DOCSLIB.ORG

Machar's Jewish Cultural School FIFTH GRADE CURRICULUM

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Machar's Jewish Cultural School FIFTH GRADE CURRICULUM Machar’s Jewish Cultural School FIFTH GRADE CURRICULUM This curriculum was developed through a grant from The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, DC’s Initiative in Congregational Education www.machar.org 202-686-1881 Machar’s Jewish Cultural School FIFTH GRADE CURRICULUM TABLE OF CONTENTS UNIT 1: JEWISH LIFE IN WESTERN AND EASTERN EUROPE ............................................................................. 4 TOPIC 1: EARLY GHETTO LIFE IN EUROPE ................................................................................................... 5 ACTIVITIES: ................................................................................................................................................ 7 TOPIC 2: COURT JEWS ................................................................................................................................. 9 ACTIVITIES ............................................................................................................................................... 16 TOPIC 3: KABBALAH AND FALSE MESSIAHS .............................................................................................. 26 ACTIVITIES ............................................................................................................................................... 29 TOPIC 4: HASIDISM AND MIS(T)NAGDIM ................................................................................................. 30 ACTIVITIES: .............................................................................................................................................. 31 TOPIC 5: EASTERN EUROPEAN JEWISH NAMES ........................................................................................ 34 ACTIVITIES: .............................................................................................................................................. 34 HANDOUT How Jews Got Their Names ........................................................................................... 35 TOPIC 6: THE ENLIGHTENMENT/HASKALAH ............................................................................................. 37 ACTIVITIES: .............................................................................................................................................. 38 TOPIC 7: DOIKAYT AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO ZIONISM .............................................................................. 43 ACTIVITIES: .............................................................................................................................................. 43 UNIT 2: ZIONISM, ISRAEL PALESTINE ............................................................................................................. 45 ACTIVITIES ............................................................................................................................................... 45 TOPIC 1 THE ORIGINS OF ZIONISM – JEWISH NATIONALISM ................................................................. 48 ACTIVITY: ................................................................................................................................................ 51 TOPIC 2: THEODORE HERZL – FIRST WORLD ZIONIST CONGRESS ........................................................... 52 ACTIVITY ................................................................................................................................................. 52 2 TOPIC 3: - BALFOUR DECLARATION ........................................................................................................... 54 TOPIC 4: - SELECTING A LANGUAGE – DIFFERENT STRANDS OF ZIONISM ............................................... 55 TOPIC 5: HOW LAND WAS ACQUIRED FROM THE ARABS ........................................................................ 58 TOPIC 6: - ISRAELI GEOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 62 TOPIC 7: ISRAELI CULTURE ........................................................................................................................ 63 TOPIC 8: KIBBUTZIM/MOSHAVIM ............................................................................................................ 64 TOPIC 9: POLITICS ...................................................................................................................................... 65 ACTIVITY ................................................................................................................................................. 65 TOPIC 10: PEACE MOVEMENT ................................................................................................................... 67 ICE BREAKERS ................................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. HOLIDAYS –HUMANISTIC MEANINGS AND PRACTICES ............................... Error! Bookmark not defined. HOLIDAYS – TRADITIONAL MEANINGS AND PRACTICES ............................. Error! Bookmark not defined. ACTIVITIES: ................................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. SECULAR HUMANISTIC JUDAISM – Overview and Review ....................................................................... 71 FIFTH GRADE TIMELINE: From 1492 when Jews were expelled from Spain to 1933 when Hitler took over Germany ......................................................................................................................................... 75 Life in the Shtetl ..................................................................................................................................... 78 Holocaust: An End to Innocence, by Seymour Rossel .......................................................................... 