yiddish they weren’t accessible to the English-speaking reader, something that is now rectified by Renata Piątkowska in ‘A Sense of Togetherness: The Jewish Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Warsaw (1923–1939)'. Based on primary sources, the article introduces us to the flourishing artistic life which was cruelly destroyed in the Holocaust.Another result of Jewish national awakening, in this case in the medium of photography, is presented in 'Modernity as Anti-Nostalgia: The Photographic Books of Tim Gidal and Moshe Vorobeichic and the Eastern European Shtetl', by Rose-Carol Washton Long. This article examines how Zionist ideas led two assimilated German-trained photographers to develop variant thematic and stylistic portrayals of eastern European shtetls in their photobooks, published in 1931 and 1932. Their volumes are neither romantic nor nostalgic, but instead convey a vibrant vision of modernity. While the first five articles discuss issues of identity encountered by Jewish individuals or groups, the next contribution focuses on a 'Jewish identity' that was imposed by a colonial administration. Dominique Jarrassé's 'Orientalism, Colonialism, and Jewish Identity in the Synagogues of North Africa under French Domination' fills the gaps in our knowledge of synagogue architecture in Tunisia and Algiers in the modern era in general, and about colonial Orientalism in particular. Covert Jewish identity is revealed by Milly Heyd in 'Hans Richter: Universalism vis-à-vis Particularism'. This is the third part of her study of the place of the hidden Jew in the Dada avant-garde, one part of which is published in volume 1 of Ars Judaica. The focus in the present piece is on Hans Richter’s art in the context of Man Ray, Tristan Tzara, and others who were born to Jewish families but opted for universalism rather than particularism in their art. The Special Item in this year’s volume is devoted to a painting by Moritz Oppenheim that was long thought to be lost. 'Of Provenance and Providence: On the Reappearance of David Playing the Harp for Saul by Moritz Oppenheim', by Susan Nashman Fraiman, raises some new and interesting questions about Oppenheim’s early work and patrons. The study of this painting reveals a conscious effort to incorporate Jewish source material into his work, an important aspect of his corpus which has previously been neglected.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.il]Table of ContentsEditor's Note BRACHA YANIV Illuminations of Kol Nidrei in Two Ashkenazi Mahzorim SARA OFFENBERG Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are: An Explanation of the Personal and the Collective RACHEL SINGER The Return of the Wandering Jew(s) RICHARD I. COHEN and MIRJAM RAJNER The Sense of Togetherness: The Jewish Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Warsaw (1923 - 1939) RENATA PIATKOWSKA Modernity as Anti-Nostalgia: The Photographic Books of Tim Gidal and Moshe Vorobeichic and the Eastern European Shtetl ROSE-CAROL WASHTON LONG Orientalism, Colonialism, and Jewish Identity in the Synagogues of North Africa under French Domination DOMINIQUE JARRASSE Hans Richter: Universalism vis-a-vis Particularism MILLY HEYD Special Item Of Provenance and Providence: On the Reappearance of David Playing the Harp for Saul by Moritz Oppenheim SUSAN NASHMAN FRAIMAN Book Reviews Discovering the Magic of Yiddishkayt Futur anterieur: L'avant-garde et le livre yiddish (1914 - 1939), catalogue, ed. Nathalie Hazan- Brunet with Ada Ackerman BER (BORIS) KOTLERMAN Felix Lembersky: The Artist Uncovered Yelena Lembersky (ed), Felix Lembersky (1913 - 1970): Paintings and Drawings ORI Z. SOLTES Books and Catalogues Received ELISHEVA REVEL-NEHER, AVIVA CARMI LEVINE In Memoriam Kazimierz Maciej Piechotka (1919 - 2010) by Samuel D. Gruber Abbreviations Contributors to this Issue Submission and Style Guidelines

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Book SynopsisBringing to light little-known artistic traditions, the latest volume of Ars Judaica focuses on the local and temporal contexts of objects and their images and explores collective and personal memories and identities in art. Rivka Ben-Sasson examines modes of symbolic perception of nature prevalent in religious thought and art by analysing images of the lulav and etrog. Iwona Brzewska and Waldemar Deluga discuss the significance of Hebrew script in paintings and prints of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries originating from the borderland between the Catholic and Christian Orthodox domains of eastern Europe. Michelle Klein studies the typological development of the havdalah candle-holder, based on an analysis of 170 examples. Matthew Baigell suggests that American Jewish artists are characterized by concern for the betterment of humankind; his sources include Jewish postcards, photographs, and caricatures as well as the work of contemporary American Jewish artists. Astrid Schmetterling discusses how Else Lasker-Schüler’s Orientalism offered a serious aesthetic-political challenge to both German and Jewish society. Mor Presiado argues that the contemporary use of sewing and embroidery by contemporary Jewish women artists to depict women’s experience of the Holocaust initiates a new, feminist response to the Holocaust. The Special Item in this volume, an article by Shalom Sabar on the earliest illustrated Esther Scroll by Shalom Italia, is an illuminating insight into early modern Jewish art in the making. Also included are exhibition 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. 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 036359241; Email ajudaica@mail.biu.ac.ilTable of ContentsEditor's NoteBRACHA YANIVBotanics and Iconography: Images of the Lulav and the EtrogRIVKA BEN-SASSONA Note on the Hebrew Script in Christian Art between Wroclaw and LvivIWONA BRZEWSKA and WALDEMAR DELUGAThe Havdalah Candle-holder MICHELE KLEIN Social Concern and Tikkun Olam in Jewish American Art MATTHEW BAIGELL 'I am Jussuf of Egypt': Orientalism in Else Lasker-Schüler’s Drawings ASTRID SCHMETTERLING'These Threads Captured Shadows': Sewing and Embroidery in Holocaust Art Works of Contemporary Jewish Women Artists MOR PRESIADOSpecial ItemA New Discovery: The Earliest Illustrated Esther Scroll by Shalom ItaliaSHALOM SABARExhibition ReviewHommage à Lucien Hervé MÁRTA NAGY Book Reviews Mati Meyer, An Obscure Portrait: Imaging Women's Reality in Byzantine Art ELISHEVA BAUMGARTEN Marc Michael Epstein, The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination KATRIN KOGMAN-APPEL Herbert L. Kessler and David Nirenberg, Judaism and Christian Art: Aesthetic Anxieties from the Catacombs to ColonialismKATHY ARON-BELLER Jewish Dimensions in Modern Visual Culture ESTHER LEVINGER Musya Glants, Where Is My Home? The Art and Life of the Russian Jewish Sculptor, Mark Antokolsky, 1843–1902 JOHN E. BOWLT

