FALL 2007 Program in Judaic Studies

PERELMAN INSITITUE PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

In this Issue 2 Courses Director’s Message for the Author in Philonic and Rabbinic 3 Students Exegesis.” The eight undergraduate theses I am honored to be serving as acting are described in the newsletter. 3 Class of 2007 director of Judaic Studies this year while 3 Alumni 2007 Peter Schäfer is on leave In 2006-2007 there also were 42 graduate 4 Senior Theses 2007 in Berlin. Marcie Citron, students whose interests lie in some 7 Graduate Fellowships our program manager, and aspect of Judaic Studies, drawing from Reyne Schleifer, our program Anthropology, Architecture, Comparative 8 Graduate Students associate, have made this Literature, English, German, History, 10 Summer Funding transition very smooth and History of Science, Near Eastern Studies, 17 Committee easy for everyone concerned. Politics, Religion, and Sociology. We were Leora Batnitzky 17 Advisory Council 2006-2007 was a great year able to provide four top-up fellowships for 18 Faculty Research and News for our program and I am happy to be able incoming graduate students in Sociology, to report on our many achievements. Religion, and Near Eastern Studies whose 22 Events work relates in large part to Judaic Studies. STUDENTS We also awarded summer grants for research Our course offerings were rich and our and study to 14 graduate students and 6 enrollments remained high in 2006-2007. undergraduate students. The projects ranged specific institutional programs of activities In the fall of 2006, JDS sponsored, co- from language study to archaeological that will enhance both research and teaching. sponsored, or cross-listed 13 courses, excavation, to internships, and to dissertation Our program has already benefited greatly including 1 graduate course (plus 4 courses and senior thesis archival work. Travel from this award as it will allow us to continue in Hebrew language). These were cross- destinations included Israel, Greece, Turkey, expanding the program’s research and listed with the Center for Human Values, Egypt, France, Vienna, Berlin, and Prague. teaching possibilities. In particular, we will Comparative Literature, French, History, appoint a three-year post-doc in Princeton’s Near Eastern Studies, Philosophy, Religion, FACULTY Society of Fellows whose work focuses on Theater, and Women and Gender Studies. There are updates on our faculty in the Judaic Studies beginning in the fall of 2008. In the spring of 2007 we were able to newsletter but I want to highlight two This post-doc is half-funded by Professor offer 17 courses (2 were graduate level) in particularly wonderful faculty achievements Schäfer’s prize. American Studies, Center for Human Values, of last year. First, Esther (Starry) Schor Comparative Literature, English, European won the National Jewish Book Award EVENTS Cultural Studies, Hellenic Studies, History, for her wonderful biography of Emma 2006-2007 included a busy roster of Humanities Council, Near Eastern Studies, Lazarus. Second, Peter Schäfer was selected Politics, Religion, Women and Gender lectures, conferences, workshops, and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as film series. A full list of all of these events Studies, and Woodrow Wilson School, plus 3 one of four winners of its Distinguished Hebrew language courses. follows in this newsletter but I would like to Achievement Awards. The three-year awards, highlight some of them here. We proudly Eight students received a certificate in Judaic amounting to as much as $1.5 million each, inaugurated, on March 14, the “Lapidus Studies, with senior theses ranging in topics are intended to honor scholars who have Family Fund for American Jewish Studies” from “The (Re-) Birth of a Language: The made significant contributions to humanistic with a public lecture by Leon Wieseltier, the Role of Language Contact in the History inquiry. In contrast to other notable editor of The New Republic, on “Of What and Development of Israeli Hebrew” to academic award programs that benefit Use Is Jewish History To American Jewish “Trials Before Man, Justice Before God: The individual scholars exclusively, the Mellon’s History?” This was a very programmatic Role of Religious Ethics in the Prosecution Distinguished Achievement Awards are lecture that prompted a discussion not just and Punishment of War Criminals” to “Do designed to recognize the interdependence about American Jewish History but also You Wish to Know the One Who Spoke of scholars and their institutions. While this about Jewish Studies. Of a quite different and the World Came into Being? Looking grant program honors the achievements of nature, but not less stimulating, was the individuals, the grants themselves support (Director’s Message continued on page 21) 2 2006-07 COURSES Olga Litvak 1750-Present JewishHistory: Modern Zeitlin Froma America From BiblicalIsraeltoContemporary Sexuality, andtheBody inJudaism: Topics inJudaicStudies:Gender, Himmelfarb Martha Great BooksoftheJewishTradition courses: Survey 2006 FALL SEMESTER Esther Robbins Culture Advanced Hebrew: AspectsofIsraeli Esther Robbins Hebrew Intermediate Esther Robbins Hebrew Elementary Emmanuel Papoutsakis Introduction toBiblicalHebrew II Language Courses: David Bellos Literature Since1945 The JewishPresence inFrench Alyssa Quint theJewonStage Performing Dan Garber Philosophy:Spinoza Early Modern Period: Modern Mark Cohen Readings inJudeo-Arabic Mark Cohen Middle Ages Jews, Muslims,andChristiansinthe Middle Ages: Peter Schäfer Jesus intheTalmud Himmelfarb Martha Judaism intheGreco-Roman World Beate Pongratz-Leisten the DivineinAncientNearEast The OriginsofMonotheism:Shaping Simeon Chavel Exile Testament: Through theBabylonian Religion andLiterature oftheOld Antiquity: Esther Robbins Advanced Hebrew Language and Style II Esther Robbins Hebrew II Intermediate Esther Robbins Hebrew II Elementary Language Courses: Daniel C.Kurtzer Arab-Israeli Conflict Special Topics The in PublicAffairs: Zeitlin Froma World War II Stolen Years: Youth UndertheNazisin James Diamond Israeli Culture andSociety Jenna Weissman-Joselit America The Ten Commandments inModern Schatz Andrea Critics Modern The EnlightenmentandItsPost- Period: Modern Mark Cohen Problems in Near Eastern Jewish History Andras Hamori ofMedievalSpain The Hebrew Poetry Middle Ages: Himmelfarb andPeterSchäfer Martha Literature Rabbinic andEarlyByzantineJewish Apocalypticism andMessianismin Studies inGreco-Roman Religions: Beate Pongratz-Leisten Ancient NearEast ofReligioninthe Religion: AHistory Religion inCulture –Culture in Himmelfarb Martha Judaism intheGreco-Roman Diaspora Simeon Chavel Myth andHistory The BiblicalKingDavid–Between Simeon Chavel the Bible&AncientNearEast Law, Justice,andLegalLiterature in “Eye-For-An-Eye”: TheNature of Antiquity: Esther Schor The BibleasLiterature Olga Litvak Russian-Jewish Diaspora Ruth Westheimer The FamilyinJewishTradition Alan Mittleman Jewish PoliticalThought Peter Schäfer Golem: The Creation of an Artificial courses: Survey 2007 SPRING SEMESTER Man Martha Himmelfarb Martha Scrolls Ancient JudaismandtheDeadSea Simeon Chavel Exile Testament: Through theBabylonian Religion andLiterature oftheOld Antiquity: Jonathan Elukin The BibleinHistory James Diamond The Parable:EvolutionofaGenre Himmelfarb Martha Great BooksoftheJewishTradition courses: Survey 2007 FALL SEMESTER Esther Robbins Culture Advanced Hebrew: Languageand Esther Robbins Culture Advanced Hebrew: AspectsofIsraeli Esther Robbins Hebrew Intermediate Esther Robbins Hebrew Elementary Simeon Chavel BiblicalHebrew I Elementary Language Courses: Schatz Andrea Critics Modern The EnlightenmentandItsPost- Leora Batnitzky Society Jewish ThoughtandModern Period: Modern Jonathan Elukin Europe Modern Christians inMedievalandEarly Hatred orTolerance? Jewsand Middle Ages: 2007 Alumni STUDENTS Joshua Goldsmith received Princeton’s Sachs scholarship. He is using his fellowship to pursue a Master’s Degree in Teaching of Languages and Literatures at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, in Catalan). Joshua Packman is working as a program assistant at the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), a civil rights organization in Washington, DC. Mainly, he works with various community organizations affiliated with the AAJC, but also assists in other program areas.

Jonah Perlin is working as an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Reform Movement’s Washington arm. His portfolio of issues includes Foreign Policy, Africa, Arms Control, the Death Penalty, HIV/AIDS, Human Rights, International Religious Freedom, World Jewry, Torture, Privacy, and Terrorism/Anti-Terrorism. In addition to monitoring the daily developments on these issues, Jonah is responsible for preparing action alerts, press releases, and blogs as well as working with interfaith coalitions advocating for the Movement’s policies. He also helps coordinate programs for High School conferences in Chad Priest, Joshua Goldsmith, Jonah Perlin, Lauren Racusin, and Washington on Jewish values and politics. Jonah loves Jonathan Pomeranz. his job and feels fortunate to work at the intersection of politics and Judaism. The Class of 2007 Jonathan “Yoni” Pomeranz is teaching Talmud and Jewish Studies Certificate Students coaching Debate at the Chicagoland Jewish High School in Deerfield, Illinois. We are proud to congratulate Joshua A. Goldsmith, Joshua H. Packman, Jonah E. Perlin, Jonathan A. Chad Priest participated in the Auschwitz Jewish Center Pomeranz, Chad E. Priest, Lauren A. Racusin, Jason fellowship program in Oswiecim, Poland, this past summer. This year, he is teaching English to Turkish R. Turetsky and Diana S. Weiner, the 2007 Princeton students at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, and also University graduates who earned the Certificate in Judaic preparing applications for law school. Studies. Lauren Racusin spent the summer in Paris taking French The Carolyn L. Drucker (Class of 1980) classes at the Sorbonne. Currently she is in Chiang Rai, Thailand as a fellow for Princeton in Asia teaching English Prize to Mae Fah Luang University students. hrough the generosity of the Drucker family, the TProgram awards an annual prize for the best senior Jason Turetsky is studying for his master’s degree in thesis in Judaic Studies. The 2006 Drucker First Prize Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of was awarded to Jonathan Pomeranz, for “Do You Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of Wish to Know the One Who Spoke and the World Came London. His major is “Israel, the Arab World, and the Palestinians.” Jason is also taking a course on modernity into Being? Looking for the Author in Philonic and in the Middle East and studying Hebrew and Arabic. Rabbinic Exegesis,” in the Department of Classics. The Second Prize winner was Oded Zinger for “When the Diana Weiner is currently part of Princeton’s Project ‘One Who is With Me’ Is Not With Me: Long-distance 55 Fellowship Program, and her job is through the Marriages in the Medieval Egyptian Jewish Community” Public Health Program. She works for Medical Missions in the Department of History and the third prize went for Children, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to Ben Pollack for “Project Golem: Imagining the Past to treating sick children and educating physicians and in Contemporary Jewish American Literature” in the patients in over 100 countries across the globe through Department of Comparative Literature. the use of telemedicine.