83 COMPARING HARRIET TUBMAN and GRACIA MENDES NASI ............................................................ 87 Excerpts from The Jewish Socialist Labor Bund and Zionism ............................................................... 88 Israel in 600 Words or Less .................................................................................................................... 97 How did the Zionists get their land*? ..................................................................................................... 99 Land Ownership in Palestine/Israel ..................................................................................................... 103 3 UNIT 1: JEWISH LIFE IN WESTERN AND EASTERN EUROPE Assist the students in transitioning from fourth to fifth grade by reviewing how bad things were for the Jews in Eastern Europe (the pogroms, etc.) at the turn of the century. Explain that the fifth grade curriculum goes into more detail about how Jewish people in Eastern and Western Europe responded to anti-Semitism and to new ideas about individual equality. Remind the students that after the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, they did not all settle in Eastern Europe. This is where the fifth grade curriculum begins. 4 TOPIC 1: EARLY GHETTO LIFE IN EUROPE SOURCES: My People - Abba Eban’s History of the Jews - Volume I “Life in the Shtetl” attached and Seymour Rossel’s Holocaust, attached - Differences between a ghetto and a shtetl – A shtetl was a self imposed Jewish community set apart from non-Jewish communities. The real criteria for the size of a shtetl were vague and ill-defined, as the actual size could vary from much less than 1,000 inhabitants to 20,000 or more. When the community was very small it would be called a klaynshtetl or even a shtetele; however both terms could also carry the connotation of a parochial lack of sophistication or, at times, a feeling of warmth or nostalgia. The shtetl first emerged in Poland-Lithuania before the partitions of the kingdom. Jews had been invited to settle in the private towns owned by the Polish nobility that developed from the 16th century, on relatively very favorable conditions. In many of such private towns Jews soon formed the preponderant majority of the population. In Russia, the shtetl developed in the Pale of Settlement. In 1815, Congress Poland was incorporated into the Pale, which continued to exist until the October Revolution of 1917. Within Austria-Hungary, the shtetl communities were scattered in Galicia, Bohemia, Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia, Bukovina, and Hungary. In the area under Prussia the shtetl pattern did not develop to the same extent. Despite the basic cultural homogeneity which had consolidated in the past few centuries, the communities in the partitioned regions developed specific social traits in each of the states in which they were situated. This was the result on the one hand of the varying cultures of their host societies and on the other hand of the differing social and economic policies and trends which developed in the host society under the Hapsburg emperors or Russian czars. During the 19th century, the anti-Jewish persecutions, economic restrictions, and outbreaks of violence pressed increasingly on the socioeconomic foundations of the Jews, in czarist Russia in particular, while political and ideological revolutionary trends and movements began to undermine the strength of the life style of the shtetl, which became more and more unsatisfactory to younger generations. Thus weakened in its foundations, the shtetl entered the last phase of its existence. The liberal revolution of 1917 liquidated the Pale of Settlement, while the Communist revolution
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Issue 2 Spring – 2014
    Volume 1 | Issue 2 Spring – 2014 Volume 1 - Issue 2 National and ethnic minority issues in Europe Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Institute for Cultural Relations Policy and the Editorial Board of Cultural Relations Quarterly Review. As an initiative of ICRP, the content of this journal is written by researchers, academics, young professionals and student authors. Each issue covers in-depth analysis of international relations on a quarterly basis. Journal Information Editorial Board Tzong-Ho Bau, Bezen Balamir Coşkun, Boglárka Koller, Igor Okunev, Robert Schrire, Farhan Hanif Siddiqi, Ehud R. Toledano, Rafael Antônio Duarte Villa Publication Staff Series Editor | András Lőrincz Executive Publisher | Csilla Morauszki Authors of Current Issue Katalin Szabó, Ömer Bilal Almak, Csilla Morauszki, András Lőrincz, Tamás Matyi, Eszter Balogh, Sándor Földvári, Zuzana Balcová, Taylor Helene Matevich © Institute for Cultural Relations Policy ICRP Geopolitika Kft 45 Gyongyosi utca, Budapest 1031 – Hungary http://culturalrelations.org HU ISSN 2064 4051 Contents National and ethnic minority issues in Europe Katalin Szabó Islam or Euro-Islam in Europe? 1 – 10 Ömer Bilal Almak – Csilla Morauszki – András Lőrincz – Zuzana Balcová The Dönmeh: Sabbataist legacy in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey 11 – 21 Tamás Matyi Life in the Village Cut in Two 22 – 36 Eszter Balogh Historical ethnic conflicts behind the Ukrainian crisis: one country, numerous identities [Background] 37 - 40 Sándor Földvári Rusyns in the aspect of security policies 41 – 52 Zuzana Balcová’s interview with H.E. Rastislav Káčer Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to Hungary 53 – 63 Taylor Helene Matevich Analysis of ethnic relations in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 64 – 69 Cultural Relations Quarterly Review Spring 2014 Islam or Euro-Islam in Europe? Katalin Szabó Abstract: This study’s objective is to examine the current debate on the presence of Islam in Europe.
