2015 SPRING REVIEW September 2015 edition news CJS

IN THIS ISSUE Faculty & Staff News . . . . . 1 Visiting Scholars ...... 4 Lectures & Events ...... 6 News from the Center for Friends of the CJS . . . . . 10 Jewish Studies at From the CJS Mailbox ...... 12 Harvard University Student News ...... 17 www.harvard.edu/~cjsOnline n CENTER at cjs.fas.harvard.edu FOR JEWISH STUDIES WELCOME, SANDY CANTAVE VIL It is a great pleasure to introduce our Staff Assistant,Sandy Cantave Vil, and to formally welcome her to the Center for Jewish Studies.

Before we were able to officially offer her this position, Sandy did an outstanding job covering this role on a temporary basis DIRECTOR for nearly a year during an extended employee leave. We are all Jay M. Harris thrilled to have Sandy here on a more permanent basis.

ADMINISTRATION Sandy comes to our office with many years of experience at Har- Rachel Rockenmacher, Administrator vard, including her most recent role as Production Manager of Sandy Cantave Vil, Staff Assistant the Sourcebooks Office. Sandy has been formally recognized for Dena Davis, Assistant her outstanding work at Harvard as recipient of an Impact Bonus CHAIR, FRIENDS OF THE Award, as well as her selection to participate in Harvard’s Faculty CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES of Arts and Sciences Mentoring Program for high-potential em- Peter J. Solomon ployees. She brings some wonderful computer, organizational and events planning skills, as well as exceptional poise, warmth and MEMBERS OF THE CJS professionalism. We are thrilled to have Sandy join our team. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Shaye J.D. Cohen, Luis Girón Negrón, Peter Gordon, Jay M. Harris, Jon Levenson, Peter Machinist, Eric Nelson, David Stern SANDY CANTAVE VIL ADVISORY COMMITTEE Irit Aharony, Charles Berlin, Noah Feldman, Marshall Goldman, Stephen Greenblatt, Jeffrey Hamburger, Kevin Madigan, Kay Shelemay, Doris Sommer, Susan Suleiman, D. Andrew Teeter CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES Harvard University 6 Divinity Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 PHONE: 617.495.4326 FAX: 617.496.8904 E-MAIL: [email protected] WEB: cjs.fas.harvard.edu FACEBOOK: facebook.com/ CenterForJewishStudies TWITTER: @HarvardCJS PHOTOGRAPHY: Marcus Halevi DESIGN: Erin Dowling Design FACULTY & STAFF

JAY HARRIS ERIC NELSON WELCOME, THANK YOU, JAY HARRIS ERIC NELSON by Eric Nelson by Jay M. Harris

It is my pleasure to announce that Professor Jay M. I am delighted to acknowledge the extraordinary contributions Harris has assumed the directorship of the Center for Jewish of Eric M. Nelson, who stepped down as the Director of the Studies on July 1, 2015. Professor Harris, who served a term Center for Jewish Studies at the end of the academic year. as director of CJS from 2001-2006, has been a member of the Harvard faculty since 1989. He is currently the Harry Eric is the Robert M. Beren Professor of Government at Austryn Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies and Dean of Harvard University. His research focuses on the history of Undergraduate Education. In 2000, he was named a Har- political thought in early-modern Europe and America, and vard College Professor, a five-year appointment recognizing on the implications of that history for debates in contem- outstanding undergraduate teaching and mentoring. Harris porary political theory. His interests include the history of has also authored or edited nine books and was editor of the republican political theory, the relationship between the Association for Jewish Studies Review from 2000 to 2004. history of political thought and the history of scholarship, theories of property, and the phenomenon of secularization. Harris holds a B.A. from , awarded in Although only 38, Nelson has already published prodi- 1978; master’s degrees from Columbia and the Jewish Theo- giously, and has established himself as one of the stars in the logical Seminary, awarded in 1980 and 1983, respectively; world of political thought. He is the author of The Royalist and a Ph.D. from Columbia, awarded in 1985. After various Revolution: Monarchy and the American Founding (Harvard/ teaching appointments at Columbia, the Jewish Theolog- Belknap, 2014), The Hebrew Republic: Jewish Sources and ical Seminary, Princeton University, and the University of the Transformation of European Political Thought (Harvard/ Pennsylvania, he joined Harvard as an assistant professor Belknap, 2010), and The Greek Tradition in Republican of Jewish studies in 1989. Harris was named the Harris K. Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2004). He has also Weston Associate Professor of the Humanities in 1991, and edited Hobbes’s translations of the Iliad and Odyssey for the the Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies in 1994. Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes (The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2008). His books have received I have benefited immensely from Jay’s counsel and dedicated several prizes, and his essays have appeared in a wide range service during the last three years, and I know you will all be of scholarly journals and edited volumes. Nelson received as delighted as I am to welcome him back as our director. his AB summa cum laude from Harvard University (1999)

