DOCSLIB.ORG

New Perspectives on American Jewish History

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
New Perspectives on American Jewish History Transnational Traditions Transnational TRADITIONS New Perspectives on American Jewish History Edited by Ava F. Kahn and Adam D. Mendelsohn Wayne State University Press Detroit © 2014 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission. Manufactured in the United States of America. Library of Congress Control Number: 2014936561 ISBN 978-0-8143-3861-2 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-8143-3862-9 (e-book) Permission to excerpt or adapt certain passages from Joan G. Roland, “Negotiating Identity: Being Indian and Jewish in America,” Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies 13 (2013): 23–35 has been granted by Nathan Katz, editor. Excerpts from Joan G. Roland, “Transformation of Indian Identity among Bene Israel in Israel,” in Israel in the Nineties, ed. Fredrick Lazin and Gregory Mahler (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996), 169–93, reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida. CONN TE TS Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 PART I An Anglophone Diaspora 1. The Sacrifices of the Isaacs: The Diffusion of New Models of Religious Leadership in the English-Speaking Jewish World 11 Adam D. Mendelsohn 2. Roaming the Rim: How Rabbis, Convicts, and Fortune Seekers Shaped Pacific Coast Jewry 38 Ava F. Kahn 3. Creating Transnational Connections: Australia and California 64 Suzanne D. Rutland PART II From Europe to America and Back Again 4. Currents and Currency: Jewish Immigrant “Bankers” and the Transnational Business of Mass Migration, 1873–1914 87 Rebecca Kobrin 5. A Taste of Freedom: American Yiddish Publications in Imperial Russia 105 Eric L. Goldstein PART III The Immigrant as Transnational 6. “German Jews?” Reassessing the History of Nineteenth- Century Jewish Immigrants in the United States 144 Tobias Brinkmann 7. The Gypsy in Them: Imagined Transnationalism amid New York City’s Little Rumania 165 Lara Rabinovitch 8. No American Goldene Medina: Harbin Jews between Russia, China, and Israel, 1899–2014 185 Jonathan Goldstein PART IV Creating New Homelands in Argentina, America, and Israel 9. Cultivating Jewish Farmers in the United States and Argentina 212 Ellen Eisenberg 10. Transforming Identities: Bene Israel Immigrants in Israel and the United States 230 Joan G. Roland 11. Transnational Aspirations: The Founding of American Kibbutzim, 1940s, 1970s 253 Ava F. Kahn Contributors 281 Index 285 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS No book can be completed without the considerable help of critical readers, obliging archivists, thoughtful colleagues, and supportive friends and family. First and foremost, we thank the contributors to this volume, without whom the publication would not exist. All worked diligently with us to produce this volume. Also important for a publication are encouraging editors. At Wayne State University Press, we thank production editor Kristin Harpster and edi- tor-in-chief Kathryn Peterson Wildfong, who has remained patient and sup- portive throughout the publication process. Kathryn selected two thoughtful reviewers whose detailed feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript led to revisions and a much-improved publication. We thank them for their time and insight. We are also indebted to archival and library staffs who helped us secure photographic images and research materials. We are particularly grateful to Philip Moses of the Australian Jewish Historical Society, Matthÿs van der Merwe of the Iziko Museums of South Africa, and Susan Snyder of the Ban- croft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. It is always a pleasure to work with Kevin Proffitt, the Senior Archivist for Research and Collections at the Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives. Dr. Gary P. Zola, Execu- tive Director, and Eliza Ho, Associate Archivist at the Archives also helped us in securing images. We thank them. The leadership of Hadassah generously sup- plied unprecedented access to their archives when conducting the research for chapter 11. Their help and that of the American Jewish Historical Society where their records are housed is much appreciated. Now for personal thank-yous. I benefited from colleagues who com- mented on conference papers presented at the Organization of American Historians and the Western Association of Jewish Studies. Also, heartfelt vii viii acknowledgments thanks to friends and colleagues who read versions of chapters: Ellen Eisen- berg, Norm Frankel, Ruth Haber, and my husband, Mitchell Richman. A.F.K. This project, itself a long time in the making, coincided with the birth and first two years of my son’s life. My thanks to my forbearing wife, and to Sam, who has made our lives so much fuller and funner. A.D.M. Transnational Traditions INTITRODUC ON Simultaneously celebrated as a goldene medina (golden land) by Jews attracted to its many wonders and