3 4 STUDENTS Senior Theses,2007 J M Hebrew andDevelopmentofIsraeli History Role ofLanguageContactinthe ofaLanguage:The The (Re-)Birth Linguistics andLanguageAcquisition Independent Concentrator, Historical Joshua Goldsmith Hebrew, Iconcludethatitisnearly exact geneticheritage forIsraeli an Though Iattempttodetermine all linguisticfronts. on has beensignificantlycompromised “Hebrew” “Semiticness” ofthereborn in thissectionIcontendthatthe Israeli Hebrew. Mostimportantly, affected explain howtheseparticularly might occur and why borrowings Ialsoanalyzethereasons borrowing. morphological, syntactic,andsemantic to demonstratelexical,phonological, IsraeliHebrew extensive examplesfrom alinguisticperspective,using from deeplyintolanguagecontact more In thesecondhalfofthiswork,Idelve Hebrew. Israeli material intothenewlyreborn ofnon-Semitic significant introductions the founders’otherlanguagesledto influenceof life and(2)thestrong account forthephenomenaofmodern to instantiationsofHebrew previous both (1)thedescriptiveinadequacyof the languageasstrictlySemitic,since couldnotmaintain of IsraeliHebrew thepioneers despite theirbestefforts, character ofHebrew. Iclaimthat theSemitic attempts topreserve years andthefoundergeneration’s (oreventhousands)of for hundreds hadnotbeenspoken which (effectively) one alivinglanguagefrom re-creating describes thedifficultyof particularly in shapingIsraeliHebrew. Thissection spoken languagesofimmigrantsplayed knownand/or thatthepreviously role Palestine andthenIsraeldiscussthe the manywavesofimmigrationtofirst of thestory of thiswork,Ichronicle the lastcentury. Inthebeginningpart which hastakenplaceoverthecourseof language oftheHebrew resurrection udaic work focuses on the extraordinary work focusesontheextraordinary y JudaicStudiesindependent S tudies of the Hebrew Bible, focusing on Bible,focusingon of theHebrew exegesis. Ibegin withanexamination textual textsthrough thesethree from of Abraham as a prophet in excerpts My thesisaimstoanalyzethecharacter manner isAbrahamaprophet? of these three texts, and, if so, in what Abraham function as a prophet in each actions duringtheAkedah.Does Rabbah places emphasis on Abraham’s covenant with Abraham, while Genesis In Paul’s case, the focus is on God’s aof part a larger theological argument. as forSodomandGomorrah intercession life otherthanAbraham’sactof texts emphasizesaneventinAbraham’s such asGenesisRabbah.Eachofthese Pauline letters and later Jewish texts, inthe also appearsasacentralfigure limited to the Hebrew Bible: Abraham What is more, Abraham’s character is not the description of Abraham as a prophet. and his silence in the Akedah complicates intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah in Abraham’sactionsbetweenhis biblical prophets. Further, the contrast prophesy in the same manner as the later considering that Abraham does not of Abraham as a prophet seems strange thebiblicaldescription Nevertheless, lives up to that description in this case. clearly for SodomandGomorrah, and Abraham, in acting as an intercessor Torah describes Abraham as a prophet, of Abraham’s prophetic career. The Gomorrah as theserves clearest example of prophetic intercession for Sodom and between God and man, Abraham’s act communication asadirect of prophecy ofthecommonconception In terms and GenesisRabbah Hebrew Bible,thePaulineLetters, of theCharacterAbrahamin Abraham theProphet: AnAnalysis ofReligion Department Joshua Packman linguistic organism ofIsraelisociety. of themulticulturalismandcomplex interact withitconstantly, aproduct linguistically diversepopulationswhich continuestobeshapedbythe Hebrew ofearlyZionists,Israeli background Impacted significantlybythelinguistic allotherlanguagesittouches. from is alanguageopentoinfluence impossible todoso. IsraeliHebrew War Criminals the Prosecution and Punishmentof God: TheRole ofReligiousEthicsin Trials Before Man, JusticeBefore ofReligion Department Jonah Perlin qualities byconnectingIsraelwith God. ofzekhut , displaysprophetic the source Israel. Inthiscontext,Abraham,as Israel andobligatesdivinefavortowards is availableasaninheritanceforallof Abraham’szekhut the Akedahnarrative. ofhisactionsduring fathers”) asaresult of zekhutavot(literally“meritthe asasource passages, Abrahamserves these Within the Akedahnarrative. of rabbinicexegesisthatfocuson particular, Iexaminetwopassages Abraham inGenesisRabbah.In I concludewithanexaminationof considered. ambiguity ofGen.15:6are ofPaulconsideringthe readings Gen. 15:6,isambiguous.Alternative textinthischapter,Paul’s mainproof and, hence,God’splanforsalvation. includedinGod’speople Gentiles are that Gentiles toAbrahamactsasaproof Theconnectionof Abraham’s children. considers Gentiles(aswellasJews)tobe Bible thattheHebrew to prove the reader. Instead,PaulusesAbraham uponthetextby whichisforced reading debate betweenfaithandworksisa ofPaulinthecontexta reading between faithandworks.Rather, the faith” inthecontextofadebate to demonstrateaparadigmof“Christian goal inRomansisnottouseAbraham ofthechapter,traditional reading Paul’s tothe letter totheRomans.Contrary Abraham inchapterfourofPaul’s I continuewithanexaminationof contradict each other. events reinforce one another rather than character,Abraham’s prophetic thetwo solitude during the Akedah. In terms of exhibits disinterested piety and prophetic for Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham Abraham acts as a prophetic intercessor aspect of Abraham’s prophetic character: two events each demonstrate a different another, rather than separately. These should be read in the context of one case, these two events in Abraham’s life Gomorrah and on the Akedah. In this Abraham’s intercession for Sodom and as is commonly assumed. I argue that rabbinic narrative compositions that portray a disempowered God intentionally make use of radical exegetical techniques that subvert the contextual meaning of the biblical text. Again, rabbinic theology and exegesis are related. The rabbis either respond to their conception of a disempowered God by stepping in to save that God through their own exegetical Drucker Prize winners Jonathan Pomeranz, Ben Pollack, and Oded Zinger. creativity, or else they portray God as disempowered precisely in order to emphasize the importance of their It is a commonly held assumption in provides two, at times competing, own exegetical creativity. Near the end international jurisprudence that there traditions in how to respond to those of the chapter, I argue that rabbinic is a category of evil actions so horrific who have committed evil in their midst, claims to be creative can be productive that they can be classified as “crimes namely by reference to a virtue of compared with Harold Bloom’s theory against humanity,” and perhaps more retribution and a virtue of vengeance. of the “anxiety of influence,” in which importantly that those who commit Romantic poets compete with their these crimes should be held responsible Jonathan Pomeranz predecessors for literary priority, and for the gross human rights atrocities Department of Classics with similar struggles for priority among which they have committed. However, Do You Wish to Know the One Who Roman poets. at the same time, there exists no Spoke and the World Came into universally accepted method by which Being? Chad E. Priest these individuals are prosecuted or Looking for the Author in Philonic Department of Religion punished. In short, different nations and Rabbinic Exegesis and different people within these nations God Bless America: Fundamentalist respond differently to the world’s worst In my thesis, I write about two bodies Christian Zionism in the Nation’s criminals. My thesis attempts to respond of ancient biblical narrative exegesis: Service Philo’s allegorical commentaries and to this problem by arguing that religious Since the late 1970s, fundamentalist Rabbinic midrash. In my first chapter, “narrative ethics” plays an important role Christian leaders in America have I base my argument on Philo’s exegesis in the evolving discussion of how nations fervently lobbied both the U.S. of the Tower of Babel story. I argue and their leaders have responded to these government and the American public that ancient exegetical works often use criminals in the past and how they will on behalf of the state of Israel. These their interpretive methods as metaphors likely respond to them in the future. leaders have urged America to support for theological ideas and theological Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Bringing together texts from the ideas as metaphors for their interpretive territory, and they have called upon disciplines of theology, history, moral strategies. Thus, Philo locates the America to support controversial Israeli philosophy and international relations meaning of the biblical text in a spiritual actions, ranging from Israel’s 1981 along with primary sources from realm beyond that of the text. In his bombing of a nuclear reactor in Iraq particular trials, the thesis first explores commentaries that look for scriptural to Israel’s 2006 military incursion into the problems of looking at war crimes meaning in this spiritual realm, Philo Lebanon. Because fundamentalist trials and other acts of restorative justice portrays a non-corporeal God who Christians view the state of Israel’s through a purely legal and political lens, dwells in a realm beyond that of the existence as a sign that the Apocalypse and then as case studies focuses on how physical. The Rabbis, in contrast, use is imminent and because they believe two particular narrative traditions, Judaism exegetical strategies that suggest that that Israel will play a starring role in the and Christianity, respond in theory and in the Torah interprets itself. They locate Battle of Armageddon, many religious practice to the wantonly evil. the meaning of Torah not in a spiritual and political analysts believe that realm, but in a concrete document. This, Specifically, the analysis of the Jewish fundamentalist Christian leaders support I argue, is related to their conception narrative focuses on discussions of hawkish, expansionist Israeli policies of a God who is closely linked with the the biblical story of Amalek and the because they seek to use America as an text of the Torah and has a corporeal, modern trial of Nazi War Criminal Adolf instrument of the Apocalypse, helping physical existence. Eichmann. From these analyses which to expedite the fulfillment of violent focus on medieval and contemporary In my second chapter, I expand on end-time prophecies. However, a interpretations of the Amalek story, and this connection between theology and close examination of the development the oft-forgotten Jewish philosophical exegesis to show that the Rabbis did of fundamentalist Christian Zionism voices of the Adolf Eichmann debate, it not necessarily think of themselves reveals that a much different impetus— presents a case that the Jewish narrative as pious interpreters of the Torah, self-consciously patriotic rather than 5 6 STUDENTS during theHolocaust, butdoknow ingaschambers murdered if Jewswere ofAmericans donotknow one percent Holocaust Museumin1998,twenty- that wastakenbytheUnitedStates toastudy attached toit?According and losethefacesofmurdered point doesitbecomejustanumber memories, butisthatenough?Atwhat during theHolocaustingrainedintheir seems tohavethenumberofmurdered studentatanearlyage Six million.Every Architecture ofMemory andthe Abstraction, Narrative, Reading BetweentheLines: &Archaeology ofArt Department Lauren A.Racusin oftheApocalypse. as aninstrument touseAmerica ofalarger effort as part Christianizing herpublicpolicies—not Americaby to“bless”andprotect effort ofalarger should beunderstoodaspart of fundamentalistChristianZionism of homosexuality. Thedevelopment laws, andthecondemnation abortion of prayer inpublicschool,therepeal morality, suchastheinstitutionof championed otherissuesofbiblical inthelate 1970swhentheyfirst forth Christian leadersalsobegantoput patriotic argument thatfundamentalist This isthesameself-consciously underdivineauspices. and preeminent vengeance andkeepAmericaprosperous tostayGod’sinexorable in order other strategicormoralconsideration- forany and financially-withoutconcern state ofIsraeldiplomatically, militarily, the argue thatAmericamustsupport people), fundamentalist Christian leaders theJewish nation thathasnotsupported every that Godhaswillfullydestroyed America hasblessedtheJew”(and that “GodhasblessedAmericabecause those nationsthatdonot.Asserting thestateofIsraelandcurse that support toblessthosenations God promises Zechariah 2:8,inwhichtheybelieve two biblicalverses,Genesis12:3and leaders haveleanedheavilyupon decades, fundamentalistChristian ofIsraeloverthepastthree support U.S. In makingtheircaseforstrong Christian Zionism. apocalyptic—drives fundamentalist question appears most critical: is further question appears mostcritical:isfurther status of the Arab citizens of Israel. the optionsforimproving different the thesisexaminesfeasibility of quo isnotanoptionforthefuture, democracy. Afterarguing thatstatus ofIsrael’s to understandthenature then looksatthepoliticsofthis divide state’s ArabandJewishcitizens. It and economicdividebetweenthe examining thesociological,political, the ArabminorityinIsraelbyfirst thestatusof This thesisexplores Citizens ofIsrael The Way forthe Arab Forward INTEGRATION Woodrow Wilson School Jason Turetsky understanding oftheHolocaust. thehistoricalandcollective ensures objective, educationalexperiencethat viewer, visitorswithan whileproviding emotionalandpersonaltoeach is more levelthat on asubjective,interpretative abletoengageviewers memorials are the within theirinteriors.Asaresult, counterparts by didactic,narrative grounded buttheyare structures, the Holocaustdistinctivelymark Abstract exteriorsthatgrapplewith while combiningitwithnarration. abstraction Daniel Libeskindretain PeterEisenmanand Architects Holocaust. ofthe to perpetuatethememory abstraction andmuseumnarrative the interplaybetweenarchitectural and Libeskind’smemorialsemploy within Holocaustdiscourse,Eisenman historical andculturalpositionofBerlin thecomplicated difficulty ofaddressing Holocaust memorialization.Facingthe that challengethetraditionalmodesof Holocaust memorialswithinBerlin Libeskind, respectively, two are Berlin byPeterEisenmanandDaniel andtheJewishMuseum of Europe Jews The MemorialtotheMurdered a number. implications ratherthanjusttoreiterate memorializetheHolocaustandits truly to to beaHolocaustmemorialinorder whatitmeans Berlin attempttoredefine Holocaustmemorialsin Contemporary murdered. that sixmillionpeoplewere One by G-d. whenspoken to and Jonaheach reacted contrasts howNoah, Abraham,Moses, and This paperanalyzes,compares, Esther Schor) submitted toJudaicStudies, Prof. Respond toG-d’sCommands (Paper Analysis ofHowBiblicalFigures Answering theCallofG-d:An ofChemicalEngineering Department Diana S.Weiner integration. citizens through thestatusofIsrael’sArab to improve policy topursuethesegoalsinorder suggest, andfollowupongovernmental Equality,Promoting toresearch, theCommitteefor the government, acommitteewithin of Israelcreate thattheState This thesisrecommends combat discriminationandinequality. as longthestateactstoeffectively politicalframework state’s current to liveasIsraelicitizenswithinthe willing forthemostpart, in Israelare, both ArabsandJewsinIsrael. wouldbenefit Suchaprocess respect. intheamountofmutual an increase assimilation, someamalgamation,and some integrationthrough push formore Israel’s JewishandArabcitizensisa only optionthatisacceptabletoboth among Israelisociety.support The Neitheroftheseoptionshave culture. intoanewneutral and Jewishculture complete through amalgamation of Arab Jewish societynorforintegration assimilation oftheArabminorityinto complete for integrationthrough This thesisdoesnotargue, however, amalgamation, andmutualrespect. assimilation, can beachievedthrough suchamethod. Integration through Jewish andArabcitizensofthestate thedividebetween idea ofreducing opentothe ofIsraelisare proportion as theonlyfeasibleoption. Asignificant theexistingpoliticalframework through integration oftheArabcitizensIsrael This thesisexaminesthefurther fortheArabcitizensofIsrael? forward separationtheway integration orfurther Graduate Fellowships Department of Religion is interpreting rabbinic literature in the context of religious theory. This is the fifth year that the Program in Judaic Studies, in consultation with the relevant departments, offered top up The following 2003 incoming students were the first to fellowships to graduate school applicants who demonstrated benefit from the new Judaic Studies graduate fellowships: a major interest in some aspect of Judaic Studies. The Gregg Gardner in the Department of Religion studies understanding is that the students will maintain research ancient Judaism within Greco-Roman and Christian context, interests in Judaic Studies throughout their graduate careers. specifically focusing on the economy of ancient Palestine Additionally, there have been and will be opportunities for during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods; Danielle Shani draw-down and dissertation assistance later on in students’ in the Department of Politics concentrates on political graduate careers. theory relating to Israel’s attempt to reach a constitution by consensus; and Uriel Simonsohn in the Department op up fellowships were awarded to the following of Near Eastern Studies focuses on social history of non- incoming 2007 graduate students: Yael Berda in the T Muslim communities in the Middle Ages, namely Jews and Department of Sociology, Sarit Kattan Gribetz and Elias Christians, and hopes to conduct comparative work through Sacks in the Department of Religion, and Jessica Marglin the extensive use of documents found in the Cairo Geniza and Lev Weitz in the Department of Near Eastern Studies. and contemporary Christian literature. In 2006, top up fellowships were awarded to Aryeh Amihay in the Department of Religion, who is studying ancient Jewish literature including the Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls and other Second Temple Literature and Rabbinic literature, and Abra Levenson in the Department of Comparative Literature. We also gave a one-time-only special stipend to Amihay for his first year and a special summer grant to Levenson. The top up fellowships for 2005 were given to Yiftah Elazar, in the Department of Politics who is interested in conservative political thought; Ronnie Halevy, in the Department of Anthropology, is focusing on the intersection of women/gender, multicultural education in the globalized age, and tribal societies within nation-states, and whose fieldwork is amongst the Bedouin community in the Negev of southern Israel; Miriam Hess in the Department of German; and Kristina Szilagvi in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, whose dissertation will deal with the polemical and apologetical literature of the Near East from the century before the Arab conquests until at least the thirteenth century. The following incoming students were awarded Judaic Studies fellowships in 2004: Yaron Ayalon in the Department of Near Eastern Studies is exploring the history of the lower social strata in Middle Eastern and Ottoman contexts; Adam Jackson in the Department of Religion is investigating Jewish experiences of and attitudes toward Roman rule and culture during the empire and late antiquity; Meir Soloveitchik in the Department of Religion is studying Jewish and Christian theology, particularly the theology of thinkers who ponder the relationship between these two faiths.; AlanVerskin in the Department of Near Eastern Studies is focusing on the study of social and intellectual interactions between Jews and Muslims in the medieval period; and Moulie Vidas in the

