PERSPECTIVES the MAGAZINE of the ASSOCIATION for JEWISH STUDIES in Memory of Jonathan M

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The Old and New Media Issue SPRING 2018

FORUM: Old Media, New Media: Librarians and Archivists Reﬂect

PERSPECTIVES THE MAGAZINE OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR JEWISH STUDIES In memory of Jonathan M. Hess MAY 30, 1965–APRIL 9, 2018

Co-editor of AJS InsidePerspectives Cover , Fall 2015–Spring 2018 יהי זכרון ברוך Table of Contents

From the Editors 4 From the President 5 From the Executive Director 6

Old and New Media BETWEEN OLD AND NEW MEDIA Old Media, and Older Media 10 David Stern Let There Be Light: The Word of God in the Jewish Tradition, Past, Present, and Future 14 Gabriel Levy Mediating Moses and Matzah 16 Jodi Eichler-Levine What Becomes of Old Media? 20 Jeffrey Shandler New Media in Old Bottles, or Is It the Other Way Around? 26 Ben Schachter

CLASSICAL TEXTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE Scroll Down: Classical Jewish Texts on the Internet 28 Gary A. Rendsburg Freedom on the Tablets: Annotation as Media, from Talmudic Scholarship to the Digital Age 36 Itay Marienberg-Milikowsky The Cairo Geniza and Facebook 38 Moshe Yagur and Oded Zinger

THE MODERN MEDIASCAPE Jewish Media Power: Myth and Reality 42 Elana Levine and Michael Z. Newman Jewish Selfie-Fashioning: Gender and Religion in the Digital Age 50 Laura Arnold Leibman The Facebook of Life 54 Ira Wagman The Rise of the Militarized Selfie: Notes from Israel 56 Rebecca L. Stein (with Adi Kuntsman) Forum Old Media, New Media: Librarians and Archivists Reflect 60

Read AJS Perspectives Online at associationforjewishstudies.org AJS Perspectives: President Please direct correspondence to: The Magazine of the Christine Hayes Association for Jewish Studies Association for Jewish Studies Yale University Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street New York, NY 10011 Editor Vice President / Program Noam Pianko Laura S. Lieber University of Washington Voice: (917) 606-8249 Duke University Fax: (917) 606-8222 E-Mail: [email protected] Vice President / Membership Web Site: www.associationforjewishstudies.org Editorial Board and Outreach Carol Bakhos Jeffrey Veidlinger AJS Perspectives is published bi-annually University of California, Los Angeles University of Michigan by the Association for Jewish Studies. Samantha Baskind Cleveland State University Vice President / Publications The Association for Jewish Studies is an Robin Judd afﬁliate of the Center for Jewish History. Zachary Braiterman Ohio State University Syracuse University © Copyright 2018 Association for Michael Brenner Secretary / Treasurer Jewish Studies ISSN 1529-6423 American University Kenneth Koltun-Fromm Alanna Cooper Haverford College Case Western Reserve University AJS Perspectives reserves the right to AJS Staff Lesleigh Cushing reject advertisements or other items not Warren Hoffman Colgate University consonant with the goals and purposes of Executive Director the organization. Copy may be condensed Nathaniel Deutsch Michelle Katz or rejected because of length or style. University of California, Santa Cruz Membership and Conference AJS Perspectives disclaims responsibility Ken Koltun-Fromm Content Manager for statements made by advertisers and Haverford College contributors. Heather Turk Adam Mendelsohn Director of Events and University of Cape Town Operations Ophir Münz-Manor Amy Weiss Open University of Israel Grants and Communications Manager Eva Mroczek University of California at Davis Karin Kugel AJS Perspectives Managing Devin Naar Editor; Website Manager University of Washington Jay Litzman Riv-Ellen Prell Public Programs Manager University of Minnesota Joshua Schreier Vassar College Jacqueline Vayntrub Brandeis University Yael Zerubavel Rutgers University

Managing Editor Karin Kugel

Graphic Designer Ellen Nygaard

Cover: Detail from Jenny Odell, The Pile, 2015. Digital print, 36 x 48 in. Courtesy of the artist.

2 AJS Perspectives Contributors to This Issue

Jonathan M. Hess Laura S. Lieber Christine Hayes Warren Hoffman David Stern

Gabriel Levy Jodi Eichler-Levine Jeffrey Shandler Ben Schachter Gary A. Rendsburg

Itay Marienberg-Milikowsky Moshe Yagur Oded Zinger Elana Levine Michael Z. Newman

Laura Arnold Leibman Ira Wagman Rebecca L. Stein Ty Alhadeff Rachel Ariel

Zachary M. Baker Sarah Bunin Benor Eitan Kensky Sean Martin

SPRING 2018 3 From the Editors

Dear Colleagues, While our age may not be more saturated with media than any media, whether the issue is text or textile, archives or artistry. In other, it may be more self-aware of its media saturation, and part 2, Gary Rendsburg, Itay Marienberg-Milikowsky, and Moshe more self-absorbed by it. We consume online news, at times Yagur and Oded Zinger highlight how scholars who work in obsessively, even as we wonder if we are being manipulated—or antiquity are among those at the forefront of a digital revolution, monitored—by sinister online organizations. Many of us use social one in which ancient texts are read anew, and in vastly new media, and some of us “manage” or even “curate” our social ways—although sometimes the innovations are not as radical media “presence.” We interact with scholarly materials online— as they at first may seem. In part 3, Elana Levine and Michael from digitized manuscripts to electronic offprints—as well as with Newman, Laura Arnold Leibman, Ira Wagman, and Rebecca other scholars. We guest lecture in classes using FaceTime and Stein and Adi Kuntsman remind us that new media are not an endure the awkwardness of Skype interviews. Even if we don’t unalloyed boon. Antisemitism, bias, bigotry, and hate speech—all tweet, we can’t ignore Twitter; and we increasingly try, with old sins given new reach, vividness, and durability—color much varying levels of success and enthusiasm, to “go paperless,” of the digital mediascape. In these instances, Jews and Judaism either for the sake of the earth or the bottom line. We no longer are as likely to be an object as a subject. wonder whether “Google” ought to be a verb. Recognizing that the relationships among media creators, And yet, for all the omnipresence of the digital world, our media creations, and media consumers do not occur in a excitement at receiving an email generally pales beside the vacuum, we chose to complement the articles in this issue with rare wonder of receiving a genuine letter. Kindle books cannot a forum that gives a voice to librarians and archivists—those who (yet!) replace the tactile, at times even olfactory, experience of engage in a range of practical and sophisticated ways with the interacting with a printed volume. And, turning our attention to media, often behind the scenes, with a skill that precisely the Jewish world, we know of no synagogue (yet!) where the because of its success goes unnoticed. Digital media has proven Torah is read from a screen. Jewish people, so happy to embrace so seductive in many ways because it has proven so effortless to their identity as “People of the Book” (a title given to Jews, use, but a great deal of human ingenuity and experience sustains as well as to Christians and Sabians, in the Qur’an), continue that user experience. to embrace one of the oldest media technologies in the And so, we invite you to enjoy these reflections on past and synagogue: the parchment scroll. But those who wish to stream present, and in some cases, even the near future. Whether you the Torah reading over the Internet are increasingly able to do so. read this in hard copy or via the online platform, we anticipate (So far as we are aware, one cannot—yet!—constitute a minyan on that you will find something worth liking (or “liking”) and sharing Facebook or in Second Life.) (or “sharing”)! In this issue of AJS Perspectives, we turn our attention directly to the complexities of the media landscapes in which Jonathan M. Hess Judaism is lived and by which Judaism and Jewish life are University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill mediated. In part 1, David Stern, Gabriel Levy, Jodi Eichler- Levine, Jeffrey Shandler, and Ben Schachter all address the issue Laura S. Lieber of developments in, and complications of, changes in Jewish Duke University

4 AJS Perspectives From the President

Dear Colleagues, The infusion of new technologies and social media into the Humans have a less than stellar track record when it comes world of Jewish Studies has utterly and irreversibly to partnering intelligence with morality. From atomic fission to revolutionized the way we approach our scholarly and surrogate pregnancy, the development and eager embrace of professional responsibilities. In classrooms and private studies, a new technology often occurs before we have had time to in libraries and archives, in museums and Jewish communal consider its ethical implications, let alone develop policies and institutions, new technologies and media do not merely practices that ensure its deployment for constructive rather than accompany or even facilitate the work that we do; they destructive purposes. The Internet and social media are only transform the work that we do. the latest new technologies to be plagued by ethical dilemmas, In my own field of talmudic studies, digital resources make including cyberbullying; the viral spread of propaganda, it possible for researchers to check a textual variant at the click disinformation, and hate; and the disruption of democratic of a button, assemble line-by-line synopses of manuscript institutions and processes. The abuse of these technologies and readings, gain immediate access to Geniza fragments, run word their potential negative impact on human relationships as well searches through the entire corpus of rabbinic literature, and as social and political institutions has led to the rise of an consult dictionaries, commentaries, and classic works of entirely new field of philosophical inquiry known as cyberethics. scholarship without ever needing to check a book out of the A cyberethicist, I am not. However, one of my first tasks as library. Certainly, these technologies and media make old tasks incoming president of the Association for Jewish Studies was faster and easier; but more important, they make entirely new to work with our executive director and board in formulating a tasks possible. The very fact that large amounts of data can be set of core values. These core values are intended to guide our quickly and accurately gathered, filtered, and sorted according interactions internally with one another, and externally with the to criteria set by the researcher changes our research questions larger community, as well as other organizations and agencies. and as a consequence the very character of our research. Included in these core values are the principles of ethical (I leave aside for the moment how the ability of students to conduct and good faith (or bona fides), which is the general instantly fact-check every statement in the classroom changes presumption that members will deal with each other honestly, the very character of our teaching!) fairly, openly, and constructively, with mutual respect and The contributors to this issue of AJS Perspectives a shared dedication to the common good. I believe that underscore the promise and possibilities of new technologies extending these values to our use of new technologies and and media for Jewish Studies academics, students, artists, social media in matters pertaining to the AJS will ensure that professionals, and institutions. Their thoughtful reflections have we maximize the potential of these technologies and media to deepened my appreciation of the riches that stand ready to strengthen our organization: we can utilize them to stimulate serve us. At the same time, some of our contributors sound a constructive dialogue, to share valuable resources, to provide note of caution, perhaps none so expansively as Ira Wagman broad access to useful information, to generate new ideas; in in “The Facebook of Life.” Ira’s essay resonated with my own short, to build community as we labor together to fulfill our concerns about these new and all-pervasive technologies, mission as a learned society. especially social media. Simply put, the Internet and the social media platforms it enables are both a blessing and a curse. Christine Hayes The blessing of the Internet is its astonishing ability to reach the Yale University hearts and minds of millions at the click of a button. The curse of the Internet is its astonishing ability to reach the hearts and minds of millions at the click of a button!

SPRING 2018 5 From the Executive Director The AJS (Now Available in 8-Track and Stereophonic Sound!)

Stuffed in my sister’s attic are boxes of VHS tapes of Broadway Last fall, I was invited to Hamburg, Germany, as part of a shows and audio cassettes of demo albums that I’ve collected team, to learn about a number of projects and initiatives in over the years. As a theater and cast album collector, I can’t the world of Jewish Digital Humanities. From new scholarly seem to part with these materials, many of which have never projects online to databases of previously unavailable been commercially released or digitized. What can I say? I’m archival materials, this consortium of projects and an old soul who is sitting on some 2,000 paper Playbills I’ve institutions, including the AJS, will be working to create collected from all the shows I’ve seen over the years (don’t a shared database of Jewish Digital Humanities projects worry, I’m not a hoarder!), and I still buy CDs because I like the across the world in the coming months. program booklets. Yet despite this devotion to the old, to material objects, and to outdated media formats, I have not This spring we launched a new partnership with Clio become a Luddite, especially as far as the AJS is concerned. (theclio.com), an educational website and mobile While you won’t see me whipping out the latest iPhone, I application that guides the public to thousands of historical am fascinated by technology and the ways that it can connect us and cultural sites throughout the United States. A team and, at times, make our lives easier. (I barely remember how I of sixteen AJS members have already signed up to start got work done before the invention of email. Did we use carrier contributing content. If you’d like to participate, please pigeons or two tin cans and a string? It all seems a blur now.) contact me at [email protected].

Here at the AJS there are a number of new technological All this isn’t to say that we’re ditching paper. As you hold changes we’ve been implementing over the last few months: this issue of Perspectives in your hands (or read it online), you’ll see that in addition to the fact that this is our second issue in full In the past year we launched a fully redesigned website color, we have a new cover design that features the AJS’s new that not only looks more contemporary, it makes ﬁnding logo and branding, which will permeate all of our publications information about the organization easier and more and collateral. We hope you like this new look, which will help streamlined. further professionalize the organization as we approach our ﬁftieth anniversary. This spring we are launching a brand-new interface on Have an idea for a new technology for the AJS to employ? MyAJS that’s more user-friendly and Facebook-like, and will Send me a note! also enable you to connect with your fellow AJS members However you decide to engage with the AJS, from snail in new and exciting ways. (Keep your eyes out for the mail to tweeting, we look forwarding to hearing from you. Groups function.) In the meantime, I’m going to read a book. I love my Kindle, but at the end of the day, I prefer a good hardback. At the conference this past December, over 330 people used our new app to navigate the event. We’ll be bringing Warren Hoffman the app back next year with even more functionality. Association for Jewish Studies

JOIN THE AJS LEGACY SOCIETY Jonathan Sarna and Judith Baskin, co-chairs

In time for our 50th anniversary, the AJS is excited to announce the new AJS Legacy Society, a planned giving initiative, and we invite members and supporters to include a gift to the AJS in their estate plans. For more info on the society and how to join, please visit associationforjewishstudies.org/plannedgiving. 6 AJS Perspectives

AJS INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS 2017–2018 The Association for Jewish Studies is pleased to recognize the following Institutional Members:

FULL INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS Arizona State University, Center for Jewish Studies Boston University, Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies Brown University, Program in Judaic Studies Brandeis University California State University, Fresno, Jewish Studies Program Columbia University, Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies Center for Israel Education* Cornell University, Jewish Studies Program Chapman University, the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Duke University, Center for Jewish Studies Education Harvard University, Center for Jewish Studies Colby College, Center for Small Town Jewish Life and Jewish Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion Studies Program Indiana University, Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies The George Washington University, Judaic Studies Program Program Gratz College The Jewish Theological Seminary, Gershon Kekst Graduate Hebrew College School Kent State University, Jewish Studies Program Johns Hopkins University, Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Jewish Loyola Marymount University, Jewish Studies Program Studies Program Michigan State University, Jewish Studies Program Lehigh University, Philip and Muriel Berman Center for Northeastern University, Jewish Studies Program Jewish Studies Northwestern University, Crown Family Center for Jewish and McGill University, Department of Jewish Studies Israel Studies New York University, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Old Dominion University Judaic Studies Portland State University, Harold Schnitzer Family Program in The Ohio State University, Melton Center for Jewish Studies Judaic Studies Rutgers University, Department of Jewish Studies and the Allen Princeton University, Program in Judaic Studies, Ronald O. and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life Perelman Institute for Judaic Studies Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership Purdue University, Jewish Studies Program Stanford University, Taube Center for Jewish Studies Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Touro College, Graduate School of Jewish Studies Rice University, Program in Jewish Studies University of Arizona, the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Temple University, Feinstein Center for American Jewish History University of California, Berkeley, Center for Jewish Studies University of California, Santa Cruz, Center for Jewish Studies* University of California, Los Angeles, Alan D. Leve Center for University of Colorado–Boulder, Program in Jewish Studies Jewish Studies University of Connecticut, Center for Judaic Studies and University of California, San Diego, Jewish Studies Program Contemporary Jewish Life University of Florida, Center for Jewish Studies University of Denver, Center for Jewish Studies University of Maryland, the Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Program in Jewish Center for Jewish Studies Culture and Society University of Massachusetts–Amherst, Judaic and Near Eastern University of Kentucky, Jewish Studies Studies Department University of Minnesota, Center for Jewish Studies University of Michigan, Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for University of Oklahoma, Schusterman Center for Judaic and Judaic Studies Israel Studies University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carolina Center for University of Oregon, Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Jewish Studies Judaic Studies University of Texas at Austin, Schusterman Center for Jewish University of Pennsylvania, Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Studies Judaic Studies, and the Jewish Studies Program University of Toronto, Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish University of Pittsburgh, Jewish Studies Program Studies University of Virginia, Jewish Studies Program Washington University in St. Louis, Department of Jewish, Islamic, University of Washington, Stroum Center for Jewish Studies and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures University of Wisconsin–Madison, George L. Mosse / Laurence A. Yale University, Program in Judaic Studies Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies Yeshiva University, Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, the Sam and Helen Stahl Studies Center for Jewish Studies York University, Israel and Golda Koschitzsky Centre for Vanderbilt University, Jewish Studies Program Jewish Studies Yiddish Book Center

ASSOCIATE INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS AFFILIATE INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS Academy for Jewish Religion Association of Jewish Libraries* American University, Center for Israel Studies and Association for Israel Studies* Jewish Studies Program Council of American Jewish Museums* Appalachian State University, the Center for Judaic, Holocaust, World Union of Jewish Studies* and Peace Studies

*We are pleased to recognize our new 2017–2018 members!

If your program, department, foundation or institution is interested in becoming an AJS institutional member, please contact us at [email protected] or (917) 606-8249.