stigmatized as a treyfe medina (impure land) by those leery of its freedoms, America has long occupied an outsized position within the Jewish imagination. The success of Jews in the United States, and the tragic fate of many of their counterparts in Europe before and during the Holocaust, crystallized the idea in the minds of many American Jews that they dwelled in an exceptional land. While not particular to Jews and those who study them, such claims of exceptionalism have been difficult to displace. All too often, the trends and challenges encountered by American Jews have been held up as unique. American Jewish history has often been depicted as a subject that starts and stops at the US border. According to this telling, Jewish newcomers jettisoned their past connections upon reaching American soil. Historians of the United States in general felt little inclination to look beyond America’s shores. Historians of American Jewry often have had par- ticular reason to limit their purview. Eager to weave Jews into the American narrative, some may have been reluctant to look for American Jewish history abroad. Others may have been concerned that by harping on the ebb and flow of connections between Old World and New they would play into the hands of those suspicious of the loyalties and political proclivities of America Jews. Many may have been daunted by the linguistic, financial, and temporal demands of following immigrants back to their point of origin. Still others, perhaps conscious that American Jewish history is a comparatively new field, may have been satisfied that there was more than enough new territory to explore if they confined their focus exclusively to the United States. This book reflects the efforts of contemporary historians to push back against the assumption that the experience of Jews in the United States can 1 2 introduction best be understood apart from the experiences of Jews elsewhere. Contribut- ing authors to this volume seek to plug American Jewish history back into the wiring of Jewish life abroad. Rather than assume that American Jewry has been the passive recipient of ideas, identities, and trends carried to its shores—that influences flowed in one direction only—several of the chapters demonstrate how American Jews shaped elements of Jewish life in Europe and Israel. In identifying elements of the American Jewish experience that are transnational—that cross political boundaries—the contributors to this volume are aiding in a broader rethinking of American, and indeed modern, Jewish history. For although Jews are the archetypal diasporic people, they have more often been studied by modern historians as citizens and subjects of single nation-states and empires—as American, Australian, Austro-Hungarian, Pol- ish, Russian, or German Jews—than as a people whose traditions, identity, sense of solidarity, and commercial, social, and religious connections crossed borders, regions, and even oceans. This was not always the case. Heinrich Graetz, Simon Dubnow, and Salo Baron—the leading lights of earlier eras of historical writing about Jews—each composed multivolume surveys that identified unifying trends, themes, and processes that transcended politi- cal boundaries. Moshe Rosman, an eminent historian of modern Jewry, recently lamented that the soaring ambition of this earlier “transgeographi- cal” approach has given way to a “national model of history-writing” focused on the narrower goal of seeking to understand how Jews influenced and were influenced by specific geographic contexts. If the “older histories discounted political geography,” Rosman writes, “the newer ones privileged it.” Ros- man wondered whether the “political–geographical framework,” for all of its advantages, has unintentionally blinded the “researcher to connections that may compose other contexts that might be more important and prompt a dif- ferent overall view of the relations between Jews, non-Jews, and other Jews.”1 Rosman’s clarion call for a new transnational approach to writing about Jews in the modern world—a history that is sensitive to local context but also appreciates the interconnections, commonalities, and areas of overlap between communities—echoes that of scholars within several other fields of history. Among historians of America, Thomas Bender has become the loud- est cheerleader for what he and others have described as “global history.”2 But he is far from alone: in 2009, the American Historical Association selected “globalizing historiography” as the theme of its conference. More and more scholars have begun to produce works that have fulfilled the broad ambition introduction 3 of eliding the national and the transnational. Unsurprisingly, some of the
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Global Form and Fantasy in Yiddish Literary Culture: Visions from Mexico City and Buenos Aires
