The Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies

THE CROWN FAMILY CENTER FOR JEWISH AND ISRAEL STUDIES

2017-2018 / 5778 FROM THE THE DIRECTORS CROWN FAMILY CENTER FOR JEWISH AND ISRAEL Dear Friends, The Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies provides an umbrella framework for Jewish studies and Israel studies at Northwestern University. STUDIES Our mission is to foster excellence in teaching and research in these fields.

This year’s newsletter includes an expanded focus on the research conducted by our faculty and graduate students. Whether they are scholars of religion, history, literature, or another Martin Eichenbaum field, our faculty and graduate students pursue research at the highest level. They ask Director and seek to answer pressing questions about the Jewish experience around the world and Claire Sufrin Assistant Director, Jewish Studies across time. On page 10, you can read about the Center’s sponsorship of a series of events highlighting new research in Sephardic Studies and on page 4, you can read about the Elie Rekhess Associate Director, Israel Studies Harris Day of Jewish Study, which brought our faculty’s research to a public audience. Nancy Gelman The Crown Family Center plays an active role in graduate education. Each year the Center Program Coordinator awards the Crown Graduate Fellowship to a student completing his or her dissertation. In Katie Jenio Program Assistant addition, the Center plays a critical role in organizing the Jewish Studies Graduate Cluster, which provides PhD students in various departments with additional training in Jewish Studies. This Krystle Felcaro Heaps Program Assistant year’s newsletter features research updates from many of the JS Cluster’s students.

In short, The Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies ensures that the work of Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences Jewish studies and Israel studies research at Northwestern is done at the highest level and Northwestern University in conversation with the best scholars on campus and around the world. Crowe Hall 5-179 1860 Campus Drive Our commitment to excellence in research is closely tied to our commitment to excellence Evanston, Illinois 60208 in the undergraduate classroom. The Jewish Studies curriculum includes more than 30 847-491-2612 courses that are offered each year by faculty members affiliated with the Crown Family Visit us on the web at jewish-israel- Center. Hundreds of students enroll in these courses. We offer both a major and a minor studies-center.northwestern.edu in Jewish Studies.

The Center also organizes four large annual public events: the Renée and Lester Crown Speaker Series, the Allan and Norma Harris Day of Jewish Study, the Philip M. and Ethel For more information Klutznick Lecture in Jewish Civilization, and the Manfred H. Vogel Memorial Lecture in or to be on our mailing Judaic Studies. Each event allows a broad community audience to engage with Jewish list, contact us at Studies scholarship. See pages 8-9 for more details on all of our events. jewish-studies@ Finally, at the end of the 2017-2018 academic year, The Crown Family Center for Jewish northwestern.edu and Israel Studies bids farewell to two faculty members. Professor Mira Balberg left Evanston for a new position as Professor and Endowed Chair in Ancient Jewish Civilization in the Department of History at the University of California, San Diego. Professor Marcia Gealy has retired after more than 35 years of teaching in the Cook Family Writing Program and the Programs in American Studies, Comparative Literary Studies, and Jewish Studies. We wish them both well in their future endeavors; they will be missed.

Martin Eichenbaum Claire E. Sufrin ON THE COVER Director Assistant Director, Jewish Studies © Andi Arnovitz, andiarnovitz.com Photograph: Avshlom Avital ii THE CROWN FAMILY CENTER FOR JEWISH AND ISRAEL STUDIES 2017-18 I 5778 FACULTY

Meet our Faculty Faculty News

MIRA BALBERG, associate professor MIRA BALBERG authored a new book in the Department of Religious Studies titled Blood for Thought: The Reinvention of Sacrifice in Early Rabbinic Literature DANNY M. COHEN, assistant professor (University of California Press, 2017). of instruction in the School of Education She also published articles in several and Social Policy journals, including Currents in Biblical Research, Jewish Studies Quarterly, and SARAH CUSHMAN, director of the the Israeli journal Theory and Criticism, Holocaust Educational Foundation of and gave public talks at the University Northwestern University, lecturer in the of Michigan and the University of Notre Department of History Dame. At the end of 2017-2018, she won the Department of Religious Studies’ EFRAT DASKAL, postdoctoral fellow Claire Sufrin teaching award. As of Fall 2018, Balberg in Israel studies will be professor of history and Endowed PETER FENVES, Joan and Sarepta MARCUS MOSELEY, associate Chair in Ancient Jewish Civilization at Harrison Professor of Literature, professor in the Department of German the University of California, San Diego. Department of German and Comparative was named Literary Studies Program YOHANAN PETROVSKY-SHTERN, DANNY M. COHEN Crown Family Professor of Jewish creative director of Unsilence, the BENJAMIN FROMMER, associate Studies and professor in the Department national human rights education professor in the Department of History of History nonprofit he founded. Throughout the year, he served as author-in-residence at MARCIA GEALY, associate professor ELIE REKHESS, Crown Visiting Professor Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School in of instruction in the Cook Family Writing in Israel Studies, associate director Chicago, where he worked with eighth- Program for Israel studies, and visiting professor grade students studying Holocaust in the Department of History history through his novel Train. Starting EDNA GRAD, distinguished senior in Fall 2018, Cohen will be overseeing lecturer emerita in Hebrew Language JOSEPH RINGEL, postdoctoral fellow “Unsilence Lab” for Northwestern in Israel studies students interested in hands-on, for- PETER HAYES, Theodore Zev Weiss credit experience with the design and Holocaust Educational Foundation KENNETH SEESKIN, Philip M. and Ethel research of human rights, genocide, Professor of Holocaust Studies Klutznick Professor of Jewish Civilization and Holocaust education. Emeritus in the Departments of and professor in the Departments of History and German Philosophy and Religious Studies SARAH CUSHMAN taught “Gender, Race, and the Holocaust” in Fall 2017. LUCILLE KERR, professor in the DAVID SHYOVITZ, associate professor Cushman continues to work on the book Department of Spanish and Portuguese in the Department of History adaptation of her dissertation about JACOB LASSNER, Philip M. and Ethel CLAIRE SUFRIN, associate professor of the women’s camp in Auschwitz. She Klutznick Professor of Jewish Civilization instruction in the Jewish Studies Program conducted a research trip with an NU Emeritus in the Departments of History and assistant director of Jewish studies undergrad to Poland this past spring. and Religious Studies HANNA TZUKER SELTZER, assistant PETER FENVES published a Spanish- PHYLLIS LASSNER, professor of professor of instruction in the Jewish language monograph, Walter Benjamin instruction emerita in the Cook Family Studies and the Middle East and North entre los filósofos (Buenos Aires-Santiago: Writing Program, Gender & Sexuality African Studies Programs Palinodia, 2017), that will appear in an Studies Program, and Jewish Studies expanded English version in 2020; a Program BARRY SCOTT WIMPFHEIMER, volume of essays on the work of Samuel associate professor in the Department Weber that he co-edited and introduced; of Religious Studies and the Pritzker School of Law continued

1 LUCILLE KERR continued to focus her Welcome to new Hebrew instructor teaching, research, and mentoring of Hanna Tzuker Seltzer students on the Latin American context with emphasis on works of fiction, testimonial SELTZER, assistant professor of texts, and films, which include materials by instruction in Jewish Studies and Jewish-Latin Americans. Graduate teaching encompassed a practicum on scholarly the Middle East and North African writing and publication. Undergraduate Studies Program, spent her first year courses dealt with core areas of the field at Northwestern developing new that brought worldwide recognition to curricula for Beginning, Intermediate the Latin American tradition: the literary and Advanced Hebrew students. production during the “Boom” of Latin In these new curricula, the emphasis American literature in the 1960s to early is on communicative-interactive 1970s and testimonial narratives and films Hebrew, with cultural references from the mid-twentieth century to the to Israel, including stories, poems, present day. Her scholarly projects during the songs, and movies. In particular, year included ongoing work as founder and she created an interdisciplinary course for advanced Hebrew students director of the web-based Latin American that revolves around a different theme each quarter. The thematic anchor Literature & Film Archive as well as research for a critical analysis of Jacobo Timerman’s allows for materials from a variety of genres and responds to student 1980 testimonial work Preso sin nombre, interests. Seltzer studied Film and Television at the Hadassah College in celda sin número (Prisoner without a Name, Jerusalem and Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Cell without a Number), which directed where she completed her BA summa cum laude. Seltzer received her international attention to the plight of Jewish- PhD in Modern Hebrew Literature and Israeli Film from the University of Argentine citizens imprisoned and tortured California, Berkeley, in May 2017. during the 1976-83 military dictatorship.