8 AJS Perspectives THE OLD AND NEW MEDIA ISSUE

SPRING 2018 9 BETWEEN OLD AND NEW MEDIA Old Media, and Older Media David Stern

espite being known as the Near East down to the contemporary age “People of the Book,” Jews have of the digital book. Within the narrow Dbeen strangely oblivious to the space of this miniessay I can’t elaborate book—that is, to the material book, the in detail on any of these changes; but actual book, the physical object and let me offer a few quick examples to artifact that Jews have literally held in their demonstrate how different these material hands. Yes, the literary and religious forms of the same text—the Hebrew documents of Jewish tradition have been Bible—have been, and the kinds of impact studied by Jews since antiquity, but almost and effects the changes have made. always as texts alone, with an almost utter We can begin with the earliest form disregard on the part of their readers as of the Hebrew Bible—a scroll made from to how these texts were transcribed or animal skins. These early scrolls were what the physical books conveying these not, however, the monumental sefer texts looked like. Indeed, that very Torah we know today. They were much obliviousness to material form may be smaller scrolls, with each scroll typically the single lengthiest line of continuity in containing one biblical book—for example, the history of Jewish reading. It’s an the Torah, the Pentateuch, consisted of unexamined assumption that has allowed Fig. 1. Page from a Spanish bible written circa five separate scrolls that may have been generations of students and readers to 1300. 4.51470003, fol. 90r. Courtesy of the kept together in a single container—and connect, almost viscerally, with readers National Library of Israel. scribes appear to have written these and students who lived and studied the scrolls not much differently than scribes same texts centuries earlier (albeit usually throughout the ancient Near East and in a different material form). And precisely illustrated with pictures or decorated Mediterranean basin wrote other texts. this obliviousness has enabled Jewish with designs; or accompanied by Because of their relatively small size, sages and students from the second commentaries on the page; or presented these scrolls were not difficult to read; a century to the twenty-first to forge and in its naked solitary splendor, to speak student could easily hold one in his or her participate in that great proverbial only of the most general cases. Each lap. In short, they were “ordinary” books. “conversation” of texts that Jews have of these modalities of a text’s material When the rabbis turned these five conducted since Moses received the transmission has an impact on how we scrolls into a sefer Torah, they did more Torah at Sinai. understand its meaning. By “understand,” than change the size of the scroll; they But why look at the materiality of I mean not just interpret its words, but radically altered its very identity and books? Why study the physical forms also comprehend the place that the text character. The sefer Torah is not an that Jewish books have taken? Recent as a whole inhabits in the world—its larger ordinary scroll. It is not easily used for scholarship has alerted us to the obvious cultural, social, literary, and religious reading or study. It is really only fit to be but profound insight that we do not significance. And these larger contexts, chanted aloud sequentially within the read “texts.” A text is a constellation in turn, profoundly shape the ways in liturgical service in the synagogue. In turn, of verbal meaning, an abstraction that which we read and understand even the the rabbis selected from the panoply of exists only in a reader’s head. What we smallest textual details. Furthermore, scribal conventions with which earlier actually read are texts that have been the book as a material object often scrolls had been written, reified them inscribed upon some type of writing comes to possess a symbolic or strategic in the form of Halakhah—indeed, they platform—a clay or wax tablet, a scroll, meaning in its own right—religious, characterized their authority as halakhah a codex (what we normally call a book), political, social—that goes far beyond le-Moshe mi-Sinai, that is, as laws given or that other kind of tablet made by the meaning of the text it conveys. orally to Moses on Sinai—and thus brought Microsoft and Apple—in a particular In a recent book, The Jewish Bible: what they called the Written Torah, the fashion. These concrete specificities of a A Material History, I explore the various Hebrew Bible, under the mantle of the book’s shape—I’m using the term “book” consequences of these insights in Oral Torah, namely, the corpus of their to include all these different types of respect to the Hebrew Bible (and its own traditions. Through such halakhic writing platforms—profoundly affect and various translations) and the changes stipulations, the rabbis transformed shape the way we read a text—whether it has undergone in its material shape the sefer Torah from a book into a ritual the text is hand written or printed; from the time of its origins in the ancient artifact. Over time, the artifactuality of

10 AJS Perspectives the sefer Torah was itself developed to differentiate their books so as to mark of interlocking circles beneath them further. By creating dedicated spaces for their Jewishness. In the case of the Bible— are also composed of micrographic the sefer Torah within the synagogue’s perhaps the most contested book in all masorah. As in other Bibles composed architecture, by casing and costuming the Western culture, with Jews and Christians in lands which once had been part of the monumental scroll in differently shaped (and, to a lesser extent, Muslims) fighting Islamic realm, the designs in Sephardic containers and dresses, and by creating fiercely over its “ownership”—the need books tend to be either geometric or rituals for reading the sefer Torah and for for Jews to “Judaize” their Bible’s architectural or floral, and reflect the taking it out and returning it to the ark materiality (and distinguish it from its Islamic aversion to representational in processions through the synagogue, Christian counterpart) is one of the keys to figures. Nor is this the only Islamicizing the rabbis turned the sefer Torah into a understanding the symbolic, extratextual feature of the page. Between the two kind of icon of the divine presence in meaning that these books carried. columns on the right side and beneath the the synagogue. (Even if it’s a slippery A few brief examples will interlocking-circle design is a parashah iconicity: nobody in a synagogue has ever illustrate what I mean. (lection) marker painted in gold leaf believed they are actually hearing God Figure 1 is a page from a Spanish that resembles an ansa, the ornamental speak when a ba‘al kore chants from a Bible (Jerusalem, National Library of Israel chapter markers used in Qur’ans. sefer Torah, or thinks they see God when 4o 5147 fol. 90r), written around the year Yet even though this Bible was the Torah is carried around; what they 1300. The biblical text itself—Deuteronomy produced in Spain long after the hear and see is the word of God and its 25:20–26:17, which includes Moses’s Christians had conquered it, its material writing platform in the form of the scroll.) farewell song—is laid out in three columns form still reflects that of the Islamic In the eighth or ninth century, when reminiscent of Torah scroll columns book. This fact would seem to contradict Jews finally adapted the codex book (though here they have both vocalization the general rule outlined above that form, the Hebrew Bible underwent and cantillation marks), while on the top Jewish books tend to reflect the books another major change in its materiality. and bottom of the page the masorah of their host culture, which in this case The codex was not merely a new writing magna is written in micrography, miniature was Christian Spain. But this Bible looks platform. Because it was not subject to writing, which is inscribed in geometric nothing like a Christian Bible of the the same halakhic strictures as a sefer band-like designs. The two designs period. In fact, as I and other scholars Torah, the Bible codex represented a new kind of literary space within Jewish tradition. Vocalization and cantillation marks could be written on its pages, as well as additional texts that could never be inscribed in a sefer Torah, like the masorah, a vast corpus of annotations and enumerations of every unusual feature of the biblical text. Most important, the codex was a more economical writing medium than the scroll (if only because scribes could write on both sides of a leaf in a codex, something rarely done in scrolls). The number of Bible codices (and other texts) multiplied exponentially throughout the Jewish world, indeed wherever Jews lived in all their varied diasporic centers. With the spread of codex production, one of the most prominent features of Jewish book culture also emerged. Jewish books always reflect the materiality of the books produced by the gentile host culture in which the Jews producing their books live. Put simply, this means that a Hebrew Bible produced in an Islamic land in the tenth century will look like an Islamic book of that period, a Qur’an in particular; while a Bible produced in, say, Germany in the thirteenth century will look like a Gothic Latin Vulgate; and so on. At the same time, this very tendency of Jewish books to mirror the books of their host cultures also required Jewish scribes Fig. 2. MS or fol. 1212 [Erfurt 2], fol. 1v. Courtesy of Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.

SPRING 2018 11 pages of the book, casting the Bible virtually as a work of art within its frame. The texts in these separate Bibles are more or less identical, but by studying the changing material shapes of these books, one can discern the different meanings that the Bible—as an object, not just as a text—assumed in Jewish culture in its various centers and historical periods, and the separate roles that the Bible, as an iconic object of Jewish identity, occupied in the Jewish mentality. The observations I’ve made in this Fig. 3. MS or fol. 1212 [Erfurt 2], fol. 146v. Courtesy of Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. short essay are all drawn from the field now known as the history of the book. have suggested, the Islamicizing features made them their own. In the case of both This is not a truly new area of scholarship, of the page may indicate an intentional the Sephardic and Ashkenazic Bibles, the but it has gained a new prominence and effort on the part of its Jewish scribe masorah written on the page may have profile within the past several decades, and patron to identify themselves with been difficult or even impossible to read, no doubt because we have now entered the other minority culture in Christian but it was not on the page to be read but a new period in book technology, the Spain—the Muslims—in order to resist the to serve the purpose of “Judaizing” the digital age. The awareness and anxiety hegemony of the dominant Christian book. In the two cultures, the strategies attending this recognition has led scholars culture. Not looking like the host culture’s of Judaizing—in one case, identifying with to turn to the past in order to study earlier books may have been exactly the point the book culture of the Muslim minority transitions in the technologies of reading of this Bible’s material features. in order to reject that of the Christian and writing, doubtless with the hope that In contrast, figure 2 (Berlin, majority; in the other, appropriating the understanding the past will help navigate Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin: Preußischer imagery of the majority book culture but the present, if not the future. What will Kulturbesitz, Ms or. Fol. 1212 [Erfurt 2], Judaizing it—may have differed, but it is happen to the Jewish Bible in the digital fol. 1v), taken from a giant Bible written significant that both used the masorah, age? I’ve gotten some flak for an assertion, in Germany in the late thirteenth century, the traditional mark of the Jewish in the epilogue to my book, that the digital pictures the beginning of Genesis, which Bible, to accomplish their strategies. age will not radically transform the Jewish is written in giant Gothic-like Ashkenazic A final example, from an early printed Bible, not at least as much as it will change square letters, inside a panel populated Bible, the editio princeps of the entire (and already has) other Jewish texts like with various grotesques—dragons, griffins, Bible published by Joshua Solomon the Talmud, the prayer book, and the and camel-like hybrids—all “drawn” Soncino in Soncino, Italy, in 1488, will Passover Haggadah. I’m willing to defend in masoretic micrography. Still more illustrate still another conception of the my assertion, but the truth is that, if there mythical beasts inhabit the roundels at the Bible. Figure 4 (Oxford, Bodleian Libraries, will be a radical change, it is unimaginable bottom of the page, again in masoretic Holkham c.1, fol. [107r]), pictures the now. Still, if the only thing the digital micrography. My personal favorite of elaborate opening page of the book age accomplishes is leading us to look all these images is figure 3, taken from of Joshua. The text is set out in a single back at the rich and neglected history the same Bible (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek wide column surrounded not by the of the material Jewish book, dayyenu. zu Berlin: Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Ms traditional masorah, but by an elaborate or. Fol. 1212 [Erfurt 2], fol. 146v), which wood-cut frame that depicts, against an David Stern is Harry Starr Professor of shows two rather bewildered hybrids, one elaborate floral background, a flock of Classical and Modern Hebrew and Jewish of them either spewing or swallowing a putti, little naked cupid-like creatures Literature in the Departments of Near long-tailed bird of masorah, the other cavorting in the margins with spears and Eastern Languages and Civilizations looking dazed over his shoulder. Both bows and arrows in their little hands. and Comparative Literature at Harvard look like aliens who have just landed on This frame is a masterpiece of early book University, and director of Harvard’s Center a Hebrew Bible page from outer space. art; as we know, Soncino bought it from for Jewish Studies. His most recent book These grotesques mirror the marginal another Italian printer, Francesco del is The Jewish Bible: A Material History drawings found in many contemporary Tuppo, who had commissioned it for a (University of Washington Press, 2017). Latin Gothic books, but here they have deluxe edition of Aesop’s Fables (Naples, been “Judaized” by, once again, being 1485). Soncino doubtless reasoned, composed out of masorah. As such they somewhat talmudically, that if Aesop appear to represent what Ivan Marcus deserved a frame of this ornate beauty, has called “inward acculturation,” the then all the more so did a Jewish Bible. Fig. 4. Opening page of the book of Joshua process by which Jews absorbed and Despite its apparent incongruity, the from Soncino Bible, 1488. Holkham c.1, Judaized practices and beliefs from the frame breathes all the ornate worldliness fol. 107r. Courtesy of The Bodleian Library, surrounding Christian culture and thereby of Renaissance Italian culture onto the University of Oxford.

12 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2018 13 Let There Be Light: The Word of God in the Jewish Tradition, Past, Present, Let There Be Light: The Word of God in the Jewish Tradition, Past, Present, Let There Be andLight: Future The Word of God in the and Future Gabriel Levy Jewish Tradition, Past,Gabriel Levy Present, and Future Gabriel Levy [End of 1st paragraph:] [End of 1st paragraph:] .(B. Sanhedrin 17b) (מלמד תינוקות) B.(B. Sanhedrin Sanhedrin 17b). 17b). new materiality for information. Words) (מלמד תינוקות)) ”here is an old rabbinic tradition children that prophecy stopped after [2nd paragraph,This 1st transition sentence:] from prophecy to took on a physicality that they did not [2nd paragraph, 1st sentence:] the destruction of the temple Talmud is an important one. In the Hebrew have before written texts. They no longer T This transition from prophecy to Talmud is an important one. In the Hebrew Bible prophecy in Jerusalem in the sixth century BCE. Bible prophecyThis transition is understood from prophecy as the to Talmud is ancome important to us one. through In the Hebrew our ears Bible but prophecy through comingour upon eyes. the T prophethe talmudic in method that ((רוח אלהים or דבר ה')) After that point in time, if one wantedis understood asword the word or “ orSpirit” “Spirit” of of G Godod broughtcoming upon the the cosmic prophet wor in ds (רוח אלהים developedor דבר ה') to know what YHWH was saying, what comingis understood upon the as the prophet word or in“Spirit” such of God such a way that the prophet has no choice but to voice the word of God. Torah was, one had to either read and a way that the prophet has no choice back to ears, but not in the same way as such a way that the prophet has no choice but to voice the word of God. interpret the Written Torah or find it but to voice the word of God. It is no prophecy, because to hear the words one in the communal discussions of the small thing for the prophet to hear such must take part in communal back-and- Oral Torah, first in the Great Assembly,CLASSICAL words. TEXTS These IN THE are words DIGITAL of a creator AGE forth, discussion, and argumentation. and then more accurately in rabbinic God,CLASSICAL words that were TEXTS used IN to THE form DIGITAL AGEFor the rabbinic tradition, the Torah deliberation that came to its pinnacleScroll Down:the Classical very universe Jewish itself, Texts world-shaping on the Internet reshapes as time moves forward. Like a (and was eventually written down) in words,Scroll cosmic Down: words. Classical The TJewishorah was Texts on theriver Internet it flows into new forms of media. the Babylonian Talmud. Such methodsGary A. Rendsburgwritten down by God before creation, Learned Jews thus need to be particularly of deliberation were taught and passed thusGary when A. RendsburgGod spoke to create the adept at following that living fountain down. Thus the Talmud, responding to a[4th paragraph,world he 5th was sentence] actually reading aloud as it pours over new terrain. You could [4th paragraph, 5th sentence] ruling in the Mishnah and quoting from a (Bereshit Rabbah 1:1). God taught say that this is why the Jewish tradition within“) מישראל When one looks at the manuscripts, however, one realizes that the phrase on language (“within מישראל baraita (a tannaitic—pre–210 CE—rabbinic the Jews toWhen read one his looks divine at the language, manuscripts, however,is sometimesone realizes that rather the phrase fixated tradition not preserved in the Mishnah),Israel”) is lacking.giving both the Oral and Written Torah and its new media. I would argue that declares that in order for a community to at SIsrael”)inai, accor is lacking.ding to the rabbis. different media present different terrains, [5th paragraph, 1st sentence] be suitable for a devout rabbinic Jew it have different ecologies, present Historically[5th paragraph, speaking, 1st sentence]the emergence Anthropocene (“within Israel”) indifferent the printed spaces editions in (which which informationמישראל must have, among another ten things likeHow doesof onethe explainwritten the word addition in the of flows (“within and Israel”) communication in the printed takeseditions place. (whichמישראל a court and an outhouse, a “teacher of meant a wholeHow does new one medium, explain the a whole addition of persists to this day; see, for example, both in the widely used Albeck edition and at Sefaria persists to this day; see, for example, both in the widely used Albeck edition and at Sefaria [www.sefaria.org])? Jenny Odell, The Pile, 2015. Digital print, 36 x 48 in. Courtesy[www.sefaria.org])? of the artist.

[8th paragraph, 2nd sentence] [8th paragraph, 2nd sentence] A professional scribe wrote the beautiful manuscript, but in the white space at the bottom A professional scribe wrote the beautiful manuscript, but in the white space at the bottom הוגה מספרי אני ,of folio 165r, at the end of book 2, the great sage himself wrote, in his own hand הוגה מספרי אני ,of folio 165r, at the end of book 2, the great sage himself wrote, in his own hand ”.checked against my copy [lit. book], I, Moshe son of Rabbi Maimon“ משה ברבי מימון ”.checked against my copy [lit. book], I, Moshe son of Rabbi Maimon“ משה ברבי מימון

14 AJS Perspectives Really Old Media specific classes of individuals who communication, but in quite different There is a natural history to the flow of specialize in transacting with the written ways. Imagine how the Spirit of YHWH, communication systems; indeed, you word: educators, rabbis, professors, and which once came directly to the prophet, probably could not have biological life so on. Judaism is a particular form of can inhabit these media spaces. without at the same time having some such dedication. Monetization also works differently sort of communication system. Even the We are now in the midst of the next with the new media. It’s all free on the most primitive organisms must be able to great communicative transformation in the front end. Google, for example, lets take in information from their environment form of computer-mediated technologies. you Google for free. You can search for and react to it in some way. In this way, anything you want with a few search processing information, cognition, and Really New Media terms. A secret algorithm controls what life are ways of doing the same thing. The word of God may have flowed into you see, where you go next. Google Indeed, we can say life evolved into books, radio, television, and film in the owns that information. Google knows a written texts. Though, like Torah, there is modern age, but in recent years it has lot about how we search for things, what an ambiguity because DNA is itself, as really flowed into computer-mediated rabbinic Judaism calls derash. Google Robert Pollack notes in Signs of Life: The technologies. If you read Torah on a gets its power by controlling the way Language and Meanings of DNA, “a work screen, the materiality is no longer most people start on the Internet. It can of literature, a great historical text,” that is, ink and parchment or leather: at the afford to be open in this respect. By the biological code that underwrites living most basic level it is zeros and ones in contrast Facebook has walls; Google things already is some sort of written text. computer memory, which today is most search doesn’t access Facebook. There Communication systems change over often encoded as charged or uncharged is an inside and an outside to your time; different species may have vastly electrons on an SSD. In his beautiful book, Facebook profile. Facebook controls your different forms, and some systems can be The Talmud and the Internet, Jonathan feed, guiding you mostly within its own more adaptive in certain environments. Rosen makes the case that the Talmud is platform, directing your attention. Because Human animals, for example, have a prefiguration of the Internet. Anyone of the personal nature of the platform, language, which shares many features who has used both technologies is Facebook is able to learn much more with other animals, but seems to be likely to agree, especially in the way it is about you than just your search habits. particularly good at conveying complex possible to go down infinite rabbit holes, Facebook owns this information. Twitter information in the form of clear, repeatable meandering wormholes. The Talmud is seems to still be trying to figure out the propositions. The idea that some hypertextually linked to the entire Jewish best way to monetize your behavior on its communication systems may be more tradition, a mix of Oral and Written Torah. platform. Though they are experimenting adaptive is one possible explanation for the The materiality of the Talmud with longer tweets, Twitter is driven disappearance of Homo neanderthalensis provides the space in which we interact much more by short messages. It is and the expansion of Homo sapiens with that technology. In other words, much more clearly professing the Word. sapiens (anatomically modern humans) unless it is a digitized version you are The “leader of the free world” speaks to somewhere around 35–40,000 BP, or rather, reading, you must actually pick up a book, us relatively directly through Twitter. one “technological adaptive system” flip some pages, search the letters with As Yuri Slezkine writes in his book which must have included robust linguistic your eyes, to trace your path through The Jewish Century, modernization is ability, probably overwhelmed the one that the tradition. It is not only semantic about “everyone becoming urban, mobile, did not. information that is exchanged. We also literate, articulate, intellectually intricate, In The Symbolic Species, Terrance must not forget about other economies: physically fastidious, and occupationally Deacon argues that ancient human beings a full set of the Babylonian Talmud will flexible. Thus modernization is about didn’t evolve to get language, rather set you back a few thousand dollars. everyone becoming Jewish. . . . but language evolved to get us. You can think After the digital revolution, our no one is better at being Jewish than of language as something like a virus that media ecology has differentiated like the Jews.” Judaic systems are flowing adapted to us, rather than the other way no other time. We’ve learned a lot more into these media. What will they look around. If religions are like languages, about the wormholes. We’ve learned like in a thousand more years? perhaps we can say something similar they can rigidify and sediment—so we about them. They adapt to us in time and get something like red and blue feeds Gabriel Levy is professor of Religious space. Judaism, or what Jacob Neusner on Facebook—we get our own personal Studies at the Norwegian University of called “Judaic Systems,” appear adept streams curated by corporations and their Science and Technology in Trondheim, at adapting to new media ecologies— AIs. I would argue that each platform Norway, and chairperson of the board because that’s where they find the word of can be differentiated with regard to its for the Interdisciplinary PhD Research YHWH, the language of life and creation. space and terrain. For example, compare School, Authoritative Texts and Their It wasn’t until the age of agriculture the three most popular platforms of Reception at the University of Oslo. He at the end of the last ice age that the first Twitter, Facebook, and Google. They is the author of Judaic Technologies writing systems (that we know of) began have each carved a rather monolithic of the Word: A Cognitive Analysis of to emerge in human societies. It is just niche in Internet space. Importantly, Jewish Cultural Formation (Routledge, after this time that we find societies with they are all about the Word, about 2014). See www.gabriellevy.com.