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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. In this volume, Avraham Faust considers a unique phenomenon in the material culture of ancient Israel during the biblical period: pottery without painted decoration. Moshe Idel, an expert on Jewish mysticism, sheds new light on the figure of Helios in the Hammath Tiberias synagogue mosaic, comparing it to descriptions of angel ‘Anafi’el in the Heikhalot literature and medieval Kabbalistic texts. Rahel Fronda attributes a group of medieval Ashkenazi Bible manuscripts containing similar micrographic ornaments to the same scribal workshop, possibly near Würzburg. Alexander Mishory reveals a Scroll of Esther illuminated by one of the first Bezalel artists, Shmuel Ben-David, and focuses on his use of fowl and fox imagery deriving from an Arab fable. Artur Tanikowski discusses social awareness and humanist values in the work of Polish modernists of Jewish origin. The Special Item by Nurit Sirkis Bank is dedicated to hasidic wedding rings. A silver ring, square on the outside, round within, and engraved with the Hebrew letter he is understood as a symbol of unity and harmony between man and woman, the human and the Divine, nature and culture, and even good and evil.Contributor Information:Walter Cahn, Professor, History of Art Department, Yale University, Avraham Faust, Director, Tel 'Eton Excavations, Institute of Archaeology, Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University, Rahel Fronda, Hebraica and Judaica Subject Librarian, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Carole Herselle Krinsky, Professor, Art History Department, New York University, Moshe Idel, Professor, Department of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Senior Researcher, Shalom Hartman Institute, David Malkiel, Professor, Department of Jewish History, Bar-Ilan University, Alec Mishory, independent scholar, Israel, Ilia Rodov, Lecturer, Department of Jewish Art, Bar-Ilan University, Nurit Sirkis Bank, Curator, Wolfson Museum of Jewish Art, Hechal Shlomo; doctoral candidate, Bar-Ilan University, David Stern, Professor, Jewish Studies Faculty, University of Pennsylvania, Artur Tanikowski, Graphic Department, Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw; Faculty of Humanities, Fryderyk Chopin Uiversity of Music, Warsaw; Curator, Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw 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 Email: ajudaica@mail.biu.ac.ilTable of ContentsEditors’ NoteBRACHA YANIV, MIRJAM RAJNER, and ILIA RODOVDecoration versus Simplicity: Pottery and Ethnic Negotiation in Early IsraelAVRAHAM FAUSTHolding an Orb in His Hand: The Angel ‘Anafi’el and a Late Antiquity Helios MosaicMOSHE IDELAttributing of Three Ashkenazi Bibles with Micrographic ImagesRAHEL FRONDAA Purim Masquerade: Fowls and Foxes in Shmuel Ben David’s Illuminated Scroll of Esther (c. 1923)ALEC MISHORYToward the Philosophy of Work: The Late Paintings of Leopold GottliebARTUR TANIKOWSKISpecial ItemOpposites United: The Square-Round Silver Wedding RingNURIT SIRKIS BANKBook ReviewsThe New Jewish Book HistorySarit Shalev-Eyni, Jews among Christians: Hebrew Book Illumination from Lake ConstanceDAVID STERNMonuments of an Exotic CommunityRemnant Stones: The Jewish Cemeteries and Synagogues of Suriname: Epitaphs, eds. Aviva Ben-Ur and Rachel FrankelRemnant Stones: The Jewish Cemeteries and Synagogues of Suriname: Essays, eds. Aviva Ben-Ur and Rachel FrankelDAVID MALKIELComprehensive View of Hungarian SynagoguesRudolf Klein, Zsinagógák Magyarországon 1782–1918: Fejlo˝déstörténet, tipológia és epítészeti jelentöség / Synagogues in Hungary 1782–1918: Genealogy, Typology and Architectural SignificanceCAROL HERSELLE KRINSKYResearch of Research of Jewish Art: Focusing on LithuaniaILIA RODOVResearch of Jewish Art: Art in the Ukrainian ContextILIA RODOVJewish Art in Modern Times: A New AppraisalSamantha Baskind and Larry Silver, Jewish Art: A Modern HistoryWALTER CAHN

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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.In this volume, Sarit Shalev-Eyni considers the Mahzor as a cosmological calendar, while Katrin Kogman-Appel looks at the work of Elisha ben Abraham, known as Cresques, in fourtheenth-century Mallorca. Evelyn M. Cohen discusses a surprising model for Charlotte Rothschild's Haggadah of 1842 and Ronit Sternberg examines sampler embroidery past and present as an expression of merging Jewish identity. Jechezkiel David Kirszenbaum’s exploration of personal displacementis the subject of an article by Caroline Goldberg Igra, and the Great Synagogue on Tłomackie Street in Warsaw one by Eleanora Bergman. The Special Item by Sergey R. Kravtsov and Vladimir Levin is devoted to Perek Shirah on a wall of the Great Synagogue in Radyvyliv. The volume also includes book reviews and an appreciation of the life of Alfred Moldovan by William L. Gross. Contributors: Ziva Amishai-Maisels, Professor, History of Art Department, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Eleonora Bergman, Emanuel Ringelbaum Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, Evelyn M. Cohen, Professor, Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), New York, Caroline Goldberg Igra, Guest Curator, Beit Hatfusot, Tel Aviv, William L. Gross, Collector, Tel Aviv, Katrin Kogman-Appel, Professor, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheva, Sergey R. Kravtsov, Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Vladimir Levin, Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Sarit Shalev-Eyni, History of Art Department, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Larry Silver, History of Art Department, University of Pennsylvania, Ronit Steinberg, History and Theory Department, Bezalel Academy of Arts and design, JerusalemVolumes 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 ContentsEditors’ NoteThe Mahzor as a Cosmological Calendar: The Zodiac Signs in Medieval Ashkenazi Context SARIT SHALEV-EYNI'Elisha ben Abraham, Known as Cresques': Scribe, Illuminator, and Mapmaker in Fourteenth-Century Mallorca KATRIN KOGMAN-APPELA Surprising Model for Charlotte Rothschild’s Haggadah of 1842 EVELYN M. COHENSampler Embroidery Past and Present as an Expression of Merging Jewish Identity RONIT STEINBERGThe Restoration of Loss: Jechezkiel David Kirszenbaum’s Exploration of Personal Displacement CAROLINE GOLDBERG IGRAThe Great Synagogue on Tłomackie Street: Warsaw Inspirations ELEONORA BERGMANSpecial itemLeviathan Thanks the Lord: Perek Shirah on a Wall of the Great Synagogue in Radyvyliv SERGEY R. KRAVTSOV and VLADIMIR LEVINBook ReviewsObsessions of a DiasporistCilly Kugelmann, Eckhart Gillen, and Hubertus Gaßner, Obsessions: R. B. Kitaj 1932–2007 ZIVA AMISHAI-MAISELSIsrael’s Art Viewed and ReviewedYigal Zalmona, A Century of Israeli Art LARRY SILVERIn MemoriamAlfred Moldovan (1921–2013) WILLIAM L. GROSSAbbreviationsContributors to this issue

