Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies • December 2014

Inside Saving 2 Devi Mays: Ashkenazi 3 Scholar of Sephardic Jewry Spotlight on American 4 Exploring the Diversity of Detroit 6 Max Brod’s Suitcase, Kafka’s 8 Patrimony by Scott Spector Haya Bar-Itzhak: Tell Me a Story 9 What’s New at the Frankel Center? 10 Mazel Tov! 11 Save the Date 12

COVER PHOTO: “Chene Street” by Marian Krzyzowski

202 S. Thayer St. • Suite 2111 Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608 | [email protected] December 2014 1 (734) 763-9047 FROM THE DIRECTOR

Saving Regina Jonas

By Dash Moore, Director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of History

aving who…and in what sense? course of her life. We traced her S footsteps in , where she was Regina Jonas was the first woman born in 1902, visiting remains of ordained a in Berlin, over the synagogues and schools. After Jonas’ Christmas school holiday, in 1935. Photo by Jean-Pierre Jans ordination, she continued to teach Jonas studied at the liberal Berlin schoolchildren, give occasional Hochshule für die Wissenschaft sermons, and write for the Jewish des Judentums with such other Conservative, and for distinguished students as Abraham press. She also served as a hospital Joshua Heschel. She worked together chaplain and as a rabbi for elderly Modern Orthodox—participated in with acclaimed psychologist Viktor in old-age homes and remnant a service honoring Jonas. Each one Frankl in Theresienstadt from 1942 communities outside Berlin in selected texts from Jonas’ writings. to 1944 until she was deported to the late 1930s and early 1940s. As Hearing her words spoken, albeit in Auschwitz and murdered, leaving increasing numbers of male English translation, conveyed a sense behind no family. Regina Jonas, left Germany, her decision to remain of her power. in Berlin, in part to care for her aging who was known to , In many ways the plaque represented mother, meant that she encountered the first woman ordained a rabbi at merely an external affirmation of more opportunities to serve in a the Hebrew Union College-Jewish the trip’s dramatic impact. The rabbinic role. Institute of Religion in 1972, would many women rabbis participating not seem to be in need of saving. Her The many women rabbis in the delegation embraced Jonas extraordinary life is the subject of a as foremother. “I am Her Kaddish,” recent biography and documentary; participating in the wrote Rabbi Myra Soifer in a poem. nevertheless, Jonas has largely eluded delegation embraced “Could she have imagined me? Did both Jewish memory and history. A Jonas as foremother. her rabbinate lead, somehow, to delegation of 30 American Jewish mine? Probably not. Yet the sermons academics, rabbis, and leaders set The delegation then traveled to she preached, and classes she taught, out this July to rescue her from the Theresienstadt, the Czech garrison could have been mine. And so, as if oblivion of the Holocaust and to town transformed into a ghetto- claim her as their own. inevitably…I am Her Kaddish.” These concentration camp by the Nazis. connective strands transformed The trip began after Gary P. Zola, Assigned to greet arriving inmates, Jonas and us by introducing us to executive director of the Jacob Jonas tried to sustain their spirits. her all-too-brief life extinguished in Rader Marcus Center of the She gave lectures—some 23 titles Auschwitz, recovering fragments of survive—and retained an abiding American Jewish Archives (AJA), memories and texts, and binding her faith in ’s universal vision proposed Jonas to the United States life to the history of . Commission for the Preservation for humanity. Before unveiling the of America’s Heritage Abroad as plaque recognizing Jonas as part Jewish women rabbis, once thought worthy of recognition. When the of America’s heritage abroad, four to be an American innovation, Commission agreed, Zola invited the rabbis who were the first women products of a revolutionary Jewish Jewish Women’s Archives to join AJA to be ordained by the four major feminist movement, now had an in sponsoring a delegation to honor movements in American Judaism— older, European history, tied to Jonas’ memory. The delegation, in Priesand for Reform, Sandy Sasso for the central Jewish tragedy of the which I participated, followed the Reconstructionist, for 20th century. ■