SPRING 2018 15 Mediating Moses and Matzah Jodi Eichler-Levine

uring an otherwise glorious how much livestock is used during the It has no ritual speciﬁcations—a napkin spring week in Los Angeles, in departure from Egypt scene. There were would do. It may contain lettering, images, Dthe middle days of Passover a lot of sheep. And I thought about yarn, phrases, colors, textures. It mediates as a 2017, I was haunted by the ghost of and freedom, and the small objects being ritual object, one that shelters one of the Charlton Heston. I was visiting the City made daily by Jewish women for their holiday’s core symbolic foodstuffs until of Angels to conduct interviews for my families and friends in this city where big the appropriate moment in the Passover book project on Jews, craft, and material blockbusters are produced for the masses. seder. It may also convey information culture. Late one night, I ﬂipped the Two days later, Heston—still clad in about a family, standing in for history if it channels on the hotel room television his Moses garb—was staring up at me is an heirloom, about wealth if it is made and stumbled onto a screening of The from the colorful quilted folds of a matzah of sumptuous fabrics, or about Passovers Ten Commandments in all its Technicolor cover. How did this come to pass? past if it is spotted with red wine stains. glory. It was uncanny, watching De Mille A matzah cover mediates on multiple Or, it may mediate in even more from a space adjacent to the dream levels. Its basic function is to hold three intentional ways. It may narrate or tell a factory itself, erev Easter. I had forgotten (or more) pieces of unleavened bread. story about its creator’s vantage point on

16 AJS Perspectives the universe. Such was the case with the of Exodus narrative: blood, locusts, blog, Gefilte Quilt. You can, too. Fabric cover on which I spied Charlton Heston. etc. But the new plagues—they were objects mediate, and our knowledge of I found it in a large pile of quilted objects something else. According to Cathy, them is transmitted on multiple levels. at the home of Cathy Perlmutter, then- they were what she considered to be Charlton Heston is still haunting me, president of the Pomegranate Guild of modern plagues in 2001, when she made many months later—this time, on the glass Judaic Needlework and an avid craft the piece, including, but not limited screen of my office computer. Bearded, blogger. Among dozens of other objects, to: “handguns, pollution, narcissism, clad in his flowing red and brown robes, Cathy showed me a plethora of matzah steroids . . . endangered species (they he towers against a background of red covers. There was a Pokémon-themed themselves aren’t plagues, but the whole and white stripes, juxtaposed with bright matzah cover from the year one of her endangerment thing I courageously cartoon characters holding guns, as well children was engrossed in that world. oppose), despotism, bigotry (under a as a bison (“endangered species”) and the Another featured a carefully, ornately kingly figure who foreshadows 2016 enormous head of a cartoon king from a illustrated leaf of lettuce. Others featured political candidates?), soda, and, um, deck of cards (“despotism”). He holds one trompe l’oeil fabric that resembled the cell phones? I can’t recall what I had tablet of the law high above his head. A beige grains of a sheet of matzah itself. against cell phones, which were new at badge reading “NRA” has been carefully Then there was a matzah cover the time.” I learned some of this from stitched across the center of his chest. On she calls “Old Plagues on Them, New Cathy herself in person. However, I found the tablet itself, Cathy sewed a tag with Plagues on Us.” The old plagues were this precise quote not in my interview another sentence: “Thou shalt not kill.” In predictable, drawn from the book transcript, but rather, by going to her this collage of fabric and language, she

Cathy Perlmutter, Old Plagues on Them, New Plagues on Us, 2001. Cloth (cotton), 12 x 12 in. Photo credit: Jodi Eichler-Levine

SPRING 2018 17 performs a midrash on multiple levels. modern plagues have come for the first electrical sewing machines. All of these The imperative of the commandment is born in an endless repetition of shootings intricate mediations are gathered together reinscribed upon a reduplicated celluloid that perhaps not Cathy, not any of us, in the long-standing Passover tradition image, this time in cloth. Rendered in the could have imagined when she stitched of ethical critique and calls for justice. I spring of 2001, it calls to me here in 2018. the piece seventeen years ago. One am particularly struck by how the solid, Media are instruments by which production, the film, attempts to command rough stone tablet is rendered in soft, we transmit affect, memory, traditions, with its grandiose vision; the other, the malleable cloth: a juxtaposition that I want experiences: they are the way we make the fabric piece, inserts a critique from a place to read playfully as a transformation, a world knowable. That knowability accrues of intimate smallness. The Heston/Moses transubstantiation, even a sort of alchemy. different emotions in varied contexts. of The Ten Commandments is a visual and As scholars of Jewish Studies, we must The many meanings of Charlton Heston auditory production; the Heston of the listen, look, and feel carefully for processes depend on their medium. The biblical epic matzah cover is both visual and tactile. of mediation on multiple levels, and the I watched in my hotel room was intended What would it mean to get matzah crumbs work that mediation does in the world. For to provoke a very different sensation from and wine on Charlton Heston? What my contemporary interlocutors, crafting the image of the same man, in the same would De Mille think? The larger-than-life Judaism is a means of mediating the costume, appliqued onto Cathy’s matzah celluloid presence has been quite literally world around them, riffing on traditions cover. Both wore the same clothing. shrunk down to a tiny scale and subjected in irreverent and poignant ways. One was supposed to inspire fear and to the ordering logic of the seder meal. trembling and a kind of celluloid awe; the I linger here, in a space formed Jodi Eichler-Levine is the Philip and Muriel other was meant to frighten us through by pixels and cloth, material and ritual Berman Professor of Jewish Civilization his association with the NRA and a means technologies, because it places us so and associate professor of Religion Studies of killing—a chilling resonance that, for me precisely at the intersections of old and at Lehigh University. She is the author personally, has only grown over the years, new media and reveals their continuity. of Suffer the Little Children: Uses of the and which stands out like a wound here There are antique media here—stone Past in Jewish and African American in the weeks after the massacre at Marjory tablets, modern mass media—film, and Children’s Literature (NYU Press, 2013). Stoneman Douglas high school. Those contemporary digital media—blogs. There Her current book-length research project guns accompanied by blood red stitching, are cloth media—which are simultaneously is tentatively titled Crafting Judaism: that man with his NRA badge: these as old as primeval needles and as new as Gender, Creativity, and Jewish Americans.

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–MADISON MOSSE/WEINSTEIN CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES A richly detailed collection of essays

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here’s an old Remington Yiddish of new media: after the invention of typewriter in our living room. My the typewriter (in 1829), there are Tpartner, Stuart, rescued it from a chromolithography, photography, dumpster decades ago, when the Jewish and telegraphy (1830s); modern Daily Forward was getting rid of outdated postal systems and the facsimile (later, office equipment. I remember using fax) machine (1840s); the telephone similar typewriters at the YIVO Institute and phonograph (1870s); hot metal when I worked there in the 1980s. Stuart typesetting, the mimeograph, and the and I have never written anything with magnetic wire recorder (1880s); silent our Remington (I now use my laptop motion pictures and wireless telegraphy to type Yiddish, of course); instead, it (1890s); photo-offset printing and serves as something between a curio the photostat (1900s); commercial and a heritage object. We’ve found it radio broadcasting, “talking” motion amusing when friends visit our apartment pictures, television, and the magnetic with little children, as they’re inevitably tape recorder (1920s); mass-market drawn to this strange object, having paperback books and photocopying no idea what it is. Chances are, they’ve (1930s); the transistor, the long-playing Photos courtesy of the author. never seen a typewriter of any kind, and record, and the instant camera (1940s); the keys, labeled with the letters of the videotape and the microchip (1950s); alef-beys, don’t resemble the QWERTY communications satellites, the audio keyboards of computers with which our hidden “Bible codes,” rabbis debate cassette, holography, and the laser young visitors are familiar. Having outlived the Halakhah on the proper handling of printer (1960s); the portable electronic its original purpose, our Remington a damaged CD-ROM of the Talmud. book, handheld mobile phones, and has new ones: not only providing our At some point, all innovative the personal computer (1970s); the curious young guests with a point of technologies yield to newer ones. CD-ROM, the video camcorder, the entry to learning about historical forms Their arrival alters the use as well as the Internet, 3-D printing, the personal of communication, but also reminding us perception of the earlier media, which digital assistant, and digital video of the moment in our lives when we were come to be regarded as outmoded. (1980s); digital printing, the smartphone, drawn to Yiddish—and to each other. Sometimes, this change articulates a and digital audio files (1990s). The All old means of communicating generational divide; think of the cohort result is an ongoing technological were once “new media.” In their that has been termed “digital natives” shift, as what was once cutting-edge novelty, they could inspire both great versus those of us who, apparently, bear becomes obsolescent—or, in the case excitement and high anxiety about the retronym “analog natives.” For an of typewriters made by Remington, their implications for literacy, authority, earlier instance, consider a feature that which recently went bankrupt, obsolete. authenticity, or memory (recall Socrates, appeared in the Jewish Daily Forward What, then, becomes of all these in the Phaedrus, on the perils of writing). in 1924 on whether Jewish families media when they are left behind? With time, the outsized expectations that should buy a phonograph or a radio. I thought about this when studying sometimes accompany the advent of new The article notes that inclinations were the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual media—whether verging on an Edenic split between immigrants—who prefer History Archive, the subject of my transformation of the social fabric or the phonograph, which enabled them book Holocaust Memory in the Digital predicting its apocalyptic unraveling—give to “listen to their heart’s content to Age: Survivors’ Stories and New Media way to their familiarity and to significant Jewish tunes”—and their American-born Practices (Stanford University Press, social and cultural consequences that children, whose “faculties are young and 2017). The archive, which houses the are often unanticipated. For example, pulsating” and therefore inclined toward world’s largest collection of video the advent of digital media, like the the radio, enabling them to “get in touch interviews with survivors and witnesses invention of print centuries earlier, with any broadcasting station and open of the Holocaust, was initiated at has not only expanded access to the floodgates of noise and merriment.” the end of the last century, on the canonical sacred texts in Jewish life but (It is also telling of an intergenerational cusp of the digital turn. The archive’s also altered how they are engaged: rift in communications media that this tens of thousands of interviews were Orthodox women can download piece appeared in the paper’s then-new recorded on analog Betacam SP format podcasts of Gemara shi’urim they would English section, rather than in Yiddish.) videotapes, the broadcast industry be forbidden to attend, would-be The previous two centuries standard in the mid-1990s. These tapes kabbalists run computer searches for witnessed an increasingly rapid cascade were subsequently digitized as part of

20 AJS Perspectives the process of preserving, indexing, whether a clay tablet incised with Linear we examine a digital scan of a vintage and disseminating this vast collection, A or the floppy disc on which I backed copy of a long-lost medieval manuscript, which is now accessed online (a use of up my master’s thesis in the 1980s, using or download an MP3 of a cassette transfer the Internet not yet possible when the a computer, long since vanished, with of a folk song originally recorded on a project was initiated). This technological an antediluvian operating system. wax cylinder, or scrutinize laser printouts watershed coincides with the aging and Like our Yiddish typewriter, old media from scratchy microfilms of newspapers, eventual passing of Holocaust survivors. can acquire new value by dint of age. the originals of which have crumbled into At the convergence of these two Their form becomes venerable; consider brittle fragments, we are immersed in the threshold moments, the newest of media the aura of eighteenth-century documents flow of media, all once new, superseded is conjoined with the oldest—face-to-face written with a flowing hand on parchment by other technologies that will themselves conversation—each transmuting the other. or nineteenth-century portraits in sepia- soon show their age—each testifying Old forms of media don’t simply toned cartes de visite. In the case of the to our ongoing efforts to record and disappear, even when they are put out sefer Torah, an antique medium can even share human creativity and insight. with the trash. They can be embedded be regarded as sacred. Old media provide in newer technologies (the Shoah added information, not simply dating Jeffrey Shandler is professor of Foundation is now creating interactive works but also contextualizing the social Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. holograms of Holocaust survivors with practices of communication in which they His most recent book is Holocaust whom people can “converse”) or become were produced. Old Yiddish books, for Memory in the Digital Age: Survivors’ vestigial, if nominally (we still “cc”—short example, reveal what people read some Stories and New Media Practices for “carbon copy”—our emails). Or old five hundred years ago as well as how (Stanford University Press, 2017). He media can leave behind the frustrating they read and how new literacy practices served as president of the Association conundrum of their impenetrability, transformed Ashkenazic life. And when for Jewish Studies from 2011 to 2013.

SPRING 2018 21 Fellowship Opportunity Teme 2019-2020 Yiddish Matters Te Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan provides residential fellowships for scholars to conduct research around an annual theme. We are currently accepting applications for the 2019-2020 theme, “Yiddish Matters.”

Applications are encouraged from scholars of all ranks (Ph.D. required) working on topics that ft under the increasingly broad rubric of Yiddish studies. Topics can include, but are not limited to, the historical development of the Yiddish language; the role and position of Yiddish within Jewish communities around the world; literary, cinematic, theatrical, comedic and/or musical productions in and about Yiddish; Yiddish journalism; the practice and theory of translation from and into Yiddish; institutions focused on preserving and disseminating Yiddish culture; the role of Yiddish in modern Jewish political ideologies; and Yiddish in relation to other world languages.

Te major goal of the Frankel Institute is to provide an intellectually stimulating environment, promote an atmosphere of openness, and encourage constructive criticism. It seeks to advance Jewish Studies globally and considers diversity and pluralism as fundamental characteristics of a public university and emphasizes such principles in all endeavors. Additionally, the Institute ofers a broad range of events to the public, including lectures, symposia, art exhibitions, and musical performances. Applications due October 8, 2018

For more information, and complete application materials go to www.lsa.umich.edu/judaic/institute

22 AJS Perspectives AJS2018.pdf 1 2/27/2018 1:30:42 PM

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24 AJS Perspectives In Search of Israel The History of an Idea Michael Brenner

“Elegant and accessible, In Search of Israel is a beautifully crafted exploration of the tensions within the Zionist project between Israel’s strivings for normality and its ongoing sense of exceptionalism. Michael Brenner treats a highly contentious subject with grace and tact.” —Derek Penslar, Harvard University

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A History of Judaism Martin Goodman

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DO NOT PRINT THIS INFORMATION AJS PERSPECTIVES SPRING/SUMMER 2018 18-248

SPRING 2018 25 New Media in Old Bottles, or Is It the Other Way Around? Ben Schachter

man wraps caution tape around previous decade, tried to remove the his arm; another man walks a personality from their work. To do this, A slack rope on the edge of town. A some artists, such as Sol Lewitt, set up woman makes a dress out of dirt, hair, and strict rules for themselves. For example, a paper; yet another woman unravels fabric drawing might be made with only straight one thread at a time. What are these artists parallel lines. To make the drawing, the doing? They bring together Jewish subject artist simply had to execute the action. matter and avant-garde artistic strategies. I found art made by rules very In other words, they make contemporary interesting but at the same time thought Jewish art. Arik Weiss wraps his arm with that as artists developed their own white and black tape emblazoned with working methods, those methods parts of the Shema prayer as experimental remained just as individualistic as the tefillin; Ken Goldman walks on a slack abstract expressionists. A boxy sculpture rope eruv balanced between the sacred might seem cold and emotionless and the profane; Andi Arnovitz makes a whereas a splatter painting might be full dress out of paper and hair to clothe the of energy and force. Nevertheless, both sotah, the woman accused of adultery; works followed an artist’s spoken or tacit and Doni Silver Simons counts the omer consideration, “How am I going to make by unraveling the same number of an artwork?” For me, pulling my own Ben Schachter, , threads as days counted, metaphorically Architectural Follie 2A artistic rules out of thin air, be they 2014. Acrylic, ink, and acetate on paper. unraveling herself in self-reflection. Permission of the artist. expressive or analytic, isn’t enough. Contemporary Jewish art unifies two Instead, I wanted to find guidance from a disparate things, Jewish subject matter source outside of art making. It took me and avant-garde artistic process. The several years to find it. artistic processes used by these artists While in graduate school, I spent a originated in the 1960s. At that time summer in Venice, Italy. I was enthralled by minimal art, conceptual art, and the city. Who isn’t? Of course, the canals postmodern dance expanded what and boats, sunlight and colors, were all materials and techniques artists could use. captivating, but so were the streets, some Over the intervening years, artistic process only as wide as a linebacker’s shoulder and materials have expanded further. pads. To find my way through the maze, I Artists can use nearly whichever material would follow local Venetians. I came to they choose. Similarly, in the past, Jewish understand how they traveled over art included a specific array of subject bridges, along alleyways, and into matter that tended to be limited to biblical Ben Schachter, Venice Eruv, 2007. passages that ducked under buildings. stories and characters, the Holocaust, or Acrylic and thread on paper. Permission Theirs was a three-dimensional map. personal experience. (Think of Marc of the artist. Years later I stumbled upon a map of Chagall’s whimsical recollections of the Venice eruv. An eruv is a legal notion childhood scenes, or George Segal’s that blends individual properties into one sculptural figures that make up his collective home. This allows Orthodox and Holocaust group.) As the twentieth the heart of Judaism but rarely opened traditional Jews who keep the Sabbath century progressed, abstraction and the to artistic inquiry, until now—Talmud. (shomer shabbat) to carry some things spiritual character of painting were added The impulse to turn to Talmud seems from place to place within the boundary, to the mix. Even as Jewish subject matter quite natural to me. Let me explain. I an activity ordinarily prohibited. When I expanded, the question of style or the received my MFA from Pratt Institute. At saw the Venice eruv map, I was suddenly definition of Jewish art continued to be that time, I studied the conceptual artists transported back to the city but with a new asked. Harold Rosenberg asked it in an and postmodern dancers from the 1960s. understanding. The pathways I travelled article titled “Is there a Jewish Art?” in They challenged and expanded what were not only routes connecting the Piazza 1966. Jewish artists still use these subjects materials and processes artists could San Marco to the Accademia Bridge, but but some look elsewhere for Jewish apply. Some artists, reacting against the they might also be boundaries that define references and they use a source that is at individualistic expressionism from the inside and out. In America, many eruv

26 AJS Perspectives “Eruvin: Recent Work by Ben Schachter,” 2014, Youngstown Area Jewish Federation Art Gallery, Youngstown, OH. Permission of the artist.

boundaries have sections made out of complicated than others and as I consider traditions. And back here in the United wire. Often, some of that wire is already in each one, I wonder about the rabbi/ States, painter Archie Rand’s monumental the urban landscape. Electrical and architect who is responsible for making series of all 613 commandments, as telephone utility wires can be integrated each decision along the route. Venice Eruv itemized by Maimonides, was on view at into the eruv perimeter, or at least an 2007 was my ﬁrst painting. It was followed the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San additional wire is often hidden among up by others, including: Teaneck Eruv, Francisco. I also use Talmud as a source them and maintained by the utility Johannesburg Eruvin, and more. for subject matter, but my interest in the company. Utility wires’ original purpose is I am one of a small but growing text tends toward descriptions of how to transport information or energy from number of artists interested in referring to things are made. Each artist uses talmudic one place to another. In this way, a utility talmudic ideas and rabbinic discussions. texts and rabbinic discussions differently. wire and a street are alike—they both have Some of us accept the tradition to read Those differences might be idiosyncratic, direction. The eruv adds another layer of a page of text every day, a tradition yet the choice to look at the Talmud is meaning to each of these paths; they called daf yomi. British Artist Jacqueline shared among the artists. The Talmud is become part of a perimeter, a silhouette, Nicholls studied Talmud earlier in her an ancient text, but as more artists explore the boundary of a neighborhood. I very education but now wonders what else how it can be used as subject matter for much like the idea that a line can have is in the corpus. As a way to understand contemporary art, we put that old text direction and deﬁne the edge of a shape the text, as well as to draw out her own into new bottles, or better, new media. simultaneously. interpretations, Nicholls is in the middle My eruv paintings are based on eruv of an enormous series of drawings called Ben Schachter is professor of Fine Arts maps and are made out of acrylic and “Draw Yomi.” Yes, a new drawing every at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, thread on paper. I embroider an eruv day relates to the page she reads. Israeli Pennsylvania. His book Image, Action, perimeter with blue thread through the Andi Arnovitz also refers to talmudic texts and Idea in Contemporary Jewish Art has paper. The interior of the shape I paint in her work and makes biting commentary just been published by the Pennsylvania white so that the delicate line holds the regarding how rabbinic authority in Israel State University Press. viewer’s attention. Some maps are more treats women in divorce and reproductive

