2003-2004Program in Judaic Studies

WINTER 2003-2004Program in Judaic Studies

PERELMAN INSTITUTE PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

In this Issue 2 Courses NEWSDIRECTOR’S MESSAGE the fantastic. Our motto continues the theme: “Az K’Namér,” which we translate 3 Students Greetings to all of you as we open the “strong as a tiger.” (We justify this reading 3 Class of 2003 new academic year, 2003-2004. since, oddly enough, Hebrew has only 3 Alumni 2003 this one word to refer to all feral cats, 4 Senior Theses 2003 whether panthers, leopards, or tigers!!). NEW PROGRAM NAME: Last 6 Graduate Fellowships spring we noted that our long-awaited And why this quotation? The phrase, “az k’namér,” heads the famous injunction 7 Graduate Students change of name from the Program in from Pirkei Avot (the Sayings of the Jewish Studies (JWS) to the Program in 9 Summer Funding Fathers) bidding the faithful: “Be strong 13 Committee Judaic Studies (JDS) would take effect in (or “bold”) as a tiger, light as an eagle, the summer of 2003. In today’s comput- swift as a deer, and mighty as a lion.” This 13 Support erized world, it took a is the very same sentence that is carved 14 Haverim good deal of sleuthing over the top of the Torah ark doors, just 15 Faculty to ferret out the above the crown. Below you may observe 16 Research and News University’s innumer- the four animals named, including our 22 Events able web sites and docu- “tiger” (who admittedly is depicted here ments in order to make sans stripes). Taken all together—the logo, the motto, and the image—the the shift in nomencla- message is loud and clear: Judaic Studies NEW BUILDING: Update on last ture a reality, but we’ve is strong and thriving at Princeton. done it !! And to make year’s report. We are coming closer and sure our new identity closer to occupancy of our new quarters takes hold, we’ve completely redesigned that will be housed in a small building opposite the Joseph Henry House on the our brochure and web site. The revised INTRODUCING OUR NEW WEB SITE. front campus, across from Firestone format of the Newsletter, which you see Library and fronting on Nassau Street. before you, is also part of our “new look.” Please visit us at The anticipated date is the end of this Additionally, the Ronald O. Perelman www.princeton.edu/~judaic calendar year. As we mentioned last year, Institute is now the Perelman Institute this building will be part of the new (a lot easier for all). Humanities complex, which includes East Pyne and Chancellor Green. East Pyne Do observe the beau- NEW IMAGE: now houses again its former occupants tiful image which we chose as our center- (Classics, German, French, Italian, Spanish, piece. It is a set of carved and painted Portuguese, Slavic, and Linguistics). The wooden Torah Ark doors, from Krakow, complex now boasts a new auditorium Poland, dating from the 17th century. We on the lower level as well as the Language liked it not only for its Laboratory, which was housed elsewhere aesthetics but also for in the last few years. Still to come is a Be strong as a tiger, its relevance to our handsome café, a wholly restored logo and motto. I light as an eagle, Chancellor Green (to its pristine glory), hope that Princetonians and other goodies. We will share this new swift as a deer, and have already noticed space with several other programs (notably, that the two animals Hellenic Studies and European Cultural mighty as a lion. flanking the menorah Studies) and are eagerly anticipating this in our logo are none move. This prime location is evidence of other than the familiar striped tigers we the administration’s commitment to a love so well. Most often, you will see two strong JDS Program with high visibility lions in this position (referring to the lion on campus. We look forward to our full of Judah) although many other heraldic integration into the hub of activities that animals turn up in Jewish art throughout are already taking place. the ages, ranging from the common to (Director’s Message continued on page 20)

Painted wooden Torah Ark doors, from Krakow, Poland, dating from the 17th century. COURSES STUDENTS

