After the Fact: Potential Collectivities in Israel/Palestine by Shaul Setter A

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

After the Fact: Potential Collectivities in Israel/Palestine by Shaul Setter A After the Fact: Potential Collectivities in Israel/Palestine By Shaul Setter A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Chana Kronfeld, Chair Professor Anne-Lise François Professor Michael Lucey Professor Stefania Pandolfo Fall 2012 After the Fact: Potential Collectivities in Israel/Palestine ©2012 by Shaul Setter 1 Abstract After the Fact: Potential Collectivities in Israel/Palestine by Shaul Setter Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature University of California, Berkeley Professor Chana Kronfeld, Chair This dissertation inquires into the question of collectivity in texts written in and about Israel/Palestine from the middle of the 20th century to the present day. In light of the current crisis in the configuration of both Israeli and Palestinian national collectivities, it explores the articulation of non-national collective formations in literary and cinematic texts. I read these texts not as sealed works that represent historically realized collectivities, but as creative projects whose very language and modalities speculatively constitute potential collectivities. Rejecting the progression of teleological history ruled by actualized facts, these projects compose a textual counter-history of Israel/Palestine. I therefore propose reading them outside of the national and state-centered paradigm that governs most political and cultural inquiries into Israel/Palestine, and suggest instead that they amount to an anti-colonial trajectory. The Hebrew and French texts discussed in the dissertation challenge their own fixed political positioning within the colonial matrix and offer a critique of European political dictates and artistic forms. In Chapter One, I discuss S. Yizhar's constant return to the events of the 1948 war and his refusal to move beyond it and narrate post-1948 sovereign, statist time; I consider the different literary procedures he employs throughout his work to potentially (re)constitute – after the establishment of the Israeli state – a pre-1948, non-national collective formation in Israel/Palestine. I then move, in Chapter Two, to follow the revolutionary collective enunciation fashioned by Jean-Luc Godard and the Dziga- Vertov collective, a group of politically-active filmmakers formed in 1968. I investigate the collectivity they attempted to develop together with Palestinian fighters in 1969- 1970, the project’s collapse after what is known as Black September, and finally its reflective afterlife in the 1976 film Ici et ailleurs. Chapter Three delves into the texts Jean Genet dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in the 1970s and -80s. I discuss how, in addressing his writing to a non-historical Palestinian collectivity which by then had already disappeared, Genet defies the boundaries of liberal politics of representation, and calls for a different notion of a gestural, “scripted” anti-colonial struggle. In Chapter 2 Four I read contemporary Hebrew writer Haviva Pedaya's liturgical piyyut poetry, and ascertain how it may generate an oppositional history of Hebrew letters formulated from and towards Oriental collectivities, as a challenge to the modernist and secularist underpinnings of “modern Hebrew literature.” Taken together, the projects I study recast Israel/Palestine as a political space in which both Palestinian and Jewish collectivities potentially emerge as anti-colonial, exilic, Eastern ones, formed in struggle and embedded in text. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 From Imagined Communities to Potential Collectivities Chapter One 26 The Outcry of Collectivity: S. Yizhar's Non-Israeli Writing Chapter Two 70 Collective Enunciation and Its Afterlife: Jean-Luc Godard and the Palestinian Struggle Chapter Three 109 The Scripted Revolution: Jean Genet's Address to a Collectivity-in-Struggle Chapter Four 151 Modes of Transmission: Haviva Pedaya and the Future-Past of Exilic Collectivities Bibliography 183 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is the product of intellectual stimulation and political agitation spanning between Berkeley and Tel Aviv. The seeds of the project were planted while growing up in Israel and that is also where the final stages of writing took place. In between, five years in the department of Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley inducted me into new worlds of literature and theory, continuously challenging my thinking and helping me formulate a project I couldn't even imagine before coming to Berkeley. I was privileged to have the guidance of a diverse dissertation committee who offered me not only their scholarly insights, but also their intellectual vision as well as their