SPRING 2018 27 CLASSICAL TEXTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE Scroll Down: Classical Jewish Texts on the Internet Gary A. Rendsburg

Fig. 1. Kaufmann MS M. Sanhedrin 4:5. Permission of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

revolution has occurred, but undergraduate majors and graduate daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/ most people, it seems, have not students on the subject; and I have bsb00003409/images/. Even if the A noticed. I refer to the worldwide segued from my own core research in students cannot read Hebrew, they are effort to digitalize the great medieval the areas of Bible and Hebrew language able to appreciate these texts, the size of Jewish manuscript tradition, with full credit to several recent publications on specific each compilation, and the history of their to individuals such as Albert Friedberg, issues in medieval manuscripts. transmissions. They no longer are abstract George Blumenthal, and Leonard Polansky Most importantly for the present compositions, which appear in book form, for making this work possible through essay, these manuscripts have informed usually as a series of printed books on a their generous benefactions. The result is my teaching, not only with such obvious bookshelf (which immediately removes a brave new world, in which these courses as “Introduction to the Bible” them from their historical setting). Rather, precious treasures of the Jewish past are and “The Dead Sea Scrolls,” but most these classical rabbinic texts now are now available to scholars, students, and significantly with “Jewish History I: understood as words written in ink by a the public at large. As far as I can tell, this Ancient and Medieval.” This latter scribe on vellum or parchment (even if major enterprise has not received the course, which serves as the Jewish in these cases the original compositions attention it deserves, while the use of history survey course (part 1) here at were transmitted orally for generations). these manuscripts has not yet been fully Rutgers, includes the Middle Ages Whether my students are Jewish or integrated into the teaching of Jewish (per the title), concluding with the year non-Jewish, knowledgeable in Hebrew Studies. I, for one, have become an 1492. Through images of medieval or not, they are all able to recognize evangelist for the cause, as reflected by manuscripts, I make the life of late the expert scribal hand responsible for the fact that during the past decade, more antique and medieval Jewry come alive. the Kaufmann Mishnah manuscript. and more of my teaching, research, and The Mishnah is no longer just the There is, moreover, an important lecturing has been devoted to these earliest rabbinic text, but we also marvel history lesson that can be learned manuscripts. at its later manuscript tradition, especially by reading the Mishnah manuscripts Thus, for example, I have delivered by examining the Kaufmann manuscript (Kaufmann and others). I direct the a public lecture entitled “Scroll Down: (Budapest) at http://kaufmann.mtak.hu/. students’ attention to the statement in M. Classical Jewish Texts, from Parchment to The Talmud of the Land of Israel (Leiden Sanhedrin 4:5 (fig. 1). The printed editions the Internet” (with its intentionally catchy, manuscript) is inspected here: http:// from the sixteenth century onward read, clever title) at Oxford, Birmingham, UCLA, yerushalmionline.org/manuscripts/; “One who destroys a life within Israel, Catholic University, and Rutgers; twice I while the Babylonian Talmud (Munich he brings upon himself the saying, ‘It is have taught a course for Jewish Studies manuscript) is examined here: http:// as if he has destroyed an entire world.’

28 AJS Perspectives CLASSICAL TEXTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Scroll Down: Classical Jewish TextsLet There on Be Light: the The Word Internet ofLet God There in the Be Jewish Light: TheTradition, Word ofPast, God Present, in the Jewish Tradition, Past, Present, and Future Gary A. Rendsburg and Future Gabriel Levy Gabriel Levy

[End of 1st paragraph:] [End of 1st paragraph:]

.(B. Sanhedrin 17b) (מלמד תינוקות) .(B. Sanhedrin 17b) (מלמד תינוקות)

[2nd paragraph, 1st sentence:] [2nd paragraph, 1st sentence:]

This transition from prophecy to Talmud This is an transition important from one. prophecy In the Hebrew to Talmud Bible is prophecy an important one. In the Hebrew Bible prophecy

coming upon the prophet in (רוח אלהים or in דבר הorcoming “Spirit” upon of God the ('prophet (רוח the word אלהים or as דבר ה') is understood as the word or “Spirit” of isGod understood such a way that the prophet has no choicesuch but a wayto voice that the wordprophet of God.has no choice but to voice the word of God. Fig. 2. Judah ha-Levi. ENA I.5 (L41). Courtesy of The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary. CLASSICAL TEXTS IN THE DIGITALCLASSICAL AGE TEXTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Scroll Down: Classical Jewish TextsScroll on Down: the Internet Classical Jewish TextsAnd on one the whoInternet raises up a life within Israel, he brings upon himself the saying, ‘It Gary A. Rendsburg Gary A. Rendsburg is as if he raised up an entire world.’” When one looks at the manuscripts, [4th paragraph, 5th sentence] [4th paragraph, 5th sentence] however, one realizes that the phrase These (“withinמישראל however, (“within(“within one realizes Israel”) that is the lacking. phrase מישראל When one looks at the manuscripts, however, When one realizeslooks at thatthe manuscripts,the phrase documents testify to the real world view Israel”) is lacking. Israel”) is lacking. of the rabbis: every single human life— Jewish or non-Jewish—is to be valued. [5th paragraph, 1st sentence] [5th paragraph, 1st sentence] How does one explain the addition which (“within Israel”) Israel”) in the in printedthe printed editions (which) מישראל How does (“within one Israel”)explain inthe the addition printedof of editionsמישראל How does one explain the addition of editions (which persists to this day; see, for persists to this day; see, for example, bothpersists in the to widely this day; used see, Albeck for example, edition andboth at in Sefaria the widely used Albeck edition and at Sefaria example, both in the widely used Albeck [www.sefaria.org])? [www.sefaria.org])? edition and at Sefaria [www.sefaria.org])?

Fig. 3. Maimonides, draft of the Guide for the Perplexed. T-S 10.Ka.4.1, fols. 1r, 1v, 2r, 2v. Used by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University. [8th paragraph, 2nd sentence] [8th paragraph, 2nd sentence]

A professional scribe wrote the beautifulA manuscript,professional but scribe in the wrote white the space beautiful at the manuscript, bottom but in the white space at the bottom

הוגה מספרי אני ,wrote, in his own hand הוגה himself מספרי sage אני of folio 165r, at the end of book 2, the greatof folio sage 165r, himself at the wrote, end of in book his own 2, the hand, great

”.I, Moshe “checked son against of Rabbi my Maimon.” copy [lit. book], I, Moshe son of Rabbi Maimon משה ,[book ברבי .lit] מימוןchecked against my copy“ משה ברבי מימון

Fig. 4. Maimonides, draft of the Mishneh Torah. Fig. 5. Maimonides, treatise on sexual intercourse. T-S Ar.44.79, fols. 1r, 1v. T-S 10.K.8.1, fol. 1r. Used by kind permission of Used by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University. the Syndics of Cambridge University.

SPRING 2018 29 Fig. 6. Maimonides, report of a visitor to his house. Fig 8. Karaite-Rabbanite ketubba. Bodleian MS Heb a.3.42. T-S 8.J.14.18, fols. 1r, 1v. Used by kind permission of Courtesy of The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. the Syndics of Cambridge University.

texts. When we reach the Middle Ages in our course, accordingly, the characters whom we study truly come alive through our inspection of the manuscripts. Judah ha-Levi is not just the author of the great philosophical work ha-Kuzari, who left his native Spain to travel to ’Erez. Yisra’el, but he is the one who personally penned the Cairo Geniza document J.T.S. ENA I.5 (L41), a letter addressed to a colleague, in which the author mentions both the book and his travel plans (fig. 2). This document, along with all the Geniza documents noted below, are available at https:// fjms.genizah.org/, from which I capture the images for educational purposes. The greatest of all the medieval sages, Moses Maimonides, is, of course, Fig. 7. Maimonides Mishneh Torah My proposal is that centuries of medieval even better represented among the signature. MS Huntington 80, fol. 165r. antisemitism, especially within Christian Cairo Geniza documents. I show my Courtesy of The Bodleian Library, Europe, led the Jewish community to students: (a) a draft of the philosopher’s University of Oxford. have a less sanguine attitude toward the Judeo-Arabic original of the Guide value of the lives of non-Jews. Blood for the Perplexed (C.U.L. T-S 10.Ka.4.1) libels, accusations of host desecrations, (fig. 3); (b) a draft of the legal scholar’s rampant killings, inquisitions, expulsions, Mishneh Torah (C.U.L. T-S 10.K.8.1) (fig. and more had taken their toll. The Jewish 4); (c) the physician’s Judeo-Arabic community turned inward, away from treatise on sexual intercourse (C.U.L. the universalist outlook expressed by the T-S Ar.44.79), addressed to Sultan classical rabbis. The great ecumenical al-Muzaffar Umar ibn Nur Al-Din (nephew ideal enunciated in the Mishnah was of Saladin) (fig. 5); and (d) an insight transformed into a parochial statement into the community leader’s personal by later Jews: what a teachable moment. life, to wit, the report of a visitor to his As indicated, the manuscripts for the house (C.U.L. T-S 8.J.14.18) (fig. 6). Mishnah, the Talmudim, and other rabbinic Beyond the Cairo Geniza documents compilations are dated centuries after the is one of the most precious of all the composition and final editing of these medieval manuscripts, namely, the

30 AJS Perspectives Let There Be Light: The Word of God in the Jewish Tradition, Past, Present, Let There Be Light: The Word of God in the Jewish Tradition, Past, Present, and Future and Future Gabriel Levy Gabriel Levy [End of 1st paragraph:] [End of 1st paragraph:] .(B. Sanhedrin 17b) (מלמד תינוקות) .(B. Sanhedrin 17b) (מלמד תינוקות) [2nd paragraph, 1st sentence:] [2nd paragraph, 1st sentence:] This transition from prophecy to Talmud is an important one. In the Hebrew Bible prophecy This transition from prophecy to Talmud is an important one. In the Hebrew Bible prophecy coming upon the prophet in (רוח אלהים or דבר ה') is understood as the word or “Spirit” of God coming upon the prophet in (רוח אלהים or דבר ה') is understood as the word or “Spirit” of God such a way that the prophet has no choice but to voice the word of God. such a way that the prophet has no choice but to voice the word of God.

CLASSICAL TEXTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE CLASSICAL TEXTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE Scroll Down: Classical Jewish Texts on the Internet Scroll Down: Classical Jewish Texts on the Internet Gary A. Rendsburg Gary A. Rendsburg [4th paragraph, 5th sentence] [4th paragraph, 5th sentence] within“) מישראל When one looks at the manuscripts, however, one realizes that the phrase within“) מישראל When one looks at the manuscripts, however, one realizes that the phrase Israel”) is lacking. Israel”) is lacking. [5th paragraph, 1st sentence] [5th paragraph, 1st sentence] within Israel”) in the printed editions (which“) מישראל How does one explain the addition of within Israel”) in the printed editions (which“) מישראל How does one explain the addition of persists to this day; see, for example, both in the widely used Albeck edition and at Sefaria persists to this day; see, for example, both in the widely used Albeck edition and at Sefaria Bodleian[www.sefaria.org])? Mishneh Torah manuscript eminent hand, and he received us very [www.sefaria.org])? (Huntington 80), with its own dedicated warmly. . . . Then such things happened website: http://maimonides.bodleian that are impossible to describe in a letter. .ox.ac.uk/.[8th Aparagraph, professional 2nd sentence] scribe wrote Baskets arrived and he began to eat [8th paragraph, 2nd sentence] the beautiful manuscript, but in the white lemon cakes” (translation adapted space atA professionalthe bottom scribe of folio wrote 165r, the beautiful at the manuscript,from buthttp://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/ in the white space at the bottomTaylor A professional scribe wrote the beautiful manuscript, but in the white space at the bottom end of book 2, the great sage himself -Schechter/maimonides-exhibition-texts הוגה מספרי אני ,of folio 165r, at the end of book 2, the great sage himself wrote, in his own hand .(html#T-S_8J14.18. הוגה מספרי אני ,of folio 165r, at the end of book 2, the great sage himselfwrote, wrote, in his in hisown own hand, hand checked “checked against against my copy my [lit. book], I, MosheA sonnd ofso Rabbi we proceed. Maimon.” It is not just a“ משה ברבי מימון [10th paragraph, 2nd sentence] משה ברבי מימון “checked against my copy [lit. book],copy I, Moshe [lit. son book], of Rabbi I, Moshe Maimon.” son of Rabbi matter of discussing Rabbanite-Karaite Maimon.” An entire backstory is created relations in the Middle Ages: I show Similarly, it is not just a matter of discussing conversion between Judaism and Islam (in thereby: Maimonides drafted the work the students examples of ketubbot both directions) and between Judaism and Christianity (ditto): I show the students the memoir and in his rather quick and cursive hand indicating marriage between the two (recall the Cairo Geniza documents); groups, including Bodleian MS Heb musical compositions of Johannes of Oppido = Obadiah the Proselyte, that is, Budapest 134 1r he gave it to a professional scribe in a.3.42, recording the marriage of Yahya set to Gregorian ברו הגבר order to produce the definitive edition; ben Avraham (a Rabbanite physician) (the beginning of the memoir) and C.U.L. T-S K5.41 (with the prayer and he then checked and proofread and Rayyisa bat Saadia (a wealthy Karaite chant). the entire work, with approval, as woman) (fig. 8). Similarly, it is not just a indicated by his personal imprimatur matter of discussing conversion between [caption Figure 10] at the bottom of folio 165r (fig. 7). Judaism and Islam (in both directions) Fig. 10. Johannes of Oppido = Obadiah set to ברו הגבר the Proselyte, the prayer But to return[10th toparagraph, the aforementioned 2nd sentence] and between Judaism and Christianity Gregorian chant. T-S K5.41, fol. 1r. Used report of the Similarly,visitor to it isMaimonides’s not just a matter of discussing(ditto): conversion I show between the students Judaism the and memoir Islam (in by kind permission of the Syndics of home, C.U.L. T-S 8.J.14.18, I tell my and musical compositions of Johannes Cambridge University. students:both “ Rdirections)ight, so Maimonidesand between Judaism wrote andthe Christianity of Oppido (ditto): = I showObadiah the students the Proselyte, the memoir tha andt The Cairo Geniza and Facebook Guide for the Perplexed, and he wrote the is, Budapest 134 1r (the beginning of musical compositions of Johannes of Oppido = Obadiah the Proselyte, that is, Budapest 134 1r Mishneh Torah, and he served as physician the memoir) (fig. 9) and C.U.L. T-S K5.41r Moshe Yagur and Oded Zinger setset to to Gregorian Gregorian ברו הגבר to the sultan,(the beginning and he of servedthe memoir) as head and C.U.L. of the T-S K5.41(with (with the the prayer prayer Jewish community in Cairo—but I want to chant) (fig. 10). Again, whether or not chant). know what he served his guests!” And the students can read Hebrew is not the [4th paragraph, 2nd sentence] thus we read [captionin the afore-cited Figure 10] document, point; rather, each of them is able to which provides a unique window into enter the world of the Middle Ages by With such an outreach goal in mind, Moshe Yagur created the popular page the Cairo .home, “I kissed his viewing these documents firsthand ברו own הגברMaimonides’s .(גנית קהיר – היסוריה של היום-יום) As we end the course with the Geniza —A History of Everyday Life expulsion of the Jews from Spain in The Cairo Geniza and Facebook 1492, in an effort to give the students a sense of how wealthy and prominent the community was, I end the semester with Moshe Yagur and Oded Zinger images of the Kennicott Bible, written in La Coruña in 1476, now housed in the [4th paragraph, 2nd sentence] Bodleian Library: https://digital.bodleian .ox.ac.uk/. Everything about this work is simply exquisite: the biblical text, the Fig. 11. Kennicott Bible colophon. MS Kenn With such an outreach goal in mind, Moshe Yagur created the popular page the Cairo accompanying masorah, the inclusion of 1, fol. 438r. Courtesy of The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Mikhlol). , the penmanshipגנית i’s .קהיר – David Kimhהיסוריה של היום-יום) Geniza —A History of Everyday Life of the scribe, the illuminations of the artist, and the colophons that preserve the names of both individuals, along students are ready for “Jewish History with other valuable information (date, II: Early Modern and Modern.” place, name of benefactor, etc.) (fig. 11). Once more, an entire world, that of Gary Rendsburg serves as the Blanche northern Iberian Jewry, unfolds in the and Irving Laurie Professor of Jewish most vibrant of colors by studying this History in the Department of Jewish unsurpassed masterpiece. The Kennicott Studies at Rutgers University. His teaching Bible marks the pinnacle of the Jewish and research focus on ancient Israel, manuscript tradition, the culmination of early Judaism, and medieval Hebrew Fig. 9. Johannes of Oppido = Obadiah centuries of codex production, on the manuscripts. He has worked with Cairo the Proselyte. Kaufmann 134, fol. 1r (the cusp of a sea change in Jewish history, Geniza and other documents in Oxford, beginning of the memoir). Permission of the Library of the Hungarian Academy and on the cusp of the beginning of Cambridge, Leiden, Washington, New of Sciences. Hebrew printing. And with that, the York, Princeton, and elsewhere.

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Catalyst House, 720 Centennial Court, Centennial Park, Elstree, Herts, WD6 3SY, UK 920 NE 58th Ave Suite 300, Portland, OR 97213, USA T: 0044 (0)20 8736 4596 E: [email protected] T: 1-800-944-6190 F: 503-280-8832 E: [email protected] Ebooks available on ProQuest and EBSCO www.vmbooks.com

The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute congratulates the following recipients of the 2017 HBI Research Awards, given in the categories of Biography; History; Families, Children and the Holocaust; Israel and the Yishuv; Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law; Judaism; LGBTQ Studies; Diaspora Studies; Women’s Health; and the Arts.

Sarah Cushman, Northwestern University Gila Silverman, The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Margarete Feinstein, Loyola Marymount University S.J. Crasnow, Rockhurst University Lilach Rosenberg-Friedman, Bar-Ilan University Noam Sienna, University of Minnesota Gina Malagold, University of Massachusetts Sarah Imhof, Indiana University Mira Yungam, The Open University of Israel Reut Ben-Yaakov, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Nicole Freeman, Ohio State University Paula Birnbaum, University of San Francisco Ofer Idels, Tel Aviv University School of History Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, University of Pennsylvania Yifat Bitton & Yof Tirosh, College of Management Law Diana Groó, University of Theatre and Film Arts Budapest School, Rishon Lezion Geraldine Gudefn, Brandeis University Shana Strauch Schick, Machon Schechter Elizabeth Alexander, University of Virginia Adam Ferziger, Bar-Ilan University

For information on applying to the 2018 HBI Research Awards, visit www.brandeis.edu/hbi Follow us on Twitter: @brandeis_hbi Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/brandeis.hbi Email us: [email protected]

SPRING 2018 33 University of California Series in Jewish History and Cultures Sponsored by the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies and the Center for Jewish History

ANNOUNCING A NEW, OPEN ACCESS, DIGITAL SERIES IN JEWISH HISTORY AND CULTURES Manuscript proposals are now being sought!

Published as part of the University of California’s Luminos initiative (www.luminosoa.org), all books in the series are open access, digital monographs, available for free across the world. Multimedia content – such as photographs, flm, audio, digital maps, and more – can be included. Given the platform’s global reach, access, and discovery, scholars will have the opportunity to disseminate their work in the broadest possible way. All OA digital books go through the same peer review process and maintain the same editorial and design standards as all other books published by the University of California Press. All books in the series will also be available for purchase in paperback print editions.

