Arizona State University Jewish Studies Program Annual Newsletter | Volume 4 | 2003ñ2004 Edition made possible by the generous contributions of Friends of Jewish Studies A Note from the Director this community, and a testament to ourintention integrate community concerns over the need to to disseminate Jewish learning to that community support Israel with the diverse and sometimes and beyond. complex politics of Jewish faculty and students. I ebruary. After a year of research leave in the The impact of these programs upon the was quite pleased to report to the group about cold northeast, itís hard not to be delighted larger community this workshop and to be back home. I missed Arizona. And not comes about through the fact that it Fonly the weather, but the pleasure of watch- ongoing ties with vari- received very gen- ing a young program grow. ous institutions. These erous support from This past year we sponsored The Memoirs of include: Congregation members of our Glikl of Hameln with both on and off campus ven- Beth El, Temple Chai, community, partic- ues including one, at the request of the perform- Har Sinai, the New ularly the Marshall ers, in a local bar, with the intention of Shul, the Tri-City JCC, Fund of Arizona. capturing the feel of a cabaret. A performance Temple Emanuel, the Clearly, there is a that is intricately grounded in an historical Jew- Phoenix Jewish Film wide range of polit- ish text and in a Jewish language speaks directly Festival and the Jess ical opinion within to the principal mission of the Program: to Schwartz Community the Jewish commu- bring to both the university and the surround- High School. Indeed, all nity both here and ing community intellectually and culturally speakers for the elsewhere and itís sophisticated Jewish cultural expression unavail- Midrash series will the responsibility able without our sponsorship. address the students of a Jewish Studies With that in mind, we continue to bring cut- and faculty at the Jess program to address Jack Kugelmass, Director at Boyce Thompson Arboretum ting edge scholarship to the Valley. This past year Schwartz Community that diversity, to the Prorgram sponsored two superb scholars in High School. In solidi- educate and to chal- residenceóDavid Kertzer of Brown University for fying the connection we are fulfilling the mis- lenge prevailing beliefs particularly when old the Eckstein Lectures and Christopher Browning sion of both institutions. ways of looking at things lead to impasses with of the University of North Carolina for Yom tragic results. Hashoah. This latter was a premier of what we Iíve long felt the Judaica collection to be plan to make an annual event. I am delighted to the jewel in the crown of this Program. While et me say something about the productiv- report that James Kugel agreed to give the 2004 in Israel this past summer, taking intensive Yid- ity of our faculty over the past year. Don Eckstein lectures, dish instruction at the Benjamin in the Department of Religious kicking off a four- Hebrew University, our LStudies at ASU published Old Testament person series on Judaica librarian Rachel Story: An Introduction (Fortress Press) with an Midrash at ASU Leket-Mor perused accompanying CD-Rom; Regentsí Professor David sponsored through Jerusalemís book stores to fill Foster in the Department of Languages and Liter- the Jess Schwartz in gaps in our Hebraica hold- atures published Queer Issues in Contemporary Latin Student Colloqui- ings. And our long-standing American Cinema (University of Texas); Hava um. The endowment relations with librarians at Tirosh Samuelson in the History Department is intended to other institutions and with published Happiness in Premodern Judaism: Virtue, enrich undergradu- Judaica vendors enabled us to Knowledge and Well-Being (Hebrew Union College), ate education by add thousands of valuable Yid- an edited volume Judaism and Ecology: Created providing funds to dish items related to East World and Revealed Word (Cambridge) and her edit- invite to campus European, American and Latin ed volume Women and Gender in Jewish Philosophy prominent scholars American Jewish history and will be published by Indiana University Press to meet with our culture. Some of these were this year; Grossman Professor Norbert Samuel- students. Besides New Acquisition. Soviet science textbook in purchased with Friends of Jew- son in the Department of Religious Studies pub- James Kugel, this Yiddish, 1933. ish Studies funds, others lished Jewish Philosophy: An Historical Introduction yearís seminar through special acquisition (Continuum), Esther Romeynís book, My Other, includes Michael funds by ASU Libraries and Myself is slated for publication next year with the Fishbane of the University of Chicago, Judith one valuable collection from a one-time gift from University of Minnesota Press. Baskin of the University of Oregon and Jody an anonymous donor who is a long-time friend of Finally, a note about our endowments. Money Myers of