JACOB LASSNER recently completed a book titled Near Eastern Politics and an essay on Walter Benjamin and Heinrich at the biannual Benjamin conference in Historical Memory: Intersections between Rickert published simultaneously in Oxford and participated in a colloquium the Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The English and Italian; an essay for the Italian in Rijeka, Croatia, around the theme of book deals with the manner in which journal Paradigmi on Benjamin and “The Critique of Violence Today.” residual memories of the past, be they Hermann Cohen; and an essay on the image real, massaged, or woven from new of China, as mediated by translations of the BENJAMIN FROMMER made substantial cloth, affect contemporaneous political Daodejing among Jewish-German writers progress on his manuscript, “The Ghetto thought and behavior. and thinkers in the early 20th century without Walls: The Identification, Isolation, has continued including Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, and Elimination of Bohemian and Moravian PHYLLIS LASSNER to present and publish her research on and Franz Kafka. The latter essay appeared Jewry, 1938-1945.” Together with his Holocaust representation and World War II in Chinese in 2017 and will soon appear co-editor, Adrienne Edgar (University of and Cold War women writers. She presented in an English-language volume published California, Santa Barbara), Frommer also her work on Polish Holocaust films at the by Springer Verlag. A separate inquiry submitted a full draft of a collected volume World Jewish Congress in Jerusalem and into Benjamin’s relation to Chinese texts on the phenomenon of intermarriage under on the Holocaust escape memoir by Trudi appeared in the journal Positions. Fenves — and after — fascist and communist rule. Kanter, Some Girls, Some Hats, and Hitler, recently gave a weeklong mini-seminar at In winter quarter 2018, he taught a survey at the Modernist Studies Association in the Humanities Institute of Diego Portales course on the history of the Holocaust Amsterdam. Her essay “Double Trouble: University-Santiago in conjunction with before leading a spring seminar on trials of Helen MacInnes’s and Agatha Christie’s his participation in the Mellon Foundation Holocaust perpetrators and deniers. Speculative Spy Thrillers” was published Grant for Critical Theory and the Global in The History of British Women’s Writing, South. He also delivered a keynote address

2 THE CROWN FAMILY CENTER FOR JEWISH AND ISRAEL STUDIES 2017-18 I 5778 1945-1975. She also co-edited the 2017 special ELIE REKHESS participated in the Water school for graduate students in Jewish issue of The Space Between: Literature and Technology and Environmental Control Studies, which was devoted this year to Culture 1914-1945 on the topic of “Espionage Exhibition and Conference (Watec) in “The Supernatural in Jewish History and as Cultural Artifact.” Israel. In October, he was the featured Culture.” In addition to his regular course commentator following a screening of Ben rotation, Shyovitz also taught a quarter-long MARCUS MOSELEY presented a paper at Gurion, An Epilogue at the Spertus Institute course on “Christians and Jews” through the University of Wisconsin titled “How to for Jewish Learning and Leadership in the Alumnae of Northwestern University’s Make Money: Sholem Aleichem’s Di freylakhe Chicago. Rekhess co-chaired the third continuing education program. kompaniye.” Moseley is currently writing annual Symposium on Water in Israel and an essay on the relationship between H. the Middle East at Northwestern (see page 8 CLAIRE SUFRIN taught a popular new N. Bialik’s famous poetic responses to the for details). At the “Israel at 70: Continuities, seminar for first-year students entitled 1903 Kishinev pogrom, notably “In the City Changes, Challenges” conference co-hosted “A Rabbi and a Priest Walk into a Bar… To of Slaughter,” and Abraham Meeropol’s by the Israel Institute, the Anti-Defamation Talk about God.” In the course, students song “Strange Fruit.” The latter, performed League, and the Center for Jewish History in studied models of interfaith dialogue and by Billie Holiday, is regarded as one of the New York City, Rekhess was a panelist in the had a chance to experiment with different most significant statements on race in the discussion of “New Voices and New Politics ways of talking together about their deepest 20th century. He continues to work on a in Israel.” He also gave a lecture on Arabs commitments. Sufrin presented her research larger project — “Dead Can Walk: Fear and in Israel at the Summer Institute for Israel on religion and literature at the Association Loathing in Modern Hebrew and Yiddish Studies held at Brandeis’ Schusterman for Jewish Studies Conference and the Literature” — that engages the ubiquitous Center for Israel Studies and lectured on “Fractured Paradigms: Rethinking the presence of ghosts, zombies, and dybbuks the Sephardi-Ashkenazi communal divide Study of American Jews” Biennial Scholars’ in these literatures. in Israel at the Goldstein Goren Center for Conference on American Jewish History. She Israel Studies at the University of Bucharest. also participated in the annual meeting of the YOHANAN PETROVSKY-SHTERN Society for Jewish Ethics and the Philosophy obtained a generous grant to sponsor a KEN SEESKIN was on leave during Conference at the Shalom Hartman Institute. group of researchers in Lviv responsible for the 2017-18 academic year. In that time, Her article “Buber, the Bible, and Hebrew creating catalogues of the pre-WWII Judaica he completed a long essay on the Jewish Humanism: Finding a Usable Past” appeared collections at seven museum depositories. conception of freedom; two intermediate- in Modern Judaism 38:1. Her current research He also co-curated and co-organized length essays entitled “Can There be a — “Storytelling and Meaning-Making: an exhibition at the National Museum Positive Theology?” and “What the Guide of Jewish Literature and Jewish Thought in of Ethnography in Lviv with about 500 the Perplexed is Really About”; and a short America” — received a grant from the Office artifacts on display, which introduced and essay on the Second Commandment. Most of of Undergraduate Research, which allowed celebrated the rich legacy of the Galician his efforts, however, went into a book-length Sufrin to hire and mentor an undergraduate Jews. He gave keynote presentations at study of the biblical prophets. research assistant in support of this project international conferences in Lviv, Berlin, over summer 2018. and Paris; and book presentations at DAVID SHYOVITZ spent the year at Northwestern University, the Chicago-based work on his second book, tentatively titled, BARRY WIMPFHEIMER debuted a Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, the “O Beastly Jew!” Jews, Animals, and Jewish course entitled: “Jews and the Transgender University of Vienna, and the University of Animals in the Middle Ages. The project Moment” that examined the overlap Munich. He taught the history and culture explores the ways medieval Jews and between Jewish and transgender identities of Jews in Ukraine and Ukrainian-Jewish Christians conceptualized the boundaries and their representation in contemporary relations through the centuries at the Free between humans and (non-human) popular culture in the fall quarter. His Ukrainian University in Munich, Ukrainian animals. In September 2017, Shyovitz was book The Talmud: A Biography appeared in Catholic University in Lviv, and National a visiting fellow at the Katz Center for Princeton University Press’ “Lives of Great University “Ostroh Academy.” He also gave Advanced Judaic Studies at the University Religious Books” series. Wimpfheimer also a number of book presentations in Ukraine of Pennsylvania, while he also delivered published “A Biography or a Hagiography,” following the publication of his monograph lectures at the Newberry Library, the a review of Aaron Hughes’ Jacob Neusner: The Anti-Imperial Choice in Ukrainian University of Notre Dame, and the Hebrew An American Jewish Iconoclast in Religious translation by KRYTYKA Publishers in University in Jerusalem. In the summer of Studies Review. conjunction with the Harvard Ukrainian 2018, he returned to the Katz Center as a Research Institute. faculty member at their advanced summer