Potential authors should contact David Myers, Todd Presner, or [email protected] for details about the publication process.

More information can be found online: www.cjs.ucla.edu/luminos-series Editors: David N. Myers (UCLA/CJH) email: [email protected] Todd Presner (UCLA) email: [email protected]

Editorial Board Members: Lia Brozgal (UCLA, French and Francophone Studies) Mark Kligman (UCLA, Ethnomusicology) Rachel Deblinger (UCSC, Digital Scholarship Commons) Ross Melnick (UCSB, Film and Media Studies) Nathaniel Deutsch (UCSC, History) Sarah Abrevaya Stein (UCLA, History) John Efron (UC Berkeley, History) Rachel Miller (Director of Archive and Library Services, CJH) Jessica Goldberg (UCLA, History)

34 AJS Perspectives TZURAT HA-ARETZ (Form of the earth) art Bar Hiyya, Abraham [haNasi] photography 1720, Offenbach, de Launoy. First edition. First extensive Hebrew exposition of the Ptolemaic system, generously illustrated with more architecture than 90 astronomical diagrams. “...a geographical and modernism astronomical text in ten sections. It includes discussion of the spherical shape of the world and detailed information about the judaica & bibles earth’s zones, the sun, the moon, eclipses, the planets, the stars, and holocaust the constellations.” (Levy: Planets, Potions and Parchments). With Hebrew translation of Sacrobosco’s Sphaera Mundi including yiddish & hebrew commentary by Mattiyiah Delacrut, Polish Kabbalist. Also with foreign language Sefer Ha-Galgal. Bar Hiyya (ca. 1065–1136) was an important olympic games medieval scholar who authored some of the very frst works on science and philosophy in Hebrew; his writings and translations appraisal services contributed signifcantly to the understanding of astronomy and mathematics in non-Arabic speaking lands. Scarce. (18930) $2500. Eclipse.

SPRING 2018 35 Freedom on the Tablets: Annotation as Media, from Talmudic Scholarship to the Digital Age Itay Marienberg-Milikowsky

“Engraved on the tablets” (Exodus 32:16); known as Digital Humanities, it seems do not read “engraved” (h . arut) that the usual hierarchy between the but rather “freedom” (h . erut). source and the keys to its understanding Mishnah Avot 6:2 undergoes a transformation that should not be underestimated. Translating n his introduction to his enigmatic Rabbenu Tam’s position into contemporary and category-defying treatise, Sefer terms, we might say he insists on the Iha-Yashar, Rabbenu Tam (France, importance of differentiating between twelfth century) vehemently attacks data and metadata; if the talmudic text is proofreaders of the Talmud who alter data, then all its commentaries, including sayings of Tannaim (sages of the the textual alterations and proofreadings, mishnahic period, pre–210 CE) and are metadata. The first must remain Amoraim (rabbinic sages who lived ca. original, and preserve its position in the third to fifth centuries CE) and correct clear hierarchy of knowledge, while the them; in doing so, he warns, they blur other must accept its secondary status. the boundaries between interpretation— But now, the wall of defense put up by however brilliant—and the original version this approach, and what had seemed the of the text, which must remain as it was. simple, natural, and proper differentiation After all, as every philologist knows, the between the various layers of knowledge, more difficult version is often the key to is beginning to fall apart. Anyone who has a correct interpretation (lectio difficilor), learned to value the original untouched and therefore should not be altered. source, who respects the idiosyncratic This position causes something nature of certain cultural phenomena, who of a family complication: Rashi, the lives peacefully with unsolved riddles, who grandfather of both Rabbenu Tam and understands the hermeneutic process as the Rashbam (Rabbi Shmuel), is known a chain of shifting responses to the object for supposedly proofreading many of interpretation—is about to discover that talmudic sugyot (units). Rabbi Shmuel one of the first tasks in almost any attempt continued on the same path as his to integrate an object within the digital grandfather, as Rabbenu Tam notes: sphere involves subjecting the object to “for every one [sugya] proofread by positions on the relation between the some kind of framework, or connecting the Rabbenu Shlomo (=Rashi) he (=Rabbi text in its original form and its later object to other objects. Data, more than Shumel) has proofread twenty, and not interpretive cloak: from maintaining a ever before, cannot remain in its raw state. only that, but he has erased [original safe distance between the source and From the computer’s point of versions in] the books.” While Rabbenu its interpretation, through intervening view—if you may pardon the simplistic Tam defends Rashi—asserting that his only when necessary, to an intensive personification—the content we process grandfather almost always included the editing of the text. It also reminds us that through it has no meaning. In order for it proofreading in his commentary and left an annotation is a medium by which the to know what to do with such content, the the original unchanged—he cannot do commentators not only clarify the text, computer requires keys. Thus, if it is a text, the same for his brother, the Rashbam. but converse with one another. Looked it must know where the text begins and By contrast, later evidence indicates at from this point of view, their discussion where it ends, what a title is, and what a that when Rabbenu Tam proofread touches on the limits of the medium quote is—and this is before we get to any texts, he used special graphic marks of interpretation and its historic role. of the less formal, and more interpretation- to distinguish his corrections from Undoubtedly, this argument is not dependent aspects of the text. For that the text he received, although those unique to the rabbinic learning tradition. we supply the computer with information marked-up works have not survived. It is characteristic of most intellectual about data, or, to put it crudely, metadata. This controversy between the processes, cultures, and disciplines. We aim for classification; and, as digital eminent medieval commentators of the However, interestingly enough, when we humanists like to say, we give structure to Talmud is not just an intellectual family transfer it to our digital age, and to the unstructured material by diverse means: drama. It also reveals a range of possible language of the movement (or discipline) cataloging it in the correct location in the

36 AJS Perspectives database, inserting it into the rigid splint knowledge, in the same way exactly. the commentary has replaced the of datasheets, identifying it by designated But there is another side to the source. As it turns out, metadata, even if tags, annotating it using a complex system coin, to which Rashi’s interesting local and inconsistent, can also become of symbols, noting its location within case bears witness. In contrast to the canonized, appearing as part of the time and space, and so on. If we don’t medieval talmudic scholars known as original text, as if it had always been there. do all this, the text will remain unusable. the Tosafists, of whom Rabbenu Tam was This is forgivable when the The computer remains indifferent the outstanding representative, Rashi interpretation is trivial and obvious. to all this. As far as the computer is refrained in his talmudic commentary When the primary source is more concerned, we have linked one thing to from too broad a standardization, one intractable, however, it can become more another, but neither has any meaning— that would become inevitably a kind of problematic. Many studies are already in the deep sense of the word—for the abstraction. His interpretive enterprise realizing the enormous potential in computer itself. Meaning is only for us, for each sugya (unit) confines itself “distant reading,” shedding brilliant light the human beings: our colleagues and to the limits of that sugya, or at the on “the great-unread” and uncovering we can now work with the material; data most, the limits of the chapter or the what goes on beyond the borders attached to metadata represent a whole tractate—he almost never compares his of the familiar canon. Without the to which we can now relate, something own understandings in other contexts. adequate tools, however, such studies that we can read and analyze. And, even His commentary, therefore, could are sometimes given to “clustering,” better, we and our colleagues can now be considered as a local annotation, “grouping,” and “smoothing,” that is, work on it together and collaborate: read rather than consistent metadata (which everyday computational practices aimed it afresh, connect the material with other may be somewhat identified with at obscuring differences and minimizing “wholes,” share it, pass it on, and so on. the Tosafists’ work), and, as such, he the effect that very exceptional cases The dependence of data on metadata does not tend to impose on a source can have on patterns. To move ahead, has grown in the digital age, therefore, insights that may have been formed new tools—new concepts—need to be in comparison with the predigital age. by reference to another source. found, not only to cope with those And, perforce, the dependence of data However, as learners of the Talmud statistical patterns already inscribed on other sources, which the metadata know, and as Rabbenu Tam writes, when on the tablets, as it were, but also serves to connect it to, has grown as well. proofreading, boundaries become to handle those cases that require a The key word here is standardization: obscured. Although Rashi included his greater degree of exegetical freedom. metadata functions efficiently only corrections in his commentary, usually when it is accurate, consistent, relevant advancing them with the expression hakhi Itay Marienberg-Milikowsky is currently a to more than one source, and agreed garsinan (so goes our version), other postdoctoral fellow in the Interdisciplinary on by all. In the absence of these students who followed him included the Center for Narratology, Universität conditions, the data loses its value. corrections in the text itself, and today it Hamburg. He completed his PhD in the We must be thankful for the enor- is often almost impossible to reconstruct Department of Hebrew Literature at Ben- mous effort invested in standardization; the version Rashi had. This development Gurion University of the Negev in 2015. it enables us not only to calmly switch reflects something of the fixed dynamic His various studies—among them his first computers and technologies, but also between the Written Torah and the Oral book, We Know Not What Has Become of to send each other files, to find the right Torah. Sometimes, as we see, the Oral Him: Literature and Meaning in Talmudic book in the library (or, the right paper Torah that should have accompanied the Aggada (Bar-Ilan University Press, 2016 in the online database), to compare written one, and supplied the keys for its [Hebrew])—are dedicated to literary theory, objects, and to relate to every item of understanding, has become fossilized; rabbinic literature, and Digital Humanities.

SPRING 2018 37 The Cairo Geniza and Facebook Moshe Yagur and Oded Zinger

hat does a millennium-old odiferous storage room W for discarded texts have in common with the digital age? Quite a lot in fact! The past decade has witnessed a veritable revolution in the study of the Cairo Geniza, a treasure trove of Jewish documents spanning the millennium from the ninth to nineteenth centuries CE. A primary engine of this transformation has been the development of several cutting-edge digital tools, foremost among them the Friedberg Geniza Project (FGP, http://fjms.genizah.org). These tools have not merely facilitated research. They have changed the way research is conducted. To give but one example, a generation ago scholars often transcribed a document from a microfilm image and then pursued its study from their transcription. Today, with FGP having made almost half a million high-quality digital images of Geniza documents available online, scholars constantly consult the image of the document, which is often more accessible than its published version. This availability of images is a key factor in the growing interest in the material and visual aspects of the Geniza fragments, the physical layout of text on the page, and the juxtaposition of different texts on the same Geniza fragment. Alongside the flourishing of the field in the more traditional manifestations (publications, conferences, awards, etc.), a lively Geniza scene has developed on Facebook. This scene is cultivated by a new generation of young scholars who tend to spend an unfortunate amount of time on social media. If both social media and the Geniza are part of our lives, why not bring the two together? “Doing” Geniza on Facebook for us is both a tool of work and a form of outreach. When studying Geniza Fig. 1. (top) ’The Geniza Shrek,’ T-S NS 130.101. Used by kind permission of the Syndics fragments we often encounter things of Cambridge University. (bottom left) Babylonian incantation bowl (MS 1927-39). Photo we do not understand. While we could credit: Matthew Morgenstern / Schøyen Collection. (bottom right) Drawing by Naama consult venerable tomes in the library, or Vilozny reproduced from Naama Vilozny, Lilith’s Hair and Ashmedai’s Horns: Figure and Image in Magic and Popular Art Between Babylonia and Palestine in Late Antiquity (Heb.) bombard our teachers and colleagues (Ben Zvi Institute: Jerusalem, 2017), p. 280. Courtesy of the artist. with inquiring emails, a quick question on Facebook usually provides a more rapid result. On other occasions, we have come across a fragment that is not relevant to

38 AJS Perspectives [10th paragraph, 2nd sentence]

Similarly, it is not just a matter of discussing conversion between Judaism and Islam (in

both directions) and between Judaism and Christianity (ditto): I show the students the memoir and

musical compositions of Johannes of Oppido = Obadiah the Proselyte, that is, Budapest 134 1r

set to Gregorian ברו הגבר the beginning of the memoir) and C.U.L. T-S K5.41 (with the prayer)

chant).

[caption Figure 10]

ברו הגבר

The Cairo Geniza and Facebook

Moshe Yagur and Oded Zinger

[4th paragraph, 2nd sentence] our current research but may be of interest such an outreach goal in mind, Moshe to someone else. A quick post with an Yagur created the popular page the With such an outreach goal in mind, Moshe Yagur created the popular page the Cairo image will usually bring the fragment to Cairo Geniza —A History of Everyday Life This page .(.(גנית קהיר – היסוריה של היום-יום)) the attention of someoneGeniza —A pertinent.History of Everyday Often Life the result is an unexpected discovery. features a wide assortment of Geniza For example, Oded Zinger came documents with translations and short across a fragment with a rather cute explanations (fig. 2). The posts range Shrek-like image. Following a post on from an eleventh-century “Yiddishe Facebook, a fellow scholar was quick Mame” from northern Syria writing to her to point out a remarkably similar image son in Egypt (“I’m sick of writing to you of a demon appearing in a Babylonian without getting a response. . . Don’t you incantation bowl—allowing for a better know that my heart desires news from understanding of both images and for a you? Don’t kill me before my time!”), link between these two genres (fig. 1). In to a young man describing a pirate another case, Zinger uploaded an image attack on his ship (“They threw fire on of what he thought was a 1645 legal the ships. . . I cannot describe what document made in Gibraltar. Through happened. . . I threw the fire out to a common Facebook friend, Professor the sea!”). Joseph Chetrit from the University of Haifa Zinger has taken to posting images saw the image and corrected the reading of Geniza fragments he has joined of the date to 1825. The document together on Facebook (fig. 3). These involves the writer and poet Solomon images hold a special charm as they b. Samuel Tov Elem of Tétouan, whom share with the public the joy of discovery Chetrit has been studying for years. Thus, (and help convince your friends that he gained access to a document he did your work resembles that of Indiana not know about, and Geniza scholars Jones). The enthusiastic response to torn have one less document to identify (one fragments from the distant past initially down, 300,000 to go!). As long as one is took us by surprise, yet it is exactly this not too proud to publicly admit mistakes mixture of familiarity and strangeness and lacunae in one’s knowledge there that makes up the magic of the Geniza. is a great joy in learning about things Part of the special appeal of writing beyond one’s narrow specialization on the Geniza on Facebook is the ability and connecting with scholars generous to approach the material in a humorous with their knowledge and expertise. key, inappropriate in the more traditional Facebook also allows us to take the academic media. After all, in what peer- Geniza out of the academic arena and reviewed article will you be able to muse introduce it to broader audiences. With on the cow-shaped signature of H. ayim b.

Fig. 3. An early-thirteenth-century letter reconstructed from three Geniza fragments from three libraries through the “Join Suggestion” feature of the Friedberg Genizah Project. (top fragment) Cambridge University Library, Oriental Collection 1080 J125. Used by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University. (middle fragment) Kaufmann 357. Permission of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. (bottom Fig. 2. “Cairo Geniza – History of Everyday life” Facebook page fragment) MS Heb c 28.64. Courtesy of The managed by Moshe Yagur. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.

SPRING 2018 39 Fig. 4. The bovine signature of Hayyim b. Ya’akov Simh . on. ENA 2738.17. Courtesy of The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary. Thank you to Dotan Arad for helping with the image.

Ya‘akov Simh. on? (ﬁg. 4). This humorous misunderstandings are well worth the .facebook.com/cairogenizamicrohistory/), approach also allows us to relate to gems that such interactions provide. or friend us on Facebook. For another current events through a perspective For example, Yagur once uploaded an interesting Geniza Digital Humanities provided by the distant past, thereby image of a legal query to a Muslim mufti project see www.zooniverse.org/projects casting light on both the old and the new. in Arabic characters about a Jewish /judaicadh/scribes-of-the-cairo-geniza. Such was the case, for example, when on woman whose husband converted to the occasion of the Jerusalem Gay Pride Islam and traveled to India. The post Moshe Yagur is a postdoctoral fellow at Parade, Yagur uploaded a Geniza letter received many comments. Some found the University of Haifa, and a member of describing the scandal that erupted in parallels between the woman’s plight the Center for the Study of Conversion eleventh-century Ramla when two men and that of Jewish women seeking and Inter-Religious Encounters. In his publicly expressed their desire to one divorce in rabbinical courts in modern- dissertation he analyzed issues of religious another in the synagogue, in the middle of day Israel. But the most interesting conversion and boundary maintenance in the Yom Kippur prayers. The writer reports comment came from an Egyptian scholar, the Jewish communities of medieval Egypt the uproar in the congregation, the Gahlan Ismail, an expert on the modern and its surroundings, based on Cairo involvement of the police, but concludes, history of Egyptian Jews, who offered Geniza documents and other materials. “this is how people act on a daily basis.” a better reading and translation of Indeed, the new social media is several parts of the document. And so, Oded Zinger is a postdoctoral fellow attractive for bringing together these through a post in the social media on in the Martin Buber Society of Fellows goals of outreach and research. Relatives, an ancient text, we have been able to at the Hebrew University. His research colleagues, forgotten friends, and connect with a scholar living in the city focuses on issues of gender and law in strangers intermingle in the comments where the document originated, despite medieval Egypt based on documents sections of our posts. Occasionally modern political and cultural borders. from the Cairo Geniza. He is currently we need to interject and explain that working on a book tentatively titled Law, this commentator knows what she Yagur’s posts feature in the blog of the Gender, and Community: Marital Strife or he is writing about, or that the National Library of Israel (http://blog.nli and Legal Institutions in the Jewish dismissive comment was actually made .org.il/author/geniza). You are welcome Communities of Medieval Egypt. jokingly by an old friend. But these to like the original page here (www

40 AJS Perspectives AJS DISSERTATION COMPLETION FELLOWSHIPS The Association for Jewish Studies congratulates the recipients of the 2018-2019 AJS Dissertation Completion Fellowships:

AYELET BRINN, Department of History, University ALEX WEISBERG, Department of Hebrew and of Pennsylvania Judaic Studies, New York University Miss Amerike: The Yiddish Press’s Encounter Before There Was Nature: Land, Ethics, and with the United States New Materialism in the Early Rabbinic Sabbatical Year Laws GEOFFREY LEVIN, Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University SHLOMO ZUCKIER, Department of Religious Another Nation: Israel, American Jews, and Studies, Yale University Palestinian Rights, 1949-1977 Flesh and Blood: The Reception of Biblical Sacriﬁce in Selected Talmudic Sources in DANIEL MAY, Department of Religion, Comparative Context Princeton University After Zion: Exception, Plurality, and Tragedy in 20th Century Jewish Political Thought AJS also recognizes the following ﬁnalists:

MARIS ROWE-MCCULLOCH, Department of M ADRYAEL TONG, Department of Theology, History, University of Toronto Fordham University The Holocaust in a City under Siege: Occupation, “Given As A Sign”: Circumcision and Bodily Mass Violence, and Genocide in the Russian City Discourse in Late Antique Judaism and Christianity of Rostov-on-Don, 1941-1943 SARAH WOLF, Department of Religious Studies, ADRIEN SMITH, Department of Slavic Languages Northwestern University and Literatures, Stanford University The Rabbinic Legal Imagination: Between Praxis The Functions of Yiddish: Jewish Language and Scholasticism in the Babylonian Talmud and Style in the Late Soviet Union, in Comparative Perspective

ALLISON SOMOGYI, Department of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill “Mine Was Not Hell, It was Purgatory”: Female Diarists and Jewish Life in Budapest under the Arrow Cross Regime, October 1944–February 1945

Recipients of the AJS Dissertation Completion Fellowships receive a $20,000 stipend, as well as professional development opportunities and ongoing contact with mentors during the fellowship year. Particular attention will be dedicated to training the fellows to speak publicly, in an accessible fashion, about their work.

Information about the 2019–2020 AJS Dissertation Completion Fellowship competition will be available on the AJS website in fall 2018.