FALL SEMESTER: SPRING SEMESTER: FALL SEMESTER: 2002 2003 2003

Topics in Jewish Studies: The “Other” Introduction to Judaism: The Golem: The Creation of an 2003 Certificate Students in Jewish Tradition: From the Bible Religion, History, Ethics Artificial Man to the Present James Diamond, Religion Peter Schäfer, Religion ALUMNI John Gager, Religion The Family in Jewish Tradition From Pale to Pampa: Jews and Judaism 2003 Gender, Sexuality, and the Body Ruth Westheimer, Visiting Professor in Latin American Literature in Judaism: From Biblical Israel to Edna Aizenberg, Visiting Professor Ira Bedzow is currently living in New York City and working for Contemporary America Culture Mavens: American Jews (Marymount Manhatten College) Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group, in mortgage financing. Susannah Heschel, Visiting Professor and the Arts (Dartmouth College) Jenna Weissman Joselit, American Studies Modern Jewish History and the Amos Bitzan will be in Berlin for the year on a DAAD fellowship Urban Experience Israeli Culture Through Film (similar in guidelines and funding to the Fulbright but awarded Texts and Images of the Holocaust Jenna Weissman Joselit, Visiting Professor by the German government). As part of the fellowship, he will be Froma Zeitlin, Comparative Literature Yaron Peleg, Near Eastern Studies, Visiting Professor (American University) Rabbinic Judaism: Literature, working in Berlin on his the project, The Sorrows of Young Jewish Thought and Modern Society History, and Beliefs Graetz A Jewish Historian in the Making, from Aufklärung to Leora Batnitzky, Religion Jewish Mysticism: From the Peter Schäfer, Religion Wissenschaft. This was the topic of his senior thesis but he plans Beginnings to the Kabbala Drucker Prize winners to continue his research and expand his findings. He is also taking Masterworks of Hebrew Literature Rachel Elior, Visiting Professor Religion and Literature In the two courses each semester at the Freie Universitat in Berlin. in Translation (Hebrew University) Old Testament: Through the James Diamond, Near Eastern Studies Babylonian Exile W. John McMath is working part time at Princeton University, Twentieth Century Jewish Philosophy Martha Himmelfarb, Religion while continuing his job search in New York City. The Art and Archaeology of the Leora Batnitzky, Religion Ancient Near East and Egypt Jewish Thought and Modern Society THE CLASS OF 2003 Jessica Munitz is currently living right outside DC and working William A. Childs, Art & Archaeology Elementary Hebrew Leora Batnitzky, Religion at the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, where she Esther Robbins, Near Eastern Studies JEWISH STUDIES CERTIFICATE STUDENTS consults with universities to help them implement the Sustained Modern Jewish History: 1750-Present Jews, Gentiles, and Christians Dialogue framework in order to address issues of race and ethnicity Intermediate Hebrew We are proud to congratulate Ira Jay Bedzow, Amos Bitzan, Susannah Heschel, Visiting Professor in the Ancient World on campus. She is also a Masters student at the Institute for Esther Robbins, Near Eastern Studies Walter Jonathann McMath III, Jessica Rose Munitz, David 2002-2003 (Dartmouth College) John Gager, Religion Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, Jeremy Segal, Joseph Nahum Shapiro, and Rachel Melanie where she is taking introductory courses and beginning to The Bible as Literature Masterworks of Hebrew Literature Smith the 2003 Princeton University graduates who earned a concentrate on the role of religion in conflict and in conflict Esther Schor, English and Humanities in Translation Certificate in Jewish Studies. Council James Diamond, Near Eastern Studies resolution. On leave: 2002-2003 Mark Cohen, Barbara Elementary Hebrew Mann [NES]; Olga Litvak [History], Martha Jews, Muslims, and Christians David Segal is a Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Himmelfarb, Peter Schäfer [Religion], THE CAROLYN L. DRUCKER Esther Robbins, Near Eastern Studies in the Middle Ages Center (RAC). The RAC is the Washington office of the Barbara Hahn [Germanic Languages and Mark Cohen, Near Eastern Studies (CLASS OF 1980) PRIZE Union of American Hebrew Congregation and the Central Intermediate Hebrew Literature] Conference of American Rabbis, representing 1.5 million Reform Esther Robbins, Near Eastern Studies Minorities in Contemporary Israel hrough the generosity of the Drucker family, the Program Jews and 1,700 Reform rabbis in 900 congregations throughout and the Middle East Tawards an annual prize for the best senior thesis in Jewish North America. The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism Advanced Hebrew: Aspects of Dan Rabinowitz, Visiting Professor Studies. Before the establishment of the program, the prize was has been the hub of Jewish social justice and legislative activity Israeli Culture (Tel Aviv University) offered under the auspices of the Committee for Jewish Studies, in the nation’s capital for over 40 years. It has educated and Esther Robbins, Near Eastern Studies the program’s predecessor. Readings in Judeo-Arabic mobilized the American Jewish community on legislative and Mark Cohen, Near Eastern Studies The 2003 Drucker First Prize winner was Amos Bitzan for social concerns as an advocate in the Congress of the United “The Sorrows of Young Graetz: A Jewish Historian in the States on issues ranging from Israel and Soviet Jewry to economic Elementary Hebrew Making, from Aufklärung to Wissenschaft”, in the Department justice and civil rights, to international peace and religious liberty. Esther Robbins, Near Eastern Studies of Germanic Languages and Literature. A Second Prize was David’s job includes research, issue-tracking, policy analysis, Intermediate Hebrew awarded to David Jeremy Segal for “A Platonic Relationship, and letter and speech writing. Esther Robbins, Near Eastern Studies Philo’s Reading of Plato’s Phaedrus and Republic”, in the Joseph Shapiro is doing private tutoring, substitute teaching at Department of Classics. And the Third Prize winner was Aspects of Israeli Culture in Hebrew Solomon Schechter schools, freelance editing, and coaching high Jessica Rose Munitz for “Ohev Shalom V’Rodef Shalom: school Ultimate Frisbee. Esther Robbins, Near Eastern Studies A New Perspective on Peacemaking in Ancient Judaism” in the Department of Religion. Munitz was also awarded the thesis Rachel Smith has received a Thomas R. Pickering Fellowship prize in the Department of Religion. from the State Department and will be attending graduate school at New York University in an MA program in Near Eastern Studies. After that, she will join the Foreign Service and serve for On leave: Barbara Mann [NES] and Olga Litvak [History] at least 3 years. She spent the summer in Cairo studying Arabic. Dr. Ruth Westheimer and her students in JWS 315. 2 3 JUDAIC STUDIES Judaism). Graetz wanted his readers to resolution mechanisms. The first section on the Moon, I focus on the art of Jewish SENIOR THESES know the great and villainous figures in of this paper seeks to establish an accurate folklore and further suggest how the 2003 the history of the Jews as individuals in a description of the diversity of Jewish conflict novel exemplifies the redemptive value of richly and accurately reconstructed context. resolution systems in the first century C.E. storytelling. A similar effect can also be 2003 Judaic Studies Theses Students Ira Jay Bedzow, Politics In this biographical account, I try to and in the decades following the destruc- proposed for Elizabeth Rosner’s The Speed Israel: A Jewish and Democratic State? recreate Graetz’s early years until the tion of the Temple. This discussion focuses of Light, but here I emphasize the impact ineffable, or the metaphysical in the Egyptian and Palestinian Israeli identity, This thesis discusses Israeli society and the beginning of his life as a historian. Through on different types of legal systems on the second generation of silence and universe as seen through ancient texts, encompassing a range of experiences and current government of Israel, examines a comprehensive reconstruction of his (addressing the Sanhedrin, the rabbinic untold stories. Finally, with Jonathan both pagan and Jewish. In viewing three beliefs that varies from individual to indi- democracy from a Halachic perspective, formative experiences as a young man, I movement, and Gentile courts), arguing Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated, pieces of ancient writing — Hesiod’s vidual. Though each author grounds his and attempts to discover a philosophical have tried to suggest how Graetz saw that at the time, the rabbinic movement I probe the use of storytelling as a way of Works & Days, Plato’s Phaedrus, and the characters in a particular family, religion, basis for democracy within the Jewish himself as recovering and transmitting a was often not the system of choice for creating truth. Through my analysis of biblical Book of Daniel — I trace different society and history, construction of identity tradition, looking at a Jewish democracy meaningful Jewish past for his readership, Jews, as demonstrated by the remarkable these four novels, I identify a trend in ways which people in antiquity saw their is ultimately open to the individual whose consisting of Jews and non-Jews. In while at the same time conceiving of him- ease with which the Jews of the Judaean contemporary Holocaust literature away place in the cosmos at large and how unique decisions, beliefs and experiences practical detail, it analyzes marriage and self and the Wissenschaft des Judentums as Desert moved between Jewish and Gentile from survivor memoir and toward a they conceptualized the possibility of shape the way in which he identifies divorce within Halacha in order to find champions of objectivity and critical history. courts at will. The second section examines fictional reconstruction of the past. I attaining a better, transcendent life. How himself as a member of his nation. possibilities for civil marriage and divorce the Gospel of Matthew and the community distinguish between the novels of the did each, individual author contemplate laws, it examines civil adjudication in Walter Johnathann McMath III, that produced it. Characterizing the second and third generations. For the the issues at hand? How did they contex- Samuel Jacob Spector, Politics secular courts, as opposed to religious Religion community as fully Jewish (viewing itself second, the major issue is growing up tualize these issues in order to overcome Towards Strategic Convergence: courts, and it proposes both legal and Defining Ourselves Through as Jewish and being viewed that way by in a household dominated by the any felt sense of injustice or iniquity? The Alliance of the Periphery and the social-political reforms that will encourage Difference: Early Jewish Religious its neighbors), I argue that Matthew’s Holocaust and its unresolved memories How was each discussion framed — by Reshaping of the US-Israel Relationship, both Jewishness and democracy in Israel, Disputation and the Reasons for, Gospel serves as an instructive handbook and traumas. The novels of the third genre, ethos, or faith? Through these 1953-1960 analyses, it was possible to gain a great without hindering the expression of Characteristics, and Significance of for community members on the appropriate generation, by contrast, are overwhelmed The existing literature on great-power deal of information about the authors and either characteristic. Religious Polemic means for resolving interpersonal disputes. by an urgent need to reimagine and recreate regional relations overlooks a significant Although this conflict produced vicious the European pre-Holocaust world. their views of their own life experiences. Each person harbors certain ideas; this element in the thinking of regional powers. anti-Pharisaic polemic, it is imperative that Amos Bitzan, Germanic Languages set of ideas forms his symbolic universe. Although contemporary scholars are we understand this as a conflict within the David Jeremy Segal, Classics Rachel Melanie Smith, & Literature When a person or group of people comes correct in moving away from conceptions larger Jewish community, as opposed to a A Platonic Relationship, Philo’s Near Eastern Studies The Sorrows of Young Graetz across an idea or a set of ideas counter to of international power as the determining 2003-2004 A Jewish Historian in the Making, conflict between Jews and non-Jews. But Reading of Plato’s Phaedrus and Construction of Identity in Naguib STUDENTS their own, it causes psychological discomfort, factors in the relationship between great if the Gospel promotes the swift and Republic Mafouz’s Palace Walk and Anton from Aufklärung to Wissenschaft which must be dealt with. Polemical powers and regional powers, the model peaceful resolution of disputes, it also Shammas’ Arabesques discourse is a way of dealing with this Too often, religion and philosophy are which they construct in its place nonetheless Heinrich Graetz (1817-1891) was includes numerous passages prophesying discomfort, because it both negates the kept in separate departments, but they are My senior thesis explores the question fails to acknowledge the multi-dimensional the preeminent Jewish historian of the and awaiting a violent conflict that will offending ideas and localizes them within also linked by their common efforts to of identity in two novels: Palace Walk by nature of regional power policies — instead nineteenth century. Bold and captivating, usher in the kingdom of God. Couched in the desired symbolic universe. Moreover, understand what is of utmost concern. To Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz and perpetuating the view that their regional as well as scientific and learned, he is best this intense eschatological framework, polemic becomes especially important and this end, I examined Plato as a religious Arabesques by Palestinian Israeli writer policies are primarily targeted at their remembered today for the grand eleven- Matthew’s community felt free to avoid all especially intense when the conflicting philosopher through the eyes of Philo, Anton Shammas. Both Mahfouz and region rather than at reshaping their volume history of the Jews from antiquity conflict and ignore justice, as they ideas are similar to each other, because it known for his philosophical Judaism. Shammas address changes to traditional relations with the great powers. Specifically, to the present that he published between believed that a massive conflict in which is more difficult to differentiate the desired Philo was a 1st century CE Hellenized societies as a result of interactions with no consideration is given to the potential 1853 and 1876 in Germany. Graetz’s justice would be realized was imminent. Geschichte der Juden (History of the Jews) symbolic universe from the offending Jew living in Alexandria, Egypt, a cultural the Other. Mahfouz, writing as an insider, for regional policies, which on the surface symbolic universe without undermining it. focal point of that era. Scholars tend to focuses on the positions of women, appear to be solely directed at influencing was nineteenth-century German Jewry’s Melissa Harvis Renny, English Jewish religious polemic, both against examine whether Philo was a Jew reading patriotism, and religion in Egyptian other states in a region, to be essentially most impassioned and foundational Filling in the Blanks: Storytelling in other religions (i.e. Christianity and Islam) Greek philosophy or a Greek philosopher society and constructs an Egyptian identity strategic in nature — designed primarily gesture of self-assertion. Graetz appealed a Post Holocaust World to both the popular imagination of his and within Judaism (i.e. Rabbanite Judaism studying Judaism, but I took a different in opposition to the English occupiers. with the objective of coercing or persuading readers as well as their demands for scientific versus Karaite Judaism) has been driven by This thesis examines the art of storytelling course in my research. I did a close reading Similarly, Shammas addresses the roles a great power to more closely align itself erudition and analysis. In his narratives these factors. in four fictional works written by children of two texts of Philo (On Abraham and of family, religion and nation in the with it, a regional power. An assessment about the struggles of Jewish heroes from and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. The Life of Moses) alongside Plato’s Phaedrus construction of Palestinian Israeli identity, of Israeli regional policies between the past and present – for Graetz, the Jessica Rose Munitz, Religion I explore the use of storytelling as the and Republic, noting instances of influence and writing as an outsider, he constructs 1953 and 1960, coinciding with the prophets of the Hebrew Bible, the rabbis Ohev Shalom V’Rodef Shalom: primary means of access for second and — direct and subtle—as well as Philonic an identity in opposition to Jewish Israeli term of the Eisenhower administration, who compiled the Talmud and the great A New Perspective on Peacemaking third generations to the experience of the deviations from his Platonic predecessor. hegemony. In their own ways, each of offers valuable insight into the strategic medieval Jewish philosophers and poets – in Ancient Judaism Holocaust, and demonstrate the general them broadens the conception of national motivations that drove Israeli behavior importance of storytelling to both the Joseph Nahum Shapiro, Classics identity and pushes against the prevailing at the regional level in this period. This he captured the hearts of many German Despite the presence of the significant survivors and their descendants. In Anne Yearning for Paradise: A Study of the societal boundaries. Palace Walk and thesis set out to demonstrate that Israeli Jews well into the twentieth century. At conflicts in Jewish history of the Raeff’s Clara Mondschein’s Melancholia, Impulse Towards Something Better Arabesques are two very different novels regional policies between 1953 and 1960 the same time, he was an integral part of Greco-Roman period, the first two storytelling is the only link between a depicting two very different societies. — particularly as reflected in its that rich world of philological and historical centuries C.E. also saw the development My thesis investigates the psychological, survivor and her daughter and grand- They are linked by the way their authors scholarship to which we now refer as the of sophisticated and effective conflict religious experience of the divine, the daughter. For Joseph Skibell’s A Blessing expand the realm of possibility for (Senior Theses continued on page 6) 4 Wissenschaft des Judentums (Science of 5 JUDAIC STUDIES Judaism). Graetz wanted his readers to resolution mechanisms. The first section on the Moon, I focus on the art of Jewish SENIOR THESES know the great and villainous figures in of this paper seeks to establish an accurate folklore and further suggest how the 2003 the history of the Jews as individuals in a description of the diversity of Jewish conflict novel exemplifies the redemptive value of richly and accurately reconstructed context. resolution systems in the first century C.E. storytelling. A similar effect can also be 2003 Judaic Studies Theses Students Ira Jay Bedzow, Politics In this biographical account, I try to and in the decades following the destruc- proposed for Elizabeth Rosner’s The Speed Israel: A Jewish and Democratic State? recreate Graetz’s early years until the tion of the Temple. This discussion focuses of Light, but here I emphasize the impact ineffable, or the metaphysical in the Egyptian and Palestinian Israeli identity, This thesis discusses Israeli society and the beginning of his life as a historian. Through on different types of legal systems on the second generation of silence and universe as seen through ancient texts, encompassing a range of experiences and current government of Israel, examines a comprehensive reconstruction of his (addressing the Sanhedrin, the rabbinic untold stories. Finally, with Jonathan both pagan and Jewish. In viewing three beliefs that varies from individual to indi- democracy from a Halachic perspective, formative experiences as a young man, I movement, and Gentile courts), arguing Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated, pieces of ancient writing — Hesiod’s vidual. Though each author grounds his and attempts to discover a philosophical have tried to suggest how Graetz saw that at the time, the rabbinic movement I probe the use of storytelling as a way of Works & Days, Plato’s Phaedrus, and the characters in a particular family, religion, basis for democracy within the Jewish himself as recovering and transmitting a was often not the system of choice for creating truth. Through my analysis of biblical Book of Daniel — I trace different society and history, construction of identity tradition, looking at a Jewish democracy meaningful Jewish past for his readership, Jews, as demonstrated by the remarkable these four novels, I identify a trend in ways which people in antiquity saw their is ultimately open to the individual whose consisting of Jews and non-Jews. In while at the same time conceiving of him- ease with which the Jews of the Judaean contemporary Holocaust literature away place in the cosmos at large and how unique decisions, beliefs and experiences practical detail, it analyzes marriage and self and the Wissenschaft des Judentums as Desert moved between Jewish and Gentile from survivor memoir and toward a they conceptualized the possibility of shape the way in which he identifies divorce within Halacha in order to find champions of objectivity and critical history. courts at will. The second section examines fictional reconstruction of the past. I attaining a better, transcendent life. How himself as a member of his nation. possibilities for civil marriage and divorce the Gospel of Matthew and the community distinguish between the novels of the did each, individual author contemplate laws, it examines civil adjudication in Walter Johnathann McMath III, that produced it. Characterizing the second and third generations. For the the issues at hand? How did they contex- Samuel Jacob Spector, Politics secular courts, as opposed to religious Religion community as fully Jewish (viewing itself second, the major issue is growing up tualize these issues in order to overcome Towards Strategic Convergence: courts, and it proposes both legal and Defining Ourselves Through as Jewish and being viewed that way by in a household dominated by the any felt sense of injustice or iniquity? The Alliance of the Periphery and the social-political reforms that will encourage Difference: Early Jewish Religious its neighbors), I argue that Matthew’s Holocaust and its unresolved memories How was each discussion framed — by Reshaping of the US-Israel Relationship, both Jewishness and democracy in Israel, Disputation and the Reasons for, Gospel serves as an instructive handbook and traumas. The novels of the third genre, ethos, or faith? Through these 1953-1960 analyses, it was possible to gain a great without hindering the expression of Characteristics, and Significance of for community members on the appropriate generation, by contrast, are overwhelmed The existing literature on great-power deal of information about the authors and either characteristic. Religious Polemic means for resolving interpersonal disputes. by an urgent need to reimagine and recreate regional relations overlooks a significant Although this conflict produced vicious the European pre-Holocaust world. their views of their own life experiences. Each person harbors certain ideas; this element in the thinking of regional powers. anti-Pharisaic polemic, it is imperative that Amos Bitzan, Germanic Languages set of ideas forms his symbolic universe. Although contemporary scholars are we understand this as a conflict within the David Jeremy Segal, Classics Rachel Melanie Smith, & Literature When a person or group of people comes correct in moving away from conceptions larger Jewish community, as opposed to a A Platonic Relationship, Philo’s Near Eastern Studies The Sorrows of Young Graetz across an idea or a set of ideas counter to of international power as the determining 2003-2004 A Jewish Historian in the Making, conflict between Jews and non-Jews. But Reading of Plato’s Phaedrus and Construction of Identity in Naguib STUDENTS their own, it causes psychological discomfort, factors in the relationship between great if the Gospel promotes the swift and Republic Mafouz’s Palace Walk and Anton from Aufklärung to Wissenschaft which must be dealt with. Polemical powers and regional powers, the model peaceful resolution of disputes, it also Shammas’ Arabesques discourse is a way of dealing with this Too often, religion and philosophy are which they construct in its place nonetheless Heinrich Graetz (1817-1891) was includes numerous passages prophesying discomfort, because it both negates the kept in separate departments, but they are My senior thesis explores the question fails to acknowledge the multi-dimensional the preeminent Jewish historian of the and awaiting a violent conflict that will offending ideas and localizes them within also linked by their common efforts to of identity in two novels: Palace Walk by nature of regional power policies — instead nineteenth century. Bold and captivating, usher in the kingdom of God. Couched in the desired symbolic universe. Moreover, understand what is of utmost concern. To Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz and perpetuating the view that their regional as well as scientific and learned, he is best this intense eschatological framework, polemic becomes especially important and this end, I examined Plato as a religious Arabesques by Palestinian Israeli writer policies are primarily targeted at their remembered today for the grand eleven- Matthew’s community felt free to avoid all especially intense when the conflicting philosopher through the eyes of Philo, Anton Shammas. Both Mahfouz and region rather than at reshaping their volume history of the Jews from antiquity conflict and ignore justice, as they ideas are similar to each other, because it known for his philosophical Judaism. Shammas address changes to traditional relations with the great powers. Specifically, to the present that he published between believed that a massive conflict in which is more difficult to differentiate the desired Philo was a 1st century CE Hellenized societies as a result of interactions with no consideration is given to the potential 1853 and 1876 in Germany. Graetz’s justice would be realized was imminent. Geschichte der Juden (History of the Jews) symbolic universe from the offending Jew living in Alexandria, Egypt, a cultural the Other. Mahfouz, writing as an insider, for regional policies, which on the surface symbolic universe without undermining it. focal point of that era. Scholars tend to focuses on the positions of women, appear to be solely directed at influencing was nineteenth-century German Jewry’s Melissa Harvis Renny, English Jewish religious polemic, both against examine whether Philo was a Jew reading patriotism, and religion in Egyptian other states in a region, to be essentially most impassioned and foundational Filling in the Blanks: Storytelling in other religions (i.e. Christianity and Islam) Greek philosophy or a Greek philosopher society and constructs an Egyptian identity strategic in nature — designed primarily gesture of self-assertion. Graetz appealed a Post Holocaust World to both the popular imagination of his and within Judaism (i.e. Rabbanite Judaism studying Judaism, but I took a different in opposition to the English occupiers. with the objective of coercing or persuading readers as well as their demands for scientific versus Karaite Judaism) has been driven by This thesis examines the art of storytelling course in my research. I did a close reading Similarly, Shammas addresses the roles a great power to more closely align itself erudition and analysis. In his narratives these factors. in four fictional works written by children of two texts of Philo (On Abraham and of family, religion and nation in the with it, a regional power. An assessment about the struggles of Jewish heroes from and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. The Life of Moses) alongside Plato’s Phaedrus construction of Palestinian Israeli identity, of Israeli regional policies between the past and present – for Graetz, the Jessica Rose Munitz, Religion I explore the use of storytelling as the and Republic, noting instances of influence and writing as an outsider, he constructs 1953 and 1960, coinciding with the prophets of the Hebrew Bible, the rabbis Ohev Shalom V’Rodef Shalom: primary means of access for second and — direct and subtle—as well as Philonic an identity in opposition to Jewish Israeli term of the Eisenhower administration, who compiled the Talmud and the great A New Perspective on Peacemaking third generations to the experience of the deviations from his Platonic predecessor. hegemony. In their own ways, each of offers valuable insight into the strategic medieval Jewish philosophers and poets – in Ancient Judaism Holocaust, and demonstrate the general them broadens the conception of national motivations that drove Israeli behavior importance of storytelling to both the Joseph Nahum Shapiro, Classics identity and pushes against the prevailing at the regional level in this period. This he captured the hearts of many German Despite the presence of the significant survivors and their descendants. In Anne Yearning for Paradise: A Study of the societal boundaries. Palace Walk and thesis set out to demonstrate that Israeli Jews well into the twentieth century. At conflicts in Jewish history of the Raeff’s Clara Mondschein’s Melancholia, Impulse Towards Something Better Arabesques are two very different novels regional policies between 1953 and 1960 the same time, he was an integral part of Greco-Roman period, the first two storytelling is the only link between a depicting two very different societies. — particularly as reflected in its that rich world of philological and historical centuries C.E. also saw the development My thesis investigates the psychological, survivor and her daughter and grand- They are linked by the way their authors scholarship to which we now refer as the of sophisticated and effective conflict religious experience of the divine, the daughter. For Joseph Skibell’s A Blessing expand the realm of possibility for (Senior Theses continued on page 6) 4 Wissenschaft des Judentums (Science of 5 (Senior Theses continued from page 5 ) GRADUATE STUDENTS