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Book SynopsisNational Jewish Book Awards Finalist for the Visual Arts Award, 2017. The carved wooden Torah arks found in eastern Europe from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries were magnificent structures, unparalleled in their beauty and mystical significance. The work of Jewish artisans, they dominated the synagogues of numerous towns both large and small throughout the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, inspiring worshippers with their monumental scale and intricate motifs. Virtually none of these superb pieces survived the devastation of the two world wars. Bracha Yaniv’s pioneering work therefore breathes new life into a lost genre, making it accessible to scholars and students of Jewish art, Jewish heritage, and religious art more generally. Making use of hundreds of pre-war photographs housed in local archives, she develops a vivid portrait of the history and artistic development of these arks, the scope and depth of her meticulous research successfully compensating for the absence of physical remains. In this way she has succeeded in producing a richly illustrated and comprehensive overview of a classic Jewish religious art form. Professor Yaniv’s analysis of the historical context in which these arks emerged includes a broad survey of the traditions that characterized the local workshops of Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. She also provides a detailed analysis of the motifs carved into the Torah arks and explains their mystical significance, among them representations of Temple imagery and messianic themes—and even daring visual metaphors for God. Fourteen arks are discussed in particular detail, with full supporting documentation; appendices relating to the inscriptions on the arks and to the artisans’ names will further facilitate future research. This seminal work throws new light on long-forgotten traditions of Jewish craftsmanship and religious understanding.Trade Review'Bracha Yaniv has made a meticulous study of lost arks and of the lost Jewish crafts of joinery, woodcarving, painting and gilding that made them possible. She demonstrates that these arks cannot be dismissed as mere folk art. They exhibit a high level of artistic accomplishment.’Sharman Kadish, Jewish Chronicle'Bracha Yaniv’s book addresses a wide audience; for scholars it is an excellent source book, a cradle of new ideas, but it is accessible to readers who are less familiar with Judaism and Jewish visual culture... This book is not only a pleasure to hold, see, and read, but it opens new horizons for many professionals who research Jewish visual culture.'Prof. Rudolf Klein, BRILL'Bracha Yaniv’s book addresses a wide audience; for scholars it is an excellent source book, a cradle of new ideas, but it is accessible to readers who are less familiar with Judaism and Jewish visual culture. The large-format book is graphically coherent, with only historic photographs that were edited to be similar in tonal gamut and micro-contrast, all black and white. On pages without illustrations beautiful portrayals of the Torah arks adorn the pages, in abstracted form, enriching the aesthetically pleasing layout and well chosen typography. This book is not only a pleasure to hold, see, and read, but it opens new horizons for many professionals who research Jewish visual culture.'Prof. Rudolf Klein, IMAGESTable of ContentsNote on TransliterationIntroductionPART I HISTORY AND CULTURE, FUNCTION AND DESIGN1. The Emergence of the Torah Ark from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century2. Historical and Cultural BackgroundThe Polish–Lithuanian CommonwealthThe Rise of Hasidism and the Influence of Kabbalah3. Construction and DesignCrafts, Artisans, and Workshops The Lithuanian Workshop of Jacob ben Solomon of Raseinai The Workshop of the Vase in a Niche The Rococo-Style Workshop The Belarusian Workshop The Ukrainian WorkshopConstructing the Ark Building Materials and Techniques Style and DesignPART II FORM AND CONTENTIntroduction: The Architectural Structure of the Torah Ark4. The Kingdom of God in the Little SanctuaryThe Throne of GloryThe Eagle as a Metaphor for GodThe Three CrownsPraise of God Perek shirahMusic in the Temple5. The TempleThe Gateway to Heaven The Passageway The Inscription Avinu Malkenu Yakhin and BoazThe Ark of the Covenant and the Temple Appurtenances The Kaporet and the Cherubim The Tree of Life: Symbol of the TorahThe Seven-Branched Menorah Introduction The Menorah and the Showbread Table The Menorah as a Solitary Motif The Menorah in Zechariah’s Vision The Menorah as a Mystical SymbolThe Temple Rituals: Avodat Hakodesh The Sacrificial Offerings The Priestly Blessing Offering of the First Fruits6. Messianic ExpectationsPersonal Redemption: The Leviathan and the OxNational Redemption Aaron’s Rod, the Manna Jar, and the Jug of Anointing Oil The Four Species and the ShofarPART III APPENDICESI. Fourteen Torah Arks: Comprehensive Description, Technical Data, and Supporting DocumentationIntroduction1. Kamyanka-Buzka, Western Ukraine, c.17752. Vyzˇuonos, Central Lithuania, 17843. Zabłudów, North-East Poland, 17654. Druya, Northern Belarus, 1774/55. Zelva, Western Belarus, 1849/506. Lukiv, Western Ukraine, c.17817. Hrodna, Western Belarus, Late Eighteenth Century8. Nowe Miasto nad Pilica˛, East-Central Poland, after 18009. Sˇauke˙nai, Central Lithuania, 1885/610. Przedbórz, Central Poland, c.177511. Valkininkai, South-East Lithuania, 180412. Ke˛pno, West-Central Poland, 1816/1713. Vowpa, Western Belarus, 178114. Unidentified Ark, Ukraine, Nineteenth CenturyII. Biblical Quotations and Liturgical Phrases Adorning the ArksIII. Carpenters and Woodcarvers of ArksIV. Alphabetical List of the Arks