3 RECENT FACULTY

PUBLICATIONS of community life, in solidifying a social and religious identity, and in generating a commitment to the commandments. In this his year’s Allan But did the rabbis of the Mishnah and the study, my close reading of neglected ancient and Norma Harris Talmud really devise a Judaism without texts ultimately overthrows some very well- sacrifice? Did they really seek to spread established assumptions and reveals a more Day of Jewish the message that one can lead a complete complicated and intriguing reality. Study on Sunday, Jewish life without a temple and an altar? While rabbinic literature was created after TMarch 18, 2018, featured DAVID SHYOVITZ on A Remembrance of the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, at three Crown Family Center least a quarter of this literature discusses His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz (University of for Jewish and Israel Studies sacrifices in great detail and gives elaborate instructions as to how sacrifices should Pennsylvania Press, 2017) faculty members discussing be performed. My book, Blood for Thought, The Jews of medieval Ashkenaz (Germany their recent publications sets out to examine how the rabbis spoke and northern France) have long had about sacrifices and what they had to a reputation for benightedness and with the public. Below, say about a practice that was ostensibly superstition. It is not hard to understand they’ve each written a irrelevant in their time — and they had quite why this stereotype has taken root. After all, short synopsis of their a lot to say about it. My research led me to contemporaneous Sephardic figures like the conclusion that the rabbis absolutely Maimonides and his intellectual heirs were comments that day. cannot be said to have envisioned Judaism deeply engaged with medicine and science, without sacrifices: rather, sacrifices were an and crafted abstract, sophisticated treatises incredibly important practice for them and on the rational and philosophical dimensions MIRA BALBERG on Blood for Thought: played a vital part in the rabbinic vision of of their Jewish heritage. Ashkenazic scholars, The Reinvention of Sacrifice in Early Jewish life. However, the fact that sacrifices in contrast, composed books of magical Rabbinic Judaism (University of California were as important for the rabbis as they were spells and esoteric doctrines, and were Press, 2017) for earlier Jews does not mean that they were intensely preoccupied by demonology, As a cultural historian of ancient important to them in the same way that they divination, zombies, werewolves, and other Judaism, I am fascinated by changes and were important for earlier Jews. I discovered monstrous and wondrous creatures that transformations in the notion of “what it that whereas earlier texts conceive of seemed to destabilize any pretense of a means to be Jewish” that took place around sacrifice primarily as way to communicate rationally explicable natural order. Medieval the turn of the Common Era. The common with God and to come to God’s presence, the Sephardic Jews looked disparagingly upon paradigm in the study of ancient Judaism rabbis did not really think sacrifices worked this Ashkenazic propensity for the wondrous is this: when the Jerusalem temple was this way. If one wanted to approach God, and weird; modern historians have echoed destroyed, a new elite of learned men called they suggested, prayer was probably better. these judgments and taken for granted that rabbis emerged. These rabbis, who created But the rabbis thought that sacrifices were Ashkenazic immersion in the otherworldly the voluminous and highly influential crucial in the organization and maintenance and “supernatural” reflected a broader set of texts known as rabbinic literature — the Mishnah, Talmud, and midrashim — transformed Judaism forever. Before the rabbis, Jews thought that the best way to worship God was to burn lambs, bulls, and goats on an altar. It was natural for them to think that, not only because this is how all the peoples around them worshiped their gods, but also because this is what the Torah explicitly commands. The rabbis, however, devised ways to be Jewish without the need for sacrificing, and they did such a good job of it that most Jews today don’t ever think they are missing something that was once crucial.

4 THE CROWN FAMILY CENTER FOR JEWISH AND ISRAEL STUDIES 2017-18 I 5778 “Gestation” and “Anatomy”), The Talmud: A Biography provides the historical and literary context out of which the Talmud emerged, explains the mechanics of how talmudic passages produce meaning, and details the long and complex reception history of this important work of literature. In my book, I argue that it is best to think of the Talmud as three separate Talmuds: the Essential Talmud, Enhanced Talmud, and Emblematic Talmud. The Essential Talmud is the original work of literature produced in Babylonia (contemporary Iraq) in the 3rd-7th centuries. The Enhanced Talmud is the conversation produced by various literatures of reception that were written to Professors Wimpfheimer, Shyovitz, and Balberg in conversation at the 2018 Harris Day of Jewish Study digest the Talmud from the 10th century to the present. The Emblematic Talmud is the estrangement from the achievements of outer limits, and to integrate and interrogate drama that orbited around the Talmud as a medieval Christian learned culture, which the theologies and ideologies of the broader symbol both within the Jewish community was at the time undergoing a scientific European Christian society. and outside of it. Academic scholars of the renaissance known as “the discovery Talmud take greatest interest in the Essential of nature.” Talmud. Traditional yeshiva students are BARRY WIMPFHEIMER on The Talmud: most concerned with the Enhanced Talmud. A Remembrance of His Wonders disputes this A Biography (Princeton University Press, Historians of different periods in which long-standing, far-reaching consensus. In the 2018) the Talmud became a source of contention book, I show that medieval Ashkenazic Jews engage the Emblematic Talmud. wrote extensively about the workings and The Babylonian Talmud (known simply meaning of the natural world in general and as the Talmud) has been the central text One of the book’s most significant theses of the human body in particular. Rather than of Judaism for the last millennium. While is the claim that a specific pattern can be reifying “nature” and “the supernatural” the Hebrew Bible is the core liturgical text, perceived in the relationships between as binary categories, medieval Ashkenazic read regularly as part of synagogue ritual, the Talmud and various modern factions Jews consciously integrated scientific, the Talmud is the text that most fully of Judaism. Different factions (Hasidism, medical, magical, and mystical traditions and embodies the ideology and practices that Reform, Feminism, Zionism, etc.) have discoveries into a sophisticated exploration comprise Judaism. The Talmud has been initially identified the Talmud with tradition of the boundaries between the mundane and the intellectual playground for Jewish elite and resisted the corpus, even rejecting the wondrous. Crucially, Ashkenazic beliefs minds since the tenth century CE if not the Talmud outright. After being firmly and practices that have often been seen as earlier; it remains a primary portion of the established, though, these groups have signs of credulity and superstition in fact curriculum for rabbis of all denominations each returned to reclaim and reinterpret mirrored, and drew upon, contemporaneous today. In recent years the Talmud has the Talmud. These reclamations and Christian debates over the relationship become transformed into a lay study text reinterpretations have contributed to the between God and the natural world — by Daf Yomi, the study program that asks tremendous diversity with which the Talmud suggesting that medieval Christians and Jews its participants to study one two-sided operates intellectually today. Though its inhabited a shared culture, and profoundly page of Talmud a day to complete the entire largest demographic is still Jewish, Orthodox, shaped one another’s religious beliefs, corpus in just over seven years’ time. Today male, and straight, some of the most practices, and values. Ultimately, medieval the Talmud is studied by a larger and more interesting interpretation and application Ashkenazic Jews’ preoccupation with the diverse readership than ever. of the Talmud is emerging from non-Jewish, apparently “supernatural” demonstrated My book The Talmud: A Biography embraces non-Orthodox, female, and gay individuals neither ignorance nor intellectual isolation. the conceit of its series (“Lives of Great and their communities. The book concludes Instead, it reflected a determined effort to Religious Books”) and describes the Talmud with the idea that the Talmud, a living work, understand nature’s inner workings and as if it were a living person. With chapter is still becoming itself. titles connected to stages of human life (e.g.