7 8 STUDENTS worlds. Gregg’s recent publicationsinclude“Jewish Leadership recent worlds. Gregg’s RomanandearlyChristian thesurrounding from with literature on charityandsocialjustice,bringing themintoconversation examinesearlyrabbinictexts research Judaism. Hisdissertation ofJewsand andhistory specializingintheliterature department, Gregg Gardner isafifth-yeardoctoralstudent intheReligion analysis andcriticism. formedia the Israel DemocracyInstitute’sbimonthly journal daily newspaper, Yedioth for TheSeventhEye , . Hewrote Ahronot and workedasanewseditorinIsrael’smostwidelydistributed forGalei-Zahalnationalradiostation, Court Israeli Supreme the from reported Yiftah asajournalist, Sciences. Inhiscareer fortheHumanitiesandSocial and theAmirimHonors Program his MA inPoliticalScience,andBAPhilosophy heearned where UniversityofJerusalem, at TheHebrew studied comingtoPrinceton,Yiftah and politicalchange. Before theories advocatingor opposingsocial innormative interested Yiftah studentofpoliticaltheory, Elazar,Politics,isathird-year published infall2008. andhumanrights.Herfirstbook ofpoemswillbe bureaucracy and urbansociology. on severalarticles Shehasco-authored of spaceandtime,securitypolicing,sociologymusic sociology oncolonialbureaucracy), organizations (particularly and sociologywillfocusoncomparativeof Regime.” Yael intheintersectionsoflaw, isinterested politics in thePalestinianTerritories: tothe Permit AnIntroduction oftheOccupation Universitywastitled“TheBureaucracy Aviv Hermaster’sthesisatTelcriminal law, courts. andmilitary administrative, and immigrationlawintheIsraeliSupreme, ofmovement,andcitizenship speech, impedimentsonfreedom Israel. Shepracticedasahumanrightslawyerfocusingonfree Yael Berda, firstyearinSociology, wasraisedin West Jerusalem, lastyear.Archives in January, to complement the research I carried at the Ottoman inthespring.HewilltraveltoIstanbul,Turkey his dissertation materials collectedinthepastyear, andhehopestobeginwriting Heisgoing over archival tohisdissertation. relevant sources andsecondary primary reading research, working ondissertation Natural Disasters.Hehascompletedhisgeneralsandiscurrently is Plagues, Earthquakes, Famines: The Jews of Ottoman Syria and title and calamities. hardships His confronted tentative dissertation Aleppo intheseventeenthandeighteenthcenturieshowthey whose topicofstudyistheJewishcommunitiesDamascusand Yaron Ayalon, Near Eastern Studies, is a fourth year student inthescrolls. the developmentofsectrepresented inthesetexts,aswellhistoricalquestionsconcerning of scripture Dead Sea Scrolls, focusing on issues of authority and interpretation includelegaltextsofthe interests Oracles ofBalaam. Hiscurrent The BibleatTrinity onthe helectured College,Dublin,where attend a graduate conference on interdisciplinary approaches on to theJudaicStudiesProgram atravelfundfrom was awarded Lastyearhe UniversityofJerusalem. oftheHebrew Department intheBible Amihay’sundergraduate studieswere literature. andotherSecondTempleSea Scrolls andRabbinic Literature in ancient Jewish literature including the Hebrew Bible, Dead Amihay Aryeh Studies,Politics,Religion,andSociology.Near Eastern History, LanguagesandLiterature, English, Germanic Music, include Anthropology, ComparativeLiterature, Architecture, time,these Atthepresent within theirhomedepartments. toJudaicStudies pursuingtopicsrelevant Princeton whoare A GRADUATE STUDENTS undergraduates, there are manygraduatestudentsat are undergraduates, there inJudaicStudiesisdesignedfor lthough theProgram , Religion, is a second year student interested Writing Bernstein’s ofMarc inMedievalEgypt”),hehasareview (whichwillbeentitled“JewishLegal Geniza StudiesConference In additiontopublicationofthe paperwhichhegaveatthe HeritageatBar-Ilan in theSephardic Jewish Culture University. bytheDahanCenterfor co-sponsored University ofMaryland, entitled “JewsandMuslimsinthe World ofIslam”atthe Stefan Reif inCambridge,England;andaconference Professor inhonorof Spain;aGenizaStudiesconference in Cordoba, the Society forJudeo-ArabicStudies conferences: papers atthree Over thesummer,life inthemedievalMediterranean. hegave University. HecontinuestoworkonJewisheconomicandsocial ofMiddleEastandIslamicStudiesatNewYorkDepartment graduate seminarinIslamicLawandSocietythespring a StocktonCollegeinPomona,NJ,aswell as offering Richard at ofMiddleEastHistory AssistantProfessor year asVisiting StudiesinSeptember,Near Eastern andhe’llbeteachingthis of bytheDepartment Geniza”wasapproved of theCairo theLegalDocuments through Economic andSocialLifeViewed Jewish Culture: his sixthyear. “APartnership Hisdissertation, in starting Studies,iscurrently NearEastern Philip Lieberman, style. literary Hebrew studyingtheevolutionofModern Heiscurrently Literature. doctoralcandidateinComparative isathird-year Ari Lieberman interpretation. midrashic through development ofrabbinicidentityexpressed in SecondTemple, andthe rabbinic,andearlyChristiansources, ofMoses therepresentation inrabbinicliterature, interpretation andtextual betweenrevelation fascinated bytherelationship sheisalso asspacesofritualandperformance; and thechurch incomparingtheRomantheater,is interested thesynagogue, She College’sgraduate-levelprogram. Arabic atMiddlebury excavationinSepphoristheGalilee andstudying archaeological on aFulbrightFellowship,andshespentthesummeran UniversityinJerusalem atTheHebrew and rabbinicliterature oflateantiquity.religions Lastyear, shestudiedarchaeology of ReligionandJudaicStudiesinthesubfieldof Department Sarit KattanGribetz,isafirstyearPhDcandidateinthe thispaperforpublication. reworking currently heis colloquium.Amongotherprojects, Antiquity” departmental and then at the Spring “Revelation, Literature and Community in significance ofthealphabetinGenesisRabbahFallworkshop andthemystical theagencyofchildren through divine revelation apaperonthetransmissionof andpresented his dissertation, forhisgeneralexamsandtowards year hecontinuedhisresearch World inJudaicStudies2004. Thispast andtheProgram intheAncient ofReligion,theProgram of theDepartment Adam Jackson started at Princeton in the Late Antiquity subfield Israel. Negev ofsouthern engaged infieldworkamongtheBedouincommunity Wenner-Gren andSSRC.BylateNovembershewillbeentirely forfieldwork,suchas support and submittinggrantsthatoffer completing theprismoftribeandstate.Sheiscurrently through educationofBedouingirlsintheNegev focusing ontheprimary Ronnie Halevy,Anthropology, yearstudent,whois isathird late-antique JudaismandChristianity. in expressions andartistic andliterary identities, socialrelations, andcompetingclaimstothebiblicalpasthelpedshape memory Christian PastsintheGreco-Roman World how , whichexplores editing (withK.Osterloh)AntiquityinAntiquity:Jewishand co- Heiscurrently Identity inLateAntiquity(forthcoming). the Talmud: AnAnalysisofBavliShabbat156,”inHeresy and ofBiblicalLiterature in Journal 126(2007)and“Astrology B.C.E.,” and Hellenistic Civic Benefaction in the Second Century “Stories of Joseph: Narrative Migrations between Judaism and Islam” in the forthcoming issue of Hebrew Studies, and 25 articles in the forthcoming Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. He is currently working on a number of articles for Brill’s Encyclopedia Alfred Neumann’s Bat Yam Town Hall. of Jews in the Islamic World, as well as a review of two books related to India Trade for the Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. He now sits on the advisory board for Style Architecture and within the broader international scene, the Princeton Geniza Project (directed by Prof. Mark Cohen of where it can be seen to reflect a paradigm shift from the notion NES) as it enters a new and important stage, providing searchable of ‘building as object’ to ‘building as pattern’. Neumann’s transcriptions of Geniza documents linked to the libraries of buildings explored the possibility of addressing issues of human digital images of Geniza documents which are multiplying on the proportion, sensitivity to light, climate, and other human and internet. One regret he has at having completed his dissertation environmental considerations, without compromising the search is that he will have to give up facilitating the interdisciplinary for new forms and expressions. (see photo above) JDS Graduate Student Colloquium, which facilitated dialogue Danielle Shani, Politics, fifth-year, is a Fulbright scholar, a between Jewish Studies graduate students from all disciplines at Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Society of Scholars, and the Princeton. recipient of the Knesset’s award for exceptional academic Jessica M. Marglin is currently a first-year student in the achievements. Her research interests include public opinion, Department of Near Eastern Studies. She graduated with a BA civic engagement, political socialization, political psychology, and Masters in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard in 2006, and democratic theory. She has an ongoing project about and spent the following year on a Fulbright in Israel, studying partisan biases in political perceptions of “objective” national at The Hebrew University and doing research in the archives in conditions. In her dissertation, she explores the ways in which Jerusalem. Her area of study is Jewish-Muslim relations in North citizens develop an interest in politics, by testing various theories Africa, 18th-19th centuries, and she recently gave a paper at a about the origins of political interest, such as family socialization, conference entitled “Poverty and Charity in Meknes; A Study high-school socialization, and the force of events experienced in Jewish Communal Leadership, 1750-1912,” which will be during one’s formative years. The title is “Engendering published in an edited volume in 2009. Citizens: On the Origins of Political Interest.” William Plevan, is in the fifth year of the Religion department’s Uriel Simonsohn, Near Eastern Studies. In his fifth year, program in Religion and Philosophy which he entered after his dissertation is “Overlapping Jurisdictions: Confessional earning his rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Boundaries and Judicial Choice among Christians and Jews Seminary. He is currently working on his dissertation, entitled: under Early Muslim Rule.” He has a forthcoming publication in “I, Thou, We: Martin Buber’s Philosophical Anthropology the January 2007 edition of the Jewish Studies Quarterly, titled Reconsidered.” The dissertation examines the role of “Communal Boundaries Reconsidered: Jews and Christians philosophical anthropology in the development of Buber’s Appealing to Muslim Authorities in the Medieval Near later writings on philosophy, religion and Judaism. He will be East,” and will give a talk at the Association of Jewish Studies presenting papers on Buber’s philosophical anthropology at the conference on “Prohibiting recourse to Muslim tribunals: upcoming American Academy of Religion and the Association of reassessing the origins of medieval communal structures” Jewish Studies meetings. in December. He is currently a fellow at the Cardozo Law School‘s Program in Jewish Law & Interdisciplinary Studies. Elias Sacks, Religion, is a first year student whose areas of focus include Jewish thought, philosophy of religion, hermeneutics, and Krisztina Szilágyi, Near Eastern Studies, is a third year student, the history of philosophy. He has a particular interest in German- from Hungary, whose dissertation will deal with Muhammad’s Jewish thought, and his current projects include work on Moses portraits among the Christians of the Islamic world from the Mendelssohn’s relationship with Immanuel Kant and on Franz seventh to the fifteenth century. Last year she published an Rosenzweig’s approach to ethics and law. After receiving his B.A. article in Ginzei Qedem entitled “Christian books in Jewish from Harvard, Eli studied at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem libraries: Fragments of Christian Arabic writings from the Cairo and earned an M.A. in Philosophy of Religion from Columbia. Genizah,” and is working on the edition of a Judaeo-Arabic fragment from a hitherto unknown work of the twelfth-century Rafael Segal, in his fifth year at the School of Architecture, Jewish philosopher Abraham ibn Daud. She received an M.A. received his professional architectural degree from the Technion in Arabic and Jewish studies from the Eötvös Loránd University –Israel Institute of Technology in 1993, and an M.Sc in (Budapest), and another one in religious studies from The architecture (2001). He has taught and practiced architecture Hebrew University of Jerusalem. in Israel and the US. He is currently working on his doctoral dissertation which examines and analyzes the architectural work of Adriana X. Tatum is a seventh-year student who works Alfred Neumann built in Israel between 1959 and 1967. Alfred primarily on twentieth century Modern Hebrew poetry, with an Neumann (1900-1968), a Czech architect who studied and emphasis on the relation between translation and poetry. Her worked in Vienna and Paris during the 1920’s -30’s, immigrated dissertation explores the ways diasporic languages were made to Israel in 1949, where he later became Professor and Dean of present in Modern Hebrew writing in the State of Israel. This the Architecture and Town Planning Faculty at the Technion project will articulate a “poetics of multilingualism” through a –Israel Institute of Technology. In 1959 Neumann established close look at how translation practices shaped the development an architecture practice with his former students Zvi Hecker and of Modern Hebrew and Israeli poetry. Her article “Paris or Eldar Sharon which produced one of the most original bodies Jerusalem? The Multilingualism of Esther Raab” was published of work of the mid 1960’s. Neumann’s buildings and designs this year in Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History. gained extensive international recognition through publications Alan Verskin, Near Eastern Studies, is a fourth-year doctoral in leading periodicals of the time yet to date no research has been student. His primary area of research is the study of social undertaken on his work. His approach to architecture occurred and intellectual interactions between Jews and Muslims in the as a critique of Israel’s overarching acceptance of International medieval period. He presently holds a doctoral fellowship from 9 10 STUDENTS Studies are the following: Amit Bein (Near Eastern Studies), Other graduate students working in areas relevant to Jewish ofMigrationandDiasporas.” titled “The Anthropology ofAnthropology teachingacoursefortheDepartment currently Argentina.” Sheis JewsinBuenosAires, Belonging: European Argentina, entitled“Memory, andthePoliticsof Violence, ontheJewishcommunityinBuenos Aires, dissertation Natasha Zaretsky, Anthropology, defendher willshortly inphysics. Meitner’scareer ultimately destroyed persecution forherJewishheritage oftheNaziregime’s result BerlintoStockholmasa movefrom in whichMeitner’sforced Physicist toJewishRefugee,”inwhichsheexaminedtheways Society annual meeting entitled “Lise Meitner: From German ofScience apaperattheHistory In Novembershepresented enabled her to complete archival work in Germany and England. that the JudaicStudiesProgram fundingfrom Jeris hasreceived gender and science, and science and the state. the history of science in the United States and Western Europe, during the mid-twentieth century. ofscientificdisciplinesand personalities the changingnatures andwhatthesetellusabout formulated were of thatdiscovery waysinwhichnarratives nuclear fission,focusingonthedifferent of atPrincetonUniversityonthediscovery Science Program of ofNuclearFission,1938-1968,”intheHistory Discovery The Remembered: “HowExperimentsare a dissertation, inhersixthyear, currently iscompleting Jeris StuelandYruma, period. inthemedieval Christians andJewslivingunderMuslimrule ofcommunalidentitiesamong of Arabicandtheformation University in 2006. At Princeton, he plans to study the adoption NewYork andIslamicStudiesfrom his BAinMiddleEastern Minneapolis,Minnesotaandreceived Studies.Heisfrom Eastern Lev Weitz thefollowingacademicyear.continue through She willbegoingtoIsraelforherfieldworkthisspringand tochangingnotionsofbeinggoverned. of Israelwithregard betweenthecitizenandState investigating therelationship Erica Weiss, Anthropology, studentwhois isathird-year University. atHarvard language andculture studyingMiddlePersian ancient Mesopotamia.Heiscurrently oflate andnon-Jewishliteratures inHekhalotliterature interest composition oftheBabylonianTalmud, withacomparative initslateantiquecontext,specificallythe Rabbinic literature Moulie Vidas, student,whoisstudying Religion,isathird-year toinfertility,Muslim approaches contraception,andfamilylaw. intends tostudythemutualinfluenceofJewish,Christian,and and inter-ethnic ofIslam.Shealso duringthespread marriage inter-religiousstudies willenablehertostudyattitudestoward language) attheUniversityofChicago.ShehopesthatherFarsi tostudyFarsi(Persian theJudaicStudiesprogram funding from Duringthesummershereceived Studiesdepartment. Eastern Sara Verskin yeargraduateintheNear athird iscurrently Woman: inMedievalQur’anicExegesis.” Lot’sWife Association forJewishStudieswhichisentitled“TheWicked is thepaperthathewillbegivingatAnnualMeetingof accomplishmentthisyear Hismostimportant Persian literature. has givenhimthetoolsforexploringrichfieldofJudeo- (2004-2008). Verskin spent the Persian, summer which learning CouncilofCanada the SocialSciencesandHumanitiesResearch is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Near ofNear is afirst-yearPhDstudentintheDepartment

