Breaking New Ground - Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic

Transcription

Breaking New Ground
Scholars and Scholarship at the
Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
(1993-2004)
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Table of Contents
5
Director’s Preface
by David Ruderman
7
Chutzpah
by Menahem ben Sasson
11
Center in the City
by Deborah Dash Moore
13
CAJS Fellows (1993-2004)
From the Library
72
76
78
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Of Gaons and Caliphs
by Marina Rustow
The Dropsie Haggadah
by David Stern
Morais Ledger
by Arthur Kiron
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B
oth in the lives of individuals
and in those of institutions, it
is vitally important to take stock, to see from
where we have come and to where we are going,
and especially to express our joy and gratitude
to the many people who have made it possible
to ultimately reach our goals. This wonderful
publication records the first eleven years of the
life of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
of the University of Pennsylvania. It marks a de-
the University had assumed. Despite the generous initial support of Ambassador Annenberg
and the equally generous commitment the University had pledged to this enterprise, no one
had the faintest idea what this project would
eventually cost, who would raise the money, and
whether there were donors who might be interested in supporting the project at all. It was clear
from the start that this exciting merger would be
a learning experience for staff, fellows, faculty,
and Penn’s leadership.
Director’s Preface
cisive milestone in the history of Judaic Studies
at Penn, in the history of humanistic learning at
the University, and, I might add, in the history of
the academic study of Jewish civilization in this
country and worldwide.
Some ten years ago a festive dinner took
place in Philadelphia, in the presence of the late
Ambassador Walter Annenberg, to celebrate
the merger of the Annenberg Research Institute
with the University of Pennsylvania. Those in attendance might recall both the euphoria of the
moment and the sense of uncertainty regarding
the actual joining of two institutions that had
never worked closely together. The Annenberg
Research Institute, the direct successor to the
historic Dropsie College, had been created only
five years earlier as an independent institution
for post-doctoral research in Judaic studies. What
would it mean to the fellows and staff of the Institute to be under the supervision of the dean of
the School of Arts and Sciences? How would the
precious library and staff function under the new
arrangements? How would the Jewish Studies
program at Penn interface with this new weighty
acquisition situated some thirty blocks from
campus? As an outsider visiting Penn for the first
time, I could sense uncertainty on all sides-from
deans, faculty, staff, and the fellows themselves.
Most daunting of all was the financial challenge
by David Ruderman
When I arrived permanently in the fall of 1994,
the experience of working as director of CAJS was
challenging. The Center needed to demonstrate
its excellence as an institute for advanced studies
while projecting the image of an open and collegial setting where students and faculty of Penn
could feel at home. We needed to fine-tune the
balance between integration within the larger
environment of the University and the intellectual isolation necessary to the productivity and
collegiality of the fellows. Students and faculty
needed to feel a stake in this institution despite
its distance from campus. The administration had
to appreciate the value of this Center to the University as a whole. And most importantly, the University had to find a way to raise sufficient funds
to insure a future for this institution way beyond
the initial years of its existence.
Luckily, I did not have to face these daunting
challenges alone. Sheila Allen, my executive assistant, Samuel Cardillo, the Center’s administrator, and Bonnie Blankenship, the administrator
of our journal, the Jewish Quarterly Review, had
faithfully served the Center from its earliest transformations in name and identity. Their wisdom,
their hard work, and their love for and devotion
to this institution were crucial to the institutional
development that we recognize in this volume.
David Goldenberg, editor of the Jewish Quarterly
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Review and former president of Dropsie College,
was Associate Director. I was also inspired by a
visionary named Al Wood who had worked tirelessly for years to provide the foundation from
which the Center would eventually emerge, and
I was partnered from the start by a dedicated
group of individuals who gave generously of
their time and resources to make the Center a
reality. Among the first to offer their unstinting
support were Martin Gruss, Herbert and Ellie
Meyerhoff Katz, and Ione Strauss.
More than ten years have passed since
those uncertain moments and although the
Center still presents a work in progress, it is
with a deep sense of humility, satisfaction, and
gratitude, that I recount the Center’s wonderful
accomplishments. Over the years, scholars from
countless fields: biblical philology and archeology, ancient, medieval, and modern Jewish history, history of art and music, Jewish-Moslem
and Jewish-Christian relations, Midrash, Talmud,
and comparative exegesis, kabbalah and philosophy, anthropology and sociology, modern
Jewish literature, and political thought, have
been part of the Center family. More than 200
scholars have been full-time fellows while many
others have served as short-term fellows and
as adjuncts. The Center has attracted faculty
and students from Penn on a regular basis. Its
academic advisory committees in Israel and at
Penn have served the Center with remarkable
dedication and vision.
The sheer numbers of scholars in North
America, Israel, and Europe who have been affected by our program is impressive enough.
But if one looks closely at the individual accomplishments of these scholars during their tenure
at Penn, if one assesses the impact of the Center
on individual careers—especially on those of
young scholars—and if one takes into account
the impact that the vigorous and sustained
discussions at the Center have had on the development of specific fields of Judaic learning,
the results are staggering. When one adds to
the mix the impact these scholars have made
through undergraduate instruction, mentoring
of graduate students, and teaching in the com-
munity, one begins to appreciate how meaningful
the annual shaping of a scholarly community at
CAJS has become.
The Center’s accomplishments extend beyond
the impressive work and influence of its fellows.
Through a new and creative partnership with the
University of Pennsylvania Press, the Center has inaugurated a new series of books and a revamped and
revitalized Jewish Quarterly Review. We sponsor an expanded program of community lectures and symposia in Philadelphia and in other cities nation-wide, and
enjoy a meaningful and synergistic relationship with
the faculty and students of Penn’s Jewish Studies program as well as with Penn’s other programs in the Humanities. We house a magnificent library, staffed by
gifted librarians and well-equipped with books and
electronic aids; and most importantly, we are blessed
with a devoted and energetic staff who create the
special ambiance that inspires the renewed creativity
of the fellowships from year to year. All of this has also
come about through the work and generosity of a
powerful and deeply committed board of overseers
and other friends of the Center who have raised a significant endowment for the Center, thereby insuring
its longevity for years to come.
In recording the names and academic achievements of the fellows who have worked independently and collaboratively to enhance Jewish
knowledge in so many fields and disciplines in
the course of the last decade, we thank from the
bottom of our hearts all those donors, administrators, faculty members, students, and friends of the
Center who have made this institution the foremost
incubator of advanced Judaic learning in this continent. I offer a special thanks to the editors of this
volume, Drs. Elsie Stern and Natalie Dohrmann. The
dazzling accomplishments recorded here, which
represent only a small sampling of the groundbreaking scholarship of our fellows, inspire us to
look forward to the next decade and to the new
challenges and goals we confidently have set for
ourselves. May CAJS go from strength to strength!
David B. Ruderman
Joseph Meyerhoff Professor
of Modern Jewish History
Director, Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
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W
riting about the history of academic changes is usually done
in long-term perspective, especially when the
writing deals with the history of Judaism, one
of the oldest of the living cultures, and its trajectories of research. To write an assessment of
a research center which is only ten years old is
an act of daring, bordering on chutzpah, that
one would never undertake unless explicitly
asked to do so.
Chutzpah
Nevertheless, the leadership of this Center
was not content with the common practice of
other research centers which are satisfied with
short range summaries expressed in lists of research topics, participating fellows, and resulting
publications. These lists are supposed not only
to speak for themselves, but also to testify to the
productivity, dynamism, intellectual vitality and
innovation of the institution. In addition to compiling these lists, the leadership of this center explicitly invited analysis and comparison between
this center and others. As is fitting for those
whose rich collection includes the oldest haggadah from the genizot, they create a new seder
and based upon it, they ask mah nishtanah?
The Center for Advanced Judaic Studies is
distinguished in its mission and, consequently,
in its achievements, by its appreciation of the
value of change, its commitment to communal
education, and its daring, or rather, its chutzpah,
to take steps that apparently have little hope of
success.
In their broader historical context, these distinguishing characteristics may appear paradoxical. After all, the center stands on the foundations of the “founding fathers” of modern Jewish
studies research: Dropsie College and its rich and
unique library, and the journal, JQR. However, as
the heir to Dropsie’s legacy, CAJS continues a tra-
dition of change, vitality, and innovation; it forms
the newest link in the “tradition” of change that
has existed for more than a century in Philadelphia (of all places!). Dropsie College, which was
founded in the year 1907, was the first institute
in the world to teach advanced Jewish studies
and the first to grant doctoral degrees in this
field. The Jewish Quarterly Review, which was established some twenty years before the college
(1888), is the first and most long-standing Jewish
studies journal in the English language. The Jew-
by Menahem ben Sasson
ish Publication Society also operated in Philadelphia at that time and a mutual relationship was
created between the two institutions. The establishment of these institutions was a response to
the cultural situation of the community that had
transported its creative and cultural center from
Europe to the United States and was now living
in a multi-lingual environment. These institutions
were created to address the emergent need for
academic critical discourse on Jewish topics in
the lingua franca of the new world. While timely,
their establishment was also audacious because
it was expected that existing scholarly centers
in Europe and the United States would assume
the responsibility for realizing these needs. The
development that took place in Philadelphia established the city and its academic communities
at the core of Jewish Studies activity worldwide.
People arrived in Philadelphia as students and
left as researchers, texts arrived as manuscripts
arrived and left as articles and books.
Over time, the status of Dropsie College
began to falter, and a fire in its building exacerbated its decline. Dropsie’s role in the academic
study of Judaism found a new incarnation in the
mid-eighties as the Annenberg Research Institute, which again dedicated itself to innovative
change. The Annenberg Institute was the first
institute of advanced studies dedicated solely to
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Jewish studies; its location in the heart of the
historic quarter of Philadelphia was unprecedented; and its stunning architecture attracted
great interest. These were the early days of the
growth of Jewish studies in American universities and the Annenberg Institute was one of
the first striking signs of this flourishing movement. The Institute gathered researchers from
different fields and different countries under
one roof to engage a multifaceted theme from
several perspectives. While the isolation of the
Annenberg Institute, which was expressed both
in its location far from the academic center of
Philadelphia, and also in its institutional independence, led to collaboration within its walls,
it did not lead to synergy with the nearby academic communities. When Walter Annenberg
turned 90 he decided to transfer the Institute to
the University because, as he said, “they have
permanence and I haven’t.” This decision resulted in the development that we commemorate
in this report.
Eleven years ago the center was established
anew in the form known to us today: The Center
for (Advanced) Judaic Studies at the University
of Pennsylvania. How has it perpetuated the
paradox of establishing a tradition of change?
An institute which is established on the
foundations of both the oldest English language Jewish studies journal and the first
college to grant advanced degrees in Jewish
studies might rest on the laurels of the past and
be satisfied with guarding its tradition and emphasizing the continuity and authenticity of its
activities. It could claim a position of privilege
by merit of inertia. However, just as the journal
and the college were signposts of change in
the topography of scholarly research in general,
and in Jewish studies in particular, so too are
the steps that the Center has taken from the day
of its rebirth under the leadership of Prof. David
Ruderman, who had previously been Professor
of Jewish History at Yale University.
The new relationship between the Center
and the University of Pennsylvania, inaugurated
in 1994, was seemingly “imposed” upon the
two institutions. Such a relationship could have
existed solely at the official level, as is the way
with advanced research institutes throughout
the world. However, it was not to be so here; with
the institutional change came a real change in
the place of the Center for Judaic Studies in the
life of the local academic community. Almost immediately, the gates of the Center opened to the
university community at all its levels. The director
of the Center was a member of the standing faculty of the university and his academic reputation
in the department enhanced both his position as
director of the Center and the status of the Center
in the eyes of the faculty. The Jewish studies program became linked to the activities of the Center,
and the students, scholars, and teachers of Jewish
studies were eager to participate in its activities:
to use its amazing library and benefit from the
services of the excellent, specialized librarians, to
take part in the good will showered on visitors,
and to relish the feeling, regnant at the Center,
that those who participate in Jewish studies deserve VIP treatment. These members of the Jewish
studies community were joined by scholars from
the general faculty, in particular from the departments of History, Islamic studies and Near Eastern
studies, who were drawn by personal invitations
into the happenings at the Center. The Center
community continued to grow as former fellows
and members of the wider Philadelphia academic
community returned to participate in the Center’s
ongoing activity, as well as in special events such
as conferences, workshops and lectures.
As was said above, this new era in the history
of the academic center for Jewish studies in Philadelphia was characterized by three things: an appreciation for the value of change; commitment
to communal education, and the daring needed
to take steps that appeared to have little hope of
success. Let us examine each of these principles
one by one.
A. Appreciation for the value of change:
The willingness to effect change was apparent
from the start. In the first years of CAJS’s existence,
academic advisory boards were created. Within a
few years, the Center began experimenting with
the format of the research groups by inviting two
different research groups working on two different subjects in a single year. Graduate students
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at the University of Pennsylvania were invited to
take advantage of the seminars and to meet in
tutorial settings with the fellows, and the model
for proposing themes was changed. While the
leadership of the Center still played a significant
role in determining the yearly topics, scholars
were also called upon to initiate and suggest research themes. Also, the Center began to reach
out to the non-academic community. Needless
to say, not all of the changes effected over the
past eleven years have lasted, showing that the
process of trial and error, ongoing self-scrutiny,
and the willingness to find new frameworks, are
guiding principles of CAJS.
The work of the more than twenty-four
groups that have convened at the center over the
course of the past eleven years also reflects the
Center’s willingness to embrace change. Rather
than gathering scholars around categories and rubrics conventional to Jewish studies, the majority
of themes reflect the interdisciplinary trend current in much contemporary scholarship outside
of Jewish studies. In addition, four of the groups
introduced subjects that were trans-historical and
were not limited by time, place, or text (‘93, ‘94,
‘95, and ‘03. Other groups engaged more than
one discipline, with pride of place going to the
modern period in the history of Jewish culture
(‘96, ‘98, ‘99, ‘00, and ‘02). However, the common
denominators to all the research groups, beyond
chronology, geography and text, are the multicultural attitude of their participants, the integration of topics neighboring Jewish studies, such
as history, Islamic studies, cultural studies and anthropology, and the use of research tools of social
science and literature in Jewish studies research.
The interdisciplinarity of the groups generated the
vast intellectual range that was inherent to these
gatherings of scholars from different disciplines,
different generations and different academic
cultures. The lists of the fellows in their working
groups, their subsequent scholarly output and
the lasting effects of time spent at the Center (an
experience skillfully described in Deborah Dash
Moore’s essay in this publication) bear witness to
the ways in which the Center functions as a place
to stimulate the best minds in Jewish studies and
its related fields.
The true evaluation of CAJS’s contribution to
the world of knowledge lies not only in its ability
to bring together the best of international scholarship in one place, but also in the impact that
the fellowship experience has both on the fellows’ subsequent scholarship and on future avenues of research. The rich fruits of the research
are cited inside this publication and they testify
to the abundance that has been created over the
past eleven years at the Center. One interesting
feature common to the overwhelming majority
of the work (the notable exception here is that
of Deborah Dash Moore and S. Ilan Troen) is the
persistence of the habit of individual publication. Apparently, collaboration at the Center does
not spawn a framework for long term collaboration among scholars. This collaborative form of
scholarship, which flourishes in the experimental
sciences and in the social sciences, is still rare
in the humanities in general and Jewish studies
in particular. This fact deserves attention in the
future planning of research centers world wide.
Another aspect—albeit a long term one which
needs more than a ten-year perspective—is the
question of the establishment of new fields of
research. To what extent does the gathering in
the Center in Philadelphia of the finest scholars,
many of whom have great influence in their own
institutions and worldwide, lead to the establishment of new areas of research, new courses
and methods of study, or new trajectories of research? In saying this, I do not intend to detract
from the groundbreaking work and individual
innovations, but rather to suggest an additional
measure by which to examine the achievements
of a research center as well as the activities that
continue after any given research year.
B. The commitment to communal education. Many research centers throughout the
world seek to construct an additional fence
around the ivory tower of their visiting scholars
in order to insure them respite from communal
and social demands, and to protect them from
knowledge-seekers from outside the borders
of the academic community. The innovation
initiated at this Center was the declaration
of maximal openness to the community. The
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head of the Center and its guests went out to
lecture in community centers and synagogues
in Philadelphia and beyond. They brought to
the wider public the engaging fruits of their
research and shared with them the results of
their labors. The additional burden that this
the communal mission imposed on the fellows
was accepted with pleasure and expanded the
raison d’etre of the center to wider circles. From
these lectures, many people, especially seniors,
became involved in courses at the University
and other activities at the Center. The conviction that knowledge and its pursuit stand at the
center of the work of the Center extends even
to the experience of the Center’s board of Overseers. Once a year, the members of the board of
overseers come to the Center, not to engage in
fiscal and organizational discussions, but rather
to engage in intense study. At this yearly retreat,
the fellows, the staff, and the donors, participate
in sophisticated study based on the innovative
work of the year’s fellows.
C. Daring and chutzpah to take steps that
seem to have no hope for success. The innovative work of the Center has raised questions
for many of those involved in Jewish studies
throughout the world. Many of the innovations
put in place eleven years ago, along with the
simultaneous reduction in fellows’ stipends and
the embarkation on an ambitious endowment
campaign, were quite risky, and their combination in this transitional period could have been
enough to cause a crisis in the young institution.
However, the opposite occurred. The message of
dynamic change and the willingness to challenge
the habits of the past succeeded immediately in
penetrating the academic community, the wider
educational community, and the community of
contributors. These three groups responded to
the Center’s challenge, and the Center, in its newold garments, established a presence in each of
the new arenas in which it hoped to participate.
The Center’s bravado made it into a leading site
in Jewish studies research and a wondrous example within the academic community.
In histories of knowledge in general, and in
the history of Judaism and its study in particular, ten years are but a moment (14.4 minutes,
or 1/100th of a day, in the divine measure of
time according to the calculations of Ps. 90:4).
Although the writing of a summary of any institution from such a limited perspective can
rightly be considered an act of daring bordering
on chutzpah, it can still serve to illuminate the
distinctiveness and direction of the enterprise
so far, and look forward to its ongoing, innovative success.
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I
first entered the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (then called
the Center for Judaic Studies) in the fall of
1996. I had just come from five months at the
Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies in England. What a contrast to 420 Walnut
Street! There my fellowship had covered room
and board in an old Manor House located in
the small village of Yarnton on the outskirts of
the city of Oxford, home to the famous British
out help from my home institution my finances
were stretched. Yet I cherished my investment
in my next project, hoping at some future time
to repay the debt I was accumulating.
Both centers offered junior and senior
scholars opportunities for research, writing,
and reflection away from daily demands of
teaching. Both centers recognized the importance of these interruptions in routine for the
production of Jewish studies scholarship of the
highest caliber. Yet each center inevitably chose
Center in the City
by Deborah Dash Moore
Reflections on Scholarship in an Urban Milieu
university. Graceful English gardens surrounded
the Manor House, which stood next door to
a venerable parish church. My large and airy
room (which meant drafty in the winter) served
as both bedroom and study. I shared a kitchen
down a long flight of stairs with another Manor
House resident, a librarian; but our paths rarely
crossed. The setting was solitary, punctured
periodically by evening seminar sessions of the
dozen scholars cloistered in various apartments
on the manor grounds.
Almost everything about the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies was different. Its sleek
modern building with up-to-date computer
facilities stood facing an urban park a few
blocks from Independence Hall—the shrine to
the country’s freedom from British rule—in the
heart of old Philadelphia. The hallways buzzed
with conversation and discussion of topics of
common interest. Weekly seminar sessions
bubbled over with controversy and debate.
Although it was easy to close the door to my
comfortable study, with its large window and
urban landscape, in order to read, write, and
think, the setting was far from solitary. Each day
as I walked the dozen blocks from my sublet
apartment, I took in the city scene and focused
my thoughts on my project. As in England, my
fellowship covered my rent and food, but with-
different paths toward their common goals, influenced subtly by the ideals and traditions of
their own diasporic settings.
The Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
translated Moses Dropsie’s nineteenth-century
dream of transplanting advanced Jewish learning to the shores of the United States into a
twenty-first century institution. Eliminating
graduate courses, still offered at the Oxford
Centre, CAJS adapted a model developed by
such prestigious institutions as the Center
for Advanced Studies at Princeton University.
Eschewing a permanent faculty, except for its
director, CAJS took the risk of inviting a new
group of scholars each year to constitute its
program. Changing annual topics of study took
the place of a permanent faculty augmented
by visitors. The themes provided the common
concerns and promise of intellectual engagement necessary to overcome the barrier of
unfamiliarity, as scholars from diverse backgrounds gathered on Walnut Street. The lingua
franca would be English and the academic
conventions would be American, albeit with
distinct Jewish inflections in tone and practice.
The results would appear each year in a conference, a formal gathering to celebrate and share
what had been done during the year, followed
by a volume of articles edited for coherence.
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Ambitious and pioneering, CAJS reimagined
Dropsie’s aspirations with singular success.
My presence at the Center reflected one of
its more daring decisions– namely, to choose a
theme that focused on American Jewish history.