5 REDISCOVERING

LOST YIDDISH SONGS Psoy Korolenko revived them in an irreplaceable album: “Yiddish Glory: OF THE HOLOCAUST The Lost Songs of World War II.” Shternshis and Korolenko presented this repertoire Monday night at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall in Evanston, in a revelatory The article below appeared in the Chicago Tribune on May 8, 2018 following program sponsored and planned by the this year’s Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick lecture in Jewish Civilization on May 7. Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune Studies at Northwestern University. For though the album represents a landmark achievement, the concert-lecture — “Last Yiddish Heroes: Lost and Found Songs of Soviet Jews During World War II” — gave this repertoire context and meaning that only a live performance can achieve. The evening began startlingly, with Korolenko singing “Babi Yar,” a 1947 song with lyrics by Golda Rovinskaya, a septuagenarian believed to have witnessed the murders of 33,771 Jews on Sept. 29-30, 1941. As Korolenko sang the words in Yiddish (to an old Yiddish melody), the English translation flashed on a screen onstage:

By night and by day the gunshots shattered, The people saw their own deaths approaching. Oh, blood gushed out from all sides, The earth was stained red from Psoy Korolenko (all the) blood.

n the early 1940s, while musical notation) began arriving from The room fell silent as the words Jews across Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere. World War II and the issued from the lips of Korolenko, who Some of the songs were penned by Jews accompanied himself at the piano. Holocaust were raging escaping Nazi battalions, others by those Then scholar Shternshis spoke about the serving in the Red Army, still others by across Europe, a group meaning of this evening and this project. survivors returning to villages that had Iof Soviet scholars began been massacred. The songs that Beregovsky began receiving in 1942 were “talking about what was working on a most unusual Beregovsky hoped to publish this work as happening with Jews,” said Shternshis. a document of Jewish life in the Soviet task: collecting, editing and “Every single song was written by an Union during a tragic era, but he was amateur songwriter. Not a single one of preserving songs written by arrested during Stalin’s reign of terror the songs was known before.” Jews facing annihilation. against Jews and others, the songs eventually disappearing into closed Soviet The material came from ghettos in Nazi- Ethnomusicologist Moisei Beregovsky and archives. Librarians in Ukraine rediscovered occupied Warsaw, Vilna, Lodz and others, his colleagues put out a call in Yiddish the manuscripts in the 1990s, after the fall of and they amounted to a diary of a people newspapers urging Jews to send in their the Soviet Union, and recently scholar Anna under mortal threat. work. Handwritten texts (usually without Shternshis and singer-folklorist

6 THE CROWN FAMILY CENTER FOR JEWISH AND ISRAEL STUDIES 2017-18 I 5778 “Some of the songs were written as early as 1941,” said Shternshis, “which means that some of the first documents — documenting atrocities against Jews in Ukraine or Western part of Russia — were actually songs. People found it easier sometimes to document what they were witnessing People found (by) writing music about it, rather than telling (in) prose. Sometimes prose it easier sometimes lacked emotional power” that music to document what urgently provides. they were witnessing Shternshis and Korolenko went on to prove “ the point, the scholar illuminating historical (by) writing music events described in verses Korolenko sang. about it, rather than As in “Yoshke from Odessa,” a 1943 song telling (in) prose.” by Berta Flaksman, the melody based on a Anna Shternshis popular tune by the great Russian composer Shternshis estimated that among the Mikhail Glinka. trove of material scholar Beregovsky collected, “about 30 percent of the archive For three full days he hailed them down, are actually humorous songs.” And though that may seem counterintuitive considering firing one after the other. the circumstances, dark comedy and Yoshke didn’t stop firing bullets piercing satire also were weapons of from his rifle, defense and revenge. He bashed those fascists without Thus in these songs Hitler emerges a fool, a a care — not a bit of respect! clown and, most significantly, just one more villain in a line of them seeking to destroy “Revenge,” explained Shternshis, “is a Jews since biblical times. central theme in these Red Army songs.” So in the anonymous lyrics to “Purim Gifts Furthermore, they show Jews in the Red for Hitler,” Korolenko sang a song tinged Army fighting Nazis, establishing “that Jews with hope: do care and do fight as men, and they do it Anna Shternshis no worse than other soldiers.” You all set a goal In effect, songs such as these were designed to counter the “very popular anti-Semitic To erase me from the world. ground-level view of bleak events and how myth that spread in the 1940s” that Jews Except … (my fate) does not they were perceived. were passive in war. depend on you, “The existence of this archive,” said “This myth has no historical evidence,” Stalin has already tied your hands. Shternshis, “is revising our understanding said Shternshis. “But a myth does not need of the Holocaust.” historical evidence.” Why have Shternshis, Korolenko and their And in a searingly eloquent way — Along these lines, the lyrics to “My Machine associates spent so much time and effort through music. Gun,” by an unknown author, celebrated unearthing this work and presenting it to the a lethal instrument of liberation and public so many decades after it was created? vengeance. “These songs were never heard since 1947,” Howard Reich is a Tribune critic. Shternshis told the crowd. “The songs had “In 1944,” explained Shternshis, “a Jew having [email protected] to be brought back to life as music, as art.” a machine gun and using this machine gun © 2018 All rights reserved. Distributed to fight against the army that destroys their Because the songs were written not by by Tribune Content Agency, LLC people is a huge deal. And many, if not all, of professional songwriters and poets but our Red Army songs glorify the weapons that by ordinary people in extraordinary are given to them by the Red Army.” circumstances, they give us an unexalted,