friendship; the dialogue with their own work and thinking shaped this project. Chana Kronfeld, the dissertation's chair, meticulously read multiple drafts of each chapter, commenting on almost every word; a unique model of mentoring and an advocate and provider of collaborative work, she has formed over the years a collectivity of scholars to which I am honored to belong. Her support and generosity throughout my years in Berkeley were limitless, incalculable. Anne-Lise François instructed me in various uncounted experiences; our impassioned conversations, on line or in nature, permeate this project. Michael Lucey imparted upon me his expertise in the body of literature we both enthusiastically study; his seminars were an important point of reference for this dissertation. Stefania Pandolfo inspired this project in unforeseen ways; her conceptual framework helped me in the struggle this project, and others, entailed. I also owe deep thanks to other scholars in Berkeley: to Robert Alter, who guided me in the stylistic paths of Hebrew literature; to D.A. Miller with whom I shared the pleasure of discussing narratology and sexuality; and to Judith Butler, in whose footsteps we all follow. Michael Gluzman, Orly Lubin, and Aïm Deuelle Luski consistently gave me good advice from Tel Aviv both in my absence and presence. The department of Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley housed this project in many ways. The classes in which I participated and the many talks I attended expanded my horizons; the conversations I had with colleagues and friends enriched my life. Erica Roberts helped me in matters small and large; it would have been much harder to get through graduate school without her. The Berkeley Fellowship and the Dean's Normative Time Fellowship allowed me four years of intensive studies, and grants from the Helen Diller Foundation, the Jewish Studies program and the department of Comparative Literature funded my many research travels and summer studies. The students I taught in my classes at UC Berkeley and Davis allowed me to experience the significance of transmission and the joy of collective learning. Many friends contributed to this dissertation, offering invaluable support in times of contemplation and crisis. Zohar Weiman-Kelman, Yosefa Raz, Ella Ben Hagai, Ana Minian, Katrina Dodson, Michelle Ty, Thea Gold, Ramsey McGlazer, Damon Young, Saleem Al-Bahloly, Maya Barzilai, and Lital Levy spent with me numerous hours of silent writing, passionate scholarly discussion, and garrulous intellectual gossiping at various cafés in Berkeley and San Francisco. Keren Dotan, Uri Ganani, Dani Issler, Daphna Rosenbluth, Oded Wolkstein, Tami Israeli, and Merav Manoach were at my side during the last year of writing in Tel Aviv. Ishai Mishori helped clarify my claims in written English, only to further complicate them in the long conversations we had. Finally, many thanks to the friends who contributed to my emotional sustenance in times of writing and non-writing, to my family that saw all my goings and stayings, and to Hagai, whose table became my desk. 1 Introduction From Imagined Communities to Potential Collectivities Hebrew poet Sami Shalom Chetrit opens his 2003 collection of poems, Poems in Ashdodian, with the following lines: א^נPי Yכותב TלVכם Pש Pירים בdלVשון bא Pשדודית כוס Tאם Tאם Tאמf dכם כdלVה bדאר fבוכם Tשלא תP Vבינו PמלVה I am writing to you poems in an Ashdodian language Kus em em emkum Khla dar bukum So that you won't understand a word.1 This poem seems to be written in Hebrew; yet its third and forth lines are curses in spoken Arabic, transliterated into the Hebrew in the original poem. Even more so, the poet declares, in this meta-poetic enunciation inaugurating the poem and the book, that he is actually writing in “an Ashdodian language.” Having emigrated as a child from Morocco to Ashdod (a southern Israeli city on the Mediterranean shore near the Gaza strip) and grown up there during the 1960s, Chetrit may be signifying “Ashdodian” as a local dialect of the immigrants’ city in opposition to formal, proper Hebrew. Far away from Israel’s geographical-cultural center, the newly-arrived immigrants of Ashdod (most of them from Morocco), speak “Ashdodian,” perhaps a sort of a Hebrew-Arabic fusion. But “Ashdodian” is also another language: in biblical Hebrew, “Ashdodit” signifies the language spoken by the residents of the major Philistine city of the same name.2 Later on, from the medieval Hebrew poetry written in al-Andalus on, “Ashdodian” (together with “Ashkelonian”) would come to signify more generally languages different from Hebrew, foreign tongues. So Chetrit may actually be declaring that he is writing his poem in a “foreign” language. Moreover, bearing in mind that in the Zionist discourse,
Recommended publications
  • 1 Towards a Visualisation of the Zionist Sabra 1930-1967 JC Torday