cross-border reprisal policy leading up lthough the Program in Judaic Studies is designed for Devra Jaffe-Berkowitz, Sociology, is a fourth-year graduate to the 1956 War and its forging of an Aundergraduates, there are many graduate students at student, with interests centering on religion, culture, and alliance of the periphery with Iran, Princeton who are pursuing topics relevant to Judaic Studies communal involvement. Before coming to Princeton she earned a Turkey, and Ethiopia – were primarily within their home departments. At the present time, these B.A. in religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania and directed at altering the nature of the include Anthropology, Architecture, Comparative Literature, a M.A. in religious studies at Rice University. This year, she is a US-Israel relationship at the strategic level. English, Germanic Languages and Literature, History, Music, Near dissertation fellow with the Center for the Study of Religion. Her topic is on communal involvement in the contemporary American Adena Tamar Spingarn, English Eastern Studies, Politics, and Religion. Jewish community. A Clematis Understanding: Joel Elias Abby Bender, English, will be a graduate prize fellow at the Spingarn, Scholar and Activist University Center for Human Values this year. Her dissertation, Kevin Osterloh, Religion. A fourth-year student in Late Antiquity and the Program in the Ancient World, he specializes in Past portrayals of Joel Elias Spingarn entitled “Out of Egypt and into Bondage: Exodus and the Hellenistic Judaism. His dissertation will focus on Jewish (1875-1939) have presented him either as Location of Irish Identity from the Revival to the Republic,” national identity formation in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE. an elitist literary critic or as a tireless civil investigates the ways in which the Biblical story of Exodus—a He is also interested in representations of Moses (and other rights leader, so that the literary aristocrat narrative that lends itself to a range of political ideologies—has Jewish ancestral heroes) from the Hellenistic period to late antiquity Spingarn and the civil rights crusader been appropriated, interrogated, and reinvented in the Irish in Jewish and Christian texts. Osterloh completed a BA at Ohio Spingarn almost seem to be two different national imagination. Her article on the San Patricio Battalion State University in Hebrew, and in Ancient History and Classics people. “A Clematis Understanding: Joel (Irish soldiers fighting for Mexico in the Mexican-American War) in 1996. He received his MA from NYU in Hebrew and Judaic Elias Spingarn, Scholar and Activist” and transnational solidarity will appear in Genre this winter. Studies in 2000. explores the commonalities between the Dániel Péter Biró, Music, is currently working on his dissertation, many identities of Spingarn, an assimilated which consists of two parts: one theoretical, the other, a musical William Plevan, Religion. Bill entered the program in 2002 after Jew, as a public intellectual. Spingarn’s composition. The theoretical section is a phenomenological essay earning his rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological intense involvement in both criticism and that continues his research into musical-semiotic systems. One Seminary. His primary area of research is modern Jewish the early civil rights movement—a rare chapter deals with aspects of musical rhetoric and system within philosophy, theology and ethics, but he also studies the history of combination, particularly for a white man Torah trope and how these relate to other modern western philosophy, moral, political and legal philosophy, — allows for an important examination of social theory, feminist theory, philosophy of religion and philosophy Many graduate forms of chant, while another chapter the linkages between these two seemingly explores the influence of Jewish thinking on of mind. He is finishing up a project on Mordecai Kaplan’s unconnected fields. Looking at the students at Princeton music composed in the Ars Nova period theory of religion and his relationship to American pragmatism. progression of his life, this thesis charts (14th century). His dissertation composi-

STUDENTS Elliot Ratzman, Religion. He is in his fifth year in the Religion, Spingarn’s development as a thinker and are pursuing topics GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS tion is based on the Biblical text Ethics and Politics program. His dissertation, “Jewish Thought doer, paying special attention to the ideo- relevant to “Mishpatim.” With this piece he and the Problem of the 20th Century” examines issues of political logical considerations that motivated his continues his research into organizing new initiative was implemented for 2003-04 graduate school Judaic Studies and ethical agency in the light of recent diaspora Jewish philoso- many strikingly incongruous activities. sound by means of Hebrew gematria. He applicants who demonstrate a major interest in some aspect phers (Michael Wyschogrod, Gillian Rose, Michael Walzer, David Spingarn’s literary criticism supported A began his musical studies at the Bartók of Judaic Studies. In consultation with the relevant department, Novak, Steven Schwarzschild, Emil Fackenheim, Emmanuel his civil rights activism in a unique and Conservatory in Budapest, Hungary. From 1991-1992 he was a the Program is now offering top up fellowships, with the under- Levinas). He is also working on a book about his years in Israel, fascinating way: just as he rejected the Fulbright scholar in Frankfurt, Germany. He later studied in Bern standing that the students will maintain research interests in Judaic tentatively entitled “After Zion: Israel in Theory and Practice.” A necessity of context in categorizing art, and Vienna. In 1995, he did folk music research at the Academy Studies throughout their graduate careers. Additionally, there will native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he has a BA and MA in Philosophy he refused to use categories like race to of Science in Budapest. He received an opera commission from be opportunities for draw-down and dissertation assistance later from Ohio University, a MTS from Harvard Divinity School, and define people. He believed in an abstract, the Neue Horizonte—Bern/Schlachthaus Theater in Bern, on in students’ graduate careers. studied at the Hebrew University from 1997-1999. inner value of art and of critics of art Switzerland in 1998. In 1999, he was awarded the Hungarian that extended to his view of the value of The following students are the first to benefit from the new Government’s Kodály Award for Hungarian Composers. In 2000, Zur Shalev, History. He earned a BA from the Hebrew individuals. Ultimately, his life provides Judaic Studies graduate fellowships: Gregg Gardner in the he received grants from Center for Near Eastern Studies and the University (1997) and specializes in early modern European a compelling argument for the intimate Department of Religion will study Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni for purposes of history. In January 2004, Zur will defend his dissertation, relationship between abstract theory and ancient Judaism within Greco-Roman Hebrew study and dissertation research at Haifa University, Israel. “Geographia Sacra: Scholarship, Mapping, and Religion in the th th concrete action. The Program is and Christian context, specifically focus- In 2001, his piece “The Crossing (Daf),” based on a text by 16 and 17 centuries.” The study surveys the intersection of now offering top up ing on the economy of ancient Palestine Franz Kafka, was performed as a commissioned piece of the biblical scholarship and geography, and touches on Christian Hebraism and the study of Jewish antiquities by Christian fellowships. during the Mishnaic and Talmudic peri- Stuttgart Opera. In the summer of 2003, he was awarded a ods; Danielle Shani in the Department summer research grant from the Princeton Council on Regional scholars, such as Benito Arias Montano and Samuel Bochart. of Politics will concentrate on political Studies, enabling him to attend the composition master class at Several essays pertaining to his research have already been theory relating to Israel’s attempt to reach a constitution by the Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. There he worked published or are forthcoming. He is also the author of Rituals consensus; and Jamie Sherman in the Department of with Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin and with the Ensemble in Jerusalem [Hebrew] with photographs by I. Grinberg, Anthropology will focus on ties between gender and power and SurPlus, which performed the first part of his dissertation 1999, and is currently conducting research in Oxford. Zur the prescriptive models embedded within representations, fictional composition “Mishpatim.” was recently awarded a Hanadiv postdoctoral fellowship in and ‘real,’ in the contemporary Middle East. European history. See his web page for further information: Jesse Ferris, Near Eastern Studies, is a second year PhD candidate. www.princeton.edu/~zshalev He holds a BA in History from Yale University and is writing a dissertation on the Cold War in the Middle East. 6 (Graduate Students continued next page) 7 (Senior Theses continued from page 5 ) GRADUATE STUDENTS

