JDST eJournal Spring 2020 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY PROGRAM IN JUDAIC STUDIES INSIDE In My Opinion. Featured Faculty 1 Government-Sponsored Prejudice: a lethal contagion Student Awards 2 In late 2019, a novel coronavirus • Hallana Beck jumped from an animal to a human each other. It’s relatively easy to tap being in Wuhan, China. China chose the justified fear and frustration of • Alan Kronenberg to mis- and dis-inform, setting off a any minority, especially if rightfully • Keren Moiseev global pandemic before gaining any outraged by unfulfilled Civil Rights • Ethan Moroh control. The White House followed promises, by disproportionate • Julia Silverstein suit, but without gaining any control, death in healthcare crises, and • Hugh Smith having previously reduced the by the inevitable conclusion that resources needed to manage a mass no one cares; that minority lives contagion. By mid-March, criticized don’t matter. During the terrifying Student Essay 3-4 for promoting chaos, confusion and AIDs pandemic, for instance, a • Zachary Courtney quack medicine, the White House government spokesman broadcast reportedly tried to pin its blunders to the black community that Jewish On/Off Campus 5 on China, labeling the virus (and by doctors were injecting AIDs into • Professor Emeritus, association, the home- black babies. In any Peter Haas grown chaos), “Chinese.” healthcare crisis, that Almost immediately, we sort of government- • Jacob Roth and learned that Chinese sponsored manipulation Mayor Pete students had become is all it takes to distract targets of prejudice. and divide us. It Courses of Interest More precisely, they follows—if minorities 6 had become targets of don’t watch out—that Sampling of Paper Titles government-sponsored growing fear and 7 prejudice; a lethal frustration will make it • Ruschi Argawal contagion. increasingly easy to turn us against • Hallana Beck each other, deflecting blame from • Zachary Courtney Jews are intimately acquainted those who really deserve it. • Shane Cooley with government-sponsored • Alan Kronenberg prejudice. Six million died from it Clearly, inter-minority prejudice • Ethan Moroh in recent memory. More recently, is a plague that heals none, and government-sponsored Turkish TV contaminates all. No community is • Jacob Roth announced that “Jews and Zionists” absolutely innocent of prejudice, but • Andrew Tuchler created COVID-19 as a biological most of us are better than that. Not weapon “to seize countries and all, perhaps. But most, yes. JDST Information 8 neuter the world’s population.” Meanwhile, back home, our own Laboratories in 45 countries are government was blaming “the now seeking a vaccine for COVID-19. Chinese.” The indictment spread But at home, or on campus, all virally, not only on extremist we need do is reject government- Program in Judaic Studies platforms, but on Facebook, sponsored prejudice, no matter what Case Western Reserve University Instagram and Twitter. According our political party, or who is targeted. 10900 Euclid Avenue to CNN, by late March, Facebook With minimal effort, we can stand had placed warnings on 40 million together, every color, creed, Cleveland, OH 44106-7112 COVID-19 posts, many of them orientation and nationality, and in Office: Tomlinson Hall 243 dangerous. our shared humanity, rid the world of Phone: (216) 368-2210 a lethal contagion. Web: case.edu/artsci/jdst Government-sponsored prejudice can also deflect blame by Judith Neulander manipulating minorities to blame Editor, JDST eJournal Student Awards and Honors The Ira and Ruth Bressler Prize To a student who has done outstanding work in the area of Jewish Studies. Hometown: Medina, Ohio Academic interests: I’m studying Art History, and I’m an intern at the Cleveland Museum of Art Extracurricular activities: I like to paint classical portraits, and collect plants Hometown: Solon, Ohio Academic Interests: Cognitive Science, History, and Psychology Extracurricular Activities: On campus, I am a member of the Cognitive Science Hallana Beck Student Organization and the Psychology Student Organization. Off campus, I volunteer with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park where I help clean up the walking trails. Alan Kronenberg The Eudese and Elmer Paull Prizes To one or several undergraduate or graduate students who demonstrate an interest in Jewish Studies or Jewish contemporary life. Hometown: San Jose, California Academic Interests: Biochemistry and Cognitive Science Extracurricular Activities: I currently serve as the VP of Outreach and Public Relations for the Cleve- land Hillel Undergraduate Leadership Council and love stopping by between my classes to catch up with friends over a bagel! I am also a member of the Theta Beta Chapter of Delta Gamma and serve as the Director of New Members. In my free time, I love to cook, explore coffee shops in the Cleveland area, and spend time outdoors when the sun is out! Keren Moiseev Hometown: Chicago, Illinois Academic Interests: Political