She is broadly interested in

While at Princeton Walsh (English),andEricYellin (History). Natasha Tessone (English),PhilippaTownsend (Religion),Keri Soloveitchik (Religion),BellaTendler Studies), (NearEastern AmyShuster(Politics),Meir (Comparative Literature), Schnairsohn (Sociology),Leeore Devra Jaffe-Berkowitz Iricinschi(Religion), Eduard Michael KirkwoodHouse(German), (History), Joshua Dubler (Religion), Miriam Hess (German), JoshuaDerman (ComparativeLiterature), Soelve ICurdts religious articles andmanuscripts;LanceJenott(REL2 articles religious Turkey,traveled toGreece, andEgypttostudyCopticantique Amihay (NES3 I-V:The graduatestudentsvariedinlevelfrom Aryeh American UniversityofCairo. studied intensiveArabicattheLanguageInstitute inBerlin; andAndrew WatrousLeopold Schwarzchild (’09) A. Nunan(’08)didresearch foranintellectualbiographyof in HaifawithYedid, asocial justiceorganization; Timothy study Hebrew attheUniversityofHaifaUlpanandtowork Wien; JenniferLogan(’08)spentthesummerinIsraelto went toVienna attheJudisches Museum toworkasanintern “JewishStudiesinPrague”;ElissaFrankle(’08) program Efe Balikcioglu(’10)traveledtoCzechoslovakiafortheCET special fundinggrantsforsummerprojects. of California LosAngeles;EricaWeissof California (ANT3 studied PersianattheUniversityofChicagoand Samuel Williams (ANT1 University;and atTheHebrew to IsraelstudyHebrew Hebrew in Jerusalem; UrielSimonsohn(NES4 inJerusalem; Hebrew the post-Biblicalworld;Yaron Ayalon (NES3 thetraditionsaboutNoahin on aneditedbookconcerning 2 RonnieHalevy(ANT there; thehi-techindustry researching in Jerusalem, Israel;AlanVerskinin Jerusalem, (NES3 onmedievaltextsattheNationalLibrary research dissertation young Bedouinwomen;Eduard Iricinschi(REL5 I S Princeton. are were ifproof proof, needed,ofthevitalitysuchstudiesat for research inJudaicStudiesand of thevarietyopportunities reading. Theygiveasense are wellworth These followingreports inIsrael. on minoritiesoftheOttoman Empire Ottoman Syria;AmirGoldberg (SOC1 theJewishcommunitiesin to FranceandIsraelresearch Ari Lieberman (COM2 ofLateAntiquity;AriLieberman and culture sites,focusingonthereligions archaeological Greco-Roman also wenttoTurkey tovisitand study theancient andGreece Hanoch Levin;Leeore Schnairsohn(COM2 ontheIsraeliplaywright, spent timeinIsraeldoingresearch California LosAngeles;SaraVerskinCalifornia (NES2 Persian attheUniversityofChicagoand nd ummer five undergraduate and fourteen graduate studentswith five undergraduate andfourteen inJudaicStudiesassisted n thesummerof2007,Program year) continued her research onthesocialchangesfor year)continuedherresearch rd year)traveledtoIsraelcompletework F unding Efe BalikciogluundertheCharlesBridgeinPrague. st year) did pre-dissertation research research year)didpre-dissertation st year)wasinIsrael rd year)studied nd nd rd year)also rd year)studied year)went year)traveled th year)did th year) nd nd year) year) Elissa Frankle in front of Munich’s Oheb Jacob Synagogue.