David Snyder, Architecture. He is a fourth-year graduate student Other graduate students working in areas relevant to Judiac SUMMER FUNDING The grant provided by the Program in research I have yet to accomplish, it was with a BA from Columbia University (1988), a BA from the Studies are the following: Judaic Studies allowed me to explore the best start I could have gotten for n the summer of 2003, the Program Jewish Theological Seminary (1988), and a Master of Architecture these questions and shed light on some motivation and inspiration. I hope to in Judaic Studies assisted one under- from Yale (1991). His dissertation is entitled “Constructing the Seth D. Abelson, Comparative Literature I of the answers. Traveling out west and come to general conclusions regarding graduate and seven graduate students Modern Metropolis: Urban Renewal and the Space of the Jewish speaking with everyone from research regional tolerances of intermarriage with special funding grants for summer “Other” in Prague and Warsaw.” It is an investigation of the Jutta S. Adams, Germanic Languages and Literatures librarians in the Denver Public Library to within the US as well as predictions of projects. Beth Gordon ’04 did research architectural and urban qualities—both imagined and real—that Rabbi Eisen of Tucson’s Congregation what key issues lie ahead for Judaism in Eli Alshech, Near Eastern Studies on her senior thesis, Jews of the American constituted the particular ghetto spaces in postwar Warsaw and Anshei Israel to staying overnight in the the future regarding size and strength West and the Taboo of Intermarriage, fin-de-si`ecle Prague in order to determine what role the figure of home of a Jewish family in Tucson gave of the population. Joseph Braude, Near Eastern Studies which included travels to Colorado, the Jewish ghetto played in urban renewal schemes in both cities. me both a new research perspective as well New Mexico, and Arizona. The graduate By positioning the ghetto space as the archetypal marker of Marilyn C. Cooper, History as an increased awareness and pride in my JESSE FERRIS students varied in level from I-IV. Jesse difference in the modern city, this project will ultimately suggest own Judaism. I was able to spend a week Ferris, I (Near Eastern Studies), journeyed This summer, funds provided by the a series of linkages and points of tension—1) between ethnicity, Soelve I. Curdts, Comparative Literature in both Denver and Tucson, where I to Israel to pursue research about the Program in Judaic Studies enabled to me multiculturalism, liberalism, and the construction of identity, gathered data such as the historical Jewish Sabra and Shatila massacres. Devra to travel to Israel and pursue research on 2) between perception and physical reality, and 3) between Adam J. Davis, History origins of each city, archived newspaper Jaffe-Berkowitz, IV (Sociology), the 1982 Lebanon War. Following up on modernity and history. From these perspectives, the ghetto articles and current local Jewish demo- Joshua Derman, History continued her dissertation research on a semester of research on wartime docu- space, it is argued, elucidates the shifting concerns within the graphic survey statistics. Jewish philanthropy. Eduard Iricinschi, ments at Princeton, I used the opportunity discourses of modern architectural and urban planning. The Joshua Dubler, Religion I (Religion), studied intensive Hebrew at to conduct a series of interviews with Program in Judiac Studies granted him summer funds in 2003 the Jewish Theological Seminary. Kevin Israeli generals, academics, and journalists to pursue archival research in Berlin and Prague in support of his Gregg Gardner, Religion Osterloh, III (Religion), received a grant who experienced the war firsthand. dissertation. He was awarded a Fulbright fellowship for study to study artifacts in France and Germany. Specifically, I was interested in lessons of in Poland (1992) and is currently the recipient of a research Eduard Iricinschi, Religion David Snyder, III (Architecture), traveled the Battle of Beirut for democratic armies fellowship at the Center for Jewish History in New York City. engaged in urban combat. The battle Jay Ladin, Writing Program to Warsaw and Prague to study the Adriana X. Tatum, Comparative Literature, is entering her third architecture of the Jewish ghettos. Adriana began in mid-June 1982, with a prolonged year of graduate study. Her research focuses on modern Hebrew Ernestina Osorio, Architecture Tatum, II (Comparative Literature), siege and bombardment of Palestinian poetry of the 20th century, with an emphasis on issues of translation, did archival research in Israel. Holger militants entrenched in several densely multilingualism, and national canon-building. She works closely Danielle Shani, Politics Zellentin, II (Religion), traveled to populated neighborhoods of Beirut by the Israeli military. Eventually, the combination STUDENTS on the poetry of Esther Raab, Leah Goldberg, and Harold Germany and the Netherlands for his Schimmel. Adriana graduated in 1998 from the College of Hanoch Sheinman, Philosophy dissertation research. Natasha Zaretzky, III of Israeli force and American diplomacy William and Mary with a BA in Literary and Cultural Studies. As (Anthropology), continued her dissertation produced the negotiated evacuation of Jamie Sherman, Anthropology the PLO at the end of August. The battle an undergraduate, she studied Latin American Modernist poet- research in Argentina on the politics of Beth Gordon at Temple Emmanuel, Tucson, AZ. ended on a particularly gruesome note ry and published several translations of Ecuadorian poetry. Prior Natasha Tessone, English Jewish memory in post-dictatorship to coming to Princeton, she attended the Hebrew University Argentina, and also studied Yiddish. The Possibly the most exciting component of with the massacre of several hundred of Jerusalem. Eric Yellin, History following are excerpts of the reports of my trip and the most valuable for my Palestinian Arabs by Christian militiamen senior thesis were the personal interviews allied with Israel in mid-September during Natasha Zaretsky, Anthropology, is a fourth year graduate their experiences. These are well worth I conducted with interfaith couples. I was a cleanup operation authorized by the student studying Argentine Jews. Her dissertation topic is reading. They give a sense of the variety welcomed into the homes of a number of Israeli army at the Sabra and Shatila “Memory and Identity after Tragedy: European Jews in of opportunities for research in Judaic couples in Tucson where I was able to refugee camps. Argentina.” She received her BA from Dartmouth College and Studies and are proof, if proof were discuss everything about their relationships: earned a Senior Fellowship (1996-1997) at Dartmouth, working needed, of the vitality of such graduate The interviews provided a spectrum of how they met and became engaged, the on “Negotiating Identities, Transcending Boundaries: Soviet studies at Princeton. vital insights into the circumstances of the adversities they had to overcome with Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, New York.” See the report of battle, and underscored the difficulty of BETH GORDON friends and family who disapproved, letting her summer field work in this issue of the Newsletter. resolving moral, strategic, and tactical As the issue of intermarriage comes to the go of some traditions (especially the dilemmas in real-time on the field of battle. Holger Zellentin, Religion, is a third year student in the field of forefront of modern Jewish sociology and beloved Christmas tree), factors causing One of the most intriguing conclusions I Late Antiquity. His dissertation project focuses on Rabbinic deeply concerns all generations of Jews, it some spouses to convert, and in turn, the have reached is that the catastrophe at Literature in the Greco-Roman context, especially modes of becomes necessary to study and analyze expectations they have of their children Sabra and Shatila—certainly the most literary reception and the genre of parodies. Current projects what is happening to this enduring for marriage. Because I was able to meet controversial incident of the war—was a include Rabbinic reactions to messianism, Jewish literature in the community. Furthermore, there are some face to face with each individual, I felt the natural (though unintended) consequence Greek diaspora, and the Greek prose romance. He received his geographical regions in the country with realness, the genuine trouble and love of the basic strategic parameters of the undergraduate education in France and holds one Masters much more rapidly growing rates of each relationship consisted of and I appre- Israeli invasion. Specifically, Israel’s strategic Degree in Divinity, and one in Hebrew and Aramaic Language, intermarriage than others. Why is this so? ciated the effort to give honest answers to decision to ally with Lebanon’s Maronite both from the University of Amsterdam. Before coming to What will happen to Judaism in the next all my inquiries. Christians on a political level necessarily Princeton he studied in Jerusalem. few generations? Is it any more endangered Although this summer’s work was only entailed close cooperation with the than it’s been in the past? the beginning of the months’ worth of 8 (Summer Funding continued next page) 9 (Graduate Students continued from page 7)

unscrupulous Phalange militia on a military DEVRA JAFFE-BERKOWITZ I also traveled from Berlin to Oxford, DAVID SNYDER period of demolition and reconstruction. readily available to the first generation of level. This, in turn, led naturally to the England, where I viewed one of the best native Hebrew speakers. Nevertheless, During the summer of 2003, due to the This summer, with the financial support of Perhaps most importantly, while in Prague operational circumstances that produced coin collections from the Hellenistic period these literary labors were primarily in generous support given to me by the the Program in Judaic Studies, I was able I was able to meet with a number of people the massacre. A comparison with America’s at the Ashmolean Museum. Since I plan service to the Hebrew language and the Program in Judaic Studies, I was able to to travel to Berlin and Prague to conduct at the Jewish Museum whose assistance recent experience with the Northern to integrate a numismatic survey into my development of the modern Hebrew make a great deal of progress on my research for my dissertation. While in will be critical for the next stage of my Alliance in Afghanistan is illuminating. dissertation, the opportunity to examine literary canon and not to the preservation dissertation. The dissertation looks at Berlin I was able to gain access to the research in Prague. Moreover, they intro- Similarly, Israel’s adoption of a political these coins firsthand has proven invaluable of the languages of the galut. communal involvement in the contem- important drawings/set designs by the duced me to contacts at the Municipal strategy of regime-change imposed on the for my research. I also took digital photos porary American Jewish community. Part architect Hans Poelzig for the 1920 film Museum and others whose help will be Still, there were—and are—writers who Israeli military the ambitious mission of of the relevant coins for the same purposes of my study is an analysis of the relevant Der Golem. The visual representation of invaluable in the future. Although my opted to work in their native languages thoroughly eliminating all sources of as stated above. national data. Recently, the 2000 National the Prague ghetto after its demolition and research in Prague goes well beyond the though doing so severely limited their opposition to the new regime in Lebanon. Jewish Population Study dataset became What is more (and this is where the reconstruction and the relationship of scope of this particular investigation, the possibilities for publishing. Today, in Inevitably, this led to operational assign- publicly available and I began to analyze unique opportunity to conduct summer these set designs to the broader context funding I received from the Program in Israel there are several writing institutes ments of questionable tactical value and the dataset’s questions that are relevant to research abroad has resulted in truly unex- of early-modern architectural discourse in Judaic Studies enabled me to spend the and organizations that actively promote moral justification for a democratic army my research. pected benefits to my scholarly prospects), Europe are key elements in my dissertation. necessary time at the Jewish Museum non-Hebrew writers, but usually within a fighting an offensive campaign far from while in Oxford I happened to make On one level it is important to locate establishing contacts and relationships particular language community and with home. This situation, exacerbated by Additionally, this summer I accomplished contact with a potential colleague in the these designs by Poelzig—a major figure with researchers and scholars there who varying degrees of success. One of the heightened domestic sensitivity to casualties a significant amount of background field, Liv Marie Yarrow, a recent Oxford in twentieth century architecture—within will play a significant role in the future most prolific and organized is the Russian- in a war of choice, made the selection of research through reading of primary and PhD, whose dissertation takes up the issue the milieu of German Expressionism development of my dissertation. language literary community, which also means for a particular mission—like the secondary sources as well as doing some of local history writing in the Hellenistic and the shifting artistic and architectural maintains close ties to the Moscow and St. tragic decision to employ an allied militia background interviews with officials in the Because my approach to this topic is period. I had long hoped to include an discourses of the interwar period, and also Petersburg literary scenes. The internet, to execute the complex search and destroy Jewish community. With all this information fundamentally interdisciplinary, it is some- analysis of one of the key primary source to interrogate the relationship between where much of current Russian literary mission at Sabra and Shatila—dependent in mind, I have put together a workable times difficult to gain the full understanding texts for my dissertation, Second stylistic representations of the ghetto and activity takes place, has promoted as well on less than professional considerations. plan and timetable for the completion of and find the necessary financial support Maccabees, in just this context: as local the cultural perceptions of such spaces the distribution of works by Russian Here again, a comparison with America’s my dissertation and am set to commence for each phase of my investigation. For history. Having the chance to meet of difference. Israeli authors. The journals Ariel and present mission in Iraq is instructive. the participant observation and interview this reason I am extremely grateful to the Ms. Yarrow in person to discuss her Modern Hebrew Literature in Translation portions of my research. An equally important resource for this Program in Judaic Studies for its continued dissertation (an abstract of which she has occasionally feature English-language EDUARD IRICINSCHI topic was the material I was able to find at support for my project that crosses KEVIN LEE OSTERLOH generously provided to me) has indeed writers in Israel, but focus otherwise on In the summer of 2003, I took an intro- the archive of the Kinemathek in Berlin. disciplinary boundaries typically not STUDENTS answered many of my more general ques- English translations of Hebrew texts. And The reception of the film by the German- associated with one another. It is from ductory course in Modern Hebrew. The Thanks to generous funding from the tions and has thus consequently shortened for Spanish writers, Entrelíneas (Between speaking public, its exportation around such positive support and encouragement course was the 2003 Summer Ulpan of Program in Judaic Studies my summer the amount of time that I would have the Lines) is currently attempting to provide the world, the specific cinematic innovations that I envision my dissertation as a the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in research project turned out even better otherwise invested in compiling the a more ample platform for these writers, of its director Paul Wegener, and public contribution to both Judaic Studies New York. For four weeks, I commuted than I had originally planned. The basic necessary background information but after two issues it’s still too soon to relations/advertising materials produced and Architecture. from Princeton to New York on a daily itinerary called for me to conduct research relevant to the topic. say how its efforts will fare. basis, since the classes were held every day at Berlin’s Pergamon Museum on the by the UFA film studio all contribute ADRIANA TATUM of the week from 9 am until 1:30 pm. Great Altar of Pergamon, reconstructed to my developing a better understanding One of the best examples I have found My professor, Miri Bar Ziv from Hebrew in part and housed at the Museum since of how this artistic representation With the generous support of the of “translingualism” (to use Steven G. University, proved to be extremely helpful the 1880’s, in particular on the relief of the ghetto can be used within an Program in Judaic Studies, I traveled to Kellman’s term) at work is the journal in guiding me through the grammatical sculptures that adorn the inside walls of architectural/urban discussion about Israel in late July for an intensive month Reflejos (Reflections), which the Latin maze of Hebrew, using the following the court of the Great Altar, where the ghetto spaces. of pre-generals research. For the past two American Studies Department at the Hebrew University inaugurated in 1992. textbooks: Shlomit Chayat, by Sara Israeli actual altar of burnt sacrifice itself once On the second leg of my research trip I years, I have focused increasingly on the Every issue includes original Spanish texts & Hilla Kobliner and Hebrew from stood. My first-hand study of these reliefs traveled to Prague. At the archives of the works of non-Hebrew Israeli writers, by Israeli writers along with translations Scratch, Part I. has helped me to understand the nature State Jewish Museum in Prague I was able particularly those who write in English of local identity formation in Pergamon and Spanish. My interest in these writers into Spanish of Hebrew texts by Latin I am happy with my first academic to continue researching this aspect of my (on the coast of Asia Minor) during the stems from a larger preoccupation with American Israeli writers. Even the journal’s encounter with Hebrew, a language so dissertation by reviewing other artistic Hellenistic period, and consequently to multilingualism and the development of very name, “reflections,” emphasizes the different from the modern (German, representations of the Prague ghetto. In better contextualize later Roman and the Israeli national canon. Many pre-State powerful coexistence of these two languages French) and ancient (Coptic, Greek, addition to the resources I intended to Jewish attempts to explain their own writers, who would later play a major role within this community. It was in Reflejos Latin) languages I have studied until now. gain access to—including the lithographs national identity to the broader Hellenistic in the formation of the Modern Hebrew that I came upon a wonderful story by I intend to continue the study of Hebrew, of Hugo Steiner–Prag for Gustave world in the 2nd century BCE. I also canon, were not native Hebrew speakers Noa Peled, an Israeli-born HU student and during the Spring semester, 2004, I Meyrink’s The Golem—I was able to study was able to photograph these reliefs in but ultimately shaped the national litera- who writes in Spanish. And French, I will definitely make use of it in a reading their collection of photographs taken sequence with a digital camera, so as to ture. Their fluency in other languages was later told. course that I intend to take in the during the demolition of the ghetto at the use them for teaching (Hellenistic History, led to considerable contributions in trans- Department of Religion on the Second turn of the century. While there I found I also interviewed a few immigrant writers, CLA/HIS 217) and incorporate them lation; indeed, one of the remarkable Temple and Rabbinical Judaism. additional resources, including documen- some who write in English and others in into future lectures and conference talks. tation surrounding the founding of the literary achievements of the early twentieth Spanish. These interviews focused not Jewish Museum which coincided with the century was the volume of “world classics” only on the experience of immigration 10 11

