New Article: Harpaz & Jacobsen, EU Funding of Israeli Non-Governmental Human Rights Organizations

Harpaz, Guy, and Elisha Jacobsen. “The Israeli Collective Memory and the Masada Syndrome: A Political Instrument to Counter the EU Funding of Israeli Non-Governmental Human Rights Organizations.” Mediterranean Politics (early view; online first).

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2016.1151136

 

Abstract
The EU’s practice of funding Israeli non-governmental human rights organizations (hereinafter ‘HRNGOs’) has in recent years encountered a counter-strategy, pursued by certain Israeli NGOs and members of the Israeli government, media and academia. This counter-strategy has succeeded in discrediting the HRNGOs and the EU and rendering their mutual collaboration less effective. The purpose of this article is to contextualize the counter-strategy within the sphere of Israel’s collective memory. The article analyses the manner in which certain politicians and various members of the Israeli society (agents of memory), who themselves are the product of the evolving Israeli collective memory and identity (structure), attempt to draw on Israel’s collective memory/structure in order to advance their particular political agenda.

 

 

New Book: Shamir, The Native Foreigner; Representations of Hybridity in Modern Israeli Fiction

Shamir, Ayelet. The Native Foreigner. Representations of Hybridity in Modern Israeli Fiction. Tel Aviv: Resling, 2016 (in Hebrew).

 

 

The notion of hybridity is suppressed in the discussion over Israeli society, culture, and literature. This book deals with the concept of hybridity, its cultural genealogy, its essence and characteristics. It offers to use it as a prism for reading three works of modern Israeli prose, “Refuge” (1977) by Sami Michael; “Arabesques” (1986) by Anton Shammas and “The Liberated Bride “(2001) by A.B. Yehoshua.

These works represent the very essence of the cultural hybrid experience that exist between Jewish and Arabic, and express the social and linguistic dualism characteristic of this experience. Forces of attraction and repulsion interact between these two societies, and this dualism causes internal conflicts while allowing for mutual input. Alongside manifestations of anxiety, separatism, and rejection by the other minority, which is often perceived as a “native foreigner” within us, there is also an equally strong presence of wishes of mixture, attraction, and erotic intimacy, disruptive wishes which signify blurring and crossing of boundaries.

This book deals with various questions: who is the native foreigner? What is its voice? What is actually the hybrid “Third Israeli”? What might be the best literary expression of it?

 

AYELET SHAMIR is an author, and the chair of the Department of drama literature creative-expressive arts, at the Oranim Academic College.

 

 

 

New Book: Cohen, Literary Imagination in Israel-Palestine

Cohen, Hella Bloom. The Literary Imagination in Israel-Palestine. Orientalism, Poetry, and Biopolitics, Postcolonialism and Religions. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

This book presents a cutting-edge critical analysis of the trope of miscegenation and its biopolitical implications in contemporary Palestinian and Israeli literature, poetry, and discourse. The relationship between nationalism and demographics are examined through the narrative and poetic intrigue of intimacy between Arabs and Jews, drawing from a range of theoretical perspectives, including public sphere theory, orientalism, and critical race studies. Revisiting the controversial Brazilian writer Gilberto Freyre, who championed miscegenation in his revisionary history of Brazil, the book deploys a comparative investigation of Palestinian and Israeli writers’ preoccupation with the mixed romance. Author Hella Bloom Cohen offers new interpretations of works by Mahmoud Darwish, A.B. Yehoshua, Orly Castel-Bloom, Nathalie Handal, and Rula Jebreal, among others.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction to Israeli-Palestinian Literature and Postcolonial Studies: An Uneasy Relationship
• 2. Reading Freyre in the Holy Land
• 3. “The Synthetic Principle”: Darwish’s “Rita”
• 4. “Intimate Histories”: Internal Miscegenation in A. B. Yehoshua’s A Late Divorce
• 5. “Mixed Syndicate”: Poetics of Fabric under Occupation
• 6. Reading past Freyre: Disembodied Miscegenation
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

 

HELLA BLOOM COHEN is an assistant professor of English at St. Catherine University, USA. She previously held a visiting assistant professorship at Elon University, and has published on material culture and global literature.