    Global Form and Fantasy in Yiddish Literary Culture: Visions from Mexico City and Buenos Aires by William Gertz Runyan A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Comparative Literature) in the University of Michigan 2019 Doctoral Committee: Professor Mikhail Krutikov, Chair Professor Tomoko Masuzawa Professor Anita Norich Professor Mauricio Tenorio Trillo, University of Chicago William Gertz Runyan [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3955-1574 © William Gertz Runyan 2019 Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my dissertation committee members Tomoko Masuzawa, Anita Norich, Mauricio Tenorio and foremost Misha Krutikov. I also wish to thank: The Department of Comparative Literature, the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan for providing the frameworks and the resources to complete this research. The Social Science Research Council for the International Dissertation Research Fellowship that enabled my work in Mexico City and Buenos Aires. Tamara Gleason Freidberg for our readings and exchanges in Coyoacán and beyond. Margo and Susana Glantz for speaking with me about their father. Michael Pifer for the writing sessions and always illuminating observations. Jason Wagner for the vegetables and the conversations about Yiddish poetry. Carrie Wood for her expert note taking and friendship. Suphak Chawla, Amr Kamal, Başak Çandar, Chris Meade, Olga Greco, Shira Schwartz and Sara Garibova for providing a sense of community. Leyenkrayz regulars past and present for the lively readings over the years. This dissertation would not have come to fruition without the support of my family, not least my mother who assisted with formatting.
    [Show full text]
  • Florida State University Libraries
    Florida State University Libraries 2017 Turning Towards Zion: An Analysis of the Development of Attitudes Towards Israel of American Reform Jews in the Wake of Israel's War of 1967 Through Examination of the Yearbooks of the Central Conference of American Rabbis Micah Roberts Friedman Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF RELIGION TURNING TOWARDS ZION: AN ANALYSIS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF ATTITUDES TOWARDS ISRAEL OF AMERICAN REFORM JEWS IN THE WAKE OF ISRAEL’S WAR OF 1967 THROUGH EXAMINATION OF THE YEARBOOKS OF THE CENTRAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN RABBIS By MICAH ROBERTS FRIEDMAN A Thesis submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements of graduation with Honors in the Major 1 2 Table of Contents Signature Page……………………………………………………………………………………...2 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..4 Chapter One: Before the War 1965 – 1966………………………………………………………..10 1965: Cincinnati, Ohio…………………………………………………………………….10 1966: Toronto, Canada……………………………………………………………………15 Chapter Two: War and its Aftermath 1967 – 1969………………………………………………...18 1967: Los Angeles, California……………………………………………………………...18 1968: Boston, Massachusetts……………………………………………………………....24 1969: Houston, Texas……………………………………………………………………..30 Chapter Three: To Jerusalem and back 1970 – 1973………………………………………………41 1970: Jerusalem, Israel…………………………………………………………………….41 1971: St. Louis, Missouri…………………………………………………………………..49 1972: Grossinger, New York……………………………………………………………....57
    [Show full text]
  • M8-M9 EXHIBITION.Qxd
    M8 India Abroad April 25, 2008 the magazine ART Tara Sabharwal’s Tree Path. As a student, she sold her work to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum Bridging gaps: or Roopa Singh, political poet, adjunct professor The artist of international political science at Pace University and theater instructor with South Asian Youth Action (both in New York), Erasing Borders 2008 — which is currently showing in FNew York — is a deeply diverse exhibit. “An extremely talks back affirming taste of how creative our Diaspora is,” she says. “From eerie florescent gas masks on Bharat Natyam dancers, to blood-hued mangoes for breakfast, to sari and sex pistol clad Desi women ‘stenciled’ on wallpaper, to a playful piece on the New York City sewer caps inscribed in Forty Diaspora artists express their South Asian identity in the US with the bold: Made In India. This is us bearing witness to our- traveling exhibition, Erasing Borders, reports Arthur J Pais selves, a South Asian Diaspora, spread and alive.” Vijay Kumar, curator for the fifth edition of the Erasing childhood; images from pop culture including Bollywood Borders traveling exhibition, has been watching the films, advertising and fashion; strong social commentary; changing Indian art scene in New York for several decades. traditional miniature painting transformed and used for “There are many new ‘Indian’ galleries in New York and new purposes; calligraphy and script; startling juxtaposi- other cities now, fueled by the new wealth in India and the tions; work trying to ‘find a home’ within the psyche.” booming art market there,” he says. “These galleries most- By the time India and Pakistan celebrated 50 years of ly show work by artists still living in India; occasionally, Independence, the words Desi and Diaspora had become they do exhibit work by Diaspora artists.” commonplace, he continues.