2 | Frankely Speaking FACULTY

DEVI MAYS: Ashkenazi Scholar of Sephardic Jewry

hen 17-year-old Devi Mays practice or tradition. They were a Wvisited Turkey one summer very secular, assimilated family. So with her mother, a silk store Judaic studies is also a way for me to owner inquired as to whether they explore my heritage.” were Jewish. Her mother was a That exploration began in earnest non-practicing Jew, and said so. when she took a year off to return “We’re Jewish also,” replied the man, to Istanbul after graduating from “and you’re part of our family. We’re Vancouver’s University of British Sephardic, and you’re Ashkenazi, but Columbia. There, she became we’re all part of the same family.” interested in the Turkish Jewish community and Ottoman Jewish The Frankel Center may owe a debt of history, and began to pursue that gratitude to that friendly shopkeeper, track for graduate school at Indiana for that conversation sparked a long University, where she received her friendship that planted the seeds PhD. She traveled to five different Photo by Sarah Nesbitt for Mays’ future research at the countries to research her dissertation University of . Jewish history, and to not think on the migrations of Sephardic Jews of Sephardic Jews as somehow to Mexico, an experience she likens peripheral, but really integral to “I want to try to put the to “putting together a puzzle where I the development of modern Jewish had to find the pieces before I could ­Sephardic story back history.” into the story of modern put the pieces together.” Mays also places a high priority on Mays joined the Frankel Center after Jewish history.” having dialogue with departments serving as the inaugural postdoctoral outside Jewish studies, to make fellow in modern Jewish studies at Mays is now the new assistant scholars in fields such as Latin the Jewish Theological Seminary. professor of Judaic studies at the American studies, migration studies, Today, her research interests focus on Frankel Center, and her journey and Middle Eastern history aware of transnational Jewish networks and to Ann Arbor is nothing short of the importance of Jews to the regions the modern Sephardic world. As one remarkable. Her mother’s family lived they study. of this year’s Frankel Institute fellows, for generations on the West Coast she is studying how Constantinople At Michigan, she is looking forward after moving to San Francisco during served as a central meeting place for to teaching a course on the history the Gold Rush, where they helped Jews of many nationalities. of the Jews of Spain, as well as one established Congregation Emanu-El, about Jewish experiences in the the area’s first Reform synagogue. The research is important because, Mediterranean region. But Mays’ parents embraced Mays says, “so much of Jewish history the Transcendental Meditation and culture has been [seen] through But most of all, she says, “I’m really movement and moved to Iowa, an Ashkenazi perspective. I think looking forward to being part of such where she grew up learning Sanskrit, that looking at Sephardic history and a great institution. When I was in practicing meditation, and living culture nuances Jewish history… graduate school, people would ask, worlds away from Judaic studies and enriches what we think it is to be ‘Where would you choose to go if you of any kind. Even her name, Devi Jewish, what it was to be Jewish in the could go anywhere?’ I would say, ‘I (pronounced Day-vee), is the name past, and what it is to be Jewish today want to end up somewhere like the of a Hindu goddess. as well. .’ “By my mother’s generation,” Mays “I want to try to put the Sephardic “I never thought it would be possible explains, “there was no Jewish story back into the story of modern to do that. And here I am.” ■

December 2014 | 3 ACADEMICS SPOTLIGHT ON American Jewish Studies

The land of the free is also the Jonathan Freedman is the Marvin Felheim Collegiate home of many Jews, and the Professor and teaches English and Frankel Center’s strong focus on American studies. His courses focus on Jewish-American American Jewish Studies attests literature and the relation to that. Students can absorb the between Jews and “Others” in the United States, such as Asian breadth of American Jewish Americans, Latinos, and African history, religion, sociology, and Americans. This popular course provided a foundation for his most recent book, Klezmer literature under the guidance of America: Jewishness, Ethnicity, Modernity. Freedman’s faculty members such as Sara other two books (Professions of Taste: Henry James, British Aestheticism and Commodity Culture; and The Temple of Blair, Mikhail Krutikov, Deborah Culture: Assimilation, Anti-Semitism and Literary Anglo America) look at British as well as American literature. Dash Moore, Regina Morantz- Currently he is working on a book about Jews and Sanchez, Anita Norich, and others. decadence in the late 19th century. ■