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish Encyclopedia
    Jewish Encyclopedia The History, Religion, Literature, And Customs Of The Jewish People From The Earliest Times To The Present Day Volume XII TALMUD – ZWEIFEL New York and London FUNK AND WAGNALLS COMPANY MDCCCCVI ZIONISM: Movement looking toward the segregation of the Jewish people upon a national basis and in a particular home of its own: specifically, the modern form of the movement that seeks for the Jews “a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine,” as initiated by Theodor Herzl in 1896, and since then dominating Jewish history. It seems that the designation, to distinguish the movement from the activity of the Chovevei Zion, was first used by Matthias Acher (Birnbaum) in his paper “Selbstemancipation,” 1886 (see “Ost und West,” 1902, p. 576: Ahad ha – ‘Am, “Al Parashat Derakim,” p. 93, Berlin, 1903). Biblical Basis The idea of a return of the Jews to Palestine has its roots in many passages of Holy Writ. It is an integral part of the doctrine that deals with the Messianic time, as is seen in the constantly recurring expression, “shub shebut” or heshib shebut,” used both of Israel and of Judah (Jer. xxx, 7,1; Ezek. Xxxix. 24; Lam. Ii. 14; Hos. Vi. 11; Joel iv. 1 et al.). The Dispersion was deemed merely temporal: ‘The days come … that … I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof … and I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land” (Amos ix.
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish Sects - Spiritual World
    ESTMINSTER Volume VIII No.4 October 2017 UARTERLY Cain slaying Abel by Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734) From the Rabbi effect on the fate of the Jews of Europe. acceptance of converts for the purposes The whole of humanity and the political of the Law of Return whichever and social life were affected, stopping the movements or factions they come from. healthy evolution of the World. A further example is the inability to I am now reading another of Robert provide a place for all Jews without Harris’s books, Dictator, and my ‘must exception to worship at the Western read’ list includes Douglas Murray’s The Wall. It should not matter whether they Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, wish to have egalitarian services or if Identity, Islam. I am close to despair they firmly believe in, and practise, when I realise how little we have learnt equality between sexes. Surely both men from the wisdom of Ecclesiastes’s words, and women have a right not only to ‘That which hath been is that which shall worship together but also to enjoy the be, and that which hath been done is that beauty of holding and reading from the which shall be done; and there is nothing Torah Scroll. new under the sun’.(1:9) They are not As we look forward to Simchat Torah, as only painfully true but will remain so well as drawing wisdom from it – until we learn not to repeat the mistakes rejoicing and dancing - we should, in the Dear Friends of the past. Dictator impresses upon us New Year 5778, have a world with fewer that one day we can celebrate someone’s I very much hope that you have enjoyed a tears and more wisdom; a world without heroism and the next he can be lovely summer and have returned well extremism, giving us all a sense of having assassinated and that this really rested, refreshed, and ready to meet the learned from the past.
    [Show full text]
  • Tiberias A-Happy and
    " ..• - -~ ..,.., _,. .- .-· .,- •h -- . r . ,,, .. «.r' ,,!,-~ • ,.,- - r ,-.. I ~··.·,.··~·~-----•· I I, TH:& ISllABLlTE PRESS Friday, September S. 19M 1\ Page 20-Netr Year Editio11 . '. ' ' . i111caa1 9tlW Y&A• c:QITilfOS ,1n:in ro.,ll m.·_·.. Ul~ 'I · · · ·· ·· :,- -. ··· · -- ··· 1·· . BESl" WJSBES ro ALL OUR FlUENDS AND ca&IO.IIERS Sill'lfflt ...,. Year WISMS to Our Frhnl:h and Cvstornart I TO oua l<IUIHDI AND - · ISIIAILIIONDS:-•TO-BUIID. · . FOR A JOYoUS NEW YEAS . CUffOMJ!U I r.JC cr~::ox:rr.,r-..•JC ~ ':%· ·• ':~ llfJll!L~J',L~- AIIIPO-':. _: . ,ic-\z," ~, Winnipeg Leather Goods 0,mn K 11n:: 0,,..,.c 0. ..avtJlll .t.. 1'\lltlL.. Bortoa's Saw Service ,";1$' ~5, rJC ·. , .c, I Quilting Co. All Kinds of LNther, Cape, Suede & Sales· limited X) Mid-West Ltd. " and Sport Jackets S. SIi,\' ERBER•~ S. ENIGBT I - Pt,itiCMIIII 8fds-. wtnl'Jpes, P"- WH l-012:1 I No. 1 SHOP- Manufacturers of Quality Mitfertals 175 STADACONA ST. Hy.fashion Apparels Ltd. .· Quilting by .1M Yard• Specialty I Phone LE 3-1107 374 Donald Strut 101 ·ERIN ST. sunw MOOt A JOYOUS NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR JEWISH FR!m<'D& Ph-WH3-&826 AND ctJSI'OlfERS - I -We APPACl•te Our Jewish Patron.- Ho. 2 SHOP.;.. Best W'uhell for a Happy 1961 ,unm, ,:in:ln i\:l\\\ iUlll'2 5722 LEONARD I McLAUGHLIN MOTORS LTD. 36 ISABEL STREET New Year to All Out Friend9 WlnniPle's Largest RAMBLER Daaltr - FIAT. Distributonl Phone SPruc:e 4-9332 and Customers (x for Manitoba Hand Saws • Sm•II Circulars 1111d · Bukh1w Svpplles Air Conditioning .