When I proposed the idea to David Ruderman,
he worried that there would not be enough
scholars to fill the rooms at the Center. Was
CAJS risking too much by devoting attention to
American Jewish history when the field seemed
still so new? Despite my assurances, he hedged
his bets, combining the focus on America with
one on Israel during the same time period. The
results, some of which can be seen in the volume
I co-edited with S. Ilan Troen, Divergent Jewish
Cultures: Israel and America, were provocative.
(The volume initially was titled “Divergent Jewish
Centers,” which reflected better the tenor of our
weekly arguments around the seminar table.)
But the decision indicated that the Center was
ready to propose topics that other Jewish institutions, in Israel or in Europe, would avoid.
As an American institution, CAJS has clarified its relationship with other institutions of
advanced Jewish studies–most of them in Israel–through its choice of themes. The topics chosen often have been either interdisciplinary or
comparative, designed deliberately to stimulate
conversations across conventional boundaries.
This blurring of borders, along with efforts to
craft new frameworks, characterizes much recent work in the American academy. Although
historical and literary approaches still dominate,
Jewish studies as a field has been able to borrow creatively from varied methodologies. Decisions to look at the arts (in 2000-1) or at new
approaches to religion (in 2003-4) position CAJS
at the forefront of Jewish studies. Obviously,
no center can afford to get too far ahead of
new research (or David Ruderman’s fear of not
having enough people to fill the rooms would
come true), but it is exciting when an institution
is only half a step behind. Then the discussions
reverberate well beyond the year or semester
spent at CAJS. Other topics reflect maturation
of areas of scholarship and the director’s own
broad and eclectic interests.
Time spent at the Center inevitably produces not just excellent scholarship but also
nostalgia and longing to return. The long list
of scholars involved with CAJS includes several
who have made return trips, something I hope
to do myself some day. Although American and
Israeli scholars predominate, CAJS includes a
significant minority of European scholars. And
on occasion, CAJS helps identities to change–
Americans becoming Israeli, Israelis becoming
American. Informal contacts throughout the
year produce formal affiliations; recent Ph.D.’s
become junior scholars. In the space of a decade CAJS has helped to launch careers as well
as consolidate them.
Still, I think the dialogue and time away
remain most important. As my experience indicates, one does not need to be cloistered to
be productive. An institute of advanced Jewish studies located downtown in a big city can
produce the ambience scholars need to think,
to write, to reflect. As Jewish studies continue
to grow and flourish in the United States, I only
hope that CAJS will become a model that other
institutions will emulate. I would love to see
variations on the CAJS theme emerge as fitting
tribute to its pioneering role.
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CAJS Fellows (1993-2004)
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&
Spirit
LawT uality
Law & Spirituality
his year’s seminar marked the transition between the Annenberg Research Institute and the Center for Judaic Studies. The
weekly seminars, which had been a feature of the Annenberg Research Institute since its inception, were intimate sessions attended only by the fellows.
This year’s seminar brought together historians, linguists, legal scholars,
and scholars of text to explore the multivalent relationship between law
and spirituality in Ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, and Jewish contexts. This
diverse group of fellows brought a wide range of expertise to bear on the
questions of how law and spirituality are related to one another in a variety
of cultural contexts, how these elements define religious civilizations, and
how they determine relationships within and among cultures, religions and
CAJS Fellowship
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|
1993 – 1994
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Tzvi Abusch
(Ph.D. 1972, Harvard University)
Rose B. and Joseph Cohen Professor of Assyriology and
Ancient Near Eastern Religion at Brandeis University
CAJS Project:
Babylonian Mythology and Magic: Literary Classics in
their Cultural Context
Moshe Assis
(Ph.D. 1976, Hebrew University)
Professor in the Department of Talmud at Tel Aviv
University
CAJS Project:
Commentary on Tractate Shekalim (Yerushalmi)
Edward Breuer
Associate Professor of Jewish Studies in the
Department of Theology at Loyola University, Chicago
CAJS Project:
The Study of the Bible in the Berlin Haskalah
Related Publications:
“Of Miracles and Events Past: Mendelssohn on History,”
Jewish History 9 (1995): 27-52.
The Limits of Enlightenment: Jews, Germans, and the
Eighteenth-Century Study of Scripture. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies and
Harvard University Press, 1996.
Rabbinic Law and Spirituality in Mendelssohn’s
Jerusalem,” Jewish Quarterly Review 86 (1996): 299-321.
Menahem Ben-Sasson
Professor of the History of the Jewish People in the
Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Law and Spirituality among Jews of Muslim Lands: The
Maimonidean Family
“Ben Ezra Synagogue during the Medieval Period.” In
Fortifications and the Synagogue: The Fortress of Babylon
and the Ben Ezra Synagogue, edited by P. Lambert, 20023. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994.
“Varieties of Inter-Communal Relations in the Geonic
Period.” In Jews of Medieval Islam: Community, Society
and Identity, edited by D. Frank, 17-31. Leiden: Brill,
1995.
“Tradition and Change in the Patterns of Controversy
of the Descendants of Maimonides.” In Heritage
and Innovation in Mediaeval Judeo-Arabic Culture—
Proceedings of the Sixth Conference for Judeo-Arabic
Studies, edited by J. Blau and D. Doron, 71-93. RamatGan: Bar Ilan University Press, 2000.
Haggai Ben-Shammai
Professor in the Department of Arabic Language and
Literature at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Ideology and Law: Judeo-Arabic Philosophical Biblical
Exegesis of the Geonim
Amnon Cohen
Eliahu Elath Professor for the History of the Muslim
Peoples in the Department of Islamic and Middle
Eastern Studies at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Spiritual and Temporal Relations between the Jewish
Community of 16th Century Jerusalem and the Muslim
Legal Authority
A World Within: Jewish Life as Reflected in Muslim Court
Documents from the Sijill of Jerusalem (XVIth Century)
Philadelphia: Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, 1994.
Yehudim be-vet ha-mishpat ha-Muslemi: Chevrah,
kalkalah ve-’irgun kehilati bi-Yerushalayim ha-‘Otomanit:
ha-me’ah ha-shemoneh-‘esreh. Jerusalem: Yad Yitzhak
Ben Zvi, 1996.
The Guilds of Ottoman Jerusalem. Leiden: Brill, 2001.
Muhammad Dandamayev
Department of Ancient Oriental Studies at the Oriental
Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences
CAJS Project:
Popular Assemblies in Babylonia in the First
Millenium B.C.E.
“Babylonian Popular Assemblies in the First Millennium
B.C.,” The Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies
Bulletin 30 (1995): 23-29.
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“The Composition of the Citizens in First Millennium
Babylonia,” Altorientalische Forschungen 24 (1997): 135-47.
“The Old Persian Amata and the Babylonian Mar Bani.”
In Wort, Text, Sprache und Kultur: Festschrift für Hans
Schmeja zum 65, edited by P. Anreiter and H. Ölberg,
17-21. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der
Universität Innsbruck, 1998.
Menachem Friedman
Professor in the Department of Sociology and
Anthropology at Bar Ilan University
CAJS Project:
Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Contemporary
Society
Menahem Haran
Yehezkel Kaufmann Professor of Bible Studies
(Emeritus) in the Department of Bible at Hebrew
University.
CAJS Project:
New Chapters on Temples and Temple Service in Ancient
Israel
Ha-’asufah ha-mikra’it : tahalikhe ha-gibush ‘ad sof yeme
bayit sheni ve-shinuye ha-tsurah ‘ad motsa’e yeme habenayim. Jerusalem: Mossad Bialik, 1996.
“The Berit Covenant: Its Nature and Ceremonial
Background.” In Tehillah le-Moshe: Biblical and Judaic
Studies in Honor of Moshe Greenberg, edited by M.
Cogan, B. Eichler and J. Tigay, 203-19. Winona Lake, Ind.:
Eisenbrauns, 1997.
“The Place of the Prophecies against the Nations in the
Book of Jeremiah.” In Emanuel: Studies in Hebrew Bible,
Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls in Honor of Emanuel Tov,
edited by S. Paul et al., 699-706. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
Deborah Janssens
CAJS Project:
Rabbinic Views on Dreams and their Interpretation
Ross Kraemer
(Ph.D. 1976, Princeton University)
Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at
Brown University
1993 - 1994 | Law & Spirituality | 17
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CAJS Project:
Jewish Women in the Greco-Roman Diaspora
When Aseneth Met Joseph: A Late Antique Tale of the Biblical
Patriarch and His Egyptian Wife, Reconsidered. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1998.
“When Aseneth Met Joseph: Recycling a Biblical Marriage
in Late Antiquity.” In Recycling Biblical Figures : Papers Read
at a NOSTER Colloquium in Amsterdam, 12-13 May 1997,
edited by A. Brenner and J. van Henten, 234-65. Leiden:
Deo, 1999.
“When Aseneth Met Joseph: A Postscript.” In For a Later
Generation: the Transformation of Tradition in Israel, Early
Judaism, and Early Christianity, edited by R. Argall, B.
Bow and R. Werline, 130-37. Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press
International, 2000.
Martin Oosthuizen
CAJS Project:
Restitution in the Pentateuchal Release Laws on Slavery,
Land, and Debt
Everett K. Rowson
(Ph.D. 1982, Yale University)
Associate Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department
of Middle Eastern Studies at New York University
CAJS Project:
Views of Medieval Islamic Law and Society on
Homosexuality
“An Alexandrian Age in Fourteenth-Century Damascus:
Twin Commentaries on Two Celebrated Arabic Epistles,”
Mamluk Studies Review 7 (2003): 97-110.
“Institutionalized Transvestism at the Caliphal Court
in Medieval Baghdad.” In Gender and Difference in the
Middle Ages, edited by S. Framer and C. Pasternack, 45-72.
Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.
“Homosexuality.” In Encyclopedia of the Qur’an, edited by
J. McAuliffe. Leiden: Brill, forthcoming.
Raymond P. Scheindlin
(Ph.D. 1971, Columbia University)
Professor of Medieval Hebrew Literature in the
Department of Jewish Literature and Director of the
Shalom Spiegel Institute at the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America
CAJS Project:
Hebrew Liturgical Poetry and its Relationship with Arabic
Sufi Poetry; Hebrew Poets of Spain: Translation and
Commentary
“Contrasting Religious Experience in the Liturgical Poems
of Solomon Ibn Gabirol and Judah Halevi,” Prooftexts 13
(1993).
“Ibn Gabirol’s Religious Poetry and Sufi Poetry,” Sefarad
54 (1994): 109-42.
The Book of Job, translated, introduced and annotated by
R. Scheindlin. New York: Norton, 1999.
Michael Sokoloff
Professor in the Department of Hebrew and Semitic
Languages at Bar Ilan University
CAJS Project:
Lexicography of the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic Dialect
A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic of the Talmudic
and Geonic Periods. Ramat-Gan: Bar Ilan University Press,
and Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
A Dictionary of Judean Aramaic. Ramat-Gan: Bar Ilan
University Press, 2003.
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M
i
trad
Mem
ory
I
ition
History—Remembered, Recovered, Invented
Historical Memory and the Construction of Tradition
n the decade or so following the appearance of Yosef Yerushalmi’s
Zakhor, scholars of Jewish history began to investigate more intensively the distinctive properties of, and putative boundary between, traditional
memory and modern critical history. And they did so with a new spirit of selfreflection about their own methods. The goal of this year’s group was to take
stock of this new research direction and attempt to create a common scholarly
language to analyze it. The group included the kind of mix that has become
so characteristic of the Center—junior and senior scholars, medievalists and
modernists, Israelis and Americans, the light-hearted and the sober. The weekly
seminar was an intense, demanding, and stimulating exchange of ideas among
fellows, enhanced by the participation of regular guests of the caliber of Judah
Goldin (z’l) and Moshe Greenberg. But the real intellectual traffic flowed in and
out of the Center’s hallways, detouring in and out of offices and spilling over
into lunch and dinner. The combination of erudition and amiability, nurtured by
spectacular staff support, made this group a particularly tight-knit and cohesive
one. The final products of the year–the Gruss colloquium and the published
volume, The Jewish Past Revisited, edited by David Myers and David Ruderman,
pulled together the diverse strands of individual scholars into a more or less
coherent whole. At the same time, as a series of learned meditations upon our
scholarly predecessors, the conference and the volume contributed an important chapter to the history of Jewish historiography and scholarly self-reflection.
CAJS Fellowship
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|
1994 – 1995
3/28/04 11:47:22 PM
Jonathan Elukin
Associate Professor in the Department of History at
Trinity College.
CAJS Project:
Christian Europe’s Construction of Jewish History:
Understanding of Josephus during the Renaissance and
Reformation
Elliott Horowitz
Associate Professor in the Department of Jewish History at
Bar Ilan University
CAJS Project:
Purim Celebration and Anti-Christian Expression among
the Jews of Medieval and Early Modern Europe
“The Moment of Death in Medieval and Modern Times,”
Judaism 44 (1995): 271-81.
“Speaking to the Dead: Cemetery Prayer in Medieval and
Modern Jewry,” Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy
8 (1999): 303-17.
Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, forthcoming.
Sara Japhet
Yehezkel Kaufmann Professor of Bible in the Department
of Bible at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Biblical Historiography
“A New Essenism: Heinrich Graetz and Mysticism,” Journal
of the History of Ideas 59 (1998):135-48.
“The Discovery of the Self: Jews and Conversion in the
Twelfth Century.” In Jews and Christians in Twelfth-Century
Europe, edited by M. Signer and J. van Engen, 63-76.
Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001.
“Judaism: From Heresy to Pharisee in Medieval Christian
Exegesis,” Traditio 57 (2002): 49-66.
Moshe Greenberg
(Ph.D. 1954, University of Pennsylvania)
Prof. Yitzhak Becker Professor of Jewish Studies
(Emeritus) at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Commentary to the Book of Ezekiel
Ezekiel 21-37 : a New Translation with Introduction and
Commentary. New York: Doubleday, 1997.
“’In Search of Ancient Israel’: Revisionism at All Costs.”
In The Jewish Past Revisited: Reflections on Modern Jewish
Historians. Edited by D. N. Myers and D. Ruderman, 212-33.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
“Can The Persian Period Bear the Burden? Reflections
on the Origins of Biblical History.” In Proceedings of the
Twelfth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Division A, 35-45.
Jerusalem: World Congress of Jewish Studies, 1999.
“Postexilic Historiography: How and Why?” In Israel
Constructs Its History: Deuteronomistic Historiography in
Recent Research, edited by A. de Pury, T. Romer, and J. D.
Macchi, 144-73. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000.
Allen Kerkeslager
Assistant Professor of Religions of the Ancient World in
the Department of Theology and in the Ancient Studies
Program at Saint Joseph’s University
CAJS Project:
Egyptian-Jewish Tensions in First-Century Alexandria: The
Influence of Religious Traditions and History on Social
Processes
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“Maintaining Jewish Identity in the Greek Gymnasium:
A ‘Jewish Load’ in CPJ 3.519 (= P. Schub. 37 = P. Berol.
13406),” Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian,
Hellenistic, and Roman Period 28 (1997): 12-33.
“The Apology of the Potter: A Translation of the Potter’s
Oracle.” In Jerusalem Studies in Egyptology, edited by I.
Shirun-Grumach, 67-79. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998.
“Jews in Egypt and Cyrenaica 66-235 CE.” In Cambridge
History of Judaism, vol. 4, edited by S. Katz. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
Berel Lang
Professor of Humanities at Trinity College.
CAJS Project:
Between Memory and History: The Role of Moral
Judgment in Understanding and Representing the
Holocaust
Heidegger’s Silence. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press,
1996.
The Future of the Holocaust: Between History and Memory.
Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Holocaust Representation: Art within the Limits of History
and Ethics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
2000.
Robert Liberles
(Ph.D. 1980, Jewish Theological Seminary)
Professor in the Department of History at Ben Gurion
University
CAJS Project:
Authority of Custom in Jewish Law: The Role of Historical
Memory and Tradition in Jewish Society of Muslim Lands
(7-11th) Centuries
“Hidden Worlds and Open Shutters: S. D. Goitein, Between
Judaism and Islam.” In The Jewish Past Revisited: Reflections
on Modern Jewish Historians, edited by D. Myers and D.
Ruderman, 163-98. New Haven: Yale University Press,
1998.
“Legal Autonomy and the Recourse to Muslim Courts by
Protected People According to Muslim Sources during
the Geonic Period” (Hebrew). In The Intertwined Worlds
of Islam, Essays in Memory of Hava Lazarus-Yafeh, 334-92.
Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2002.
Jewish and Islamic Law: A Comparative Study of Custom
during the Geonic Period. Cambridge, Mass.: Islamic Legal
Studies Program, Harvard University, 2003.
David N. Myers
Professor in the Department of History at the University of
California, Los Angeles
CAJS Project:
Beyond History: Anti-Historicism in Modern Jewish
Thought
The Jewish Past Revisited: Reflections on Modern Jewish
Historians, edited with introduction by D. Myers and D.
Ruderman, 163-98. New Haven: Yale University Press,
1998.
Resisting History: Historicism and its Discontents in German
Jewish Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2003.
CAJS Project:
The Holocaust and the Rewriting of Jewish History
Salo Wittmayer Baron: Architect of Jewish History. New York:
New York University Press, 1995.
“On the Threshold of Modernity.” In Geschichte des
jüdischen Alltags in Deutschland vom 17. Jahrhundert bis
1945, edited by M. Kaplan et al. Munich: Beck-Verlag, 2003.
Gideon Libson
Professor in the Faculty of Law at Hebrew University
Elchanan Reiner
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Jewish History at Tel
Aviv University
CAJS Project:
Changing Attitudes toward Knowledge in Eastern
European Jewry of the Early Modern Period; Popular
Religion and Holy Shrines in the Land of Israel during the
Middle Ages
“The Ashkenazi Elite at the Beginning of the Modern Era:
1994 - 1995 | History—Remembered, Recovered, Invented | 21
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Manuscript versus Printed Book.” In Jews in Early Modern
Poland, edited by G. Hundert, 85-98. London: Littman
Library of Jewish Civilization, 1997.
“Halakhah, Hermeneutics and Martyrdom in Medieval
Ashkenaz,” Jewish Quarterly Review 94 (2004): 77-208, 27899.
“Overt Falsehood and Covert Truth: Christians, Jews and
Holy Places in Twelfth-Century Palestine” (Hebrew), Zion
63 (1998): 85-98.
“Yenam” : sachar be-yenam shel goyim àl gilgulah shel
halakhah be-òlam ha-maà´seh. Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 2003.
“A Jewish Response to the Crusades: The Dispute over
Sacred Places in the Holy Land,” Juden und Christen zur Zeit
der Kreuzzüge (1999): 209-31
Michael Silber
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Jewish History at
Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Inventor of Traditions: Akiva Schlesinger and the
Construction of Ultra-Orthodoxy and Zionism
“‘There are no Yeshivot in our Country for Several Good
Reasons’: Between Hasidim and Mitnagdim in Hungary”
(Hebrew). In Within Hasidic Circles : Studies in Hasidism in
Memory of Mordecai Wilensky edited by E. Etkes et al., 75108. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1999.
Meir Avraham Munk, Eletem tortenetei [My Life’s Stories],
edited and with an afterword by M. Silber. Budapest: Mult
es Jovo, 2002.
“A Hebrew Heart beats in Hungary: Akiva Yosef
Schlesinger: Ultra-Orthodoxy and Early Jewish
Nationalism” (Hebrew). In Me’ah shanot tziyonut datit, vol.
1, edited by A. Sagi and D. Schwartz, 225-54. Ramat-Gan:
Bar Ilan University Press, 2003.
Haym Soloveitchik
Merkin Family Professor of Jewish History and Literature
in the Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva
University
CAJS Project:
Yeyn Nesekh: A Study in Accommodation and
Steadfastness; Contemporary Orthodoxy and the
Transformation of Tradition
”Piety, Pietism and German Pietism: Sefer Hasidim and the
Diffusion of Sefer Hasidim,” Jewish Quarterly Review 92
(2002): 455-93.
Israel Yuval
Professor in the Department of Jewish History at Hebrew
University
CAJS Project:
Historiographical Works and Historiosophical Attitudes of
Medieval German Jewry
“The Haggadah of Passover and Easter” (Hebrew), Tarbiz
65 (1996): 5-28.
“Yitzhak Baer and the Search for Authentic Judaism.” In
The Jewish Past Revisited: Reflections on Modern Jewish
Historians, edited by D. Myers and D. Ruderman, 77-87.
‘Two Nations in Your Womb’: Perceptions of Jews and
Christians (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Alma, 2000.
Yael Zerubavel
Professor in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers,
the State University of New Jersey
CAJS Project:
Myths and Rituals of National Rebirth: Exodus and the
Desert in Modern Israeli Culture
“The Forest as a National Icon: Literature, Politics, and the
Archaeology of Memory,” Israel Studies 1.1 (1996): 60-99.
“Revisiting the Pioneer Past: Continuity and Change in
Hebrew Settlement Narratives,” Hebrew Studies 41 (2000):
209-24.
“Rachel and the Female Voice: Labor, Gender, and the
Zionist Pioneer Vision.” In History and Literature: New
Readings of Jewish Texts in Honor of Arnold J. Band, edited
by W. Cutter and D. Jacobson, 303-17. Providence, R.I.:
Brown University Press, 2002..
