Fall 2011 at Rutgers the Allen and Joanstudi Bildner Center for the Study of Jeewish Lifs E • Department of Jewish Studies

CSJLNL2011newsletterFinal_CSJLNL2007 9/22/11 5:40 PM Page 1 Jewish Number 15 Fall 2011 at Rutgers The Allen and JoanStudi Bildner Center for the Study of Jeewish Lifs e • Department of Jewish Studies International Conference Explores Role of Testimonies INSIDE ore than fifty scholars from around the world Mcame to Rutgers in March to participate in the Jonathan Gribetz conference “ Testimonies, Personal Narratives, Joins Faculty and Alternative Tellings ,” sponsored by the Page 3 Bildner Center with support from the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences . Representing a wide Jewish Film Festival Page 5 range of academic disciplines, these scholars examined the diversity of testimonial narratives and Holocaust the broader, more complex understanding of Professors Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer deliver the Testimonies Archive “witnessing” that has developed in large part in opening lecture at the conference. Pages 6 response to the Holocaust, but also in reaction to other events involving genocide, extreme forms of lecture, “Holocaust History and Survivor Testimony: Graduates and violence, or violations of human rights. The The Case of the Starachowice Factory Slave Labor Student Awards conference was held in conjunction with Rutgers’ Camps.” Open to the public, Browning’s talk was the Pages 8—9 new access to the USC Shoah Foundation Bildner Center’s Raoul Wallenberg Annual Institute’s Visual History Archive (VHA) . Program , funded by Leon and Toby Cooperman . Visiting Scholars Page 9 Christopher Browning , the Frank Porter Browning’s award-winning book on the Nazi slave- Graham Professor of History at the University of labor camps was the first scholarly work that drew Faculty Updates North Carolina at Chapel Hill, gave the keynote primarily on testimonies in the VHA. Pages 1 0—11 For more on other VHA initiatives and the conference, see pages 6—7. New Master’s Degree in Jewish Studies he Department of Jewish Studies The M.A. in Jewish studies will prepare Tinaugurated its new M.A. program in students for doctoral-level work in the discipline response to a growing demand for opportunities or careers in related areas. Students, to specialize in the field. particularly educators and professionals already Offering an interdisciplinary approach, the engaged in Jewish communal fields, may pursue program draws on the strength of Rutgers’ the M.A. part-time. faculty in Jewish history and literature, the The department’s undergraduate and Bible, cultural and religious studies, Yiddish, master’s degree programs in Jewish studies are ARTWORK BY ILANA SHAFIR and Israel studies. Students will gain a the only ones offered in New Jersey. The degree sophisticated understanding of the development was established in part by an award from the of Jewish life from the biblical era to the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences present and will be exposed to a broad range of Entrepreneurial Program. methodologies. CSJLNL2011newsletterFinal_CSJLNL2007 9/22/11 5:40 PM Page 2 From the Director’s Desk From the Chair’s Desk reating a strong academic presence on e had a particularly dynamic year Ccampus and an extensive educational Win the Department of Jewish program for the public has been a Studies. We received full state approval challenging, yet highly rewarding, for a 30-credit master’s degree in experience at the Bildner Center. This year’s Jewish studies, the only program of its public programs, such as Christopher kind in New Jersey. We anticipate our Browning’s lecture, the panel “Cartooning incoming classes to be composed of Jewish New York,” and our annual Jewish film festival, were diverse types of students: college graduates seeking to attended by packed audiences. An international conference deepen their knowledge of Jewish studies in order to apply brought together a multidisciplinary group of scholars to to Ph.D. programs, Jewish professionals interested in career explore the evolving nature of testimonial narratives in the growth, and energetic retirees eager to return to school. post-Holocaust era. The highly stimulating exchange among In support of the new degree, Jewish studies was participants was the culmination of the year’s exploration of one of four academic departments to win a grant from the this theme in conjunction with Rutgers’ new online access to Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences Entrepreneurial the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s Visual History Archive. Program to innovate intellectually creative and financially Israel-related lectures and events are an important part self-sufficient programs. With this support, we were able of the Bildner Center’s educational programming and to launch a major advertising campaign, in