    Towards a visualisation of the Zionist Sabra 1930-1967 JC Torday A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Brighton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy February 2014 1 Declaration I declare that the research contained in this thesis, unless otherwise formally indicated within the text, is the original work of the author. The thesis has not been previously submitted to this or any other university for a degree, and does not incorporate any material already submitted for a degree. Signed JC Torday Dated February 2014 2 Abstract (page 3) Introduction (page 5) Research Approach (page 16) Arab Villages and colonisation (page 24) Cultural Memory and collective memory (page 31) Chapter 1: Theoretical considerations and influences on Zionist photographs (page 39) Critics of and theories about photographs (page 39) Influences on Israeli photography (page 45) Chapter 2: Zionism and colonialism (page 71) The rise of Zionism (page 71) The Iron Wall (page 76) A view from 1947 (page 81) Zionism and anti-Semitism (page 84) Zionism and Fascism (page 87) Zionism and nationalism (page 90) Colonialism (page 93) Colonialism and Zionism (97) Three waves of Jewish immigration (page 102) The Sharon Plan (page 105) Colonialism and photographs (108) Biblical archaeology (page 113) Ethnocentric myth (page 119) Chapter 3: Photography in the Holy Land and beyond (page 121) Beginnings (page 121) Photographs in the Yishuv (page 130) Photographs in Israel (page 147) Chapter 4: The Sabra (page 174) The myth of the Sabra (page
    [Show full text]
  • The Arms & GACHAL Ship 'Altalena'
    1 The Arms & GACHAL Ship ‘Altalena’ By: Yehuda Ben-tzur From Hebrew: Aryeh Malkin Before the outbreak of WW II and while it was going on, from August 1934 until December 1944, three groups were active in clandestine Aliya (“Aliya Bet”) from Europe: (1) The Ha'chalutz movement and the Mossad Le’Aliya Bet (30 voyages); (2) The Revisionist movement (23 voyages until October 1940); (3) Private individuals (26 voyages). Towards the end of the war the Mossad renewed its activity, which concentrated on saving survivors of the Holocaust in Europe and even expanded its work to North Africa. The Revisionist movement and the private individuals did not renew their activities in this field, arguably for lack of funds (in the past, most of the immigrants had to pay for their trip to Palestine, but the Holocaust survivors had no money). All the 66 Aliya Bet voyages after the end of WW II were carried out by the Mossad Le’Aliya Bet except for one voyage that was organized by the American branch of the Revisionist movement. This branch operated under the leadership of Hillel Kook who used the pseudonym Peter Bergson (see the story of the “Ben Hecht” under Aliya Bet/Aliya Bet Stories). In a conversation that took place between Menachem Begin, the Etzel (the Irgun) commander and Yitzchak Ben-Ami, one of its top commanders and a member of the Bergson Group (the name used to refer to all the members of Kook's immediate circle), which took place in January of 1947, the attitude of Etzel towards Aliya was made clear: that was to be left to the Hagana - Mossad Le’Aliya Bet.
    [Show full text]
  • Yad Vashem Archives Rediscover Heroic Rescue - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
    Yad Vashem archives rediscover heroic rescue - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper SUBSCRIBE TO HAARETZ DIGITAL EDITIONS TheMarker Car Rental עכבר העיר TheMarker הארץ Haaretz.com Café Week's End Hello susan Profile Log out Mayim Bialik's big You have viewed 1 of 10 articles. subscribe now bang Sunday, December 02, 2012 Kislev 18, 5773 NEWS OPINION JEWISH WORLD BUSINESS TRAVEL IN CULTURE WEEKEND BLOGS ISRAEL ISRAEL NEWS Tzipi Livni's comeback Ehud Barak quits politics Iran Palestinian UN bid Egypt protests Like Follow 57k BREAKING NEWS 13:27 Seven Kadima MKs request to split and join Livni's Hatnuah (Haaretz) More Breaking News Home Weekend Week's End Yad Vashem archives rediscover heroic rescue HAARETZ SELECT At a moving ceremony this week in Berlin, Yad Vashem recognized the previously unknown heroic rescue of Jews by an active Wehrmacht soldier during the Holocaust. By Ofer Aderet | Nov.30, 2012 | 12:35 PM 0 Tweet 4 Recommend Send You and 68 others recommend this.68 people ecommend this Be the fi st of o f iends On the religious right – unity and discord Habayit Hayehudi and National Union finally signed a unity agreement, and though it has been in the air for months, it wasn't a simple achievement. By Anshel Pfeffer| Israel Election Insider Israel bids adieu to Joe Lieberman, a staunch ally in U.S. Senate By Natasha Mozgovaya| News East Jerusalem project could bury two- state solution By Nir Hasson| Diplomacy & Defense | 28 Haredi parties realize they aren't immune to voters' disenchantment By Yair Ettinger| Features Gerhard Kurzbach at his 1940 wedding.