Here is a sampling of some of the Karla Goldman is the Sol Drachler Professor of Social Work cutting-edge research being done and director of the university’s by our prestigious faculty and Jewish Communal Leadership Program. Her classes focus on graduate students. American Jewish communal experience and the history of Jewish involvement in American social justice movements. Her Photos by D.C. Goings current research concentrates on the history of Jews at the University of Michigan, the subject of a course she taught last year; the Jewish experience of Hurricane Katrina, which formed the basis of a series of fascinating oral histories conducted in its aftermath; and the history of the Jewish community of Cincinnati across two centuries. She previously taught American Jewish history at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and served as Historian in Residence at the Jewish Women’s Archive. She is the author of Beyond the Synagogue Gallery: Finding a Place for Women in American Judaism. ■

4 | Frankely Speaking We Asked Our Students: What Is Your Dissertation About? Morgan Carlton: I would like to look at “passing for white” among Jewish and African American women during the early 20th century, and, more specifically, the cultural alterations both groups were required to live through when becoming truly “American.” Julian Levinson is the Samuel Shetzer Associate Josh Friedman: I explore contemporary Professor of American Jewish institutions and activists, their relationship to the Studies. His research focuses on culture of American Jewish youth programing, and the American Jewish culture and broader institutional and philanthropic networks to Yiddish literature and the effects which those programs are linked. This project is based of the Holocaust on the American on over 20 months of field research at the Yiddish Book Jewish imagination. Levinson has Center, with Yiddishists in , and at a new worked as a translator of Yiddish nonprofit called Yiddish Farm. poetry into English, publishing Moshe Kornfeld: My dissertation, “The Chosen selected verse by Moyshe Leib Halpern. He is the author of Universalists: Jewish Philanthropy and Youth Activism the award-winning Exiles on Main Street: Jewish American in Post-Katrina New Orleans,” contextualizes a variety Writers and American Literary Culture, and is currently of Jewish community responses to the storm—some completing a manuscript on transformations of Jewish focused internally on helping the Jewish community religious identity in the context of American Protestantism and others focused externally on the broader project and its intense bibliocentrism. Recently he has taken of post-disaster recovery—in relation to the history of these themes into his classes, teaching The Bible as Jewish philanthropy in New Orleans. Literature and The Book of Genesis and its Interpretations, in addition to American Jewish Literature After the Ben Pollak: I study the emergence of a secular Holocaust. ■ Jewish American literary tradition in interwar representations of the historically Jewish neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn. This tradition, I discovered, David Schoem is the was grounded in the popular genre of the working-class founding Director of the tenement narrative and facilitated by the intimate worlds Michigan Community Scholars of New York’s literary, social, and political institutions. Program, which brings together students and faculty committed Katie Rosenblatt: My dissertation, “Cooperative to community service, diversity, Battlegrounds: Farmers, Laborers, and the Search for and academic excellence. He has Economic Alternatives,” offers the history of a counter- served as LSA Assistant Dean capitalist social movement through which laborers and for Undergraduate Education farmers sought to redress the inequalities of capitalism and Assistant Vice President for through the organization of consumer and producer Academic and Student Affairs. As a first-generation college cooperatives, credit unions, and cooperative health, student himself, Schoem understands the challenges facing housing, and insurance programs. those students today who are the first in their family to Logan Wall: I consider the works of four writers: attend college. He also brings a sociological lens to courses Louis Zukofsky, Charles Reznikoff, Lola Ridge, and on the American Jewish community, intergroup relations, James Weldon Johnson. Zukofsky and Reznikoff, and education. He is co-editor of the forthcoming book born into Yiddish-speaking immigrant households; Integrative Pedagogy: Teaching the Whole Student with Ridge, an Irish immigrant; and Johnson, a leader of Heart, Mind and Spirit. Some of his other books include the Harlem Renaissance, show how it was possible to College Knowledge for the Jewish Student and Intergroup claim Americanness while remaining unsatisfied with Dialogue: Deliberative Democracy in School, College, the nation’s treatment of cultural, ethnic, religious, and Community and Workplace. ■ political outsiders.