UNDERGRADUATE their parents in concentration camps. The lady that I met lost her parents in STUDENTS: Auschwitz. Even though her parents managed to escape from Prague under Elissa Frankle Efe Balikcioglu the Nazi rule, they were caught in Oslo Raised as a Muslim in Istanbul, Turkey, and taken to Auschwitz, Birkenau. She Eine Jüdin in Wien: A Jewish Girl Takes I did not have the chance to experience told us that she did not have any contact on Vienna with her parents during the war; however, any religion or religious belief other than Conventional wisdom would dictate Islam. After taking Prof. Viroli’s course she had always hoped that they were alive. Learning about the Holocaust from a that anyone working for a Jewish on Religion and Politics, I developed an museum would naturally find herself interest in other religions that I did not person who had experienced it firsthand was an unprecedented experience for me. thinking about Judaism more than know before. Moreover, in this course, she had previously…surrounded by I realized that the notion of religion had The trip to Poland during the fourth artifacts, doing research, putting bar a pivotal role in the conduct of politics week of the program was a great mitzvah reception photographs into and even public policy today. Therefore, experience as well, because we learned archival sleeves: surely just being in the I thought that it would be beneficial for a lot about the Jewish communities milieu would be enough. When the me to learn more about other cultures in Krakow, and also visited the Nazi German department’s Summer Work and religions; so that I could appreciate death camps in Auschwitz where the Program arranged my internship at their heritage, and try to understand their most horrible crimes of human history the Jüdisches Museum Wien this past cultural and religious lives closely. With took place. In the Izaak Synagogue of summer, the focus was intended to be this in mind, I attended a Jewish Studies the Jewish district in Krakow, we were on improving my German and getting program in Prague this summer in order lucky to witness the first Shabbat service practical German-speaking cultural and to learn more about the history and that took place after the Second World work experience. The Jewish aspects culture of the Jewish communities that War. The Izaak Synagogue was one were matters of convenience, something still exist today. In this summer program, of the few synagogues that were not to which I could attach my interests, not only did I study the history of demolished during the Nazi invasion, a nod to my personal side beyond European Jewish communities, but also because it was used as a warehouse for academia. experienced their religious and cultural the Nazi army. life firsthand by attending Shabbat In reality, being Jewish on all its services and festivals (Prague and Krakow In addition to the courses on Jewish different levels became the focal point Jewish festivals) as well as working in a studies, I took classes on Central of the entire summer; the fact that I Holocaust survivors’ home. The best European Politics after the First World improved my German substantially was thing about the program was its academic War and Czech language from Charles merely incidental. Through Moadon, quality. I had the chance to take classes University; and in this way, I had a the Viennese Jewish community’s with very important professors. Both of chance to trace the dark history of young adult group, I listened to my Jewish studies professors were leading Europe during the Second World War Klezmer music in the park next to my figures and academicians in their fields. and its effects on the Jewish communal apartment and met a fellow American The classes were academically stimulating; life. Particularly, in the Jewish history living in the city temporarily, with and the ideas presented in the classroom class, I was introduced to Jewish whom I went to services most Shabbat were intriguing. It was not only the philosophy, kabbala, and recognized evenings. I found a small, trilingual classes, but also the cultural life of Prague that this core understanding of Judaism (English, German, and Hebrew) that added a lot to my learning and is still present in today’s political progressive shul, where I prayed, experience in this program. expression of Israel. Therefore, this participated in Torah study, and, on year, as a Politics major, I decided to one particularly memorable Shabbat In the elderly people’s home, I met a study Jewish theology and mysticism in morning, read from the Torah. The British lady who was a survivor of the depth, and explore its intersections with tours I gave of the museum and the Holocaust originally from the Czech politics and international relations by Stadttempel (main synagogue) were Republic. Interestingly, this person was taking classes from the Judaic Studies personal and told from the heart, one of the seven hundred Jewish children Program. hoping to imbue my listeners with a who were taken from the Czech Republic sense of a community that continued I would like to thank the Program in to the United Kingdom by a British to live and thrive in Vienna. When Judaic Studies for the summer grant, philanthropist, Sir Nicholas Winton. I traveled, sometimes I sought out because I had a great experience in After they were taken from their homes, Jewish experiences: dragging my three Prague and learned a lot about the they were adopted by British families fellow Princetonians to the Jewish Jewish communities that still exist who were living in different parts of the museum-synagogues in Prague, taking today. United Kingdom. Most of the students a Jewish walking tour of downtown lost track of each other and after the end Budapest, praying with a newly- of the Second World War, they even lost minted Australian ex-patriot and an 11 12 STUDENTS Torah. This set-upallowstheguides, tothe byobjectspertaining surrounded on display, byholidayand arranged On themainfloor, selectedobjectsare of thepurposesbehindtheirinclusion. thistragedyisonlyone deformation, of Kristallnachtindiscolorationand means thatmanystillbearthe scars theseobjects torestore While therefusal communitieshadleftbehind. murdered collectingJudaicathat and Hungary and Treblinka, thentraveledAustria lost hiswholefamilyatAuschwitz by MaxBerger, aPolishJewwho collected comprises mostlyartifacts collection institution. Thepermanent andbeinganeducational Jewish culture main focus,however, isonpreserving The with theShoahtosomedegree. exhibit atthemainbranchisimbued memorial inJudenplatz,andevery bookcase-likemonolithic controversial branch sitsbehindRachelWhiteread’s Holocaust museum.True, thesmaller isnota The JewishMuseuminVienna soaked itallupjoyously. andI steeped inJudaismVienna, War. Itwasimpossibletoavoidbeing aftertheSecondWorldreestablished rabbi andthefirstJewishschooltobe head Chajes School,namedforaformer Jews hadoncelived),andtheZwiPeres plaques onthesidewalknotingwhere the Weg (aseriesof desErinnerungs memorial totherighteousGentiles, a inVienna), was originallyinterred named fortheHungarianJewwho past Theodor-Herzl-Hof (acourtyard tookme Myjoggingroute main street. onthe with thecafésandbookstores mingling butchers andsupermarkets withhousesofprayerandKosher there, today, communitythrives theOrthodox in1671; there community centered whohadexpelledtheJewish emperor named Leopoldstadtinhonorofthe Theseconddistrictwas of Vienna. livingintheseconddistrict inadvertently or, mostplainly, thefactthatIwas MikvehinCologne, partially-excavated ontheRhine,a village ofBoppard of apologyfortheHolocaustin simply stumbledintothem:aplaque museum inMunich.Othertimes,I brand-new synagogueandJewish opera singerinPrague,visitingthe Jennifer LoganandJonYehuda inYaffo, Israel. with themuseum onapersonallevel open tothem,that, havingconnected language madethemuseumfeel more visitorsintheirown German-speaking being abletocommunicatewith non- the museum.Iwouldliketohope that find anemerging curiositysparkedby opento newviewpointsorto be more importantly,Jewish life,and,more to thingabout leave knowingonemore towhomIspoke wanted everyone with solittleknowledgeofJudaism,I I didso,havingseensomanyvisitors Nomatterhow museum’s resources. thanthe personal experiencesmore even ifIdidhavetodrawuponmy to maintainthefocusoneducation, outpouringofemotion,Istrove every burstof anger, question,every every nation.With in aGerman-speaking orwanttolive possibly studyGerman, or howI,aJewishAmerican,could of anti-SemitismIhadexperienced, tour. Countlessvisitorsaskedwhatkind situationafterapersonal Viennese insightsastothespecific with more could teachhimnothingnew, andleft insistingthatthemuseum man entered nation.AnIsraeli German-speaking Jew couldpossiblywanttoliveina American manaskedmewhatkindof oftheHolocaust.An the atrocities cried onmyshouldertoapologizefor functional. ApairofEpiscopalians thanmerely became somethingmore timetotime,mypresence From visitors tothestairsnextexhibit. audio guidemishapsandpointing atthemuseum,helpingwith mornings For sixofmyeightweeks,Ispentmost beyond thewalltextandaudioguides. toanswerquestionsthatwent in order position English-speaking interpretation ofan at themuseumwascreation while Ipromoted One oftheprojects Jews. oftheViennese personal history hisown wants, andinthatwaycreate visitortoseewhathe is toallowevery theholograms:purpose approaching wayof isnoproscribed centuries. There thetwenty-first the elevenththrough from ofVienna depict theJewishhistory floor, aseriesoftwenty-oneholograms year- andlife-cycles.Onthesecond non-Jewish visitorsabouttheJewish both humanandaudio,toteachthe screenings ofIsraelifilms,aswell astrips screenings our experience. Theyheldweekly daily activitiesand tripstoenrich alsoorganized The Ulpanstaff skills outsideofclass. to practicemyconversationalHebrew students. This gave me the opportunity the University’s dorms along with Israeli Brazil, Holland,andFrance.Ilivedin manyothercountries,including from American students, as well as students comprised of new Israeli immigrants and and newspapers.Theclasseswere including grammar exercises, literature We ofmaterials studiedawidearray along withindependenthomework. 4.5 hours of daily Hebrew instruction Department. The program consisted of with the support of the Judaic Studies attheUniversityofHaifa Ulpan program This summer I participated in a Hebrew Jennifer Logan bound forahomeinJudaism. to afar-away placeinAustria;Iwas my planeinJune,butIwasnotheaded never haveexpecteditwhenIboarded transcend oceansanddecades.Iwould by Hebrew, worship,andmelodiesthat tonguesbutbound in manydifferent community ofJews,prayingalltogether myself connectedtoaninternational or attheSpanishsynagogue,andfeel myself backatOhrChadaschinVienna WhenIpray,both increased. Iimagine andpersonaldevotionhave observation onFridayevening,my it toservices Iwas,solongascouldmake where and alittlepieceofhomenomatter identity inAustria,andfoundsolace Having scratchedoutmyownJewish havingbefore. club thatIremember discussions aboutJudaismatmyeating Jewish thought,andhavingmanymore inmodern museums, takinganinterest writing mythesisaboutBavarianJewish thanjust me themost.Itmeansmore it istheJudaismIfeelwillstickwith much bettersenseofwhoIam,but andingeneral,havea in German Certainly, confident,both I’m more about inmebymytimeabroad. changebrought am stillenjoyingevery I’ve beenbackforsixweeksnowand oftheexhibitions. engage withtherest me,theycouldgoonand through Aryeh Amihey in front of Israel’s Jewish National and University Library leaning on their automatics, their GRADUATE STUDENTS: white-and-leather uniforms not hiding to interesting sites in the area. I was the fact that these are just regular guys Aryeh Amihay also able to explore the city of Haifa. (some are boys younger than me) that I wish to thank the Program in Judaic I enjoyed becoming familiar with the just happen to carry a gun and loll on a Studies for the support I received for city and practicing my Hebrew with street corner all day. They are entirely my summer project. I spent the summer the local residents. The Ulpan greatly unintimidating, and give one the feeling in Jerusalem, in order to work on a improved my Hebrew skills and the that the government is more interested collection of essays concerning traditions fact that it was in Haifa really helped in employing a large proportion of the about Noah in the post-biblical world. to enforce the Hebrew instruction population as policemen than anything The book is the product of a two-year through daily practice. Living in Haifa more authoritarian. They stare at me seminar conducted by Prof. Michael also allowed me to gain an insight into (as does everyone else) when I jog Stone of Hebrew University during one of the most diverse cities in Israel. around the neighborhood, walk down 2004-2006, with participants from the street or, especially, cross the street. the United States, Canada, Australia Timothy A. Nunan Of course, my white skin proclaims and Israel. The book is edited by Prof Thanks to the generosity of the Program that I am a foreigner and therefore Stone, Dr. Ruth Clements and myself in Judaic Studies, I was able to spend absolutely fascinating to everyone as the secretary of the editorial board. this August in Berlin, Germany, where here. The streets I walk down are full Contributions will discuss the figure of I read through the archives of Das of eyes. They all seem to be asking, Noah and the story of the Flood as it Neue Tagebuch, a German anti-fascist “Why are you here when you could is represented in various sources: the newspaper published in exile in Paris in be back in the US?” Unless they are Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the 1930s. The correspondence within cabdrivers, in which case their eyes are Josephus, Philo, Early Christianity, these archives was a huge help in getting wondering, “Should I charge him three Iconography, Gnosticism, Syriac sources, me started early on my thesis, and times what a normal Egyptian will pay, Targum, Rabbinics and medieval writings will help me write a more thoughtful or four times?” It’s usual for busses to concerning Noah. The first part of the account of German anti-fascism in pass me with every single person on the book will relate the question of the lost exile. Moreover, the funds from JDS side of the bus staring at me, which was “Book of Noah”, by examining its alleged also supported research into the 1944 unnerving for the first week I was here. fragments found in 1 Enoch, Jubilees and film Die Feuerzangenbowle, which was Now it’s part of the scenery. There the Dead Sea Scrolls. The second half will instrumental in my production of the are no traffic laws here, so daily I wade relate to particular traditions concerning first-ever English-subtitled version of through 6 lane highways of speeding Noah, and the reflection of his character the film for an extracurricular project cars to buy my lunch koshari or chicken in these traditions. on the postwar afterlife of Nazi cinema. shawerma. Cairo is dirty, wonderful, During the summer, I worked on my This August helped focus my interests as foul, hot, and enormous. own two contributions to the book. One a historian and it would not have been discusses Noah in rabbinic literature, feasible without the help of the Program The people here are very friendly including passages from the Talmud, in Judaic Studies. (sometimes because they want me to go in their shop, sometimes because from Bereshit Rabbah and from Andrew Watrous they are fascinated with everything Targum passages of Genesis. The other American, and sometimes because they contribution, which I’m co-authoring From a mid-summer missive: are sincerely nice people, and frequently with my colleague Dan Machiela of Notre There are days of this summer when all three). People’s usual reaction to Dame University discusses traditions of I re-count the days until I return to hearing that I’m American is to either Noah’s birth in Second Temple literature. civilization and days when a bit of become very quiet very fast or to ask In addition to completing my own the charmingly dusty, hospitable, and me if I like soccer. When I say that endearing character of Cairo peeks contributions to the book, I was I do, it always means I am redeemed responsible for various aspects of through the haze that covers this from my sin of nationality. metropolis. Its 16 million inhabitants collecting all the material. I met with include a lot of deformed beggars, jolly, This summer made me more the editorial board, with many of the judgmental, and frequently maniacal resourceful. I navigated my way out of contributors, prepared a report on taxi drivers, imperious grocery store more street “emergencies” than I care the progress of the project, and other owners, brazenly curious little boys, to recount. Of course I am vastly more secretarial matters. The book will fat street walkers in jalabiyas, hordes skilled at Arabic, which will certainly hopefully be published with SBL next fall. of giggling hijabs, and of course, assist me in my JP and Thesis research. Yaron Ayalon POLICEMEN! I want to thank the generosity of the Judaic Studies Program for making it For the summer of 2007, I received The police are on every street corner, possible for me to study in Cairo this a grant from the Program in Judaic lazily (and probably very dangerously) summer. 13 14 STUDENTS explores thepossibilitythatthese two explores Myresearch transformations. witnessed dramaticsocioeconomic has period inwhichthecountry duringthesame it hasalsotranspired inGDP; to Israel’ssubstantialgrowth hascontributed The high-techtakeoff capitalinvestment worldwide. venture largest amountof draws thefourth and 50%ofallexports, for roughly the technologysectorinIsraelaccounts paceinIsrael.Todayunprecedented atan hasbeengrowing industry Since thelate1980s,high-tech Amir Goldberg planspossible. research Judaic Studiesforhelpingmakemy in I wouldliketothanktheProgram summerforme, and productive very Thus Icansaythatoverallthiswasa Jewishcommunities. Sephardi library, and whichspecializesinEastern some timeattheYad BenZvi Yitzhak of DamascusandAleppo.Ialsospent materials abouttheJewishcommunities collectionof can findanimpressive one the centerformanuscripts,where at inJerusalem, the NationalLibrary Iworkedat summer inIsrael,where In addition,Ispentsometimethis definitely worthwhile. eighteenth centuries,sothetripwas in theseventeenthand earthquakes ofplaguesand Jews andtheoccurrence toSyrian invaluablereferences across over thesummerandthisfall,Icame the documentsIcollectedinFrance dealing withtheJews.Working on describe naturaldisasters,andthose for twotypesofdocuments:thosethat Inparticular,Iwaslooking research. formy hadalottooffer these archives on naturaldisastersinOttomanSyria, sixteenth century. SinceIamworking Syria,sincethe and specificallyfrom theLevant, from consuls andmerchants ofFrench andcorrespondence reports containhealth Marseille. Botharchives de deCommerce de laChambre Bouches-du-Rhône, andtheArchives des Départmentales Archives archives: Marseille, France,toworkattwo and Israel.InMay, Itraveledto inFrance Studies topursueresearch Commerce. Yaron de photoofMarseille’sChambre Ayalon’s different questions and interests in questionsandinterests different thoughbearing I havebeenbefore, year’s fieldworktookmeback toplaces As acontinuationofmyMAwork, this of the educational system is poor.very percentages are high, and the condition infrastructure, unemployment and crime of life: there is a dire need for suitable neglect by the Israeli state in all spheres the Bedouin often testify to long term age of17.Asmallperipheralminority, 60% of this population is under the scattered throughout the south. About known as villages unrecognized which are liveinwhatare the 1970s,andrest the Israeli government beginning in townsbuiltforthemby in permanent the Negev. About 60% of them live of whom there are about 160,000 in which I work is that of the Bedouin Israel.Thecommunitywith southern and a half of fieldwork in the Negev of for a period of approximately one year my family, leavingPrincetonbehind, toIsraelwith This pastJulyIreturned in the department of Anthropology. yeargraduatestudent I amnowathird Ronnie Halevy skilled and experienced employees. historiestodraw leverage theirmilitary tech industry, howthey andlearned leading managerialpositionsinthehigh- ex-military officers, currently occupying sustaining them. I also met with several networks forged during military service in in the industry and the centrality of about thedynamicsofjobplacement interviews provided valuable information with the technology labor market. These in placementagenciesintimatelyfamiliar technology firms as well as with managers managersinleading human resources with conducting aseriesofinterviews Ibeganby of thehigh-techworkforce. onthesocioeconomicmakeup its effect the technology boom of recent years, and has been playing in catalyzing and fueling theIDF aimed atinvestigatedtherole summer to begin a multi-phase project in JudaicStudiesIvisitedIsraelthis With the support of Princeton’s Program IDF (IsraeliDefenseForce). institution:the intermediary powerful bylookingata related phenomena are my fieldwork here. my fieldworkhere. Israel thissummerandplan throughout whichallowedmetotravel support I thankyouagainforyourgenerous space forresistance. at thesametimethatitopensa local the limitsofeducationasastateproject belonging andofpossibilities;itpresents pointintodailynegotiationsof an entry isbuilt,it whichtheresearch around tribe andthestate,soascore, then becomesameetingplaceforthe state subjectsinIsrael.Theschool education doesandnotcreate how and citizenshipwillexplore focuses onBedouineducation,gender, basisaswell.Myresearch on aregular will enablemetomeetwithparents which of Bedouinwomen,anarena NGO dedicatedtotheempowerment was askedtoteachEnglishinalocal in whichtovolunteer. InadditionI in theseschoolsanddecidedontwo a numberofprincipalsandteachers of myfieldwork.Imetwith year aspart thisacademic to volunteerthroughout number ofschoolsinwhichIwanted Arabic. Theyalsocontactedmewitha many questionsandtopracticemy old Bedouinacquaintancestodiscuss of theNegev. Imetwithanumberof myself withtheBedouincommunity I dedicatedthissummertoreorienting to tell me back then. trying women were in anattempttounderstandwhatthese totheNegev of beingawayIreturned take afewyearsofwork.After5 be “digested”byherfamilywill,ifatall, somethingwhichcan this idea/desire which shewillwanttogo.To makeof in whether universityisthedirection that timeinlifewhenagirlmustdecide claimed,is 13-15. This,theyrepeatedly to travelbackintimetheagesof one husband andchildren—requires ideal womanasdedicatedtoherhome, the movement ofwomenandperceives the thatrestricts cultural atmosphere become students—inthemidstofa path intoBenGurionUniversityand how theymanagedtopavetheir thattounderstand often remarked whom IworkedduringmyMAhave mind. Bedouinfemalestudentswith Eduard Iricinschi some adjacent Greek islands, exploring Leeore Schnairson’s photo of a street in Nachlaot. and photographing some of the most With the financial help of the Judaic well preserved ancient Greco-Roman productions of Levin’s plays. I watched Studies Program, I traveled, from July archeological sites and museum the entire video collection (twenty- 19 to August 8, 2007, visiting the collections. following historical sites: Thessaloniki, three plays and two documentaries), Vergina, Veria, Athens, and Corinth My journey began in Istanbul, where a number of which I was able to in Greece, as well as Istanbul, and the I visited, among other locations, the purchase, and I plan to donate them ancient cities of Ephesus, Aphrodisias, Hagia Sophia museum and Theodosius’ to Princeton University Library. In Hierapolis, Smyrna, Pergamos, in Asia Egyptian obelisk in Sultanahmet. From addition, I was able to attend the Minor, Turkey. Istanbul I moved south to Bergama Yiddish Summer Program at Tel Aviv (ancient Pergamum), with its terraced University, a four-week intensive course In Thessaloniki, I spent a substantial acropolis, Asclepion, and local museum in Yiddish language. While not related amount of time in the Archeology of mosaics, Roman statuary and votive directly to my research on Hanoch Museum; I also visited the Palace offerings. Proceeding to the Greek Levin, the basic knowledge of this of Galerius, the Galerian Arch and Islands of Samos and Patmos, I met language I acquired in this course will Rotonda, the Roman Market and with my colleague Philippa Townsend doubtlessly prove valuable to my future Theatre, and the Agios Dimitrios and looked into the little known research in Modern Hebrew literature. Church. In Vergina, my most important inscriptions of an ancient Artemis objective was to visit the subterranean temple now housed in Patmos’ Greek Leeore Schnairsohn tomb of Philip II; while in Veria, my Orthodox monastery of St. John. intention was only to trace Paul’s steps. (Unfortunately the monastery did not The JDS grant helped carry me through As for Athens, while there I visited allow photographs in its museum, but two months in ulpanim, the first in the National Archaeological Museum we did manage to get a Greek transcript Jerusalem and the second in Tel Aviv. several times, and I went to Benaki of one of the larger, more important In Jerusalem, I lived in a basement Museum and Byzantine Museum, not inscriptions, which describes the apartment in Nachlaot, just under one without dedicating time to explore the consecration of a young girl as priestess of the dusty, winding stone corridors Agora, the Acropolis, and Hadrian’s of the Artemis cult on Patmos.) that suffice for streets in this century- Library. I also traveled around the Arriving back in Turkey, I visited the old neighborhood. Every morning, I ancient city of Corinth, and walked up ruins of Sardis—home to the largest descended to Bezalel Street and plugged to the medieval fortress of Agrocorinth, diaspora synagogue ever discovered— through Kita Gimel at the Beth Ha’am only a few days after the July fires ran ancient Ephesus and hippodamian ulpan, along with olim hadashim from through it. In Istanbul I spent time in Priene, then went further inland to America, middle-aged Russian women the former Byzantine churches turned Aphrodisias and Hierapolis. In Ephesus in their seventh or eighth attempt at mosques, Hagia Sophia and Little I had the opportunity to tour the learning the language, and young Arabs Agia Sophia (Küçuk Ayasofya Camii), recently opened “Terrace Houses” from the old city and beyond. Friday Theodosian Basilica Cistern (the complex, acclaimed as one of the most night I’d either choose one of the many Sunken Palace, the Yerebatan Sarayı), well preserved luxury domestic settings little synagogues in Nachlaot to welcome the Hippodrome of Constantinople, from the Roman world. Shabbat, or walk down through the the Topkapı Palace, and the Valens In total, I took over eight hundred shopping district and hop on a sherut to Aqueduct. Finally, I took more than a photographs of the sites and museum Tel Aviv, and from then on to Netanya, thousand pictures of the ancient cities artifacts, all of which I expect will serve where I have family. of Ephesus, Aphrodisias, Hierapolis, well as visual teaching aids in future At the end of July I moved to Tel Aviv Smyrna, Pergamos. slideshows and PowerPoint lectures. and the ulpan at Tel Aviv University. The main purpose of this trip was to This ulpan was stocked with college Ari Lieberman become intimately acquainted with the students from the US and Western architecture and artifacts of ancient Thanks to the generous assistance of the Europe and moved quickly and cities in Greece and Asia Minor and, at Judaic Studies Program, I was able this efficiently through the heady material the same time, to gather visual aids for summer to begin my pre-dissertation of Kita Dalet. Friendships were quickly teaching introductory courses in ancient research in Israel. I spent over two formed in and out of class--at cafes, on religions, New Testament, Judaism, and months in Tel Aviv, which is home to the beach, or hanging around the library. early Christianity. the Gershon Plotkin Cameri Theater I lived with a French filmmaker (the Archive, which has the most extensive director, most famously, of the award- Lance Jenott material on Hanoch Levin in the world, winning documentary “The Forgotten from press clippings to production Refugees”) right off Kikar Rabin, and The funding generously granted to notes to video recordings of his plays. quickly found myself within a circle of me for Summer 2007 allowed me to My research focused on primary texts new friends, some of whom I believe will travel throughout western Turkey and and interpretation, i.e., on the various remain with me for the rest of my life. 15 16 STUDENTS which was offered through the Eastern theEastern through which wasoffered course attheUniversity ofChicago taking anintensivePersian goal through ease.Iachievedthis texts withgreater unsimplified Persian be abletoread Persian languageskillssothatI would my My goalthissummerwastoimprove Alan Verskin University). Shaye Cohen(Harvard University),and (Hebrew Halbertal Lasker (Ben-GurionUniversity),Moshe University),DanielJ. Irshai (Hebrew University),Oded Friedmann (Hebrew Berger (Yeshiva University), Yohanan scholarssuchas David prominent from given were of “schematics.”Lectures assumedtherole the defeatedgroups while identified itselfas“orthodox,” – howanemerging dominantparty traditions inreligious differentiation todiscussthephenomenonof in order institutional affiliationscametogether and students ofdiversebackgrounds that weekscholarsandgraduate Boundaries ofReligion.”Throughout TheShifting was “DefiningHeresy: Comparative Religion. This year’s theme Schoolfor JewishStudiesand Jerusalem week ofmystayinIsrael,(July8 input forit.Duringthefirst important my workwithothersandreceive in myfieldhasenabledmetoshare amongstotherscholars the library ofspendingtimeat the opportunity Furthermore, isgrounded. my research onwhich materials ofvariousgenres antique andmedievalJewishliterary possesses extensivecollectionsoflate Thelibrary University inJerusalem. ofTheHebrew National Library spent mostofthesummerat I two chaptersofmydissertation. and writing,havingcompletednearly research withmy significant progress During thepastsummerIhavemade Uriel Simonsohn summers ofmylife. one oftherichestandmostformative andcansafelysayitwas thirty-two and secular, tenfold.I’m increased ofIsraelilife,bothreligious appreciation and two levels,andmyawareness Over thesummer, climbed myHebrew the 13 th ), I took part intheannual ), Itookpart th to Farsi. oftranslations oftheQuraninto history point presentation in Farsi about the was alsoabletogivea25minute power- toadictionary.texts withsomerecourse I course I was able to translate a variety of grammatical tenses.Bytheend ofthe vocabulary and all of the commonly used dealof language coursetaughtmeagreat of Persian whatsoever. The intensive I began this summer with no knowledge Persian afterfinishingmyPh.D. to pursue other research projects involving of my dissertation research. I also intend documents in that language in the course scholarshipandhistorical both modern study PersianbecauseIwillneedtoread and the University of Chicago. I chose to course run by the Eastern Consortium of attending a Persian language (Farsi) I received funding to cover the expenses S course. allowed me to take advantage of this mewiththefundswhich for providing inJudaicStudies I thanktheProgram recommend the program that I took. thissummerandthoroughly progress Overall, I am very pleased with my proficiency. am wellonmywaytoeventualPersian work,butI dictionary more require time,and difficulty naturallytakemore toadictionary.recourse Texts ofgreater the BBC’sPersianwebsitewithlittle of adictionary, nowIamabletoread Persiantextswiththeaid short through beginning ofthecourse,Icouldstruggle forme.Atthe productive particularly was involved muchpriorpreparation, each dayafterclass.Thishour, which Persian textofmychoiceforanhour andtranslatea allowed metoread the nextday. Inaddition,theprofessor textsfor night whichinvolvedpreparing We hadmanyhoursofhomeworkeach onconversation. andthethird prose and poetry, theseconduponworksof ofeachdayfocusedupongrammar third Thefirst ended at3:00intheafternoon. and at8:50inthemorning started The course,whichlastedeightweeks, Persianlanguageprogram. Consortium’s ara V erskin work. the funds that are enabling me to do my at Princeton University for giving me like to thank the Judaic Studies Program in the Humanities Conference.I would on my research at the New Directions I also traveled to France to give a talk Knesset and Supreme Court records. for also beenlookingatthearchive theyear.continues throughout Ihave a good start to my fieldwork, which These have all been very productive and events. andattendingrelevant interviews with my research subjects, conducting began my fieldwork. I have been meeting the academic environment there and I inIsraelabout professors with different Also duringmytripIwasabletomeet me. around that were was learning immediately with the people was abletousemylanguageskillsthatI experience was very rewarding because I of language much more quickly. This experience, which allows the acquisition but also to have a language emersion order not only to take classes in Hebrew This summer I traveled to Israel in experience at Johns Hopkins University. level Hebrew during my undergraduate that I had had three years of university thelasttwosummersandbefore Hebrew working on my research. I studied nextsummer2008 through live there andIwillcontinueto summer there research in Israel. I spent the past am doing fieldwork for my dissertation both language study and field work. I past summer of 2007 was dedicated to the Department of Anthropology. This yeargraduatestudentin I amafourth Erica Weiss language training. having taken just eight weeks of intensive to be able to work with these texts poet Rumi. I am so pleased and grateful sufi poetry of the great medieval Persian Barry. In the course we are reading the Michael course thisfall,taughtbyProf. currently fully participating in a text-based suchthatIam My Persianskillsare SUPPORT