Science, Philosophy, and History Extracurricular Activities: I am former Co-Chair of Outreach at Hillel Undergradu- ate Leadership Council (HULC) as well as Co-Founder, former Treasurer, and former Risk Manager of Case for Israel. I am also a Member At Large and student voice on the Hillel Board of Directors. Ethan Moroh Hometown: Albany, NY Academic Interests: Major in Materials Science and Engineering; Minors in History, Geological Sciences Extracurricular Activities: I am the Executive VP & Secretary for Hillel, a TA for Chemistry of Materials, and the Director of PR for the Undergraduate Materials Society. I also play the tuba in the CWRU Pep Band where I am the Risk Manager and Spartan Marching Band where I was a Low Brass Section Leader this past fall. Hometown: I am from Burlingame, California Hugh Smith Academic Interests: I am a double major in Biology and Applied Mathemat- ics specializing in biostatistics on the Pre-Med track. In the future, I want to be a pediatric surgeon. Extracurricular Activities: I am the community service chair on the board of Hillel and I am also a participant in a couple of community service organi- zations. I am a member of the Greek community on campus, as well as a player in the tennis club on the CWRU campus. Julia Silverstein 2 JDST eJournal Spring 2020 Yaakov Agam: Making the Unseen Visible Zachary Courtney Recognition for Outstanding Achievement “Kinetic” art refers to art that moves through space, either Zachary Courtney in some of its parts, or as a whole. “Optical” art refers to art that plays with visual perception, allowing the eye eighteen symbolically references the word “life,” just as to see a static image change, as the viewer’s focal point the word references life itself. Hence, Agam sees nine changes. Israeli artist, Yaacov Agam, is a leader in the field as a factor of life, and therefore holy (Park West Gallery of modern kinetic and optical art. Born in 1928, he grew 2010). For example, Agam’s sculpture, “Beating Heart” is up in a household where his father, an Orthodox rabbi, composed of nine identical curvilinear shapes, each about initially discouraged his artistic pursuits. As a young artist the size of a hand. These nine are positioned on a mirrored his career might have been stopped by the Commandment base that reflects them in an inverse dimension, creating against figurative imaging. But Agam found an integral image bigger than the sum of its parts: resolution in the Kabbalah, the folios of a total of eighteen visible images, referencing life. Jewish mysticism that encourage vision The pieces can be stacked, or moved to create a and sensation beyond the fixed experience countless number of highly distinct variations, of the mundane world. He embraced an both as static forms, and in forms that rock back entirely non-figurative form of transcendent and forth together, or in different rhythmic art that could not be fixed in space, or time. sections, bringing to mind Agam’s allusion to the His reference to mystical dimensions in his human heart, keeping time and sustaining life work; to time as a fourth dimension, and to with its rhythmic beating. It is an ideal example an integrating fifth dimension, have drawn of non-figurative, unfixed art, and of Agam’s some accusations of grandiose, pseudo- play with movement, time and the perception intellectual self-promotion. But this may of different dimensions. But it is also a uniquely be a pointless digression from Agam’s real Jewish expression of reverence for life. contribution to modern art: an aesthetic of ever-changing visual dimensions, through a Agam’s nine-branched “Levels Menorah” is an distinctly Jewish lens. example of distinctly Jewish optical art, made of Agam working with polished chrome, set into a base. Each candlestick The Beating Heart Agam studied at the Bezalel Academy of is a minimalist rod topped by a cup sitting on a Art and Design in Jerusalem. In 1949 he traveled to Zürich “saucer,” or bowl-shaped ring, to catch melting wax. Seven where he encountered three major influences (Ronen of the nine candlesticks are bent to form a centerpiece, 2007). First, he came under apprenticeship to Johannes and are flanked on either end by a straight candlestick. Itten, a Bauhaus theoretician who influenced his reliance In gematria, the number seven refers to the whole on primary colors and geometrical of Creation, as to the exhaustion of composition. He was similarly possibilities within the natural world, influenced by Siegfried Giedion, an completed within the discrete “whole” architectural critic whose writings of seven days. The center rods, standing dealt with the concept of time, space side by side, are bent to create seven and mechanization in contemporary horizontal bars. The widest bar is on the art. Finally, he was influenced by Max bottom, each bar narrowing up to the Brill, an abstract artist with an interest top, allowing us the sensation of different in the relationship between aesthetic “levels” moving forward or backward in and mathematical theories.