December 2014 | 5 STUDENTS Exploring the Diversity of

By focusing on a single area in Detroit, Chene Street, this course provided a lens into Detroit’s complex ­racial, ­religious, and ethnic conflict, competition, and ­cooperation during the 20th century.

The class poses in front of the Diego Rivera mural at the Detroit Institute of Arts. L to R: Kristen Anderson, Chris White, Deborah Dash Moore, Vishnu Venugopal, Marian Krzyzowski, Justin Rhee, Kelly Onickel, Brendan Rand, Emily Zussman, Grace Judge, Jordan Smith, Ben Schechter.

n a Tuesday afternoon at Mason trips into Detroit, particularly noted. In addition to reading diverse O Hall, you just might enter a into less-known and -visited texts in the history and politics of classroom in time to see a video of neighborhoods; the interaction Detroit, and seeing films, “we want Martha Reeves and the Vandellas between the students and a wide to give students a sense of what it felt singing “Dancing in the Streets”— range—ethnically, racially, and like to live in the city during this and Deborah Dash Moore, director religiously—of Detroiters who time period.” of the Frankel Center for Judaic directly experienced and contributed The course itself is a living lesson in Studies, dancing along to the music. to the history of the city; and the diversity and cooperation: between access we provide to the city’s culture Suffice it to say that “Detroit: Race, the two departments who jointly offer and music, that allows for a more Religion, and Ethnicity in the 20th it, between the two instructors who intimate and personal experience Century” is clearly not your average jointly teach it, and in the range of of Detroit.” Judaic Studies course. Offered jointly students who participate in it. last fall by the Frankel Center and The day that “Dancing in the Streets” “I hope that the class contributes to the Department of History, it was was playing was one such example. the development of students’ critical taught by Dash Moore and Marian The class was discussing how thinking skills to allow them to work Krzyzowski, director of the Institute Motown affected the cultural politics with existing narratives of Detroit for Research on Labor, Employment, of Detroit as well as the world’s and assess them from their own and the Economy. By focusing on a image of America, and the music personal and direct experience of single area in Detroit, Chene Street, introduced students to the Motown the city,” said Krzyzowski. “The the course provided a lens into sound. On another day, students hope is that they then will take away Detroit’s complex racial, religious, were treated to guest speaker Tommy this experience and apply it to other and ethnic conflict, competition, and Stephens, owner of the Raven situations and narratives that they cooperation during the 20th century. Lounge, Michigan’s oldest blues bar. confront in their lives.” ■ “What’s exciting is the entire “For many of the students, this is experiential learning aspect of the their first real engagement with the course,” said Krzyzowski. “The city and its history,” Krzyzowski Photos courtesy of Marian Krzyzowski

6 | Frankely Speaking Belin Lecturer to Speak on Detroit

On March 12, Lila Corwin Berman will deliver the 25th David W. Belin Lecture in American Jewish Affairs on “The Jewish Romance with the Modern City: Loving, Leaving, and Reforming.” Corwin Berman is associate professor of history at Temple University, as well as the Murray Friedman Chair of American Jewish History and director of the Feinstein Center for American Jewish History. The class with Rev. Kenneth Davis of Detroit’s New Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, the former site of B’nai David Synagogue. “I’d like people to puzzle with me over the entanglement of 20th-century American Jewish life with urbanism, on one From Our Students hand, and de-urbanization—or suburbanization—on the other,” “The use of archives, media, and visits to the city make it one of the she said. “Detroit’s history provides most engaging classes I’ve ever taken!” a rich and complicated view into – Grace Judge, politics, philosophy, and economics junior these two impulses: loving the city and leaving it. In my research, I’ve “I have felt a certain heartbreak about Detroit because of the decay of explored how Jews and Jewish the city with all the burnt down and abandoned buildings, as well as the institutions made sense of their high poverty rate. I wanted to have a deeper understanding of how this move away from Detroit within a city came to be.” liberal framework. I’ll draw our – Jordan Smith, history minor attention to narratives of return to the city and ask in what ways these “I hope to gain a more holistic understanding of why and how Detroit stories of Detroit rising or being has developed the way it has, as well as how the city can continue rising revitalized reflect liberal sensibilities, into a thriving city once again.” and in what ways they are evidence of a very different political and – Vishnu Venugopal, economics and history senior economic approach to urban life characterized by increasing “We have been able to access the city in many different ways through privatization.” ■ tours, trips to the DIA, and guest speakers. I really enjoy the diverse curriculum of the course.” – Emily Zussman, first-year MSW student in the Jewish – Communal Leadership Program