 

 

 

ToC: Hebrew Studies 56 (2015)

Below are the relevant articles for Israel Studies from the latest issue of Hebrew Studies. For a full Table of Contents,click here.

 

Innovative Designation of Diminution in the Writings of Abraham Shlonsky

pp. 231-243

Bat-Zion Yemini

Memory and History in Israeli Post-Apocalyptic Theater

pp. 245-263

Zahava Caspi

Questioning Boundaries of Language and the World: Ambivalence and Disillusionment in the Writings of Shimon Adaf

pp. 265-294

Dorit Lemberger

Hebrew Neologisms in the Writings of Anton Shammas

pp. 295-314

Adel Shakour, Abdallah Tarabeih

The Pain of Two Homelands: Immigration to Israel in Twenty-First Century Hebrew Prose Fiction

pp. 315-331

Smadar Shiffman

“Our Virgin Friends and Wives”?: Female Sexual Subjectivity in Yona Wallach’s Poetry

pp. 333-356

Amalia Ziv

New Testament Jesus in Modern Jewish Literature: A Symposium

pp. 357-358

Zev Garber

Jesus and the Pharisees through the Eyes of Two Modern Hebrew Writers: A Contrarian Perspective

pp. 359-365

Neta Stahl

A Question of Truth: Form, Structure, and Character in Der man fun Natseres

pp. 367-376

Melissa Weininger

Overtones of Isaac and Jesus in Modern Hebrew Narrative

pp. 377-384

Aryeh Wineman

The Jewish Jesus: Conversation, Not Conversion

pp. 385-392

Zev Garber

Reviews

 

Compassion and Fury: On The Fiction of A. B. Yehoshua by Gilead Morahg (review)

pp. 433-436

Yael Halevi-Wise

---

Periodicals

pp. 437-456

Books Received — 2015

pp. 457-460

New Article: Lehrer, Conversations with Steiner and Yehoshua, on Jews, Jewishness and Israel

Lehrer, Natasha. “Baggage Carousel: Conversations with George Steiner and A.B. Yehoshua, on Jews, Jewishness and Israel.” Jewish Quarterly 62.2 (2015): 11-14.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0449010X.2015.1051709

 

Excerpt

Steiner has met with a huge amount of hostility (misplaced, in my opinion) throughout his career for his vocal opposition to Zionism and his criticism of Israel, but when we meet he strikes me as more melancholy than fierce on the subject. “When Israel is in danger,” he says, “we all become Zionists. Temporary, honorary Zionists. That, I can fully understand. They are, after all, our brothers and sisters. That doesn’t mean I have to agree with them. And it does not mean that I feel I should go … . Many years ago, I was offered one or two major posts in Israel, and I had to think about it. Yes, I had a little Hebrew from my bar mitzvah, but I did not continue with Hebrew; I plunged into Greek and Latin, the other road. Perhaps that was a great mistake. If I had learned Hebrew properly, maybe I could have contributed to making Israel a more liberal, a more humane place. But I have forfeited that chance, and I have no right to criticise where I am not prepared to take the risks and to contribute. And the risks are of course enormous in Israel. But that does not mean one has to agree with their policy.”

[…]

Yehoshua has been widely, and erroneously, quoted as telling the AJC audience that Judaism outside Israel has no future. “The Diaspora has been around for over 2,500 years, and there is no reason that it shouldn’t last for another 2,500 years. I believe that just as there will be settlers in space and on Mars, there will also be Jewish communities who will still sing ‘next year in Jerusalem’. I am not as certain, I am sad to say, that the state of Israel will last another hundred years, if she doesn’t find a reasonable modus vivendi with her neighbours in general, and the Palestinians in particular.”

