FALL 2007 Program in Judaic Studies PERELMAN INSITITUE PRINCETON UNIVERSITY In this Issue 2 Courses DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE for the Author in Philonic and Rabbinic 3 Students Exegesis.” The eight undergraduate theses I am honored to be serving as acting are described in the newsletter. 3 Class of 2007 director of Judaic Studies this year while 3 Alumni 2007 Peter Schäfer is on leave In 2006-2007 there also were 42 graduate 4 Senior Theses 2007 in Berlin. Marcie Citron, students whose interests lie in some 7 Graduate Fellowships our program manager, and aspect of Judaic Studies, drawing from Reyne Schleifer, our program Anthropology, Architecture, Comparative 8 Graduate Students associate, have made this Literature, English, German, History, 10 Summer Funding transition very smooth and History of Science, Near Eastern Studies, 17 Committee easy for everyone concerned. Politics, Religion, and Sociology. We were Leora Batnitzky 17 Advisory Council 2006-2007 was a great year able to provide four top-up fellowships for 18 Faculty Research and News for our program and I am happy to be able incoming graduate students in Sociology, to report on our many achievements. Religion, and Near Eastern Studies whose 22 Events work relates in large part to Judaic Studies. STUDENTS We also awarded summer grants for research Our course offerings were rich and our and study to 14 graduate students and 6 enrollments remained high in 2006-2007. undergraduate students. The projects ranged specific institutional programs of activities In the fall of 2006, JDS sponsored, co- from language study to archaeological that will enhance both research and teaching. sponsored, or cross-listed 13 courses, excavation, to internships, and to dissertation Our program has already benefited greatly including 1 graduate course (plus 4 courses and senior thesis archival work. Travel from this award as it will allow us to continue in Hebrew language). These were cross- destinations included Israel, Greece, Turkey, expanding the program’s research and listed with the Center for Human Values, Egypt, France, Vienna, Berlin, and Prague. teaching possibilities. In particular, we will Comparative Literature, French, History, appoint a three-year post-doc in Princeton’s Near Eastern Studies, Philosophy, Religion, FACULTY Society of Fellows whose work focuses on Theater, and Women and Gender Studies. There are updates on our faculty in the Judaic Studies beginning in the fall of 2008. In the spring of 2007 we were able to newsletter but I want to highlight two This post-doc is half-funded by Professor offer 17 courses (2 were graduate level) in particularly wonderful faculty achievements Schäfer’s prize. American Studies, Center for Human Values, of last year. First, Esther (Starry) Schor Comparative Literature, English, European won the National Jewish Book Award EVENTS Cultural Studies, Hellenic Studies, History, for her wonderful biography of Emma 2006-2007 included a busy roster of Humanities Council, Near Eastern Studies, Lazarus. Second, Peter Schäfer was selected Politics, Religion, Women and Gender lectures, conferences, workshops, and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as film series. A full list of all of these events Studies, and Woodrow Wilson School, plus 3 one of four winners of its Distinguished Hebrew language courses. follows in this newsletter but I would like to Achievement Awards. The three-year awards, highlight some of them here. We proudly Eight students received a certificate in Judaic amounting to as much as $1.5 million each, inaugurated, on March 14, the “Lapidus Studies, with senior theses ranging in topics are intended to honor scholars who have Family Fund for American Jewish Studies” from “The (Re-) Birth of a Language: The made significant contributions to humanistic with a public lecture by Leon Wieseltier, the Role of Language Contact in the History inquiry. In contrast to other notable editor of The New Republic, on “Of What and Development of Israeli Hebrew” to academic award programs that benefit Use Is Jewish History To American Jewish “Trials Before Man, Justice Before God: The individual scholars exclusively, the Mellon’s History?” This was a very programmatic Role of Religious Ethics in the Prosecution Distinguished Achievement Awards are lecture that prompted a discussion not just and Punishment of War Criminals” to “Do designed to recognize the interdependence about American Jewish History but also You Wish to Know the One Who Spoke of scholars and their institutions. While this about Jewish Studies. Of a quite different and the World Came into Being? Looking grant program honors the achievements of nature, but not less stimulating, was the individuals, the grants themselves support (Director’s Message continued on page 21) COURSES FALL SEMESTER SPRING SEMESTER FALL SEMESTER 2006 2007 2007 Survey courses: Survey courses: Survey courses: Great Books of the Jewish Tradition Golem: The Creation of an ArtificialMan Great Books of the Jewish Tradition Martha Himmelfarb Peter Schäfer Martha Himmelfarb Topics in Judaic Studies: Gender, Jewish Political Thought The Parable: Evolution of a Genre Alan Mittleman Sexuality, and the Body in Judaism: James Diamond From Biblical Israel to Contemporary The Family in Jewish Tradition America Ruth Westheimer The Bible in History Froma Zeitlin Russian-Jewish Diaspora Jonathan Elukin Modern Jewish History: Olga Litvak Antiquity: The Bible as Literature Religion and Literature of the Old 1750-Present Esther Schor Olga Litvak Testament: Through the Babylonian Antiquity: Exile Antiquity: “Eye-For-An-Eye”: The Nature of Simeon Chavel Religion and Literature of the Old Law, Justice, and Legal Literature in Ancient Judaism and the Dead Sea Testament: Through the Babylonian the Bible & Ancient Near East Simeon Chavel Scrolls Exile Martha Himmelfarb Simeon Chavel The Biblical King David – Between Myth and History Middle Ages: The Origins of Monotheism: Shaping Simeon Chavel Hatred or Tolerance? Jews and the Divine in the Ancient Near East Judaism in the Greco-Roman Diaspora Christians in Medieval and Early Beate Pongratz-Leisten Martha Himmelfarb Modern Europe Judaism in the Greco-Roman World Religion in Culture – Culture in Jonathan Elukin Martha Himmelfarb Religion: A History of Religion in the Ancient Near East Modern Period: Jesus in the Talmud Beate Pongratz-Leisten Jewish Thought and Modern Society 2006-07 Peter Schäfer Studies in Greco-Roman Religions: Leora Batnitzky Middle Ages: Apocalypticism and Messianism in Rabbinic and Early Byzantine Jewish The Enlightenment and Its Post- Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the Literature Modern Critics Middle Ages Martha Himmelfarb and Peter Schäfer Andrea Schatz Mark Cohen Middle Ages: Language Courses: Readings in Judeo-Arabic The Hebrew Poetry of Medieval Spain Elementary Biblical Hebrew I Mark Cohen Andras Hamori Simeon Chavel Modern Period: Problems in Near Eastern Jewish History Mark Cohen Elementary Hebrew Early Modern Philosophy: Spinoza Esther Robbins Modern Period: Dan Garber Intermediate Hebrew The Enlightenment and Its Post- Performing the Jew on Stage Modern Critics Esther Robbins Alyssa Quint Andrea Schatz Advanced Hebrew: Aspects of Israeli The Jewish Presence in French The Ten Commandments in Modern Culture Literature Since 1945 America Esther Robbins Jenna Weissman-Joselit David Bellos Advanced Hebrew: Language and Language Courses: Israeli Culture and Society James Diamond Culture Esther Robbins Introduction to Biblical Hebrew II Stolen Years: Youth Under the Nazis in Emmanuel Papoutsakis World War II Elementary Hebrew Froma Zeitlin Esther Robbins Special Topics in Public Affairs: The Arab-Israeli Conflict Intermediate Hebrew Daniel C. Kurtzer Esther Robbins Language Courses: Advanced Hebrew: Aspects of Israeli Elementary Hebrew II Culture Esther Robbins Esther Robbins Intermediate Hebrew II Esther Robbins Advanced Hebrew Language and Style II Esther Robbins 2 2007 ALUMNI STUDENTS Joshua Goldsmith received Princeton’s Sachs scholarship. He is using his fellowship to pursue a Master’s Degree in Teaching of Languages and Literatures at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, in Catalan). Joshua Packman is working as a program assistant at the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), a civil rights organization in Washington, DC. Mainly, he works with various community organizations affiliated with the AAJC, but also assists in other program areas. Jonah Perlin is working as an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Reform Movement’s Washington arm. His portfolio of issues includes Foreign Policy, Africa, Arms Control, the Death Penalty, HIV/AIDS, Human Rights, International Religious Freedom, World Jewry, Torture, Privacy, and Terrorism/Anti-Terrorism. In addition to monitoring the daily developments on these issues, Jonah is responsible for preparing action alerts, press releases, and blogs as well as working with interfaith coalitions advocating for the Movement’s policies. He also helps coordinate programs for High School conferences in Chad Priest, Joshua Goldsmith, Jonah Perlin, Lauren Racusin, and Washington on Jewish values and politics. Jonah loves Jonathan Pomeranz. his job and feels fortunate to work at the intersection of politics and Judaism. THE CLASS OF 2007 Jonathan “Yoni” Pomeranz is teaching Talmud and JEWISH STUDIES Certificate STUDENTS coaching Debate at the Chicagoland Jewish High School in Deerfield, Illinois. We are proud to congratulate Joshua A.