‫קּ‬
22 | CAJS
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‫קּ‬
Learning and Literacy:
The Transmission of Tradition
and Knowledge from Antiquity to the Present
T
his seminar originated as an attempt to offer a corrective to the
emphasis among twentieth-century scholars of Jewish culture
on texts and textual changes—an emphasis which was often unaccompanied by attention to the cultural context of the textual traditions. Over the
course of the year, the fellows worked to put texts in context by exploring
the relationships between, and interpenetrations of, oral and written culture
and transmission in all periods of Jewish history. The seminar presentations
covered a kaleidoscopic range of Jewish locales and cultural phenomena,
ranging from the relationship of oral and written modalities in the transmission of rabbinic texts to the role of reading in national identity formation in
modern Egypt and Israel. The diverse topics were bound together by the
recurring themes of the relationship of oral and written modes of cultural
transmission, the relative values of these modes in different Jewish cultural
moments and locales, and the relationship of authority to orality and literacy. The concentration of projects dealing with these issues in comparative Jewish-Moslem- Greek contexts added yet another valence to the rich
discussions (and textual productions!) that unfolded throughout the year.
Scholars who were accustomed to working within the boundaries of a single
cultural or historical context found their work enriched immeasurably by the
broader comparative conversation. As is fitting for a seminar on orality and
textuality, much of the work of this year’s seminar was presented (orally) at
the annual Gruss colloquium and (textually) in the volume Transmitting Jewish Traditions: Orality, Textuality and Cultural Diffusion, edited by Yaakov Elman
and Israel Gershoni.
CAJS Fellowship
template13.indd 23
|
1995 – 1996
3/28/04 11:47:31 PM
‫שּגּ‬
Israel Bartal
Professor at the The Dinur Center for Research in
Jewish History at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
The Uses of History: Jewish Orthodoxy and the
Transmission of Tradition
Malachi Beit-Arie
Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Archive
Studies at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Medieval Hebrew Codicology: History and Typology of
Medieval Manuscripts
---, M.Glatzer and C. Sirat. Codices hebraicis litteris exarati
quo tempore scripti fuerint exhibentes, vol 1, jusqu’a 1020.
Turnhout: Brepols, 1997.
---, M. Glatzer and C. Sirat. Codices hebraicis litteris
exarati quo tempore scripti fuerint exhibentes, vol. 2, de
1021 a 1079. Turnhout: Brepols, 1999.
Hebrew Manuscripts in the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma,
edited by B. Richler. Palaeographical and Codicological
Descriptions by M. Beit-Arie. Jerusalem: Jewish National
and University Library, 2001.
Yaakov Elman
(Ph.D. 1986, New York University)
Associate Professor of Judaic Studies in the
Department of Judaic Studies at Yeshiva University
CAJS Project:
Orality and Canon in Talmudic Babylonia
“Orality and the Transmission of Tosefta Pischa in
Talmudic Literature.” In Introducing Tosefta: Textual,
Intratextual and Intertextual Studies, edited by H. Fox
and T. Meacham, 123-80. Hoboken, N.J.: Ktav, 1999.
Transmitting Jewish Traditions: Orality, Textuality,
and Cultural Diffusion, edited with introduction by I.
Gershoni and Y. Elman. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2000.
“The Small Scale of Things: The World before the
Genizah,” PAAJR 63 (1997-2001): 49-86.
Tamar El-Or
(Ph.D. 1990, Bar Ilan University)
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and
Anthropology at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Literacy and Identity among National-Orthodox
Women in Israel
Next Year I Will Know More. Detroit: Wayne State
Daphna Ephrat
CAJS Project:
Change and Continuity in the Process of the
Transmission of Islamic Learning from 945-1250
David Fishman
(Ph.D., Harvard University)
Professor in the Department of Jewish History at Jewish
Theological Seminary
CAJS Project:
The Rise of Modern Yiddish Culture in Tsarist Russia,
1897-1917
From Mesopotamia to Modernity: Ten Introductions to
Jewish History and Literature, edited by D. Fishman and
B. Visotsky. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1999.
Israel Gershoni
Professor of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel
Aviv University
CAJS Project:
Islamic Tradition in Modern Egypt: The Role of
Intellectuals
Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East, edited
by I. Gershoni and J. Jankowski. New York: Columbia
Or ba-tsel : Mitsrayim veha-Fashizm, 1922-1937. Tel Aviv:
Am Oved, 1999.
Transmitting Jewish Traditions: Orality, Textuality, and
Cultural Diffusion, edited with an introduction by Y.
24 | CAJS
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Elman and I. Gershoni. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2000.
Jeffrey Grossman
(Ph.D. 1992, University of Texas)
Associate Professor of Germanic Languages and
Literatures at the University of Virginia
CAJS Project:
Wissenschaft des Judentums, Literary Transmission and
the Structuring of Jewish Memory
“From East to West: Translating Y. L. Perets in Early
20th-Century Germany.” In Transmitting Jewish
Traditions: Orality, Textuality, and Cultural Diffusion,
edited by Y. Elman and I. Gershoni, 278-309. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
The Discourse on Yiddish in Germany: From the
Enlightenment to the Second Empire. Rochester, N.Y.:
Camden House, 2002.
“Heine and Jewish Culture: The Poetics of
Appropriation.” In A Companion to the Works of Heinrich
Heine, edited by R. Cook. Rochester, N.Y.: Camden
House, 2002.
Alfred Ivry
(Ph.D. 1963, Brandeis University; D.Phil. 1971, Oxford
University)
Skirball Professor of Jewish Thought in the Skirball
Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York
University
CAJS Project:
Maimonides’ Philosophy and Cultural Transmission:
The Isma’ili Connection
“The Logical and Scientific Premises of Maimonides’
Thought.” In Perspectives on Jewish Thought and
Mysticism, edited by A. Ivry, E. Wolfson, and A. Arkush,
63-97. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers,
1998.
“Jewish Philosophers’ Perceptions of the Nature and
Value of Philosophy.” In Miscellanea Mediaevalia, Band
26,What is Philosophy in the Middle Ages?, edited by
J. Aertsen and A. Speer, 897-903. Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter, 1998.
‫פּ‬
“Jewish and Early Muslim Neoplatonism,” “Averroes,”
and “Jewish Averroism.” In Columbia History of Western
Philosophy, edited by R. Popkin, 149-53, 183-88, 196200. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
Ruth Katz
Professor in the Department of Musicology at Hebrew
University
CAJS Project:
Oral and Written Transmission of Musical Traditions
with Special Reference to Eastern Jewish Communities
--- and Ruth HaCohen. The Arts in Mind: Pioneering Texts
of a Coterie of British Men of Letters. New Brunswick:
Transaction Press, 2002.
The Lachmann Problem: An Unsung Chapter in
Comparative Musicology : Including Unpublished Letters
and Lectures of Robert Lachmann (Hebrew). Jerusalem:
Magnes Press, 2003.
--- and Dalia Cohen. Palestinian-Arabic Music: Latent
and Manifest Theory of a Maqamat Theory in Practice.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, forthcoming.
Robert Kraft
Professor Emeritus in the Department of Religious
Studies at the University of Pennsylvania
CAJS Project:
Greek Jewish Scriptures: Vestiges of an Influential Past,
Vehicles for Renewed Understanding
“Philo’s Treatment of the Number Seven in ‘On
Creation.’” Online: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/gopher/
other/journals/kraftpub/Judaism/Philo%20on%207
“Some Ptolemaic Papyri Fragments.” In Studia Varia
Bruxellensia. Ad Orbem Graeco-Latinum Pertinentia V.
Papyri in Honorem Johannis Bingen Octogenarii, edited
by H. Melearts, 163-67. Leuven: Peeters, 2000.
“The Papyri Collection at the Center for Judaic Studies,
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia): an Overview.”
In Atti del XXII Congresso Internazionale di Papirologia
(Florence: August 23-29, 1998), edited by G. Bastanini et
al, 749-52. Florence: Instituto Papirologico and G. Vitelli,
2001.
1995 - 1996 | Learning and Literacy | 25
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�
Paul Mandel
Lecturer in the Department of Hebrew and
Comparative Literature at the University of Haifa
CAJS Project:
Between Byzantium and Islam: The Transmission of
Rabbinic Literature in the Post-Classical Period
“Between Byzantium and Islam: The Transmission of a
Jewish Book in the Byzantine and Early Islamic Periods.”
In Transmitting Jewish Traditions: Orality, Textuality, and
Cultural Diffusion, edited by Y. Elman and I. Gershoni,
74-106. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
“Midrashic Exegesis and its Precedents in the Dead Sea
Scrolls,” Dead Sea Discoveries 8 (2001): 149-68.
“Tales of the Destruction: Between Babylonia and the
Land of Israel” (Hebrew). In The Land of Israel in the
Second Temple, Mishnah and Talmud Periods, edited by
A, Baumgarten, Y. Gafni and L. Schiffman. Jerusalem:
Zalman Shazar Center, forthcoming.
Ronit Meroz
Department of Jewish Philosophy at Tel Aviv University
CAJS Project:
The Transmission of Lurianic Tradition via the School of
Sarug
Shalom Paul
Professor in the Department of Bible at Hebrew
University
CAJS Project:
The Transmission of Tradition and Knowledge as
Reflected in the Prophecies of Second Isaiah
“‘Emigration’ from the Netherworld in the Ancient
Near East.” In Immigration and Emigration within the
Ancient Near East: Festschrift E. Lipinski, edited by K. van
Lerberghe and A. Schoors, 221-27. Leuven: Peeters,
1995.
“Hosea 7:16: Gibberish Jabber.” In Pomegranates and
Golden Bells; Studies in Biblical, Jewish, and Near Eastern
Ritual, Law, and Literature in Honor of Jacob Milgrom,
edited by D. Wright, D. Freedman, and A. Hurvitz, 70712. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1995.
“The ‘Plural of Ecstasy’ in Mesopotamian and Biblical
Love Poetry.” In Solving Riddles and Untying Knots:
Biblical, Epigraphical and Semitic Studies in Honor of
Jonas C. Greenfield, edited by Z. Zevit et al., 585-97.
Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1995.
Marc Saperstein
Charles E. Smith Professor of History in the Department
of History and Program in Judaic Studies at George
Washington University
CAJS Project:
The Sermons of Saul Levi Morteira: Transmitting a
Tradition to Former New Christians in 17th-Century
Amsterdam
“History as Homiletics: The Use of Historical Memory
in the Sermons of Saul Levi Morteira” In Jewish History
and Jewish Memory: Essays in Honor of Yosef Hayim
Yerushalmi, edited by E. Carlebach, J. Efron, D. Myers.
Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England [for]
Brandeis University Press, 1998.
“The Sermon as Oral Performance.” In Transmitting
Jewish Traditions: Orality, Textuality, and Cultural
Diffusion, edited by Y. Elman and I. Gershoni, 248-77.
“Exile in Amsterdam.” Me’ah she‘arim : ‘iyunim be‘olamam ha-ruchani shel Yisra’el bi-yeme ha-benayim,
le-zekher Yitshak Tverski , edited by E. Fleischer et al.
Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2001.
Yochanan David Silman
Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Bar Ilan
University
CAJS Project:
The Concept of Torah and its Means of Transmission in
Rabbinic Literature
Philosopher and Prophet: Judah Halevi, the Kuzari, and
the Evolution of His Thought, translated by L. Schramm.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.
Kol gadol ve-lo’ yasaf: Torat Yisra’el ben shelemut lehishtalmut. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1999.
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Israeli Culture
and Society
The Formative Period
T
Jewish Religion
and Culture in the
American Diaspora
his year began as two distinct seminars: one on Israeli culture
and society during the early years of Israeli statehood, and the
other on American Jewish culture and society in the twentieth century. As
the year progressed, these two separate seminars merged into a unified research group that examined the commonalities and divergences of Jewish
life in Israel and America in the 20th century. On many levels, the seminars
on Israeli and American Jewish culture became a unique experiment in communication. The Israeli scholars were divided ideologically and methodologically. Adding the American mix, with an oft-stated feminist bent, created
remarkably lively and even contentious discussions. For the Israeli scholars,
the seminar meant exposure to American Jewish history, sociology, and literature–fields generally not part of their education. For the American scholars,
the seminars provided the opportunity to delve into the intricacies of Israeli
sociology, literature and politics. The result was most exciting, unanticipated,
and deeply rewarding– a mini-summit conference extending through an
entire year between intellectuals of the two communities, each attempting to understand and communicate with the other. Some of the results of
this invaluable human and scholarly encounter are represented in the book,
Divergent Jewish Cultures: Israel and America, edited by Deborah Dash Moore
and S. Ilan Troen.
CAJS Fellowship
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1996 – 1997
3/28/04 11:47:37 PM
Gulie Ne’eman Arad
(Ph.D. 1994, Tel-Aviv University)
Ben-Gurion University
CAJS Project:
The Americanization of Judaic Tradition: Blessings and
Afflictions of Modernity
Passing into History: Nazism and the Holocaust Beyond
Memory, edited by G. Ne’eman Arad. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1997.
“Nazi Germany and the Jews: Reflections on a
Beginning, Middle and an Open-Ended End,” History &
Memory 9.1-2 (1997-8):409-33.
America, Its Jews, and the Rise of Nazism. Bloomington:
University of Indiana Press, 2000.
Arnold J. Band
Professor Emeritus in the Department of Hebrew and
Comparative Literature at the University of California,
Los Angeles.
CAJS Project:
The Impact of Statehood on the Hebrew Literary
Imagination
“Adumbrations of the Israeli ‘Identity Crisis’ in Hebrew
Literature of the 1960’s.” In Israeli and Palestinian
Identities in History and Literature, edited by K. AbdelMalek and D. Jacobson, 123-32. New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 1999.
“The Impact of Statehood on the Israeli Literary
Imagination: Hayyim Hazaz and the Zionist Narrative.”
In Divergent Jewish Cultures: Israel and America, edited
by D. Dash Moore and S. Ilan Troen, 256-74. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2001.
Studies in Modern Jewish Literature. Philadelphia: Jewish
Publication Society, 2003.
Eliezer Don-Yehiya
Professor in the Department of Political Studies at Bar
Ilan University
CAJS Project:
The Shaping of Political Culture: Ben Gurion’s
Mamlachtiyut (“Statism”) and its Opponents
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Michael Feige
Lecturer in the Ben-Gurion Research Center at BenGurion University
CAJS Project:
The Cultural Politics of Israeli Archaeology during the
1950’s and Early 1960’s
“Archaeology, Anthropology and the Development
Town: Constructing the Israeli Place” (Hebrew), Zion
63.4 (1998): 441-59.
“Identity, Ritual and Pilgrimage: The Meetings of Israeli
Exploration Society.” In Divergent Jewish Cultures: Israel
and America, edited by D. Dash Moore and S. Ilan Troen,
One Space, Two Places: Gush Emunim, Peace Now and the
the Construction of Israeli Space (Hebrew). Jerusalem:
Magnes Press, 2002.
Nurith Gertz
Professor in the Department of Literature and Art at the
Open University, Israel
CAJS Project:
Israeli Political Culture and Holocaust Remembrance,
1940-59.
“Historical Memory: Israeli Cinema and Literature in
the 1980s and 1990s.” In Critical Essays on Israeli Society,
Religion, and Government, edited by K. Avruch and W.
Zenner, 200-26. Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1997.
“From Jew to Hebrew: The Zionist ‘Narrative’ in the
Israeli Cinema of the 1940s and 1950s,” Israel Affairs 4.34 (1998): 175–200.
The Israeli Culture (Cinema, Literature and Television):
Facing the Holocaust Memory (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Am
Oved, forthcoming.
Motti Golani
(Ph.D. 1993, Haifa University)
Professor in the Department of Israeli Studies at Haifa
University
CAJS Project:
The Years of Anxiety: 1949-1956
Israel in Search of a War: The Sinai Campaign 1955-1956.
Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1998.
“Jerusalem Hope Lies only in Partition: Israel Policy
on the Jerusalem Question, 1948-1967,” International
Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 31 (1999): 577-604.
“‘The Haifa Turning Point’: The British Administration
and the Civil War in Palestine, December 1947 – May
1948,” Middle Eastern Studies 37:20 (2001): 93-130.
Tresa Grauer
(Ph.D. 1995, University of Michigan)
Lecturer in the Department of Foreign Literatures and
Linguistics at Ben-Gurion University
CAJS Project:
Sacred Through Secular: The Authority of the Text in
Modern Jewish American Literature
“Susan Sontag,” and “Vivian Gornick.” In Jewish Women
in America: An Historical Encylopedia, edited by P.
Hyman and D. Dash Moore. New York: Routledge, 1997.
“’A Drastically Bifurcated Legacy’: Homeland and
Jewish Identity in Contemporary Jewish American
Literature.” In Divergent Jewish Cultures: Israel and
America, edited by D. Dash Moore and S. Ilan Troen,
“Identity Matters: Contemporary American Jewish
Writing.” In The Cambridge Companion to Jewish
American Writing, edited by H. Wirth-Nesher and M.
Kramer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Jenna Weissman Joselit
Continuing Visiting Professor of American Studies and
Modern Judaic Studies in the Department of History at
Princeton University
CAJS Project:
Jews and Fashion: Material Culture in American Jewish
History
A Perfect Fit: Clothes, Character, and The Promise of
America. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2001.
Deborah Dash Moore
William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor in the Department of
Religion at Vassar College
1996 - 1997 | Israeli Culture and Society | 29
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Anita Norich
Associate Professor in the Department of English
Language and Literature and the Frankel Center for
Judaic Studies at University of Michigan
CAJS Project:
Jewish Culture in America During the Holocaust
“Yiddish Literature,” and “Grace Paley.” In Jewish Women
in America: An Historical Encylopedia, edited by P.
Hyman and D. Dash Moore. New York: Routledge, 1997
“‘Harbe sugyes/Puzzling Questions’: Yiddish
and English Culture in America During the
Holocaust,”Jewish Social Studies 5:1- 2 (1998-99): 91-110.
“On the Yiddish Question.” In Mapping Jewish Identities,
edited by L. Silberstein. New York: New York University
Press, 2000.
CAJS Project:
Jewish G.I.s and the “Judeo-Christian Tradition”: The
Shaping of New Possibilities for Ethnic Self-Expression
“Jewish GIs and the Creation of the Judeo-Christian
Tradition,” Journal of Religion and American Culture 8:1
(Winter 1998).
Divergent Jewish Cultures: Israel and America, edited with
introduction by D. Dash Moore and S. I. Troen. New
GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Benny Morris
(Ph.D. 1977, Camridge University)
Professor in the Department of Middle East Studies at
Ben Gurion University
CAJS Project:
The Israeli Press and Israel’s Border Policy, 1949-1956
Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict,
1881-1999 .New York: Knopf, 1999.
The road to Jerusalem : Glubb Pasha, Palestine and the
Jews. London: I.B. Tauris, 2002.
Yoav Peled
(Ph.D. 1982, University of California, Los Angeles)
Associate Professor in the Department of Political
Science at Tel Aviv University
CAJS Project:
Mamlachtiyut as a Citizenship Discourse
--- and Gershon Safir. Being Israeli: The Dynamics of
Multiple Citizenship. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2002.
Ilan Peleg
(Ph.D. 1974, Northwestern University)
Charles A. Dana Professor in the Department of
Government and Law at Lafayette College
CAJS Project:
Israeli Political Culture and Holocaust Remembrance in
the 1950s.
“Epilogue: The Peace Process and Israel’s Political
Kulturkampf.” In The Middle East Peace Process:
Interdisciplinary Perspectives, edited by I. Peleg, 237-63.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.
“Israel’s Constitutional Order and Kulturkampf: the Role
of Ben-Gurion,” Israel Studies 3.1 (1998): 237-61.
“Israel as a Liberal Democracy: Civil Rights in the
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Jewish State.” In Review Essays in Israel Studies, edited
by L. Eisenberg and N. Caplan, 63-80. Albany: State
University of New York Press, 2000.
Rakhmiel Peltz
(Ph.D. 1971, University of Pennsylvania; 1988, Columbia
University)
Professor of Sociolinguistics in the Department of
Culture and Communication and Director of the Judaic
Studies Program at Drexel University
CAJS Project:
Children of Eastern European Immigrants Interpret
Their Legacy, 1920-1955
From Immigrant to Ethnic Culture: American Yiddish in
South Philadelphia. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University
Press, 1998.
Marc Lee Raphael
Professor in the Department of Religion at the College
of William and Mary
CAJS Project:
The History of the Synagogue in America During the
Twentieth Century
Judaism in America. New York: Columbia University
Press, 2003.
Jeffrey Shandler
Associate Professor in the Department of Jewish
Studies at Rutgers, the Stateu University of New Jersey
CAJS Project:
American Jews and the Electronic Media: Film, Radio
and Television in American Jewish Self-Portraiture and
Cultural Life, 1920-70.
--- and Beth Wenger. Encounters with the “Holy Land”:
Place, Past and Future in American Jewish Culture.