7 2017-2018 EVENTS Manfred H. Vogel Symposium on Memorial Lecture Water in Israel and in Jewish Studies the Middle East As part of their ongoing collaboration, Leonard Cohen fans new and old Renée and Lester The Crown Family Center for Jewish gathered on April 24, 2018, for this Crown Speaker and Israel Studies, the Northwestern year’s Vogel lecture: “Songs of Praise Center for Water Research, and the “Life, Love, and Judaism: in a Broken World: Leonard Cohen McCormick School of Engineering co- A Conversation about Writing from ‘Story of Isaac’ (1969) to ‘You hosted their third annual symposium, and Spirituality” Want it Darker’ (2016).” Through a “Transboundary Disputes and On the evening of November 16, 2017, The dynamic multimedia presentation, Collaborative Solutions”. The conference Crown Family Center welcomed authors Stefano Perfetti of the University of Pisa brought together speakers from Israel Tova Mirvis and Abigail Pogrebin for a examined the influence of the Jewish and the Middle East as well as local conversation about their recently published textual tradition on Cohen’s music. For experts to discuss solutions to conflict memoirs. Mirvis’ Book of Separation a video of this event, please visit jewish- in the region caused by water scarcity, chronicles her movement away from israel-studies-center.norwestern.edu/ advances in technologies of desalination Orthodox Judaism while Pogrebin’s My multimedia-resources/media.html Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew and precision agriculture, socio-political emerged from her study and celebration aspects of water security in the Middle of the many fast days and feast days of East, and ways in which NGOs are Judaism. Claire Sufrin, assistant director of encouraging collaborative efforts to Jewish Studies, guided the authors through find peace and health in the region. a conversation that touched on the process of writing about one’s own life and the Faculty/Grad student possibilities of finding spiritual meaning colloquia in the mundane details of daily existence. Under the direction of David Shyovitz, For a video of this event, please visit jewish- The Crown Family Center for Jewish and israel-studies-center.northwestern.edu/ Israel Studies hosted lunchtime colloquia multimedia-resources/media.html with local and visiting scholars. Professor Stefano Perfetti Allan and Norma Harris November 8, 2017 Day of Jewish Study Philip M. and Ethel “Israel at a Crossroads: The View On Sunday, March 18, 2018, The Crown Klutznick Lecture in from 30,000 Feet” Family Center welcomed over 80 engaged Jewish Civilization Dan Ben-David, Tel Aviv University community members to Northwestern’s On May 7, 2018, professor Anna Evanston campus for the third annual Allan November 20, 2017 Shternshis (University of Toronto) and and Norma Harris Day of Jewish Study. “One Jew, Two Opinions: The Social singer-musician Psoy Korolenko brought Three faculty members — Mira Balberg, Role of Responsa in the Medieval the Soviet Jewish experience of the David Shyovitz, and Barry Wimpfheimer — Islamic World” 1940s to life through the analysis and Phillip Lieberman, Vanderbilt University presented synopses of their recent research performance of Yiddish songs written Cosponsored by the Middle East publications and answered audience during the Second World War. Together, and North African Studies Program questions. Please see the story on page 4 Shternshis’ discussion and Korolenko’s for additional details. dynamic singing painted a rich picture January 22, 2018 “Dybbuks, Golems, and of the loss of Jewish life and the ongoing “Performance and Text in Jewish hope for the defeat of the Nazis with Ritual” Messiahs: Alternative sadness, humor, and satire. More than Yair Lipshitz, Tel Aviv University Bodies in the Beginning 500 attended the event, which was Cosponsored by the Department of Hebrew Theatre” cosponsored by the Jewish United Fund of Religious Studies On a blustery January 23 evening and of Metropolitan Chicago. Please see the addressing an overflow crowd, Yair story on page 6 for additional details. For February 12, 2018 Lipschitz (Tel Aviv University) discussed a video of this event, please visit jewish- “The Forgotten Pioneer: Jean Carroll, how both the actors and scripts of early israel-studies-center.northwestern.edu/ the First Jewish Female Comedian” Grace Kessler Overbeke, PhD candidate in Hebrew theatre reflected the Zionist call multimedia-resources/media.html for a new model of Jewishness. the Interdisciplinary Program in Theatre and Drama, Northwestern University

8 THE CROWN FAMILY CENTER FOR JEWISH AND ISRAEL STUDIES 2017-18 I 5778 The Klutznick lecture audience

Authors Abigail Pogrebin and Tova Mirvis at the Crown Speaker Series event

Israel at 70: Sephardic Jews from Social Fissures, the Mediterranean Shared Aspirations to the New World . Visiting professor of Israel studies Under the direction of Ipek Kocaömer Manuel Trajtenberg discussed Israel’s Yosmaoglu, The Crown Family Center economy, society, and culture on April for Jewish and Israel Studies co-hosted 11, 2018. Trajtenberg described the State three Sephardic Studies lectures with of Israel’s evolution since its birth as additional sponsorship from the a nation in 1948 and addressed topics Department of History, the Nicholas D.

Symposium on Water in Israel and the Middle East ranging from the challenges of a diverse Chabraja Center for Historical Studies, population to the benefits of providing the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies early childhood education for all. For a Program (Buffett Institute), and the video of this event, please visit: jewish- Sava Ranisavljevic Fund. Please see the March 13, 2018 israel-studies-center.northwestern.edu/ story on page 10 for additional details. “Consumption and the Economic multimedia-resources/media.html. Turn in Jewish History: When Women Please see page 16 for more information April 19, 2018 Disappeared” about Professor Trajtenberg’s visit. “Like Negros…and Mohammedans: Riv-Ellen Prell, University of Minnesota Sephardic Jews in the American During his visit to Northwestern in Racial Imagination” spring 2018, Professor Manuel April 12, 2018 Devin Naar, University of Washington “Violence and the Politics of Identity Trajtenberg also spoke at two workshops in Ancient Jewish Literature” for faculty and students. April 26, 2018 Yonatan Miller, University of Toledo “Between the Ottoman Empire April 9, 2018 and Italy: The Jews of Rhodes “The Challenges Facing May 3, 2018 1880-1936” “Towards a Social History of Medieval Higher Education (with Israel Aron Rodrigue, Stanford University Jewish Marriage: Individuals and as a case study)” Communities” Response by Ofer Malamud, May 3, 2018 Elisheva Baumgarten, Hebrew University Northwestern University “Remembering 1492: Ottoman Cosponsored by the Medieval Studies Cosponsored by SESP Jews and the Spanish Past” Colloquium Julia Phillips Cohen, April 18, 2018 Vanderbilt University June 4, 2018 “Israel’s Great Paradox: “Sephardic Religious Revival in Israel” Strong Macro, Poor Micro” Joseph Ringel, Northwestern University Cosponsored by the Department of Economics

99 SPOTLIGHT ON SEPHARDIC STUDIES

ith a new “Sephardic Studies was uncharted territory until recently, but is now a growing field that course, holds exciting opportunities for research public and deeper understanding of Jewish life lectures, and culture,” said Yosmaoglu, an associate professor in the Department of History. Wand the co-founding of an Spurred by her own research concerning international symposium, Jewish communities of the Ottoman Northwestern historian Empire and Turkey in the 20th century . interwar period, Yosmaoglu launched a Ipek Kocaömer Yosmaoglu new research seminar titled “Ottoman contributes to the rise Jews in the Age of Nationalism” in the spring 2018 quarter. of Sephardic Studies. Reading research from some of Sephardic Though Jewish Studies scholarship has long Studies’ pioneering scholars and examining Professor Devin Naar been shaped by an emphasis on the expe- primary sources ranging from the letters riences of Central and Eastern European of Judeo-Spanish language champions to Jewries (Ashkenazim), Sephardic Studies — Jerusalem-based journalists, Yosmaoglu and munities, specifically those not dominant an area focused on Judeo-Spanish-speaking her students explored how Jewish commu- in an area, handled these periods of transi- Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula nities of the Ottoman Empire dealt with the tion,” Yosmaoglu said. — has generated accelerating international influence of nationalist movements and the The inaugural course was strengthened attention over recent decades. conflicting agendas of the Great Powers, by visits from a trio of leading Sephardic particularly after the demise of the Ottoman And with a new research seminar and Studies scholars: Stanford University histori- Empire when Ottoman Jews became “mi- lecture series at Northwestern University an Aron Rodrigue, whose groundbreaking norities” in various successor states. as well as an international symposium at work spurred the field’s rise; Devin Naar . the University of Graz, Ipek Kocaömer “The course offered a rich opportunity to of the University of Washington; and Julia Yosmaoglu is contributing to the scholarly discuss the differences between empires Phillips Cohen of Vanderbilt University. field’s ascent. and nation-states and how religious com- All three scholars offered campus lectures before engaging in private conversation with Yosmaoglu’s students. The talks were cosponsored by the Department of History, the Nicholas D. Chabraja Center for Histor- ical Studies, the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program (Buffett Institute), and the Sava Ranisavljevic Fund. “It was not only instructive for students to connect with these scholars shaping the field and to see details of their in-progress work, but also for the students to see how historians progress through their research,” Yosmaoglu said. Masthead from La America 1913-14