Comprising the Visual Database for This StudyList of IllustrationsList of InstitutionsBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisHistoriography formed an unusually important component of the popular culture and heritage of east European Jewry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This was a period of social, economic, and political upheaval, and for the emerging class of educated Jews the writing and reading of Jewish history provided not only intellectual but also emotional and moral sustenance. Facing an insecure future became easier with an understanding of the past, and of the Jewish place in that past. This volume is devoted to the development of Jewish historiography in the three east European centres—Congress Poland, the Russian empire, and Galicia—that together contained the majority of world Jewry at that time. Drawing widely on the multilingual body of scholarly and popular literature that emerged in that turbulent environment, the contributors to this volume attempt to go beyond the established paradigms in the study of Jewish historiography, and specifically to examine the relationship between the writing of Jewish history and of non-Jewish history in eastern Europe. In doing so they expose the tension between the study of the Jewish past in a communal setting and in a wider, regional, setting that located Jews firmly in the non-Jewish political, economic, and cultural environment. They also explore the relationship between ‘history’—seen as the popular understanding of the past—and ‘scholarly history’—interpretation of the past through the academic study of the sources, which lays claim to objectivity and authority. The development of Jewish historical scholarship grew out of the new intellectual climate of the Haskalah, which encouraged novel modes of thinking about self and others and promoted critical enquiry and new approaches to traditional sources. At the same time, however, in response to what the traditionalists perceived as secular research, an Orthodox historiography also emerged, driven not only by scholarly curiosity but also by the need to provide a powerful counterweight in the struggle against modernity. In fact, east European Jewish historiography has undergone many methodological, thematic, and ideological transformations over the last two centuries. Even today, east European Jewish historiography revisits many of the questions of importance to scholars and audiences since its emergence: how Jews lived, both within the narrow Jewish world and in contact with the wider society; the limits of Jewish insularity and integration; expressions of persecution and anti-Jewish violence; and also Jewish contributions to the societies and states of eastern Europe. Many challenges still remain: questions of the purpose of the research, its ideological colouring, and its relevance for contemporary Jewish communities. The fruit of research in many disciplines and from different methodological points of view, this volume has much to offer scholars of modern Jewry trying to understand how east European Jews saw themselves as they struggled with the concepts of modernity and national identity and how their history continues to be studied and discussed by an international community of scholars.Table of ContentsNote on Place NamesNote on TransliterationIntroduction BRIAN HOROWITZ AND NATALIA ALEKSIUNPART I: WRITING EAST EUROPEAN JEWISH HISTORYThe Pinkas: From Communal Archive to Total History ISRAEL BARTAL‘Constructing the shrine of our people’s history’: Hatsefirah and the Historiography of Polish Jewry ELA BAUER‘Building a fragile edifice’: A History of Russian Jewish Historical Institution, 1860–1914 BRIAN HOROWITZConstructing Polish Jewry’s ‘Shrine of History’: Galician Beginnings RACHEL MANEKINCharting the Outer Provinces of Jewry: The Study of East European Jewry’s Margins NATAN MEIRDubnov’s Wayward Son: Israel Sosis and the Legacy of Russian Jewish Historiography ELISSA BEMPORADThe Historiography of the Bund SAMUEL KASSOWScholars of Jewish Origin in the Community of Historians in Lwów, 1918–1939 JOANNA PISULIŃSKAObject Lessons: Art Collection and Display as Historical Practice in Interwar Lwów SARAH ZARROWBroken Traditions? The Jewish Presence on the City Councils of Kraków, Poznań, and Warsaw, 1919–1939 HANNA KOZIŃSKA-WITTFemale, Jewish, Educated, and Writing Polish Jewish History NATALIA ALEKSIUNJewish Historiography of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe HAVI DREIFUSSConversion in the Work of Jakub Goldberg STEFAN GĄSIORSKIDenying Tradition: Academic Historiography on Jewish Orthodoxy in Eastern Europe VLADIMIR LEVINJewish Traditionalism in Eastern Europe: The Historiographical Gadfly GLENN DYNNEROut of the Ghetto? Historiography on Jewish Women in Eastern Europe ELIYANA R. ADLERProblems in the Study of Russian Jewish Literature LEONID F. KATSISThe Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw: A New Approach to the History of the Jews in the Polish Lands ANTONY POLONSKYPART II: DOCUMENTARY SECTIONIn Search of Lost Times and Places: Simon Rawidowicz Reflects on his Formative Years in Grajewo and Białystok BENJAMIN RAVIDPART III: NEW VIEWSWhat Happened to Tarnów's Jews? ADAM BARTOSZDoes ‘Polish Antisemitism’ Exist? Research in Poland and Ukraine, 1992 and 2002 IRENEUSZ KRZEMIŃSKIPART IV: OBITUARIESAndrzej Garlicki SZYMON RUDNICKIJerzy Kulczycki JAREK GARLIŃSKIIsrael Gutman ANTONY POLONSKYNotes on the ContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisThis masterly collection of essays offers a multifaceted analysis of how Jewish leaders in medieval and early modern times responded to the challenges presented by a changing world. Based largely on the study of sermons and response - genres that show them addressing real situations in the lives of their people - the book reveals how they handled intellectual, social, and political diversity and conflict. As medieval Jews were exposed to new philosophical ideas, many began to question and challenge rabbinical leadership. Leadership and Conflict explores the process by which these ideas became more accessible, the doubts that consequently arose regarding certain biblical and rabbinic texts, and the attempt by some leaders to ban the study of philosophical texts altogether. The book also addresses the rhetoric of rebuke used by preachers to criticize behavior within their community that they considered to be a violation of Jewish law and tradition. Another set of challenges to traditional Jewish life emerged from political developments