    [Show full text]
  • Schnepp, Otto Oral History Interview Steve Hochstadt Bates College
    Bates College SCARAB Shanghai Jewish Oral History Collection Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library 6-7-1990 Schnepp, Otto oral history interview Steve Hochstadt Bates College Follow this and additional works at: http://scarab.bates.edu/shanghai_oh Recommended Citation Hochstadt, Steve, "Schnepp, Otto oral history interview" (1990). Shanghai Jewish Oral History Collection. 29. http://scarab.bates.edu/shanghai_oh/29 This Oral History is brought to you for free and open access by the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library at SCARAB. It has been accepted for inclusion in Shanghai Jewish Oral History Collection by an authorized administrator of SCARAB. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SHANGHAI JEWISH COMMUNITY BATES COLLEGE ORAL HISTORY PROJECT LEWISTON, MAINE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- OTTO SCHNEPP LOS ANGELES JUNE 7, 1990 Interviewer: Steve Hochstadt Transcription: Jennifer Gibson Nancy Masino Scott Pugh Steve Hochstadt © 1996 Otto Schnepp and Steve Hochstadt Otto Schnepp: What do you want me to do? I haven't prepared for this, I haven't thought about it, I must say, because we've been very swamped in recent days. I'm the department chairman now and I've been swamped with administrative problems, financial among others. So I haven't thought about it, let me try to focus. Maybe you can say a few words to help me to focus. Steve Hochstadt: What I'd like you to do first, which will probably take up quite a bit of time, is for you to start at the very beginning of when you or your family first heard about Shanghai. Actually I'd like you to start a little bit earlier, to give me a bit of background about you and your family living in Europe, and then about hearing about Shanghai and making the preparations and going there, and then about your life in Shanghai during the whole time, a narrative sketch until coming to the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • A Hebrew Maiden, Yet Acting Alien
    Parush’s Reading Jewish Women page i Reading Jewish Women Parush’s Reading Jewish Women page ii blank Parush’s Reading Jewish Women page iii Marginality and Modernization in Nineteenth-Century Eastern European Reading Jewish Society Jewish Women IRIS PARUSH Translated by Saadya Sternberg Brandeis University Press Waltham, Massachusetts Published by University Press of New England Hanover and London Parush’s Reading Jewish Women page iv Brandeis University Press Published by University Press of New England, One Court Street, Lebanon, NH 03766 www.upne.com © 2004 by Brandeis University Press Printed in the United States of America 54321 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or me- chanical means, including storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Members of educational institutions and organizations wishing to photocopy any of the work for classroom use, or authors and publishers who would like to obtain permission for any of the material in the work, should contact Permissions, University Press of New England, One Court Street, Lebanon, NH 03766. Originally published in Hebrew as Nashim Korot: Yitronah Shel Shuliyut by Am Oved Publishers Ltd., Tel Aviv, 2001. This book was published with the generous support of the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, Inc., Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry through the support of the Valya and Robert Shapiro Endowment of Brandeis University, and the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute through the support of the Donna Sudarsky Memorial Fund.