SPRING 2018 41 THE MODERN MEDIASCAPE Jewish Media Power: Myth and Reality Elana Levine and Michael Z. Newman

deas about Jewish prominence in embracing Jewishness but frequently studios and networks were run largely American media—whether Hollywood downplaying it or relegating it to subtext. by Jewish immigrant moguls or their Ior the news—have circulated for more There is no disputing that “Jewish offspring: the Warner brothers, Adolph than a century. This can be a source control of media” is the stuff of racist Zukor (Paramount), David Sarnoff (RCA/ of pride but can also be a weapon conspiracy theories. The Protocols of the NBC), and William S. Paley (CBS), among deployed in antisemitic rabble-rousing. Elders of Zion represented Jewish control others. Both news and entertainment The presence of many Jews in both the of the press as a means toward broader remain fields hospitable to Jewish artists business and creative sides of media domination. While some American and businesspeople, from CEOs like industries is a sign at once of power newspapers such as the New York Times Bob Iger (Disney) and producers and and vulnerability, a contradiction central have had Jewish owners, outlandish company presidents like Jeff Zucker (CNN, to Jewish American identity caught concerns about Jewish influence have NBC) to writers and directors like Nora between inside and outside. The media been prompted more by Hollywood Ephron and Steven Spielberg. Jewish culture produced in this context has and broadcasting becoming major journalists have led the most influential been similarly conflicted, sometimes institutions of modern life. The new movie news organizations in the United States,

Seinfeld cast with their Screen Actor Guild awards, 1997. Photo credit: Featureﬂash Photo Agency / Shutterstock.com.

42 AJS Perspectives including the Times and Washington Post. which Trump tweeted in July 2017, had screens, albeit still a conflicted one. Most Jews are heavily represented in creative earlier posted an image of portraits of notably, on Seinfeld, Jerry was marked as and media workplaces and occupy many CNN’s Jewish employees with blue Stars Jewish but none of the other members positions of prestige and authority. of David superimposed on each, under of his friendship quad were. Jerry, Elaine, In a society in which Jewish identity the caption “Something strange about George, and Kramer may have exhibited exists in tension with gentile whiteness, CNN . . . can’t quite put my finger on it.” stereotypical markers of Jewishness in Jewish power over media has been a The Jewishness of media creatives their neuroses or their penchants for source of as much anxiety as celebration. historically has been tamped down in intricate interpretations of everyday life, At certain moments, notions of Jewish their work, often ignored and occasionally but the most obvious characterizations power operating behind the scenes coded in terms invisible to the non- of comedic Jewishness were embodied have surfaced, revealing currents of Jewish world, just as their names were by George and his overbearing parents, antisemitism in the American mainstream. often Americanized. Jewish artists are Frank and Estelle Costanza, explicitly The postwar House Un-American responsible for some of the entertainment represented as Italian Americans. The Activities Committee hearings resulted industry’s most iconic symbols of refusal to name these (exaggerated and in the blacklisting of Jewish writers, “universal” Christian culture, like Irving stereotypical) characters as Jewish may including six of the Hollywood Ten Berlin’s nostalgic “White Christmas” have been as much a winking in-joke accused of communism, which was and Johnny Marks’s “Rudolph, The Red- as an evasion. Years later, Jerry Stiller a veiled antisemitic condemnation. Nosed Reindeer.” While obscuring their (Frank) ribbed that the Costanzas were In response to such moments, media cultural identity, Jewish artists created a a Jewish family in a witness protection powers have sought to downplay their fantasy of wholesome Americanness. program, suggesting that their coded Jewishness, as when the Hollywood In the 1970s, Jewish creatives were ethnicity was a comedic jab at a long moguls hired Will Hays, an Indiana responsible for television’s biggest hits, history of invisibility. For decades, Jews Protestant from President Harding’s including the new wave of “quality” have defensively minimized attention cabinet, to lead their trade group and comedies that brought left-leaning to off-screen Jewish artistic vision and be their public face during a period of perspectives on social issues to the economic power, taking pleasure in scandal and censorship in the 1920s. typically politics-averse small screen. their success while also taking care not The canard of Jewish media Central to this moment was Norman to alienate the American mainstream. manipulation is often linked with Lear, well known as both a liberal and a While the position of Jews in the conservative suspicion that advancing left Jew. His hit series All in the Family was media has changed little in the twenty-first politics is an unacknowledged agenda based on both a British predecessor century, the fragmentation of the digital of journalism and popular culture. Ed and Lear’s own family. Archie Bunker, a mediasphere has the potential to multiply Asner, the star of Lou Grant, president bigoted, working-class white man, was Jewish representations, to engage with of the Screen Actors Guild, and political a de-ethnicized version of Lear’s father, Jewishness in ways less feasible under a activist, raised money for victims of El just as the liberal, feminist protagonist more mass-targeted system. Jill Soloway’s Salvador’s US-backed junta in the early of spin-off series, Maude, was modeled Amazon series Transparent has offered 1980s. Not only did CBS cancel his on Lear’s wife, Frances. Lear pioneered a more culturally specific encounter show, but Asner was called a communist a new style of socially engaged, hot- with Jewish identity than has ever been swine, reviving associations between button storytelling in American TV, but seen in American television. Shielded Jews and the Old Left and echoing some characters were whitewashed. by its presence on a narrowly targeted the chilling politics of McCarthyism. Jewish characters created by Jewish streaming platform, as well as its more Similar associations often arise when writers would appear occasionally in the public and visible engagement with politicians scapegoat the media. While 1970s and ‘80s. Ed Zwick and Marshall transgender experience, Transparent gearing up for his 1996 presidential run, Herskovitz identified thirtysomething hero signals the potential of creative voices Bob Dole gave a speech calling out the Michael Steadman as a nonobservant, to engage with Jewishness in deeply entertainment industry for its promotion intermarried Jew. In the season 4 revealing ways. That it comes along a of violence in rap music and action premiere, “Prelude to a Bris,” Michael century after the moguls “invented” movies. The Jewish columnist Frank Rich grapples with his heritage in light of Hollywood and its fantasy version of shot back at Dole for singling out Time his newborn son’s arrival. Across most white America is a testament to an abiding Warner—then run by a Jewish CEO, Gerald of thirtysomething, however, Michael’s ambivalence about media Jewishness. Levin—while overlooking similar products Jewishness is subsumed within his of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Rich identity as a liberal yuppie, emphasizing Elana Levine is professor and Michael Z. quoted coreligionist Billy Crystal: “Every commonality with gentile friends, Elliot Newman is associate professor and chair in time they say the phrase ‘Hollywood elite’ and Gary, who share Michael’s angsty the Department of Journalism, Advertising, you can hear the unspoken word ‘Jew.’” sensibility. While this character was a and Media Studies at the University of More baldly Jew-hating rhetoric has closer match to its authors’ identities than Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Separately and only become easier to observe with the were Lear’s creations, Michael’s Jewishness together, they study American television rise of online platforms. A Reddit user was usually peripheral to the story. and other media. who posted a video of Donald Trump Over time, Jewishness has occupied beating a man with a CNN logo head, a more prominent place on American

SPRING 2018 43 NEW FROM ACADEMIC STUDIES PRESS

Jews and Jewish Identities in Latin America Dynamics of Continuity and Change in Historical, Cultural, and Literary Perspectives Jewish Religious Life

Edited by Edited by MARGALIT BEJARANO, YARON HAREL, SIMCHA FISHBANE & ERIC LEVINE MARTA TOPEL & MARGALIT YOSIFON Touro College Press Books Jewish Latin American Studies 2018 | 9781618117137 | 338 pp. | Cloth | $109.00 2017 | 9781618116482 | 426 pp.; 11 illus.; 4 tables | Cloth | $129.00 This book presents a group of distinguished scholars This collection of articles constitutes a major who examine key themes in Jewish religious life. Their contribution to the growing field of Latin American essays revolve around the dynamics of religious Jewish studies, offering different perspectives on the continuity and change. The contributors investigate rich and complex phenomena in the social, political, the interplay of social and ideological forces, the and cultural development of Jewish communities in impact of organizations, and the potential for the area. individuals and groups to shape their religious environments.

Warsaw is My Country Fundamentals of Jewish Conflict Resolution The Story of Krystyna Bierzynska, 1928-1945 Traditional Jewish Perspectives on Resolving Interpersonal Conflicts

BETH HOLMGREN HOWARD KAMINSKY

Jews of Poland Studies in Orthodox Judaism 2018 | 9781618117588 | 130 pp.; 27 illus. | Cloth | $90.00 2017 | 9781618115638 | 609 pp. | Cloth | $109.00 2018 | 9781618117595 | 130 pp.; 27 illus. | Paper | $21.00 2018 | 9781618118455 | 609 pp. | Paper | $42.00

This story of Krystyna Bierzyńska, an acculturated This volume offers an in-depth presentation of Polish Jew, explores how she survived the Holocaust traditional Jewish approaches to resolving thanks to the efforts of her Jewish and surrogate interpersonal conflicts. Among the topics discussed Christian families and served in the 1944 Warsaw are the obligation to pursue peace, what constitutes Uprising. Bierzyńska’s is a Warsaw story that constructive conflict, countering judgmental biases, demonstrates how, in urban interwar Poland, resolving conflict through dialogue, apologies, acculturated Jews at last dared to believe that they forgiveness, and anger management.

qualified as Polish patriots.

Closed Doors, Open Minds New Directions in the History of the British Jewry’s Secret Disputations Jews in the Polish Lands

MEIR PERSOFF Edited by

For some twenty years from the late 1960s, and Jews of Poland thereafter following a brief pause, representatives of 2018 | 9788394426293 | 545 pp. | Cloth | $149.00

British Jewry’s religious orientations held closed-door This volume is divided into two sections. The first meetings at the Chief Rabbi’s residence in attempts to deals with museological questions—the voices of the bridge their communal and halachic differences. In an curators, comments on the museum and discussions exclusive glimpse into this shrouded arena, Closed of museums and education. The second examines the Doors, Open Minds presents an important new chapter current state of the historiography of the Jews on the in Meir Persoff’s acclaimed series on the British Chief Polish lands from the first Jewish settlement to the Rabbinate. present-day.

In the Crook of the Rock Jewish Refuge in a World Gone Mad — JOURNALS The Chaya Leah Walkin Story Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism VERA SCHWARCZ ISSN 2472-9914 (Print) / ISSN 2472-9906 (Online) Jewish Identities in Post-Modern Society 2018 | 9781618117854 | approx. 400 pp.; 18 illus. | Cloth | $90.00 Editor-in-Chief: Clemens Heni 2018 | 9781618117861 | approx. 400 pp.; 18 illus. | Paper | $34.00 (The Berlin Intl. Center for the Study of Antisemitism) Focusing upon the life of Chaya Walkin—one little girl from a distinguished Torah lineage in Poland— Studies in Judaism, Humanities, and the Social Sciences this book illustrates the inner resources of the refugee ISSN 2473-2605 (Print) / ISSN 2473-2613 (Online) community that made possible survival with dignity. Editor-in-Chief: Simcha Fishbane (Touro College) The book is crafted around the voice of a child who was five years old when she was forced to flee her home in Poland and start the terrifying journey to Vilna, Kobe, and Shanghai.

Academic Studies Press www.academicstudiespress.com

44 AJS Perspectives The Center for Jewish History brings alive the riches of the Jewish past. The Center provides a collaborative home for fve partner organizations: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. These collections are the largest and most comprehensive archive of the modern Jewish experience outside of Israel. 5 PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS More than… 5 miles of archives 500 years of history 5 dozen languages 500,000 books 50,000 digitized photographs

The Center offers fellowships to support scholars and students as they conduct groundbreaking research using the collections of its fve partner organizations. To learn more, go to fellowships.cjh.org. CJH.ORG

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC SIX DAYS A WEEK

CENTER FOR JEWISH HISTORY CENTER FOR 15 WEST 16TH STREET | NEW YORK, NY 10011

EDUCATING THE NEXT GENERATION OF SCHOLARS

Review of Graduate Fellowship Applications Begins: Tuesday, January 15, 2019 For more information visit www.indiana.edu/~jsp

SPRING 2018 45 Aleph: Historical Studies in Science & Judaism

Edited by Gad Freudenthal

Interactions between science, JOURNALS broadly defned, and Judaism throughout history. in JEWISH STUDIES Published semiannually ISSN: 1565-1525 | eISSN: 1565-5423

Jewish Social Studies: Antisemitism History, Culture, Studies and Society

Edited by Catherine Chatterly Edited by Tony Michels, Kenneth Moss,and Sarah Abrevaya Stein Rigorous scholarship on the interplay of antisemitism and Understanding the multiplicities society–past, present, and future. inherent in Jewish cultures with an emphasis on identity, peoplehood, Published semiannually and gender. ISSN: 2474-1809 | eISSN: 2474-1817 Published triannually ISSN: 0021-6704 | eISSN: 1527-2028

Nashim: A Journal of History & Memory: Jewish Women’s Studies Studies in Representation and Gender Issues of the Past Edited by Renée Levine Melammed

Edited by José Brunner An international, interdisciplinary academic forum for Jewish women’s Exploring questions of historical and gender studies. consciousness and collective memory. Published semiannually ISSN: 0793-8934 | eISSN: 1565-5288 Published semiannually ISSN: 0935-560X | eISSN: 1527-1994

Israel Prooftexts: A Journal of Studies Jewish Literary History

Edited by S. Ilan Troen Edited by Barry Wimpfheimer and Natan Aridan and Wendy Zierler

Scholarship on Israeli history, Bringing together the critical study politics, society, and culture of classical texts with recognition of phenomena with a theoretical exploration of in diaspora communities. modern Jewish writing.

Published triannually Published triannually ISSN: 1084-9513 | eISSN: 1527-201X ISSN: 0272-9601 | eISSN: 1086-3311

iupress.indiana.edu/journals

AJS Perspectives S18.indd 1 4/4/18 10:18 AM 46 AJS Perspectives

For nearly 20 years, AJRCA's spiritually-based programs have To learn more call educated rabbis, cantors and chaplains to serve in a wide variety of 213.884.4133 Jewish, secular and multi-faith institutions. or email Master's degree specializations offer leadership development in [email protected] Interfaith Relations, Sephardic Studies, Jewish Values and Ethics, Music in Jewish Life, and Creativity in Jewish Life. 574 Hilgard Avenue Distance-learning options available!* Los Angeles, CA 90024

Exploration - Inspiration - Transformation Facebook.com/AJRCA ajrca.edu

Accepting applications for Fall 2018

*Rabbinical program approved by WSCUC; other programs pending approval.

THESE TRUTHS WE HOLD: JUDAISM IN AN AGE OF TRUTHINESS

Nowadays, there is my news and your news, your truth and my truth, and consensus about facts NOVEMBER 11-12, 2018 is increasingly elusive. HUC-JIR Symposium 2 will explore the ways in which contemporary Jews– LOS ANGELES especially Progressive Jews–grapple with the concept of the truth. We will mine the resources of LEARN MORE: our tradition and current thinking to cut through the huc.edu/symposium-2 truthiness and take hold of real, enduring values. [email protected]

SPRING 2018 47 FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY

The Herbert D. Katz Center at The University of Pennsylvania is now accepting applications for the 2019–2020 academic year on the theme of

THE JEWISH HOME DWELLING ON THE DOMESTIC, THE FAMILIAL, AND THE LIVED-IN

The Katz Center will devote our 2019–2020 fellowship year to the home—to what happens inside Jewish homes and what connects those homes to life outside. We invite applications from scholars in any academic feld who are seeking to advance research that will shed light on this most formative and intimate of contexts for Jewish life, including the very defnition of home.

As an object of inquiry, the home has not one door but many. We are planning a year that will look into the Jewish home across many diferent thresholds/entryways and look back out from the home into the broader world. Relevant topics may include the history of domestic architecture and material culture, anthropological research into kinship, parenting, gender roles, and master-servant relationships; literary instantiations of the home as an object of memory and imagination; representations of Jewish domesticity in the visual arts, including theater, flm, and television; the analysis of Jewish law as it relates to family life and sex; the economics of consumption and display; the ritual study of the life cycle as it plays out in domestic contexts; and urban studies that approach the home as part of neighborhoods or larger social contexts, among others.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: OCTOBER 31, 2018

For more information about the Katz Center’s fellowship program and to access the application portal, please visit us online katz.sas.upenn.edu

48 AJS Perspectives AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR JEWISH RESEARCH CONGRATULATIONS Salo Baron Prize Winner

The American Academy for Jewish Research is pleased to announce the winner of its annual Salo Baron Prize for the best first book in Jewish studies published in 2017. The prize, including a $5,000 award presented at the annual luncheon at the AJS Conference, will honor:

Mira Beth Wasserman, Jews, Gentiles, and Other Animals: The Talmud After the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania Press

Jews, Gentiles, and Other Animals o�ers an innovative reading of �. �. ��vodah �arah as a cohesive literary wor� organi�ed about a single overarching theme � the �ualities that distinguish �ews from other human beings and the �ualities that �ews and other humans share in common. �hrough an erudite close reading of ��vodah �arah�s fve chapters, informed by thorough familiarity with current Talmudic scholarship and with multiple theoretical lenses employed in the contemporary humanities, �asserman identifes a broad range of literary devices at wor� throughout the te�t. �his analysis enables her to build a powerful case that interventions by the anonymous editors of the �abylonian �almud shaped not only individual tales and sugyot but entire tractates as well. �imultaneously �asserman re�ects upon the implications of her fndings for humanistic and �post�humanistic� scholarship more broadly. Noteworthy for its impressive integration of multiple intellectual perspectives, for its intellectual maturity, and for the lucidity of its e�position, Jews, Gentiles, and Other Animals spea�s to a community that e�tends to all felds of �ewish studies and beyond.

The American Academy for Jewish Research (www.aajr.org) is the oldest professional organization of Judaica scholars in North America. Its membership represents the most senior fgures in the feld.

�he �aron �ri�e honors the memory of the distinguished historian �alo �. �aron, a long�time president of the ��, who taught at �olumbia �niversity for many decades. �t is, according to Professor Gershon Hundert, current president of the AAJR, one of the signal honors that can be bestowed on a young scholar in �ewish studies and a sign of the e�cellence, vitality, and creativity in the feld.