cjs.fas.harvard.edu/ n CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES 1 THANK YOU, ERIC NELSON (continued)

and his PhD from The University of Cambridge (2002). He Eric’s time as Director was particularly busy, as we undertook has been awarded fellowships by the John Simon Guggenheim four searches for new colleagues, in addition to maintaining Memorial Foundation and the American Council of Learned our wide array of programs, public lectures, and cross-de- Societies. He has also been a Junior Fellow in the Harvard partmental collaborations. Eric’s wisdom and administrative Society of Fellows, a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and acumen helped guide the Center through this whirlwind, and a British Marshall Scholar. He is currently at work on a long- he leaves his directorship with the Center in excellent shape. term project on property rights and the theory of justice; he is We will miss him during his well-deserved leave this academic

FACULTY & STAFF FACULTY one the brightest young stars in the world of political theory. year; we look forward to his return to the Executive Commit- tee, so that we may once again draw on his wise counsel. n

VISITING LECTURERS The Center for Jewish Studies was pleased to welcome two visiting lecturers during the 2014-15 academic year. Dr. Dara Horn Schulman, was our Weinstock Visiting Lecturer in Jew- ish Studies during the spring semester of 2014, and Dr. Rachel Fish of Brandeis University was our Rohr Visiting Lecturer in Modern Studies for the spring semester of 2015. With the support of visiting professorships, the Center is able to host leading scholars in Jewish studies to supplement the courses offered by our full-time faculty. DARA HORN SCHULMAN Weinstock Visiting Lecturer in Jewish Studies

Dara Horn Schulman was born in New Jersey in 1977 and received her Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University in 2006, studying Hebrew and Yiddish. In 2007 she was chosen by Granta magazine as one of 20 “Best Young DARA HORN SCHULMAN American Novelists.” Her first novel, In the Image, published by as one of Booklist’s Best Books of 2013 and was longlisted for W.W. Norton when she was 25, received a 2003 National Jewish the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. In addition to Book Award, the 2002 Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and the the Weinstock Visiting lectureship at Harvard, she has taught 2003 Reform Judaism Fiction Prize. Her second novel, The courses in Jewish literature and Israeli history at Sarah Law- World to Come, published by W.W. Norton in 2006, received the rence College and City University of New York. She has lec- 2006 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction, the 2007 Harold tured at over two hundred universities and cultural institutions U. Ribalow Prize, was selected as an Editors’ Choice in The New throughout North America, in Israel and in Australia. She lives York Times Book Review and as one of the Best Books of 2006 in New Jersey with her husband and four children. by The San Francisco Chronicle, and has been translated into eleven languages. Her third novel, All Other Nights, published During her semester at Harvard, Dr. Shulman taught Litera- in 2009 by W.W. Norton, was selected as an Editors’ Choice in ture 147. “Why The Jews?” The Modern Jewish Experience in The New York Times Book Review and was one of Booklist’s 25 Literature in the Department of Comparative Literature, and Best Books of the Decade. In 2012, her nonfiction e-book The Yiddish 200r. Literature and Belief: The Case of Modern Jewish Rescuer was published by Tablet magazine and became a Kindle Literature in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and bestseller. Her fourth novel, A Guide for the Perplexed, was Civilizations. n published by W.W. Norton in September 2013, and was selected With content from http://darahorn.com/about-dara-horn/