    [Show full text]
  • A New Essenism: Heinrich Graetz and Mysticism
    Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Faculty Scholarship 1998 A New Essenism: Heinrich Graetz and Mysticism Jonathan Elukin Trinity College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/facpub Part of the History Commons Copyright © 1998 The Journal of the History of Ideas, Inc.. All rights reserved. Journal of the History of Ideas 59.1 (1998) 135-148 A New Essenism: Heinrich Graetz and Mysticism Jonathan M. Elukin Since the Reformation, European Christians have sought to understand the origins of Christianity by studying the world of Second Temple Judaism. These efforts created a fund of scholarly knowledge of ancient Judaism, but they labored under deep-seated pre judices about the nature of Judaism. When Jewish scholars in nineteenth-century Europe, primarily in Germany, came to study their own history as part of the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement, they too looked to the ancient Jewish past as a crucia l element in understanding Jewish history. A central figure in the Wissenschaft movement was Heinrich Graetz (1817-1891). 1 In his massive history of the Jews, the dominant synthesis of Jewish history until well into the twentieth century, Graetz constructed a narrative of Jewish history that imbedded mysticism deep within the Jewish past, finding its origins in the first-cen tury sectarian Essenes. 2 Anchoring mysticism among the Essenes was crucial for Graetz's larger narrative of the history of Judaism, which he saw as a continuing struggle between the corrosive effects of mysticism [End Page 135] and the rational rabbinic tradition. An unchanging mysticism was a mirror image of the unchanging monotheistic essence of normative Judaism that dominated Graetz's understanding of Jewish history.
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish Pilgrims to Palestine
    Palestine Exploration Quarterly ISSN: 0031-0328 (Print) 1743-1301 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ypeq20 Jewish Pilgrims to Palestine Marcus N. Adler To cite this article: Marcus N. Adler (1894) Jewish Pilgrims to Palestine, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 26:4, 288-300, DOI: 10.1179/peq.1894.26.4.288 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/peq.1894.26.4.288 Published online: 20 Nov 2013. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 6 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ypeq20 Download by: [Universite Laval] Date: 06 May 2016, At: 16:50 288 JEvVISH PILGRIMS TO PALESTINE. JEWISH, PILGRIMS TO PALESTINE. By MARCUS N. ADLER, M.A. IN response to th~ desire expressed by the Committee. of the Palestine Exploration Fund, I have much pleasure in furnishing a short account of the works of the early Jewish travellers in the East, and I propose also to give extracts from some of their writings which have reference to Palestine. Even prior to the destruction of the Second Temple, Jews were settled in most of the known countries of antiquity, and kept up com- munication with the land of their fathers. Passages from the Talmud prove that the sage Rabbi Akiba, who led the insurrection of the Jews against Hadrian, had visited many countries, notably Italy, Gaul, .Africa, Asia Minor, Persia, and Arabia. The Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, the Midrashim and other Jewish writings up to the ninth century, contain innumerable references to the geography of Palestine.