    [Show full text]
  • The Jews of Poland. an Anthology
    Portraits in Literature: The Jews of Poland. An Anthology Compiled, Edited and with an Introduction by HAVA BROMBERG BEN-ZVI VALLENTINE MITCHELL LONDON • PORTLAND, OR in association with ejps THE EUROPEAN JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY Contents List of Plates xi Acknowledgements xiii Praise for Portraits in Literature: The Jews of Poland xxi Introduction xxv The Jews of Poland in Legendary Tradition xxxvii PART I. OUR WORLD OF YESTERDAY 1. The Rebel by Sholem Asch. Excerpts from a Novel 3 2. The Mother's Reward by Sholem Asch. 11 Excerpts from a Novel 3. 'Olke' by Kadya Molodowsky. A Poem 22 4. 'The Tale of the Washtub' by Kadya Molodowsky. 27 A Poem 5. The Teacher Reb Mendele by Lili Berger. A Short Story 30 6. Time of Peace by Leon Weliczker Wells. A Memoir 37 7. The Bride by Israel Joshua Singer. Excerpt from a Novel 43 8. The Wedding Night by Israel Joshua Singer. 53 Excerpt from a Novel 9. A Jew in the Polish Army by Siegfried Halbreich. 59 A Memoir 10. The Circumcision That Wasn't. A Jewish Folk Tale 63 11. The Recipe of Rabbi Yenuka of Stolin. A Jewish Folk Tale 66 viii Portraits in Literature: The Jews of Poland 12. My First Day in the Orphanage by Israel Zyngman (Staszek). 69 A Memoir about Janusz Korczak 13. The Lamed Vovnik by Isaac Loeb Peretz. A Short Story 81 Polish Voices 14. Mendel Gdanski by Maria Konopnicka, a Polish writer. 87 A Short Story (Selections) 15. Links in a Chain by Eliza Orzeszkowa, a Polish writer.
    [Show full text]
  • March 16, 2020 PRE-TRIAL CHAMBER I Before
    ICC-01/18-79 16-03-2020 1/32 NM PT Original: English Case: ICC-01/18 Date: March 16, 2020 PRE-TRIAL CHAMBER I Before: Judge Péter Kovács, Presiding Judge Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut Judge Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou SITUATION IN THE STATE OF PALESTINE Public Written Observation of Shurat HaDin on the Issue of Affected Communities Source: SHURAT HADIN – Israel Law Center Israel, 10 HaTa'as Street Ramat Gan, 52512. Phone: 972-3-7514175 Fax: 972-3-7514174 Email: [email protected] 1/32 Case: ICC-01/18 ICC-01/18-79 16-03-2020 2/32 NM PT Document to be notified in accordance with regulation 31 of the Regulations of the Court to The Office of the Prosecutor Counsel for the Defence Fatou Bensouda James Stewart Legal Representatives of the Victims Legal Representatives of the Applicants Unrepresented Victims Unrepresented Applicants (Participation/Reparation) The Office of Public Counsel for The Office of Public Counsel for the Victims Defence Paolina Messida Xavier-Jean Keita States’ Representatives Amicus Curiae The competent authorities of 'palestine' All Amici Curiae The competent authorities of The State of Israel REGISTRY Registrar Counsel Support Section Peter Lewis Detention Section Victims and Witnesses Unit Victims Participation and Reparations Other Section Philip Ambach Case: ICC-01/18 2/32 ICC-01/18-79 16-03-2020 3/32 NM PT 1. Consistent with the Pre-Trial Chamber's order of Feb 20, 20201, granting leave to submit observations, and in accordance with Rule 103 to the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center (SHD) respectfully submits its written observation in respect of the issue of jurisdiction in the case regarding “The State of Palestine”.