in the wider world, including the unification of France, the Spanish Inquisition and Edict of Expulsion, and the beginning of the Counter-Reformation. Leadership and Conflict asks whether criticism of the talent and leadership of rabbis in such times of crisis was justified. The final section of the book is devoted to conflicting attitudes within Jewish society: towards the Holy Land, exile and diasporic existence, and messianic movements and personalities. Leadership and Conflict represents three decades of scholarship by Professor Marc Saperstein, a distinguished historian. Bringing his perceptive essays together in a single volume allows a new generation of students and scholars to have access to his insights and conclusions.Trade ReviewReviews ‘A fascinating book about Jewish society in the medieval and early modern eras written through the prism of rabbinic sermons and Jewish responsa by one of the pre-eminent scholars of these mediums. Written clearly, it is accessible to the scholar and the interested general reader.’David Tesler, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews'Marc Saperstein has written several books on medieval and modern rabbinic literature. Every one of them has achieved a rare balance between deep erudition and broad perspective . . . a fascinating and crucial take on the topic. The book is an important contribution to the study of Jewish philosophy and social history.'Pinchas Roth, JewishTable of ContentsNote on Transliteration Introduction PART I: Two Modes of Rabbinic Leadership 1 The Preaching of Repentance and the Reforms in Toledo, 1281 2 Legal Decision-Making in Fourteenth-Century Toledo: The Responsa of Rabbi Judah ben Asher PART II: Intellectual Challenge and Conflict 3 Philosophy and Jewish Society in the Late Middle Ages 4 The Conflict over the Ban on Philosophical Study, 1305: A Political Perspective 5 Cultural Juxtapositions: Problematizing Scripture in Late Medieval and Jewish Exegesis 6 Ein li esek banistarot: Saul Levi Morteira’s Sermons on Parashat 'Bereshit' PART III: Leaders Facing Communities in Upheaval 7 Jewish Leadership in the Generation of the Expulsion 8 Rabbis, Martyrs, and Merchants: Jewish Communal Conflict as Reflected in the Responsa on the Boycott of Ancona 9 Four Kinds of Weeping: Saul Levi Morteira’s Application of Biblical Narrative to Contemporary Events 10 Attempts to Control the Pulpit: Medieval Judaism and Beyond PART IV: Conflicting Attitudes towards Exile, the Land, and the Messiah 11 ‘Arab Chains’ and ‘The Good Things of Spain’: Aspects of Jewish Exile 12 The Land of Israel in Pre-Modern Jewish Thought: A History of Two Rabbinic Statements 13 Messianic Leadership in Jewish History: Movements and Personalities Bibliography Index of Passages Cited General Index

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Book SynopsisAn emphasis on education has long been a salient feature of the Jewish experience. The pervasive presence of schools and teachers, books and libraries, and youth movements, even in an environment as tumultuous as that of nineteenth- and twentieth-century eastern Europe, is clear from the historical records. Historians of the early modern and modern era frequently point to the centrality of educational institutions and pursuits within Jewish society, yet the vast majority treat them as merely a reflection of the surrounding culture. Only a small number note how schools and teachers could contribute in dynamic ways to the shaping of local communities and cultures. This volume addresses this gap in the portrayal of the Jewish past by presenting education as an active and potent force for change. It moves beyond a narrow definition of Jewish education by treating formal and informal training in academic or practical subjects with equal attention. In so doing, it sheds light not only on schools and students, but also on informal educators, youth groups, textbooks, and numerous other devices through which the mutual relationship between education and Jewish society is played out. It also places male and female education on a par with each other, and considers with equal attention students of all ages, religious backgrounds, and social classes. The essays in this volume span two centuries of Jewish history, from the Austrian and Russian empires to the Second Republic of Poland and the Polish People’s Republic. The approach is interdisciplinary, with contributors treating their subject from fields as varied as east European cultural history, gender studies, and language politics. Collectively, they highlight the centrality of education in the vision of numerous Jewish individuals, groups, and institutions across eastern Europe, and the degree to which this vision interacted with forces within and external to Jewish society. In this way they highlight the interrelationship between Jewish educational endeavours, the Jewish community, and external economic, political, and social forces.Trade Review"This volume would be a valuable resource for religion collections that have strengths in the field of religion in its social and educational context. All of the contributors are well aware of the non-Jewish context and readers with comparative interests will be well rewarded here."Shaul Stampfer, Religious Studies ReviewTable of ContentsNote on Place Names Note on Transliteration Part I Education in East European Jewish Society 1. Introduction: Education for Its Own Sake Eliyana R. Adler 2. Repairing Character Traits and Repairing the Jews: The Talmud Torahs of Kelm and Grobin in the Nineteenth Century Geoffrey Claussen 3. Legislation for Education: The Munkács Regulations Enacted by Rabbi Tsevi Elimelekh of Dynów Levi Cooper 4. The Narrative of Acculturation: Hungarian Jewish Children’s Books during the Dual Monarchy, 1867–1918 Daniel Viragh 5. The Reaction of the Polish Press to Baron Maurice de Hirsch’s Foundation for Jewish Education in Galicia Agnieszka Friedrich 6. A Story within a Story: The First Russian-Language Jewish History Textbooks, 1880–1900 Vassili Schedrin 7. Clothes Make the Man: A Photo Essay on Russian Jewish School Uniforms Eliyana R. Adler 8. How Jews Gained Their Education in Kiev, 1860–1917 Victoria Khiterer 9. The Return of the Heder among Russian Jewish Education Experts, 1840–1917 Brian Horowitz 10. From Theory to Practice: The Fight for Jewish Education in Vilna during the First World War Andrew Koss 11. Creating a New Jewish Nation: The Vilna Educational Society and Secular Yiddish Education in Interwar Vilna Jordana de Bloeme 12. Between a Love