Judaic Studies Advisory Council COMMITTEE The first meeting of the newly organized Advisory Council took place on December 11, 2006, with David Wasserstein presiding as the chair. They met with Director Judaic Studies Committee Peter Schäfer; groups of undergraduate and graduate students; representative faculty from the departments of *Peter Schäfer, Director, Program in Judaic Studies, Perelman Religion, English, History, and Near Eastern Studies, Professor of Judaic Studies, Professor of Religion as well as individuals from other departments; the Development Consultant for the Program, Tara Christie *Leora Batnitzky, Acting Director ’07-’08, Professor of Religion Kinsey; the Program Manager, Marcie Citron; and the David Bellos, Professor of French, Comparative Literature Dean of the Faculty. A letter was then submitted to Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman with their Simeon Chavel, Lecturer in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, evaluation report and recommendations. Religion We thank the members, listed below, who graciously have *Mark Cohen, Professor of Near Eastern Studies served and helped us in our efforts to improve and grow. Stanley Corngold, Professor of Germanic Languages and Robert Alter, University of California, Berkeley Literatures, Comparative Literature Mark Biderman ’67, New York, NY Anthony Grafton, Henry Putnam University Professor of History, Director, Humanities Council W. Michael Blumenthal ’53, Princeton, NJ Jan T. Gross, Norman B. Tomlinson ‘16 and ‘48 Professor of Talya Fishman, University of Pennsylvania War and Society, Professor of History Marcella Kanfer Rolnick ’95, Akron, OH Hendrik A. Hartog, Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor in the Michael Kassen ’76, Westport, CT History of American Law and Liberty, Professor of History Ivan G. Marcus, Yale University Wendy Heller, Associate Professor of Music David N. Myers, University of California Los Angeles *Daniel Heller-Roazen, Professor of Comparative Literature Arnold Mytelka ’58, Chatham, NJ *Martha Himmelfarb, Professor of Religion, Chair Debra G. Perelman ’96, New York, NY *William Jordan, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History Mark Podwal, New York, NY *Stanley Katz, Lecturer with rank of Professor of Public and International Affairs; Faculty Chair, Undergraduate Program; Jonathan Rosen, New York, NY Director, Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies Jonathan Sarna, Brandeis University AnneMarie Luijendijk, Assistant Professor of Religion Philip Wachs ’78, Bala Cynwyd, PA Deborah Nord, Professor of English, Women & Gender Studies David J. Wasserstein, Vanderbilt University, Chair Anson Rabinbach, Professor of History; Director, Program in New York, NY European Cultural Studies (ECS) Ruth Westheimer, Mark Wilf ’84, Livingston, NJ Esther Robbins, Lecturer in Hebrew, Near Eastern Studies Bruce Zuckerman ’69, University of Southern California Lawrence Rosen, Professor of Anthropology Sidney Lapidus ’59, New York, NY, sits with Council *Esther Schor, Professor of English

Avrom Udovitch, Khedouri A. Zilkha Professor of Jewish Civilization in the Near East, Professor of Near Eastern Studies Froma Zeitlin, Ewing Professor of Greek Language and Literature, and Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature

*members of the Executive Committee

17 18 FACULTY Currently, heiscompletinghisfirstbook, of AncientIsrael anditsliterature. teaches severalcoursesonthehistory of Religion, Bible,Department Hebrew SIMEON CHAVEL in , Lecturer identity isamajorthemeofthe book. Jewish Cover. ThequestionofGary’s 2009 underthetitleDouble in January writer andcelebrity, whichwillappear (but alsoRussian,PolishandLitwak) a longstudyofthisFrench-American Catholicism. Hehasjustcompleted toJudaismand ambiguous relationship Genghis Cohn,andonthewriter’s “Holocaust comedy”,TheDanceof onRomainGary’s published articles hasrecently and ComparativeLiterature, DAVID ofFrench BELLOS,Professor Jewish TheologicalSeminary. University,Law School,Harvard and the University, IndianaUniversity, Cardozo papersatRice she willbepresenting Science Association.Inthespring Studies, andtheAmericanPolitical Religion, theAssociationforJewish College, theAmericanAcademyof of Washington, McKenna Claremont LawSchool,University School, Cardozo NewYorkCalifornia, UniversityLaw UniversityofSouthern of Virginia, papersatUniversity also presented respectively. Inthislastyear, she Buber Franz RosenzweigandMartin as wellintwoeditedvolumes,on , Studies, andJewishStudiesQuarterly Jewish Philosophy, HebraicPolitical The CambridgeCompaniontoModern ofJewishThoughtandPhilosophy, Journal inJewishSocialStudies, published articles Verso inMadrid.Inthelastyearshehas in2008from translation isforthcoming paperback inAugust2007andaSpanish the PoliticsofRevelationcameoutin and EmmanuelLevinas:Philosophy School. Her2006bookLeoStrauss Fellow atNewYork UniversityLaw last yearwhenshewastheBerkowitz continental). Shebeganthelatterproject (analyticand legaltheory and modern thought(JewishandChristian) religious betweenmodern historical relations ontheconceptualand project term aswellonalong University Press, Religion, tobepublishedbyPrinceton Thought andtheInventionofJewish Jewish at workonanewbookModern inJudaicStudies,iscurrently Program ofthe Religion andActingDirector LEORA BATNIT of ZKY, Professor 2006-2007 FACULTY RESEARCH&NEWS Leora Batnitzky David Bellos Simeon Chavel Benjamin Elucidates [Goethe’s]Faust.” ofaDog’”and“[Walter]‘Researches inKafka’s papers “RemarkableNarration andthe Freddi; ofBruno the artwork lens ofT.W.; AestheticTheory Adorno’s the toanAcademy”seenthrough Report sense inW.G. “A Sebald;Kafka’s story strain inNietzscheandKafka; the tragic Hegel andSchopenhauer;theGnostic fiction;cannibalismin in modernist onthediscourseofbookkeeping press: in 2008.Hehasanumberofessays published atPrincetonUniversityPress to Kafka’sstoriesandnovels;itwillbe relation -texts thatbearaninstructive Insurance andVeteran’s Rehabilitation- of Workmen’s AccidentCompensation onthetopic journalism eleemosynary translations ofKafka’smajorbriefsand Kafka: theOffice Writings, whichincludes completed anannotatededitionofFranz has andComparativeLiterature, German STANLEY of CORNGOLD,Professor Islamic world. ofthe the socialandeconomicrealities grant, isonMaimonides’Codeand fundedbyanNEH project, current Geniza.His theCairo Documents from in theMiddleAges:AnAnthologyof Medieval EgyptandTheVoice ofthePoor Charity intheJewishCommunityof and (2005)publishedPoverty recently andinArabic.He appear inFrench Hebrew, andwillsoon andGerman It hasbeentranslatedintoTurkish, writing abouttheJewsofIslam. avoid thepitfallsofmuchrecent intheMiddleAges,triesto relations of Islamic-JewishandChristian-Jewish Crescent, acomparativestudy andCross Studies.Hisbook,Under Eastern ofNear MARK COHEN,Professor poetic composition. devicesatplayinbiblical various literary modeltounderstand a newtheoretical publicly,also lectured anddeveloping discourse ofbiblicallaw, onwhichhehas tothe includeanintroduction underway Jewish legalcodes.Additionalprojects ofthebiblicalandearliest on ahistory hebegan where University inJerusalem, Institute ofJewishStudiesattheHebrew attheMandel Professor and wasVisiting Memorial FundofPrincetonUniversity, HallumTuckGrant bytheWilliam ’12 aSummerResearch he wasawarded with MohrSiebeck.Thispastsummer in thePriestlySource, tobepublished History Oracular LawandNarrative Mark Cohen Stanley Corngold Seventeenth Century” inthe British Seventeenth Century” Trajectories the oftheCastratofrom and“VarietiesPress) of Masculinity: to Bourdieu (CambridgeUniversity Monteverdiin ItalyandFrancefrom in Venetian Opera”inOperaandSociety Mythic Empires: Truth and Verisimilitude publications include“Venice’srecent opera.Hermost seventeenth-century ofantiquityin book onthereception Fellow, her shewasresearching where Burkhardt Studies astheFrederick University CenterforItalianRenaissance ITatti attheVilla in residence Harvard ayear from of Music,hasjustreturned WENDY HELLER,AssociateProfessor America. and nineteenthtwentiethcentury law, withanemphasisonfamilyhistory of bothinthesocialhistory are research Era.”Histeachingand in theModern andInheritance AdultChildren, Parents, BeYours:“Someday AllThisWill Aging at workonabooktentativelytitled, American LawandLiberty, iscurrently of intheHistory Bicentennial Professor HENDRIK HARTOG, Classof1921 House in2007. Auschwitz waspublishedbyRandom Fear-Anti-Semitism inPolandAfter Jedwabne, Poland(2001).Hisbook, oftheJewishCommunityin Destruction of History, authorofNeighbors:The War andSociety intheDepartment Tomlinson of ’16and’48Professor JAN T. B. GROSS,theNorman studies. Hebrew finish abookonCasaubon’s will shortly language.Ifallgoeswell,they Hebrew and bewitchedbythebeautyof difficulttexts,andfascinated to read inHebrew,on acorrespondence able Judaist,capableofcarrying extraordinary thatCasaubonwasan have discovered the BritishandBodleianLibraries documentsin summers goingthrough Tony andJoannaspentthelasttwo Isaac CasaubonandhisJudaicstudies. University, ontheHuguenotscholar with JoannaWeinberg ofOxford Tony Graftonisworking,incollaboration ofHistory.Putnam UniversityProfessor ANTHONY GRAFTON,Henry andNorthwestern. Walla), Harvard, will speakatWhitmanCollege(Walla Studies Association;andthisspringhe Science AssociationandtheGerman annual meetingsoftheAmericanPolitical at variouslecturingsites,includingthe hisresearch haspresented Corngold Hendrik Hartog Wendy Heller Martha Himmelfarb Martha William C. Jordan Stanley N. Katz Anson Rabinbach Daniel Heller-Roazen Esther Schor Froma Zeitlin

Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies. Member of the Massachusetts While on sabbatical, Heller presented Historical Society and an Academico lectures in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Correspondiente of the Cuban Academy and Oxford, was a colloquium speaker of Sciences. at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In spring of 2008, she will be teaching an ANNEMARIE LUIJENDIJK, undergraduate seminar at Princeton on Assistant Professor of Religion. A Music and Jewish Identity. scholar of New Testament and Early Christianity and a papyrologist, her including media, cinema, popular DANIEL HELLER-ROAZEN, interests lay in the social history of early music, drama, and poetry. Professor of Comparative Literature. Christianity, using both literary texts Her focus is on the impact of the socio- In May, he published a new book: The and documentary sources. Her book on political reality on the arts, mainly on Inner Touch: Archaeology of a Sensation Christians in the ancient Egyptian city of the cinema, theater and music; and she (Zone Books, 2007). He is currently Oxyrhynchus, Greetings in the Lord, will has developed curricula and delivered completing the Norton Critical Edition appear in 2008 with Harvard University a paper at an international conference of the Arabian Nights and starting a Press. She has begun a new project on on this. Recently, Robbins developed new project, tentatively titled Along late antique oracular practices. Point of a new curriculum on “Coexistence Liquid Paths: A Genealogy of Piracy. departure forms a sixth-century Coptic Through Israeli Theater and Cinema” manuscript with illicit Christian oracles (in Hebrew) and is collecting plays and MARTHA HIMMELFARB, Professor that she will publish. She is working on films that focus on the Palestinian-Israeli of Religion. She is currently working an article about women and magic in conflict. on an article on the Aqedah, the papyrus documents and early Christian binding of Isaac, in ancient Jewish and women in papyrological sources. LAWRENCE ROSEN, W. N. Christian interpretation, and will be Cromwell Professor of Anthropology, giving a graduate course on the topic DEBORAH NORD, Professor of is also Adjunct Professor of Law at in the spring. Her larger project is on English. This year Prof. Nord is Columbia Law School. His book Law the relationship between Jewish and serving as Acting Director of the as Culture was published by Princeton Christian messianism and eschatology Program in the Study of Women and University Press in 2007; his next book from the destruction of the Second Gender. She continues to work on her Varieties of Muslim Experience will be Temple to the rise of Islam. essay, “Dickens’ Jewish Question,” for out by the end of the year. Rosen will publication and has embarked on a book be giving lectures at Utah, Kansas, WILLIAM CHESTER JORDAN is with her colleague, Maria DiBattista, on Duke, Illinois, and UCLA in the next Dayton-Stockton Professor of History women writers and the public sphere. few months. He is currently at work and teaches undergraduate courses on In April 2008 she will be on a keynote on a book called Drawn From Memory: ‘English Constitutional History’ and panel at the Northeast Victorian Studies Moroccan Lives Unremembered, which ‘Europe in the High Middle Ages.’ Association, the topic of which is includes materials on Muslim-Jewish He just completed a book manuscript “Victorian Underworlds,” and in July relations. comparing the relations of the two great she will present a paper at the “Vauxhall royal monasteries, Westminster Abbey Revisited” conference in London. She PETER SCHÄFER, Director of and the Abbey of Saint-Denis, with recently taped a segment of the MLA the Program in Judaic Studies, is the the English and French kings in the radio program “What’s the Word?” to Perelman Professor of Judaic Studies thirteenth century. He is also currently discuss her book Gypsies and the British and Professor of Religion (currently writing, in collaboration with Professor Imagination. on leave). He published, in the spring David Berger of Yeshiva University, of 2007, his new book on Jesus in the a general history of Jewish life in ANSON RABINBACH, Professor of Talmud and has continued to work on Christendom in the Middle Ages. History and Director of the Program in the Sefer Hasidim (Book of the Pious) European Cultural Studies, specializes project (together with Michael Meerson STANLEY KATZ, Lecturer with rank in 20th century European history, with and former graduate student Kevin of Professor in Public and International an emphasis on German intellectual Osterloh) as well as on the edition, Affairs, Faculty Chair of the Woodrow history. He teaches courses on European translation, and commentary of Sefer Wilson School Undergraduate Program, culture, intellectuals, fascism, and the ha-Razim (Book of the Mysteries). In Director of the Princeton University history of technology. He has recently January 2007 he organized, together Center for Arts and Cultural Policy co-edited The Third Reich Sourcebook with Princeton graduate students Studies, and Acting Director of Law and (with Sander Gilman) and is working on Philippa Townsend and Moulie Vidas, a Public Affairs. Katz is a member of the a book entitled “Antifascism in the Era conference on “Revelation, Literature, New Jersey Council for the Humanities, of Hitler and Stalin.” and Community in Antiquity.” Schäfer the American Antiquarian Society, served on the Israeli Council for Higher the American Philosophical Society; Education committee that evaluated a Fellow of the American Society for ESTHER ROBBINS is a lecturer in the General History and History of the Legal History, the American Academy Hebrew in the Department of Near East Jewish People Departments at all Israel of Arts and Sciences, and the Society of Studies. Her Hebrew courses explore universities, and he continues to serve American Historians; a Corresponding the various aspects of contemporary Israeli language, society, and culture; on the Scholion Advisory Board at The 19 20 FACULTY medieval persecutionstotheShoah.Sheisonleavein2007-08. from ofJewishmartyrdom exist, andencompassesahistory Vovniks, 36JustMen,onwhosemerittheworldcontinuesto reworks thelegendofLamed- and fictionalelements,it and enigmatictext.Ahybridofhistorical,legendary, mystical, ahaunting in1960,andremains the Just,wonPrixGoncourt nowclassicnovel,TheLastof AndréSchwarz-Bart’s martyrdom. 2007 asthelastinaseriesdevotedtoJewishnotionsof atYaledeliver anexpandedversionofthislecture inDecember inJuly2007.Shewill the BerlinInstituteforCulturalInquiry “Perpetua’sPassions”undertheauspicesof the conference, desJustes(TheLastoftheJust)andHolocaust,”to dernier Le AndréSchwarz-Bart’s “Transfigurations ofMartyrdom: community ofstudents.Shealsocontributedapaperentitled, andexceptional due bothtoitsexperimentalcurriculum “Stolen Years” tobeanespeciallymemorableexperience, proved Nazis inWorld gratifying,but War very II”).Bothcourseswere (“StolenYears:and theotherinspringterm Youth Underthe America”) theBibletoContemporary Sexuality inJudaismfrom (“Gender, oneinthefallterm for theprogram, theBody, and taughttwocourseslastyear ofComparativeLiterature, Professor and (intheClassicsDepartment) Language andLiterature ofGreek FROMA ZEITLIN,CharlesEwingProfessor ofOverseersKocUniversityinIstanbul. member oftheBoard CenterforPeaceintheMiddleEast.Udovitchisa International of Islam,heisalsoontheWorld ExecutiveCommitteeofthe a memberoftheExecutiveCommitteeEncyclopaedia StudiaIslamicaand Studies.Co-editorofthejournal, Eastern ofNear of JewishCivilizationintheNearEast,Department ABRAHAM L.UDOVITCH,KhedouriA.ZilkhaProfessor inventor, Zamenhof. LudwigLazarus workingonabookaboutEsperantoanditsJewish is currently Encounters seriespublishedjointlybyNextbook/Schocken.She biography, (2006),thefifthvolumeinJewish EmmaLazarus AmericanJewishStudies,forherrecent Jewish BookAward, ofEnglish,wontheNational ESTHER SCHOR,Professor Tel Doctoratefrom University. Aviv anHonorary awarded andinMay2007hewas Distinguished AchievementAward, University.Hebrew theMellon InDecember2006hereceived DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (Director’s Message continued from page 1)