    [Show full text]
  • Middle East -1971 (See List of Items Appendix No. 7)
    UN Secretariat Item Scan - Barcode - Record Title Page 4 Date 22/05/2006 Time 4:43:51 PM S-0865-0003-04-00001 Expanded Number S-0865-0003-04-00001 Title items-in-Peace-keeping operations - Middle East -1971 (see list of items appendix No. 7) Date Created 01/01/1971 Record Type Archival Item Container s-0865-0003: Peace-Keeping Operations Files of the Secretary-General: U Thant - Middle East Print Name of Person Submit Image Signature of Person Submit x/, 7 Selected Confidential Reports on OA-6-1 - Middle East 1971 Cable for SG from Goda Meir - 1 January 1971 2 Notes on meeting - 4 January 1971 - Present: SG, Sec. of State Rogers, 0 Ambassador Charles Yost, Mr. Joseph Sisco, Mr. McClosky and Mr. Urquhart t 3) Middle East Discussions - 5 January 1971 - Present: Ambassador Tekoah Mr. Aphek, Ambassador Jarring, Mr. Berendsen 4 Letter from Gunnar Jarrint to Abba Eban - 6 January 1971 x i Letter to Gunnar Jarring from C.T. Crowe (UK) 6 January 1971 *6 Notes on meeting - 7 January 1971 - Present: SG, Sir Colin Crowe 7 Notes on meeting - 7 January 1971 - Present: SG, Mr. Yosef Tekoah 8 "Essentials of Peace"(Israel and the UAR) - 9 January 1971 9 "Essentials of Peace" (Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordon - 9 January 1971 Statement by El Tayalt - 13 January 1971 Minutes of meeting - 13 January 1971 - Present: M. Masmoudi, El-Goulli, Mr. Fourati, Mr. Jarring, Mr. Berendsen^ Letter from William P. Rogers - 15 January 1971 Letter - Middle East - 15 January 1971 Implementation of Security Council Resolution 242 of 22 November 1967 For The Establishment of a Just and Lasting Peace in the Middle East - 18 January 1971 C H-^-^ ?-«-r-"~) Comparison of the papers of Israel and the United Arab Republic 18 January 1971 L " Notes on meeting - 19 January 1971 - Present: SG, Ambassador Yost, USSR - 1 January 1971 - Middle East Communication from the Government of Israel to the United Arab Republic through Ambassador Jarring - 27 January 1971 France - 27 January 1971 - Middle East Statement by Malik Y.A.
    [Show full text]
  • Anarchist Modernism and Yiddish Literature
    i “Any Minute Now the World’s Overflowing Its Border”: Anarchist Modernism and Yiddish Literature by Anna Elena Torres A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Joint Doctor of Philosophy with the Graduate Theological Union in Jewish Studies and the Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Chana Kronfeld, Chair Professor Naomi Seidman Professor Nathaniel Deutsch Professor Juana María Rodríguez Summer 2016 ii “Any Minute Now the World’s Overflowing Its Border”: Anarchist Modernism and Yiddish Literature Copyright © 2016 by Anna Elena Torres 1 Abstract “Any Minute Now the World’s Overflowing Its Border”: Anarchist Modernism and Yiddish Literature by Anna Elena Torres Joint Doctor of Philosophy with the Graduate Theological Union in Jewish Studies and the Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality University of California, Berkeley Professor Chana Kronfeld, Chair “Any Minute Now the World’s Overflowing Its Border”: Anarchist Modernism and Yiddish Literature examines the intertwined worlds of Yiddish modernist writing and anarchist politics and culture. Bringing together original historical research on the radical press and close readings of Yiddish avant-garde poetry by Moyshe-Leyb Halpern, Peretz Markish, Yankev Glatshteyn, and others, I show that the development of anarchist modernism was both a transnational literary trend and a complex worldview. My research draws from hitherto unread material in international archives to document the world of the Yiddish anarchist press and assess the scope of its literary influence. The dissertation’s theoretical framework is informed by diaspora studies, gender studies, and translation theory, to which I introduce anarchist diasporism as a new term.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    Faith Jones “WANDERING IS YOUR FATE”: ESTHER SHUMI- ATCHER-HIRSCHBEIN WRITING ACROSS BOUNDARIES On the cover of the premier issue of an avant-garde Yiddish literary magazine, a bird is flying, a soft right-to-left swoosh of head and feathers interrupted by harsh, geometric up-and-down wings. Or perhaps the wings are not actual wings but an indus- trial road through a serene landscape stretching sideways across the page. They could even be a bridge over water flowing below. Read from bottom to top, the geometric forms – be they wings or a human construction – spell, in Yiddish, “Albatross.” Published in Warsaw in 1922 and then in Berlin in 1923, and edited by Uri Tsvi Grinberg, a complex figure in both Yiddish and Hebrew literature, Albatros was one of several ambitious and short-lived periodicals that gave voice to Eastern European artists, many of them in transit between Russia and the west, or Russia and Palestine.1 Heavily influenced by German expressionism, these publications were notable for their integration of art, contemporary design, experimental type, and other innovations. It is curious, then, and striking, that Albatros took its name from a poem by a Canadian woman, Esther Shumiatcher, who was simply passing through Warsaw at the time Grinberg was gathering materials for his first issue, and who only recently had begun to write. The three poems by Shumiatcher (“Albatross” and two others) that appeared in the first issue of the journal were among her earliest publications. While no explicit editorial statement was made about the choice of title, the opening pages of the journal featured a 16 Faith Jones “Proclamation” written in Grinberg’s trademark dense, meta- phoric language, which shed light on the editor’s vision and the resonance of certain themes for this group of refugee-intellectuals: Door and battlements are open to the Four Winds, where the eternal Pilgrims are pulled, the sin of restlessness, of purified all-world — all- people recognition.
