Wild Outside in the Night: Maurice Sendak, Queer American Jewishness, and the Child A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Near Eastern & Judaic Studies ChaeRan Freeze, Advisor In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Golan Moskowitz May 2018 The signed version of this form is on file in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. This dissertation, directed and approved by Golan Moskowitz’s Committee, has been accepted and approved by the Faculty of Brandeis University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of: DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Eric Chasalow, Dean Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Committee: ChaeRan Freeze, Dept. of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies Jonathan D. Sarna, Dept. of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies Ellen Kellman, Dept. of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies Kenneth Kidd, University of Florida (Gainesville), English Department © Copyright by Golan Moskowitz 2018 Acknowledgements It is difficult to know how to sufficiently thank ChaeRan Freeze, my graduate advisor and dissertation chair, who has also been a champion of my work over the past seven-and-a-half years. I am indebted to ChaeRan for her belief and investment in my perspective and abilities; for her critical readings of my work-in-progress, recommendation letters, stimulating feedback, generous professional invitations, scholarly opportunities, countless pep talks, and comforting words; and for the incredible example she has offered me as a scholar, leader, educator, and human being. Thank you, ChaeRan, for taking such a central and dedicated role in my training and development, as well as in this dissertation. In the spirit of Maurice Sendak, whose work developed in part through the mentorship of bold and sensitive visionaries like Ursula Nordstrom and Ruth Krauss, I dedicate this dissertation to you. I am also so grateful to those professors, mentors, and colleagues who met or corresponded with me, suggested sources, recommended and invited me for grants and other professional opportunities, and helped me to think through my theoretical and historical framework for this project: Jonathan Sarna, Sylvia Fuks Fried, Eugene Sheppard, Ellen Kellman, Sylvia Barack Fishman, David Ellenson, Kenneth Kidd, Doris Bergen, Laura Jockusch, Ellen Smith, Ilana Szobel, Jonathan Krasner, Antony Polonsky, Jehuda Mirsky, Ben Ravid, John Plotz, Paul Morrison, Mark Davila, Marc Michael Epstein, Samantha Baskind, Spencer Keralis, Dawn Skorczewski, Susan Lichtman, and Robin Miller. Early in my research stage, Jeffrey Shandler was also kind enough to speak over coffee in the Upper West Side and to discuss ideas with me. iv Joshua Lambert also spoke with me in Boston during the early stages of my writing. Thank you, Jodi Eichler-Levine, for sharing a draft of your article on Sendak before its publication, as well as for offering steadfast moral support in our passing interactions. As a graduate assistant at the Tauber Institute from 2010-2017 I also benefited much from working in an office beside Sylvia Fuks Fried and Eugene Sheppard. During our many office chats and car rides, Sylvia shared powerful wisdom from her expertise within academic writing, editing, and publishing, and she constantly challenged me to ask good questions and to think critically about how to locate sources, frame data, and tell a captivating story. She also located and shared several articles on Sendak, children’s literature, and graphic narrative. Offering research and editorial assistance to Jehuda Reinharz during my time at Tauber also provided important early archival experience and exposure to high-quality scholarship in various stages. I thank him, as well as Sylvia, for respecting my work and instilling confidence in me as a writer and editor. I also thank Jonathan Decter for supporting my work over the years and providing opportunities to gain further freelance experience as a proofreader. Miriam Hoffman and Joanna Gould also offered moral support, warm friendship, and a constant, listening ear during my research and writing process. Additionally, I am grateful to Joanne Arnish and Jean Mannion of the Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies, who repeatedly guided me through crucial administrative processes with grace and generosity, as well as consistently boosted morale in the department throughout my years as at Brandeis. I am grateful to Jonathan Weinberg, long-time friend of Sendak and his late partner, Eugene Glynn, as well as Consulting Curator and Director of Research at the Maurice Sendak Foundation, for speaking candidly with me, permitting me to quote him in this study, and for discussing my approach and recommending secondary