December 2014 | 7 RESEARCH Max Brod’s Suitcase, Kafka’s Patrimony By Scott Spector, Professor of History, German, and Judaic Studies

ax Brod was for a time the the legal decision. Yet the incredible M best known of his generation symbolism of housing this legacy in of German-speaking Jewish writers institutions appointing themselves as from Prague. Without doubt, repositories of Jewish and German though, he is mostly remembered cultural heritage, respectively, today as the person who supported, enflamed commentators on both promoted, and ultimately rescued sides. Celebrated British author from destruction the work of Will Self declared: “Brod himself another member of that cohort, was intent on canonising Kafka as his friend Franz Kafka. On the eve a Zionist saint, and the Israeli state of the occupation of Prague by holding the papers ensures that German troops in 1939, Brod packed this falsification will continue.” A a suitcase full of Kafka’s and his less-than-cautious statement from own unpublished work, including the Marbach library pointed out those of Kafka’s writings that are that Brod was “an unusual figure now considered hallmarks of the on the Eretz Israel landscape of modernist literary legacy, and fled the time, always dressed in suits to Palestine. Photo by D.C. Goings and maintaining his European Recently, this man and this appearance.” An article in the friendship have been in the news conducted substantial research in Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz sharply due to a protracted court case each: the National Library of Israel retorted that Brod and others of regarding the proper home of in , or the German Literary his generation were certainly out Brod’s literary remains, containing Archive in Marbach, Germany. of place in “this strange, hot land some writing in Kafka’s own hand. across the sea,” adding: “Does the The legacy was inherited by Brod’s What are the relationships­ German Literature Archive need to secretary and companion, who among author, editor, ­ be reminded about which state was sold some of the manuscripts and writing, homeland, and responsible for this?” passed the remainder in turn to her daughters, whose right to sell them cultural legacy? These pronouncements all shed more to a German archive came into heat than light on a question that question. As the case languished in The decision to grant the papers to concerned both Brod and Kafka in the Tel Aviv courts, and the package the Jerusalem archive was a matter very different—almost opposite, but of papers in a Swiss vault, voices of inheritance gift law tried in family kin—ways: what are the relationships from all over the world chimed in court, and it revolved around a among author, editor, writing, on the question of which archive decided ambiguity in Brod’s last will homeland, and cultural legacy? In ought to house the contents of this and testament. Neither the national a longer essay, I am trying to draw last box (which, incidentally, were right of the State of Israel nor of the out how these issues are worked unknown). In the end, it came down Federal Republic of Germany to through in the writings of Kafka and to a choice between two institutions house the materials was at issue in Brod themselves, including in their that I know quite well, having the various versions of the will or in respective testaments. ■

8 | Frankely Speaking VISITING PROFESSOR

Haya Bar-Itzhak: Tell Me a Story

A conversation with Haya Bar-Itzhak Higher Education. Today the archive is like curling up on a sofa with is digitized, and we are working Fast Facts several thousand storybooks. That’s on many projects. Recently, for because this year’s Schusterman example, we started to collect folk Professor in Israeli Studies also serves narratives told in Israel by Jewish as academic director of the Israel women from Ethiopia. We also Folktale Archives, where she has conducted a huge research project in