2 CJS NEWS n Spring Review 2015 RACHEL FISH FACULTY & STAFF Rohr Visiting Lecturer in Modern Israel Studies

Rachel Fish is Associate Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, where she teaches the Myra Kraft Seminar on Israel at the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. In 2013, she completed her doctoral degree in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department at Brandeis University. Her dissertation, “Configurations of Bi- nationalism: The Transformation of Bi-nationalism in Palestine/Israel 1920’s-Present,” examines the history of the idea of bi-nationalism and alternative visions for constructing the State of Israel. Rachel has worked as an educator and consultant in various capacities in the Jewish community and higher education, teaching about Zionism and Israeli history at Brandeis University, UMASS Amherst and the Me’ah Adult Jewish Education program.

During her semester at Harvard, Dr. Fish taught one course, The Modern Middle East 128. The Arab-Israeli RACHEL FISH Conflict in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. n With content from Two New Funds at the http://nelc.fas.harvard.edu/people/rachel-lea-fish Center for Jewish Studies The Center for Jewish Studies is delighted to announce two new funds recently established to support activities at the Center for Jewish Studies and student research in Jewish studies at Harvard. We are extremely grateful for the support of our donors and for the support these funds provide for our students and other programming in the field of Jewish Studies at Harvard.

JUDITH & DAVID LOBEL SUZANNE & DR. FUND FOR THE CJS LAWRENCE FISHMAN This current use fund was FELLOWSHIP FUND established with a generous This current use fund was Like us on Facebook! gift from Judith Stern Lobel, established with a generous AB 1985, JD 1989, and gift from Dr. Lawrence If you use Facebook, please “like” the David S. Lobel. Through this Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University Fishman, AB 1955, MD generous gift, the donors 1960, and Suzanne Fishman to hear about events, programs, application hope to promote the study to support summer study

deadlines and other important information. of the language, literature, fellowships for undergraduate You can find our Facebook page at history, philosophy and and graduate students, with religion of the Jewish People facebook.com/CenterForJewishStudies a preference for supporting by supporting activities such student study of the as conferences, speaker Holocaust. Follow us on Twitter! series, publications, faculty @HarvardCJS and student research.

cjs.fas.harvard.edu/ n CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES 3 VISITING SCHOLARS

AMIHAI RADZYNER

CHAYA HALBERSTAM

YAIR LORBERBAUM HILA BEN-ELIYAHU

GUY DARSHAN

RONI SHWEKA

HARRY STARR FELLOWSHIP IN JUDAICA The Harry Starr Fellowship in Judaica supports a group of scholars from around the world to gather at Harvard to engage in full-time research in Jewish Studies. This research fellowship was founded with a generous bequest from the estate of Harry Starr ’21, former president of the Lucius Littauer Foundation. The theme in 2015 was “Jewish Law and Legal Theory.”

