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Judaic Studies Jean &Samuel Frankel Centerfor 12 11 10 9 8 5 3 2 the Frankelthe Judaic Center for Studies •University Michiganof NK LY • Suite 2111• Thayer St FRANK E LY SPEAKING April 2013 Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies From the Director 2 Jewish Studies in Poland 3 Yiddish @ U-Mich 5 Conference for Students of American Jewish History 8 New Visiting Scholars 9 Deborah Dash Moore Wins Jewish Book Award 10 Mazel Tov! 11 Save the Date 12 “Pesha and Benno.” Photo courtesy of Eric Bermann. It is taken from the exhibit “Pesha’s Journey: From Rabbi’s Rabbi’s Journey: From the exhibit “Pesha’s “Pesha and Benno.” Photo courtesy of Eric Bermann. It is taken from Common Room. May 31 at 202 South Thayer Street, Daughter to Feminist Radical,” showing through The Frankel Center for Judaic Studies • University of Michigan 202 S. Thayer St. • Suite 2111 • Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608 From the Director: The State of Jewish Studies in Poland: Living History A Conversation with Marcin Wodzinski Deborah Dash Moore is the Director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and the Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of History Marcin Wodzinski is a Professor of Jewish analysed the relationship between the state and Reaching the postwar era in my course, History of campaign targeted Studies and Director of the Centre for the Culture the Hasidic movement from its inception in the American Jews, I come to a moment when potentially northern stores and Languages of the Jews at the University Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th some my own experiences become relevant to the although they served of Wrocław. His special fields of interests are century, but focused on the critical development subject matter. Then I face a dilemma: just how both black and white nineteenth-century Jewish of the Hasidic involvement relevant and pedagogically useful are my memories? customers. social history, the regional in politics in the 19th Should they enter self-consciously into my lectures history of Jews in Silesia, century. The central thesis of and our discussions? Long ago I adopted a policy of As it happens one and Jewish sepulchral the lecture was the unusually never teaching my own books to undergraduates. I of the exercises I art. Several of his books modern character of Hasidic wanted to avoid any conflict of interest if students give students when Photo by Jean-Pierre Jans. focus on intellectural and political activity and the role were purchasing books. I also anticipated that students we reach Jewish religious trends, such as of politics in the distinctive would feel uncomfortable criticizing their professor’s participation in the civil rights movement revolves Haskalah and Hasidism in path of Hasidic development work. In addition, I recognized that students heard my around the moral dilemmas of picketing Woolworth’s. the Kingdom of Poland: A into “anti-modernist interpretations in class and they didn’t necessarily need I ask students to choose a position considering several History of Conflict(2005), modernity.” to read them. intertwined questions. Would they cross picket lines published by the Littman under any circumstances? Picketing regularly occurred Library, and Hasidism in FS: Can you talk a bit about But memories fall into a different category. I regularly on Saturday. As Jews (and they are asked to assume the Kingdom of Poland, Jewish studies in Poland? ask students to read memoirs written by Jewish Jewish identities for this exercise), would they walk a 1815–1867: Historical immigrants. They watch documentaries that include picket line on the Sabbath? Or would they just watch? Sources in the Polish State To put it briefly, Jewish interviews of participants in living history. I encourage Once they have chosen sides, I invite them to offer Archives (2011). He has studies in Poland are them to consider their own subject positions relative Jewish, ethical arguments for their position based on co-edited Jews in Silesia flourishing beyond any to such course topics as suburbanization. But to what what they have read. (Theoretically they know from (2001); a special triple issue expectations. Thirty years extent should my own experiences matter in the their assigned reading arguments Jews marshaled on of Jewish History entitled ago, there was only one classroom context? different sides of the integration struggle.) Towards a New History of semi-academic, and isolated, Hasidism (2013); Polin: institution dealing with These issues rose to the fore recently because of a It is always a fascinating class and produces thoughtful, Studies in Polish Jewry Jewish studies in Poland, no provocative faculty-student colloquium given in engaged participation. Relatively few of my students (Volume 27); and Jews in publications, no scholars, February by Professor Miyuki Kita from the University choose to picket. The majority prefers to be onlookers. Kingdom of Poland, 1815- no public. Now, we have of Kitakyushu in Japan. Professor Kita is researching But a vocal number decide to cross the picket line and -1914 (forthcoming). He