Jews and Science EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL Greenfield Summer Institute Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies University of Wisconsin–Madison July 9–13, 2017 Jews and Science EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL Greenfield Summer Institute Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies University of Wisconsin–Madison July 9–13, 2017 The Greenfield Summer Institute is sponsored by the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies through the generosity of Larry and Roslyn Greenfield. All photos this page by UW–Madison, University Communications © Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome.............................................6 Program..............................................10 Abstracts.............................................14 Book Club..........................................27 Transportation Information................28 Campus Map......................................29 Dining................................................30 Notes..................................................31 Special Thanks...................................52 Engage with Jewish Studies...............53 Welcome to the 18th Annual Greenfield Summer Institute! The faculty and staff of the Center for Jewish Studies are delighted that you have chosen to join us for this week of learning, noshing, and fun. A few things to keep in mind this week: • All lectures take place in the Plenary Room, 1310 Grainger Hall. • A light breakfast (baked goods, fruit, coffee) will be available from 8:00 a.m., Monday through Thursday, in the atrium of Grainger Hall. • Food is allowed in the lecture hall. This year you may bring beverages and food into the lecture hall. • Unfortunately, we are unable to control the temperature of the lecture hall. You may wish to bring a sweater. • Recycling bins are located in the back of the lecture hall, should you wish to recycle any paper materials. • On Monday afternoon, there will be a showing of one episode of Genius, a TV series produced by National Geographic. • On Tuesday afternoon there will be a book club with Stuart Rojstaczer, the author of The Mathematician’s Shiva. 6 18th Annual Greenfield Summer Institute • Guests staying at The Graduate Hotel can take advantage of a free shuttle service from the hotel to Grainger Hall. Monday–Thursday, there will be shuttles reserved exclusively for the Greenfield Institute attendees. The shuttle will drive to Grainger Hall at 8:15 a.m. If you need shuttle accommodations outside of these hours, please reserve this ahead of time with the Front Desk. Please note, the shuttles outside of the above time frame are based on availability and are on a first come, first served basis. • Please be sure to fill out an evaluation form and return it to the Registration Table at the end of the Institute. • More information about Madison restaurants and attractions can be found at visitmadison.com and visitdowntownmadison.com. (continued on next page) Jews and Science 7 • If you brought a smart phone, iPad, or other mobile device, you may wish to download the MobileUW app, which includes a campus map with real-time bus information. MobileUW app is available at mobile. wisc.edu. • Campus guests may now access the UW Wireless Network for free. On your wireless device, choose “UW Net” from the wireless options. Then open a web browser and point to https://login.wisc.edu. From the page presented, click “Request guest access” and complete the required fields on the form. Accept the terms of use and your access is confirmed. • Please feel free to speak with any of our administrative staff at the Registration Table if you have any questions or concerns. We hope you enjoy your time at the Greenfield Summer Institute! 8 18th Annual Greenfield Summer Institute Jews and Science 9 PROGRAMPROGRAM Monday, July 10: Encounter with the Modern World 8:00 a.m. Registration in Grainger Hall 9:00 a.m. Jews and The Science of “Race” in Turn-of-the-Century America Eric L. Goldstein, Emory University 10:15 a.m. Break 10:45 a.m. Science for the People: Popular Visnshaft in Yiddish Tony Michels, University of Wisconsin-Madison 12:00 p.m. Lunch (on your own) 1:30 p.m. The Meaning of Science for the Founders of Academic Jewish Studies Amos Bitzan, University of Wisconsin-Madison 2:45 p.m. Break (Capital Cafe in Grainger Hall) 3:00 p.m. Film Screening (optional) Genius, National Geographic TV series 10 18h Annual Greenfield Summer Institute PROGRAMPROGRAM Tuesday, July 11: Ancient and Medieval Science 9:00 a.m. Science in Ancient Israel Alice Mandell, University of Wisconsin–Madison 10:15 a.m. Break 10:45 a.m. Well-being is a Skill Richard J. Davidson, University of Wisconsin–Madison 12:00 p.m. Lunch (on your own) 1:30 p.m. Judaism and Science: Maimonides’ Cosmos Steven Nadler, University of Wisconsin-Madison 2:45 p.m. Break (Capital Cafe in Grainger Hall) 3:15 p.m. Book Club: The Mathematician’s Shiva (optional) Stuart Rojstaczer