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and its effect on language and identity, Sobrevivientes de la Shá, (child survivors FACULTY COMMITTEE JUDAIC STUDIES but also on personal observations on of the Holocaust), and Coro Guebirtig ADVISORY COUNCIL Israeli literary culture and its reception (the Guebirtig Chorus which sings in Froma Zeitlin, Director, Program in Judaic Studies, of non-native voices. My interview with Yiddish) to research what past experiences Ewing Professor of Greek Language and Literature, We thank the members of the Program in Judaic Studies Sergio Gerenson, an Argentinian psycho- of violence have meant for everyday life and Professor of Classics and of Comparative Literature Advisory Council, listed below, who graciously serve and analyst, yielded fascinating material for and ritual practices and how these remem- Leora Batnitzky, Associate Professor of Religion, help us in our efforts to improve and grow. future interviews. Gerenson, who is in his brances affect the question of belonging Richard Stockton Preceptor late 50s, began to write fiction in Spanish for Jews in Argentina. My methods were almost from the onset of his arrival in primarily ethnographic, focusing on David Bellos, Professor of French, Comparative Literature Robert Alter, University of California, Berkeley Israel. He spoke at length on the trauma in-depth interviews with members of the Mark Cohen, Professor of Near Eastern Studies of immigration and the difficulty of groups and participating in and observing Mark Biderman ’67 assuming a new national identity, particularly their activities and ceremonies. In addition, Stanley Corngold, Professor of Germanic Languages and Melvin Jules Bukiet, writer, Sarah Lawrence College at his age. I consulted archives for primary materials Literatures, Comparative Literature Joseph Fath, Princeton, NJ relating to the bombing, and filmed key The research I undertook on this trip gave John Gager, William H. Danforth Professor of Religion aspects of my research for future use as Ruth Fath, Princeton, NJ me a strong critical basis for my dissertation. HOLGER ZELLENTIN Anthony Grafton, Henry Putnam University Professor of History, supplementary material to my dissertation. Fanya Gottesfeld-Heller, New York, NY Today in Israel, the ethos of “one nation, The generous funding of the Program in Director, Humanities Council one language” is no longer taken for I continued studying Yiddish at the IWO Judaic Studies contributed to the funding Paula Hyman, Yale University granted yet it continues to shape literary (Jewish Institute for Scientific Investigations), Barbara Hahn, Professor of Germanic Languages and Literature of activities I pursued in Europe: I met Debra G. Perelman ’96 culture. For some time now, scholars and to use in research with materials relating with several European scholars in order to Martha Himmelfarb, Professor of Religion, Chair Ronald O. Perelman, New York, NY writers have been exploring and challenging to the history of the community and discuss my dissertation projects, I attended the old standards and limits of the Israeli Yiddish. I also conducted archival Stanley Katz, Lecturer with rank of Professor of Public and a conference in order to deliver a paper; International Affairs; Faculty Chair, Undergraduate Program; Mark Podwal, artist, New York, NY literary canon, but it is still not clear if research at the AMIA’s Marc Turkow and I finished a seminar paper, thus Director, Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies Emily Rose GS ’01 their inquiries will result in a significant Center for materials relating to the 1994 completing all requirements for my University of Pennsylvania, audience for non-Hebrew writers. bombing, including testimonies, newspaper pre-dissertation work in Princeton. Suzanne Keller, Professor of Sociology David B. Ruderman, My sincerest thanks go to the Program and journal articles, and photos; and con- Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies The conference at which I delivered my Ulrich Knoepflmacher, William and Annie S. Paton Foundation in Judiac Studies for facilitating this ducted research with the oral testimonies Professor of Ancient and Modern Literature, Professor of English James Shapiro, Columbia University opportunity to become part of an at Memoria Abierta for material related paper was the European Association of Biblical Studies’ second annual meeting, Associate Professor of Germanic Languages Philip Wachs ’78 STUDENTS important discussion. to effect of the Dirty War on Argentina’s Thomas Y. Levin, rd th Jewish community. held August 3 – 6 in Copenhagen, and Literatures Ruth Westheimer, New York, NY Denmark. My paper was titled “Exegesis NATASHA ZARETSKY Olga Litvak, Assistant Professor of History Mark Wilf ’84 I also attended a conference on Argentine vs. the Messiah: Rabbinic views on the I spent the summer of 2003 conducting Jewish culture held at the AMIA, and talks Passion and Bar Kokhba.” It was part Barbara Mann, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Studies James Young, University of Massachusetts, Amherst ethnographic research with the Jewish on Jewish identity at the Gino Germani of the conference’s “Early Judaism and University of Southern California community of Buenos Aires, Argentina for Deborah Nord, Professor of English, Women & Gender Studies Bruce Zuckerman ’69, Institute, and academic meetings about Rabbinics” section. The paper was well my dissertation in Anthropology. In 1994, memory at the IDES (Institute of Social received and the discussions that evolved Andrew Plaks, Professor of East Asian Studies, a terrorist bombing destroyed the AMIA and Economic Development). were helpful. I made promising contacts Comparative Literature building (Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid with several scholars. Other conference Society), killing 85 people, wounding In addition to this, I also met with many Theodore Rabb, Professor of History papers were equally interesting for my hundreds, and destroying one of the other members of the community: leaders own research, especially contributions to Anson Rabinbach, Professor of History; Director, Program in principal centers for Jewish life in Argentina. of non-profit organizations, journalists, the study of the Targumim, the early European Cultural Studies (ECS) Many Jews were forced to reevaluate their researchers, young Jewish professionals, Aramaic Bible translations. place in the nation and to reconsider educators, leaders of youth movements, Esther Robbins, Lecturer in Hebrew, Near Eastern Studies and rabbinical students. And, I made participating in Jewish activities. Security Towards the end of the summer, I visited Lawrence Rosen, Professor of Anthropology measures in the community also intensified initial contacts with communities outside Berlin and discussed my dissertation and have ultimately transformed the city’s of Buenos Aires—in Cordoba and Santa projects with scholars, continuing Peter Schäfer, Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Judaic Studies, landscape—they include cement barricades Fe. Finally, I began photographing and an ongoing intellectual exchange. Professor of Religion filming key sites and activities of the in front of every Jewish building which Furthermore, I had a chance to visit the Esther Schor, Professor of English now mark these spaces as separate and groups, to potentially include as supple- much celebrated newly inaugurated different. In the wake of destruction, groups mentary ethnographic film in the future. Jewish Museum. Avrom Udovitch, Khedouri A. Zilkha Professor of Jewish Civilization also formed to remember the victims and in the Near East, Professor of Near Eastern Studies I plan to return to Argentina in late Before returning to Princeton I continued fight for justice as a way to respond to the September 2003 to begin the final phase to Amsterdam and thus to the University violence of that day. of my dissertation research. As I have from which I received most of my previous Sits with Committee: I worked intensively with Memoria Activa already finished the majority of my in-depth education. I made use of the facilities of interviews, I will focus on finishing archival James Diamond, Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature & (Active Memory), Familiares y Amigos the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, but most Near Eastern Studies, Director, Center for Jewish Life The Biderman Family and Dr. Ruth Westheimer. de las Víctimas (Family Members research, continuing participant-observation of all met with former professors of mine 12 and Friends of the Victims), Niños with the groups mentioned above, and in order to evaluate the intended method- 13 filming my work. ology for my dissertation project. (Funding continued from page 11) COMMITTEE SUPPORT

HAVERIM OF JUDAIC STUDIES Our Haverim members include: CULTURE MAVENS: THE JEWS AND he Program in Judiac Studies continues to raise the profile T of Jewish interests at Princeton, offering opportunities for CORNERSTONE: Fanya Gottesfeld Heller THE ARTS IN AMERICA our students, faculty, and the general public to benefit from expo- Ricky and Andrew J. Shechtel sure to the many facets of Jewish life, learning, and experience. In Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish an effort to further this endeavor, our Haverim Communal Fund Please let us know was created with an inaugural reception held FROM THE TEACHING FRONT on Sunday, April 29, 2001 at the home of NEWS if you are willing Joseph and Ruth Fath, Judiac Studies PILLAR: Leslie and Howard Chatzinoff to be a part of Advisory Council members and President Julius Koppelman Harold Shapiro was the guest speaker. On Jenna Weissman Joselit our Haverim March 14, 2002 a second reception was held nce upon a time, Harry Von Tilzer, Irving Berlin, to get an immediate sense of how earlier generations of in the Manhattan home of Mark and Wendy BENEFACTOR: Michael R. Koplik OSophie Tucker, Sid Caesar, Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Billy Americans experienced modernity than by listening to the Biderman in order to establish a New York Haverim. Mark Ernest Rubenstein Fund Rose, Marcus Loew and “Mr. Television” himself, Milton music and radio programs they had listened to and watching Biderman is both a Princeton alumnus, and a member of the Herman M. Schneider Berle, were the reigning kings and queens of American pop- the films and television programs they had watched? Through Judiac Studies Advisory Council, who has supported our Joseph and Ruth Fath ular culture. The sons and daughters of Jewish immigrants the prism of popular culture, teaching the course allows me to endeavors from the very beginning. The success of that evening Seymour and Jaqueline Meisel or, in some instances, recent immi- engage some of the big themes of modern America: accultura- was due in large part to the lovely atmosphere created by the Lisa and Andy Smukler grants themselves, they changed the tion, identity, marginality and belonging.... warmth of their hospitality, but we can also thank Dr. Ruth ...transforming way Americans laughed, danced and We listened to Sophie Tucker belt out her bawdy songs; eaves- Westheimer. Dr. Westheimer, who is also a member of the pursued pleasure.... “The spectacle of Princeton dropped on Molly Goldberg, that “balebuste [housewife] of Judiac Studies Advisory Council, was the guest speaker for the PATRON: Hazel S. Stix Jolson’s vitality had the same quality the airwaves,” conversing with her neighbors, and held our evening. We also featured her at a special event and reception on undergraduates as the impression I got from the New breath—and our ears—as Jack Benny practiced the violin. We March 27, 2003, after her lecture at Princeton. York skyline,” related the esteemed into discerning viewed a wide range of classic films, from The Jazz Singer, the Gilbert Seldes in his classic account Our hope is that this association will help us achieve an even SPONSOR: Richard Abt very first “talkie,” and Mel Brook’s The Producers to Woody’s Charles A. Sarnoff “culture mavens” of cultural criticism, The Seven Lively greater measure of success and increase our visibility on the Allen’s Radio Days, and West Side Story. And we heard from Steve and Maxine Farmer Arts (1924), referring to Al Jolson, University campus, especially, among residents of Princeton and people like McCarter Theatre’s Emily Mann, who spoke about Linda and Arthur Meisel the vaudevillian turned Hollywood SUPPORT New York. Aside from invitations to our many lectures, the history of Broadway, and Henry Sapoznik, creator of Ruth and Bernie Miller star. “One had forgotten that there still existed in the world conferences, and other events, one of which will be organized N.P.R.’s recently broadcast Yiddish Radio Project, who Joyce and Michael Rappeport a force so boundless, an exaltation so high and that anyone specifically for this group, we envision the Haverim as ambassadors discussed the challenges and possibilities of researching the could still storm Heaven with laughter and tears.” of a sort, who can spread the word about our initiatives and history of ethnic radio. accomplishments, be an advocate for our needs, and finally, help Taking my cue from Seldes’s observation, I developed a brand FRIEND: Genesia Perlmutter Kamen The course was designed to coincide with the opening, last us financially, where possible, to further our goals. new course called “Culture Mavens: American Jews and the February, of a major exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Performing Arts,” which introduces students of the 21st century New York. Entitled “Entertaining America: Jews, Movies and to some of the larger-than-life but now forgotten performers of Broadcasting,” it was organized by J. Hoberman and Jeffrey the 20th. It traces the development of American popular culture, Shandler. (A catalogue, bearing the same name, was published from vaudeville in the 1880s and 1890s to Hollywood of the by Princeton University Press.) The exhibition not only offered 1920s; from the heyday of radio, that most democratic of public a great opportunity for a field trip as well as a special behind- We hope that we can count on support from many more readers arts, to the emergence of television in the postwar era. of this Newsletter and their friends. Please let us know if you are the-scenes tour with the curators but also enabled the students willing to be a part of our Haverim, at whatever level, by con- As a big fan of popular culture and a devotee of the perform- to put their new-found knowledge to immediate use. ing arts whose ups and downs I follow with the same degree of tacting Marcie Citron at 258-0394 or [email protected]. Through it all, this course—which will be offered again this We look forward to hearing from you. passion that others lavish on baseball, I was prompted to devel- spring—aspires to live up to its name by transforming op “Culture Mavens” out of concern lest the cultural capital of Princeton undergraduates into discerning “culture mavens,” the contemporary undergraduate be limited to Seinfeld and the at home in the byways of popular culture. Al Jolson and Sophie Simpsons... Context is everything, especially when it comes to Tucker may never take the place of the performers currently in pop culture. favor among contemporary undergraduates. Still, I’d like to As an historian of American daily life, I am also drawn to think that my students’ encounter, with earlier generations of exploring those social forces, from Seventh Avenue to stars and older forms of entertainment, may have expanded Hollywood, which profoundly affected the ways Americans their capacity for wonder, delight, and, as Gilbert Seldes would went about their day-to-day lives. What better way, then, have it, even exaltation. Who could ask for anything more?