former German Foreign Minister RECENT DEVELOPMENTS Joschka Fischer’s Mytelka Lecture about “Europe and Israel.” It drew a large Following Peter’s Schäfer’s message audience and connected well with our from last year, I am happy to report that attempts to launch the new field of we hope to be appointing a three-year Israel Studies. lecturer in the area of Israel Studies effective Fall 2008. We have left the Among the four conferences/ field and specialization open but hope workshops I would like to single out the to appoint a lecturer who has expertise “Colloquium on the Seven-Hundredth in some area of Israel Studies, which Anniversary of the Expulsion of the might include social, cultural, religious, Jews from France in 1306” in October and political life in Israel, the history 2006, and the “Spinoza Day” in January of Zionism, and the role Israel plays in 2007. The former, organized by our the Middle East. The appointment will JDS Executive Committee member Bill be made jointly between the Program Jordan and Susan Einbinder (Hebrew in Judaic Studies and an appropriate Union College, Cincinnati), was the department. only public conference, if I am not mistaken, that commemorated the sad We are also very excited that the new events around the year of 1306. The “Lapidus Family Fund for American latter, organized by Dan Garber, the Jewish Studies,” which was celebrated Chair of our Philosophy Department, with a luncheon in September, and the was a wonderful experience of intensive inaugural lecture by Leon Wieseltier in reading of Spinoza’s texts by some of February has already greatly enriched the major scholars in the field, together our year this year. In the spring, with our graduate students. Suzanne Last Stone, Professor of Law and Director of the Program in Jewish We continued our series, for the fifth Law and Interdisciplinary Studies year, of seminars and conferences, at Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. organized by our graduate students. Cardozo Law School, will teach a This year’s seminars and conference course on “Jewish Legal Thought was dedicated to the topic “Revelation, and American Legal Theory,” Jenna Literature, and Community.” It was Weissman-Joselit will teach a course again very well attended and will on “The Ten Commandments in result in a volume, edited by the two Modern America,” also in the spring. students who organized the seminar and In addition, there will again be a major conference. These conferences have public lecture (February 20, 2008), become so well known that publishers this time by Jonathan Sarna of Brandeis compete for the rights to publish the University. volume.

Finally, we continued our Faculty Workshop at which our faculty members present their work in progress to a critical audience of colleagues and students (graduate as well as undergraduate). This workshop has been very successful and draws a large number of students and faculty. During the fall term we scheduled presentations by Simeon Chavel, Anson Rabinbach, and Leora Batnitzky, and during the spring term, presentations by David Bellos, Stanley Corngold, and Deborah Nord.

21 EVENTS Daniel Kurtzer Joschka Fischer Leon Weiseltier David Wasserstein

Lectures and Events, 2006 - 2007 and Moulie Vidas, under the guidance of Professor Peter Schäfer. On January 21 Philosophy Department Chair, Dan The Program in Judaic Studies is known for the variety Garber, organized “Spinoza Day,” a workshop on the reading of events we sponsor or co-sponsor, including lectures, of texts by Spinoza. And finally on February 10 and 11, conferences, film series, symposia and panel discussions. “The Concept of an Israelite ‘Revolutionary Monotheism’ 2006-07 was an exciting year. It is noteworthy that we began Reconsidered,” which was organized by Professor Beate the academic year with a talk by Daniel Kurtzer, former Pongratz Leisten, was convened. All of these events featured United States Ambassador to Israel and currently with the Princeton faculty, as well as scholars from around the world. Woodrow Wilson School, on “Arabs and Israelis: The Summer Vacation War,” Spring 2007 Lectures: Our spring calendar of events included many visitors to Princeton. March welcomed: the Films: An Israeli film series in the fall was coordinated film producerAlbert Barry, who screened and discussed by Hebrew lecturer Esther Robbins, featuring “Atash,” his documentary “The Lost Wooden Synagogues of Eastern “Schwartz Dynasty,” “Metallic Blues,” “Free Zone,” and Europe;” Simon Goldhill, University of Cambridge, “Minotour.” Additionally, Judaic Studies sponsored two film “Wagner’s Greeks: Judaism, Hellenism and the Politics of series presented in conjunction with courses taught by Froma Culture;” Lital Levy, Harvard University Society of Fellows, Zeitlin. In the fall, the Gender, The Body, and Sexuality “Before ‘Jews and Arabs’: Jewish Writers in the Modern Arabic in Judaism Film Series featured such films as “Ushpizin,” Renaissance;” Idith Zertal, University of Basel, “The Jewish “Yentl,” “Europa, Europa,” “The Dybbuk,” “The Governess,” Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-present;” and “Trembling Before G-D,” “Hester Street,” “Crossing Gil Hoffman, Chief Political Correspondent and Analyst for Delancey,” and “The Frisco Kid.” In the spring, the Stolen The Jerusalem Post, “The Perception of Israel in Foreign Media Years: Youth Under the Nazis in World War II featured “The Outlets.” Our additional speakers in April were: Yfaat Weiss, Grave of the Fireflies,” “My Name is Ivan,” “Europa, Europa,” Bucerius Institute Haifa University and the Remarque Institute “Korczak,” “Life is Beautiful,” “Fateless,” “Au revoir, les NYU, “Past Encounters: Lea Goldberg and Ilsabe Hunke von enfants,” “The Last Butterfly,” “The Revolt of Job,” “Red Podewils;” and Linda Stern Zisquit, Bar-Ilan University, Cherry,” and “Under the Domim Tree.” presented a reading of her poetry. Fall 2006: A busy roster of lectures in the fall, each co- sponsored with different departments, covered a range of EVENTS topics including literature, religion, history, and philosophy. Friday Lunch Works-in-Progress Seminar In September, David Wasserstein of Vanderbilt University Our monthly series started in the fall with , addressed “Taxonomies of Inheritance: Jewish Texts in al- Simeon Chavel Department of Religion, speaking on “Law and Narrative in Andalus.” In October, Esther Dischereit, a German author, a Millennium of Epic Literature in Ancient Israel and Jewish presented a Reading of Poetry and Prose. November saw Antiquity,” in October. In November, Anson Rabinbach, Maren Niehoff, Hebrew University, talk on “Homeric Department of History addressed “The Very Jewish Itinerary Scholarship and Bible Exegesis in Alexandria: The Case of the of a non-Jewish Jew: Otto Katz,” and in December Leora Tower of Babel ;” Vivian Liska, of the University of Antwerp Department of Religion, spoke on “From Politics and a visitor at New York University, offered “Of Language Batnitzky, to Law: Modern Jewish Thought and the Invention of Jewish and Destiny: Celan and Kafka;” Derek Penslar, University of Law The Seminars continued in the spring semester with Toronto and a visitor at Harvard University, addressed “When .” , Department of French and Italian, speaking May We Kill Our Brethren? Jews at War in Modern Europe;” David Bellos about “Romain Gary: The Messianic Agony of a Jewish and Seth Schwartz of the Jewish Theological Seminary Catholic Unbeliever” in February and , and a visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study lectured Stanley Corngold Department of German, addressed “Kafka Before the Law” about “Rabbinic Deference and Roman Honor.” Finally in in March. Finally, in April, Deborah Nord, Department December, Evyatar Marienberg, University of Notre Dame, of English, spoke on “Dickens’s Other Jew: Riah, London addressed “Jewish Menstrual Laws and Jewish Fertility: An Caricature, and Conversation.” These seminars have been very Historical Reconsideration;” and Annette Becker, L’université successful in promoting discussion and interaction between our Paris X—Nanterre and visiting Princeton University, talked on students and faculty. “Marc Bloch, a French Jewish Historian Between Two Wars, 1914-1944.” Conferences: There were three conferences/workshops Endowed Lectures: this year, starting on October 19 with “Colloquium on the th Seven-Hundredth Anniversary of the Expulsion of Jews 29 Carolyn L. Drucker Memorial Lecture (December 7): from France,” which was organized by Professor William Amitav Ghosh Jordan of the Department of History. Susan Einbinder This lecture was cancelled due to a major snow storm, but of Hebrew Union College, Jonathan Elukin of Trinity Ghosh has been rescheduled for spring, 2008. College, and Judah Galinsky of Bar-Ilan University also participated. On January 14-16 “Revelation, Literature, and Mytelka Lecture (February 12): Joschka Fischer, Community” was held. This conference was organized by “Europe and Israel” Department of Religion graduate students Philippa Townsend 22 Seth Schwartz Idith Zertal Simon Goldhill

Fischer, Germany’s former minister of foreign affairs, and Programs 2007-2008 the Woodrow Wilson School Frederick H. Schultz Class of 1951 Professor of International Economic Policy, was Highlights of the Fall: appointed Germany’s Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1998, during the administration of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, October 2: Christian Delage, Université de Paris-VIII and earned international attention in 1998 when he urged that and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Germany should send troops to Kosovo during the NATO-led Paris, “The Nuremberg Trial” film and discussion by the intervention there, a controversial decision domestically. After filmmaker/historian. the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Fischer advised Chancellor Schröder to send German troops to Afghanistan. October 3: Peter Cole, Readings from Peter Cole, Poet In 2003 Fischer advised against Germany supporting the U.S.- and Translator, The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from led invasion of Iraq. Viewed as a political maverick, he remains Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492. one of the most popular politicians in Germany. Fischer also serves as a senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School’s October 8: Dan Vittorio Segre, University of Lugano Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination and as a fellow (Switzerland), “The Rise and Fall of Italian Jewry From 1839-1939 and the Revival of Italian Judaism in Italy and at Princeton’s European Union Program. He also has an Israel.” appointment with the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. October 11: Sasson Somekh, Tel Aviv University Inaugural Lecture of The Lapidus Family Fund for emeritus, “Baghdad, Yesterday: A Memoir of a Secular Arab- American Jewish Studies (March 14): Leon Wieseltier Jew,” The 29th Carolyn L. Drucker Memorial Lecture. Wieseltier is an American writer, critic, and magazine editor. October 15: Omer Bartov, Brown University, “Erased: Since 1983 he has been the literary editor of The New Vanishing Traces of Jewish Galicia in Present-Day Ukraine.” Republic. Wieseltier has published several fictional and non- fictional books. Kaddish, a National Book Award finalist in October 16: Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Centennial 2000, is a genre-blending meditation on the Jewish prayers of Celebration, with Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth, Cornel mourning. Against Identity is a collection of thoughts about West, Princeton, and Gordon Tucker, The Biderman the modern notion of identity. Wieseltier also edited and Lecture. introduced a volume of works by Lionel Trilling entitled The Moral Obligation to be Intelligent and translated the works of November 6: Alan Marcus, University of Aberdeen, Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai which have appeared in The New “Beautiful Dachau” film screening and discussion. Republic and The New Yorker. November 13: Moshe Halbertal, Hebrew University, Biderman Lecture (March 16): Cynthia Ozick “ ‘If it were not written in scripture it could not have been said’: Rabbinic Daring in Interpretation,” The Kwartler Family This lecture was also cancelled, due to a last minute illness, but Lecture. will be rescheduled for next year. Eberhard L. Faber Class of 1915 Memorial Lecture (April November 16: Ariel Furstenberg, Institute for Advanced Study, “Making Talmudic Dynamics Explicit: Amoraic Halakha 12): Zvika Serper and Philosophy of Language.” “Between Two Worlds: Ansky’s The Dybbuk and Japanese Theatre Aesthetics” November 28: Glenda Abramson, Oxford University, “Truth and Autofiction: Hebrew Writing in Palestine During Serper is the Chairman of the Department of East Asian the First World War.” Studies, and a faculty member of both the Department of East Asian Studies and the Department of Theatre Arts of Tel Aviv December 3: Jonathan Elukin, Trinity College/Princeton University. He is a specialist in Japanese theatre and cinema, as University Visiting Professor, “Seeking the True Urim and well as a theatre director and actor. His work bridges Eastern Thumim: Christian Hebraism and the Limits of Scripture.” and Western theater/acting techniques, and his academic and creative research focuses on comparisons and fusions of December 6: Deborah Hertz, University of California Japanese and Western theater. Prof. Serper screened excerpts San Diego, “Was Conversion Emancipation or Racial Suicide? from his production of The Dybbuk, a remarkable experiment Using Nazi Archives to Write Jewish History.” in intercultural performance, which uses traditional Japanese performance techniques from Noh and Kyogan. December 14: Jenna Weissman-Joselit, Princeton University Visiting Professor, “ ‘Good Stuff’: America’s Embrace of the Ten Commandments.”

(Upcoming Programs continued on back page)

23 EVENTS Princeton, NJ08544 201 ScheideCaldwellHouse Princeton University Program inJudaic Studies (Upcoming Programs continued from page23) continuedfrom (Upcoming Programs Land: India, Egypt, and the Cairo Geniza”The30 Land: India,Egypt,andtheCairo March 25:AmitavGhosh,“TheMakingofInanAntique Fund Lecture. Democratization ofAmericanJudaism”TheLapidusFamily February, BrandeisUniversity, 20:JonathanSarna “The ofEvilintheBookJob,”TheMytelkaLecture. Problem February 14:EdGreenstein,Tel University, Aviv “The Upcoming programs: May 7:EtgarKeret, Israeliauthor, hisworks. from reads PlatovonUstinov.”Baron of Inscriptionum Iudaeae/PalaestinaeandtheIntriguingHistory University,April 1:HannahCotton,Hebrew “TheCorpus ’80MemorialLecture Drucker th Carolyn L. Carolyn http://www.princeton.edu/~judaic Web Page e-mail: [email protected] Professor LeoraBatnitzky For theActingDirector: u e-mail: [email protected] (609) 258-0394 Princeton, NJ08544 Princeton University inJudaicStudies Program Marcie Citron Program Manager pleasecontactthe information If youneedfurther For urther Information