of Poland, Symbolic Violence, and Antisemitism: On the Idiosyncratic Effect of the State Education System on Young Jews in Interwar Poland Kamil Kijek 13. Between Church and State: Jewish Religious Instruction in Public Schools in the Second Polish Republic Sean Martin 14. ‘Vos Vayter’? Graduating from Elementary School in Interwar Poland: From Personal Crisis to Cultural Turning Point Adva Selzer 15. Jewish Youth Movements in Poland between the Wars as Heirs of Kehila Ido Bassok 16. A Revolution in the Name of Tradition: Orthodoxy and Torah Study for Girls Naomi Seidman 17. ‘The children ceased to be children’: Day-Care Centres at Refugee Shelters in the Warsaw Ghetto Katarzyna Person 18. The Survival of Yidishkeyt: The Impact of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee on Jewish Education in Poland, 1945–1989 Anna Sommer Schneider Part II New Views 19. Everyday Life and the Shetl: A Historiography Jeffrey Veidlinger 20. Economic Struggle or Antisemitism? Szymon Rudnicki 21. Gender Perspectives on the Rescue of Jews in Poland: Preliminary Observations Joanna Michlic 21. Julian Tuwim’s Strategy for Survival as a Polish Jewish Poet Giovanna Tomassucci 22. A Church Report from Poland for June and Half of July 1941 Tomasz Szarota 23. ‘I am in no hurry to close the canon’: An Interview with Professor David G. Roskies Paweł Wolski Obituaries Władysław Bartoszewski Ezra Mendelsohn Jerzy Tomaszewski Feliks Tych Notes on Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisAn emphasis on education has long been a salient feature of the Jewish experience. The pervasive presence of schools and teachers, books and libraries, and youth movements, even in an environment as tumultuous as that of nineteenth- and twentieth-century eastern Europe, is clear from the historical records. Historians of the early modern and modern era frequently point to the centrality of educational institutions and pursuits within Jewish society, yet the vast majority treat them as merely a reflection of the surrounding culture. Only a small number note how schools and teachers could contribute in dynamic ways to the shaping of local communities and cultures. This volume addresses this gap in the portrayal of the Jewish past by presenting education as an active and potent force for change. It moves beyond a narrow definition of Jewish education by treating formal and informal training in academic or practical subjects with equal attention. In so doing, it sheds light not only on schools and students, but also on informal educators, youth groups, textbooks, and numerous other devices through which the mutual relationship between education and Jewish society is played out. It also places male and female education on a par with each other, and considers with equal attention students of all ages, religious backgrounds, and social classes. The essays in this volume span two centuries of Jewish history, from the Austrian and Russian empires to the Second Republic of Poland and the Polish People’s Republic. The approach is interdisciplinary, with contributors treating their subject from fields as varied as east European cultural history, gender studies, and language politics. Collectively, they highlight the centrality of education in the vision of numerous Jewish individuals, groups, and institutions across eastern Europe, and the degree to which this vision interacted with forces within and external to Jewish society. In this way they highlight the interrelationship between Jewish educational endeavours, the Jewish community, and external economic, political, and social forces.Trade Review"This volume would be a valuable resource for religion collections that have strengths in the field of religion in its social and educational context. All of the contributors are well aware of the non-Jewish context and readers with comparative interests will be well rewarded here."Shaul Stampfer, Religious Studies ReviewTable of ContentsNote on Place Names Note on Transliteration Part I Education in East European Jewish Society 1. Introduction: Education for Its Own Sake Eliyana R. Adler 2. Repairing Character Traits and Repairing the Jews: The Talmud Torahs of Kelm and Grobin in the Nineteenth Century Geoffrey Claussen 3. Legislation for Education: The Munkács Regulations Enacted by Rabbi Tsevi Elimelekh of Dynów Levi Cooper 4. The Narrative of Acculturation: Hungarian Jewish Children’s Books during the Dual Monarchy, 1867–1918 Daniel Viragh 5. The Reaction of the Polish Press to Baron Maurice de Hirsch’s Foundation for Jewish Education in Galicia Agnieszka Friedrich 6. A Story within a Story: The First Russian-Language Jewish History Textbooks, 1880–1900 Vassili Schedrin 7. Clothes Make the Man: A Photo Essay on Russian Jewish School Uniforms Eliyana R. Adler 8. How Jews Gained Their Education in Kiev, 1860–1917 Victoria Khiterer 9. The Return of the Heder among Russian Jewish Education Experts, 1840–1917 Brian Horowitz 10. From Theory to Practice: The Fight for Jewish Education in Vilna during the First World War Andrew Koss 11. Creating a New Jewish Nation: The Vilna Educational Society and Secular Yiddish Education in Interwar Vilna Jordana de Bloeme 12. Between a Love of Poland, Symbolic Violence, and Antisemitism: On the Idiosyncratic Effect of the State Education System on Young Jews in Interwar Poland Kamil Kijek 13. Between Church and State: Jewish Religious Instruction in Public Schools in the Second Polish Republic Sean Martin 14. ‘Vos Vayter’? Graduating from Elementary School in Interwar Poland: From Personal Crisis to Cultural Turning Point Adva Selzer 15. Jewish Youth Movements in Poland between the Wars as Heirs of Kehila Ido Bassok 16. A Revolution in the Name of Tradition: Orthodoxy and Torah Study for Girls Naomi Seidman 17. ‘The children ceased to be children’: Day-Care Centres at Refugee Shelters in the Warsaw Ghetto Katarzyna Person 18. The Survival of Yidishkeyt: The Impact of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee on Jewish Education in Poland, 1945–1989 Anna Sommer Schneider Part II New Views 19. Everyday Life and the Shetl: A Historiography Jeffrey Veidlinger 20. Economic Struggle or Antisemitism? Szymon Rudnicki 21. Gender Perspectives on the Rescue of Jews in Poland: Preliminary Observations Joanna Michlic 21. Julian Tuwim’s Strategy for Survival as a Polish Jewish Poet Giovanna Tomassucci 22. A Church Report from Poland for June and Half of July 1941 Tomasz Szarota 23. ‘I am in no hurry to close the canon’: An Interview with Professor David G. Roskies Paweł Wolski Obituaries Władysław Bartoszewski Ezra Mendelsohn Jerzy Tomaszewski Feliks Tych Notes on Contributors Index