14 15 FACULTY

14 15 RESEARCH AND NEWS 2003

LEORA BATNITZKY, Associate he is currently writing a study of Romain In fall 2003 he will be the Hooker Renaissance Europe, which includes a STANLEY KATZ, Lecturer with Professor of Religion, was promoted to Gary (1914-80), a French novelist, film Distinguished Visiting Scholar at McMaster close look at Christian versions of the rank of Professor in Public and Associate Professor with tenure this past director, and diplomat of Litvak origin, University and will spend Spring 2004 at Kabbalah. In fall 2002 he was awarded International Affairs, Faculty Chair of the spring. The author of Idolatry and who twice won the Prix Goncourt the Internationales Forschungszentrum the internationally prestigious Balzan Woodrow Wilson School Undergraduate Representation: The Philosophy of Franz (once under the name of Gary — itself Kulturwissenschaften in Vienna working Prize (Switzerland), in the field of the Program, Director of the Princeton Rosenzweig Reconsidered (Princeton, a pseudonym— and the other under a on Nietzsche and Karl Kraus. He has History of the Humanities. It carries a University Center for Arts and Cultural 2000), she is just completing a new book, different name). recently published essays on skepticism in stipend of 1,000,000 Swiss Francs. Policy Studies, and Past-President of the Reason and Revelation: Leo Strauss, Kafka, tropes in Stendhal, a pochoir of Center for Jewish Life. Together with MARK COHEN, Professor of Near BARBARA HAHN, Professor of Emmanuel Levinas, and the Possibility of Matisse and a sculpture of Bruno Freddi. Benny Gidron of Ben-Gurion University, Eastern Studies, specializes in Jewish German, was on leave 2002-03. She Modern Rationalism. She also continues He has two new projects: to translate and he recently published a book, Mobilizing history in the medieval Islamic world and recently published Die Jüdin Pallas her work as one of the editors of the edit the Norton Critical Edition of selected For Peace, on the role of nongovernmental in the documents from the Cairo Geniza. Athene. Auch eine Theorie der Moderne OLGA LITVAK, Assistant Professor 21-volume Martin Buber — Werkausgabe stories of Franz Kafka and finish a book of organizations in the peace processes in His most recent book, Under Crescent with Berlin Verlag, Berlin (March, 2002). of History, was on leave 2002-03 as the (of which Peter Schäfer is an editor-in-chief). linked essays entitled The Will to Art: or, Northern Ireland, Israel and South Africa and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages An English translation is forthcoming Philip and Beulah Rollins Bicentennial This past year she presented papers at the the Aesthetic Ideology. (Oxford University Press, 2002). In Israel, (1994), has appeared in Turkish and from Princeton University Press in Preceptorship. She is completing a book Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, the the research team was led by Tamar Hebrew translations. He completed a JOHN GAGER, is the Danforth 2004. The book traces the history of entitled Military Conscription and the annual meeting of the Association for Hermann of the Tami Steinmetz Center two-volume project on poverty and charity Professor of Religion. His scholarly German-Jewish intellectual women from Making of Russian-Jewish Memory. Her Jewish Studies, Yale University, the for Peace in Tel Aviv. in the Jewish community of medieval Egypt concerns are the religions of the Roman the middle of the 18th century until the work conceptualizes the interface between University of California at Los Angeles, while a Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg Empire, especially early Christianity, and period after 1945, studying such figures ULRICH C. KNOEPFLMACHER, literature and history in the service of a and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. in Berlin in 2002-2003. These books will relations between Jews and Christians in as Rahel Levin Varnhagen, Rosa Professor of English and Paton deeper and more complex understanding In the coming year, she will present papers be published by Princeton University Press. the early centuries of the common era. Luxeumburg, Else Lasker-Schüler, Foundation Professor of Ancient and of the formation of a modern Russian at Brandeis University, Stanford University, While on leave, he lectured in Berlin, He is the author of Moses in Greco-Roman Margarete Susman, and Hannah Arendt. Modern Literature, specializes in Romantic Jewish identity. Based on close examina- as well as at two international conferences th Budapest, and Granada. Paganism; Kingdom and Community: Tracing the history of the ‘mothers’ of and Victorian literature as well as children’s tion of 19 -century primary texts written in Germany. In 2003-2004, Batnitzky’s The Social World of Early Christianity; The the first generation of acculturated Jewish literature. He recently published the in Russian, Hebrew, and Yiddish, her forthcoming publications include the In 2001-2002 he was recipient of a project Origins of Anti-Semitism; Curse Tablets women, who still lived in a traditional Penguin editions of The Complete Fairy study aims to construct a very different articles “Spinoza’s Critique of Miracles grant from the Center for the Study of and Binding Spells from the Ancient World; world, she explores the history of their Tales of George MacDonald and Frances picture of the uses of conscription stories, and its Implications for his View of Law” Religion for his research on poverty and which told and retold of the hardships

ACULTY and Reinventing Paul. ‘daughters’ who paid a high price for their Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess, in Cardozo Law Review, “Renewing the charity and in May 2002 directed a defection. Currently, she is completing the and is currently writing a memoir called suffered by Jews forced into the czar’s F Jewish Past: Buber on History and Truth,” conference on “Poverty and Charity: ANTHONY GRAFTON, Henry third volume of Rahel Levin Varnhagen’s “Oruro: Growing Up Jewish in the Andes” armies. Instead of a single, unified line of in Jewish Studies Quarterly, “Encountering Judaism, Christianity, Islam” sponsored Putnam University Professor and Chair of unpublished correspondences and an about his life as a refugee child in South interpretation, Litvak both emphasizes the Modern Subject in Levinas” in Yale by CSR. He is now editing the conference the Council on the Humanities, works on edition of the letters of Ludwig Boerne, America. Together with Professor Claudia the competing voices of these different French Studies, as well as essays (“Jewish proceedings for possible publication. European intellectual history. His special Eduard Gans, Rahel Levin and Karl Johnson, he has devised and taught courses narratives and the broad range of their Philosophy after Metaphysics” and Cohen has just been elected to the interests lie in the history of the classical August Varnhagen. She is also writing a on the intersection of Englishness and various influences in both Jewish and “Dependency and Vulnerability: Jewish prestigious American Academy for tradition, chiefly during the Renaissance, book on constellations of theoretical Jewishness in British literature, most Russian circles. In spring 2003, she was and Feminist Existentialist Constructions Jewish Research. in the history of science and scholarship, writing in the early 20th century (Martin recently in spring 2002. a fellow at the Center for Advanced Judaic of the Human”) in the edited collections and in the history of books and readers. STANLEY CORNGOLD, Professor of Buber, Max Weber, Marc Bloch, Georg Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Religion after Metaphysics and Women and Author of Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the THOMAS Y. LEVIN, Associate Germanic Languages and Literature, Lukacs etc.), Wege nicht Werke. Theoretisches Recent talks at conferences includes Gender in Jewish Philosophy respectively. History of Classical Scholarship, vol. 2: Professor of Germanic Languages and was presented with a Festschrift entitled Schreiben im frühen 20. Jahrhundert. In “An-ski and the Invention of Yiddishland” Batnitzky was awarded one of Princeton’s (1993); Commerce with the Classics Literatures and Director of Graduate Literary Paternity, Literary Friendship May 2002, she was one of the first (Berkeley), “Literature and History in the President’s Awards for Distinguished (1997); The Footnote: A Curious History Studies, teaches courses that range from (University of North Carolina Press, recipients of Princeton’s new Graduate Study of Russian Jewry (Penn), and Teaching in 2002 and was named (1997); Cardano’s Cosmos (1999); and the history of aesthetic theory and 2002). His new book on Franz Kafka, Mentoring Award 2002, which gives “Martyrs for the Empire: Russia’s First Laurence S. Rockefeller Preceptor for the Leon Battista Alberti: Master Builder of the Frankfurt School cultural theory to the Lambent Traces: Franz Kafka, is special recognition to professors for their Jewish Soldiers” (YIVO). In the coming University Center for Human Values in Italian Renaissance (2000). He takes a history and theory of media (Weimar forthcoming from Princeton University outstanding work with graduate students. year she will give a lecture entitled, “The strong interest in the ways that Christian cinema, rhetoric of new media, archae- 2001 and the Richard Stockton Press in Spring 2004. He recently lectured Russian Jew as Reluctant Bourgeois” thinkers interpreted and appropriated MARTHA HIMMELFARB, ologies of vision). A former fellow at the Bicentennial Preceptor in 2000. An at Symphony Space in New York, the (Maryland) and will participate in a panel Jewish magical practices and exegetical Professor of Religion and Chair of the Internationales Forschungszentrum indispensable member of the Program University of North Carolina, NYU, about Jewish St Petersburg at a conference techniques; in 1999-2000 he was a Department of Religion, was on leave Kulturwissenschaften (Vienna) and at the th in Judaic Studies, she is also a faculty Yale, Western Ontario, Notre Dame, marking the 300 anniversary of the city member of a research group studying 2002-03. She is currently completing a Institute for Advanced Study (Budapest), associate of the Center for Human Values, Copenhagen, and Cambridge on topics (Hofstra). Returning to active teaching in Christian Hebraism at the Center for book titled, ‘A Kingdom of Priests’: Levin has recently published a study of the the Program in Law and Public Affairs including aberrations of metaphor in spring 2004, she is currently developing a Advanced Judaic Studies of the University Priesthood and Purity in the Second Temple origins of synthetic sound in the late as well as of the Center for the Study Kafka’s Metamorphosis; bureaucracy and course on the Jewish Enlightenment and of Pennsylvania, and hopes to join the Period and has begun work on a book 1920’s, and is currently completing a of Religion. literary destiny in The Castle; visual and another in European history as part of Center again, for a year devoted to the about apocalypses for Blackwell’s Brief small book on the work of Guy Debord DAVID BELLOS, Professor of rhetorical distortion in Kafka, Goethe, and Princeton’s Sophomore Initiative program. Jewish book. One of his current research History series. and the Situationist International. French Languages and Literatures, was on Benjamin; the aesthetics of bookkeeping projects is a study of learned magic in leave in 2002-03. A specialist in literary in the modernist novel; and hero and biographies (Georges Perec; Jacques Tati), heroism in German Great War literature. (Faculty continued next page) 16 17 RESEARCH AND NEWS 2003