studied countless Jewish folk tales. Beit She’an, where we collected some Photo by Sarah Nesbitt FRANKELY SPEAKING: How did 300 folk narratives from Moroccan, you become interested in Jewish folk Persian, Iraqi, Kurdistani, and literature? Eastern European Jews. FS: BAR-ITZHAK: As a little girl, I What makes a “Jewish story” listened to and read myths, legends, Jewish? and fairy tales. After I was drafted BAR-ITZHAK: There are many Name: Haya Bar-Itzhak by the Israeli army, I decided to criteria, but first of all, of course, it’s Title: Head of Folklore Studies and study physics at the Technion, but told by Jews. It has a specific flavor Academic Director of Israel Folktale was told that I could never hope to of a Jewish tale. Jews borrowed Archives at the University of Haifa. complete that degree while serving from other people, and in each Education: PhD in Jewish folk place where Jews used to live, they literature, Hebrew University, “These stories express what listened to songs and tales, and Jerusalem. I call the existential truth of the culture of the other influenced Courses Taught: Jewish Folk the storytelling society.” Jewish culture. Also, what is special Literature, Women and Femininity in about Jewish folk literature is Jewish Folk Narratives, Israeli Folk that we can perform an in-depth Narratives, Year Cycle and Life Cycle in the military. Instead, I decided to historical study of these narratives in Jewish Folklore. study literature at the University of because they were also preserved in Publications: Author and editor of Haifa. There I met my teacher and written sources, including the Bible, 11 books, including Jewish Poland – mentor, Professor Dov Noy, who rabbinic literature, and Middle Ages Legends of Origin (2001); Pioneers of introduced Folklore Studies to Israeli compilations. Jewish Ethnography and Folkloristics academia, and established the Israel (2011); Encyclopedia of Jewish Folktale Archives. FS: Do you have a favorite story? Folklore and Traditions (2013); Folklore and Ideology (2014). FS: Can you tell us more about the BAR-ITZHAK: I like a lot of stories, Israel Folktale Archives? and usually what happens is that whatever story I am dealing with at a BAR-ITZHAK: I call it the treasure BAR-ITZHAK: For me, these stories specific moment is the one I love the trove of the Jewish imagination, express what I call the existential most. At this moment I’m writing a and scholars from all over the world truth of the storytelling society. book about portrayals of women in come to us in Haifa to work on folk Sometimes it is maybe a different Jewish legends from Eastern Europe. narratives. Today we have 24,000 truth than historians seek, but it’s an In this book I deal with legends about folk narratives recorded in Israel existential truth, because you learn women like Mirale of Brahilov, the from all the Jewish ethnic groups what was really important to the Golden Rose, the , and from non-Jewish ethnic groups. society, what they fought for, and Adil Kikinish of Drochobycz, and Last year, the Israel Folktale Archives what they believed in. This opens many more. was named a national research a window that I think only folk infrastructure by the Council of FS: What can we learn from folklore? narratives can open. ■

December 2014 | 9 LEADERSHIP

What’s New at the Frankel Center?

CIC Conference in Judaic Studies On October 20, the Frankel Center convened 13 Judaic Studies department representatives from institutions of higher learning represented in the Committee of Institutional Cooperation (CIC). “The CIC gathering represented a landmark event, bringing together heads of Jewish studies programs in Participants at the CIC Conference. Standing, L to R: Riv-Ellen Prell (Minnesota), Jeffrey Shandler the CIC for the first time,” remarked (Rutgers), Yael Aronoff (Michigan State), Ben Schreier (Pennsylvania State), Simone Schweber Deborah Dash Moore, director of the (Wisconsin-Madison), Barry Wimpheimer (Northwestern), Bruce Rosenstock (Illinois), Daniel Frank (Purdue), Deborah Dash Moore (Michigan), Sarah Imhoff (Indiana). Seated, L to R: Ken Walzer (Michigan Frankel Center. The meeting, which State), Jean Cahan (Nebraska-Lincoln), Charles Manekin (Maryland). took place at U-M, explored the value of forming a Judaic Studies CIC peer AJS Workshop for New Chairs Partnership with the Museum of group that would share ideas and best of Judaic Studies the History of Polish Jews practices. Topics covered included Israel, outreach, graduate programs, This month, the Association for The Frankel Center has partnered and curriculum. Jewish Studies will team up with the with the Copernicus Program in Frankel Center to sponsor a New Polish Studies in signing an official Based in the Midwest, the CIC is a Chairs Workshop, which will support affiliation with Polin, the newly consortium of the Big Ten member the work of chairs of Jewish Studies opened Museum of the History of universities plus the University of programs and centers. The workshop Polish Jews in Warsaw. The agreement Chicago. Recently, the University of will meet on December 16–17 in will facilitate collaboration on Maryland and Rutgers University Baltimore, Maryland, immediately research exchanges for faculty and joined the group. For over five following the AJS Annual Meeting. pedagogic activities for University of decades, CIC institutions have This is the first time that such a Michigan students. shared expertise, leveraged campus workshop will be held, and from the resources, and collaborated on The new museum was built on what innovative programs. enthusiastic response of new chairs, it was once the center of the Warsaw has tapped into a real need. Ghetto, and focuses on the rich Polish “It was especially rewarding The workshop will aim to connect Jewish culture that was destroyed in to discuss shared concerns as the Holocaust. directors of Jewish studies programs current or soon-to-be program/ and centers and to get to know department chairs with seasoned “We are the first and only institution colleagues,” said Dash Moore. “We administrators to discuss major to date to have an agreement with the face similar challenges and could issues in the work of chairs, as well museum,” said Genevieve Zubrzycki, offer advice based on what worked— as to develop a network of mentors director of Copernicus and the Center and what did not.” ■ and colleagues to serve as resources for Russian, East European and beyond the workshop. The workshop Eurasian Studies. “They chose us not faculty will include Judith Baskin only because of our scholarly expertise, (University of Oregon), Hartley but also because of our experience with Lachter (Lehigh University), Pamela building collaborative projects. I hope Nadell (American University), the agreement will help situate U-M and Noam Pianko (University as the premier institution in North of Washington). ■ America for Polish-Jewish studies.” ■