SPRING 2018 49 Jewish Selﬁe-Fashioning: Gender and Religion in the Digital Age Laura Arnold Leibman

t the De ARCA Statue Museum how Haredi men use digital tools to spaces. This dual role runs counter to in Java, you can take a selfie with efface women. Through new media, Rabbi Pesach Falk’s popular tome on A Jackie Chan, Mother Teresa, or women refashion self and communities. z . ni‘ut (modesty), whose ideology seems Spiderman. Yet one celeb has caused When blogging, ultra-Orthodox to prohibit “a woman from standing a backlash: Adolf Hitler. Even after women create identities for themselves out—and from being outstanding.” international outrage forced his removal, and share those identities with others. As These prohibitions go beyond dress: thousands of selfies with the dictator Brian Alleyne notes in Narrative Networks: even women’s attendance of parents’ remain immortalized online (see http:// Storied Approaches in a Digital Age, the night at school has been denounced as bit.ly/hitler-selfie). The uproar echoes social part of new media is crucial. Like “immodest” in some Haredi publications, previous complaints about new media’s social media, blogs allow us to “bridge as Shapiro notes. Vlogs allow Haredi immorality. Selfies and narcissism are the gap among our personal sense of women to redefine acceptable female close companions, psychologists warn self, our desire to be seen in certain roles. In Out of the Orthodox Box, us, and many people have denounced ways by others, and our sense of how Ruchi Koval explains she is a wife and millennials’ thoughtlessness amidst others see us.” The “others” who see mother, but also a Sunday school Jewish suffering (fig. 1). Even Internet- ultra-Orthodox women varies: while director, “a certified parenting coach, phobic ultra-Orthodox Jews have been some blogs are aimed at ultra-Orthodox motivational speaker, musician, and criticized for using technology unethically. women themselves (kollelbudget.com), author.” Indeed, Koval’s podcasts and In 2015, news agencies zeroed in on others are designed either explicitly for YouTube channel play a role in her social how a Haredi newspaper digitally erased outreach (jwrp.org), or merely promote mobility, as they promote book sales women leaders from a Paris solidarity rally. an Orthodox Jewish women’s lifestyle and paid speaking engagements. The incident was hardly isolated. When as a fulfilling choice (joyofkosher.com). Ultra-Orthodox women use vlogs historical photos of highly respected While ultra-Orthodox publications in outreach, but also to provide tips on rabbis’ wives and daughters conflict with often erase women’s bodies, vlogs (video sheitl care, head-scarf wrapping, and current ideals regarding modest dress, at blogs) emphasize women’s physical cooking—all professions highlighting least one reputable authority recommends presence. Blogs can use avatars to their status as women of valor. Vlogs publishing houses either “‘doctor’ the circumvent taboos surrounding seeing like Wrapunzel do more than “inspire photos beforehand, thereby ensuring women, but vlogs typically rely on happiness with the art of hair wrapping”: that harmful parts of the pictures are not an actual person’s presence. As Amy they also suggest ways for women to reproduced” or omit women altogether, Schmittauer notes in Vlog Like a Boss: navigate the professional world while a practice scholar Marc B. Shapiro How to Kill It Online with Video Blogging, maintaining an Orthodox lifestyle. denounces in Changing the Immutable: ideally vloggers should look “into the These same vlogs rejuvenate Jewish How Orthodox Judaism Rewrites Its eyes of your viewers when you talk to the practice. Wrapunzel’s Andrea Grinberg History. Using digital technology to erase camera” because eye contact emphasizes incorporates new styles and ethnic women can destabilize the historical that “You understand them. You help fabrics into Jewish practice. Wrapunzel’s record, populating it with false memories. them. You relate to them. That is all companion store offers an innovative New media, however, can also just vlogging is. It’s being human on camera.” way to make money while simultaneously as easily critique moral failures as create Orthodox women seem to agree. Lori striving to increase women’s positive them. Berlin-based Israeli writer Shahak Palatnik, the founding director of the self-image. Grinberg’s physically and Shapira, for example, uses Photoshop Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project, ethnically diverse models challenge to satirize “thoughtless” selfies taken uses videos on her YouTube channel Lori Orthodox communities’ focus on at Holocaust sites. Shapira contrasts Almost Live to inspire Jewish women whiteness and thinness as an ideal (fig. 2). the original selfies with photoshopped “with the beauty and wisdom of their By foregrounding Orthodox women versions posing the “social-media heritage.” Yet her videos also showcase as authorities, blogs potentially destabilize obsessed youngsters” in archival her role as a public speaker, a job that male prerogative. On the one hand, when images of death camps. Like Shapira, relies on body language. Jewish Women Allison Josephs, the founder, director, Jewish women have found that new International named Palatnik one of the and main spokeswoman of the Orthodox media can provide a creative, ethical ten “Women to Watch,” an honor implying women’s blog Jew in the City, has a tricky space. I am particularly interested by Palatnik can actually be seen, unlike the how ultra-Orthodox Jewish women use women photoshopped from print media. Fig. 1. Tourist taking selfie photo at Holocaust new media, in large part because most Vlogs underscore that women can Memorial in Berlin, 2017. Photo credit: previous discussions have focused on be virtuous in both domestic and public SAHACHATZ / Shutterstock.com.

50 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2018 51 Fig. 2. Scarves and tichels modeled on Wrapunzel’s online store. Top row photos, photo credit: Yehudis Taffel. Bottom row photos, photo credit: Jerome Bethea with LTD Studios (Living The Dream). Courtesy of Wrapunzel.com.

question, she turns to Jew in the City’s intricate than many would assume” and Abramowitz in his article “An Orthodox male educational correspondent, Rabbi suggests we “leave the halachic issues for Rabbi Discusses Transgender Issues Jack Abramowitz. Her approach models those at that pay grade. All you and I can in Jewish Texts,” is small, particularly how Orthodox women are typically do—all we should do—is just be a mentsch.” compared to the large photos of Allison encouraged to get answers about Jewish Yet the blog’s structure subtly Josephs. In the blog’s context, female law. Rabbi Abramowitz not only edits OU undercuts rabbinically trained men as authority licenses Abramowitz to speak: Torah but also has authored six books, the main religious authority on women’s if we listen to him, it is because Allison including a book on z . ni‘ut. Moreover, issues. Visitors to the Jew in the City come Josephs suggests we should (ﬁg. 3). Rabbi Abramowitz explicitly reinforces primarily to hear an Orthodox woman’s Blogs rely on a different formula for rabbinical authority in his post on perspective, not a rabbi’s. Moreover, the gaining their readers’ trust. Unlike Haredi “transgender issues.” He cautions “gender blog’s layout emphasizes the primacy editors, Google is more interested in issues in halacha are already far more of women’s voices. The byline for Rabbi a page’s number of links and “ranking

52 AJS Perspectives signals” than what yeshiva the author attended or rabbinical letters of approbation. The Internet democratizes publication. Google searches place Jew in the City’s discussion of “transgender issues” alongside SOJOURN’s post highlighting halakhic opinions respectful of people post-transition. Equally important, the same search might also return The Second Transition, in which Abby Stein presents her own experience of being transgender in an ultra-Orthodox community (ﬁg. 4). As a woman ordained by a Hasidic yeshiva, Stein reminds us that traditional credentials don’t always come in male forms. Like a postmodern Talmud, Internet searches provide a ring of conﬂicting voices circling any idea in Jewish life. Yet unlike the Talmud, the nature of the voices has changed. New media allows women to Fig. 3. Screenshot of Rabbi Abramowitz, “An Orthodox Rabbi Discusses Transgender Issues in Jewish Texts” (Jew in the City, 2017). Courtesy of JewInTheCity.com. refashion their identities for themselves and others. As Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt noted in a recent Forward article, men’s “terrible discomfort with women stepping into the public light” via social media underlies why they “slut-shame” ultra- Orthodox women for wearing “immodest” sheitls. For Chizhik-Goldschmidt, the Internet provides “an uncensored, unmoored territory,” a place where women can “express themselves in totality—their spiritual selves, their silly selves, their vain selves.” Self-fashioning and self-presentation is not just for narcissists. New media allow ultra- Orthodox women to publicize themselves as outstanding—and even ordinary—women.

Laura Arnold Leibman is professor of English and Humanities at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. She is the author of Indian Converts (University of Massachusetts Press, 2008), the coeditor of Jews in the Americas, 1776–1826 (Routledge, 2017), and the author of Messianism, Secrecy and Mysticism: A New Interpretation of Early American Jewish Life (Vallentine Mitchell, 2012). She served as the academic director for the award-winning multimedia public television series American Passages: A Literary Survey (2003). She is currently writing about a multiracial family that began their lives as slaves in the Caribbean and became some of the wealthiest Jews in New York. Fig. 4. Melody Melamed, Abby Stein, 2016. Courtesy of the artist.

SPRING 2018 53 The Facebook of Life Ira Wagman

s part of every High Holiday celebration Jews pray that they A should be “inscribed into the Book of Life.” According to the talmudic tractate of Rosh Hashanah, three books are opened every Rosh Hashanah. The first recognizes people who are good and sets them up for life. The second recognizes the wicked and sentences them to destruction. Those in the third book are in a state of limbo, their future determined by an evaluation of their worthiness at the end of Yom Kippur, with worthiness measured in terms of mitzvot, and prospects improved through the process of atonement. Through atonement, an individual’s slate is wiped clean, enabling each person to start CEBImagery, The Secret, 2011. Photo via Flickr Commons. the new year from a better place. We might say that digital devices, connected to each other through the Internet, are analogous to that that third book of life. These devices contain knowledge about us and bind us from the codex to radio to Twitter. directing our own news network, or together into a kind of community, but With devices that offer high-quality programming our own film festival, they leave the question of our future photographs, easy-to-use editing companies like Facebook, Twitter, and status largely unclear. One challenge of software, and simple ways to “get the Netflix are able to finally reach the dream living in the contemporary moment, then, word out,” our modern-day media now of “knowing their audience” by collecting involves confronting the consequences provide us with the capabilities once more information about us in more ways of our online media presence. We are reserved for large media companies. than ever before. This union was sealed each given the power to behave as Two of the more prominent activities through what can be seen in retrospect media companies, as the producers of digital culture—following and as a remarkable leap of faith on our part and editors of content. In short, we searching—serve as reminders that media as individuals: a belief that with access are subjects, objects, and consumers. technologies contribute to our sense to and possession of our collected and Thinking about our digital lives means of transcendence alongside a sense shared pasts these companies would act reflecting on the challenges of living of immanence. Our biggest worries responsibly. That confidence is hardly together in a world where media play a about the misuse of power enabled based on fact, as many of us remain pervasive role in our moral orientation. by these devices and technologies— largely out of touch with the ways our The history of media technologies whether by peddlers of propaganda, data is being used. Despite the repeated is a history of humans developing by snooping eyes at the NSA, or stories of sensitive material leaking out tools in an attempt to play God. These by cyberbullies—serve as powerful from “secure” storage, we retain a belief technologies and devices allow us reminders of the way these tools can that somehow our information is being to manipulate time and space, by easily be used for “ungodly” purposes. handled responsibly. Millions of users generating representations that inspire Our digital platforms promise continue to share even more personal behavior and retaining memories connection, promotion, and information with Silicon Valley as they for future reflection and evaluation; dissemination, but they grant these in simultaneously complain about its and they allow us to disseminate exchange for extensive surveillance, misuses, a symbol of the conflicted knowledge across space, and, in turn, invasive advertising, and a loss of privacy. relationship we have with platforms to see across distances. Perhaps this We might regard this trade-off as the that provide us with unprecedented is why religious organizations have so consummation of two dreams that were publicity packaged with unprecedented often been enthusiastic adopters of long in the making. In exchange for us to invasions of privacy as part of a culture new communications technologies, finally have our own television station, of “sharing.”

54 AJS Perspectives Our online behavior also raises that material deemed “inadequate, to be everywhere, to pass judgment on serious ethical questions. The expansion irrelevant, or out-of-date” be delisted from others, and for our pasts to be shared of communicative capabilities did not search engine results. Among the reasons and circulated are a part of who we come with an equally expansive set, or for implementing this policy was a desire are. We must attend to the questions of sense, of responsibilities and rights. As to reproduce a sense of what exists in the how to behave against a backdrop of we transformed into our own media offline world to online spaces. Another permanent inscription in what we might companies, questions of individual was to preempt unnecessary suffering call the Facebook of Life. Perhaps we or social responsibility for our digital due to past behavior, particularly for might consider things that we can do behaviors have been left largely for the young people. These efforts are a more without media technologies. That would market to sort out. However, in perusing sober way of dealing with the realities include things like loving, listening, and penitential prayers from the High Holy of digital communication, at a distance forgiving those people who are closest Days liturgy, like Al H . eyt and Avinu from Foer’s dystopian predictions; and to us as part of our everyday life. Malkenu, one can easily appreciate they also mark a productive start to the communicative acts that sit at the reining in powerful digital platforms, to Ira Wagman is an associate professor root of our digital sins: rushing to bringing these higher powers back into of Communication and Media Studies judgment, spreading false information, a regulatory orbit by devising technical at Carleton University in Ottawa, hateful speech, boastfulness, spreading solutions that are grounded—however Canada. He is also affiliated with the gossip, “foolish talk,” and lying and imprecisely—on principles of human rights. Max and Tessie Zelikovitz Centre for deception. We once used these terms Left for us to determine, however, are Jewish Studies at Carleton. He researches to critique major media corporations the bigger questions of how to live with and writes in the areas of media history, for selling salaciousness and spectacle each other at a time when our abilities communication theory, and digital ethics. in return for advertising revenues. Now those same behaviors are part of the pitch we use to deliver those selfsame advertisers to our social networks in return for “likes,” shares, and retweets. Atoning in the Internet age differs from atonement in earlier eras not because of the actions but because of the afterlife of digital transgression. A slip of the tongue that once circulated locally now goes globally viral. An embarrassing photograph that once made the rounds at someone’s school or place of work can now find a place in the Internet’s darker corners or in a Google image search, forever. Facebook’s “Year in Review” function reminds users of things from their past with the help of algorithms that may or may not do an accurate job of historical reconstruction. Everyone from politicians to prospective job candidates knows that the Internet “never forgets,” placing them in state of limbo, unsure as to when a previous tweet or inappropriate gesture may come back to haunt them, with no real way of knowing when and how the need for atonement will be required. Our collective naiveté may come at a cost. In his recent book World without Mind, Franklin Foer predicts that we are on the verge of experiencing “the big one,” a hack of such magnitude that would reveal our personal habits and predilections in ways that could significantly alter human relations. The European Union recently recognized a “right to be forgotten” that allows its citizens the power to request

SPRING 2018 55 Two Israeli soldiers taking picture with a selﬁe stick in military training zone, Israel, 2014. Photo credit: Alex Lerner / shutterstock.com.

The Rise of the Militarized Selﬁe: Notes from Israel Rebecca L. Stein (with Adi Kuntsman)

ovember 2012 marked the first simultaneously heroized and aestheticized Israeli military operation in which while disassociated from resultant Nlarge numbers of soldiers went violence. On Instagram, this iconography into service with smartphones in their was mobilized to serve the needs of self- uniform pockets, updating their social branding, with war employed as a tool media accounts from army installations of personal self-promotion. These were as they waited to be deployed for a images of militarism but not of battle, ground invasion into the Gaza Strip. beautified bodies free of dirt or blood, at During these days of waiting, they a considerable remove from the carnage uploaded a series of selfies to their of the concurrent military operation. The personal Instagram accounts. In most accompanying hashtag strings gestured respects, it was a standard catalogue of “IDF Women,” 2013. Photo by Flickr user towards the violence that the images had smartphone portraiture, with an emphasis Danielle, via Flickr Commons. cleansed—“#kill#sexy#nevergiveup#sleep on beautified snapshots of everyday #m16#instalove#happy”—generating an life in the military, featuring uniformed of the out-of-time and -place, these unsettling conjunction of patriotism men and women riding on a bus, posing mobile portraits produced an exquisite and intimacy, lethal violence and play. for an elevator self-portrait, relaxing in and highly sanitized visual archive of At work was an instance of what we the sun, embracing near a tank. Framed soldiering. As such, they offered a digital have termed “selfie militarism.” In selfie and filtered through conventional retro twist on the long history of Israeli militarism, violence often takes surprising filters, with their familiar aesthetics nationalist iconography, in which war is forms, emerging in and through the

56 AJS Perspectives banal and beautified terms of mobile its infancy, in both Israeli and broader Rebecca L. Stein is the Nicholas J. self-portraiture. The militarized selfie is global contexts. But over the course & Theresa M. Leonardy Associate a hybrid genre that links commonplace of our research, we watched it grow Professor of Cultural Anthropology at selfie conventions with militarized political and spread. Today, it need hardly be Duke University. She is the author, with sensibilities. What results, we have argued, remarked, the phenomenon is no less Adi Kuntsman, of Digital Militarism: is the normalization of violent, racist, and/ than commonplace in political theaters Israel’s Occupation in the Social Media or militant nationalist projects by means of across the globe. We are no longer Age (Stanford University Press, 2015); very standard social media conventions. surprised to learn about the integration Itineraries in Conflict: Israelis, Palestinians, Over the course of the last five years, of social networking into military arsenals; and the Political Lives of Tourism (Duke we’ve watched the militarized selfie about the presence of smartphones on University Press, 2008); the coeditor gradually grow and spread in Israel as a battlefields; about social networking from of Palestine, Israel, and the Politics of networked political form. Early instances scenes of atrocity, by both victims and Popular Culture (Duke University Press, of the phenomenon emerged in 2010, perpetrators; or the ways that popular 2005) with Ted Swedenburg, and The before the massive global proliferation platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Struggle for Sovereignty: Palestine of the selfie, and included Facebook and YouTube both function as wartime and Israel, 1993–2005 with Joel Beinin photographs of soldiers posing in archives and constitute critical tools for (Stanford University Press, 2006). Palestinian homes during routine raids, human rights and activist documentation or in front of blindfolded and cuffed projects—even as they might, many hope, Adi Kuntsman’s work explores digital detainees at checkpoints. In these early eventually aid in bringing perpetrators cultures in various geographical and years, such viral images were framed to justice. The reach of contemporary sociopolitical contexts. Recent publications in Israeli popular discourse as social warfare and armed conflicts into digital include Digital Cultures and the aberrations, exceptions to Israel’s “moral arenas has both enlarged theatres of Politics of Emotion: Feeling, Affect and army” and the national ethos of “purity of military operation and changed our Technological Change (Palgrave, 2012) arms.” The phenomena would grow and understanding of the political function coedited with Athina Karatzogianni; Digital spread in subsequent years, a measure of and ends of digital technologies. Militarism: Israel’s Occupation in the Social both the growing right-wing tendencies What does this mean for the Israeli Media Age (Stanford University Press, of the Israeli public and the increasing case? Return, again, to selfie militarism. 2015) coauthored with Rebecca L. Stein; proliferation of mobile technologies Our focus on this hybrid form—which and Selfie Citizenship (Palgrave, 2017). and social media literacy in Israel. Today, couples the conventional genres and selfie militarism no longer surprises norms governing mobile self-portraiture Israeli publics. This coupling of militarism with military contexts and sensibilities— and the everyday tools of social media is an attempt to study the ways that expression has become normalized. Israelis are living intimately with their Such processes of normalization military occupation in the course of their are part of a broader phenomenon that everyday digital lives. Selfie militarism is we call “digital militarism.” Our book of one way to highlight the very mundane the same name explores the ways that and banal ways in which Israelis live with, social media tools, technologies, and and perpetuate, the occupation through practices are increasingly employed in standard networking practices. Today, the service of militant projects by state we argue, social media functions as a and civilian Internet users. While this is crucial domain of everyday complicity undoubtedly a global phenomenon—a with military rule—complicity evident not phenomenon we have come to know only in the actions of the Israeli soldier quite intimately in Trump’s America—our deployed in the West Bank, armed with study focuses on its emergence in the both weapon and networked smartphone, context of Israel’s occupation, with an but also in the networking practices emphasis on ways that fervent and often of the Israeli resident of cosmopolitan militant nationalism is taking shape Tel Aviv, for whom the occupation through mundane networking practices might seem to exist at something of and modes of online engagement. a distance from her comfortable life. Digital militarism in the Israeli context Liking and sharing from the relative is not what we typically associate with comfort of Tel Aviv can also, we propose, Israel’s repressive rule in the Palestinian constitute a form of digital complicity. territories. This kind of militarism takes shape through everyday Facebook status This text is adapted from the updates, through “likes” and shares, and introduction to Digital Militarism: Israel’s in the hues of the Instagram retro-filter. Occupation in the Social Media Age When we began researching this (Stanford University Press, 2015). “Guarding Israel,” 2014. Photo by Flickr book in 2009, “digital militarism” was in user Danielle, via Flickr Commons

SPRING 2018 57 AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR JEWISH RESEARCH CONGRATULATIONS Special Initiatives Grant Recipients

The American Academy for Jewish Research is pleased to announce the winners of its �pecial �nitiatives rant.

�� provides grants for no more than , to faculty at North �merican universities to, 1) encourage projects of academic collaboration between Jewish studies programs and colleagues between two or more institutions, r, enable scholarly endeavors that would not otherwise receive funding.