California State University, Northridge. the Program. I am particularly pleased that given contributed to the ASU Foundation, on behalf of The Programís initiatives on Latin American the expansion of the collection, ASU Libraries Jewish Studies, helps us maintain a high profile Jewry continues. With funds from Jewish Stud- hired first a summer intern to handle the Yid- research faculty with resources that can compete ies scholarships, Regentsí Professor David Foster dish material and now a permanent half-time favorably with much older and better endowed took a group of students to Buenos Aires. The Hebraica cataloger. institutions. But most of these endowments trip was intended to familiarize graduate stu- impact studentsó certainly through the acquisi- dents with the impact of Jews on Latin Ameri- tion of new books, the expansion of scholarship can culture in the hope that they would ne of the most exciting programs we and fellowship awards and the continuation of integrate Jewish subjects into their research. We sponsored last year was a one day programs such as the Plotkin professorship. This continue to bring in speakers with expertise on workshop ìAfter Oslo: New Strategies year we used the funds from this endowment to Latin AmericaóJoseph Schraibman from Wash- Ofor Middle East Peace.î The four speak- award a post-doc to a promising young scholar, ington University in St. Louis whose talk was on ersó two Palestinian and two Israelióhad come to Arieh Saposnik, an historian of Zionism. Arieh is Jews in Cuba, and Alejandra Naftal an expert on some agreement on where the peace negotia- filling in as advanced Hebrew instructor while the disappeared of Argentina. And we are cur- tions would ultimately lead and they gave those Shai Ginsburg in on leave and by all accounts has rently organizing a new Friends of Jewish Stud- attending a foretaste of what the future of the made a very positive impression on all of his stu- ies study mission to Latin Americaó this one to Middle East might look like. For those who lis- dents. Given the size of the Plotkin endowment, examine Jewish Mexico, October 10ñ18 2004. tened, the speakers offered a very sobering view we can make this kind of award only once every The past year was the fourth international of the difficulties that lie ahead in resolving this few years. But imagine a program in which the conference on modern Jewish history and culture, conflict. But they offered something all too endowment was large enough to do so every year ìWhatís New About the New Anti-Semitism.î At rareó non-partisan views of those close enough and students had an opportunity to experience the end of February the Grossman Chair in Jewish to the front lines to know what has to give for a the diversity of Jewish Studies by a rotating Studies is sponsoring a conference ìJewish Tradition real end to this conflict to emerge. Let me say appointment in which newly minted Ph.D.ís and the Challenge of Evolution.î Rutgers University with a good deal of pride that attending a meet- would bring their training to our campus and Press published the proceedings from the first of ing of directors of Jewish Studies Programs at community? Thatís exactly where we need to go. our international conferences on modern Jewish the Association of Jewish Studies meetings in history and culture, titled Key Texts in American Jew- Boston this past December, one hotly debated Jack Kugelmass ish Culture. Like these conferences, the book is a topic was how to address the Middle East con- tribute to the support our Program receives from flict on campus and the struggles over how to Irving & Miriam Lowe Professor 2 F EATURE E SSAYS DESCRIPTIVE MEMORY: "WALK & MONUMENT TO THE RIGHTEOUS AMONG NATIONS" Claudio Vekstein Vekstein was born in Buenos Aires and received resulted from an ideas competition for the uni- versity campus organized for the master plan- a Master of Architecture from the St‰delschule RIO DE LA PLATA ning and development of the area. It is Academy of Arts Frankfurt, Germany. He is an integrated with the Memory Park containing Assistant Professor in the College of the Monument to the Victims of State Terror- ndulating ceramic flooring in the Architecture and Environmental Design ism and the Monument for Peace and Toler- final segment, forms vaults that ance. But it also retains an independent house the precinct room. The struc- character. The Walk and Monument are juxta- Uture faces Jerusalem, but it fronts on RIGHTEOUS AMONG NATIONS posed to the immensity of the RÌo de la Plata the river promoting contemplation of the horizon, providing a contemplative and spiri- boundless horizon of water. Arising from it is a Monumental Assemblyóthree pieces of con- rgentine tual dimension in accordance with the ideals crete (an access ramp, a great inclined plat- House in of the institution: Through dialogue and form, and a descending ramp), in tension with Jerusalem, a understanding, peace among persons of differ- each other but in mutual support.