    [Show full text]
  • Israeli History
    1 Ron’s Web Site • North Shore Flashpoints • http://northshoreflashpoints.blogspot.com/ 2 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb6IiSUx pgw 3 British Mandate 1920 4 British Mandate Adjustment Transjordan Seperation-1923 5 Peel Commission Map 1937 6 British Mandate 1920 7 British Mandate Adjustment Transjordan Seperation-1923 8 9 10 • Israel after 1973 (Yom Kippur War) 11 Israel 1982 12 2005 Gaza 2005 West Bank 13 Questions & Issues • What is Zionism? • History of Zionism. • Zionism today • Different Types of Zionism • Pros & Cons of Zionism • Should Israel have been set up as a Jewish State or a Secular State • Would Israel have been created if no Holocaust? 14 Definition • Jewish Nationalism • Land of Israel • Jewish Identity • Opposes Assimilation • Majority in Jewish Nation Israel • Liberation from antisemetic discrimination and persecution that has occurred in diaspora 15 History • 16th Century, Joseph Nasi Portuguese Jews to Tiberias • 17th Century Sabbati Zebi – Declared himself Messiah – Gaza Settlement – Converted to Islam • 1860 Sir Moses Montefiore • 1882-First Aliyah, BILU Group – From Russia – Due to pogroms 16 Initial Reform Jewish Rejection • 1845- Germany-deleted all prayers for a return to Zion • 1869- Philadelphia • 1885- Pittsburgh "we consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community; and we therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning a Jewish state". 17 Theodore Herzl 18 Theodore Herzl 1860-1904 • Born in Pest, Hungary • Atheist, contempt for Judaism • Family moves to Vienna,1878 • Law student then Journalist • Paris correspondent for Neue Freie Presse 19 "The Traitor" Degradation of Alfred Dreyfus, 5th January 1895.
    [Show full text]
  • Iberian Jewish Identities After 1492
    118 | Iberian Jewish identities after 1492 Marianna D. Birnbaum Original scientific paper UDK 26-054.73(46)“654“ Abstract The author investigates the types of Iberian Jewish and “ converso ” identities that emerged and evolved during the century that followed the Edict of 1492. Based on their life choices, the author discusses the fates of those who converted and stayed on the Peninsula, of those who, as New Christians, tried their luck elsewhere but remained secret Jews, and of those who returned to Judaism and shared the fate of their co-religionists in Europe and, finally, of those who migrated to the Ottoman Empire where they could enjoy more freedom and greater prosperity than in Christian Europe. Keywords : Jewish refugees, Mendes/Nasi Whereas in Antiquity and in the early Middle-Ages, the notion of exile meant the expulsion of Jews from their ancient homeland after the destruction of the Second Temple, by the sixteenth century , golah (exile) came to signify their forced separation from the Iberian Peninsula and their living in Diaspora communities (Koryakina 2015: 75-84). In my paper, I shall identify five distinct groups, and their activities, as aspects of the Sephardic (i.e. Iberian) Jewish identity, culled from documents and other sources relating to their lives and careers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The first group consists of Jews who converted either in 1492 in Spain, or in successive waves between 1391 and 1492, and in a single act of forced baptism in 1479, in Portugal, in order to avoid expulsion from their homeland. Many of them were “ anusim ” (i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • Second Memorandum Historical Survey of the Jewish Population in Palestine from the Fall of the Jewish State to the Beginning of Zionist Pioneering
    SECOND MEMORANDUM HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE JEWISH POPULATION IN PALESTINE FROM THE FALL OF THE JEWISH STATE TO THE BEGINNING OF ZIONIST PIONEERING. Chapter I: Under Roman and Byzantine Rule. Chapter II: Under Arab Rule. Chapter III: The Crusaders. Chapter IV: The Mamluk Period. Chapter V: Under Turkish Rule. CHAPTER I UNDER THE ROMAN AND BYZANTINE RULE. The vivid rhetoric of Josephus Flavius' Jewish Wars and the absence of sources accessible to Western scholars for the later periods, have combined to create an impression in the minds of many people that the fatal issue of the Roman-Jewish war of 66-70 C.E. did not only result in the destruction of the Temple and of the city of Jerusalem, but brought Jewish life in Palestine to a complete standstill by obliterating what remained of the nation. However, even a cursory glance at the Jewish Wars will show that the struggle cannot have been as destructive as is popularly supposed. As shown on map A, Josephus specifically names as destroyed, apart from Jerusalem, four towns out of nearly forty, three districts (toparchies) out of eleven, and five villages. Even in these cases the destruction cannot have been very thorough. Lydda and Jaffa were burnt down by Cestius (Wars II,18,10 and 19,1), yet Jaffa had to be destroyed again (Wars III.9,3), while Lydda apparently continued to exist and surrendered quietly to Vespasian (ib. IV,18,1). The case of Bethannabris and the other villages in the Jordan Valley is even more instructive; burnt down by Placidus (Wars IV.7,5) they continued to flourish in the Talmudic period and remained Jewish strongholds down to the last days of Byzantine power in Palestine, i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • Sabbatai Zevi Moved Upon the Waters Modes of Authority and the Development of the Donme Sects