10 | Frankely Speaking MILESTONES MAZ E L TOV! Undergraduate Students Alona Nitzan-Shiftan received a 2014 Sephardi Diaspora,” appeared in Graham Foundation Publication Grant Mashriq and Mahjar: Journal of Kaitlin Schuler wrote several articles from the Graham Foundation for Middle East Migration Studies. Her for Groundcover News. She recently Advanced Study in the Visual Arts. numerous translations from Ladino, became editor in chief for the She recently became president of Spanish, and French are included Michiganensian, the U-M’s yearbook. the European Architectural History in Sephardi Lives: A Documentary Network (EAHN). Graduate Students History, 1700–1950 (2014). Mays Laurence Roth co-editedThe recently presented papers at both Beth Dwoskin recently presented Routledge Handbook of Contemporary the Latin American Jewish Studies her paper, “Dem Lied Funim Jewish Cultures (2014). He also Association and the Latin American Hemd—a Yiddish Translation of contributed a chapter on “Networks” Studies Association. a Classic Victorian Poem” at the to the volume, which he completed Anita Norich spent the summer Midwest Jewish Studies Association when he was a Frankel fellow. delivering lectures on Yiddish topics Annual Conference at Kent State in Melbourne, Australia at Limmud University in . Dan Shapira’s recent articles include “‘We Are a Very Ancient People’: Oz, Monash University, the Kadimah Shira Schwartz was granted seed The ‘Antiquity Discourse’ Among the Center, and Yiddish Sof Vokh. funding for her research proposal Jews of Northeastern Caucasus, Ryan Szpiech published several from the Global Midwest initiative of Georgia, and Central Asia,” published articles: “The Aura of an Alphabet: Humanities Without Walls. in Studies in Caucasian, Georgian, Interpreting the Hebrew Gospels and Bukharan Jewry: Historical, in Ramon Marti’s Dagger of Faith Past Fellows Sociological, and Cultural Aspects (1278)” in Numen; and “Cracking the We mourn the passing of our 2013–14 (2014); and “On the Relative Value Code: Reflections on Manuscripts in fellow, Rivka Bliboim. Her last of Armenian Sources for the Khazar the Age of Digital Books” in Digital articles included “Juxtaposition and Studies: The Case of the Siege of Philology. Tablet Magazine reprinted Construct States in Contemporary Tbilisi” in Garnik Asatrian Festschrift the latter as “The Dagger of Faith in Hebrew” in Leshonenu (June); (2014). the Digital Age” in September. “Huwiya/Zehut: Identity and Herb Weisberg’s article, “Tradition! Jeff Veidlinger co-led the Silberman Language in the Israeli Bilingual Tradition? Jewish Voting in the 2012 Seminar for University Faculty on Sitcom ‘Arab Labor’” in Israel Studies Election,” appeared in the July issue “Teaching about the Holocaust in the in Language and Society; and “In the of PS: Political Science & Politics. ” at the United States Beginning There Was the Language Holocaust Memorial Museum and by Uzi Ornan” in Hed Haulpan Faculty was appointed to the Academic (summer). Her book, Naming the Deborah Dash Moore’s new book Committee of the museum’s Center State: the Cultural, Ideological and for Advanced Holocaust Studies. Linguistic Process Involved, will soon is Urban Origins of American be published by Yad Ben Zvi. Judaism (2014). Richard Kalmin’s new book is Karla Goldman spoke on “President Migrating Tales: The ’s Little and the Jews: Inclusion Narratives and Their Historical and Exclusion at the University of Our faculty member, Rachel Context (2014). His recent articles Michigan in the Era of Admissions Neis, won the American include “Zechariah and the Bubbling Quotas” at the Scholars Conference Academy for Jewish Blood: An Ancient Tradition in Jewish, on American Jewish History in June Research’s Salo Baron Prize Christian, and Muslim Literature,” at Emory University. for the best first book in Jewish which appeared in Jews and Devi Mays was awarded a summer studies published in 2013 for Christians in Sasanian Babylonia; and fellowship from the National The Sense of Sight in Rabbinic “Targum in the Babylonian Talmud” in Endowment for the Humanities. Culture: Jewish Ways of Seeing Envisioning Judaism: Studies in Honor Her article, “‘I Killed Her Because in Late Antiquity. of Peter Schaefer on the Occasion of I Loved Her Too Much’: Gender His Seventieth Birthday. and Violence in the 20th Century