BARBARA MANN, Assistant Professor ANSON RABINBACH, Professor ABRAHAM L. UDOVITCH, of Near Eastern Studies, and recipient of of History and Director of the Program Khedouri A. Zilkha Professor of a Bicentennial Preceptorship, was on leave in European Cultural Studies, specializes Jewish Civilization in the Near East, 2002-03 and again in fall 2003. She th Department of Near Eastern Studies, in 20 century European history, with ADJUNCT FACULTY specializes in modern Hebrew literature an emphasis on German intellectual histo- he is co-editor of the journal, Studia and contemporary Israeli culture, but ry. He teaches courses on European intel- Islamica and a member of the Executive teaches Jewish literature more broadly and lectuals, fascism, and the history of technol- Committee of the Encyclopaedia of Islam. JAMES S. DIAMOND, Lecturer in in comparative contexts. Her interdisciplinary ogy. Rabinbach is the author of The Crisis He is also on the World Executive the departments of Religion, Near study A Place in History: Modernism, Tel of Austrian Socialism (1983); The Human Committee of the International Center Eastern Studies, and Comparative Aviv and the Creation of Jewish Urban Motor (1990); and In the Shadow of for Peace in the Middle East. He is a Literature and Director of the Center VISITORS Space will be published by Stanford Catastrophe: German Intellectuals Between member of the Board of Overseers of for Jewish Life, regularly offers courses 2002-2003 University Press. She has also published Apocalypse and Enlightenment (1997); Koc University in Istanbul. His current for the Program. He is currently teaching SUSANNAH HESCHEL, Eli articles on visuality and Jewish identity, and is also the co-editor of New German Perelman Professor Peter Schäfer research centers on a study of the social “Masterworks of Hebrew Literature” th Black Associate Professor of Jewish most recently “Picturing Anna Margolin: Critique. He is currently co-editing The and economic life of the 11 century in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, Department of Religion at Yiddish Poetry and Idolatry,” Modern Nazi Culture Sourcebook (with Sander Mediterranean world based on a collec- Studies for the second time and in Dartmouth College, and Chair, Program Language Quarterly 63:4 (December Gilman). In Spring 2003 he organized an by Judaic Studies at Princeton:The Talmud tionof about 500 Geniza documents Spring 2004 will teach “A Literary Tour in Jewish Studies, offered two courses in 2002). During her recent leave she international conference at Princeton on Yerushalmi and Graeco-Roman Culture relating to the career of a merchant by of the Middle East: Arab and Israeli fall 2002: “Modern Jewish History: lectured at the University of Florida, the Humanities under Nazi Germany, III (2002); The Bar Kokhba War the name of Nahray ben Nissim. He is Short Stories.” He served as a Resource 1750-Present” (History) and “Gender, Gainesville, and Stanford University, and with publication of the papers expected Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the also working on a short monograph on Scholar at the 2003 Coolidge Colloquium th the Body, and Sexuality in Judaism from was a Visiting Professor at the Jewish next year. Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (2003), rural society in 11 century Egypt as in New York City in July, sponsored Theological Seminary in New York and The Ways that Never Parted: Jews and reflected in the Geniza documents. His by the Association for Religion & the Bible to Contemporary America” (summer 2003). Her current research LAWRENCE ROSEN, W.N. Christians in Late Antiquity and the other projects include one on intercom- Intellectual Life and Cross Currents. (Women and Gender Studies). Cromwell Professor of Anthropology. project concerns the relation between Early Middle Ages, Adam H. Becker and munal relations in the medieval Near East RACHEL ELIOR, Professor of His book, The Justice of Islam, was JENNA WEISSMAN JOSELIT, photography and Jewish memoir. Annette Yoshiko Reed, eds (2003). In fall and another in the field of Islamic law. Religion at Hebrew University, offered a published by Oxford in 2000, and The noted historian, author, and curator, 2002, work was started on an ambitious course, under the auspices of the DEBORAH NORD, Professor of Culture of Islam, was published in 2002 FROMA ZEITLIN, Director of the specializes in the study of material cul- long-term collaborative project under his Department of Religion in spring 2003, ACULTY English. With fellowship support from by the University of Chicago Press. Both Program in Judaic Studies is the Charles ture and its relationship to daily life. the American Council of Learned guidance: an edition, translation, and Ewing Professor of Greek Language and on the history of mysticism from its ori- F As a Visiting Professor, she regularly books contain discussions of Muslim- commentary on Sefer Hasidim, an impor- Societies, she will be spending the Literature (in the Classics Department) teaches courses at Princeton in such gins to Kabbalah, and gave a series of lec- Jewish relations in North Africa. He is tant pietist text of the medieval period. 2003-04 academic year on leave to and Professor of Comparative Literature. varied programs as Freshman Seminars, tures on the Dead Sea Scrolls. presently completing a book entitled Schäfer continues as editor of the Jewish work on her book, Myths of Origin: She is on leave this year at the Institute American Studies and, most particularly, RUTH WESTHEIMER (DR. Drawn From Memory that explores the Studies Quarterly, with offices now Gypsies and the Nineteenth-Century British for Advanced Studies in Princeton, but Judaic Studies in collaboration with RUTH), a member of our Advisory lives of four North Africans, both Muslim transferred to Princeton. Imagination. In June 2002 she attended and Jewish. He also retains an appoint- will continue to direct the Program the Department of History. She has Council, taught a course on “The Family “Virginia Woolf Across Cultures,” an ment as an Adjunct Professor of Law at ESTHER SCHOR, Professor of (with help from the committee) in order offered seminars on “The Making of in Jewish Tradition,” co-sponsored with the international conference in Moscow and Columbia Law School. English, is working on a biography of to supervise the move to our new quarters Americans: Material Culture and the program in Women and Gender Studies. delivered a paper on “Orlando, A Room Emma Lazarus for Schocken’s Jewish at the end of the calendar year. In addition Immigrant Experience,” “The Exhibition YARON PELEG, Assistant Professor of One’s Own,” and the idea of androgyny. PETER SCHÄFER, Perelman Professor Lives series. Her latest book is a volume to her recent publications in Classics, in Modern and Postmodern Culture,” at George Washington University, special- In October 2003 she will speak at the of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religion of poems, The Hills of Holland, pub- her essay entitled “New Soundings in “Getting Dressed” and on different izes in Hebrew language and literature Humanities Institute at SUNY Stony returns to Princeton after a year of leave lished by Archer Books (www.archer- Holocaust Literature: A Surfeit of aspects of modern Jewish history. In and contemporary Israeli culture and film. Brook in a series on the representation of as a full-time member of the faculty. His books.com). She is editor of the forth- Memory,” just appeared in a collective spring 2003, she introduced a new He is the author of two forthcoming Gypsies in European culture. new book, Mirror of His Beauty: Feminine coming Cambridge Companion to Mary volume, Catastrophe and Meaning, eds. course, “Culture Mavens: American books, a study of Orientalism and the Images of God From the Bible to the Early Shelley and a Longman Cultural Edition of Moishe Postone and Eric Santner Jews and the Performing Arts,” which THEODORE K. RABB, Professor Jewish imagination, 1890-1930, and a criti- Kabbalah, was published by Princeton plays about Italy by P. B. Shelley and (University of Chicago Press 2003). will be offered again in the spring of of History, has written on various aspects cal anthology of homoeroticism in mod- University Press (2002). Together with Byron. Her teaching for the Program This past summer she participated in 2004. She is currently teaching of the relationship between Jewish and ern Hebrew literature, 1880-2000. In William Jordan (History), he edits a series includes “The Bible as Literature,” an Eastern European Seminar to Poland “Modern Jewish History and the general history in early modern Europe, addition, he is co-author of the forth- for the Press entitled Jews, Christians, and “Introduction to Jewish Studies,” and a and Ukraine under the auspices of the Urban Experience.” A frequent and taught a pioneering course on this coming Brandeis Modern Hebrew Moslems From the Ancient to the Medieval new course slated for the near future on Holocaust Education Foundation and contributor to The New Republic and subject at Princeton with Mark Cohen Textbook. In Spring 2003, he taught World. Five books have already been Yiddish Literature and Culture. journeyed to Lithuania and Latvia in a columnist for the Forward, Joselit and Natalie Davis. He serves on the Board “Israeli Culture Through Film.” This was published in this series, with many more search of pre-war and contemporary is currently working on a new book of Governors of the Hebrew University the first course on Israeli culture to be to come. Schäfer also edits another series Jewish life. about an early 20th-century scandal at of Jerusalem, and is a member and former offered at Princeton. “Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism” the Louvre. chair of the Academic Advisory Committee and the three most recent volumes are for the Hebrew University’s Rothberg derived from three conferences sponsored School for Overseas Students.

18 (Faculty continued next page) 19 (Faculty continued from page 17)

18 (Faculty continued next page) 19 (Faculty continued from page 19) DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (continued from page 1)

VISITORS HEADLINES ON THE between reason and revelation, have won 2003-2004 FACULTY FRONT: her high accolades in the field as on the campus. An active member of the EDNA AIZENBERG A world-renowned Borges scholar, Here are a few headlines in advance. Princeton community, she is also affiliated Prof. Aizenberg has been an activist for human rights in Peter Schäfer, the Ronald O. Perelman with the Center for Human Values and Latin America and an advocate for multiculturalism in Latin Professor of Judaic Studies, returns to will share editing responsibility for the American Studies. She is Professor and Chair of Hispanic Studies Jewish Studies Quarterly with Peter Schäfer. Princeton after a year’s leave at the and nationwide, is to provide exciting and thoughtfulness. The Program in Judaic at Marymount Manhattan College and Adjunct Professor of Jewish We offer her our congratulations and Historisches Kolleg in Munich. Appointed stimulating events for audiences, both Studies looks forward to working closely Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. look forward to many years of still more to his chair in 1997, he now finally joins academic and general. Many of these with her. She is currently teaching “From Pale to Pampas: Jews and fruitful collaboration. our faculty on a full-time basis. Previously, we initiate on our own or are invited to Judaism in Latin American Literature,” (Comparative Literature). While we are very gratified by our progress he was obliged to share his time with the The Department of History co-sponsor. I don't think there is another Jan Gross. over these last years, there are many initia- DAN RABINOWITZ, an anthropologist, is Senior Lecturer Institut für Judaistik at the Frei Universität has appointed Jan T. Gross as Norman B. program or department in other institu- tives we wish we could undertake. At at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel-Aviv in Berlin, which he founded and directed Tomlinson ’16 and ’48 Professor of War tions, which offers as rich a schedule of present, we have several endowments University. His academic research areas include The Palestinian for many years. Needless to say, we are and Society, who will formally take up his events as we do. We aim for variety of earmarked for named lectures and other citizens of Israel, Nationalism, Ethnicity; social aspects of environ- delighted at this development. In addition position in 2004-05. This is a wonderful topics, ranging from ancient to modern, events, although we must count on mental issues and demographic projections in ethnically divided to his courses on Rabbinics, Kabbalah, development for our Program as well. from politics to literature, and we are keen assistance from other departments and states and regions. A regular contributor to the op-ed page of and other topics, he brings with him the Professor Gross, who received his Ph. D to invite distinguished speakers to campus. programs and other sources on campus. Haaretz, he is a leading commentator on politics, environmental prestigious Jewish Studies Quarterly and he from Yale, is a major figure in the histori- These events are generally open to the We would like to extend support for these issues and society in Israel and the Middle East. He was President has a number of projects either in process ography of the Holocaust and Eastern public, who fill our seats with admirable activities. Even more pressing, we would of the Israeli Anthropological Association 1998-2001, and is or planned for the future. With his now Europe. He is the author of several path- zeal and regularity. In this way, we like to add more permanent faculty to our a Founding Member of PALISAD—a group of Palestinian and permanent residence, we expect to make breaking books including Polish Society contribute to the community, gain welcome roster in a number of fields, provide for Israeli academics involved in on-going exchange and intellectual the Perelman Institute a thriving center of under German Occupation 1939-1944 visibility, and build bridges between invitations to distinguished visiting faculty debate since 1998. He is teaching “Minorities in Contemporary research and learning. In the fall term he (1979), Revolution from Abroad: Soviet generations. To this end, we organize film on a regular basis, and procure funds for Israel and the Middle East,” (Near Eastern Studies). teaches once again his popular course on Conquest of Poland, Western Ukraine and series, lecture series, symposia, conferences, several post-doctoral fellowships. These the Golem, which explores the Jewish Western Belorussia (1988), and most and individual events. The Program YISRAEL JACOB YUVAL, a scholar of medieval Jewish- fellows would have some teaching respon-

ACULTY notion of an artificial human being, from recently, Neighbors: Destruction of the regularly hosts Israeli visitors (journalists, Christian relations at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, writes sibilities and would add significantly to its beginnings in the Hebrew Bible, Jewish Community of Jedwabne (2001). writers, poets, political analysts, and F about the continuous interchange between Judaism and our intellectual community. All of these through its manifestations in mysticism A painstaking and judicious reconstruction performers), especially through the zeal Christianity. He is the author of Scholars in Their Time: The ambitions, of course, take more funds than and magic, in fiction, film and on stage, of a massacre of Jews by their Polish of our Hebrew lecturer, . Religious Leadership of German Jewry in the Late Middle Ages Esther Robbins we have at present. While our endowment and, of course, in the history of science neighbors in the town of Jedwabne 1941, You will read further details below on the (1989) and Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and has been substantially increased over the and technology (computer, internet). Neighbors became a cause cél`ebre in year’s activities (2002-03). Christians (2000). Yuval will be a Stewart Fellow for the Council last two years, and the University has again The timeliness of this topic in the light of Poland. It provoked a national debate of the Humanities in Religion in the spring and will team put us on the priority list (no small modern debates on bioethics is self-evi- on Poland’s wartime record and brought teach a course “Christianity and the Rabbis in Late THE BIG PICTURE: The year achievement!), we are eager to seek further dent. We also note, however, that just two about a government commission of Antiquity” with Peter Schäfer. 2002-03 was a year of transition. A new assistance from our friends and alumni— years ago, Michael Chabon’s brilliant investigation. After much detailed scrutiny, administration was taking hold and put- in the way of advice, suggestions, and novel, The Amazing Adventures of Gross’s findings were confirmed. As a ting its own stamp on the University, its more….. So please don’t hesitate to Kavalier and Clay, in which the Golem of result, a monument to the victims was values and priorities, for the present and contact us. Prague plays an important part, won the dedicated in the summer of 2002. Gross the future. A few years hence the student Pulitzer Prize for fiction. (A highly rec- will be teaching a variety of courses on Aside from our conviction that Judaic body will increase by about 10%, a total ommended read, if you haven’t already World War II, Eastern Europe, and the Studies at Princeton should be an impor- of 500 new students overall. This enlarge- done so). Holocaust. He will also join the faculty tant element of the University’s mission, ment of our student population is a committee of Judaic Studies. Needless I believe that at the current time, the Leora Batnitzky, Department of development that many of us have wished to say, we are very excited at this turn of urgency is more pronounced than ever. Religion, begins this year as a tenured for over the last years, since it will give events, which augurs well for a still more It is no secret that these are difficult times member of the faculty as an associate new opportunities for recruitment and prominent presence in the Department in the political arena, with a great deal of professor. Winner of one of the four will broaden the outreach to students, The design of our logo represents the traditional of History. tension, controversy, and at times, even a prestigious University awards for out- whose interests and accomplishments, it is Jewish symbol of the seven-branched Menorah, sense of embattlement. The one certain standing teaching, which we mentioned hoped, will highlight academic excellence, flanked by Princeton tigers. The Hebrew words, way to go is through education. The riches last year in these pages, she renders We take a good deal of pride intellectual adventurousness, and inde- “strong as a tiger,” heads the list of attributes in EVENTS: of Jewish culture and civilization over the invaluable service to the Program with her in the variety and extent of our program- pendent creativity to an even greater a famous line from Pirkei Avot (Sayings of Our centuries make for exciting learning in a expertise in modern Jewish thought. Her ming. As a relatively new Program, still in degree. We are eager to work with our Fathers), 5.23. congenial and respectful environment. If work on Rosenzweig, Levinas, Strauss, the process of growth and development, new admissions director, Janet Rapelye ever there was a time when historical and Buber (to name her primary scholarly one of the surest ways we know to raise (from Wellesley). In a very brief time she perspective and informed knowledge were interests) and her investigations of the our profile on campus, in the community, has won accolades for her accessibility and needed, it is now. relations between religion and law, as 20 21 (Faculty continued from page 19) DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (continued from page 1)