Philadelphia: National Museum of American Jewish
History, the Center for Judaic Studies, University of
Pennsylvania, and the University of Pennsylvania
Libraries, 1997.
While America Watches: Televising the Holocaust. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
--- and J. Hoberman. Entertaining America: Jews, Movies,
and Broadcasting. New York: Princeton University Press
and the Jewish Museum, 2003.
S. Ilan Troen
(Ph.D. 1970, University of Chicago)
Lopin Professor of Modern History in the Department
of History at Ben-Gurion University and Stoll Professor
of Israel Studies in the Deparmtent of Jewish History at
Brandeis University
CAJS Project:
The Shaping of Jewish Citizens in Israel: Competition
and Conflict in Israeli Education
Jewish Centers and Peripheries: Europe between America
and Israel Fifty Years after World War II, edited by S. I.
Troen. New Brunswick:Transaction, 1999.
Divergent Jewish Cultures; Israel and America, edited with
introduction by S. I. Troen and D. Dash Moore. New
Imagining Zion: Dreams, Designs, and Realities in
1996 - 1997 | Israeli Culture and Society | 31
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a Century of Jewish Settlement. New Haven: Yale
Yaron Tsur
Tel Aviv University
CAJS Project:
Israel’s Relationship With Germany, 1950-1969
Beth S. Wenger
Associate Professor of History in the Department of
History at University of Pennsylvania
CAJS Project:
Oriental Jews and the Ethnic Problem in Israel, 19481959
CAJS Project:
American Visions of the Jewish Past: Jewish Historical
Consciousness and Collective Memory in America
“Carnival Fears: Moroccan Immigrants and the Ethnic
Problem in the Young State of Israel,” Journal of Israeli
History 18.1 (1997): 73-103.
--- and Jeffrey Shandler. Encounters With the Holy
Land: Place, Past and Future in American Jewish Culture.
Philadelphia: National Museum of American Jewish
History; the Center for Judaic Studies, University of
Pennsylvania, and the University of Pennsylvania
Libraries, 1997.
A Torn Community: The Jews of Morocco and Nationalism
1943-1954 (Hebrew). Tel-Aviv: Am Oved, 2001.
Jews Among Muslims: Introduction to the History of the
Jews in the Islamic Countries 1750-1914 (Hebrew). Tel
Aviv: The Open University Press, 2003.
Yechiam Weitz
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Land of Israel
Studies at the University of Haifa
“Memory As Identity: The Invention of the Lower East
Side,” American Jewish History 85.1 (1997): 3-27.
Remembering the Lower East Side: American Jewish
Reflections, edited by H. Diner, J. Shandler, and B.
Wenger. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
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Artifact
Text & Image
L
Text, Artifact and Image:
Revealing Ancient Israelite Religion
ike the other seminars which have used intersecting (and at
times, competing) methodologies to explore the relationship
between Judaism and its surrounding cultures, this year’s group employed
the strategies particular to the literary study of the Bible and to the study of
Ancient Near Eastern history and material culture to interrogate the relationship between ancient Israelite culture and the other cultures of the Ancient
Near East. At the methodological level, the seminars addressed explicitly the
past, present, and proper roles of archaeology, Ancient Near Eastern history
and literature, and literary and theological study of the Bible, in scholarly
representations of ancient Israelite religion and culture. The concluding colloquium, like many of the seminars over the course of the year, focused on
the central questions of Israelite religious belief and practice: the nature of
the Israelite God and its relationship to other Ancient Near Eastern deities,
the whys and wherefores of worship among Israelites and their neighbors,
and the similarities and differences that existed among the various religious
systems of the Ancient Near East. While the topics of the seminars were
wide-ranging, many of the conversations over the course of the year were
united by a common desire to escape the romanticism and apologetics that
have influenced the academic study of the Bible and ancient Israelite religion since its inception, and to redescribe the religion and culture of ancient
Israel in more accurate and less confessional terms. Much of the scholarship
that was developed at the center this year has already become part of the
canonical literature of twentieth century biblical studies.
CAJS Fellowship
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1997 – 1998
3/28/04 11:47:55 PM
Gary Beckman
Professor of Hittite and Mesopotamian Studies in the
Department of Near Eastern Studies at University of
Michigan
CAJS Project:
Hittite Ritual
“Ištar of Nineveh Reconsidered,” Journal of Cuneiform
Studies 50 (1998):1-10.
“The Goddess Pirinkir and Her Ritual from Nattuša (CTH
644),” Ktema 24 (1999): 25-39.
“Babylonica Hethitica: the ‘pabilili - Rituals from Boğazköy,
(CTH 718).” In Recent Developments in Hittite Archaeology
and History, edited by H. Güterbock, H.. Hoffner, Jr., and K.
Aslihan Yener. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2001
Herbert and Ellie Katz Distinguished Fellow
Amnon Ben Tor
Yigael Yadin Professor of Archaeology and Director of the
Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Excavation and Investigation of Tel-Hazor
Adele Berlin
Robert H. Smith Professor of Bible in the Departments of
English and Jewish Studies at University of Maryland
CAJS Project:
The Absence of God in the Books of Esther and
Lamentations
Esther: the Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS
Translation, commentary by A. Berlin. Philadelphia: Jewish
Publication Society, 2001.
Lamentations, A Commentary. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster
John Knox Press, 2002.
Barry Eichler
Associate Professor of Assyriology in the Department
of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of
Pennsylvania
CAJS Project:
Inanna: Her Myth, Iconography and Cult
Erika A. Strauss Teaching Fellow
Nili S. Fox
Associate Professor of Bible at Hebrew Union College–
Jewish Institute of Religion
CAJS Project:
A Typological Study of Legitimate and Illegitimate Cult
Objects
In the Service of the King: Officialdom in Ancient Israel and
Judah. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 2000.
Moses Aaron Dropsie Fellow
Tikva Frymer-Kensky
Professor of Hebrew Bible in the Divinity School at
University of Chicago
CAJS Project:
Biblical Religion and Liturgies to the Goddesses of
Sumer and Babylon
Reading the Women of the Bible. New York: Schocken
Press, 2002.
Seymour (Sy) Gitin
(Ph.D. 1980, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion, Cincinnati)
Dorot Director and Professor in the Department
of Archaeology at W. F. Albright Institute of
Archaeological Research
CAJS Project:
Philistine Cult in the 7th Century BCE
Lucius N. Littauer Fellow
Linda Bregstein
CAJS Project:
Religious Attitudes in Babylonia under the Persian Empire:
The Contribution of Signet-seal Studies
“The Neo-Assyrian Empire and Its Western Periphery:
The Levant with a Focus on Philistine Ekron.” In Assyria
1995: Proceedings of the 10th Anniversary Symposium of
the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, Helsinki, September
7-11, 1995, edited by S. Parpola and R. Whiting, 77-104.
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Helsinki: University of Helsinki Press, 1997.
---, Trude Dothan and Joseph Naveh. “A Royal
Dedicatory Inscription from Ekron,” Israel Exploration
Journal 47.1-2 (1997):1-16.
“Philistia in Transition: The 10th Century and Beyond.”
In Mediterranean Peoples in Transition: Thirteenth to
Early Tenth Centuries BCE : In Honor of Professor Trude
Dothan, edited by S. Gitin, A. Mazar and E. Stern, 16283. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1998.
Wayne Horowitz
(Ph.D.1986, University of Birmingham)
Lecturer in the Department of Assyriology at Hebrew
University
CAJS Project:
Cuneiform Writing in Canaan
--- and N. Wasserman. “An Old Babylonian Letter with
Mention of Mari and Ekallatum,” Israel Exploration
Journal 50 (2000):169-74.
---, Takayoshi Oshima and Seth Sanders. “A
Bibliographical List of Cuneiform Inscriptions from
Canaan, Palestine/Philistia, and The Land of Israel,”
Journal of The American Oriental Society 122 (2002): 75366.
--- and Takayoshi Oshima. “Two More Cuneiform Finds
from Hazor,” Israel Exploration Journal 52 (2002):179-86.
Victor Hurowitz
(Ph.D.1984, Hebrew University)
Professor in the Department of Bible and Ancient Near
Eastern Studies at Ben Gurion University
CAJS Project:
Biblical Attitudes Towards Idols in their Ancient Near
Eastern Context
“Emar GARZA and Hebrew Terms for Priestly Portions,”
Nouvelles asssyriologiques breves et utilitaires (1998): 6768.
---and Sol Cohen. “Huqqot Haàmmim Hebel Hu’ (Jer.
10:3) in Light of Akkadian ‘parsu’ and ‘zaqiqu’ Referring
to Cult Statues,” Jewish Quarterly Review 89 (1999): 27790.
“An End to Flying Cats: Epistle of Jeremiah
22 Reconsidered,” Journal for the Study of the
Pseudepigrapha 20 (1999): 93-95.
Jacob Klein
Professor in the Departments of Hebrew and Semitic
Languages and Bible at Bar Ilan University
CAJS Project:
Mesopotamian and Biblical Royal Hymns: A
Comparative Study
“The Origin and Development of Languages on Earth:
The Sumerian versus the Biblical View” (Hebrew). In
Tehillah le-Moshe: Biblical and Judaic Studies in Honor of
Moshe Greenberg, edited by M. Cogan, B. Eichler, and J.
Tigay, 77-92. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1997.
“‘The Ballade About Early Rulers’ in Eastern and
Western Traditions.” In Languages and Cultures in
Contact: At the Crossroads of Civilizations in the SyroMesopotamian Realm: Proceedings of the 42th [sic]
RAI, edited by K. van Lerberghe and G. Voet. Leuven:
Peeters, 1999.
“The Genealogy of Nanna-Suen and Its Historical
Background.” In Proceedings of the XLV Rencontre
Assyriologique Internationale : Historiography in the
Cuneiform World, edited by T. Abusch et al., 279-301.
Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2001.
Theodore J. Lewis
CAJS Project:
The Religion of Ancient Israel
Saul M. Olyan
Professor in the Department of Judaic Studies and
Religious Studies at Brown University
CAJS Project:
Clean/Unclean and other Binary Oppositions in the
Israelite Cult
Rites and Rank: Hierarchy in Biblical Representations of
Cult. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
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CAJS Project:
Egypt and Israel: The Story of Exodus 1-15
“On the Potential Significance of the Linear A
Inscriptions Recently Excavated in Israel,” Aula Orientalis
16 (1998): 289-91.
“Psalm cx 3b,” Vetus Testamentum 49 (1999): 548-53.
Israelian Hebrew in the Book of Kings. Bethesda, Md.: CDL
Press, 2000.
Biblical Mourning: Ritual and Social Dimensions. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2004.
“Purity Ideology in Ezra-Nehemiah as a Tool to
Reconstitute the Community,” Journal for the Study of
Judaism (forthcoming, 2004).
Tallay Ornan
(Ph.D. 1998, Tel Aviv University)
Rodney E. Soher Curator of Western Asiatic Antiquities
at the Israel Museum
CAJS Project:
Idol versus Symbol: Divine Representations in
Mesopotamia
The Bull and its Two Masters: Moon and Storm Deities
in Relation to the Bull in Ancient Near Eastern Art,”
Israel Exploration Journal 51 (2001): 1-26.
Mark S. Smith
Skirball Professor of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern
Studies in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and
Judaic Studies at New York University
CAJS Project:
An Examination of Divinity in Akkadian, Ugaritic and
Israelite Literature
The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic
Background and the Ugaritic Texts. Oxford: Oxford
The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities
in Ancient Israel, 2nd edition. Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Eerdmans, 2002.
Ziony Zevit
(Ph.D. 1974, University of California, Berkeley)
Distinguished Professor of Bible and Northwest Semitic
Languages and Literatures in the Department of Jewish
Studies at University of Judaism
“Ishtar as Depicted on Finds from Israel.” In Studies
in the Archaeology of the Iron Age in Israel and Jordan,
edited by A. Mazar, 235-56. Sheffield: Sheffield
Academic Press, 2001.
CAJS Project:
The Practice of Religion from the Iron Age through the
Early Hellenistic period
“Idols and Symbols: Divine Representations in
First Millenium Mesopotamian Art and the Second
Commandment,” Tel Aviv 3.1 (2004).
The Anterior Construction in Classical Hebrew. Atlanta,
Ga.: Scholars Press, 1998.
Gary A. Rendsburg
Paul and Berthe Hendrix Memorial Professor of Jewish
Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at
Cornell University
The Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic
Approaches. London: Continuum International, 2001.
“Dating Ruth: Legal, Linguistic and Historical
Observations,” Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentlische
Wissenschaft (forthcoming, 2005).
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Poetry and Culture
in Medieval and
Renaissance Jewry
L
Haskalah, Enlightenment
and European Society
ike the 1996-7 seminar year, this year began as two separate
seminars: one on Hebrew liturgical and secular poetry in alAndalus (Spain), Germany and Italy during the medieval and early modern
periods; the other on the connections between the Enlightenment and its
Jewish counterpart, the Haskalah, as the latter took shape in Germany and
Eastern Europe in the eighteenth century. As happened in 1996-7, the two
separate seminars gradually merged into one. As a result, scholars of the
enlightenment participated in the close analysis of medieval poetry while
medievalists showed considerable interest in the texts and philosophical
issues of the Haskalah. More importantly, common themes emerged to unite
the two groups. Participants noticed that Jewish writers living in Medieval
al-Andalus, baroque Italy and Enlightenment Germany, all found themselves
in constant dialogue with their forebears. Common to all three periods was
the endeavor to interpret the present in light of the past and to preserve a
uniquely Jewish voice by anchoring contemporary literary and philosophical
models in an age long gone. The two groups were also linked in an obvious
way by the Haskalah’s own explicit hearkening back to medieval Sepharad,
idealized for its cultural openness and engagement with the non-Jewish
world. A sampling of the exciting and fruitful results of this cross-cultural
and inter-disciplinary conversation appears in the recent volume, Renewing
the Past, Reconfiguring Jewish Culture: From al-Andalus to the Haskalah, edited
by Ross Brann and Adam Sutcliffe.
CAJS Fellowship
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1998 – 1999
3/28/04 11:48:04 PM
Martin Gruss Fellow
Esperanza Alfonso
(Ph.D. 1998, Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Assistant Professor in the Department of Hebrew and
Semitic Studies at University of Wisconsin, Madison
CAJS Project:
Social Aspects of the Panegyric in al-Andalus
“La estructura de la casida en al-Andalus/Sepharad.
A propósito de dos poemas dedicados a Samuel haNagid.” In Poesía Hebrea en al-Andalus, edited by Á.
Sáenz-Badillos and J. Targarona, 127-50. Granada:
Universidad de Granada, 2003.
“The Uses of Exile in Poetic Discourse: Some Examples
from Medieval Hebrew Literature.” In Renewing the
Past, Reconfiguring Jewish Culture: From al-Andalus to
the Haskalah, edited by R. Brann and A. Sutcliffe, 31-49.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
Allan Arkush
(Ph.D. 1988, Brandeis University)
Associate Professor in the Department of Judaic Studies
and History at State University of New York, Binghamton
CAJS Project:
The Enlightenment and the Jews
“Thinkers and Doers,” Jewish Quarterly Review 90.1-2
(1999): 127-37.
“Montesquieu: A Precursor of Jewish Emancipation?”
In Inclusion and Exclusion: Perspectives on Jews from the
Enlightenment to the Dreyfus Affair, edited by I. Zinguer
and S. Bloom, 45-60. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
“Selomoh Bonafed at the Crossroad of Hebrew
and Romance Cultures.” In “Encuentros” and
“Desencuentros”: Spanish Jewish Cultural Interaction
Throughout History, edited by C. Carrete et al., 343-79.
Tel Aviv: University Publishing Projects, 2000.
“Entre Sefarad e Italia: Selomoh Bonafed, poeta hebreo
catalán (siglo XV), y la cultura italiana.” In Homenaje
a Ángel Chiclana Cardona, edited by M. Hernández
Esteban, C. Barbolani, and P. Guil, 191-209.
“Los judíos y el Mediterráneo.” In Europa como Cultura,
edited by J. Monleón, 207-25. Madrid: Universidad
Carlos III de Madrid, 2000.
Maurice Amado Foundation Fellow
Ross Brann
Milton R. Konvitz Professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies
in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Cornell
University
CAJS Project:
Textualizing Ambivalence in Islamic Spain:
Representations of Muslims and Jews
Power in the Portrayal: Representations of Jews and
Muslims in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Islamic Spain.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002.
Renewing the Past, Reconfiguring Jewish Culture: From
al-Andalus to the Haskalah, edited with introduction
by R. Brann and A. Sutcliffe. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
Charles W. and Sally Rothfeld Fellow
“Solomon Maimon and his Jewish Philosophical
Predecessors.” In Renewing the Past, Reconfiguring Jewish
Culture: From al-Andalus to the Haskalah, edited by R.
Brann and A. Sutcliffe, 149-66. Philadelphia: University of
Dvora Bregman
Associate Professor in the Department of Hebrew
Literature at Ben Gurion University
CAJS Project:
Editing the Dramas of Matityahu Nissim Terni
Angel Saenz-Badillos
Professor in the Department of Hebrew and Aramaic
Studies at Universidad Complutense de Madrid
CAJS Project:
Centers of Hebrew Poetry in Christian Spain: Girona,
Toledo, Saragossa
The Glory of Sinai: The Dramatic Works of Matityahu
Nissim Terni (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Yad Yitzhak Ben Zvi,
2003.
“A Note on the Style and Prosody of Miqdash me‘at,”
Prooftexts 23.1 (2003): 4-17.
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--, Raymond P. Scheindlin and Alessandro Guetta.
“Commentary on Miqdash me‘at.” Prooftexts 23.1 (2003):
64-93.
Richard I. Cohen
Paulette and Claude Kelman Chair in French Jewry
Studies in the Department of Jewish History at Hebrew
University
CAJS Project:
Jewish Enlightenment and the Visual Sphere of
Creativity: Biography of Naphtali Herz Wesseley
“Representations of the Jewish Body in Modern Times:
Forms of Hero Worship.” In Representation in Religion:
Studies in Honor of Moshe Barasch, edited by J. Assman
and A. Baumgarten, 237-76. Leiden: Brill, 2001.
“Urban Visibility and Biblical Visions: Jewish Culture
in Western and Central Europe in the Modern Age.” In
Cultures of the Jews: A New History, edited by D. Biale,
731-96. New York: Schocken Books, 2002.
“Jews and the State: The Historical Context.” In Studies
in Contemporary Jewry 19, edited by E. Mendelsohn.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Martin L. Davies
Reader in the History of the European Enlightenment
in the School of Historical Studies at University of
Leicester
CAJS Project:
Enlightening Performances: Self-Management in the
German-Jewish Enlightenment
“The Business of Tolerance: David Friedländer
(1750–1834) and the Civic Constitution of GermanJewish Existence.” In Religion and Politics in Britain
and Germany, edited by R. Bonney, F. Bosbach, and T.
Brockmann, 51-61. Munich: K.G. Saur, 2001.
“Gedanken zu einem Ambivalenten Verhältnis:
Marcus Herz und Immanuel Kant.” In Kant und die
Berliner Aufklärung. Akten des IX. Internationalen Kant
Kongresses, edited by V. Gerhardt, R. Horstmann, and R.
Schumacher, 5:140-47. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2001.
“Klassische Aufklärung: Überlegungen zur
Modernisierung der deutsch-jüdischen Kultur am
1998 - 1999 | Poetry | Haskalah | 39
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Beispiel von David Friedländer,” Zeitschrift für Religionsund Geistesgeschichte 55 (2003): 40–61.
Alessandro Guetta
(Ph.D. 1993, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris)
Professor of Jewish Thought in the Department of
Jewish and Hebrew Studies at the National Institute of
Oriental Languages and Civilization, Paris
CAJS Project:
Poetry in 17th Century Italian Jewish Society
Per Elia Benamozegh: Atti del Convegno di Livorno,
settembre 2000, edited by A. Guetta. Milan: Thálassa De
Paz, 2001.
“Anti-Catholic Apologetics in Leone Modena’s Magen
Va-cherev: A Comparative Reading.” In The Lion Shall
Roar: Leon Modena and His World (Hebrew), edited by D.
Malkiel. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2003.
“Ya‘ar ha-Levanon, une poème en prose rimée de
Moshe de Rieti,” Revue des études juives (forthcoming).
Eleazar Gutwirth
Professor in the Department of Jewish History at Tel
Aviv University
CAJS Project:Romance Culture and Jewish History:
Contexts of Hebrew Poetry in Late Medieval Spain
“A Song and a Dance: Transcultural Practices of Daily
Life.” In Jews, Christians and Moslems in and around
the Crown of Aragon: Studies in Honour of Elena Lourie,
edited by C. Hames. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
Warren Zev Harvey
Professor in the Department of Jewish Thought at
Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Poetry and Philosophy: Solomon ibn Gabirol, Judah
Halevi, Moses Mendelssohn
Physics and Metaphysics in Hasdai Crescas. Amsterdam: J.
C. Gieben, 1998.
Tsiyon ve-Tsiyonut be-kerev Yehude Sefarad veha-Mizrach,
edited by W. Harvey. Jerusalem: Misgav Yerushalayim,
2002.