    [Show full text]
  • The Septuagint As Christian Scripture: Its Prehistory and the Problem of Its
    OLD TESTAMENT STUDIES Edited by David J. Reimer OLD TESTAMENT STUDIES The mid-twentieth century was a period of great confidence in the study of the Hebrew Bible: many historical and literary questions appeared to be settled, and a constructive theological programme was well underway. Now, at the turn of the century, the picture is very different. Conflicting positions are taken on historical issues; scholars disagree not only on how to pose the questions, but also on what to admit as evidence. Sharply divergent methods are used in ever more popular literary studies of the Bible. Theological ferment persists, but is the Bible's theological vision coherent, or otherwise? The Old Testament Studies series provides an outlet for thoughtful debate in the fundamental areas of biblical history, theology and literature. Martin Hengel is well known for his seminal work on early Judaism and nascent Christianity. In this volume he turns his attention to the Septuagint—the first bible of the church, yet a product of Greek- speaking Judaism. Hengel probes into the historical and theological puzzles posed by the Septuagint opening a window on the formation of canon and attitudes to scripture in the Christian tradition, and on the relationship between Judaism and Christianity in the early centuries of the era. THE SEPTUAGINT AS CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURE THE SEPTUAGINT AS CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURE Its Prehistory and the Problem of Its Canon Martin Hengel with the assistance of Roland Deines Introduction by Robert Hanhart Translated by Mark E. Biddle T&T CLARK EDINBURGH & NEW YORK T&T CLARK LTD A Continuum imprint 59 George Street 370 Lexington Avenue Edinburgh EH2 2LQ New York 10017-6503 Scotland USA www.tandtclark.co.uk www.continuumbooks.com Copyright © T&T Clark Ltd, 2002 All rights reserved.
    [Show full text]
  • List of Publications Meir Bar-Ilan
    March 2016 List of Publications Meir Bar-Ilan 1. Books: Sitrey Tefilah veHekhalot, Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1987 (Hebrew). Some Jewish Women in Antiquity, Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press, 1998. Genesis Numerology, Rehovot: Association for Jewish Astrology and Numerology, 2003 (Hebrew). Biblical Numerology, Rehovot: Association for Jewish Astrology and Numerology, 2005 (Hebrew). Astrology and Other Sciences among the Jews in the Land of Israel During the Hellenistic-Roman and Byzantine Periods, Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2010 (Hebrew). Words of Gad the Seer, Rehovot: Shorashim, 2015 (Hebrew). 2. Articles in Journals: „Taqanat R. Abbahu in Caesarea‟, Sinai, 96 (1985), pp. 57-66 (Hebrew). „The Throne of God: What is under it, What is opposite it, What is near it‟, Da‘at’, 15 (1985), pp. 21-35 (Hebrew). „Writing Torah Scrolls, Teffilin, Mezuzoth and Amulets on Deer Leather‟, Beit-Mikra, 30/102 (1985), pp. 375-381 (Hebrew). „A Rock, a Stone and a Seat that Moses sat on‟, Sidra, 2 (1986), pp. 15-23 (Hebrew). „The Occurrences and the Significance of the Yoser Ha‟adam Benediction‟, HUCA, 56 (1985), pp. 9-27 (Hebrew). „The Significance and the Source of Megillat Ta‘anit‟, Sinai, 98 (1986), pp. 114-137 (Hebrew). „Observations on the Mahzor concerning the Angels‟, Or Hamizrach, 35 (1986), pp. 7-12 (Hebrew). „The Red Heifer in the Days of Hillel‟, Sinai, 100 (1987), pp. 143-165 (Hebrew). „Text Criticism, Erotica and Magic in The Song of Songs‟, Shnaton – An Annual for Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, 9 (1987), pp. 31-53 (Hebrew). 1 „Illiteracy as reflected in the Halakhot concerning the Reading of the Scroll of Esther and the Hallel‟, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, 54 (1987), pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Shaping Israeli-Arab Identity in Hebrew Words—The Case of Sayed Kashua