10 THE CROWN FAMILY CENTER FOR JEWISH AND ISRAEL STUDIES 2017-18 I 5778 Benjamin Frommer, an associate professor in the Department of History, said the public programs underscored “how vibrant the field of Sephardic Studies has become in recent years.” “The presentations broadened The Crown Family Center’s traditional focus and offered insight into the development of the Sephardim as actual and imagined communities on Rhodes, in the United States, and in their ancestral home of Iberia,” Frommer said. Idil Ozkan, a graduate student in lingustic anthropology whose dissertation project explores Spain’s 2015 citizenship offer to Sephardic Jews, took Yosmaoglu’s course hoping to develop a historical approach to

Turkish Jews’ conceptions of homeland, Above, The Salonica Restaurant and Café in citizenship, and belonging. In that way and New York (photo contributed by Robert Ligum). more, she said, the course delivered. To left, clockwise, Professors Devin Naar, Julia Phillips Cohen, Ipek Yosmaoglu, and Aron Rodrigue “This course provided me a massive opportunity to grasp the historical background of the Sephardim’s language attitudes and how they go hand in hand with notions of modernity, citizenship, and identity,” Ozkan said, adding that it was “fascinating” to learn about Ottoman Jews’ distinct political allegiances, their heterogeneous position- ings towards Zionism and Ottomanism, and We spent every the changing notions of imperial citizenship. day talking about a new With limited previous exposure to country or a new immigrant Jewish Studies, Lyndsey Armacost, a senior group and how it all fit into majoring in journalism and history, “ called Yosmaog u’s course an eye-opening l For her part, Yosmaoglu will continue a larger puzzle.” experience. contributing to the fast-rising Sephardic Lyndsey Armacost, Medill ’18 “I enjoyed learning about Sephardic Jews in Studies field beyond Northwestern. so many different contexts, different cen- This past June, in fact, Yosmaoglu teamed scholars, journalists, NGO members, and turies, and regions of the world,” Armacost with Professor Kerem Öktem of the Univer- community activists from the U.S., Turkey, said. “We spent every day talking about a sity of Graz in Austria, to organize an inter- Israel, Austria, and France as well as a new country or a new immigrant group national symposium exploring the Jewish concert of Sephardic songs performed by and how it all fit into a larger puzzle.” lifeworlds the Ottoman/Turkish Sephardim Aron Saltiel, whose contributions served as Yosmaoglu felt students appreciated created across the globe as well as the a vivid reminder of Judeo-Spanish culture’s learning about a culturally and historically group’s experience as a distinct diasporic survival across centuries. significant, albeit long-overlooked, group. class in Israel. “The energy at the symposium under- “I hope the students received a firm base of Held at the University of Graz, the inaugural scored the accelerated interest in Sephardic facts about Sephardic Jews and also gained symposium — “Jewish-Turkish Entangle- Studies and its related areas and speaks to a sense of scholarly curiosity they’ll carry ments: Resilience, Migration, and the New the compelling stories and insights the field with them,” she said. Diasporas” — featured presentations from holds,” Yosmaoglu said.

11 GRADUATE NEWS

STEPHANIE BRENZEL (Religious used Graduate Research Grant funding to BENJAMIN RICCIARDI (Religious Studies) is a PhD candidate specializing research one of her dissertation case studies Studies) has been continuing his work in Modern Jewish Thought. She spent the in Warsaw: the full-day commemorative on his dissertation, The Weekday Amidah 2017-2018 academic year doing archival action for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as a Jewish Philosophical Response to the . work for her dissertation: “As Strong as Akcja Zonkile. In August 2018 , with support Problem of Evil. The dissertation argues for Death: Franz Rosenzweig’s Philosophy from The Crown Family Center for Jewish understanding the weekday Amidah as a of Love in The Star of Redemption.” She and Israel Studies and the Buffett Institute, performative anti-theodicy, a simultaneous was awarded a Northwestern Research she presented a paper at the Association acknowledgment of and protest against the Grant and the Eugen Rosenstock- for Theatre in Higher Education conference problem of evil. In the last academic year, Huessy Fund Research Grant to conduct about the Warsaw Jewish Theatre’s 2016 he delivered papers at the conferences of research at Universität Kassel, Archiv der protest performance of “Fiddler on the Roof.” the American Philosophical Association, Evangelischen Kirche von Westfalen in the Association for Jewish Studies, and the Bielefeld, and Dartmouth College. GRACE KESSLER OVERBEKE Society for Jewish Ethics. (Interdisciplinary Program in Theatre TOVA MARKENSON (Interdisciplinary and Drama) taught Comics and Actors — ANASTASIIA SIMFEROVSKA (Slavic Program in Theatre and Drama) visited American Jews on Stage & Screen in the Languages and Literatures) focuses on archives in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, fall quarter. As the 2017-2018 Crown Fellow, art and literature in 20th century Eastern and Israel to research her dissertation on she completed two chapter drafts of her Europe. In 2017-2018, Simferovska gave performances of Jewish feminine sexuality dissertation and offered a series of talks a keynote presentation at the European and Latin American Yiddish theatre. Her and presentations. In February, Overbeke Holocaust Research Infrastructure seminar transnational research was possible thanks presented “The Forgotten Pioneer: Jean in Lviv and at the international symposium to the generous support of the American Carroll, the First Female Jewish Standup “Shoah in Ukraine” in Paris on Jewish Association for Jewish Research, the Chicago Comedian” at a Jewish Studies lunchtime artists in Lviv/Lwow/Lemberg during the YIVO Society, The Crown Family Center for colloquium. The following month, she Holocaust. She also organized a “Modernism Jewish and Israel Studies, the Sexualities presented “Ethnicity and Jewish Comedy in the Margins” panel at the 2017 Association Project at Northwestern, the Buffett Institute in the United States” at The Second City for Slavic, Eastern European, & Eurasian for Global Studies, Northwestern’s School of at Columbia College and (with Anne Studies convention, where she spoke Communication, and the Graduate School. Libera) “Women of Jewish Comedy” at about the ways Polish artist of Armenian Markenson presented at the Latin American the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning descent Kajetan Stefanowicz integrated Jewish Studies Regional Conference and the and Leadership in June. She also penned a his nationalist strivings with modernistic Institute of Art and Performance (University number of articles relating to contemporary imagery. Simferovska taught a mini-course, of Buenos Aires), while she also published pop culture in The Forward and taught at “Art and Identity in fin-de-siècle Eastern a review of Paula Vogel’s play Indecent a local synagogue. Galicia,” at the Free Ukrainian University in in In Geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies Munich. In June, she defended her Master’s and contributed interviews with former VANDA RAJCAN (History) received a thesis on “Isaak Babel’s Red Cavalry and its Argentine Yiddish actors to the Digital Fulbright fellowship to conduct research on Chronotope.” Yiddish Theatre Project. postwar justice in Slovakia. After World War II, Slovak retribution courts tried 20,550 AMANDA RUPPENTHAL STEIN RACHEL MERRILL MOSS cases and rendered 8,045 guilty verdicts (Musicology) is writing a dissertation (Interdisciplinary Program in Theatre in less than three years. Her dissertation on how art music was used by German- and Drama) passed her qualifying exams, examines one of the most contested speaking Jews both to express assimilation had her paper about mid-century Jewish aspects of postwar Slovak retribution: the and to redefine Jewish personal and American pageants written with Professor prosecution of Holocaust-related crimes, communal identities in the 19th century. Gary Fine (Sociology) accepted into the including the persecution of Jews, the In fall 2017, Stein had a paper presented at Journal of American Theatre and Drama fall seizure and transfer of Jewish property the national conference of the American 2018 issue, and was elected Vice President of to non-Jewish hands (Aryanization), Musicological Society. She is the 2018-19 the American Society for Theatre Research exploitation, denunciations, and recipient of the Crown Graduate Fellowship Graduate Student Caucus, where she also deportations. She presented her preliminary from The Crown Family Center for Jewish presented a paper in the Eastern European findings at the Historical Institute of the and Israel Studies. studies working group. In April, Moss Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava and the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Vienna.