Elisabeth Hollender
(Ph.D. 1993, Martin Buber Institut für Judaistik,
Universität zu Köln)
Privatdozent at the Institut für Jüdische Studien at
Heinrich Heine Universität, Düsseldorf
CAJS Project:
Ashkenazic and French Piyyut: Commentary as
Example for Medieval Hebrew Compilatory Literature
Rabbinische Kommentare zum Buch Ester, vol. 1, Der
Traktat Megilla, Vol. 2, Die Midraschim zu Ester, translated
by D. Börner-Klein and E. Hollender. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
“Shalom Spiegel: The Fathers of Piyyut,“ Prooftexts 21.2
(2001): 229-37.
“Eine permanente Renaissance? Zum status
(quaestionis) von Pijjut-Kommentar.“ In An der Schwelle
zur Moderne: Juden in der Renaissance, edited by G.
Veltri and A. Winkelmann, 25-50. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
Arthur Kiron
Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of
History at University of Pennsylvania and Curator of
Judaica Collections, University of Pennsylvania Library.
CAJS Project:
Varieties of Haskalah: Anglo-American vs. German
Paradigms of Jewish Religious Enlightenment
“Golden Ages, Promised Lands: The Victorian Rabbinic
Humanism of Sabato Morais.” Ph.D. Dissertation,
Columbia University, 1999.
“Livornese Traces in American Jewish History: Sabato
Morais and Elijah Benamozegh.” In Per Elia Benamozegh:
Atti del Convegno di Livorno,settembre 2000, edited by A.
Guetta, 41-62. Milan: Thálassa De Paz, 2001.
“Varieties of Haskalah: Sabato Morais’ Program of
Sephardic Rabbinic Humanism in Victorian America.”
In Renewing the Past, Reconfiguring Jewish Culture:
From al-Andalus to the Haskalah, edited by R. Brann
and A. Sutcliffe, 121-48. Philadelphia: University of
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Tova Rosen
(Ph.D. 1973, Oxford University)
Professor in the Department of Hebrew Literature at Tel
Aviv University
CAJS Project:
Gender and Genre in Medieval Hebrew Literature
“Circumcised Cinderella: The Fantasies of a Fourteenth
Century Jewish Author,” Prooftexts 20 (2000): 87-110.
“Sexual Politics in a Medieval Jewish Marriage Debate,”
Exemplaria 12 (2000): 157-84.
“Gazelle Hunting: Feminist Critique of Medieval
Hebrew Love Poems” (Hebrew), Mikan 2 (2001): 95-124.
“Strategy and Ruse in the Haskalah of Mendel Lefin
of Satanów (1749-1826).” In New Perspectives on the
Haskalah, edited by D. Sorkin and S. Feiner, 86-102.
London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2001.
“The Maskil, the Convert, and the Agunah: Joseph Perl
as a Historian of Jewish Divorce Law,” AJS Review 27.2
(2003).
Out of the Shtetl: Making Jews Modern in the Polish
Borderlands. Providence R.I.: Brown Judaic Studies,
2004.
Jonathan Skolnik
Meyerhoff Fellow in the Department of Jewish Studies
at University of Maryland, College Park
Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall
(Ph.D. 1998, Stanford University)
Assistant Professor in the Department of History at
California State University, San Marcos
CAJS Project:
Responding to ‘Regeneration’: European Jews and the
Abbé Gregoire
“Eliminating Race, Eliminating Difference: Blacks, Jews,
and the Abbé Grégoire.” In The Color of Liberty: Histories
of Race in France, edited by T. Stovall and S. Peabody,
28-41. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2003.
Regenerating the World: The Abbé Grégoire, the French
Revolution, and the Making of Modern Universalism.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
“Strategic Friendships: Jewish Intellectuals, the Abbé
Grégoire and the French Revolution.” In Renewing the
Past, Reconfiguring Jewish Culture: From al-Andalus to the
Haskalah, edited by R. Brann and A. Sutcliffe, 189-212.
Nancy Sinkoff
Assistant Professor of History and Jewish Studies at
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
CAJS Project:
Prayer and Religious Reform in the Early Haskalah in
Galicia: The Case of Joseph Perl
CAJS Project:
The Jewish Public Sphere between Aufklärung and
Haskalah
“Kaddish For Spinoza: Memory and Modernity in Heine
and Celan,” New German Critique 77 (1999).
“Le juif errant et le temps historique: images littéraires
des temps modernes.” In Le témoin du temps: Images
du juif errant, edited by R. I. Cohen, 240-50. Paris: Adam
Biro and Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme, 2002.
“Heine and Haggadah: History, Narration, and
Tradition in the Age of Wissenschaft des Judentums.”
Adam Sutcliffe
(Ph.D. 1998, University College London)
Assistant Professor of European Jewish History in the
Department of History at University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign
CAJS Project:
Judaism in Enlightenment Social and Economic
Thought: c.1740-c.1790
“Can a Jew be a Philosophe? Isaac de Pinto, Voltaire and
Jewish Participation in the European Enlightenment,”
Jewish Social Studies 6.3 (2000): 31-51.
1998 - 1999 | Poetry | Haskalah | 41
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Renewing the Past, Reconfiguring Jewish Culture: From
al-Andalus to the Haskalah, edited with introduction
by R. Brann and A. Sutcliffe. Philadelphia: University of
“Quarreling over Spinoza: Moses Mendelssohn and
the Fashioning of Jewish Philosophical Heroism.”
Judit Targarona Borras
Profesora Titular in the Department of Hebrew and
Aramaic Studies at Universidad Complutense de Madrid
CAJS Project:Sociological and Literary Aspects of
Hebrew Poetry in Christian Spain
Katrin Tenenbaum
(Ph.D. 1981, University of Rome)
Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at
the University of Rome
CAJS Project:
Moses Mendelssohn and the Jewish Paradigms of
Enlightenment
Samuel Grunfeld Fellow
Liliane Weissberg
Joseph B. Glossberg Term Professor in the Humanities in
the Departments of German and Comparative Literature
at University of Pennsylvania
CAJS Project:
German-Jewish Autobiography in the Late Eighteenth
Century
Cultural Memory and the Construction of Identity, edited
by L. Weissberg and D. Ben-Amos. Detroit: Wayne State
University Press 1999.
Romancing the Shadow: Poe and Race, edited by J.
Kennedy and L. Weissberg. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2000.
Joseph Yahalom
Professor in the Department of Hebrew Literature at
Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Poems of Yehuda Halevi; Christian Elegies from 15th
Century Spain
Poetry and Society in Jewish Galilee of Late Antiquity
(Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Yad Yitzhak Ben Zvi, 1999
Judaeo-Arabic Poetics: Fragments of a Lost Treatise by
Elazar ben Jacob of Baghdad (Hebrew), edited with
a Hebrew translation by J. Yahalom. Jerusalem: Yad
Yitshak Ben Zvi, 2001.
Judah ben Solomon Harizi. The Wanderings of Judah
Alharizi: Five Accounts of his Travels (Hebrew), edited and
translated by J. Yahalom and J. Blau. Jerusalem: Yad
Yitzhak Ben Zvi, 2002.
Mordechai Zalkin
CAJS Project:
Development of Early 19th century Russian-Jewish
Scientific Thought.
From the Hidden Treasures of Jewish Vilna, Historical
Documents from the annals of Lithuanian Jewry. Beer
Sheva: Ben-Gurion University Press 2001.
H. N. Maggid (Steinshneider). ‘Ir Vilna: zikhronot
‘adat Yisra’el, toldot chaye gedoleha, edited with an
introduction by Mordechai Zalkin. Jerusalem: Magnes
Press, 2002.
“Issachar and Zebulun: A Portrait of a Jewish Scholar
in 19th century Lithuania.” GAL-ED: On the History of the
Jews in Poland 18, edited by D. Engel. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv
SHORT-TERM FELLOWS
Rina Drory
Tel-Aviv University
Shmuel Feiner
Bar-Ilan University
42 | CAJS
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HebraicaVeritas?
Hebraica Veritas?
Christian Hebraists, Jews, and the Study of
Judaism in Early Modern Europe
T
he genesis of this year’s colloquium goes back to 1996, when
David Ruderman, Moshe Idel, Gedalia Strumsa, and Anthony
Grafton began talking about devoting an entire year of study to the subject
of Christian Hebraism, especially in early modern Europe. The proposed
seminar would provide an opportunity to bring together scholars of Jewish
history, literature, and thought, with scholars of the Renaissance, Reformation, and Christian thought, to consider a subject of great significance which
had been relatively neglected by modern scholarship. It would also energize
a field of great import to Jewish and Christian history and to the interstices
between the two. In addition, the theme of the Christian origins of the academic study of Judaism was particularly timely given the recent explosion of
interest in Jewish studies on the part of non-Jewish scholars.
The diverse community of scholars who came to Philadelphia in 1999
fully fulfilled the hopes of the organizers. It included scholars in diverse fields
from the United States, Israel, and Europe. The balance of scholars in Jewish
and Christian fields was quite good; so too was the mixture of Jews and nonJews, from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines. Most importantly, this
was indeed a humanistic enterprise, gathering together a group of positive,
open, and generous scholars, young and old, who addressed with enormous
commitment the subject at hand. The weekly seminars and the culminating
conference were joyous occasions of intellectual stimulation and dialogue
based on mutual respect and friendship. Those who participated in this year
were genuinely transformed by these ongoing and fructifying interactions.
The resulting volume, entitled Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the
Study of Judaism in Early Modern Europe, edited by Allison Coudert and Jeffrey
Shoulson bears eloquent testimony to the success of this year’s venture.
CAJS Fellowship
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1999 – 2000
3/28/04 11:48:12 PM
Malachi Beit-Arie
Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Archive
Studies at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Codicological Study of Jewish and Christian
Manuscripts and Scribal Collaboration
---, M. Glatzer, and C. Sirat. Codices hebraicis litteris
exarati quo tempore scripti fuerint exhibentes, vol. 3.
Turnhout: Brepols, 2002.
Asupot ketavim ‘Ivriyim mi-Yeme-ha-benayim, vol. 2,
edited by M. Beit-Arie and E. Engel. Jerusalem: Israel
Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2002.
Unveiled Faces of Medieval Hebrew Books: the Evolution
of Manuscript Production–Progression or Regression?
Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2003.
Silvia Berti
(Ph.D. 1978, University of Rome)
Department of Modern and Contemporary History at
the University of Rome.
CAJS Project:
Jews, Christian Hebraists, and the Anti-Christian
Enlightenment
Stephen G. Burnett
(Ph.D. 1990, University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Associate Professor in the Department of Classics and
Religious Studies and the Department of History at
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
CAJS Project:
Professors of Hebrew as Mediators of Jewish
Scholarship in Reformation-Era Germany
“Spokesmen for Judaism: Medieval Jewish Polemicists
and their Christian Readers in the Reformation Era.” In
Reuchlin and His Heirs: Researchers, Thinkers, Ideologists
and Crackpots, edited by P. Schäfer. Sigmaringen:
Thorbecke, forthcoming.
Allison Coudert
(Ph.D. 1972, Warburg Institute, University of London)
Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at
Arizona State University
CAJS Project:
Christian Hebraists in the 17th Century
“Seventeenth Century Natural Philosophy and
Esotericism at the Court of Sulzbach.” In Mélanges
d’Histoire des Religions réunis en l’honneur de M. Antoine
Faivre par ses éleves, collègues et amis, edited by J.
Godwin and W. Hanegraaff, 27-46. Leuven: Peeters,
2000.
“Kabbalistic Messianism versus Kabbalistic
Enlightenment.” In Millenarianism and Messianism
in Early Modern European Culture, vol. 1, edited by R.
Popkin and M. Goldish. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
Publisher, 2001, 107-24.
Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists, Jews, and the
Study of Judaism in Early Modern Europe, edited
with introduction by A. Coudert and J. Shoulson.
Yaacov Deutsch
Doctoral Student in the Department of History at
Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
“Ethographic” Descriptions of Judaism in the Writings
of Western European Christian Scholars
“Johannes Buxtorf Westphalus und die Erforschung des
Judentums in der Neuzeit,” Judaica 58.1 (2002): 30-43.
“‘A View of the Jewish Religion’: Conceptions of Jewish
Practice and Ritual in Early Modern Europe,” Archiv für
Religionsgeschichte 3 (2001): 273-95.
“Reassessing the ‘Basel-Wittenberg Conflict’:
Dimensions of the Reformation Era Discussion of
Hebrew Scholarship.” In Hebraica Veritas? Christian
Hebraists and the Study of Judaism in Early Modern
Europe, edited by A. Coudert and J. Shoulson.
--and Maria Diemling. “‘Christliche Ethnographien’ von
Juden und Judentum: die Konstruktion des Jüdischen
in frühneuzeitlichen Texten.” In Die Konstruktion des
Jüdischen in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, edited by M.
Konkel, A. Pontzen, and H. Theissen, 15-27. Paderborn:
Ferdinand Schöningh, 2003.
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“Polemical Ethnographies: Descriptions of Yom
Kippur in the Writings of Christian Hebraists and
Jewish Converts to Christianity.” In Hebraica Veritas?
Christian Hebraists and the Study of Judaism in Early
Modern Europe, edited by A. Coudert and J. Shoulson.
Harvey E. Goldberg
CAJS Project:
The Aftermath of Christian Hebraism in the MidTwentieth Century: Between Anthropology and the
“Judeo-Christian Tradition”
Jewish Passages: Cycles of Jewish Life. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2003.
“Modern Jewish Society and Sociology.” In Oxford
Handbook of Jewish Studies, edited by M. Goodman,
975-1001. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
“The Oriental and the Orientalist: The Meeting of
Mordecai Ha-Cohen and Nahum Slouschz” (Hebrew),
Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Folklore 22 (2002): 141-53.
Joseph Hacker
Professor in the Department of Jewish History at
Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Elizabethan Englishmen and Ottoman Jews: an
Encounter on Ottoman Soil
“Cultural and Social Contacts Between Ottoman Jews
and European Christians,” Annuaire EPHE , Section des
sciences religieuses 108 (2000):217-18.
“Local Patriotism of Spanish Exiles in 16th Century
Ottoman Empire” (Hebrew). In Me’ah she’arim : ‘iyunim
be-’olamam ha-ruchani shel Yisra’el bi-yeme ha-benayim,
le-zekher Yitschak Tverski, edited by E. Fleischer et al.,
349-69. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2001.
“Romaniote Jews in 16th Century Safed” (Hebrew),
Shalem 7 (2001): 133-50.
Chaim Hames
(Ph.D. 1996, Cambridge University)
Senior Lecturer in the Department of General History at
Ben Gurion University
CAJS Project:
Hebrew Translation of Ramon Llull’s Ars brevis: JewishChristian Interaction in 15th Century Italy
Jews, Muslims and Christians in and around the Medieval
Crown of Aragon: Studies in Honour of Elena Lourie,
edited by C. Hames. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
“The Language of Conversion: Ramon Llull’s Art as a
Vernacular.” In The Vulgar Tongue: Medieval and PostMedieval Vernacularity, edited by N. Watson and F.
Somerset. State College: Penn State University Press,
2003.
“Reason and Faith: Inter-religious Polemic and
Christian Identity in the Thirteenth Century.” In Religion
and Philosophical Reasoning, edited by Y. Schwartz
(forthcoming).
Charles H. and Sally Rothfeld Fellow
Michael Heyd
Professor in the Department of History at Hebrew
University
CAJS Project:
Sabbatianism as ‘Enthusiasm’: Christian Responses to
Shabbetai Zevi
“‘The Jewish Quaker’: Christian Perceptions of
Sabbatai Zevi as an Enthusiast.” In Hebraica Veritas?
Christian Hebraists and the Study of Judaism in Early
Modern Europe, edited by A. Coudert and J. Shoulson.
“Be Sober and Reasonable”: The Critique of Enthusiasm in
the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries. Leiden:
Brill, 1995.
“Peche originel et responsablilité morale: Deux debats
dans le calvinisme a la fin du XVIIe siecle.” In Conflits
Politiques, Controverses Religieuses, edited by O. Elyada
and J. Le Brun, 177-208. Paris: Editions de l’ecole des
hautes etudes en science sociales, 2002.
1999 - 2000 | Hebraic Veritas | 45
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Moshe Idel
Professor in the Department of Jewish Thought at
Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Symbolism: From Pythagoreanism, to Christian
Kabbalah, to Modern Scholarship
Natan ben Seadyahu Harar. Le porte della giustizia.
Edited with introduction by M. Idel. Milan: Adelphi,
2001.
Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation. New
Holy Land Travels. Christian Pilgrims in Late Antiquity
(Hebrew), Hebrew translations, introductions and notes
by O. Limor. Jerusalem: Yad Yitzhak Ben Zvi, 1998.
“Reading Sacred Space: Egeria, Paula, and the Christian
Holy Land.” In De Sion exibit lex et verbum domini
de Hierusalem: Essays on Medieval Law, Liturgy and
Literature in Honour of Amnon Linder, edited by Y. Hen,
1-15. Turnhout: Brepols, 2001.
-- and Israel Yuval, “Scepticism and Conversion: Jews,
Christians and Doubters in Sepher ha-Nizzachon.”
In Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the Study
of Judaism in Early Modern Europe, edited by A.
Coudert and J. Shoulson. Philadelphia: University of
Les kabbalistes de la nuit. Paris: Allia, 2003.
Fabrizio Lelli
(Ph.D. 1992, Università degli Studi di Torino)
Lecturer in the Department of History at Università
degli Studi di Lecce
CAJS Project:
Christian-Jewish Theological Interrelations in the
Fifteenth Century
“’Prisca Philosophia’ and ‘Docta Religio’: The
Boundaries of Rational Knowledge in Jewish and
Christian Humanist Thought,” Jewish Quarterly Review
91.1-2 (2000): 53-99.
“Sefer Hermes,” edited with introduction and English
translation by F. Lelli. In Hermetis Trismegisti Astrologica
et Divinatoria, edited by P. Lucentini, F. Lelli et al., 10937. Turnhout: Brepols, 2001.
Eliyyah Hayyim da Genazzano, La lettera preziosa (Iggeret
chamudot), edited by F. Lelli. Florence: Giuntina, 2002.
Nils Roemer
Lecturer in the Department of History at University of
Southampton
CAJS Project:
Chronology, Geography, and the Perception of Jewish
History between Baroque and Enlightenment
Jüdische Geschichte lesen: Texte der jüdischen
Geschichtsschreibung im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, edited
by M. Brenner, A. Kauders, G. Reuveni, and N. Roemer.
Munich: C. H. Beck, 2003.
“Colliding Visions: Jewish Messianism and German
Scholarship in the Eighteenth Century.” In Hebraica
Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the Study of Judaism
in Early Modern Europe, edited by A. Coudert and J.
Shoulson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 2004.
Between History and Faith: Rewriting the Past--Reshaping
Jewish Cultures in Nineteenth-Century Germany.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004.
Ora Limor
Professor in the Departments of History, Philosophy,
and Judaic Studies at the Open University, Israel
CAJS Project:
Sefer ha-nizzachon of Yom-Tov Lipmann Muhlhausen:
A Jewish-Christian Encounter
Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann
(Ph.D. 1974, Bochum)
Professor in the Department of Philosophie at Freie
Universität, Berlin
CAJS Project:
Judeo-Christian Philosophical Syncretism in the 17th
and 18th Centuries
46 | CAJS
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“Erlösung durch Philologie: Der poetische
Messianismus Quirinus Kuhlmanns (1651-1750).“ In
Der Magus: Seine Ursprünge und seinen Geschichte in
verschiedenen Kulturen, edited by A. Grafton and M.
Idel, 107-45. Berlin:Verlag, 2001.
“Hermes Trismegistos, Isis und Osiris in Athanasius
Kirchers ‚Oedipus Aegyptiacus’,“ Archiv für
Religionsgeschichte 3 (2001): 67-88.
“Die Historisierung der ‚Philosophia Hebraeorum‘
im frühen 18. Jahrhundert: Eine philosophischphilologische Demontage.“ In Historicization=His
torisierung, edited by G. Most, 103-28. Göttingen:
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2001
Martin Gruss Fellow
Jeffrey S. Shoulson
Associate Professor in the Department of English at
University of Miami
CAJS Project:
Milton and the Rabbis: Hebraism, Hellenism, and
Christianity
“The Embrace of the Fig Tree: Sexuality and Creativity
in Midrash and in Milton,” English Literary History 67.4
(2000): 873-903.
Milton and the Rabbis: Hebraism, Hellenism, and
Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.
Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the Study
of Judaism in Early Modern Europe, edited with
introduction by A. Coudert and J. Shoulson.
Guy G. Stroumsa
Martin Buber Professor of Comparative Religion and
Director of the Center for the Study of Christianity in
the Department of Comparative Religion at Hebrew
University
CAJS Project:
Christian Hebraists and the Birth of Comparative
Religion
1999 - 2000 | Hebraic Veritas | 47
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Piet van Boxel
(Ph.D. 1983, University of Tilburg)
Librarian and Fellow in Early Judaism and Origins of
Christianity at Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish
Studies at Oxford
CAJS Project:
Paulus Fagius’ Latin Translation of Targum Onkelos
“Robert Bellarmine, Christian Hebraist and Censor.” In
The History of Scholarship, edited by C. Ligota and J-L.
