Works in Progress Group in Modern Jewish Studies Session Many of us in the field of modern Jewish studies have felt the need for an active working group interested in discussing our various projects, papers, and books, particularly as we develop into more mature scholars. Even more, we want to engage other committed scholars and respond to their new projects, concerns, and methodological approaches to the study of modern Jews and Judaism, broadly construed in terms of period and place. To this end, since 2001, we have convened a “Works in Progress Group in Modern Jewish Studies” that meets yearly in connection with the Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference on the Saturday night preceding the conference. The purpose of this group is to gather interested scholars together and review works in progress authored by members of the group and distributed and read prior to the AJS meeting. 2006 will be the sixth year of a formal meeting within which we have exchanged ideas and shared our work with peers in a casual, constructive environment. This Works in Progress Group is open to all scholars working in any discipline within the field of modern Jewish studies. We are a diverse group of scholars committed to engaging others and their works in order to further our own projects, those of our colleagues, and the critical growth of modern Jewish studies. Papers will be distributed in November. To participate in the Works in Progress Group, please contact: Todd Hasak-Lowy, email: [email protected] or Adam Shear, email: [email protected] Co-Chairs: Todd S. Hasak-Lowy (University of Florida) Adam B. Shear (University of Pittsburgh) Abstracts for Session 1 Sunday, December, 17, 2006 09:30 AM-11:00 AM Session Number: 1.1 Session Pedagogy and Politics: Teaching Israel at North American Universities Today Session Israel Studies is an emerging field at North American universities and in Jewish adult education; however, Israel is frequently taught by faculty with backgrounds in Jewish Studies and related disciplines. This proposed interdisciplinary roundtable discussion focuses upon the pedagogical and political challenges as well as the curricular, geographical and institutional problems of teaching Israel at a range of North American institutions. The discussants of this roundtable teach courses on Israel in a variety of institutional settings. The discussants participated in the intense coursework of the Brandeis Summer Institutes on Israel Studies (2004, 2005 and 2006), supplemented by an additional week of study in Israel; this was facilitated by Professor S. Ilan Troen (Stoll Family Chair in Israel Studies at Brandeis University). The professors in this group are planning to address the goals and outcomes of bringing Israel to Jews and Non-Jews in a pedagogical framework. Topics to be presented and discussed include, but are not limited to: Tracing the history that current academics have with Israel (time they spent there early in their lives, ongoing connections, how their relationship with Israel changed over time, intellectual connections; Teaching Israel in the Bible Belt: An Experimental Course in the Rural South; Teaching Jewish and Palestinian literature (and film) side by side; What is the Agenda for Advanced Adult Education? Teaching the Political Sociology of Israel in a Liberal Arts Setting; Israel: The Challenge to a Talmudist at a Liberal Arts College. Feminist Approaches to Israel; Teaching the Other, the Arab Israelis and/or Palestinians; Teaching Israel as Part of Jewish Identity-formation. The roundtable proposes to address the teaching of Israel in the general curriculum of the university and in other settings; pedagogical strategies, such as the use of new media and engaging teaching as well as innovative approaches to the study of Israel will be explored. Chair, Rivka B. Kern-Ulmer (Bucknell University) Donna R. Divine (Smith College) Jonathan Goldstein (University of West Georgia) Shirah Hecht (JESNA) Theodore Sasson (Brandeis University/Middlebury College) David B. Starr (Hebrew College) Session Number: 1.2 Session Social Science and Teaching about American Jewry Session Courses on American Jewry are being taught in increasing numbers of social- science departments throughout the United States, but few, if any, occasions exist for those teaching such courses--and those thinking of doing so--to discuss how best to teach them. This roundtable will provide such an occasion. Among the topics to be discussed will be: the balance in such courses between approaches drawn from the social sciences and approaches drawn from traditonal Jewish Studies scholarship; the degree of emphasis on organizational, demographic, and social-psychological approaches to Jewish life in the U.S.; the extent to which such courses take a problem-oriented approach to Jewish life as opposed to a more social-scientific approach; the amount of attention devoted to particular groups and organizations; the place of such courses in multicultural curricula; and issues involved in presenting material about Jews to diverse groups of students. Other concerns will be addressed as well. Chair, Paul Burstein (University of Washington) Claude Fischer (University of California, Berkeley) Shaul Kelner (Vanderbilt University) Shelly Tenenbaum (Clark University) Session Number: 1.3 Session What Does Jewish Philosophy Contribute? The Cases of Levinas and Strauss Session Most recent work in modern Jewish philosophy has worked within a canon organized by thinkers who are seen as saints -- not only can their work revivify or reorient Judaism, but they can also either mend the rift between Judaism and modernity or get us past the need to have that rift mended. The assumption in such inquiries is that the potential of Jewish philosophy is apparently limitless, or even messianic. But what if there are human problems to which nothing, not even philosophy, can give a definitive answer? What if philosophy does not have in itself the ability to direct social and political life? The juxtaposition of Levinas and Strauss provides a unique opportunity to approach such questions that lie at the base of the subdiscipline of Jewish philosophy. For it is Levinas who argues broadly for a strong intimacy between religion and philosophy, and specifically that Husserlian and post- Husserlian phenomenology can return Western life to its religious basis, articulated by the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud. And it is Strauss who argues for a radical separation between religion and philosophy, setting up the possibility in which philosophy, aware of its own limits, must recognize the possibility of revelation (understood as having its own territory) to guide social and political life. The panelists – a scholar of Levinas, a scholar of Strauss, and a scholar of liberal Jewish thought – will test not only the specific claims about the relationship between Judaism and philosophy in the two thinkers in order to answer the question of what Jewish philosophy can contribute, but also the portraits of Judaism that they give (an inner orientation vs. outer forms of social life). A scholar who has recently written a book comparing Levinas and Strauss will serve as respondent. Chair, Sarah Hammerschlag (Williams College) Martin Kavka (Florida State University) Kenneth R. Seeskin (Northwestern University) Eugene Sheppard (Brandeis University) Respondent, Leora F. Batnitzky (Princeton University) Session Number: 1.4 Session Assessing the Characteristics of Synagogue Transformation Session During the 1990s Jews in the synagogues throughout North America began talking about synagogue transformation and renewal. Behind this movement was the recognition that synagogues had the potential to be the most significant gateway to full participation in Jewish life, but that this potential was, in many cases, not being realized. Over the course of a decade, federations and foundations poured several million dollars into a variety of synagogue transformation initiatives. As early as 1995, researchers from the Council for Initiatives in Jewish Education identified 41 projects devoted to synagogue change. Some of these were national in scope, others local. Some were rooted in theories of change and involved elaborate change processes; others were based on the theory of “if you build it, they will come,” and focused on the introduction of new programs. While some of these projects were more successful than others in their totality, there were also big differences in the levels of success between congregations within the same project. Aron, Cohen, and Kelman, along with Rabbi Larry Hoffman, have been involved in the first systematic examination of the experiences of these past ten years of synagogue transformation and renewal. The AJS conference offers an ideal format to share and reflect on some initial findings. The research has yielded important information about the processes and characteristics of synagogue transformation, and the opportunity to reflect these findings with other scholars will prove invaluable to the project. Professor Aron will reflect on social scientific analyses of organizations and apply them to synagogues. Professor Cohen will frame the research findings in terms of broader analytic categories, and Dr. Kelman will reflect on the ethnographic research yielded during his fieldwork at the eight fieldwork sites. Our respondent, Dr. Kaufman, will provide a richly informed historical dimension to the discussion and open the panel up to what will be a most productive and fruitful discussion