King David Drummers Eskesta Dancers Arnost Lustig and Froma Zeitlin David Menashri Meir Litvak

LECTURES AND EVENTS HUMANITIES COUNCIL SHORT-TERM LECTURE SERIES: Israel and the Middle East France (1306)”; Patricia Woods, University of Florida, 2002-2003 VISITORS: There were two short-term Humanities Council There were two lecture series during 2002-03, consisting of well “Courting the Court: A Small Women’s Movement, the Judicial visitors in 2002-03. In October, Tom Segev, Hebrew University, known experts, that focused on Israel in the Arab world. These Community, and the Battle for the Soul of the Jewish State”; noted journalist, came under the auspices of the Department of events were extremely well attended. Binny Friedman, “Inside the Cauldron: A Survivor’s Account of FILMS: The weekly showings of Holocaust films in the fall History. He presented three lectures: “Israel’s New Historians,” the Jerusalem Sbarro’s Pizzeria Bombing”; Steven Zipperstein, Israel—Palestine Peace Process: What Went Wrong and Can semester (required for the course, COM 349, “Texts and Images “Palestine under the British Mandate, from Balfour to Sharon,” Stanford University, “Past Revisited? Historical Reflections on it be Righted? A six-part series (fall 2002), sponsored by the of the Holocaust,” but open to the public) included the following: and “Israel and the Holocaust.” In April Jack Kugelmass, Contemporary Antisemitism”; Arnost Lustig, American Program in Near Eastern Studies, Center for Regional Studies, “The Shop on Main Street,” “The Boat is Full,” “Life is Arizona State University, an anthropologist of Jewish culture, University, “Tales from a Scholar, Screenwriter, Storyteller, the Global Issues Forum, the Center for International Studies Beautiful,” “Trial of Adolf Eichmann” and “Der Ewige Jude,” offered two lectures: “You Too Can Be a Jew: ‘How to’ Books Survivor”; Jeffrey Shandler, Rutgers University, “At Home on and the Institute for the Transregional Study of the “Schindler’s List,” “Europa, Europa,” “Revolt of Job,” “The and the Secret Language of American Jews,” and “Rediscovering the Small Screen: American Jews and 1950’s Television”; Nike Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. Fighter,” “Sunshine,” “Divided We Fall,” “Enemies, A Love Eastern Europe: The Construction and Reconstruction of Wagner, University of Vienna, “The Political Dreams of Theodor Story,” and “Because of That War.” Also in the fall, a special Memory in the Famed Old Jewish Quarter of Krakow.” He Dr. Khalil Shikaki, Director of the Palestinian Center for Herzl”; Renata Segre, “The Shoah in Italy: Current Trends and screening of the Israeli film “Local Angel,” was introduced and also paid a class visit to Jenna Joselit’s course, “Culture Mavens: Policy and Survey Research, Professor of Political Science at Research”; and visiting professor Rachel Elior, “The Mystery of discussed by the director, Udi Aloni. In the spring we sponsored American Jews and the Arts” and he concluded his visit with a Birzeit University: “The Blessed Peace Versus the Cursed the Dead Sea Scrolls: Who wrote them? Who wanted them to an Israeli film series in conjunction with the course in Near lunch talk for the Department of Anthropology, entitled “Sifting Peace in the Palestinian – Israeli Conflict” be forgotten? When and why?” “Solar Calendar and the Lunar Eastern Studies, entitled “Israeli Culture Through Film.” the Ruins: Yiddish Travelogue to Poland Immediately After Calendar in Jewish History in Late Antiquity,” and “Priests and Another series of films was also shown in the spring to accompany World War II.” Dr. Matti Steinberg, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Sages in Early Jewish Mysticism.” Our additional speakers in Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s course “The Family in Jewish Tradition.” Israeli expert on the Palestinian issue: “Between Ending, April were Steven Aschheim, Hebrew University, “Theatricality, COLLOQUIUM.“Monotheism and Its Others: Jews, Christians Finally two documentaries were presented to commemorate Managing, and Escalating the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: Identity and the Modern Jewish Experience”; Yehouda and Muslims Imagining Each Other” This colloquium, which Yom HaShoah, “The Children of Chabannes,” with director the Desirable and the Inevitable” Shenhav, Tel-Aviv University, “The Cloak, the Cage and the took place in October, was organized by Leora Batnitzky, Lisa Gossels, and “Paragraph 175,” on the treatment of Fog of Sanctity: The Role of Religion in the “Discovery” of Religion, and Susannah Heschel, Visiting Professor from Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, President, Al-Quds University, homosexuals under the Nazis, co-sponsored with LBGT. Arab-Jews by the Zionist Movement”; Robert Chazan, New Dartmouth College. The mission of the colloquium read as fol- PLO Commissioner for Jerusalem Affairs: “Cross-National York University, “Violence and Sex: Jewish Polemic Imagery of ISRAELI CULTURAL SERIES: An Israeli Cultural lows: The fact that the three “monotheisms” share overlap- Coalitions for Peace: Are They Still Possible in Medieval Christendom”; Gabriella Safran, Stanford University, Series was an ongoing project throughout the year. It was coor- ping texts and stories points as much to the tensions between Israel-Palestine?” “Martyrdom and Revenge: S. An-sky on Terror and the Jewish dinated by Hebrew lecturer Esther Robbins and proved a great these traditions as it does to their similarities. Judaism, Response to Violence”; Roslyn Weiss, Lehigh University, success. The events included a performance by the Eskesta Dance Christianity, and Islam all claim to be God’s chosen and to repre- Ami Ayalon, President Netafim Corp, former Commander “Maimonides on Prophecy and Cosmogony”; and Hanno Theater, an Ethiopian Israeli dance troupe from the University of sent “true monotheism.” How does each tradition then imagine of the Israeli Navy and former Head of Israel’s Internal Loewy, Rutgers University Scholar in Residence, “Judgement Haifa; a video presentation by Princeton University’s Ze’eva the other two monotheisms? From different methodological Intelligence Service: “Israelis and Palestinians—Where Should We Go From Here?” in Twilight: The Holocaust in Courtroom Films.” The year of EVENTS Cohen, “Israeli Dance;” “A Tribute To The Famous Israeli perspectives—history, philosophy, theology, and ethics—this events closed on May 1 with a lecture co-sponsored with the Playwright Hanoch Levin” (in Hebrew), by Shimon Mimran; a colloquium began a conversation about this question. Paula Nabil Shaath, Minister of Planning, International Woodrow Wilson School featuring Tamar Hermann, Director, screening of “Kastner Trial,” followed by a presentation by the Fredriksen, Boston University, delivered the keynote address on Cooperation for the Palestinian Authority: “Israel —Palestine Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv University director, Motti Lerner; a screening of the film “Beyond the Thursday evening: “Gods and Their Humans: Jews and Gentiles Peace Process: What Went Wrong and Can it be Righted?” and Chairperson of the Department of Sociology and Political Walls,” with a presentation by the writer and director Eran Preis. in the Ancient Mediterranean City.” The following papers and Science, The Open University of Israel. She addressed “Neither The Israeli actor, Moshe Ibgi, spoke on “Life of an Israeli Actor;” responses were presented and discussed on Friday: Susannah Yossi Beilin, former Minister of Justice and architect of the Dove Nor Hawks: The Reshuffling of Israeli Public Opinion on and the academic year ended with a performance by the King Heschel, Dartmouth College, “The Aryan Jesus: German Oslo Accord: “Israel and the Palestinians on a Crossroad to the Middle East Conflict 2000-2003.” David Drummers. Christians Reply to Jews and Nazis” with Eugene Rogers, the Road Map.” University of Virginia, as respondent; John Gager, Princeton, BIDERMAN LECTURE: Dr. Ruth Westheimer presented ISRAELI WOMEN WRITERS: THE NEW Politics and Conflict: Israel and Her Neighbors, th GENERATION: A fall series of talks showcasing Israeli “In Search of a Jewish Paul” with Eric Gregory, Princeton, as the 5 Annual Biderman Lecture to an overflow audience: Her respondent; and Michael Cook, Princeton University, “Islam and (spring 2003:) This series, co-sponsored with the Woodrow topic was “Sexually Speaking: Recent Trends in Knowledge, women writers drew large audiences. Featured were the following: Wilson School and the Program in Near Eastern Studies was Karen Alkalay-Gut, who teaches poetry at Tel Aviv University; Supersessionism” with John Kelsay, Florida State University, Attitude, and Practice.” The well-known sex therapist and respondent. The colloquium closed with a Round Table discus- coordinated with the Israeli Consulate in New York and featured devoted supporter of our Program, entranced her listeners with Savyon Liebrecht, author of novels, stories, television scripts and three Israeli political scientists from Tel Aviv University. plays. She has published a half dozen works of fiction, received sion led by Paula Fredriksen and Susannah Heschel. This collo- her combination of wit and wisdom. An adjunct professor at the Alterman Award for her first short story collection Apples for quium was sponsored by the Jeannette Krieger and Herman Meir Litvak, Tel Aviv University, lectured on “The N.Y.U. and a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, she the Desert, and has twice been awarded the Prime Minister’s D. Mytelka Memorial Lecture on Jewish Civilization Fund. Islamization of the Arab-Israeli Conflict.” lectures at universities across the country and twice has been named “College Lecturer of the Year.” She taught “The Family Prize for Literature. Her most recent work published in English FALL LECTURES: A busy roster of lectures in the fall, David Menashri, Tel Aviv University, spoke on “Iran in Jewish Tradition” for the Programs in Judaic Studies and is A Man a Woman and a Man: A Novel (2001); and Shifra each co-sponsored with different departments, included and Israel: A Couple at Odds.” Women & Gender Studies in spring 2003, to rave reviews from Horn, who currently works as a journalist, lecturer, TV host, and Victoria Khiterer, Harvard University, who spoke on “The the students. has been awarded several literary prizes, including the Book Danger of Covert Anti-Semitism: A Review of Alexander Gideon Doron, author and political strategist, “Post 2003 Publishers Association’s Golden Book Prize for her bestseller Solzhenitsyn’s Book, Two Hundred Years Together”; Election: The Future of the Israeli Parliamentary Democracy” DRUCKER LECTURE: Bernard Four Mothers (1999). Her most recent work published in English Hector Feliciano, “The Lost Museum – An Investigation into (had to be cancelled due to a major snow storm) Lewis, Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of is The Fairest Among Women (2001). Nili Gold, Professor of Art Looting by the Nazis”; Zeev Weiss, Hebrew University and Near Eastern Studies, Emeritus, presented Hebrew Literature, University of Pennsylvania, closed the series SPRING 2003 LECTURES: Our spring schedule of th Institute of Advanced Studies, “The House of Dionysos in lectures was so full that we often had two or three speakers in the 25 Carolyn L. Drucker Memorial with a lecture on two other Israeli authors, “Postmodernism Sepphoris and the Question of Its Patronage”; and Hamutal Lecture on April 30, co-sponsored with in the Works of Orly Castel-Bloom and Etgar Keret.” one week. February and March welcomed Marianne Hirsch Bar-Yosef, Ben Gurion University, “A Cross-Cultural and Leo Spitzer, of Dartmouth College, who addressed the Department of Near Eastern Studies. Exploration of Mysticism in Hebrew, Christian, and Islamic “Ghosts of Home: The Town of Czernowitz, in Jewish History His topic was “The Judaeo-Islamic Literature and Traditions.” and Memory”; Susan Einbinder, Hebrew Union College, Tradition.” A riveting speaker, Lewis “God’s Forgotten Sheep: Jewish Poetry and the Expulsion from faced a huge audience in McCosh 10.

22 23 EVENTS

King David Drummers Eskesta Dancers Arnost Lustig and Froma Zeitlin David Menashri Meir Litvak

22 23 UPCOMING PROGRAMS

NOVEMBER 10, 8:00pm

Amos Oz, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, “Israel: ARTISAesign by Arts Graphic Pomco by Printing LLC Peace and War” Princeton University Public Lecture Series: D Walter E. Edge Lecture, Helms Auditorium Mc Cosh 50.

NOVEMBER. 19, 4:30pm Edna Aizenberg, Marymount Manhattan College, “Argentine Space, Jewish Memory: Memorials to the Blown Apart and Disappeared in Buenos Aires,” Bowl 1, Robertson Hall, WWS.

DECEMBER 8, 7:30pm “The Future of Zionism,” Michael Walzer, Brad Hirschfeld, Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.

FEBRUARY 23 “Biblical Translation in Antiquity,” A Symposium. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Venue and times TBA If you need further information please contact the Program Manager: MARCH 24, 4:30pm Marcie Citron Noam Zohar, Bar Ilan University, "How to Think about Tiny Embryos: Exploring a Jewish Approach to Stem-cell Program in Judaic Studies Research," venue TBA Princeton University 58 Prospect Avenue Princeton, NJ 08544 APRIL 8, 7:30pm (609) 258-0394 Sallam-Shalom! Series—The Sultana Ensemble: An Israeli Moroccan Musical Experience, e-mail: [email protected] EVENTS Liberation Room in the Carl Fields Center. Program Director: Professor Froma I. Zeitlin APRIL 21, 8:00pm e-mail: [email protected] Meir Shalev, author and Israeli TV journalist, The 26th Web Site Carolyn L. Drucker Memorial Lecture, McCosh 10. www.princeton.edu/~judaic/

Program in Judaic Studies Princeton University 58 Prospect Avenue Princeton, NJ 08544