December 2014 | 11 University of Michigan Non-Profit Organization Frankel Center for US Postage PAID Judaic Studies Ann Arbor, MI 202 S. Thayer Street, Suite 2111 Permit No. 144 Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608 (734) 763-9047 [email protected] Executive Committee Deborah Dash Moore, Director Anita Norich Shachar Pinsker Scott Spector The Regents of the University of Michigan Mark J. Bernstein, Ann Arbor Julia Donovan Darlow, Ann Arbor Laurence B. Deitch, Bloomfield Hills Shauna Ryder Diggs, Grosse Pointe Denise Ilitch, Bingham Farms Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Arbor Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park Save the Date! Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor ■ Mark S. Schlissel (ex officio) February 5, 12, 19, and 26: Frankel Institute Detroit lecture series on Jews and Empires Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies 7 pm at the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit, 6600 W. Maple Rd., West Bloomfield. Steering Committee Derek Collins ■ February 9: Frankel Institute Symposium on Deborah Dash Moore Anita Norich “Jews and the Roman Empire: Beyond Resistance/ Shachar Pinsker Sidonie Smith Accommodation Paradigm” Scott Spector Ronald Suny 6 2– pm at Kelsey Museum, Newberry Building, Room 125.

Academic Advisory Board ■ February 17: Author Alan Rosen will speak on Robert B. Alter University of California-Berkeley “Killing Time, Saving Time: Calendars and the Holocaust” Miriam Bodian University of Texas-Austin 4 pm at 202 S. Thayer St., Room 2022. Jonathan Boyarin University of North Carolina Richard Cohen For more information about our events, visit www.lsa.umich.edu/judaic Hebrew University Calvin Goldscheider or like us on Facebook (UM Judaic Studies) Brown University Galit Hasan-Rokem Hebrew University Deborah Lipstadt Emory University Peter Machinist The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all Harvard Divinity School applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The University Ray Scheindlin of Michigan is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on Jewish Theological Seminary the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, Kay Kaufman Shelamay gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the Senior Director Harvard University for Institutional Equity, and Title IX/Section 504/ADA Coordinator, Office of Institutional Equity, 2072 James Young Administrative Services Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1432, (734) 763-0235, TTY (734) 647-1388. University of Massachusetts-Amherst Steven Zipperstein For other University of Michigan information, call (734) 764-1817. Stanford University 12 | Frankely Speaking