Inside: Art as Healer and Provocateur page 2 Mass Literature & Medicine page 5 Humanities A Publication of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities Fall 2007 Clemente Course Graduations page 7 Recent Grants page 10 Mothering Heights Escrita da Vida An interview with the author of a cultural history of Jewish mothers page 11 Joyce Antler is the Samuel JA: The dominant, nega- Fourth Annual Symposium Lane Professor of American tive stereotype doesn’t fit page 12 Jewish History at Brandeis the way Jewish women University. A member of the see their own mothers—or MFH board from 1988 to how they see themselves as 1994, she served as Chair from mothers. In fact, historically 1991 to 1992. She is the the Jewish mother’s goal THE PUBLIC HUMANIST author or editor of nine books, was to make her children the most recent of which is You self-reliant, not to infantilize a group blog project hosted by the Never Call! You Never them. And she succeeded. Valley Advocate Write! A History of the Whenever we acknowledge Jewish Mother, published by Jews’ great success in Oxford in 2007. Ellen K. America, we should credit Rothman, who is leaving the the Jewish mother and the Foundation after 11 years as many ways in which she Associate Director to become modeled strength and Deputy Director of the Jewish resiliency for her children. Women’s Archive, inter- viewed Antler via e-mail. EKR: Was there something peculiarly American about Ellen K. Rothman: When did you first get the idea the Jewish mother stereotype? of writing a history of the Jewish mother? JA: After World War II, a team of social scientists Joyce Antler: Before this book, I had written working under Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict That’s right. Another blog. Surely there are about Jewish women as social and political conducted a comparative culture study. In their enough words and visual noise in our lives activists (The Journey Home: How Jewish Women exploration of Jewish culture in Eastern Europe, without another claim on our attention. Shaped Modern America) and about their treat- the researchers identified a “stereotype” of the This one is different. The Public Humanist, ment in popular culture (Talking Back: Images Jewish mother that consisted of suffering, worrying of Jewish Women in American Popular Culture). which began in May ‘07, is a group blog and overfeeding, combined with “unconditional After my mother’s death, which occurred at love.” They exaggerated the “nagging” aspects of of 26 Massachusetts writers, many of about the time these works were published, the stereotype, but in any case, these researchers them humanities professors at Massachusetts I came to think even more about the ways in were among several who claimed to find its roots colleges, some of them independent film- which our mothers’ legacies had become buried in the shtetls of Eastern Europe. My book explains makers, all of them in the idea business. under the weight of cultural myths. I wanted how the specific conditions of American life— They join this project to give voice to to dig under those myths and see how they immigration, suburbanization, even feminism— humanistic inquiry as it intersects with related to the true stories, the true experiences, transformed earlier images and created specifically current issues and social policy. You won’t of women like my mother, who did not at all fit American models. find much of that (yet!)in the blogosphere. the stereotype of the Jewish Mother. EKR: Your book begins in the 1920s. Was there a We present a weekly topic that two or more EKR: Neither did mine. My father is the one who stereotype of the Jewish mother before then? Is it a contributors write about, offering different, is more likely to say “You never call. You never byproduct of immigration? but not necessarily opposed, perspectives. write” (or e-mail, as the case may be). I was very Our aim is to generate commentary from aware growing up, and maybe you were, too, that JA: There have always been notions of Jewish people who might not be inclined to attend my mother didn’t fit what I thought of as the mothers in our culture, but the mass immigration more traditional humanities program stereotype of the Jewish mother, but you point of the early twentieth century created tensions formats—and we are fortunate to be hosted out that the stereotype in fact has two sides. that disrupted traditional gender notions and by the website for Northampton’s alternative family dynamics. These anxieties were often JA: weekly, the Valley Advocate. Please visit Yes, there are conflicting views of the Jewish written onto the Jewish mother, so that in the mother. On the negative side, she’s seen as a the blog at: www.valleyadvocate.com, and 1920s and early 1930s you get dual images of the colossal figure—manipulative, demanding, whiny, Jewish