    [Show full text]
  • Zalman Shneour and Leonid Andreyev, David Vogel and Peter Altenberg Lilah Nethanel Bar-Ilan University
    Hidden Contiguities: Zalman Shneour and Leonid Andreyev, David Vogel and Peter Altenberg Lilah Nethanel Bar-Ilan University abstract: The map of modern Jewish literature is made up of contiguous cultural environments. Rather than a map of territories, it is a map of stylistic and conceptual intersections. But these intersections often leave no trace in a translation, a quotation, a documented encounter, or an archived correspondence. We need to reconsider the mapping of modern Jewish literature: no longer as a defined surface divided into ter- ritories of literary activity and publishing but as a dynamic and often implicit set of contiguities. Unlike comparative research that looks for the essence of literary influ- ence in the exposure of a stylistic or thematic similarity between works, this article discusses two cases of “hidden contiguities” between modern Jewish literature and European literature. They occur in two distinct contact zones in which two European Jewish authors were at work: Zalman Shneour (Shklov, Belarus, 1887–New York, 1959), whose early work, on which this article focuses, was done in Tsarist Russia; and David Vogel (Podolia, Russia, 1891–Auschwitz, 1944), whose main work was done in Vienna after the First World War. rior to modern jewish nationalism becoming a pragmatic political organization, modern Jewish literature arose as an essentially nonsovereign literature. It embraced multinational contexts and was written in several languages. This literature developed Pin late nineteenth-century Europe on a dual basis: it expressed the immanent national founda- tions of a Jewish-national renaissance, as well as being deeply inspired by the host environment. It presents a fascinating case study for recent research on transnational cultures, since it escapes any stable borderline and instead manifests conflictual tendencies of disintegration and reinte- gration, enclosure and permeability, outreach and localism.1 1 Emily S.
    [Show full text]
  • Problems of Jewish Culture
    University of Central Florida STARS PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements 1-1-1950 Problems of Jewish culture Morris U. Schappes Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/prism University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Book is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recommended Citation Schappes, Morris U., "Problems of Jewish culture" (1950). PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements. 338. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/prism/338 Problems of JEWISH CULTURE by M ORRIS U . SCHAP PES Price lO¢ A Publication of the SCHOOL OF JEWISH STUDIES ABOUT THE AUTHOR MORRIS U. SCHAPPES, the author of this pamphlet, was a mem­ ber of the English Department at City College, New York, from 1928 to 1941. A leading authority on Jewish history and culture, he has edited The Letters of Emma Lazarus, and Emma Lazarus: Selec­ tions From Her Prose and Poetry. He is presendy an editor of Jewish Life, and a member of the Board of Directors and a teacher at the School of Jewish Studies. His numerous articles, essays and reviews have appeared in the publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, Journal of Negro History, Jewish Life, Masses & Mainstream, American Literature, The Worker, American Hebrew, and the Chicago Jewish Forum. The text of this pamphlet is reprinted from an article which ap­ peared in the March, 1950, issue of Masses & Mainstream.
    [Show full text]