print, digital, extracurricular offerings for students. The study of Israel is and web forms, which attracted our first cohort of also an important area within the Jewish studies curriculum. students for fall 2011. The master’s program joins our Rutgers students are offered a plethora of opportunities to certificate in Jewish studies, a four-course program that supplements either Ph.D. or professional training in other expand their knowledge about the history of Israeli society graduate programs on the New Brunswick campus, such and various facets of its political, religious, and cultural life as social work and education. from an academic perspective. Our ability to run a master’s program without A wide range of courses on Israel, including seminars by jeopardizing the integrity of our undergraduate program Bildner Center visiting scholars, are cross-listed by the has been bolstered by the newest addition to our faculty, Department of Jewish Studies, the Department of History, Dr. Jonathan Gribetz, who joins the department in fall and the Middle Eastern Studies Program. This past year 2011. Trained at Harvard College and Columbia alone, students were able to take courses including “Israeli University, and most recently the Ray D. Wolfe Culture,” “Israeli Politics,” “Kibbutz in History, Literature Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies at the University of and Film,” “Community and Identity in Modern Israel,” Toronto’s Centre for Jewish Studies, Gribetz specializes in “Zionism: Idea and Ideology,” and “The Arab-Israeli Conflict,” the history of the Jews in the Islamic world, with a focus as well as courses in Hebrew language and literature. In on late Ottoman Palestine. Jointly appointed in Jewish many of these courses, students of diverse backgrounds and studies and history, Gribetz will teach four courses next religious affiliations study, side by side, the complexities of year, including “The Arab-Israeli Conflict,” “The Jews in historical processes and present realities. In the “Arab- Islam,” “Jerusalem Contested: Jewish, Christian, and Israeli Conflict” course, taught by Muli Peleg, the Muslim Perspectives,” and “Jewish Society and Culture II.” Schusterman Visiting Scholar in Israel Studies, students (See p. 3.) obtained firsthand experience in representing different Other faculty news includes our successful points of view during simulated Middle East peace recruitment of an American Council of Learned Societies negotiations. New Faculty Fellow, Dr. Sara Jessica Milstein, a recent Last year, there were a number of reported incidents of Ph.D. from New York University, who specializes in the bias on the Rutgers –New Brunswick campus. In the spirit of literary history of the ancient Near East. (See p. 9.) promoting dialogue and tolerance, the Bildner Center and Another departmental initiative was the creation of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, together with the a new minor to encompass our many offerings in biblical Department of Jewish Studies and the Middle Eastern and rabbinic language, literature, and culture. Rutgers Studies Program, will cosponsor a panel this fall on anti- students can now minor in the language and culture of Semitism, Islamophobia, and the role of the media. ancient Israel, in addition to Jewish studies and modern In this program, as in others, the Bildner Center strives Hebrew, opening new avenues for engagement in the field to advance scholarly exchange, build bridges, and reduce of Jewish studies. prejudice. These values have always been at the core of the Bringing the department to this next phase of its Center’s educational mission, and we hope that our programs development has been a challenging, gratifying, and will establish them as our legacy for future generations. exciting process. —– Yael Zerubavel, Bildner Center director —– Nancy Sinkoff, department chair 2 • JEWISH STUDIES AT RUTGERS CSJLNL2011newsletterFinal_CSJLNL2007 9/22/11 5:40 PM Page 3 Jonathan Gribetz Joins Jewish Studies Faculty JEWISH STUDIES oining the Jewish studies faculty aspirations: Palestine. He began to FACULTY Jthis fall is Professor Jonathan examine how Jewish arrivals to Gribetz , a scholar of the encounter Palestine and the local Arab population between Jews and Arabs in the modern perceived one another in the early days Core Faculty era, who is particularly interested in of Zionism. Fluency in Arabic and Nancy Sinkoff, Jewish-Arab mutual perceptions in late Hebrew enabled him to read published department chair Ottoman Palestine. He has been jointly and unpublished sources written by Jonathan Gribetz appointed to the Department of Zionists and Arabs about their new Gary A. Rendsburg History. neighbors, providing the basis for his Jeffrey Shandler Given the nature of his field, doctoral research at Columbia Paola Tartakoff* Gribetz’s teaching addresses sensitive University. Azzan

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