Quantin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
Joanna Weinberg
(Ph.D. 1982, University of London)
Catherine Lewis Fellow in Rabbinics at the Oxford
Centre for Hebrew and Judaic Studies and James Mew
Lecturer in Rabbinic Hebrew at the Oriental Institute at
Oxford
CAJS Project:
The German Ezra: Sebastian Munster’s Approach to
Jews, Jewish Languages and Texts
“Invention and Convention: Jewish and Christian
Critique of the Jewish Fixed Calendar,” Jewish History
(December 2000).
Azariah de’ Rossi. The Light of the Eyes; translated from
the Hebrew with an introduction and annotations by J.
Weinberg. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.
Israel Yuval
Professor in the Department of Jewish History at
Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Sepher ha-nizzachon of Yom-Tov Lipmann
Muhlhausen: A Jewish-Christian Encounter
--- and Ora Limor. “Scepticism and Conversion: Jews,
Christians and Doubters in Sepher ha-Nizzachon.”
In Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the Study
of Judaism in Early Modern Europe, edited by A.
Coudert and J. Shoulson. Philadelphia: University of
SHORT-TERM FELLOW
Yosef Kaplan
Hebrew University
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M odern Jewry and the Arts
Modern Jewry and the Arts
T
his fellowship year originated as an attempt to address two
lacunae in two disparate fields: the lack of attention to the arts
and artistic production within Jewish Studies, and the lack of interdisciplinary investigation within the study of the arts, a field which is traditionally
compartmentalized by medium and genre. The seminar’s organizers, Richard Cohen and Ezra Mendelsohn, hoped to address these gaps by bringing
together scholars from a wide range of disciplines to explore the complex
relationship between Jews, the arts and Jewish culture.
There ensued a productive interchange between those in Jewish Studies,
whose disciplinary emphases are history and textual studies, and those in
fields dedicated to the study of the arts, but rarely to Jews. Scholars working
on Hebrew and Yiddish theater exchanged ideas with those studying such
artists as Mark Antokol’skii, Maurycy Gottlieb, Max Liebermann, Ben Shahn,
and R. B. Kitaj. An analysis of the Jewish Palestine Pavilion at the New York
World‘s Fair, 1939/1940 was enriched by work on the emergence of Tel-Aviv
as the first ”Hebrew“ city. Research on music ranged from the emergence of
Mediterranean Israeli Music and new popular music in American Orthodox
circles to Yiddish children‘s songs in the Soviet Union and Paul Robeson‘s
renditions of Hasidic song. Fellows were exposed to differences in methodology as a literary scholar analyzed Hotel Terminus, a film by Marcel Ophus,
and a theater historian demonstrated how to research the emergence of Yiddish film on the Lower East Side during the first years of the twentieth-century. The group discussed topics rarely considered in Jewish Studies, such as
dance, as well as more established subjects, such as the aesthetic theory of
Franz Rosenzweig or the fate of Nazi stolen art. The year-long conversation
between Jewish Studies scholars and scholars of the arts did much to enrich
our perspectives and our fields.
CAJS Fellowship
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Nancy and Lawrence Glick Teaching Fellow
Zachary Braiterman
Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at
Syracuse University
Anat Helman
Lecturer in the Institute of Contemporary Jewry, the
Department of Jewish History, and the Cultural Studies
Program at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Aesthetic Turns in Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig
“‘Elu ve-Elu’: Reading (the) Difference (between)
Rabbinic Textuality (and) Postmodern Philosophy.” In
Textual Reasonings: Jewish Philosophy and Text Study at
the End of the Twentieth Century, edited by P. Ochs and
N. Levene. London: SCM Press, 2002.
“A Modern Mitzvah-Space-Aesthetic.” In Modern Jewry
and the Arts (working title), edited by B. KirshenblattGimblett and J. Karp. Philadelphia, University of
Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming.
CAJS Project:
Film and Pulp Fiction: Consuming Popular Culture in
Israel in the Early 1950s
“‘Even the Dogs in the Streets Bark in Hebrew’: National
Ideology and Everyday Culture in Tel-Aviv,” Jewish
Quarterly Review 92.3-4 (2002): 359-82.
“Religion and the Public Sphere in Mandatory Tel-Aviv”
(Hebrew). Cathedra 105 (2002): 85-110.
“Hollywood in an Israeli Kibbutz: Going to the Movies
in 1950s,” Afikim: The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and
Television 23.2 (2003): 153-63.
Mirosława Bułat
(Ph.D. 2001, Jagiellonian University, Cracow)
Department of Theatre History and Theory at
Jagiellonian University, Cracow
CAJS Project:
Cracow’s Jews and the Arts in Theater: 1918-1939
“‘From Goldfaden to Goldfaden’ in Cracow’s Jewish
Theatres.” In The Yiddish Theatre: New Approaches,
edited by J. Berkowitz. London: Littman Library of
Jewish Civilization, 2003.
“Tracing Yiddish Theater in Cracow,” Zwischenwelt
(2003): 44-56.
“Krokever Yidish Teater” (Cracow Yiddish Theatre):
The First Community-based Yiddish Theatre on Polish
Soil.” In Jewish Theatre, edited by P. Puppa. Leiden: Brill,
forthcoming.
Amy Horowitz
Visiting Scholar at the Mershon Center for Public Policy
and the Melton Center for Jewish Studies at Ohio State
University
CAJS Project:
Israeli Mediterranean Music: Culture Resistance and
Reformation in Disputed Territory
“Israeli Mediterranean Music.” In Garland Encyclopedia
of World Music, 6:261-68. New York: Garland Publishing,
2002.
Jewish Music Between East and West (3 CDs). Columbus,
Ohio:The Melton Center For Jewish Studies, 2003.
Marion Kant
(Ph.D. 1986, Humboldt University, Berlin)
Ella Darivoff Fellow
Charles Dellheim
Professor in the Department of History at Boston
University
CAJS Project:
Artful Jews: Culture and Commerce in Modernity
CAJS Project:
Joseph Lewitan and the Aryanization of German Dance
-- and Lillian Karina. Hitler’s Dancers: German Modern
Dance and the Third Reich, translated by J. Steinberg.
Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2003.
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Jonathan Karp
Assistant Professor in the Department of Judaic
Studies and History at State University of New York,
Binghamton.
CAJS Project:
American Music: Black, White, and Jew
“Performing Black-Jewish Symbiosis: The ‘Hassidic
Chant’ of Paul Robeson,” American Jewish History
(Spring 2004).
Modern Jewry and the Arts (working title), edited
with introduction by B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and J.
Karp. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press,
forthcoming.
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
(Ph.D. 1972, Indiana University)
University Professor and Professor of Performance
Studies in the Department of Performance Studies at
Tisch School of the Arts
CAJS Project:
Exhibiting Jews: Jewish participation in World Fairs in
Europe and the U.S.: 1850-1940
Jewish Yearbook 101 (2001): 88-141.
Diana L. Linden
(Ph.D. 1997, City University of New York)
Visiting Assistant Professor in the History of Art
Department at University of Michigan
CAJS Project:
The New Deal Mural of Ben Shahn: Jewish Identity and
the Culture of Labor
Herbert and Ellie Katz Distinguished Fellow,
Walter and Rose Zifkin Teaching Fellow
Ezra Mendelsohn
Professor Emeritus in the Departments of History at
Hebrew University and Boston University
CAJS Project:
Art and Jewish History: Maurycy Gottlieb Among the
Jews, Poles, and Israelis
Painting a People: Maurycy Gottlieb and Jewish Art.
Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England [for
Brandeis University Press], 2002.
Michael R. Steinhardt Fellow
“Performing the State: The Jewish Palestine Pavilion at
the New York World’s Fair, 1939/1940.” In Modern Jewry
and the Arts (working title), edited by B. KirshenblattGimblett and J. Karp. Philadelphia, University of
Modern Jewry and the Arts (working title), edited
with introduction by B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and J.
Karp. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press,
forthcoming.
Gideon Ofrat
Artistic Director, Time for Art: Israeli Art-center, Tel Aviv.
CAJS Project:
Is Israeli Art Jewish?
The Return to Zion: Beyond the Place Principle. Exhibition
and catalogue. Time for Art, Tel Aviv, 2003.
Ruins Revisited. Exhibition and catalogue, Time for Art,
Tel Aviv, 2003.
Mark Kligman
Associate Professor of Jewish Musicology in the School
of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College–Jewish
Institute of Religion
Thou shalt make... (The Resurgence of Judaism in Israeli
Art). Exhibition and catalogue, Time for Art, Tel Aviv,
2003.
CAJS Project:
Jewish Music in America: 1960s-1990s
“Contemporary Jewish Music in America,” American
Gershon Shaked
Professor Emeritus in the Department of Hebrew
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CAJS Project:
Art, Literature and Society in Palestine and Israel
Mehagrim. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz hameuhad, 2001.
“Contemporary Israeli Literature and the Subject of
Fiction: From Nationhood to the Self.” In Ideology and
Jewish Identity in Israeli and American Literature, edited
by E. Miller-Budick, 95-113. Albany: State University of
New York Press, 2001.
Revival of Old Images: Hebrew Literature in the Transition
from the Nineteenth to the Twentieth Centuries (Hebrew).
Jerusalem: Magnes Press, forthcoming.
Anna Shternsis
(D.Phil., Oxford, 2000)
Assistant Professor of Yiddish and Yiddish Literature at
University of Toronto
CAJS Project:
Jewish Popular Culture in the Soviet Union: 1925-1941
Susan Rubin Suleiman
C. Douglas Dillon Professor of the Civilization of
France in the Department of Romance Languages and
Literatures and Professor of Comparative Literature in
the Department of Comparative Literature at Harvard
University
CAJS Project:
Crises of Memory and the Second World War in France
“History, Memory, and Moral Judgment in
Documentary Film: On Marcel Ophuls’s Hotel Terminus:
The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie,” Critical Inquiry 28.2
(2002): 509-41.
Judith Thissen
(Ph.D. 2000, Utrecht University)
Faculty in the Institute for Media and Representation at
Utrecht University
CAJS Project:
Silent Cinema and Cultural Identity in American Jewish
History
“Judische Einwanderer aus Osteuropa un der fruehe
2000 - 2001 | Modern Jewry and the Arts | 53
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Film in New York: Eine kulturelle Bruecke ueber den
Atlantik,” Kintop 10 (2001): 61-72.
“Charlie Steiner‘s Houston Hippodrome: Moviegoing
on New York‘s Lower East Side, 1909-1913.” In American
Silent Film: Discovering Marginalized Voices, edited by G.
Bachman and T. Slater, 29-47. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern
Illinois University Press, 2002.
“Reconsidering the Decline of New York’s Yiddish
Theatre in the Early 1900s,” Theater Survey 44 (2003).
B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and J. Karp. Philadelphia,
University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming.
Louis and Bessie Stein Fellow
Carol Zemel
Professor of Art History in the Department of Visual
Arts at York University
CAJS Project:
Graven Images: Visual Culture and Modern Jewish
History
Martin Gruss Fellow
Nina Warnke
Assistant Professor of Yiddish in the Department of
Germanic Studies at University of Texas, Austin
CAJS Project:
Reforming New York Yiddish Theater: Cultural Politics
of Immigrant Intellectuals and the Yiddish Press
“The Child that Wouldn’t Grow Up: Yiddish Theatre and
Its Critics.” In Yiddish Theatre: New Approaches, edited
by J. Berkowitz. London: Littman Library of Jewish
Civilization, 2003.
“Theater as Educational Institution: Jewish Immigrant
Intellectuals and Yiddish Theater Reform.” In
Modern Jewry and the Arts (working title), edited by
“Emblems of Atrocity: Holocaust Liberation
Photography.” In Image & Remembrance, edited by S.
Hornstein and F. Jacobowicz, 201-19. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 2003.
“Forbidden Sights: Holocaust Prisoner Drawings.” In
Iconotropisms, edited by Spolsky. Lewisburg, Penn.:
Bucknell University Press, 2003.
Review of Kalman Bland’s The Artless Jew, RACAR 26.1-2
(1999):111-16.
SHORT-TERM FELLOW
Richard Cohen
Hebrew University
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Biblical Interpretation
Biblical Interpretation
in a Comparative Context:
Jewish, Christian, Islamic
T
he history of religion is in many significant ways the history
of interpretation. This fellowship year gathered scholars of
Islam, Judaism, and Christianity to examine the various modes of biblical
interpretation present in these traditions from their earliest layers to
the Renaissance. Through the study of commentaries, art, liturgical
performance, and book design, the group worked to see how modes
of reading in the three traditions intersected. The fellows came to the
table with deep philological knowledge, and the seminar succeeded in
pushing each participant beyond texts to contexts, and past the insider
discourses of their sources to a conceptual and historical matrix of
intersecting and mutually informing reading practices. Over the course of
the year, the group kept returning to the historical and methodological
challenge of conceptualizing paradigms of contact. If strategies for reading
scripture are in some ways markers of religious identity and guardians
of tradition, how does one describe the shared elements of interpretive
tradition? Can one revisit exegetical trajectories to find the ways they
have assimilated or explicitly rejected their textual environment, without
resorting to essentializing notions of syncretism and influence? Through
the interrogation and deployment of metaphors of contagion, sharing,
contact, borrowing, zeitgeist, negotiation and battle, the group explored
these questions in many different modes and registers. While the question
of influence is especially complicated in exegetical traditions that tend to
present themselves as insider-focused, and polemical, the seminar framed
the history of interpretation as the site of ongoing, engaged cultural
interaction. The results of this framing were showcased at the end of year
colloquium and a representative sampling will appear in the forthcoming
volume, co-edited by Natalie Dohrmann and David Stern.
CAJS Fellowship
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2001 – 2002
3/28/04 11:49:13 PM
Betty and Morris Shuch Fellow
Adele Berlin
CAJS Project:
Biblical Allusions in the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Jewish Study Bible, edited by A. Berlin and M. Brettler.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
“Interpreting Torah Traditions in Psalm 105.” In Jewish
Exegesis in a Comparative Context (working title), edited
by D. Stern and N. Dohrmann. Philadelphia: University of
CAJS Project:
Kimhi and Nahmanides on Scripture’s Yeshiva University
Moral Sense
Three Approaches to Biblical Metaphor: From Abraham Ibn
Ezra and Maimonides to David Kimhi. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
“A Poet’s Biblical Exegesis.” Review essay on P. Fenton,
Philosophie et exégèse dans le Jardin de la métaphore de
Moïse Ibn ‘Ezra (Leiden, 1997). Jewish Quarterly Review
93.3-4 (2003): 533-56.
“Maimonides’ Literary Approach to the Book of Job
and Its Place in the History of Biblical Interpretation”
(Hebrew). Shnaton: An Annual for Biblical and Ancient
Near Eastern Studies 15 (2004).
Haggai Ben-Shammai
CAJS Project:
Exegesis in Transition: Between Homiletics and
Rationalist Exegesis
“Medieval History and Religious Thought.” In The
Cambridge Geniza Collections: Their Contents and
Significance, edied by S. Reif. Cambridge: Cambridge
“Major Trends in Karaite Philosophy and Polemics (1011th centuries).” In A Guide to Karaite Studies, The History
and Literary Sources of Medieval and Modern Karaite
Judaism, edited by M. Poliack, 339-62. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
“On the History of the Scholarly Study of Karaism (1920th centuries).” In A Guide to Karaite Studies: The History
and Literary Sources of Medieval and Modern Karaite
Judaism, edited by M. Poliack, 8-24. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
Walter and Rose Zifkin Teaching Fellow
Robert Bonfil
Professor in the Institute of Jewish Studies at Hebrew
University
Natalie B. Dohrmann
(Ph.D. 1999, University of Chicago)
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and
Jewish Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and
Assistant Director for Publications at CAJS
CAJS Project:
The Anxiety of Identity: Analogical Reasoning and the
Rabbinic Negotiation of Rome
“Analogy, Empire, and Political Conflict,” Journal of Jewish
Studies 53.2 ( 2002).
“The Boundaries of the Law and the Problem of
Jurisdiction in an Early Palestinian Midrash.” In Rabbinic
Law in Its Roman and Near Eastern Context, edited by
Catherine Hezser. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003.
“Law as Cultural Narrative: Reading Slavery in Tannaitic
Sources.”In Jewish Exegesis in a Comparative Context
(working title), edited with introduction by D. Stern and
N. Dohrmann. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, forthcoming.
CAJS Project:
Biblical Allusions in Joseph Hacohens’ Historical Work
Jacob Elbaum
Professor in the Department of Hebrew Literature at
Hebrew University
Mordechai Cohen
(Ph.D. 1994, Yeshiva University)
Associate Professor in the Department of Bible at
Yeshiva University
CAJS Project:
Biblical Exegesis in Late Midrashic Literature (with
special emphasis on Pirque de-Rabbi Eliezer)
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“Yalkut Shimoni and the Medieval Midrashic
Anthology,” Prooftexts 19.2 (1999): 133-51.
Medieval Perspectives on Aggadah and Midrash, selected
and compiled with introduction and notes by J. Elbaum
(Hebrew). Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2000.
“Abraham Akrah’s ‘Rules for the Study of Midrash
Rabba’” (Hebrew). In Me’ah She‘arim: Studies in Medieval
Jewish Spritual Life in Memory of Isadore Twersky, edited
by E. Fleischer, Y. Blidstein, K. Horovitz, D. Septimus,
387-401. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2001.
Reuven Firestone
Professor of Medieval Judaism and Islam and Director
of the Edgar F. Magnin School of Graduate Studies at
Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, Los
Angeles
CAJS Project:
Satan, Sin, and the Destiny of Humanity: The Garden
Story in the Qur’an
Martin Jacobs
(Ph.D. 1994, Free University of Berlin; 2002, Habilitation
Free University of Berlin)
Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Studies in the
Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and
Literatures at Washington University
CAJS Project:
Biblical Exegesis in Jewish Polemics Against Islam
“Das ambivalente Islambild eines venezianischen
Juden des 16. Jahrhunderts: Capsalis Osmanische
Chronik.” In Judaica 58.1 (2002): 2-17.
“David ha-Re’uveni – ein ‘zionistisches Experiment’
im Kontext der europäischen Expansion des 16.
Jahrhunderts?” In An der Schwelle zur Moderne: Juden in
der Renaissance, edited by G.Veltri and A. Winkelmann,
191-206. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
Islamic History in Jewish Chronicles: Hebrew
Historiography of the 16th and 17th centuries (German).
Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003.
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Nancy and Laurence Glick Teaching Fellow
Sara Japhet
Yehezkel Kaufmann Professor in the Department of
Bible at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
The Song of Songs in Medieval Northern France Peshat
Exegesis
“’Lebanon’ in the Transition from Derash to Peshat:
Sources, Etymology, and Meaning.” In Emanuel, Studies
in Hebrew Bible, Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls in Honor
of Emanuel Tov, edited by S. Paul et al, 707-24. Leiden:
Brill, 2003.
“The Tension Between Rabbinic Legal Midrash and
the ‘Plain Meaning’ (Peshat) of the Biblical Text An Unresolved Problem? In the Wake of Rashbam’s
Commentary on the Pentateuch.” In Sefer Moshe: The
Moshe Weinfeld Jubilee Volume Studies in the Bible and
the Ancient Near East, Qumran, and Post-Biblical Judaism,
edited by C. Cohen, A. Hurvitz, and S. M. Paul. Winona
Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2004.
“Exegesis and Polemic in Rashbam’s Commentary on
the Song of Songs.” In Jewish Exegesis in a Comparative
Context (working title), edited by D. Stern and N.
Dohrmann. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, forthcoming.
Tamar Kadari
Doctoral Student in the Department of Hebrew
CAJS Project:
Redaction and Polemic: Origen and the Rabbis on the
Song of Songs Rabbah
“’Within it was Decked with Love’: The Torah as the
Bride in Tannaitic Exegesis on Song of Songs” (Hebrew).
Tarbiz 71 (2002): 391-404.
“Midrash Jonah: the Repentance of Jonah the Prophet,”
Kobetz Al Yad: Minora Manuscripta Hebraica 16 (2002):
69-84.
Deeana Klepper
(Ph.D. 1995, Northwestern University)
Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion at
Boston University
CAJS Project:
From Exegesis to Polemic: Nicholas of Lyra’s Use of
Jewish Text and his Anti-Jewish Writing
“Literal Versus Carnal: George of Siena’s Christian
Reading of Jewish Exegesis.” In Jewish Exegesis in
a Comparative Context (working title), edited by D.
Stern and N. Dohrmann. Philadelphia: University of
Israel Knohl
Professor in the Department of Bible at Hebrew
University
CAJS Project:
Biblical and Post Biblical Hermeneutics
The Divine Symphony: The Bible’s Many Voices.
Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2003.
“Cain, Son of God or Son of Satan?” In Jewish Exegesis
in a Comparative Context (working title), edited by D.