Jews and Science 11 PROGRAMPROGRAM Wednesday, July 12: Philosophers, Writers, and Science 9:00 a.m. Sick Jewish Writers: The Art and Science of Writing with Tuberculosis Sunny Yudkoff, University of Wisconsin–Madison 10:15 a.m. Break 10:45 a.m. William Friedman, William Shakespeare, and the Birth of Modern Cryptography Irwin Goldman, University of Wisconsin–Madison 12:00 p.m. Lunch (on your own) 1:30 p.m. The Science of Memory Brad Postle, University of Wisconsin-Madison 2:45 p.m. Break 5:30 p.m. Closing dinner Grainger Hall 975 University Avenue 12 18th Annual Greenfield Summer Institute PROGRAMPROGRAM Thursday, July 13: Torah Codes and Reflections 9:00 a.m. The Strange and Mathematically Troubling Story of the Torah Codes Jordan Ellenberg, University of Wisconsin-Madison 10:15 a.m. Break 10:45 a.m. Panel Discussion: Reflections on Themes Moderated by Jordan D. Rosenblum, University of Wisconsin-Madison Panelists: Sam Gellman, UW-Madison Tanya Schlam, UW-Madison Matthew Banks, UW-Madison Jews and Science 13 ABSTRACTSABSTRACTS Eric L. Goldstein, Emory University Jews and The Science of “Race” in Turn-of- the-Century America Monday, July 10, 9:00 a.m. In the United States (as elsewhere) during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Jewishness was often understood in both popular and scholarly discourses as a matter of “race.” In order to assert some control over how Jews were understood by the scientific and medical communities, and also as a way to contest some of the more threatening conclusions about Jews, Jewish scientists and physicians conducted studies of Jewish “racial” characteristics during this period and published them in leading journals. This lecture will examine some of these works (focusing on Franz Boas and Maurice Fishberg), laying out the contours of the discussion and assessing the various methods open to Jewish scientists in responding to the dominant scientific discourses of their day. Eric L. Goldstein is the Judith London Evans Director of the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is also Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies. He is the author of The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity (Princeton University Press, 2006), which won the Saul Viener Book Prize of the American Jewish Historical Society, the Theodore Saloutos Prize of the Immigration and Ethnic Historical Society, and the Sami Rohr Literary Prize Choice Award of the Jewish Book Council. His most recent book, written with Deborah Weiner, is On Middle Ground: The Jews of Baltimore, 1764 to Present (forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press). He is currently at work on a history of the reading culture of Yiddish speaking Jews in America and Eastern Europe between 1875 and 1930. 14 18th Annual Greenfield Summer Institute ABSTRACTSABSTRACTS Tony Michels, UW-Madison Science for the People: Popular Visnshaft in Yiddish Monday, July 10, 10:45 a.m. What does it mean to become an American? For thousands of Jews who came to the United States around the turn of the 20th century, to become an American meant to acquire a secular education. But many of them were barely literate, and few had sufficient time or money for formal schooling. Under the banner “knowledge is power,” Jewish intellectuals initiated a concerted drive to bring all branches of science to the immigrant masses in their mother tongue, Yiddish. The encounter with visnshaft was a revelation to those who had little prior exposure to it in Eastern Europe. Through it, thousands of Jews discovered the modern world. Tony Michels is the George L. Mosse Professor of American Jewish History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He’s the author of A Fire in Their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in New York, co-editor of the forthcoming Cambridge History of Judaism: The Modern Era, and co-editor of the journal Jewish Social Studies. Jews and Sience 15 ABSTRACTSABSTRACTS ABSTRACTS Amos Bitzan, UW-Madison The Meaning of Science for the Founders of Academic Jewish Studies Monday, July 11, 1:30 p.m. In the early 19th century, Jewish scholars looked to Wissenschaft (German for “science”) to solve the problems posed by modern life to Jewish religion and culture. What did they mean by science and why did they believe that it was so crucial for the revival of Judaism? I am a historian of modern European Jewry with a focus on cultural and intellectual history in the German lands, from the Enlightenment to the end of the Second World War. My current book project is titled “Discipline in the Age of Pleasure: The Birth of Jewish Studies in Nineteenth-Century Germany.” It links the beginnings of the academic study of the Jewish past to the rise of pleasure reading among Jews and others. I have published articles on the “Science of Judaism” movement and two of its most famous figures, the Jewish historian Heinrich Graetz (1817-1891) and the scholar of Jewish literature and liturgy, Leopold Zunz (1794-1886).