 
 
 
 

Conference Program: NAPH 2015 (June 22 – 24, University of Memphis)

The preliminary program for the upcoming NAPH 2015 Conference at the University of Memphis is now complete and has been posted on its website. Click here for full program (PDF).

• Registration is now open for non-presenters. To register, please go to the above link and click on the “Conference Registration” feature. Banquet tickets can also be pre-purchased there.
• For information regarding the conference venue as well as conference accommodations, please visit: https://naphhebrew.org/conference/naph-conference-2015. Navigate to “Travel and Accommodations Info” feature for Travel and Accommodations information.
• Non-presenting members who are interested in chairing one of the conference sessions should complete the short webform at https://naphhebrew.org/conference-chairs.
• For those who wish to purchase additional kosher meals (other than the Banquet), they may be pre-purchased and delivered to the Holiday Inn every day during the conference. The meals will be double wrapped in a to-go box and delivered to the Holiday Inn. (They cannot be delivered to the Fogelman Convention Center as they will charge a costly delivery fee per order.) Double wrapped plastic cutlery will be also be provided.

 

Panels on Israeli Literature and Culture

 

Day 1 (June 22, Monday)

Session 1: 9:00-10:45

1.1 Literature: Literature and Politics

Batya Shimony, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

כבר לא קזבלן – ייצוגי החייל המזרחי בספרות העברית

Rima Shikhmanter, Tel Aviv University

הפנייה ימינה: הימין הפוליטי ברומן ההיסטורי הישראלי לילדים ולנוער

Tzipora Kedar, Zefat Academic College

“מרובעים” של דה-האן: פוליטיקאי מול משורר?

 

1.3 Pedagogy: Teaching the Hebrew Textual Tradition across Cultures

Organizer: Or Rogovin, Bucknell University

Or Rogovin, Bucknell University

The Hebrew Bible in Israeli and American Culture

Naomi Sokoloff, University of Washington

“Modern Poetry, Traditional Prayers: Teaching Jewish and Islamic

Traditions”

Edna Lauden, Tel Aviv University

“Take your son, your only son, whom you love…”: One story, Two

narratives.

 

Session 2 11:15-1:00

2.1 Literature: Female Master Poets: Yocheved Bat Miriam and Dalia Hertz

Organizer: Ruth Kartun-Blum, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Ruth Kartun-Blum, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

בת-מרים: משוררת למשוררים

Uzi Shavit, Tel Aviv University

עמי והם: התגובה השירית של שלונסקי ובת-מרים למלחמת העולם השנייה

והשואה בזמן אמת

Anat Weisman, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

דליה הרץ – משוררת לעצמה?

 

2.2 Literature: Studies in Modern Jewish Thought and Classical Hebrew

Fiction

Yoav Ronel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

מלאך ההיסטוריה של ברדיצ’בסקי: תשוקה וכתיבה ברומן “מרים”

Laura Wiseman, York University

התרוצצות בין הקדרות: המתח בין הצמחונות לבין התשוקה לבשר ברומן

שירה מאת ש”י עגנון

Mark Kaplowitz, University of Memphis

Hermann Cohen, The Last Maskil

 

2.4 Pedagogy: On Teaching Hebrew in Israel and Around the World

Nataliia Bakulina, National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine,

Institute of Pedagogy, Kiev, Ukraine

הערכת הישגים לימודיים בעברית כשפה נוספת בבתי ספר יסודיים באוקרינה

Paul Overland & Jennifer Noonan, Ashland Theological Seminary; Liberty University Baptist Theological Seminary

Assets of Communicative Language Teaching for an Oral-Based Culture: a Field Report

Rachel Rosner, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; The David Yellin Academic College of Education

בחינת מונחים ועניינים בתכניות להוראת כתיבה במוסדות החינוך בישראל בראי תאוריות פילוסופיות

 