4 CJS NEWS n Spring Review 2015 STARR SEMINARS 2015 VISITING SCHOLARS HILA BEN-ELIYAHU CHAYA HALBERSTAM AMIHAI RADZYNER The Hebrew University of King’s University College at University Bar Ilan University (spring semester) Jerusalem (spring semester) of West Ontario (spring semester) FEBRUARY 26 FEBRUARY 12 APRIL 16 The Jerusalem Genizah: Archival The 16th Century Revolution Justice and Impartiality in Ancient materials and rewriting the history of the Application of Law: the Judaism: Law and Narrative of modern Halakhic issues (R. Ouziel Qim Li Claim Revisited and the prohibition against bigamy in APRIL 23 Mandatory Palestine as a case study) APRIL 30 Legal Justice in Tannaitic Literature Conflict of Laws, Conflict of MARCH 11 Customs: Between Jurisprudential YAIR LORBERBAUM The Law of the Knesset and the Rule of Pluralism and Legal Pluralism Bar-Ilan University (spring semester) the Supreme Court as Minhag (custom) FEBRUARY 12 GUY DARSHAN On Rules and Reasons in RONI SHWEKA The Hebrew University of Halakhic Discourse (1) The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (spring semester) Jerusalem (academic year) APRIL 16 FEBRUARY 26 FEBRUARY 5 The Priestly Law in Ancient On Rules and Reasons in The Controversy About the Marriage Mediterranean Context: History of Halakhic Discourse (2) Statute (Taqqanat Ha-Nissu’in) of Toledo the Genre and its Sitz im Leben MARCH 26 APRIL 23 Modes and Definitions of Legal Law and Narrative in P: The Flood Story as a Paternity in Antiquity Case Study in Light of a New Akkadian Text

PROFESSORS NAHUM KARLINSKY AND MENG ZHENHUA (JEREMIAH)

VISITING FELLOWS, LECTURERS & ASSOCIATES SPRING 2015

2014-2015 HARRY STARR FELLOWS IN JUDAICA: FELLOWS: Hila Ben-Eliyahu, The Hebrew University of Nahum Karlinsky, Ben-Gurion University of the Jerusalem Negev Guy Darshan, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Meng Zhenhua (Jeremiah), Nanjing University

Chaya Halberstam, King’s University College at ASSOCIATES: University of West Ontario Yaakov Elman, (academic year) Yair Lorberbaum, Bar Ilan University Amihai Radzyner, Bar Ilan University SUMMER 2015: Associates Roni Shweka, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Yaakov Elman, Yeshiva University DANIEL JEREMY SILVER FELLOW: Fellows Jonathan Rosenblatt, New York Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal

ROHR VISITING LECTURER IN MODERN ISRAEL STUDIES: Michal Bar-Asher Siegal Rachel Fish, Brandeis University

cjs.fas.harvard.edu/ n CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES 5 MARCH 31, 2015 Wives of Commoners and the Masculinity of the Rabbis, Jokes and Serious Matters REUVEN KIPERWASSER Institute Fellow, Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Michigan, (Ann Arbor), Research Fellow, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany Martin D. and Helen B. Schwartz Lecture Fund with the

LECTURES & EVENTS Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

APRIL 8, 2015 Veiling and Unveiling: The Poetry of Yeshurun, Biton and Pedaya IOSIF ZHAKEVICH, SASSON CHAHANOVICH, MARIA METZLER LILACH LACHMAN Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, FEBRUARY 18, 2015 Haifa University ANNUAL CJS SPRING RECEPTION Harry Edison Fund with the Jewish Societies and Cultures see page 8 Seminar at the Mahindra Humanities Center and the Modern Hebrew Program at Harvard MARCH 6, 2015 Today’s Middle East and Israel’s Elections— APRIL 12, 2015 What is at Stake? In Commemoration of Yom Hashoah/ HARVARD HILLEL’S SECOND RIESMAN FORUM ON Holocaust Remembrance Day POLITICS AND POLICY WORLD PREMIERE OF THE CHOICE, A PLAY BY ELIE AMBASSADOR DENNIS ROSS WIESEL (DIRECTED BY GUILA CLARA KESSOUS) William Davidson Distinguished Fellow and counselor at GUILA CLARA KESSOUS The Washington Institute for Near East Policy UNESCO Artist for Peace GABRIELLA BLUM Yanoff-Taylor Lecture and Publication Fund with the Harvard Rita E. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and Divinity School Humanitarian Law at Harvard Law School, Co-Director of the HLS-Brookings Project on Law and Security MODERATOR ROBERT MNOOKIN Samuel Williston Professor of Law at Harvard Law REUVEN KIPERWASSER School, Chair of the Program on Negotiation, Director of the Harvard Negotiation Research Project with Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and Hillel International

