ASSOCIATION FOR JEWISH STUDIES NEWSLETTER No-9 June 1973 Editor: A. J. Band EDITORIAL most of the goals assigned to them. Each conference, utilizing the scholars available in the region, investigated the implications of Among the impressive achievements recorded by the State of the type of Geniza research executed by Prof. S. D. Goitein. The Israel in its 25 years of sovereignty, developments in Judaic abstracts of these papers will be found in this issue; the full text scholarship are rarely mentioned. This is only natural: scholarship of the papers will be published at a later date. Both conferences affects relatively few people and defies quantification. And yet, continued on p. 3 information regarding the state of the art, its evolution — if any — in the past generation, is what every scholar needs when he JSQK aos -SONS -aos god sos soe so* aofe o so* sos soe os sex plans his own research projects. We had hoped that the Encyclopaedia Judaica might have presented us a panoramic IN THIS ISSUE synthesis of the state of the art, but it turned out so uneven that comparison with the old Jewish Encyclopedia does not generate a Editorial 1 firm impression of progress. Fifth Annual Conference Program 2 Several tentative and obvious statements should be made. If there was any doubt in 1948 as to the capacity of Judaic Regional Conference Program scholarship to survive the trauma of World War II, to continue as an intellectual enterprise in spite of such unpiecendented losses, "RELIGION IN A RELIGIOUS AGE (950-1250)" it was dispelled by the appearance of many new names by the 1950's in a variety of places throughout the world, Israel in Religion in Every Day Life as Reflected in particular. Israel, of course, has emerged with the largest the Letters and Documents of the Cairo concentration of Judaic scholars, mostly supported by Israeli Geniza (S. D. Goitein) 4 universities and research institutions — a clear benefit of national sovereignty. The viability of Israel as a political entity has The Study of Philosophy as a Religious Duty attracted many to Jewish studies, and has provided study facilities on a variety of levels. In the world of Judaic scholarship, (H. A. Davidson) 4 then, Israel, is a crucial formative factor as are the Holocaust or the Emancipation, and as such, has become a legitimate object of Religion and Law (I. Twersky) 6 Judaic scholarship. Islamic Literature on Interfaith Polemics (M. Perlmann) 7 With the growth of Judaic scholarship in North America (the representation of American scholars in the forthcoming Sixth The Religion of the Thinkers International Congress of Jewish Studies is considerable) we should begin to ask: How does Judaic scholarship in America (A. Altmann) 8 differ from that in Israel? Which Israeli scholars are worthy of emulation, and which are not? While Israeli scholarship is usually The Ethics of Medieval Jewish Marriage erudite, it may often be pedestrian and atomistic. (M. A. Friedman) 8 n News in Brief 10 The concentration of colleagues in one area, such as in Israel, is enviable — despite its possible drawbacks. We, in this country, Bibliographia Judaica work in isolation from our Judaic colleagues, and must make a EJ on Christianity (F. Talmage) 12 concerted effort to create situations for live scholarly contact. Aside from our annual conference, we have launched a series of Book Reviews (A. Green, M. A. Cohen) 13 regional conferences, partially sponsored by the National Endow- New JPS Psalms Translation (N.M.Sarna) 14 ment for the Humanities. The first two conferences of Series I, at UCLA and at Brandeis, have already been held and have achieved New Publications Received 15 ) FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE PROGRAM The fifth Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies will take place on Sunday and Monday, 21-22 October 1973, at Harvard University. All sessions will be held at the Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Registration forms and additional information will be sent shortly. Conference Program Chairman is Michael A. Meyer (HUC-JIR). Sunday, October 21,1973 4:30 P.M. Coffee 9:00 A.M. Registration; Coffee 5:00 P.M. Session IV (in Hebrew) 10:00 AM. Session I: Rabbinic Studies Non-Jewish Sources for Jewidi History in the Medieval Period Chairman: Ben Zion Wacholder Joseph Shatzmiller Hebrew Union College • Jewish Haifa University Institute of Religion (Cincinnati) Visiting Professor, University of Toronto Talmud Criticism 6:30 PM. Sherry A Historical Review David Weiss Halivni 7:30 PM. Session V: Banquet Jewish Theological Seminary of America Reflections on a Half-century of JewiA Its Application to Jewish Law Scholarship Zvi Henri Szubin Nahum N. Glatzer City College, City University of New York Brandeis University Its Application to Jewish History Larry H. Kar Columbia University 12:00 N. Session II: Luncheon Monday, October 22,1973 Jewish Historiography: Some Personal Observations on the General Enterprise 9:00AM. Session VI: Jewish Intellectual History Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi Harvard University Chairman: Isadore Twer sky Harvard University 2:00 P.M. Session III: Sephardic Studies Colloquium All panelists are advanced graduate students at Harvard University. Chairman: Martin A. Cohen Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute R. Meir Abulafia on the Professionalization of of Religion (New York) Scholarship Bernard Septimus How Jewish Were the New Christians? University of California - Berkeley Panel: Thomas F. Click, Boston University The Siddur of R. Jacob Emden Ellis Rivkin, Hebrew Union College-Jewish David Shapiro Institute of Religion (Gncinnati). Harvard University; Hebrew College Herman P. Salomon, State University of New York - Albany R. Obadia Sforno on Taame Mitsvot Angela Maria Selke, University of Wisconsin Mordecai Wasserman Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Harvard University University of Toronto continued on p. & I 3 FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE PROGRAM Editorial (continued from p. 1) continued from p. 2 were well attended; the participation of graduate students was particularly encouraging. Our next series of conferences, improv- ed by the experiences of Series I, will move away from the more 10:45 AM. Coffee familiar precincts of Boston and Los Angeles. 11:00 A.M. Session VI (continued) III R. Mordecai Jaffe and the Levush Pinat Yikrat Harvard University has recently announced the establishment Lawrence Kaplan of three chairs in Ukrainian Studies at that university made McGiU University possible by "thousands of individual contributions (most of them in amounts of $1-$100)." While one might question the wisdom R. Simone Luzzatto: Economics and of establishing three chairs in a relatively exotic discipline at one Apologetics in 17th Century Venice university, the financial support can only elicit admiration. Benjamin Ravid "Ukrainian-American students began to fund the drive in 1957. Brandeis University Since then, with the help of scholars, clergymen, professional men and women, and others of Ukrainian descent, they have 12:00 N. Session VII: Luncheon raised almost $2 million from Ukrainian-American families in 300 cities." While American Jews have, at times, supported Jewish President's Address scholarship by funding seminaries and teachers colleges, by Arnold J. Band endowing a few chairs in universities, and contributing seed- money to start programs, this support is meagre when compared University of California - Los Angeles either with other items which attract private Jewish funds or with Business Meeting the actual annual ^investment of the academic community in Jewish studies. By multiplying the number of positions now 2:00 P.M. Session Vm: Jewish Philosophy existing by a projected average of salaries and support funds calculated by standard university bookkeeping procedures, one Chairman: Arthur Hyman arrives at a figure of at least $5,000,000 per annum. Most of this Yeshiva University comes from the general university budget. Unfortunately, com- munity support, however limited, is at times accompanied by The Structure of the Commandments of the Torah extensive and misleading publicity campaigns or meddling by in Maimonides' Mishneh Torah and his Guide of imcompetent bureaucrats. The truth, as Watergate has reminded the Perplexed us, will emerge sooner or later. Lawrence V. Berman Stanford University IV Discussants: Warren Harvey The growth of our Newsletter, the preparation of scholarly McGill University articles for both our annual and regional conferences, the dearth of adequate publication outlets especially for young scholars, Alfred Ivry impel us toward a regularized publication program either in the Cornell University form of proceedings or a journal — or both. The executive committee has decided to take this step, to enhance the substance 4:00 P.M. Board of Directors Meeting and effectiveness of our Association. The invitation of articles, the search for funds, the composition of an editorial board will be reported on in the annual meeting. These publications should reflect the normal intellectual interests of the community of Judaic scholars in this country, combining solid erudition with pertinent conceptualization and synthesis. Index cards and footnotes are the tools, but not the essence of scholarship. 4 "RELIGION IN A RELIGIOUS AGE (950-1250)" Abstracts of papers delivered at the first series of the Regional Conference Program of the Association for Jewish Studies (Conference I: University of California-Los Angeles, 8-9 April 1973; Conference II: Brandeis University, 29-30 April 1973). The Association plans to publish the complete papers at a later date. The Regional Conference Program is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Religion in Every Day Life as Reflected in the Letters God was very near, not only to the mouth, but also to the and Documents of the Cairo Geniza heart of these people, for they believed, like the Muslim by S.D. Goitein (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) theologians of the tenth century, that He was the creator of all their actions, including the actions of their minds, their thoughts.