12 THE CROWN FAMILY CENTER FOR JEWISH AND ISRAEL STUDIES 2017-18 I 5778 CROWN GRADUATE

ARIEL WEINER (German and FELLOWSHIP Comparative Literary Studies) completed her first year of doctoral course work and received a certificate from Northwestern’s Critical Theory Cluster. She was awarded funding from The Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies to attend the Summer Institute: Psychoanalysis and the Media — the Sorbonne Nouvelle — Paris 3 he Crown Family in June, and received a Summer Language Travel Grant from the Graduate School to Center for pursue a German language intensive at the Jewish and Israel Sprachenakademie Aachen in July. Weiner Studies awards has also received a fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Tthe Crown Graduate Council of Canada, which will provide Fellowship annually to one additional support for her continued graduate studies at Northwestern. Northwestern graduate student whose dissertation SARAH WOLF (Religious Studies) defended her dissertation, “The Rabbinic research bears on an aspect Legal Imagination: Narrativity and of Jewish history, culture, Scholasticism in the Babylonian Talmud,” Amanda Ruppenthal Stein and accepted a position as assistant or religion. professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at the Amanda Ruppenthal Stein, a student Studies Claire Sufrin notes that “Stein’s Jewish Theological Seminary. A David in the Department of Musicology in the research bridges the existing gaps between Hartman Center Fellow at the Shalom Bienen School of Music, is the recipient Jewish musicology and the study of Jewish Hartman Institute of North America, of the Crown Graduate Fellowship for culture and art more broadly. She asks: Wolf was also named a finalist for the 2018-2019. Stein’s dissertation, “Sounding Why should historians and religionists not Association for Jewish Studies Dissertation Judentum: Assimilation, Art Music, and ask what Jews were listening to, musically, Completion Fellowship. At the Association Being Jewish Musically in 19th Century as they ask what books and newspapers for Jewish Studies’ annual conference in Germany,” focuses on expressions of they were reading? Her work offers to December, she presented her paper titled identity in Western art music. The project make music more accessible to these “The Construction of a Rabbinic Rebel: aims to bridge existing gaps between scholars so that they can ask this question Rabbi Yirmiyah and Characterization in Jewish musicology and the study of Jewish and begin to understand the importance the Bavli.” culture and art more broadly while also of the answers they find.” contributing to 19th century German music scholarship. In particular, Stein seeks to understand how art music was used by German-speaking Jews both to express assimilation and to redefine Jewish personal and communal identities in the 19th century. Assistant director of Jewish

13 UNDERGRADUATE NEWS

JILL STACEY HARRIS PRIZE IN JEWISH STUDIES The Jill Stacey Harris Prize has been awarded annually since 1991 for the best undergraduate essay in Jewish Studies. In 2018, two outstanding students earned the award.

JUN KYUNG YOU, a junior majoring in philosophy, was honored for his paper “Morality as Means or Part of an End: Obscurities Surrounding the Status of Moral Perfection in Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed, written for professor Ken Seeskin’s Yadid Licht course on Maimon-

Jun Kyung You ides. You’s essay concerning the Talmudic figure of Honi. After an amazing summer in Israel, I was provided a clear, Delving into the relationship between Honi’s even more intrigued by the culture there convincing, and captivating analysis of actions as a miracle worker and his Biblical and was determined to finish the Jewish a central problem in Maimonides’ moral predecessors, especially Elijah, the essay studies minor. After graduation, I will be theory: the relative value of intellectual productively engages with a variety of con- working in finance in Hong Kong. However, versus moral perfection. By careful anal- temporary scholars on its way to a surprising hopefully I will get the chance to go back ysis, You arrived at a subtle conclusion and convincing conclusion: the stories of and work in Israel in the future.” that presented each as equally valuable, Honi demonstrate that he must “humble depending on the chosen premises of himself” and speak “wholly on behalf of YADID writes: “Entering Northwestern the argument. As indicated in his final those in need: the people.” from a Jewish day school background, paragraphs, this conclusion can be seen I already held a deep interest in and as a starting point for a re-evaluation of knowledge of Judaism. My courses in the similar problems in Maimonides’ trea- 2018 JEWISH STUDIES MINORS Jewish Studies program, however, provided tise, whereby he seems to provide valid Congratulations to Class of 2018 me with a much different approach to arguments for apparently contradictory Jewish Studies minors, Max Zuo the study of Judaism than I had in high positions. and Yadid Licht. We asked them to school, as I learned to study Jewish texts reflect on their studies: and commentaries with a more academic, ADINA GOLDMAN, a 2018 graduate in critical, and historical approach. I religious studies, MAX shares: “I initially took a few Jewish especially enjoyed taking Jewish history was a prizewinner studies classes because of a unique summer courses, where I gained a more nuanced for the second time. opportunity in Israel. I did not come from a understanding of the ways Jews related Goldman’s essay Jewish family, so I just wanted to learn more to societies in the past, and how this “Rainmaker: Power, about the culture and language beforehand. history connects to the present. Following Presumption, and To my surprise, the content of the classes graduation, I plan to stay engaged in the Precipitation in the were for the most part friendly for non- Jewish community and in Jewish learning.” Adina Goldman Stories of Honi the Jewish students like me — I was able to Circle Maker,” was participate and engage in discussions just written for professor Richard Kieckhefer’s like in any other humanities class offered religion and magic course. Her essay at the University. While the classes can be served as a lively, well-structured, and challenging at times, the professors were finely argued contribution to scholarship immensely patient and understanding.