Arie M. Dubnov, The George Washington University, in partnership with American University and the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, The Greater D.C. Area, Jewish History Colloquium Ayala Fader and Orit Avishai, Fordham University, New York Working Group on Jewish Orthodoxies Mark A. Goldberg, University of Houston, Funding for the Texas Jewish Studies Research Triangle Amy Weiss, College of Saint Elizabeth; Joshua Kavaloski, Drew University, New Jersey Working Group on Holocaust Research Ethan Katz, University of California, Berkeley (as of July 1); Rabbi Elisha Ancselovits, Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies & Emory University; Sergey Dolgopolski, University at Bufalo (SUNY), Devotion and Relativity, Text and Context: New Frontiers of Jewish Literacy Jessica Marglin, University of Southern California, California Working Group on Jews in the Maghrib and the Middle East David Myers, Center for Jewish History, Scholars Working Group Program Naomi Brenner, Ohio State University; Matthew Handelman, Michigan State University; Shachar Pinsker, University of Michigan, “Below the Line”? The Feuilleton and Modern Jewish Cultures Ira Robinson, Concordia University, Furthering Cooperation in Jewish Studies Among Faculty and Students in Universities in Montreal and Surrounding Areas Francesca Bregoli, CUNY-Queens College and the Graduate Center; Elisheva Carlebach, Columbia University; Flora Cassen, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Debra Glasberg Gail, University of Pennsylvania; Joshua Teplitsky, SUNY-Stony Brook; Magda Teter, Fordham University; Ruth von Berth, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, The Early Modern Workshop “Sense and Perception”

The American Academy for Jewish Research (www.aajr.org) is the oldest professional organization of �udaica scholars in North �merica. �ts membership represents the most senior fgures in the feld.

58 AJS Perspectives AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR JEWISH RESEARCH CONGRATULATIONS Graduate Student Summer Funding Recipients

The American Academy for Jewish Research is pleased to announce the winners of its grant for graduate student summer research funding.

�� provides stipends for no more than , to graduate students in any feld of �ewish �tudies at a North �merican university who have submitted their prospectus and have a need to travel to collections to conduct research.

Canan Bolel, University of Washington, On the margins of an Ottoman city: Politics of marginality in the Jewish community of Izmir, 1847-1913 Robin Buller, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Sephardi Immigrants in Paris: Navigating Community, Culture, and Citizenship in Interwar and Vichy France, 1918-1945 Jacob Flaws, University of Colorado – Boulder, Witnessing Treblinka: Spatial Perceptions of a Death Camp Catherine Greer, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Memorializing Theresienstadt: Music, Memory, and Representation Julie Rebecca Keresztes, Boston University, ‘For It Has Conquered Worlds:’ The Camera in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945 eofrey hillip evin, New York University, Another Nation: Israel, American Jews, and Palestinian Rights, 1948-1977 C. Tova Markenson, Northwestern University, Entrance Forbidden to the Yiddish Theatres: Performance, Protest, and Prostitution in Latin America (1900-1939) Tamar Menashe, Columbia University, Jews in Cross-Confessional Legal Cultures in Reformation Germany olly heodora ringer, University of alifornia, os ngeles, Spatial Relations: Post-War Rehabilitation and the Afterlives of Jewish Terrains in Lebanon Meghan Elizabeth Rose Riley, Indiana University, American Aid Organizations in French Concentration and Internment Camps, 1939-1945 Yonatan Shemesh, University of Chicago, Divinity School, Moses Narboni’s Commentary on Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed Anastasiia Strakhova, Emory University, Imagining Emigration: Crossing the Borders of Russian Jewry during the Era of Mass Migration, 1881-1917 Ori Werdiger, The University of Chicago, Jacob Gordin Archives

SPRING 2018 59

Forum Old Media, New Media: Librarians and Archivists Reﬂect

For the Forum section of AJS Perspectives integrated into Jewish Studies syllabi and we asked librarians and archivists working dissertation research, translated into five in the field of Jewish Studies to reflect on languages, highlighted in documentary how their work has been transformed by films and museum exhibitions, and new media in the last decade and what reproduced in award-winning books. they have found to be the most challeng- If a goal of new media is to reduce ing and/or most exciting recent develop- distance between people and increase ments in this regard. access in a global age, the Sephardic experience—which spans Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, Africa, and Ty Alhadeff beyond—is primed for a digital revolution. University of Washington Through our curation and dissemination of previously difficult-to-access materials, our In 2016, I received an email from a Sephardic Studies Program seeks to give woman named Linda in South Africa with voice to a slice of the Jewish experience Sephardic Jewish roots on the island of that until now was just a whisper. Rhodes. “I speak a very broken Ladino and would love to learn more,” she wrote. Ty Alhadeff is the research coordinator, She began to explore our online learning Brochure cover of the Sephardic Studies archivist, librarian, blogger, and social tools, such as Sephardic Hebrew cursive Program at the Stroum Center for Jewish media strategist for the Sephardic (soletreo) tutorial videos. We benefitted Studies, University of Washington. Studies Program at the Stroum Center just as much: she shared with us the only for Jewish Studies, University of surviving copy of a Ladino translation of Washington. Ty received his BA degree High Holiday prayers composed by the from the University of Washington and a last chief rabbi of Rhodes and published, master’s degree in Jewish Studies from unexpectedly, in Romania. To bring this audience. Sephardic Jews were once the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. new discovery to a broader audience, I one of the least accessible world cultures composed a digital essay highlighting online. Our efforts have contributed to the book and its miraculous trajectory exposing the historical, cultural, and Rachel Ariel over the past century—from Romania to literary worlds of the Sephardic Jews Duke University Rhodes, evading the Holocaust, to South to the attention of students, scholars, Africa, and digitally, to Seattle. Through and community members worldwide. The most significant change in the Facebook and Twitter, this article quickly With more than 1,200 Ladino- library and in the librarian’s work in garnered readers from our “followers” language artifacts—books, newspapers, the past ten years has been the huge in forty-five countries. The transnational manuscripts, and personal expansion of digital media. While a journey of the text concluded with correspondence—acquired through decade ago we already had online global online open access. local and international crowdsourcing, catalogs, databases, and websites and Since its inception four years ago, our program has digitized more than used personal computers for our daily the Sephardic Studies Program at the 133,000 pages of material, a selection work, much of the librarian’s work was University of Washington’s Stroum of which is already online. Recognizing still done in a traditional way. Book Center for Jewish Studies has leveraged that the languages and historical contexts publishers sent their print catalogs in its website and social media to curate of our artifacts are not well known, the mail, and librarians ordered books the history and language of a set of we strategically curate “Sephardic title by title. Dozens of print newspapers communities long operating in analog treasures” in digital essays to make them and journals were displayed on shelves and largely overlooked by the broader approachable for our audiences. Rather in a central area of the library, a place field of Jewish Studies. New media than wait for them to be discovered, we popular among readers. The reference have empowered us to showcase the actively pursue social media campaigns desk was busy with students asking Sephardic experience through texts, to draw attention to them. As a result, for advice and assistance as they were music, and videos before a global some of our “treasures” have been searching for sources. Students and

60 AJS Perspectives

faculty alike still used the reference and thus support the dissemination of of Shlomo Shunami’s Bibliography of collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, knowledge beyond the academic world. Jewish Bibliographies as irrelevant to lexicons, all in printed book format. The expansion of digital media has their research. To me, this is a loss, but Today, in addition to every transformed the work of scholars and one that is largely compensated for by student carrying his own laptop, most librarians alike. The old tasks have not the democratization of the research professors and all students walk around gone away—subject knowledge is still process in the online environment. with a smartphone that grants them prized as are librarians’ skills in finding Indeed, many of the reference immediate access to every online and evaluating information. But the digital works that I once consulted as a cataloger source, as well as many other forms of world has opened up new possibilities are themselves now accessible online. Internet communication. Yet this ability and challenged us to learn new skills. As a researcher in the field of Yiddish to search and find material on one’s Studies I am grateful for the profusion own, anywhere, creates difficulties in Originally from Israel, Rachel Ariel studied of indexes and journal databases, as well finding and selecting the right material History, Political Science, and Education at as for the availability of digitized books, within the seemingly infinite quantity the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and journals, and newspapers, not to mention and diversity of online information. Jewish Studies at the Hebrew College in audio and video resources. Recently, a Our library still receives some printed Boston. Upon coming to North Carolina researcher in Texas sent me an email academic journals that are not available in 1994, Rachel became one of the two inquiry in which he commented, “My electronically, yet the shelves that house founding teachers of the new Jewish resources here in Houston are limited.” them have moved from the main floor Community Day School of Durham-Chapel My response: “You are not as far away to the basement and use has very much Hill. Rachel was the director of Jewish as you may think.” declined. In all disciplines, in science, Studies at the Lerner School. Since 2006 Last year, the editors of the online social studies, and humanities, digital Rachel serves as the librarian for Judaica journal In geveb invited me to compile representation of journal articles has and Hebraica at Duke University Libraries. a multipart research guide, Resources replaced the paper format. Scholars and in Yiddish Studies. The guide’s medium students have direct access to discovery is entirely electronic and its listings are tools, but the number of journals and Zachary M. Baker hybrid in nature—grouping together by articles available online has become Stanford University topic, in an integrated manner, print-only, enormous, with multiple ways of access. digitized, and born-digital resources. In One of the most important roles of the In my first professional library position the process of compiling the research librarian nowadays is to support and I worked as a cataloger. Apart from guide, I was able to immerse myself teach our patrons what the discovery typing up catalog cards, this entailed in the continually expanding universe tools are and how to use them. The assigning the appropriate subject of online resources, and to share this abundance and variety of options is headings and classification numbers, and knowledge through a journal that is overwhelming, and learning to find consulting a gamut of reference works universally (and freely!) accessible. and select the best resources is the for information on the books’ authors challenge facing scholars and students. and contributors. The basic principles of Zachary M. Baker, recently retired, was The digital revolution has also cataloging remain the same today, even the Reinhard Family Curator of Judaica brought e-books to the library. Gloomy as methodologies and technical jargon and Hebraica Collections in the Stanford expectations predicting the imminent have changed significantly. Yesterday’s University Libraries (1999–2017), and also disappearance of the printed book have catalogers have been transformed had administrative oversight of collection not materialized. Digital publications into today’s “metadata specialists.” development at Stanford University have not replaced printed ones, and I still have a folder containing the Libraries (2010–2017). Previously, he our readers want and use both formats. handouts from the Judaica bibliography served as head librarian of the YIVO Librarians still maintain and manage course that I audited at the Jewish Institute for Jewish Research (1987–1999). collections that are now composed of Theological Seminary in the late both physical and digital material. 1970s. Each week we discussed the The advancement of the Internet foundational reference works that Sarah Bunin Benor and the World Wide Web enabled the underpinned the subdisciplines of Jewish Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles development of one of the more exciting Studies: bibliographies, dictionaries, concepts in today’s scholarly world: encyclopedias, lexicons, concordances, Crowdsourcing has yielded valuable open access. Providing unrestricted etc. These were all print publications—nary resources like Wikipedia and Urban access, without financial or legal barriers, a database or full-text resource among Dictionary, as well as many other via the Internet, to peer-reviewed them. They were the backbone of the endeavors, as Clay Shirkey analyzes in scholarly research allows anyone who is first syllabus for the Research Methods Here Comes Everybody. This new media interested to benefit from new scholarly seminar that I led at Stanford over fifteen development also sparked two Jewish work. Academic libraries serve as years ago. However, experience soon Studies projects that have occupied open access repositories for scholarly taught me that students—even advanced much of my time and thinking over works created by faculty and students graduate students—regarded the likes the past decade: a survey of American

SPRING 2018 61

Jewish language and identity and of Jewish language and our ability sensorial artifacts become flat JPEGs. online dictionaries of distinctive words to share that knowledge with people The media scholar Florian Cramer used by Jews in multiple languages. around the world. This was all due to the has written about postdigital movements In 2008, Steven M. Cohen and I sent Internet and the various technologies in arts and design. Although the term a survey invitation to about six hundred that enabled crowdsourcing. is multivalent, one notion is to choose friends and colleagues and asked them the technology most suited to the job to forward it to Jews and non-Jews. The Sarah Bunin Benor, professor at Hebrew rather than default to the bleeding survey went viral and eventually yielded Union College in Los Angeles, received edge. If access is the goal, new media over 50,000 responses. This large her PhD from Stanford University in will always be the most suitable. Yet response enabled us to gain a better Linguistics. She writes and lectures widely access is only one part of the mission of understanding of how Americans of about American Jewish language and cultural heritage institutions. Consider various backgrounds understand and use culture. Her books include Becoming member engagement. Every summer various Yiddish and Hebrew words and Frum: How Newcomers Learn the the Book Center sponsors a music other distinctive features, like New York Language and Culture of Orthodox festival, Yidstock. How would members pronunciations and overlapping discourse Judaism (Rutgers University Press, 2012). respond to receiving a “best of” cassette? (see results http://bit.do/2008results and Would they appreciate its bootleg feel? http://bit.do/benor). Physical media also serves a pedagogical The second crowdsourced project Eitan Kensky purpose: as objects marked in time, is a series of online dictionaries on www Yiddish Book Center they illuminate a disappearing world. .jewish-languages.org: Jewish English Memory institutions like ours should Lexicon, Léxico Judío Latinoamericano On a good day I’m surrounded by embrace the challenge of making new (Latin American Spanish, with Evelyn cartons of reel-to-reels, cassettes, media more meaningful. We need Dean-Olmsted), Lexikon över Judisk DAT tapes, DVCAMs, and MiniDVs. to adopt postdigital logic, accept Svenska (Swedish, with Patric Joshua Last year we rescued our broken and that the experience of old media was Klagsbrun Lebenswerd), and Glossaire mistreated CDs, sorted everything, more engaging, and inject our cool du français juif (French, with Cyril Aslanov). gave each one a unique identifier, and digital spaces with a sense of play. A Russian version is in the works, and moved the disks into Tyvek sleeves. others are planned for the future. The idea These boxes of loved and unloved Eitan Kensky is director of the Collections behind these websites is that Jews around formats are here for a simple reason: Initiatives at the Yiddish Book Center. the world use their local language with a digitize or transfer. At the Yiddish Book Before coming to the Book Center, he repertoire of distinctive features, including Center, as at most digital libraries, content was the preceptor in Yiddish at Harvard. words from Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, matters more than the container. Our He is a cofounder of In geveb: A Journal Judeo-Arabic, and other languages. In goal is to transform these “tapes” into a of Yiddish Studies. He received his the case of Jewish English, dictionaries digital collection, to present scattered PhD from Harvard in Jewish Studies. have recorded many of these words. But media as a usable record of the center’s hundreds of words were not documented, mission—the lectures on Yiddish culture especially those used by specific sub- it sponsored, the concerts it held, Sean Martin groups. That’s where crowdsourcing came the recordings of native speakers it Western Reserve Historical Society in. The websites allow visitors to edit captured. Soon we will add them to entries and add new ones. Collectively, the center’s holdings of digital stuff. I work at the Western Reserve Historical the lexicons, along with the Jewish Digitization is the correct choice. It Society (WRHS), a nonprofit historical Language Research Website that hosts improves access to materials. It preserves society in Cleveland, Ohio, that collects them, have been accessed by over a the original recordings (temporarily). materials related to local Jewish history. million unique visitors from dozens of It enables a small memory institution The most exciting development in my countries. Often people find the Jewish in a midsized state to have a global own professional life has been the English Lexicon after searching for a word, impact. But more than a decade into the digitization of these materials in all such as bubbale, heimish, and refuah era of digital libraries, it’s past time to formats, including, but not limited to, shlemah. Shana tova and g’mar chatima admit that digital objects are boring. photographs, manuscript collections, tova were popular in September, and What we’ve gained in access, we’ve film, audio recordings, newspapers, and moadim lesimcha in April. For definitions lost in tactility. The books at the Yiddish books, to make them available to the and information on who uses these Book Center bear inscriptions, stamps, public. Digitization makes it much easier and over one thousand other words, signatures, library records, doodles. to pursue scholarly work, but it has also visit www.jewish-languages.org There could be ten to fifteen copies of posed tough challenges in my work as /jewish-english-lexicon. a single volume by Sholem Asch on the an archivist. Both the survey and the lexicons shelves, each slightly different, each The vast holdings of WRHS include were featured in multiple media outlets potentially appealing to a different reader, audiovisual materials, such as recordings and linked to by many blogs and each with a unique texture. Because of the sermons of Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, websites. They have both led to exciting scanning is practical, only one copy of oral history interviews with local Holocaust developments in our understanding a book is digitized. Beautiful, variable, survivors, performances of singers and

62 AJS Perspectives

musicians at local congregations, and Jewish radio programs that featured guests like Molly Picon. Some of these AJS 50TH ANNIVERSARY MUG materials can be found in our digital repository, notably eighty interviews in the recently completed Soviet Jewish Oral History Collection. But a Celebrate the AJS’s 50th daunting challenge remains—processing Anniversary with this special hundreds of items to inform the public commemorative coffee mug, that these Jewish history sources exist and, eventually, to digitize them for the available in limited supply! purposes of our researchers, who include Just $12 in advance or $15 at students at all levels, local community the door (supply remaining). groups preparing for programs, and genealogy and academic researchers worldwide. Our historical society has been myajs.associationforjewishstudies.org/store collecting for 150 years. Our audiovisual select “Merchandise” materials come in many formats, including 8mm film, 16mm film, 8-track, U-Matic, Beta, VHS, and laser disc, among others. Digitizing these materials to make them widely available will eventually enable us to hear Rabbi Silver’s famous oratory or relive a 1920s Camp Wise picnic. These recordings will allow us to visualize moments both celebratory and everyday and help transform our image of the Jewish past in America. Yet another pressing challenge awaits. We serve as the repository for the records of the Jewish Federation of RENEW Cleveland and nearly all the area’s Jewish congregations and social service agencies. YOUR AJS MEMBERSHIP Approximately 350 collections from local donors document our community’s FOR 2018–2019 Jewish past. The donations keep coming in, and, increasingly, more contemporary MEMBER BENEFITS INCLUDE: materials will be born digital. We at the WRHS are working to develop policies Subscriptions to all AJS Publications, including that will facilitate the accessioning and processing of these materials and our biannual journal, AJS Review, and our enable us to release them to the public. biannual magazine, AJS Perspectives This requires additional training, staff, money, and, not least, commitment. It’s Eligibility to apply for members-only grants the commitment that will allow us to and prizes reach our goal of helping researchers tell the stories of local Jewish history. Access to the most comprehensive listing of current open positions and post-doctoral Sean Martin is associate curator for Jewish History at Western Reserve fellowships in the field Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio. Exclusive discounts on books and subscriptions He is the author of Jewish Life in Cracow, 1918–1939 (Vallentine Mitchell, Access to members-only professional 2004); A Stitch in Time: The Cleveland development webinars and other opportunities Garment Industry (Western Reserve Historical Society, 2015); and For the Good of the Nation: Institutions for www.associationforjewishstudies.org/membership Jewish Children in Interwar Poland (Academic Studies Press, 2017).

SPRING 2018 63 50TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 50TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE December 16–18, 2018 Sheraton Boston Boston, MA

Join the AJS for more than 190 sessions devoted to the latest research in Jewish Studies. Major exhibit of leading publishers of Jewish Studies scholarship Evening ﬁlm screenings and performances 50th Anniversary Party and Plenary Lecture on Sunday, December 16 Evening receptions sponsored by Jewish Studies programs and research institutions Jewish Studies and Digital Humanities workshop (featuring the latest born-digital research projects and teaching tools) Professional development sessions, mentoring opportunities, and more!

Special reduced room rates at the Sheraton Boston ($149 single and double occupancy; $129 student rate) available through November 26, 2018.

Call 888.627.7054 for reservations. Be sure to ask for the Association for Jewish Studies rate.

For best rates register before August 31, 2018. See www.associationforjewishstudies.org/annual-conference for registration information.

For information on exhibiting, advertising, or sponsoring at the 50th Annual Conference, please contact Heather Turk, Director of Events and Operations, at [email protected]. 64 AJS Perspectives

ASSOCIATION FOR JEWISH STUDIES Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street New York, NY 10011