is six universities teaching BA the participation of Brandeis University students in purchase items in the store, thus violating both union vice president of the Polish or MA programs in Jewish civil rights. She is interested in exploring possible solidarity and Sabbath prohibitions. Association of Jewish Studies and editor in chief studies, hundreds of students enrolling in our connections between the establishment of this secular, of its periodical, Studia Judaica. In 2011, he courses each year, six scholarly periodicals, and non-sectarian Jewish-sponsored university after World What I don’t tell the students, however, is that my idea received the Jan Karski and Pola Nirenska Prize, some 100 books a year. Each year the national War II committed to non-discriminatory policies in for the class exercise comes from my own experiences. I given by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. bibliography records between 1500 and 2000 admissions and its students’ civil rights activism. In her participated briefly in picketing Woolworth’s. Now, after publications—books and articles—dealing with presentation she discussed an intensive campaign joined hearing Professor Kita’s presentation, I wonder whether Jewish subjects. Not all of them are, of course, by Brandeis students (most of them Jewish) against the should I tell them. What would my experience as an On April 3, he visited The Frankel Center and academic. Still, it illustrates the size of public national five and dime giant, Woolworth’s, to integrate informant add to or detract from the class? I don’t have spoke on “Hasidism and Politics.” This lecture interest. It is important to stress that there is the lunch counters in its southern stores. The picketing an answer to this dilemma of living history. 2 3 increase in quality, too. A growing number of develop, however, in communist times. Some scholars in or from Poland publish important 250,000 Holocaust survivors left Poland, and studies. Some people foretell the Poles will be the remainder were expelled in 1968. After Yiddish@UMich: Geh’ Blau! the next wave, after Germans, to flood positions 1968, state censorship did not allow many Yiddish arose nearly a thousand years ago in Western Europe, flourished for centuries in Eastern Europe, and was in Jewish studies in European universties. publications on Jewish studies, one notable brought to the U.S. and elsewhere by immigrants who built a rich cultural life with it. At Michigan, Yiddish is a And maybe, one day, in North America, too. exception being a study proving Zionism to be vibrant language. Students learn its idioms and grammar, read its literary treasures, and explore its centrality to Beware, Ann Arbor! the imperialist and racist agenda. modern Jewish life. FS: What can you say about Jewish studies When asked the question, “Why study Yiddish?,” a very Yiddish answer might be, “Why not?” Study of Yiddish in Poland? It was only in the late 1970s that independent samizdat publications brought Jewish issues may stem from a personal connection to the language, its cultural heritage, its role as a window to Eastern European back to the Polish public consciousness and, Jewish history and its connection to the Jewish American immigrant experience. Yiddish played and continues to The roots of Jewish studies in Poland reach as play an important role within the modern Jewish experience. far back to amateur maskilic historiography in soon, to the academy, too. Many people the early 19th century. But academic studies like myself started with documenting Jewish landmarks in nearby neighborhoods, Learning the language enables students to engage with the study of historical, literary and religious texts, as well as began only in late 19th century, with Galician politics, folklore, anthropology, and other contemporary aspects of the culture, such as film and media. Jewish graduates of Austrian universities discovering the Polish-Jewish past, literature turning to Jewish scholarship. Moses Schorr, or culture that once flourished here and is no more. This was certainly amateurish, Students of Yiddish can progress to a high level of fluency at the University of Michigan. Texts include Yiddish Majer Balaban and Ignacy Schipper come to children’s literature, folklore, literary and historical texts, films, and music. Yiddish is examined within a broader mind as innovators. but gave great impetus to more structured, academic endeavors. In the mid-1980s, the context within the history, sociology, politics, and culture it produced. very first Department of Jewish Studies was The great boom in Jewish studies came in established in a Polish university. Since then, The Yiddish program at Michigan has been built from scratch by a dedicated faculty and committed donors. Below, interwar Poland, exemplified first and foremost the development of Jewish studies in Poland these faculty and students, too, talk a bit about Yiddish @ Umich. by the YIVO (Yidisher Visnshaftlekher has been just amazing. Institut) established in 1925 in Wilno (then Alexandra Hoffman, full-time lecturer, Yiddish each other and to promote Yiddish to the larger Poland).
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