mother—nurturant and encouraging, like comment if you are so inclined. The blogos- overprotective, and guilt-producing. It’s easy to the mothers in Sophie Tucker’s song “My Yiddish phere may seem ubiquitous in these times, imagine her hovering over her children, holding Mama” or in the first sound film, The Jazz Singer but thoughtfully written entries that chart the spoon and urging them to take one more bite. —or materialistic and manipulative, as in the film ideas and seek the ongoing relevance of Although it gets less play in the popular culture, Younger Generation. In all of these cultural repre- humanities-based perspectives are far there is an alternative stereotype: the Jewish sentations, the Jewish mothers were left behind as from the norm. We already know that the mother as the emblem of unstinting love, support, their children assimilated. blogosphere is democratic—let’s all help to and nurturance. encourage and become an informed citizenry EKR: You write that stereotypes of “old-style of this new realm. EKR: So I guess my mother fits the stereotype Jewish mothers” persist, even as “cultural patterns after all. I shouldn’t be surprised. on which they are based are becoming anachronistic.” Why do you think this is? Mothering Heights continued on page 3. Featured Grant Art as Healer and Provocateur: Double Edge Theatre Explores the Relationship of Art and Oppression Main Office 66 Bridge Street Northampton, MA 01060 By Hayley Wood (413) 584-8440 Fax (413) 584-8454 www.mfh.org art moving painting, part stream-of-consciousness STAFF anti-narrative, Double Edge Theatre’s play The David Tebaldi Executive Director Republic of Dreams, based on the life and work of [email protected] Polish artist and writer Bruno Schulz, is engrossing Kristin O’Connell P Assistant Director audiences and softening them up for moderated discussions [email protected] about the role of art in times of oppression and in times like Anne Rogers the ones we’re living in. Double Edge Theatre’s Artistic Systems Manager Director Stacy Klein observes, “This is a difficult time and [email protected] place to be creative. I hope that difficulty will give rise not John Sieracki Director of Development only to polemics, but also to art.” [email protected] The free series of performances and lectures, entitled Melissa Wheaton Administrative Assistant Art as Healer and Provocateur, marks a particular effort on [email protected] the part of the company to bring its work—well known to Hayley Wood loyal audiences from all over Western Massachusetts Program Officer and most notably in their hometown of Ashfield—to new [email protected] audiences in Hampshire and Franklin counties. Ilan BOARD OF DIRECTORS Stavans, Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and President Latino Culture at Amherst College, moderates the post-per- David J. Harris formance talks that combine a panel discussion with an Harvard University opportunity for audience members to share impressions and Vice-President Susan Winston Leff commentary. Double Edge Theatre received a Liberty and Wells Fargo Bank Justice for All grant from the Foundation in 2006 to ampli- Treasurer fy its reach with this new series of programs and to use its art John Burgess as a means of generating public discussion. WilmerHale, LLP Clerk Bruno Schulz provides the focus for the Nancy Netzer Boston College project. Murdered by a Nazi in 1942, Ricardo Barreto Schulz had led a fairly low-profile and UrbanArts Institute unassuming life in the Polish (now “The Republic of Dreams, based on David A. Bryant Ukrainian) city of Drohobycz as an art The Trustees of Reservations teacher, studio artist, and writer. The son the life and work of Polish artist Bruce Bullen of a textile merchant, he lived in his Harvard Pilgrim Health Care hometown for most of his short life. His Alix Cantave childhood is described with an amazing and writer Bruno Schulz, is University of Massachusetts Boston use of visually rich language in his first Joseph Carvalho published work, The Street of Crocodiles engrossing audiences and soft- Springfield Museums Association (published in 1934). Schulz illustrated his Rhonda Cobham-Sander writing with line drawings that bring to ening them up for moderated Amherst College mind the work of Maurice Sendak. His Dianne Fuller Doherty MA Small Business Development Center writing and drawing testify to the validity and importance of the inner life. There’s discussions about the role of art in Charles Farkas Bain & Company no doubt that what he considered the Judy Green stultifying and ingrown quality of his city times of oppression and in times Green Associates, LLC (a “fathomless, elemental boredom,” as he Frances Jacobson once put it) fueled his hallucinatory Massachusetts Cultural Council account of growing up in such a place, in like the ones we’re living in.