    Shaping Israeli-Arab Identity in Hebrew Words—The Case of Sayed Kashua Batya Shimony Israel Studies, Volume 18, Number 1, Spring 2013, pp. 146-169 (Article) Published by Indiana University Press For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/is/summary/v018/18.1.shimony.html Access provided by The Ohio State University (7 Jan 2014 22:40 GMT) Batya Shimony Shaping Israeli-Arab Identity in Hebrew Words—The Case of Sayed Kashua ABSTRACT Most research and surveys that deal with the complex identity of the Arabs in Israel refer to the Arab, Palestinian, and Israeli components in their identity. Kashua adds the Jewish-Zionist component to the discussion and explores its dominance in shaping the identities of the Arabs in Israel. I use the term Jewish-Arab as a mirror image of the Arab-Jew in order to analyze the conflicted identity of Kashu’s Arab characters. The use of the identity of Arab-Jew by the third generation of Mizrahi writers functions as a chal- lenge to the hegemony of Zionist discourse. Kashua’s Herzl Disappears at Midnight (2005) and Second Person Singular (2008) create a realization of the term Jewish-Arab and take the situation of the conflicted identity to an extreme and provocative end, in order to emphasize the dead-end situation of Arabs in Israel. INTRODUCTION The identity crisis of the Arabs in Israel has been discussed in many studies.1 One of the main reasons for this crisis is that Israeli Arabs are simultaneously influenced by two significant identity factors—on the one hand, Palestinian society in the occupied territories, and on the other, Jewish society.
    [Show full text]
  • Israel and the Post-American Middle East Why the Status Quo Is Sustainable
    Israel and the Post-American Middle East Why the Status Quo Is Sustainable By Martin Kramer Foreign Affairs July - August 2016 Was the feud between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, first over settlements and then over Iran, a watershed? Netanyahu, it is claimed, turned U.S. support of Israel into a partisan issue. Liberals, including many American Jews, are said to be fed up with Israel’s “occupation,” which will mark its 50th anniversary next year. The weakening of Israel’s democratic ethos is supposedly undercutting the “shared values” argument for the relationship. Some say Israel’s dogged adherence to an “unsustainable” status quo in the West Bank has made it a liability in a region in the throes of change. Israel, it is claimed, is slipping into pariah status, imposed by the global movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS). Biblical-style lamentations over Israel’s final corruption have been a staple of the state’s critics and die-hard anti-Zionists for 70 years. Never have they been so detached from reality. Of course, Israel has changed—decidedly for the better. By every measure, Israel is more globalized, prosperous, and democratic than at any time in its history. As nearby parts of the Middle East slip under waves of ruthless sectarian strife, Israel’s minorities rest secure. As Europe staggers under the weight of unwanted Muslim migrants, Israel welcomes thousands of Jewish immigrants from Europe. As other Mediterranean countries struggle with debt and unemployment, Israel boasts a growing economy, supported by waves of foreign investment.