Session 3 2:30-4:15

3.1 Literature: The Displaced, the Detached, and the Hebrew Canon

Aviv Ben-Or, Brandeis University

The Arab-Jew as Displaced Intellectual in Shimon Ballas’ Fiction

Nancy Berg, Washington University in St. Louis

The Canon, the Academy, and shelilat hagolah

Ronit Gez, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

הגרסה הנשית לנארטיב התלוש בטרילוגיה – ‘בחינות’, ‘שוקולד’, ‘קיצו של זיו סנדר’ מאת דבורה בארון

 

Session 4 4:30-6:15

4.1 Literature: New Views of Time in Hebrew Literature

Organizer: Roy Greenwald, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Roy Greenwald, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

קול בלי בעלים: על משחק המבוכים בשירתה של יונה וולך

Hanna Soker-Schwager, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

“הכול כאן מולחם וחותך”– הצזורה בשירת חדווה הרכבי

Vered Shemtov & Elena Gomel, Stanford University; Tel Aviv University

Limbotopia: Being Stuck in the Continuous Present in Hebrew Literature

 

4.2 Literature: Hebrew Drama: Theory and Practice

Olga Levitan, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

זיכרון כמופע: שולחן על פי אידה פינק – יצירתה של נעמי יואלי

Israel Hameiri, University of Haifa; Oranim College

העיבוד הדרמתי, תיאוריה ופרקטיקה: ‘אכזר מכל המלך’ ו’בגדי המלך’ מאת נסים אלוני

 

Day 2 (June 23, Tuesday)

Session 5: 8:30-10:15

5.1 Literature: Studies in Works by Leah Goldberg, Avot Yeshuron, Erez Biton, and Haviva Pedaya

Sara Meyer, Haifa University

יסודות ארספואטיים בספרי הילדים של לאה גולדברג

Chaya Shacham, Haifa University

“זְמַנִי חָרוּט בְשִירַי”: גלגולם של חומרי מציאות מן היומן אל השיר ביצירת לאה גולדברג

Lilach Lachman, Haifa University

‘Revealment’ and Blindness in Hebrew Poetry: Avot Yeshurun, Erez Biton and Haviva Pedaya

 

5.2 Language: Language, Stylistics, Translation, and Rhetoric

Aharon Gaimani, Bar-Ilan University

לשון וסגנון באיגרות בשורת הפטירה כמנהג תימן

Mohammed Alghbban, King Saud University

Literary Translation Activity between Hebrew and Arabic

Adel Shakour, Al-Qasemi Academy

מאפיינים רטוריים בשיח הפוליטי של מנהיגים ערבים במדינת ישראל

 

Session 6 10:45-12:30

6.1 Literature: Archeology of a Future: Treasures from Hebrew Literary

Archives

Chair and respondent: Giddon Ticotsky, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Raquel Stepak, Tel Aviv University

שירי יהודה עמיחי מתקופת הצבא הבריטי בהקשר לכלל יצירתו הספרותית

Maayan Gelbard-Aziza, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

הדרך שלא נבחרה: מה מספרים המחזות הגנוזים של תרצה אתר?

 

6.2 Literature: Politics and Ethics

Amit Assis, McGill University

ס. יזהר: פואטיקה, פוליטיקה ושמירת הטבע

Renana Keydar, Stanford University

מיתוס הרב קוליות – על המתח שבין סיפור סיפורים ועשיית צדק במשפט אייכמן

Ari Ofengenden, Brandeis University

Globalization and Biodisaster in Contemporary Literature 2000-2015

 

6.3 Pedagogy: Language and Thought, Language and Culture

Esther Raizen, University of Texas at Austin

מקומן של מיומנויות חשיבה מסדר גבוה בכיתות הלשון

Arielle Friedman, Oranim Academic College of Education

כלי לניתוח סמיוטי של השפה הקולנועית: ניתוח הסרט הישראלי “שש פעמים” במסגרת חינוכית

Miri Talmon, Tel Aviv University

“Films from Here”: Discourses of Locality in Modern Israeli Culture

 