MARCH 12, 2015 Reading for Harmony, Reading for Conflict: The Implications of Source Criticism for a Jewish Biblical Theology BENJAMIN D. SOMMER Professor of Bible, The Jewish Theological Seminary Harry Edison Fund with the Jewish Studies Graduate Student Colloquium

6 CJS NEWS n Spring Review 2015 APRIL 21, 2015 LECTURES & EVENTS Jewish Studies in China: Past and New Developments XU XIN Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies and Director of the Glazer Institute for Jewish and Israel Studies at Nanjing University, China Friends of the Center for Jewish Studies Fund with the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, and the Jewish Societies and Cultures Seminar at the Mahindra Humanities Center

MAY 4, 2015 Yiddish Fiction at its End—and Four Years After EDNA SHEMESH EITAN KENSKY Preceptor in Yiddish, Department of Near Eastern APRIL 16, 2015 Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University A New Magic Mountain: German Prose, with the Judaica Division, Widener Library (Jacob Pat Memorial Hebrew Modernism and the Central European Lecture) Sanatorium SUNNY YUDKOFF MAY 6, 2015 Lecturer in Yiddish language, University of Chicago Women’s Voices from the Middle Ages Leon I. Mirell Lecture and Publication Fund with the Jews in Modern Europe Study Group at the Center for European Studies RACHA KIRAKOSIAN Assistant Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures and of the Study of Religion, Harvard APRIL 16, 2015 University Fritz Bauer—Death by Installments with Elson Family Arts Initiative Fund, Provostial Fund, Medieval (A film by Ilona Ziok) Studies, Germanic Languages and Literatures

FILM AND TALK TO COMMEMORATE HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY IRMTRUD WOJAK Frieda L. Miller Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Yanoff-Taylor Lecture and Publication Fund with the Radcliffe XU XIN (R) WITH MENG ZHENHUA (JEREMIAH) Institute for Advanced Study, BUXUS STIFTUNG gGmbH, Munich, and Goethe Institute, Boston

APRIL 17, 2015 We, the Children—Second Generation to the Holocaust: A Complex Past, a Contemplative Present EDNA SHEMESH Award-winning writer, freelance journalist and translator William Landau Lecture and Publication Fund with the Modern Hebrew Program at Harvard

cjs.fas.harvard.edu/ n CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES 7 LECTURES & EVENTS NAHUM KARLINSKY & MENG ZHENHUA “JEREMIAH”

February 18, 2015 ANNUAL CJS RECEPTION Students, graduate students, faculty, visitors, and staff joined together to celebrate CJS at another successful reception. The warmth was welcome during the snowiest month of the year!

GABRIEL HORNUNG

YAIR LORBERBAUM

ELIJAH CASEY (NELC) & RONI SHWEKA SASSON CHAHANOVICH

8 CJS NEWS n Spring Review 2015 LECTURES & EVENTS

ERIC NELSON & BERNARD SEPTIMUS GUY DARSHAN

ERIC NELSON WELCOMES RECEPTION GUESTS

DENA DAVIS, RACHEL ROCKENMACHER, & SANDY CANTAVE VIL

OSNAT AHARONI & IRIT AHARONY BERNARD SEPTIMUS

cjs.fas.harvard.edu/ n CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES 9 BECOME A FRIEND BECOME A FRIEND ASSOCIATE: $50 PATRON: $100 PILLAR: $500 BENEFACTOR: $1,000

FRIENDS OF THE CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES In December 1984, Peter Solomon (AB ’60, MBA ’63), then a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, announced the establishment of the Friends of the Center for Jewish Studies. The Friends of the Center for Jewish Studies seeks to provi