    [Show full text]
  • Literature Encounter لقاء أدبي מפגש ספרותי Reconnecting the Middle East in Berlin
    Literature Encounter لقاء أدبي מפגש ספרותי Reconnecting the Middle East in Berlin 25.10.2018 Mati Shemoelof and Hila Amit Abas, the initiators of this event, are two Arab-Jews who were born in Israel but moved to Berlin. They write in Hebrew, which is the language they grew up with, but not necessarily their mother-tongue or the native language of their parents. As Jews from Arab and African origins they were required to leave their “Arab” parts of their heritage behind in order to be part of the Israeli melting pot. More than 100 years ago in the Middle East, Jews and Arabs and other ethnic/religious groups lived in a fruitful dialogue and were mentally, culturally, spiritually and physically connected. After the disappearance of the Ottoman Empire, the two World Wars and the consequential rise of Jewish and Arab nationalism, Jews and Arabs became disconnected. We lost our dialogue. In the event “Reconnecting the Middle East in Berlin” we will not only revive this lost dialogue through literature, music and performance. We will also talk about this loss, what was lost for our families, the tales that will stop with the generation of our grandparents. Writers from all over the Middle East and Asia, both, Israelis emigrating from Islamic countries, Iran and North Africa, and Arab Immigrants from the same countries will sit and read their works of poetry and fiction together. Berlin gives us, Jews and Arabs, a rare moment for a lost encounter that can no longer happen in the countries of our origin. Living together in exile in Europe, we will transcend and rise above our national identities and hope to create a new typography of words to redefine our mutual existence.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title After the Fact: Potential Collectivities in Israel/Palestine Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6v84r9x2 Author Setter, Shaul Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California After the Fact: Potential Collectivities in Israel/Palestine By Shaul Setter A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Chana Kronfeld, Chair Professor Anne-Lise François Professor Michael Lucey Professor Stefania Pandolfo Fall 2012 After the Fact: Potential Collectivities in Israel/Palestine ©2012 by Shaul Setter 1 Abstract After the Fact: Potential Collectivities in Israel/Palestine by Shaul Setter Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature University of California, Berkeley Professor Chana Kronfeld, Chair This dissertation inquires into the question of collectivity in texts written in and about Israel/Palestine from the middle of the 20th century to the present day. In light of the current crisis in the configuration of both Israeli and Palestinian national collectivities, it explores the articulation of non-national collective formations in literary and cinematic texts. I read these texts not as sealed works that represent historically realized collectivities, but as creative projects whose very language and modalities speculatively constitute potential collectivities. Rejecting the progression of teleological history ruled by actualized facts, these projects compose a textual counter-history of Israel/Palestine. I therefore propose reading them outside of the national and state-centered paradigm that governs most political and cultural inquiries into Israel/Palestine, and suggest instead that they amount to an anti-colonial trajectory.
    [Show full text]
  • Jews Have the Best Sex: the Hollywood Adventures of a Peculiar Medieval Jewish Text on Sexuality
    Journal of Religion & Film Volume 14 Issue 2 October 2010 Article 8 October 2010 Jews Have the Best Sex: The Hollywood Adventures of a Peculiar Medieval Jewish Text on Sexuality Evyatar Marienberg University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf Recommended Citation Marienberg, Evyatar (2010) "Jews Have the Best Sex: The Hollywood Adventures of a Peculiar Medieval Jewish Text on Sexuality," Journal of Religion & Film: Vol. 14 : Iss. 2 , Article 8. Available at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol14/iss2/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Religion & Film by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Jews Have the Best Sex: The Hollywood Adventures of a Peculiar Medieval Jewish Text on Sexuality Abstract According to quite a few books and films produced in the last few decades in Europe and North America, sex is widely celebrated in Jewish sources. In “authentic Judaism,” kosher sex between husband and wife is a sacred endeavor and a key to heavenly bliss both on earth and beyond. This representation of Jewish attitudes about sex is highly problematic and is often based on only one medieval Jewish source commonly known as The Holy Letter. This paper discusses the use of this text in two Hollywood films: Yentl (1983), and A Stranger Among Us (1992). This article is available in Journal of Religion & Film: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol14/iss2/8 Marienberg: Jews Have the Best Sex Since the fourteenth century, a Hebrew kabbalistic text on marital sexuality, known as Iggeret ha-Kodesh (may be translated as The Holy Letter or The Epistle on/of Holiness), or Hibur ha-Adam ve-Ishto (The Union of Man and His Wife), has been evoked in various works.