sources that helped shape my theoretical v framework. I also thank Christopher Mattaliano, general director of the Portland Opera, for allowing me to quote his memories of Sendak, as well as Katrina Galka for putting Mr. Mattaliano and I in touch. James Bohlman, a long-time friend of Sendak’s, was also kind enough to correspond with me by email about his memories of Sendak. I thank the research librarians and archivists at all of the archival locations listed in my bibliography for lending their assistance and invaluable knowledge in support of my research. Linnea Anderson of the Social Welfare History Archives in Minneapolis was especially generous, speaking with me in depth about the Comics Project files. Lyudmila Sholokhova at YIVO also deserves my gratitude for meeting with me to discuss my project in relation to research on Yiddish children’s literature and the holdings at YIVO. I owe thanks to Melissa Watterworth Batt and Kristin Eshelman at the Dodd Center in Connecticut for kindly facilitating my research on Sendak’s relationships and collaborations with Ruth Krauss and James Marshall. Patrick Rodgers was immensely helpful at the Rosenbach Archives and by email, sharing ideas, comprehensive knowledge of Sendak’s life and work, and contacts, including Ben Ross, a distant relative of Sendak’s, whom I also thank for conversing with me by telephone. Elizabeth Anthony of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum deserves my gratitude for generously searching the museum’s ITS records for information on Sendak’s relatives. Thank you also to Dienke Hondius for offering me a tour of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and sharing guest books from the year of Sendak’s visit there. Additionally, I thank Sylvia Fuks Fried for inviting me to present a draft of Chapter Two at the Jewish Studies Colloquium of the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry; I also thank the participants of that meeting – including ChaeRan Freeze, Jonathan Sarna, Ellen Smith, Ilana Szobel, Sylvia Barack Fishman, Ellen Kellman, Jonathan Krasner, David Ellenson, Laura vi Jockusch, Jonathan Decter, Jon Levisohn, Eugene Sheppard, Sabine von Mering, and Eva Gurevich – for offering useful and supportive feedback that informed my writing. I am also grateful to Shulamit Reinharz, Sylvia Barack Fishman, Debby Olins, and others at the Hadassah- Brandeis Institute, which has supported my work both through research awards, as well as by featuring me as a speaker within their visiting scholars series. I began my graduate school experience as an intern at HBI and remain indebted to the institute for propelling my career and offering support throughout the years. The preparation of this dissertation was made possible by a grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. An Andrew W. Mellon Dissertation Year Fellowship also offered the time, academic community, and professional guidance necessary for me to complete the dissertation by this spring; I am grateful to Gregory Freeze and Sara Shostak, who led the fellowship meetings and offered critical feedback and helpful sources, as well as to the other Mellon fellows in my cohort for offering their careful reading, reactions, and suggestions to portions of the dissertation-in-progress. This project was also supported by a Billie M. Levy Travel and Research Grant, graduate research grants from the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry, grants for travel to conferences and research sites from the Brandeis Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies, and travel grants from the YIVO Institute and the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry to present work-in-progress at the Association for Jewish Studies Conference. Thank you to Lynn Caponera for granting me permission on behalf of the Maurice Sendak Foundation to quote recordings and transcripts of Maurice Sendak’s interviews and public addresses. I also thank Jennifer Crow of the Arne Nixon Center for permission to quote the correspondence between Sendak and Arne Nixon; Wendy Hagenmaier and the Georgia vii Institute of Technology Archives for permission to quote from the Benjamin Hirsch materials; Loyola Marymount University for permission to quote Sendak’s interviews with Edna Edwards; and the National Human Services Assembly for permission to quote materials from the Comics Project files housed at the Social Welfare History Archives at the University of Minnesota. Lastly, I owe much credit and gratitude to my family and friends. I am thankful for the meaningful solidarity and thought-provoking conversations I have enjoyed over the years at Brandeis with fellow graduate students, including Aviv Ben-Or, Eva Gurevich, Tom Frydel, Orah Minder, Rachel Bernstein, Noam Sienna, Iddo Haklai, Allyson