Session 7: 2:00-4:00

7.1 Literature: Home and Homelessness in Modern Hebrew Literature

Iris Milner, Tel Aviv University

קריאת התיגר על הבית ב”והיה העקוב למישור” לעגנון

Hannah Naveh, Tel Aviv University

ביתה של עקרת הבית: נשים בבית בסיפורי “משפחה” של דבורה בארון

Michael Gluzman, Tel Aviv University

חוסר-בית, נדודים, בריחה: גנסין בארץ ישראל

Uri Cohen, Tel Aviv University

ביותו של הכוח הזר: שכול וכישלון ומגילת אסתר כמודל מגדרי פוליטי

 

7.2 Literature: Hebrew Press and Hebrew Culture

Orly Tsarfaty, Academic College of Emek Yezreel

המאבק על הזיכרון: השיח על השואה בעיתון החרדי “משפחה” – כמרחב לכינון זהות תרבותית נבדלת

Michal Meishar, Bar-Ilan University

כתב העת ‘גזית’ כמעצב תרבות

Moshe Pelli, University of Central Florida

דרכי עריכה וסגנון של יהושע השל שור – החלוץ

Gideon Kouts, University of Paris – 8

מלחמה ושלום בעיתון “הלבנון”

 

8.1 Literature: Studies in Modern Hebrew Fiction: Nathan Shaham, Tsruya

Shalev, and A.B. Yehoshua

Ayala Amir, Bar-Ilan University, The Open University of Israel

הפרטים כפי שנצטלמו אז: מרחב, מראות וזיכרון ב”שבעה מהם” וב”הם יגיעו מחר” מאת נתן שחם

Yigal Schwartz, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

סיפור ההתקבלות ואמנות הסיפור של צרויה שלו

Gilead Morahg, University of Wisconsin-Madison

הגרושה המשחררת: ישן וחדש ב’’ניצבת’’ של א’’ב יהושע

 

8.2 Language: Early Modern Hebrew

Eran Buchaltzev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

נברא במילים – ועד הלשון העברית ככוהני השפה הלאומית

Doly Levi, Levinsky College of Education

עיון לשוני סגנוני בפיליטון “בטלנות” של אלחנן לייב לוינסקי

Keren Mock, Ecole Normale Supérieure/ Sorbonne Paris Cité

הערך המילוני “מצפון”: מקורותיו בספרייתו של אליעזר בן-יהודה

8.3 Pedagogy: Israel in Short Films: Integrating Film into the Hebrew

Language Classroom

Isaac Zablocki, Director of the Israel Film Center at JCC Manhattan

This session will feature three Award Winning Short films and conversations coming out of Israel’s blossoming film industry followed by a demonstration of how films can be best integrated into the classroom.

 

Day 3 (June 24, Wednesday)

Session 9: 8:30-10:30

9.1 Literature: Studies in Current Hebrew Fiction; Part I: Leah Aini’s Works

Irit Ronen, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

הפואטיקה של לאה איני: שבירת הז’אנר

Ofra Matzov-Cohen, Ariel University

מעשה הנתינה ל’אחר’ ומשמעויותיו על פי הרומן ורד הלבנון מאת לאה איני

Talila Kosh-Zohar, Kibbuzim College of Education, Technology and Arts

חריגות והתנגדות: ייצוגי גוף בנובלה “בת המקום” של לאה איני

 

Session 10: 10:45-12:30

10.1 Literature: Studies in Current Hebrew Fiction; Part II Shimon Adaf and Merav Nakar-Sadi’s Works

Rina Baroukh, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

“החיתוך של האור מבעד רצף הזמן”: על האור ביצירתו בפרוזה של שמעון אדף

Hadas Shabat Nadir, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

חידת האחים המתים וגילויה של תורת סוד גנוזה ממרוקו בטרילוגיה “ורד יהודה” לשמעון אדף

Nurit Buchweitz, Beit-Berl University

NIMBY, or Multicultural Inclusion in Merav Nakar-Sadi’s Oxana

 