    [Show full text]
  • © in This Web Service Cambridge University Press
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03656-7 - Orientalism and Musical Mission: Palestine and the West Rachel Beckles Willson Index More information Index A. M. Qattan Foundation 215–16 Baker, James 22 Abbas, President Mahmoud 274 Baldensperger, Philip W. 93–5 Abboushi, Nadia 220–8 Balfour, Arthur James/Balfour Declaration 18, Abraham Fund 232, 235 160, 161, 169, 180 Abyad, Jūrj 195 Barenboim, Daniel 27, 243–4, 261 Adorno, Theodor W. 10 Abu Redwan’s concert in Gaza 286–7 agriculture 54–5, 71 aims in music education 295 Aharon, Ezra 130, 203–4 concert in Ramallah with West-Eastern Aïda (Verdi) 270–2, 274 Divan Orchestra 280 Al Kamandjâti 249, 254–5, 304 criticised 273 promotional film 286, 292 and Edward Said 1–2 Alexander, Saloman 121–2 efforts to resolve Israeli/Palestine deadlock Alexander von Humboldt Foundation 23, 32 284–5 al-Husseini, Hussein Effendi 194, 202 justifying Israel’s attack on Gaza 273 Al-Manyalāwī, Sheikh 200 Palestine seen as a place of violence 304–5 Al-Nashashibi, Azmi 177 and Suhail Khoury 299 Al-Qattan, Abdel Mohsin 215–16 West-Eastern Divan Orchestra Al-Rusạ̄fī,Ma‛rūf 181–2, 189 see West-Eastern Divan Orchestra Al-Shawwa, Sami 202 workshops involving Jews and Arabs 1–2 Al-Taṛīfī, Sheikh Ahṃaḍ 199 Barenboim-Said Foundation 28, 237, 243–7 Al-Wahhāb, Abd 195 budget 244 Amiran, Emmanuel 229–30 criticised 273–4 Amr, Mohammed 282–4, 287–8 foundation and objectives 243–5 Anderson, Benedict 7 opera for children in Ramallah 271–4 Anidjar, Gil 105, 161 rift with Edward Said National Conservatory Anna Lindh Foundation 260 28–9, 245–7 Appadurai, Arjun 313 Bartók, Béla 207 Arab League 21 Batrouni, Youssef 186, 197–200 Arab Teacher Training Institute 131–2, 185, Baudrillard, Jean 13, 260–1, 270, 272–3, 187, 189, 204–5 287–8 song of 189–91 Baumann, E.
    [Show full text]
  • A Western Or Eastern Nation the Case of Israel
    32nd ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR ISRAEL STUDIES A WESTERN OR EASTERN NATION THE CASE OF ISRAEL JUNE 20-22, 2016 JERUSALEM Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi | Menachem Begin Heritage Center With the support of the Research Insitute for Zionism and Setlement, Jewish Naional Fund (KKL) YAD IZHAK BEN-ZVI Institute for Research on Eretz Israel Association for Israel Studies - 32nd Annual Conference A WESTERN OR EASTERN NATION? THE CASE OF ISRAEL Jerusalem, June 2016 Program Committee First Term Board Members, 2015-2019: Arie Naor, Chair Dr. Yael Aronof (Michigan State University) Judith Goldstein & Michael Feige, Anthropology Dr. Oded Haklai (Queen’s University) Tamar Horowitz & Len Saxe, Communal Studies Dr. Badi Hasisi (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Yoram Peri & Oranit Klein Shagrir, Communicaion Dr. Amal Jamal (Tel Aviv University) Na’ama Shei & Rachel Harris, Film and Theatre Dr. Paula Kabalo (Sede Boqer, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) Shula Reinharz & Sylvie Fogel-Bijaoui, Gender Studies Dr. Derek Penslar (University of Oxford) Ilana Szobel & Ranen Omer-Sherman, Hebrew Literature Dr. Joel Peters (Virginia Tech) Alon Kadish & Meir Chazan, History Dr. Sandy Kedar (University of Haifa) Galia Golan & Joel Peters, Internaional Relaions Dr. Arieh Saposnik (Sede Boqer, BGU) Gur Alroey & Theodore Sasson, Israel-Diaspora Relaions Dr. Orna Sasson-Levy (Bar-Ilan University) Pnina Lahav & Mohammed Watad, Law Dr. Mohammed Watad (Zefat Academic College) Ariel Ahram & Oren Barak, Naional Security Oded Haklai & Mustafa Abbasi, Non-Jewish Minoriies Ami Pedahzur & Assaf Meydani, Poliical Science Second Term Board Members, 2013-2017: Boaz Huss & Mordechai Inbari, Religious Studies Sammy Smooha & Russell Stone, Sociology Dr. Michael Brenner (American University and University of Alan Dowty & Tamar Hermann, The Arab-Israeli Conlict Munich) Colin Shindler & Reuven Gafni, Zionism Dr.
    [Show full text]