Stern and N. Dohrmann. Philadelphia: University of
Naomi Koltun-Fromm
Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion at
Haverford College
CAJS Project:
Aphrahat’s Hermeneutics of Holiness: Body, Sexuality
and Religious Identity in the Late Ancient Near East
“Zippora’s Complaint: Moses is Not Conscientious in
the Deed! Exegetical Traditions of Moses’ Celibacy.” In
The Ways that Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late
Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, edited by A. Becker
and A. Yoshiko Reed. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003.
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Tzvi Langermann
Associate Professor in the Department of Arabic at Bar
Ilan
CAJS Project:
Exegesis in Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed and
its Yemeni Commentators
“The Commentary to Song of Songs by Zekhariah haRofe (Yemen, 15th century).” In Medieval Encounters (in
press)
Daniel Sheerin
(Ph.D. 1965, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Professor in the Department of Classics at University of
Notre Dame
CAJS Project:
Biblical Typology in Patristic Literature
“Bible in Liturgy: Exegesis of Mass Propers.” In Jewish
by D. Stern and N. Dohrmann. Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming.
Joseph E. Lowry
Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and
Middle Eastern Studies at University of Pennsylvania
CAJS Project:
The Qur’an in Early Islamic Law
Michael A. Signer
(Ph.D. 1978, University of Toronto)
Abrams Professor of Jewish Thought and Culture in the
Department of Theology at University of Notre Dame
CAJS Project:
Biblical Interpretation and the Search for the Literal
Sense by 12th Century Jews and Christians
“Early Islamic Exegesis as Legal Theory: How Qur’anic
Wisdom (ikma) Became the Sunna of the Prophet.” In
Jewish Exegesis in a Comparative Context (working title),
edited by D. Stern and N. Dohrmann. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming.
“Confrontation and Consolation: The Prophetic Books
in Medieval Jewish and Christian Exegesis.” In an as yet
untitled volume edited by Thomas Heffernan. Leiden:
Brill, forthcoming.
Stefan C. Reif
(Ph.D. 1969, University of London)
Professor in the Genizah Research Unit of the University
Library at University of Cambridge
Peter Stallybrass
Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the
Humanities and Professor of English at University of
Pennsylvania
CAJS Project:
Medieval Jewish Commentators on Numbers 13
CAJS Project:
Books and Scrolls: Navigating the Bible
“A Medieval Mediterranean Deposit and a Modern
Cambridge Archive” Journal 27.1 (2001).
“Books and Scrolls: Navigating the Bible.” In Books
and Readers in Early Modern England, edited by J.
Andersen and E. Sauer, 42-77. Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.
“Prayer in Ben Sira, Qumran and Second Temple
Judaism: A Comparative Overview.” In Ben Sira’s God:
Proceedings of the International Ben Sira Conference,
Durham, Ushaw College, 2001, edited by R. EggerWenzel, 321-41. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2002.
“The Bible in Jewish Liturgy.” In The Jewish Study Bible,
edited by A. Berlin and M. Brettler. Oxford: Oxford
-- and Ann Rosalind Jones. “Fetishizing the Glove.” In
Critical Inquiry 28.1 (2001): 114-32.
“Is Christianity to the Codex as Judaism is to the
Scroll?” In Jewish Exegesis in a Comparative Context
(working title), edited by D. Stern and N. Dohrmann.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
forthcoming.
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Barbara R. von Schlegell
(Ph.D. 1997, University of California, Berkeley)
Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious
Studies at University of Pennsylvania
CAJS Project:
Hagar, Mother of Islam: Readings of Genesis
“Translating Sufism.” Journal of the American Oriental
Society 122.3 (2002): 578-86.
The Power of Concealment: The Sufi Women of
Contemporary Damascus. Berkeley: University of
California Press, forthcoming 2004-5.
Sanctifying the Name of God: Jewish Martyrs and Jewish
Memories of the First Crusade. Philadelphia: University of
Pennslylvania Press, 2004.
“Synagoga Conversa: Honorius Augustodunensis, The
Song of Songs, and Christianity’s Eschatological Jew’.”
In Speculum 79 (2004).
“The Mystery of Israel’s Salvation: Romans 11:25-26
in Patristic and Medieval Exegesis.” In Jewish Exegesis
in a Comparative Context (working title), edited by D.
Stern and N. B. Dohrmann. Philadelphia: University of
SHORT-TERM FELLOWS
Martin Gruss Fellow
Megan Hale Williams
Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern
Studies and fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows at
University of Michigan
CAJS Project:
Rabbinic Exegesis in Jerome’s Commentaries on the
Prophets
Jeremy Cohen
Tel Aviv University
Moshe Idel
Hebrew University
Shira Wolosky
MosheHalbertal
Hebrew University
“Lessons from Jerome’s Jewish Teachers: Exegesis and
Cultural Interaction in Late Antique Palestine.” In Jewish
by D. Stern and N. Dohrmann. Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming.
Jerome and the Making of Christian Scholarship. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, forthcoming.
--and Anthony Grafton. Scholars, Books and Libraries
in Late Antique Caesarea: From Origen to Eusebius.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
forthcoming.
Jeremy Cohen
(Ph.D. 1978, Cornell University)
Professor of Jewish History and Director of the
Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center at Tel Aviv
University
CAJS Project:
The role of the Jew in Christian expectations of the end
of days: Christianity’s “eschatological Jew.”
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Jewish History and Culture
Jewish History and Culture
in Eastern Europe, 1600 – 2000
F
or over three centuries, Eastern Europe was home to the greatest living reservoir of Jewish civilization in the world. From Jewish communities in Galicia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine, emerged
many of the currents that shape Jewish life today, and from their ranks
emerged the dominant new “centers” of the twentieth century in Israel and
North America. This seminar brought together historians, anthropologists,
literary scholars, and political scientists to mine the extraordinarily rich history and culture of East European Jewry. Fellows were animated by the shared
sense that the historic Jewish communities that once covered the broad
swathe of territory between the Baltic and the Black Seas have now moved
to the center of the study of the modern Jewish experience.
Several broad debates structured the collective conversation over the
course of the year. Has the motif of “crisis” monopolized the interpretation
of East European Jewish history? If so, why-and what might take its place?
Did Polish and/or Russian Jewry constitute worlds unto themselves, or might
we see in East European Jewish life certain extrapolations of the surrounding Slavic societies? How did the intensely politicized milieu of the early 20th
century shape the production and consumption of a modern Jewish culture?
In the course of these debates, participants brought into focus unfamiliar
dimensions of the biographies of figures such as S. Y. Abramovitch (Mendele
Moykher Sforim), Shlomo Rapoport (Ansky),and Isaac Babel. The impact of
mass violence on Jewish consciousness was a recurrent theme, as was the
problem of nationhood. Finally, by exploring the work of Salo Baron, Emanuel Ringelblum, Simon Dubnov, and the founders of the YIVO Institute, the
seminar gave participants the chance to scrutinize the original fashioners of
the East European Jewish past, and thus to reflect on our own enterprise.
CAJS Fellowship
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2002 – 2003
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Israel Bartal
Professor in the Institute of Jewish Studies at Hebrew
University
CAJS Project:
From Corporation to Nation: The Jews of Eastern
Europe, 1772-1881
Hamutal Bar-Yosef
Professor in the Department of Hebrew literature at
CAJS Project:
The Russian Roots of Jewish Neo-Mysticism
“Introduction to Mysticism in Modern Hebrew
Literature,” Kabbalah (2003).
David Engel
Greenberg Professor of Holocaust Studies and
Professor of History in the Skirball Department of
Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University
CAJS Project:
The Twenty Years’ Crisis of East European Jewry: 19191939
“Crisis and Lachrymosity: On Salo Baron, NeoBaronianism, and the Study of Modern Jewish History,”
Jewish History (forthcoming).
“A Young Jew from Galicia on the Anti-Jewish Boycott
in Congress Poland, 1913: From the Writings of the
Young Salo Baron” (Hebrew), Gal-Ed 19 (2004).
“The Sad Task of the Chronicler: The Story of a Jewish
Family in Poland during the Nazi Occupation” (Polish).
Warsaw: KARTA, forthcoming.
CAJS Project:
Russian-Jewish Life as Refracted through the Writings
of Yosef Haim Brenner: 1900-1909
Restructuring Post-Communist Russia. Edited by Y.
Brudny, J. Frankel, and S. Hoffman. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Primo Levi Fellow
Zvi Gitelman
Preston Tisch Professor of Judaic Studies in the
Department of Political Science at Unviersity of
Michigan
CAJS Project:
Analysis of Jewish identities in post-Soviet Russia and
Ukraine
The Emergence of Modern Jewish Politics: Bundism
and Zionism in Eastern Europe, edited by Z. Gitelman.
Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003.
Jewish Life after the USSR, edited by Z. Gitelman with
M. Glants and M. I. Goldman. Bloomington: Indiana
New Jewish Identities, edited by Z. Gitelman, B. Kosmin,
and A. Kovács. Budapest and New York: Central
European University Press, 2003.
François Guesnet
(Ph.D. 1996, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im
Breisgau )
Fellow at the Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish
History and Culture at Leipzig
CAJS Project:
The Polish Experience: Political Culture and Jewish
Collective Identities, 1840-1881
“A Tumel in the Shtetl: Haim Becalel Grinberg’s Di
khevre kedishe side.” In: Polin: Studies on Polish Jewry 16,
edited by M. Steinlauf and A. Polonsky. Oxford: The
Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2003.
Jonathan Frankel
(Ph.D. 1961, Cambridge University, Cambridge,
England)
Professor in the Department of Russian Studies and
Contemporary Jewish Studies at Hebrew University
“Politik der Vormoderne--Shtadlanut am Vorabend der
polnischen Teilungen” [Politics in the Premodern Era-Shtadlanut on the Eve of the Partitions of Poland]. In
Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts 1 (2002): 235-55 .
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Corob Professor of Modern Jewish History in the
Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University
College London
CAJS Project:
Reassessing the Foundation Myths of Russian Jewish
History: 1827-1894
“The Changing Contours of Russia’s Jewish Policy
during the Era of the Counter-Reforms.” In Nations and
Imperialism in Russian History, edited by I. Lauchlan.
Armonk N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe Publishers, forthcoming.
“Why Were Russian Jews Not Kaisertreu?” Ab Imperio
(forthcoming).
“Russians Read Dvesti Let Vmeste.” Simon Dubnow
Institute Yearbook (forthcoming)..
Kathryn Hellerstein
Ruth Meltzer Senior Lecturer in Yiddish and Jewish Studies
in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
at University of Pennsylvania
Jack Kugelmass
(Ph.D. 1980, The New School for Social Research)
Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor and Director in the
Department of Jewish Studies Program at Arizona State
University
CAJS Project:
Jewish Life in Post-War Poland
Cecile E. Kuznitz
Assistant Professor of Jewish History in the Department
of History at Bard College
CAJS Project:
Women Yiddish Poets in Eastern Europe
Primo Levi Fellow
Hillel J. Kieval
Gloria M. Goldstein Professor of Jewish History and
Thought in the Department of History at Washington
University in St. Louis
CAJS Project:
Crisis and Everyday Life in East Central Europe: The Modern
Ritual Murder Trial
Blood Inscriptions: The “Ritual Murder” Trial in Modern Europe.
Berkeley: University of California Press, forthcoming.
CAJS Project:
History of the YIVO Institute
“Ansky’s Legacy: The Vilna Historic-Ethnographic Society
and the Shaping of Modern Jewish Culture.” In Between
Two Worlds: S. Ansky at the Turn of the Century. Stanford:
Stanford University Press, forthcoming.
“Chronicling Life and Death in the Ghetto of the
Jerusalem of Lithuania.” Review of Herman Kruk, The
Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles of the
Ghettos and the Camps, 1939-1944. Forward, June 27, 2003
Samuel Grunfeld Fellow Rose and Henry Zifkin Teaching Fellow
John D. Klier
(Ph.D. 1976, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
Olga Litvak
Princeton University
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CAJS Project:
Literature and Counter History: The Memory of Military
Conscription in Russian-Jewish Culture
“You Can Take the Historian Out of the Pale, but Can
You Take the Pale Out of the Historian? New Trends in
the Study of Russian Jewry.” AJS Review (forthcoming).
Russia’s First Jewish Soldiers in History and Memory.
Bloomington: Indiana University press, forthcoming.
Ruth Meltzer Fellow
Rachel Manekin
Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Jewish History
at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Shifting Identities: The ‘Agudas Achim’ Society and the
Polonization of Galican Jewry: 1882-1892
“Michalina Araten and Tehila’s Daughter,” Haaretz
Literary Supplement, June 27, 2003.
Marcus Moseley
(Ph.D. 1991, Oxford University)
Visiting Professor in the Department of English at Johns
Hopkins University
CAJS Project:
From People of the Book to Literary Nation: On the
Emergence of Literature in Jewish Eastern Europe
‘Being for Myself Alone’: Origins of Jewish Autobiography.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, forthcoming.
“Autobiography: The Elusive Subject.” Jewish Quarterly
Review 95.1 (forthcoming, 2005).
“A Time for Tearing Down and a Time for Building Up:
Recasting Jewish Culture in Eastern Europe, 1914-1921.”
Ph.D. Dissertation: Stanford University, 2003.
Benjamin Nathans
(Ph.D. 1995, University of California at Berkeley)
Associate Professor in the Department of History at
University of Pennsylvania
CAJS Project:
A “Hebrew Drama”: The Individual, the Collective, and
the Problem of Crisis in Russian-Jewish History
“Russko-evreiskaia vstrecha.” Ab Imperio (forthcoming)
Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter With Late Imperial
Russia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
“The Other Modern Jewish Politics: Integration and
Modernity in Fin-de-Siècle Russia.” In The Emergence of
Modern Jewish Politics: Bundism and Zionism in Eastern
Europe, edited by Z. Gitelman, 20-34. Pittsburgh:
University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003.
Martin Gruss Fellow
Alyssa Quint
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Judaic Studies
at Brooklyn College
CAJS Project:
The Origins of Modern Yiddish Culture; and Theatre
and Theatricality in Nineteenth Century Russia
“S. Ettinger’s ‘Serkele’ and the Currency of Yiddish,”
Prooftexts (forthcoming).
“’Yiddish Literature for the Masses?’ A Study of Who
Read What in Jewish Eastern Europe,” AJS Review
(forthcoming).
Betty and Morris Shuch Fellow
Kenneth B. Moss
Assistant Professor of Modern European Jewish
History in the Department of History at Johns Hopkins
University
CAJS Project:
A Time for Tearing Down and a Time for Building Up:
Recasting Jewish Culture in Eastern Europe, 1914-1921
Moshe Rosman
(Ph.D. 1982, Jewish Theological Seminary)
Professor in the Department of Jewish History at Bar Ilan
University
CAJS Project:
Jewish Women in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
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“The History of Jewish Women in Early Modern Poland:
An Assessment.” In POLIN (forthcoming).
Assistant Editor of Gal-Ed: On the History of the Jews of
Poland at the Diaspora Research Institute at Tel Aviv
University
“The Cultural History of Jews in the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth.” In Cultures of the Jews, edited by D. Biale.
New York, Schocken Books, 2002.
CAJS Project:
The Struggle for Autonomy: The Jews of Lithuania During
World War I
Gabriella Safran
Associate Professor in the Department of Slavic
Languages and Literatures at Stanford
CAJS Project:
The Russian Aesthetics of Jewish Identity: A Literary
Biography of S. Ansky
S. An-sky at the Turn of the Century, edited by G. Safran and
S. Zipperstein. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004.
“It’s possible that this bloddy war will destroy the walls
of the last Gettoes’: on the Historian Meir Balaban and
his activities in Poland During First World War” (Hebrew).
Shvut 11, (forthcoming).
“A Joint Political Program for All the Jews in Poland during
the First World War - Success and Failure.” Jewish History
(forthcoming).
“The Legions of Hass: An attempt during the First World
War to turn the Jews into a recognized Nation in Eastern
Europe” (Hebrew). Israel Oppenheim Jubilee Volume. Ber
Sheva: Ben Gurion University Press, forthcoming.
Martin Gruss Fellow
Nancy and Laurence Glick Teaching Fellow
Joshua Shanes
(Ph.D. 2002, University of Wisconsin)
Associate Lecturer in the Department of History at
University of Wisconsin
Adam Teller
(Ph.D. 1997, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Lecturer in the Department of Jewish History at University
of Haifa
CAJS Project:
National Regeneration in the Diaspora: Nationalism,
Politics and Jewish Identity in Late Habsburg Galicia, 18831914
“Fort mit den Hausjuden! Jewish Nationalists Engage
Mass Politics.” In Nationalism, Zionism, and Ethnic
Mobilisation, edited by M. Berkowitz, 152-78. Leiden: Brill,
2003.
CAJS Project:
Social and Cultural History of the Rabbinate in Early
Modern Poland-Lithuania
“Rabbis without a Function? The Polish Rabbinate and the
Council of Four Lands.” In Jewish Spiritual Leadership over
the Ages, ed. J. Wertheimer (in preparation).
SHORT-TERM FELLOWS
“Papers for the Jewish Folk: Jewish Nationalism and the
Birth of the Yiddish Press in Galicia,” Polin 16, edited by M.
Steinlauf and A. Polonsky, 167-87. London: Littman Library
of Jewish Civilization, 2003.
“Neither Germans nor Poles: Jewish Nationalism in Galicia
before Herzl, 1883-1897,” Austrian History Yearbook 34
(2003): 191-214.
Marcos Silber
(Ph.D. 2001, Tel-Aviv University)
Ada Rapoport Albert
University College London
Gershon Bacon
Bar Ilan University
Jacob Barnai
University of Haifa
Elchanan Reiner
Tel Aviv University
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Tradition
Prescriptive Tradition and Lived
Experience in the Jewish Religion:
Historical and Anthropological Perspectives
Experience
L
ike many of the fellowship themes at the Center for
Advanced Judaic Studies, this year’s theme challenged the
boundaries that have conventionally structured and confined the study of
Jews and Judaism: in this case the methodological divide between history
and anthropology. In this year’s seminar, historians, anthropologists and
practitioners of an interdisciplinary approach to religious studies, focused
intensely on the evaluation and reconfiguration of history, anthropology,
and folklore in Jewish Studies. The forum looked repeatedly at the vast
variety of Jewish practice as it has emerged over time and space. Questions
of the relationship between prescriptive tradition and lived experience,
elite forms and popular expressions, canonical textuality and embodied
practice, ethnography and archive, arose repeatedly. While all present
agreed on the importance of historical specificity in the analysis of ritual
and tradition, there was as well a recurrent curiosity about the value and
limits of synchronic and comparative approaches--setting up a productive
tension between work that focused on specific historical, local, and even
personal contexts and that which drew in persistent trans-historical tropes
or practices.
While the conversation around the table was lively, the year was
particularly rich outside the seminar room and the honest and warm
camaraderie of the group continues to be remarkable. Some of the most
energetic and productive work happened in the fellow-initiated reading
groups, in the halls, and over dinner. Needless to say, the fruits of this year’s
seminar are still works-in-progress but in their final form they are sure to
contribute to the ongoing process of methodological refinement within
Jewish studies.