10.2 Language: Proper Names, Language in Advertising

Shlomit Landman, Achva Academic College

שמות פרטיים דו-מיניים עבור יילודים במגזר היהודי במדינת ישראל

Bat-Zion Yemini, Levinsky College and Talpiot College

השמות הפרטיים המקראיים והמודרניים– בבואה של מערכות שונות של זמן-אספקט-מודוס

Irit Zeevi, Oranim Academic College of Education and Emek Yezreel Academic College & Lee Cahaner, Oranim Academic College

שפת הפרסומת החרדית לנדל”ן כמייצגת את תפיסת המקום

 

Session 11: 2:00-3:45

11.1 Literature: Jewish Traditions and Modern Hebrew Literature

Zafrira Lidovsky Cohen, Stern College of Yeshiva University

“צדיק ורע לו”: מוטיב הצדיק בשירת אביגדור המאירי ואברהם שלונסקי

Moshe Yitzhaki, Oranim Academic College of Education

התקדשות ורליגיוזיות בחיי היום-יום: הצעה לקרוא ביצירות י.ח. ברנר כממשיך ומחדש מסורת מדרשי חז”ל

Moria Dayan-Codish, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

האסתטיקה החז”לית ביצירתו של שלום יעקב אברמוביץ

11.2 Language: Sociolinguistics, Linguistic Creativity, Morphology (Word Formation)

Esther Bahat, Tel Aviv University

“כשהתותחים רועמים – המוזות שותקות”. האומנם? יצירתיות בעיתונות הישראלית בתקופת מבצע “צוק איתן”

Marc Bernstein, Michigan State University

“Give Me Your Identity!”: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Arab Labor

Nimrod Shatil, Zefat Academic College

מקומו של המשקל במוח של דובר העברית בן-ימינו

 

New Article: Maher, Journeys into the Western Galilee, in Khouri and Yehoshua

Maher, John. “Blue, Half-Forgotten Hills: Journeys into the Western Galilee, in Ilyas Khouri’s Gate of the Sun and A.B. Yehoshua’s The Liberated Bride.” Comparative Critical Studies 10, supplement (2013): 107-121.

URL: http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/ccs.2013.0116

Excerpt

At the end of the day, Rivlin will come no closer to finding the so-called ‘secret’ of the Algerian civil war than he will to finding the ‘secret’ of his son’s failed marriage, a tale, literally and metaphorically, of subterranean incest which mirrors his own ignorance of the lives of the minority in Haifa and Acre and Jerusalem and the Galilee. As with Naim, the young Palestinian boy in The Lover, the servant always know more about the master than the master knows about the servant.

ToC: Jewish Social Studies 18,3 (2012): Special issue; History and Responsibility: Hebrew Literature Facing 1948

Volume 18, Number 3, Spring/Summer 2012

History and Responsibility: Hebrew Literature Facing 1948, edited by Amir Eshel, Hannan Hever, and Vered Karti Shemtov

Table of Contents

Articles

 Introduction        pp. 1-9

        Amir Eshel, Hannan Hever, Vered Karti Shemtov

 

Nation, Village, Cave: A Spatial Reading of 1948 in Three Novels of Anton Shammas, Emile Habiby, and Elias Khoury    

pp. 10-26

        Lital Levy

 

An Incomplete Frame Narrative Revisited: S. Yizhar’s Introduction to “Hirbet Hiz‘ah”    

pp. 27-37

        Todd Hasak-Lowy

 

The Time That Returns: Speculative Temporality in S. Yizhar’s 1948

pp. 38-54

        Shaul Setter

 

A Poetics of Haunting: From Yizhar’s Hirbeh to Yehoshua’s Ruins to Koren’s Crypts    

pp. 55-69

        Gil Hochberg

 

“I Said unto You When You Were in Your Blood, Live”: Yoram Kaniuk’s Tasha”h    

pp. 70-84

        Amir Eshel

 

Nakba and Holocaust: Mechanisms of Comparison and Denial in the Israeli Literary Imagination    

pp. 85-98

        Shira Stav

 