    And the Spirit of Sabbatai Zevi Moved Upon the Waters Modes of Authority and the Development of the Donme Sects Paul Benjamin 4/15/2012 Benjamin 2 Abstract The conversion of the purported Jewish messiah Sabbatai Zevi to Islam in 1666 created a crisis among his followers. Many returned to mainstream Judaism; others remained secret Sabbateans. However, a small group in Salonika followed their master into apostasy, converting to Islam in imitation of Sabbatai Zevi. This group, known as the Donme, was very homogenous at the beginning; its members were few in number, knew each other well, and tended to be related to one another. However, shortly after the death of Sabbatai Zevi they split into three factions (a fourth, the Frankists, arose later in Europe), who differed greatly from each other in organization, ritual, and theology. This thesis examines two main distinctions between the groups that led to their divergent outcomes. First, I examine the differences in modes of authority between the groups. In order to do this, I conceptualize two models of authority, the mundane and the charismatic (loosely based on Bruce Lincoln and Max Weber’s theories of authority). The four groups are compared and contrasted based on the degree to which they rely on each of the modes of authority. I also examine the ways in which each group linked itself to Sabbatai Zevi and legitimated itself as the rightful successors to his legacy. In this case this thesis distinguishes among legitimacies conveyed by the body of the messiah, the soul of the messiah, and the ideas and teachings of the messiah.
    [Show full text]
  • Poles and Jews: the Quest for Self-Determination 1919- 1934
    Poles and Jews: The Quest For Self-Determination 1919- 1934 By Feigue Cieplinski Poland became an independent nation against all odds in the interwar period and retained her sovereignty from 1919 to 1939; hence the concept “interwar Poland.” The vicissitudes of her existence earned her the name of “God’s Playground.” [1] The Jews within her borders shared her history since 1240 C.E. Their freedoms during this period, unequaled in other places of Western Europe, earned Poland the Biblical allusion of “New Canaan.” [2] In contrast, some scholars have described Poland’s Jewry in the interwar Republic as being “On the Edge Of Destruction.” [3] That Polish Jewry was in distress is attested by the urgent visit of Mr. Neville Laski, a member of the British Joint Foreign Committee closely associated with the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the Joint Distribution Committee, in 1934. [4] His August visit fell between two historical events framing Polish Jewry’s status: seven months before, in January of that year, Poland and Germany signed a bilateral non- aggression declaration and in September Colonel Josef Beck, as Foreign Minister, announced in Geneva, his country’s unilateral abrogation of the Minorities Treaty in force since 1919. The scholars listed below have studied separately either the birth of Poland and the imposition of the Minorities Protection Treaty, the rapprochement between Poland and Germany, or the situation of the Jews in Poland. However, they have paid scant attention to the nexus between the rise of Hitler, the rapprochement between Poland and Germany, the demise of the Minorities Protection Treaty, and the consequent worsening situation of Polish Jewry.
    [Show full text]
  • Act I, Signature V - (1)
    When the audience is known to be secretly skeptical of the reality that is being impressed upon them, we have been ready to appreciate their tendency to pounce upon trifling flaws as a sign that the whole show is false [Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self (New York: Anchor Press, 1959), p. 51]. I - v - Give Me Seventeen Dollars for This Hat. Taxed by the forces besetting Damascus, the Sultan accedes to familial intrigue. The noted medical talk show host, Mr. Ng, surges to stage a live remote into the 13 th century. The various tools at his command are listed. The participants gather: the Idiopath of Jerusalem, the chorus, the Emperor Frederick II, al-Kamil, Sultan of Egypt, and the Rabbi Ben ‘tov Shapiro. A debate over the independence of scientific thought, in which the Idiopath disputes the Frankish titles in Palestine, ensues. Al-Kamil also cites numerous correspondences contesting these claims. ~ page 63 ~ People showing up for a diagnosis of a sample of their urine to the physician Constantine the African.* Constantine Act I, Signature v - (1) Latin Constantinus Africanus Born c. 1020, Carthage or Sicily Died 1087, monastery of Monte Cassino, near Cassino, Principality of Benevento Medieval medical scholar. He was the first to translate Arabic medical works into Latin. His 37 translated books included The Total Art , a short version of The Royal Book by the 10th-century Persian physician 'Alī ibn al-'Abbās, introducing Islam's extensive knowledge of Greek medicine to the West. His translations of Hippocrates and Galen first gave the West a view of Greek medicine as a whole.
    [Show full text]