14 THE CROWN FAMILY CENTER FOR JEWISH AND ISRAEL STUDIES 2017-18 I 5778 POSTDOCTORAL Your support FELLOWS provided me the IN ISRAEL STUDIES opportunity to grow “professionally and to contribute to the Northwestern community, the greater academic community, and the lay Chicago very year, Nations-supported multi-stakeholder forum community at large.” that has convened annually since 2006 The Crown Family to discuss issues of internet governance) Joseph Ringel Center for Jewish and a comparative project analyzing the and Israel Studies, activities of civil society organizations that advocate for digital rights (e.g. freedom Ein partnership with of speech online, privacy, net neutrality) Tel Aviv University, and in Israel and elsewhere. The latter was funded by the Internet Policy Observatory the Jewish United Fund at the Annenberg School, University of of Metropolitan Chicago, Pennsylvania. She presented her research hosts two postdoctoral at the International Communication Association conference and at the annual Efrat Daskal Joseph Ringel fellows in Israel Studies. conference of the Association of Internet The 2017-18 fellows Researchers. Over the summer, she organized a conference about digital rights In addition, Ringel taught three courses. were Efrat Daskal and activism in Israel together with the Cyber The first focused on the interaction of Joseph Ringel. Security Research Center at the Hebrew religion and state in Israel, exploring the University and Internet Society - Israel. historical, ideological, cultural, and political EFRAT DASKAL, a scholar of factors that led to this arrangement. His Over the past academic year, JOSEPH communications, taught two courses second course covered the Sephardic/ RINGEL completed a draft of his book in 2017-2018. The first, about media and manuscript on Sephardic religious culture. Mizrahi and Ashkenazi divide in Israel — a minorities in Israel, focused on relationships The book discusses the reconstruction divide that has long plagued social-political between minority groups and the mass of Sephardic/Mizrahi identity in Israeli relations. His final course, “The Settlement media. Students also gained basic familiarity Sephardic yeshivas and the Shas school Movement and the National Religious with the social conflicts that exist within system. As such, his work seeks to define Camp in Israel,” examined the history, Israeli society. The second course dealt the Sephardic rabbinic tradition sixty years ideology, and politics of Israeli settlement with media and nationality in Israel, after the creation of the State of Israel, which in the West Bank and Gaza, exploring its exploring the topic of nationality through re-cast the socio-ideological background nuances and complexities, exposing its the development of the Israeli mass media of pre-state Sephardic culture following problematic elements, and searching for system from the 19th century onward. Daskal the mass immigration of Jews from Islamic ways to imagine a successful resolution to also gave guest lectures in several other lands. By highlighting the debates within conflicting claims to land. Northwestern courses. In addition, Daskal the Sephardic world regarding whether continued research from her dissertation Shas’ reconstruction of “Sephardic” identity on the creation of an “accountable culture” accurately reflects the culture of “Sephardic” in relationship to the role of the media Jews in the Islamic world, his research regulator in Israel. She worked as well on illuminates the complexities of connecting research on the role of young people at past experiences to modern realities and the Internet Governance Forum (a United shows how historical narratives drive contemporary ideologies. Ringel presented his research at the Association for Israel Studies Conference in June.

15 ISRAEL STUDIES VISITING SCHOLARS

n 2018, The Crown JOSEPH ZEIRA is the Aaron and Michael Chilewich Professor of Economics at Family Center for Jewish the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His and Israel Studies hosted research focuses on macroeconomics, two Israeli economists as economic growth, and the economy of Israel. The former president of the Israeli Ivisiting scholars: Professor Economics Association (2016-2017), Zeira Manuel Trajtenberg of has published in the leading economics journals, has served as an advisor to the Tel Aviv University and Ministry of Finance, and was a member of Professor Joseph Zeira of a government committee studying poverty in Israel. He is also a member of the Aix Hebrew University. group, which studies the costs of the Israeli- One of Israel’s leading economists, Palestinian conflict and economic aspects Manuel Trajtenberg of potential peace agreements. While at MANUEL TRAJTENBERG received his PhD from Harvard University, has Northwestern, Zeira taught ECON 315, been a professor of Economics at Tel Aviv “Economic History of Israel.” University since 1984 and previously served Of Trajtenberg and Zeira’s time at as chairman of the Higher Education Northwestern, Martin Eichenbaum, director Their visits System in Israel (2009-2014). Prior to that, of The Crown Family Center for Jewish represent an important he established and served as the first and Israel Studies and the Charles Moskos head of the National Economic Council at Professor of Economics, said: “Their expansion of the Israel the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office (2006- visits represent an important expansion studies program beyond 2009). He was appointed chairman of the of the Israel studies program beyond its “ Committee for Economic and Social Change traditional scope, allowing the community its traditional scope, following mass social protests which took to benefit from their insights into the allowing the community place in Israel in 2011. Trajtenberg joined the accomplishments and challenges facing Zionist Union list in December 2014 and was the Israeli economy.” to benefit from their elected to the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) insights into the in 2015. He left politics in 2017. Trajtenberg accomplishments and gave one public lecture, “Israel at 70: Social Fissures, Shared Aspirations,” during his challenges facing the visit. He offered one workshop for students Israeli economy.” and faculty of the School of Education and Social Policy, “The Challenges Facing Higher Martin Eichenbaum Director of The Crown Family Center Education: Israel as a Case Study,” and one for Jewish and Israel Studies for students and faculty in the Department of Economics, “Israel’s Great Paradox: Strong Macro, Poor Micro.”

Joseph Zeira

16 THE CROWN FAMILY CENTER FOR JEWISH AND ISRAEL STUDIES 2017-18 I 5778 2017-18 CONSIDER A GIFT COURSES

TO JEWISH Jewish Studies: An Overview AND ISRAEL STUDIES Introduction to Judaism Art of Rabbinic Narrative AT NORTHWESTERN Jews and the Transgender Moment A Rabbi and a Priest Walk into a Bar to Talk about God We welcome donations of any size. upport from donors Reading the Talmud There are three ways to give: like you helps The Jewish History 1492-1789 1. Go to www.giving.northwestern.edu/ Crown Family Center S nu/wcas, click on “View additional Jewish History 1789-1948 for Jewish and Israel Studies gift designations,” and select The “Blood Libel” Jewish Studies Program from the to achieve our mission. Christians and Jews drop-down menu. Your gift can: Jews and Germans: 2. Phone 800-222-5603. • enhance and expand our course An Intercultural History 3. Send your check, payable to offerings for undergraduate and Ottoman Jews in the Age of Nationalism Northwestern University, to Office of graduate students Alumni Relations and Development, Comics and Actors: American Jews • support faculty and student research Northwestern University, 1201 Davis on Stage in all areas of Jewish studies and Street, Evanston, Illinois 60208. Literary Images of the Shtetl Israel studies Be sure to indicate that your Modern Jewish Literature in Translation • bring exciting scholars to campus donation is for The Crown Family for community events Center for Jewish and Israel Studies. Tales of Love and Darkness: Modern Hebrew Literature Storytelling in American Jewish Literature With Gratitude to Our Supporters History of the Holocaust The Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies gratefully acknowledges Gender, Race, and the Holocaust the support of the following individuals and families, whose support over the last two years enhanced all aspects of our work. Holocaust Memory, Memorials and Museums Felix Baker Wendy Laskow Lipsman Holocaust Perpetrator and Denial Trials Heather J. Baker ’92 William S. Lipsman ’71 (’12 P) God after the Holocaust Jeffrey C. Bloom ’82 Eve H. Pinkert Miles Jared Bronstein ’16 Stuart L. Pinkert ’58 Arabs in Israel Ludmilla Coven Spencer James Reiss ’16 Economic History of Israel The Crown Family Ilana Alison Rosen ’08 Caroline Mara Frisch ’15 Steven E. Rosen ’85 MS Religion and Politics in Israel Alan W. Galishoff ’85 Rachel Reinhold Sacks ’06 Media & Nationality: Israel as Case Study Alexander Charles Gedalin ’16 Yael Ratner Silverman ’97 Media & Minorities: Israel as Case Study Jane Yanovsky Ginns ’01 Adam Gregory Stewart ’15 Charles H. Goodman (’89 P) Meredith Goodman Stewart ’15 The Occidental-Oriental Divide in Israel Kelsey Dawn Kamp ’10 MS Steve Sussman ’93 The Settlement Movement and the William C. Kunkler ’89 MBA (’13 P) Howard J. Tilman ’06 National Religious Camp in Israel Michael Lee Lehrer ’06 Alyse S. Vishnick ’99 Water in Israel and the Middle East Aaron Michael Levine ’14 Valerie Anne Zuckerman ’14 John Lewinson ’57 Hebrew I, II, and III

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18 THE CROWN FAMILY CENTER FOR JEWISH AND ISRAEL STUDIES 2017-18 I 5778