Abba Kovner: The Ritual Function of His Battle Missives    

pp. 99-119

        Michal Arbell

 

Unraveling the Wars of 1948    

pp. 120-135

        Uri Cohen

 

 

 S. Y. Agnon’s Jerusalem: Before and After 1948     

pp. 136-152

        Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi

 

 

“The Two Gaze Directly into One Another’s Face”: Avot Yeshurun between the Nakba and the Shoah—An Israeli Perspective   

pp. 153-163

        Hannan Hever

 

 Sovereignty and Melancholia: Israeli Poetry after 1948    

pp. 164-179

        Michael Gluzman

 

Beyond Thematicism in the Historiography of Post-1948 Political Poetry    

pp. 180-196

        Chana Kronfeld

 

Citizenship and Sacrifice: The Tragic Scheme of Moshe Shamir’s He Walked through the Fields    

pp. 197-211

        Mikhal Dekel

 

“I Was in a War, and in a War Things Like That Happen”: On Judgments and Ethical Investigations in Israeli Law and Literature    

pp. 212-224

        Renana Keydar

 

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                      Contributors    

pp. 225-227

 

                      In Forthcoming Issues    

p. 228

Conference: “The Stranger at Our Gates”, Transdisciplinary Conference at JTS

Please Join Us for “The Stranger at Our Gates”  A Transdisciplinary Conference on Political and Religious Issues of Identity Speakers Nancy Berlinger, The Hastings Center Michael Gottsegen, Brown University Jenny Labendz, Barnard College Oliver Leaman, University of Kentucky Ranen Omer-Sherman, University of Miami Maeera Schreiber, University of Utah Monday, April 23, 2012 9:00 a.m.–7:30 p.m. The Jewish Theological Seminary 3080 Broadway (at 122nd Street), New York City Registration for the all-day conference is $25 (free for graduate students); this includes breakfast, lunch, and coffee. The conference concludes with the Jack and Lewis Rudin Lecture, a public panel entitled “‘The Stranger at Our Gates’: Jewish Perspectives on Exclusion and Inclusion in Contemporary America,” at 6:00 p.m. Registration for the conference automatically includes the evening panel. To register or for further information, please contact Ute Steyer at utsteyer@jtsa.edu. Space is limited. Please note: If you are interested in attending the Jack and Lewis Rudin Lecture only, it is free, but reservations are required. RSVP online at www.jtsa.edu/stranger or call (212) 280-6093 (this does not include registration for the all-day conference). Please arrive at least 15 minutes early to allow sufficient time for check-in, and have photo ID available. This event is cosponsored by the Center for Pastoral Education at JTS, and the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies of The Jewish Theological Seminary. The Center for Pastoral Education is generously funded by the Charles H. Revson Foundation and the Booth Ferris Foundation. ABOUT THE CONFERENCE Globalization has increased mobility and international collaboration, and facilitated the creation of transnational entities such as the European Union. However, national identities have become more impenetrable at the same time. In the United States, there has been steadily increasing concern with questions of identity and citizenship. The dichotomy between “citizens” and “aliens” (whether “documented” or not) is ever apparent in debates about immigration policy, especially in arguments about access to public services such as education and health care. There are two basic questions: What normative principles define the rights of entry and access? What principles inform (or should inform) the criteria for membership and group identity? Since policy decisions in these areas often are moral decisions rooted in religious or quasi-religious arguments, it is important to examine how the public debate is informed by underlying religious premises: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have much to say about the politics of inclusion and exclusion. This transdisciplinary conference devoted to issues of identity will focus on the contribution of the Jewish experience to the debate about those issues. Jews have played the roles of both “self” and “other” in various times and places from the biblical period to the present. While Jewish law is protective of the rights of “strangers,” these nevertheless may be met with suspicion, and regarded as a threat to ethnic/religious identity and group solidarity. The papers presented will explore questions of identity and otherness from various fields of Jewish studies, including Contemporary Israeli Literature, Philosophy, and Talmud and Rabbinics: PROGRAM 9:00 a.m. Breakfast and Opening Remarks by Professor Arnold M. Eisen, chancellor, JTS 9:15 a.m. “Recognizing the Other as Us: Undocumented Immigrants and Access to Health Care”—Dr. Nancy Berlinger, deputy director and research scholar, The Hastings Center 10:15 a.m. “How Comparable Are Jews and Muslims as ‘the Other’?: Is the Jewish Experience a Paradigm of Integration and Persecution of the Other?”