CAJS Fellowship
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2003 – 2004
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Ra’anan (Abusch) Boustan
Ph.D. 2003, Princeton University
Assistant Professor in the Department of Classical and
Near Eastern Studies at University of Minnesota
CAJS Project:
Anthropological Approaches to the Problem of
Heterogeneity in Hekhalot Literature
Louis and Bessie Stein Term Fellowship
Tamar El-Or
Ph.D. 1990, Bar Ilan University
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and
CAJS Project:
Reserved Seats: Ushering Mizrahi Women to their
Sephardi Location: Gender, Religion and Literacy
Among the Mizrahi-Sephardi Community
Charles W. and Sally Rothfeld Fellowship
Dan Ben-Amos
Ph.D. 1967, Indiana University
Professor in the Graduate Program of Folklore and Folk
Life at University of Pennsylvania
CAJS Project:
Elijah the Prophet: Historic Symbolic Analysis
Herbert and Ellie Katz Distinguished Fellowship
Menahem Ben-Sasson
Ph.D. 1982, Hebrew University
Professor of the History of the Jewish People in the
Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Ceremony and Life of Oriental Jewry: 9th–13th
Centuries
Maurice Amado Foundation Fellowship
Yoram Bilu
Professor in the Department of Psychology at Hebrew
University
CAJS Project:
Shrine and Pilgrimage in Anthropological and
Historical Perspectives: The Cult of Rabbi Shimon BarYohai
Betty and Morris Shuch Term Fellowship
Jeffrey Chajes
Ph.D. 1999, Yale University
Lecturer in the Department of Jewish History at
University of Haifa
CAJS Project:
The Voice of a Woman: A History of Jewish Women’s
Spirituality
Dalck and Rose Feith Family Fellowship
Talya Fishman
Ph.D. 1986, Harvard University
Associate Professor in the Department of Religious
Studies at University of Pennsylvania
CAJS Project:
Custom’s Emergence as a Competitor to Law:
Reconstructing a Culture Revolution of Medieval
Ashkenaz
Ruth Meltzer Distinguished Fellowship
Harvey Goldberg
Ph.D. 1967, Harvard University
CAJS Project:
Jewish Studies and the Anthropology of Disciplines:
Anthropological Studies of Muslim Societies
Michael R. Steinhardt Term Fellowship
Sylvie Anne Goldberg
Ph.D. 1986, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociale
Associate Professor at the Center for Historical Research
at L’ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociale
CAJS Project:
The Sacred and the Profane: Historicity and
Temporality in the Jewish Mind
Ephraim Kanarfogel
Ph.D. 1987, Yeshiva University
E. Billi Ivry Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva
University
CAJS Project:
Dreams as a Determinant of Jewish Law and Practice in
Northern Europe During the High Middle Ages
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Ruth Meltzer Distinguished Fellowship
Tamar Katriel
Ph.D. 1983, University of Washington
Professor in the Departments of Communications and
Education at University of Haifa
CAJS Project:
The Role of Graves of Sainted Individuals in the
Religious Lives of Individual and Community
Rose and Henry Zifkin Teaching Fellowship
CAJS Project:
The Rhetoric of Rescue: Salvage Immigration Narratives
in Israeli Civil Religion
Oren Kosansky
Ph.D. 2003, University of Michigan
Elchanan Reiner
Professor in the Department of Jewish History at Tel
Aviv University
CAJS Project:
Shrine and Pilgrimage in Historical and Anthropological
Perspectives: The Cult of Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yohai
CAJS Project:
Saint Pilgrimage as Torah Practice in Jewish Morocco
Michael R. Steinhardt Term Fellowship
Nancy S. and Laurence E. Glick Teaching Fellowship
Jack Kugelmass
Ph.D. 1980, New School for Social Research
Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor in the Jewish Studies
Program at Arizona State University
CAJS Project:
The Rites of the Tribe: Ethnographic Essays on the
Public Culture of American Jews
Marina Rustow
Ph.D. 2003, Columbia University
Emory University
CAJS Project:
Jewish Sectarianism in the Medieval Islamic
Mediterranean: A Social Historical Approach
Primo Levi Fellowship and Erika A. Strauss Teaching Fellowship
Herbert and Ellie Katz Distinguished Fellowship
Ora Limor
Professor in the Department of History, Philosophy and
Judaic Studies at Open University, Israel
CAJS Project:
Messianic Geography: The Mount of Olives in Jewish,
Christian, and Muslim Tradition
Shalom Sabar
Ph.D. 1987, University of California, Los Angeles
Professor of Jewish Art and Folklore in the Department
of Art History at Hebrew University
CAJS Project:
Transitional Objects: Material Culture and Rituals in
Jewish Life and Year Cycles
Martin Gruss Fellowship
Ella Darivoff Term Fellowship
Riv-Ellen Prell
Ph.D. 1978, University of Chicago
Professor in the Department of American Studies at
University of Minnesota
CAJS Project:
American Jewish Youth Culture and the Emergence of a
New Judaism, 1945-1970
Andrea Schatz
Ph.D. 2003, University of Duisburg, Germany
Member of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts
and Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of
German at Princeton University
CAJS Project:
Translating the Orient: Cultural Difference and Diaspora
in the 18th Century
Moses Aaron Dropsie Term Fellowship
Louis and Bessie Stein Term Fellowship
Lucia Raspe
Ph.D. 2003, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin, Seminar fuer Judaistik
at Goethe University
Michael Swartz
Ph.D. 1986, New York University
Professor of Hebrew and Religious Studies in the
Department of Near Eastern languages and Cultures at
Ohio State University
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CAJS Project:
Ritual Theory in Judaism: Ancient and Modern
Charles W. and Sally Rothfeld Fellowship
Chava Weissler
Ph.D. 1982, University of Pennsylvania
Philip and Muriel Berman Professor of Jewish
Civilization in the Department of Religion Studies at
Lehigh University
CAJS Project:
The ‘Jewish Renewal’ Movement in the American
Spiritual Marketplace
SHORT-TERM FELLOWS
Dmitrii Belkin
University of Tubingen
Robert Bonfil
Hebrew University
Galit Hasan-Rokem
Hebrew University
Lucette Valensi
L’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
Nathan Wachtel
College of France
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From the Library
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Halper 354v: Draft of a letter of ca. 1036 soliciting a rescript of appointment for Solomon b. Judah, gaon of
the Jerusalem yeshiva, from the chancery of the newly anointed Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir (1036-94).1
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T
his Geniza fragment is an unassuming piece of rag paper containing some faded ink in well-nigh illegible Arabic
script. The top, bottom, and right side have been
torn away, and the back was re-used as writing
material in later decades. All this might naturally
lead us to discount its significance as a historical object. And yet S. D. Goitein, who first identified the fragment, called it “the most important
colorful characters of the Islamic Middle Ages:
earlier in the century, al-Zahir’s father, the unpredictable caliph al-Hakim (996-1021), had accused
al-Jarjara’i of embezzlement and had both his
hands and forearms cut off; al-Hakim’s successor
al-Zahir (1021-36) nonetheless named the now
armless al-Jarjara’i vizier, thereby rendering him
only the second Fatimid courtier to hold this title.
He served in this capacity—and as a major check
on the power of al-Mustansir’s mother—until his
death in 1045.
Al-Mustansir’s mother, for her part, had special ties to the Jews of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria.
Of Gaons and Caliphs by Marina Rustow
Geniza document found thus far illustrating the
official position of the Jerusalem Gaonate within
the Muslim state.” What did he mean?
To understand the significance of the document, we must enlist other medieval sources
to help us reimagine the circumstances under
which it was written and the story of how it came
into being in the world—its biography, if you
will. Halper 354v was born in the Jewish community of eleventh-century Egypt and Palestine, and
its biographical tale commences amidst a drama
of power and politics at the court of the Fatimid
caliphs in Cairo. It is not always easy to connect
Geniza documents about the internal politics of
the Jewish community with the high politics of
the age, and that makes Halper 354v all the more
exceptional.
When the Fatimid caliph al-Zahir died in
1036, his son and heir, al-Mustansir, was but a
boy of seven. Power at court was hotly contested
between the dead caliph’s vizier, al-Jarjara’i, and
the newly anointed boy-caliph’s mother. Their
rivalry is the source of much commentary in the
medieval Arabic chronicles, which depict “the
mother of al-Mustansir” (as they call her) jealously running government affairs even after the
boy came of age. Al-Jarjara’i is one of the more
She had made her entrance onto the stage of
history as a slave in the household of the Karaite
Jew Abraham al-Tustari, banker and purveyor
of luxury items to the caliph’s court who left his
mark in the Arabic chronicles and the Geniza
alike. Al-Tustari gave his slave-girl as a gift to
al-Zahir; the caliph took her as one of his concubines; and she bore him his first son, the boy
who would become caliph. When al-Mustansir
ascended the throne, his mother remained loyal
to her former master and patron, now one of her
closest advisers. Al-Tustari’s presence at court
was therefore of some potential advantage to
the Jews, as well as to anyone who happened to
cultivate alliances with him and his mercantile
and banking firm. During his years at court, various Rabbanite and Karaite Jews of the Fatimid
realm submitted petitions seeking his aid and
intercession, as well as that of his brother Hesed
and a third Karaite, David ha-Levi b. Isaac, head
of the Fatimid bureau of taxation, and many of
these have survived in the Geniza. Here we see
that the patron-client relationships that formed
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the social backbone of medieval Near Eastern society operated up to the highest echelons of governmental power—and across denominational divides.
That patron-client system left a decisive stamp on the official character of Jewish selfgovernment in the Middle Ages. Jews, like other religious minorities under Islamic rule,
enjoyed collective autonomy and the direct protection of the state in religious and communal affairs. But that protection needed to be reaffirmed at every important juncture: when a new gaon or local judge acceded to office, or when a new caliph
ascended the throne. The way to reaffirm official prerogatives was by petitioning the caliph and the chancery for recognition. The petitioners
would also thereby implicitly and reciprocally affirm that the caliph
was their highest patron and protector. A handful of petitions
found their way into the Geniza; other sources jog the historical imagination by conveying the choreography attached to
the process of submitting a petition.
Subjects of the realm brought their written entreaties to
the palace in Cairo and waited at one of its gates, where a
runner collected the petitions of the day and handed them
over to palace officials. The caliph considered the request
and suggested changes. After the caliph endorsed a
petition, it was returned to the party who had submitted it with his ratifying signature (his ‘alama).
Submitting a request was therefore a business facilitated by connections at court and the presence of
sympathetic bureaucrats and courtiers who could
see petitions through the chancery.
Solomon ben Judah had been serving as gaon
of the Jerusalem yeshiva for about eleven years
when the boy-caliph ascended the throne. He was ideally poised
to profit from the presence of high-ranking Karaites at court. Originally from Fez in the far Maghrib, Solomon had worked tirelessly
throughout his tenure as gaon to promote unity among Fatimid
Jewry, and particularly between the Rabbanites and Karaites of Palestine. In 1029, he prevented an unruly Rabbanite mob from excommunicating the Karaites at a major public pilgrimage ceremony in Jerusalem. He had also exerted close control
over his competitors, the Babylonian Rabbanites of Fustat, making a special trip to Egypt in 1029 to excommunicate some members of the Iraqi Jewish community who (in his words) “promulgate[d] false laws ...
in order to foment strife among Israel.”
Solomon would have wasted no time in
petitioning the new caliph for recognition
as head of all the Rabbanites in the Fatimid
realm. To that end, he needed the help
of his supporters in Egypt, whom he asked
to write a letter soliciting a rescript from the chancery—the document you see before you. It is not unlikely
that Solomon’s men enlisted one of the courtly Karaites to
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expedite the request, and although the rescript
itself has not survived, we may assume that his
request was granted. In the letter, Solomon’s
supporters testify to every prerogative the gaon
and his predecessors had ever enjoyed: supreme
authority to arbitrate questions in Jewish religion
and law, sole right to impose coercive sanctions
on the Jews of the realm, especially the ban of
excommunication, and sole power to appoint
judges and other local communal functionaries throughout the Fatimid empire. They added,
just to be clear, that “the Jews are not permitted
to disapprove of or to object to his decisions or
actions.” Hence Goitein’s statement with which
I began: Halper 354v is in fact the clearest evidence we have that the gaon of the rabbinical
academy in Jerusalem served as the governmentally recognized leader of all the Rabbanite Jews
in the realm. This humble-looking scrap is therefore the most important source we have on how
Jewish communal autonomy and self-government functioned in the medieval Islamic world.
But there was one aspect of the document’s
“biography” that Goitein did not explore, and
that was the possibility that at some point it
passed through Karaite hands. The paradox of
Karaite courtiers helping a Rabbanite gaon to
confirm his power need not detain us for long.
The eleventh century was an era of close cooperation between the leaders of the two communities, but more than that, in several instances
rabbinic power depended crucially upon Karaite help. Karaites names appear on Geniza lists
of donors to the Jerusalem academy from the
1020s. A pretender to the Jerusalem geonate
who sought to overthrow Solomon ben Judah
in 1038 wrote a number of obsequious letters to
various Egyptian Karaite grandees whose support he sought because he knew that he could
not attain this high rabbinic rank without it. And
one Geniza letter notes that Sherira and Hayya,
the geonim of Pumbedita (968-1004 and 10041038 respectively), employed the Tustaris as their
Egyptian point-men in conveying their responsa
westward to Fustat and Qayrawan—a behindthe-scenes glimpse of Babylonian rabbinic logistics that one could hardly imagine on the basis of
reading geonic responsa alone.
Goitein can hardly be faulted for explaining only the Rabbanite side of our document’s
history, since the letter explicitly restricts the
gaon’s jurisdiction to “the party known as the
Rabbanite Jews,” to the exclusion of the Karaites. But as it turns out, the alliances Solomon
and other rabbinic leaders cultivated with Karaite leaders would transform Jewish self-government in Egypt for centuries to come. By the end
of the eleventh century, Rabbanites and Karaites united under the aegis of a single territorial leader, “the head of the Jews.” In 1082, the
second incumbent of the office even married a
high-born Karaite woman to secure his chances
at gaining the position. The communities remained united administratively until the Ottomans abolished the office of head of the Jews in
the sixteenth century.
For historians of medieval Jewry, Goitein’s
discovery attests to the social history of rabbinic
realpolitik, to the precise nature of geonic power
and privilege, and to the makings of Jewish selfgovernment in the medieval world. For historians
of the Middle East in general, it furnishes rare
documentary evidence of the hands-on functioning of caliphal rule.
Footnote
Edited with Hebrew translation in Goitein, “The head the Palestinian academy as head of the Jews in the Fatimid empire: Arabic documents on the Palestinian gaonate [in Hebrew],” Eres Yisra’el 10 (1971): 100-13 (edition on 103, with facsimile, 104, and commentary, 103-106). English translation in idem, “New sources on the Palestinian gaonate,” Salo Wittmayer
Baron jubilee volume on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, edited by Saul Lieberman and Arthur Hyman (Jerusalem and
New York: American Academy for Jewish Research; distributed by Columbia University Press, 1974): 503-37 (document on
524-25).
1
From the Library | Of Gaons and Caliphs | 75
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P
robably the most famous, and
possibly the most valuable, book
in the library of the Center for Advanced Judaic
Studies is a very modest gathering of ten folded
sheets of brown wrinkled paper that is known
as the Dropsie Haggadah. Written in a loopy
but very legible semi-cursive oriental hand, the
Dropsie Haggadah is the oldest near-complete
text of the Passover haggadah in existence.
The most important—and useful—
piece of information in the Dropsie
Haggadah, however, is something far
more delectable than another textual or
ritual variant. It is also a feature of the
Haggadah that, lamentably, has hardly
received attention from scholars.
The Dropsie Haggadah
We know neither the Haggadah’s scribe nor
precisely when the text was written; the most
recent scholarly evaluation has dated it to eleventh-century Egypt. The top of the first page of
the haggadah records the Haftorah blessings for
Passover—a sign indicating that the booklet we
now have was originally part of a larger prayerbook, and that the Dropsie Haggadah came into
existence at a time before the Passover haggadah
had become an independent book in its own
right. At some point, however, its owner must
have torn the haggadah’s pages out from the
larger codex—presumably, one imagines, so that
he could use it more easily at a seder. At some
still later point, after its owner had stopped using
the Haggadah, he “buried” it, as was the wont
of Cairo Jews, in the later-to-become-famous
genizah of the Ben Ezra synagogue in Fustat, Old
Cairo, and from where, in the late 19th century,
black- market dealers looted it. Finally, sometime
between 1896 and 1901, David Werner Amram
(1866-1939), a professor of law at the University
of Pennsylvania and a serious bibliophile with
a special interest in Hebrew books, bought the
haggadah (with 358 other fragments) in Jerusalem from such black-market dealers, and eventually sold it to Dropsie College—the predecessor
by David Stern
of CAJS—from which the Haggadah received its
name. Personally, I wish it were called the Amram
Haggadah. David Werner Amram’s father, Werner
David Amram, was the owner of the first matzah
bakery in Philadelphia; evidently, the family had
Passover in their blood.
For scholars—indeed for anyone interested
in the history of the seder or the haggadah—the
Dropsie Haggadah is an invaluable document.
For one thing, it preserves the ancient Palestinian
version of the seder as it still was used in Egypt
as late as the eleventh century. The Palestinian
seder was eventually superceded by the Babylonian rite, which ultimately became the nearuniversal standard with which we are all familiar
today; but the Palestinian ceremony was much
closer to the “original” seder as it first came into
existence in the second and third centuries C.E.
That early seder was considerably shorter than
ours, and more to the point, without many of the
duplications that riddle the full haggadah text
we use. For example, the Mah Nishtanah in the
Palestinian seder had only three questions, not
four, and those questions directly addressed the
seder’s three main symbolic foods: the Passover
sacrifice, the Matzah, and the Marror. So too, the
Dropsie Haggadah, in line with the Palestinian
76 | CAJS
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version, includes only one
of the two “prologues”
to the main part of the
haggadah’s re-telling of the
Exodus story; after all, who
needs two prologues if one
is enough? Similarly, the
Dropsie Haggadah’s version of the famous midrash
on Deut. 26, the heart of
the recitation, is also much
shorter, with midrashic interpretations only for the
very beginning and the
very end. The Palestinians
obviously felt that a little
midrash went a long way
and, unlike their Babylonian
cousins, they didn’t feel the
compulsion to comment
upon every single phrase
and word.
The most important—and useful—piece of
information in the Dropsie Haggadah, however,
is something far more delectable than another
textual or ritual variant. It is also a feature of the
Haggadah that, lamentably, has hardly received
attention from scholars.
The first symbolic food eaten at the seder
is known as “karpas” (from the Aramaic word
for “celery”); commentators see the meaning
of this particular food as relating either to the
new greens of spring or (through a pun too
complicated to translate) to the burdens of heavy
labor under which the Israelites toiled in Egypt.
In fact, what we know as karpas—the celery
(or parsley) dipped in salt-water—is simply the
lonely, dessicated survivor of the full “appetizer”
course that was served before the main course in
a typical Greco-Roman banquet in antiquity. The
Dropsie Haggadah provides us with invaluable
information about what this appetizer course
was really like, and what eleventh-century Jews
in Egypt (like their Palestinian ancestors) actually
ate for karpas, their hors d’oeuvres. In contrast
to our contemporary haggadot, which record
only a single blessing for karpas, the Dropsie
Haggadah has four. The first blessing is similar
to ours—praise for “the
Creator of the growths of
the earth” (peri haaadmah),
namely ,vegetables, or
greens. It is with the second,
third, and fourth blessings,
however, that the Dropsie
Haggadah’s hors d’oeuvres
really take off. The second
blessing is for fruit (borei
peri ha’etz), probably fruit
especially associated with
the land of Israel like dates
and figs and grapes. The
third blessing praises “the
Creator of many types of
delights (ma’adanim)” (or, as
the accompanying blessing
adds, “who delights the
souls of mankind”). This
blessing, as we know from
elsewhere, was specifically
recited over rice mixed with eggs and honey;
eggs (seasoned but probably not devilled) were
a favorite at Greco-Roman banquets. Finally,
the fourth blessing—the most tantalizing of
all—praised “the Creator of different types of
creatures (nefashot),” namely, animals, and was
recited over sweetbreads and skewers of grilled
meats and sausages (and probably more eggs).
With these blessings, most of which have
fallen out of the standard rabbinic liturgy, the
Dropsie Haggadah provides us with the incalculably valuable information, not available anywhere
else, that the appetizer course at the original
seder was not our sad stem of wilted parsely or
a celery stick immersed in over-salted water but
a ganze production of crudités, fruit plates and
fancy meats. Then as now—as anyone knows
who’s been to a Jewish wedding or seen the film
Goodbye Columbus—the best course has always
been the hors d’oeuvres. This information—the
true lesson of the Dropsie Haggadah—should be
widely publicized. It shows us how ancient manuscripts provide us not only with truly priceless
useful information, but also, more importantly,
with truly universal wisdom: It’s all about food.
From the Library | The Dropsie Haggadah | 77
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S
ometime during the early 1950s,
Marvin Weiner, a Philadelphia area
businessman and collector of early Americana,
was browsing “Sam Kleinman’s Schuykill Book
Shop,” located at the corner of Lancaster and
Belmont in West Philadelphia. He found there
a ledger-sized volume filled with clippings by
Sabato Morais, a Sephardic Jew, born in Livorno,
Italy, and one of the preeminent American Jew-
Morais Ledger
by Arthur Kiron
ish leaders of the nineteenth century. Realizing
its significance, Weiner purchased the scrapbook
and thus saved one of the most remarkable documentary treasures of American Jewish history.
In 1992, during the quincentenary of the discovery of the new world, Mr. Weiner, by then the
chairman of the library committee of the Annenberg Research Institute, donated the scrapbook
to the library. The rediscovery and donation of
the Ledger, whose loss had been reported and
lamented as early as 1947, have prompted a
number of reevaluations of our understanding
of American Jewish history.
The profound significance of this unique
treasure is clearly evident, both in terms of its
scope and content. Its 831 items of newspaper
clippings, pamphlets, circulars and typescripts,
spanning the second half of the nineteenth century, cover almost every major public event, political debate and theological controversy of that
era. In particular, the Ledger documents the
fundamental role Morais played as the principle
founder of the Jewish Theological Seminary in
New York City in 1886.
Morais’ copious handwritten annotations to
his own (often anonymously published) writings
offer a window into his private reflections and
views on such matters as the American Civil War,
capital punishment, the creation of a uniform,
abbreviated American Jewish prayer service, his
differences with Isaac Mayer Wise, the leader
of the American Jewish Reform movement, as
well as his reactions to Christian missionaries,
ethnic intolerance, mass migration, and political
Zionism. The Scrapbook also contains the only
extant fragments, clipped from the short-lived
Philadelphia newspaper, the Jewish Index, of Morais’ translations of Italian Jewish literature (the
first English translations ever made) for an American audience. In short, the Scrapbook alters the
familiar picture of nineteenth-century American
Jewry as “German” and Reform in its orientation.
It shows how Morais disseminated his traditional
Sephardic religious worldview to a national audience through the medium of both the Jewish
and non-Jewish press.
78 | CAJS
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Breaking New Ground - Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic

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