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Book Synopsis Pauline Wengeroff was born in 1833 into a pious Jewish family in Bobruisk in the Pale of Settlement (now Belarus); she died in 1916 in Minsk. Her life, as recounted in this biography, based in part on Shulamit Magnus’s award-winning critical edition of Wengeroff’s Memoirs of a Grandmother, was one of upheaval and transformation during Russian Jewry’s passage from tradition to modernity. Remarkably, Wengeroff's narrative refracts communal experience and larger cultural, economic, and political developments through her own family life, interweaving the personal and the historical to present readers with an extraordinary account of the cultural transformation of Russian Jewry in the nineteenth century. Wengeroff's is the first piece of writing by a Jewish woman to display such authorial audacity and historical consciousness and the first contemporaneous account of Jewish society in any era to make the sensibilities and behaviour of Jewish women—and men—a central focus, providing a gendered account of the emergence of Jewish modernity. In this, her memoirs are a full counterpart to the androcentric autobiographies of her contemporaries, the maskilim (leaders of the Jewish enlightenment movement in eastern Europe), and the basis for much new thinking about gender and modernity. Shulamit Magnus probes Wengeroff’s consciousness and social positioning as a woman of her era and argues that, though Wengeroff was well aware of the women’s movement in Russia, she wrote not from a feminist perspective but as a by-product of her socialization in traditional Jewish society. A brilliant woman who 'loved books', Wengeroff produced a carefully crafted, beautifully written, and compelling account of tradition and its demise; of intergenerational and marital strife over Jewishness; and of betrayal, loss, and hope. Despite a dramatic and readily accessible narrative line—what Magnus calls ‘Wengeroff’s myth of her life story'—Wengeroff embeds much counter-evidence in her memoirs that subverts this same myth. Why she constructs the particular myth she does, and also, if unconsciously, subverts it, is a major focus of this study. Using archival and secondary sources, Magnus goes beyond constructing a portrait of Pauline Wengeroff, her family, and her social circles to consider how Memoirs of a Grandmother came to be in the form in which we have it: she writes a biography of a literary work as well as of a woman. She documents its astonishing success: published for the first time (largely in German, in Berlin) in 1908, it was republished in 1910, 1913, 1919, and 1922 to rave reviews, in the Jewish but also the non-Jewish press, in Germany, Austria, Russia, and even the Netherlands. Organized topically rather than chronologically, Magnus’s study gives readers entrée to Wengeroff’s life, aspirations, and her disappointments—above all, with her husband, who ridiculed her attachment to traditional observance and forced her to relinquish it and with her seven children (three of whom converted to Christianity; none of the others were committed Jews in any fashion)—raises the question of Wengeroff's actual, intended audience for Memoirs of a Grandmother. Magnus argues that, Wengeroff's title notwithstanding, it was not her biological offspring but other ‘grandchildren’ from among the Jewish youth of the fin de siècle, who shared her Jewish cultural nationalism—and her affinity for Herzlian Zionism. Finally, Magnus probes the reception of Memoirs on two continents, Europe and North America, to reveal a surprising story of the same work being read both as an apologia for tradition and for assimilation and even conversion—both fundamental, if revealing, misreadings, she argues. When Wengeroff died in 1916, the world was very different from the one in which she had grown up. Her story makes a significant contribution to Jewish women's history; to east European Jewish history; to the history of gender, acculturation, and assimilation in Jewish modernity; and to the history of Jewish writing and Jewish women’s writing.Trade ReviewReviews 'Scholars and general readers interested in the intersections of gender and modern Jewish history owe Professor Shulamit Magnus an enormous debt of gratitude for increasing the visibility of Pauline Wengeroff (1833–1916).' Judith R. Baskin, NASHIM'Magnus has cornered, in fact created, the market for Pauline Wengeroff Studies. [...] Magnus' work makes a tremendous contribution to feminist history, Jewish history during the German Enlightenment, and autobiographical studies.'Rachel Slutsky, Women's History Review

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Book SynopsisThe realities of Jewish life in eastern Europe that concerned the average Jew meant the way their children grew up, the way they studied, how they married, and all the subsequent stages of the life cycle-including the problems of divorce, remarriage, and elderly parents. The family and the community were in a very real sense the core institutions of east European Jewish society. These realities were always dynamic and evolving but in the nineteenth century, the pace of change in almost every area of life was exceptionally rapid.This collection of essays deals with these social realities objectively and analytically. Some of the essays presented here are classics that have been widely acclaimed, earning their author a well-deserved reputation for authoritative research; all have been comprehensively revised for this book. They avoid both sentimental descriptions and judgmental attitudes. The result is a picture that is far from the stereotyped view of the past that is common today, but a more honest and more comprehensive one.Topics covered in the studies on education consider the learning experiences of both males and females of different ages. They also deal with and distinguish between study among the well off and learned (not surprisingly, the two went together) and study among the poorer masses. A number of essays are devoted to aspects of educating the elite. Here too, the reconstruction of the realities of the past, as opposed to the stereotypical popular image, reveals the remarkable creativity of what is often mistakenly considered a highly conservative element of society. Several essays deal with aspects of marriage, a key element in the life of most Jews. Using both quantitative and qualitative