—Dr. Oliver Leaman, professor of Philosophy and Zantker Professor of Judaic Studies, University of Kentucky 11:15 a.m. “Levinas and the Stranger at the Gates: The Ethics of Asylum in Israel and the United States. Balancing Ethical Responsibilities between the Other and the ‘Third’ Part”—Dr. Michael Gottsegen, visiting assistant professor of Judaic Studies and Hirschfeld Presidential Fellow in Comparative Studies, Brown University 12:15 p.m. Lunch 1:15 p.m. “Ancient Rabbinic Models of Learning with Non-Jews: The Role of the Gentile in the Rabbinic Discourse”—Dr. Jenny Labendz, term assistant professor of Religion, Barnard College 2:15 p.m. “Addressing Others, Acquiring Selves: The Buberian Poetics of Admiel Kosman and Liberation from Confines of Identity in Modern Israeli Literature”—Dr. Maeera Shreiber, associate professor of English and affiliated associate professor at the Middle East Center, University of Utah 3:15 p.m. “Mr. Mani and The Liberated Bride: Jews as ‘Other’ and Arabs in A. B. Yehoshua”—Dr. Ranen Omer-Sherman, professor of English and Jewish Studies, University of Miami 4:15 p.m. Concluding Remarks by Ute Steyer, research and program manager, Center for Pastoral Education, JTS 6:00 p.m. The Jack and Lewis Rudin Lecture “‘The Stranger at Our Gates’: Jewish Perspectives on Exclusion and Inclusion in Contemporary America” Panelists Saul J. Berman, JD, associate professor of Jewish Studies, Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University;                            adjunct professor of Law, Columbia Law School Suzanne Last Stone, JD, University Professor of Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization, professor of Law,                             and director of the Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law,                             Yeshiva University Burton L. Visotzky, Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies, Louis Stein Director of the Louis                            Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies, and director of the Milstein Center for Interreligious                            Dialogue, JTS Moderator Justus Baird, director of the Center for Multifaith Education,  Auburn Theological Seminary The Jack and Lewis Rudin Lectures provide the opportunity for eminent academics, religious leaders, intellectuals, and public figures to discuss topics of interest with the JTS community and the public at large.

Cite: Morahg, The Perils of Hybridity

Morahg, Gilead. "The Perils of Hybridity: Resisting the Postcolonial Perspective in A. B. Yehoshua’s The Liberating Bride." AJS Review 33,2 (2009): 363-378.

Abstract: The Liberating Bride (2001) figures as the most discursive of A. B. Yehoshua’s novels. It follows the comings and goings of Yochanan Rivlin, an aging Middle East scholar, as he tries to discover the untold cause of his son’s failed marriage and struggles to breathe life into his own moribund study of the causes of internal violence in contemporary Algiers. The novel abounds in the minutiae of everyday life and the often inane nature of human conversation. Its progression is intermittently impeded by eruptions of social comedy and political parody. It dwells on the myriad routines of marital, familial, and social transactions and gives ample scope to arcane academic disputations. But this seemingly sprawling narrative surface generates a carefully crafted deep structure by means of which the novel conducts a wide-ranging exploration of personal and political conundrums. As in many of his previous novels, Yehoshua’s practice of constructing analogies between family situations and national issues enables him to engage psychological motivations, moral considerations, and ideological determinants that affect both the private and the public spheres of life.

 

Keywords: Israel: Literature, A.B. Yehoshua, א.ב. יהושע, הכלה משחררת