sources, the author has been able to identify and document characteristics of both first and subsequent marriages and to highlight and explain trends that have hitherto been misunderstood. The problem of aged parents and the changing nature of the nuclear family is also considered. The attempt to understand the rabbinate in its social and historical context is no less revealing then the studies in other areas. The realities of rabbinical life—the problems of getting appointments, job security and insecurity, changing responsibilities and the difficulties of dealing with fragmented and modernizing communities—are presented in a way that explains rabbinic behavior and the complex relations between communities, ideologies, and modernization. These essays look at the past through the prism of the lives of ordinary people, with results that are sometimes surprising but always stimulating. The topics they treat are varied, but the concern to explain what lay behind the visible reality is common to all of them.Trade Review‘Represents decades of intensive study of Jewish daily life in eastern Europe. The book brings together many of Stampfer’s previously published writings, although several appear here in English for the first time . . . provides us with the oeuvre of a scholar who has spent years thinking about these issues and provides a wonderful context for further study.’ Jeffrey Veidlinger, East European Jewish Affairs‘Stampfer draws on a huge range of sources . . . to throw light on his central concern: the Jews of eastern Europe in the period of modernization . . . Almost every chapter teaches us anew about something we thought we already knew . . . discoveries that contradict received wisdom abound. His specialty is in considering topics that seem marginal but in fact prove vital in understanding key elements of Jewish life . . . focusing on the social function of each institution rather than idealistic interpretations. . . . A sub-theme central to his work is the role and status of women . . . these studies present a picture that contradicts the romantic image of the shtetl Jew that is still so beloved of the general public, and even to some extent among academics . . . While correcting these distortions, Stampfer emphasizes the functionality of Jewish institutions in the changing realities of the time, while also demonstrating the differences between Jews and their neighbours as regards marriage, family life, housing, economics, education and culture. He shows how the traditional Jewish institutions developed and adapted to the challenges of modernity and helped Jews to prosper in a way that was unique to them.’ Moshe Rosman, Gal-Ed‘For many years, Shaul Stampfer has been recognised as an authority in all things dealing with nineteenth-century Jewish Eastern Europe. In his newest book, we have a collection of numerous essays representing more than twenty years of his scholarship, including one essay published for the first time. Stampfer’s focus is not on the purely intellectual debates between rabbinic elites. He is more interested in social history, how average people and in particular women lived. Even his discussions of rabbis emphasize such matters as inheritance of rabbinic positions and the rabbi’s role in communal life. His sources are quite broad: traditional rabbinic works as well as Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian texts and newspapers . . .there is much more that can be said about Stampfer’s careful scholarship, which is a treat for all readers.’ Marc B. Shapiro, H-Judaic (and The Jewish Press and Jewish Book Review)‘Accessible and lively . . . a good read not only for scholars, but also for general readers interested in seeing just how far we have come from that vanished world.’ Jewish Book World‘This book of essays by an exceptionally wide-ranging social and cultural historian is much more than a rich investigation of “traditional society”.’ Kenneth B. Moss, Journal of Modern History‘This riveting collection of essays covers a breathtaking scope, the amount of research is impressive, and the level of analysis is as refreshing as it is innovative. It is hard to name any other work that covers such a diverse range of fascinating questions in Jewish history in such a learned and professional manner. The author has an uncanny ability to synthesize a diverse range of material with interpretations and analyses that are as brilliant as they are straightforward. This collection will make an excellent companion to extant English and Hebrew language works on modern Jewish history. It will also make for interesting reading in undergraduate classes and graduate seminars on social history, east European history, and Jewish history. In short, this is a gem of a book, the kind that you will want to read, the kind that students will love to read, the kind that scholars as well will not be able to put down.’ Scott Ury, Religious Studies Review ‘Eruditely documented, clearly explained, subtly argued, these contributions on the evolution of educational and family structures and on the history of the rabbinate renew our knowledge of Jewish society in eastern Europe. Anyone who seeks to understand the transformations peculiar to this period can only consulter and explore this work of reference.’ Jean Baumgarten, Revue des études juives Table of ContentsThe Social Implications of Very Early Marriage in Eastern Europe in the Nineteenth Century Love and Family Life among East European Jewry in the Modern Period Scientific Welfare and Lonely Old People: The Development of Old Age Homes among Jews in Eastern Europe Gender Differentiation and Education of the Jewish Woman in Nineteenth Century Eastern Europe Remarriage among Jews and Christians in Nineteenth-Century Eastern Europe The Pushke and its Development Heder Study, Knowledge of Torah and the Maintenance of Social Stratification in Traditional East European Jewish Society Literacy among East European Jewry in the Modern Period: Context, Background, and Implications Hungarian Yeshivot, Lithuanian Yeshivot, and Josef Ben David Hasidic Yeshivot in Interwar Poland Dormitory and Yeshiva in Eastern Europe The Controversy over Shechita and the Struggle between Hasidim and Mitnagdim The Rabbinate in Eastern Europe that Wasn't Inheritance of the Rabbinate in Eastern Europe in the Modern Period: Causes, Factors, and Development over Time

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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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