New Book: Flantsboim Gaber, The Golden Fantasy in the Poetry of Laor and Mishol (in Hebrew)

Flantsboim Gaber, Ruja. Longing for Kyoto: the “Golden Fantasy” in the Poetry of Yitzhak Laor and Agi Mishol. Tel Aviv: Resling, 2016 (in Hebrew).

 

 

גם כשאני בקיוטו, אני מתגעגע לקיוטו”, כך כתב המשורר היפני בָּשׁוֹ במאה ה-17 וניסח בצמצום פיוטי רב-עוצמה תובנה שהפסיכואנליזה ניסחה מאות שנים לאחר מכן. תובנה זו היא הבסיס לכתיבתו של ספר זה.

“פנטזיית הזהב”, מושג שטבע הפסיכואנליטיקאי סידני סמית, מבטאת את הכמיהה העמוקה של נושאיה לחזור לקיום בראשיתי-סימביוטי שבו כל צרכיהם הרגשיים והגופניים מסופקים במלואם – מצב המיוחס בדרך כלל לשלבי ההתפתחות המוקדמים ביותר של התינוק. פעמים רבות נתפסת הפנטזיה כמנגנון הגנה פסיכולוגי שמקורו בתכנים רגשיים מייסרים הקשורים לחרדות פרידה. סקירת הקשריה הספרותיים והתרבותיים מצביעה על כך שכמיהה זו נוכחת בתרבות המערבית מראשית ימיה ועד העידן הפוסטמודרני.

המחקר המוצג כאן מציע יישום של מושג “פנטזיית הזהב” על השירה העברית של שנות ה-80 וה-90, בעיקר על שירתם של יצחק לאור ואגי משעול. לאחר שהוא בוחן את הקשרים הקיימים בין דרכי הביטוי של הפנטזיה לבין זרמי העומק הפועלים בעידן הפוסטמודרני בכלל ובשירה הפוסטמודרנית בפרט, הוא מראה כיצד היא מופיעה כמוטיב מרכזי חוזר בפואטיקות של לאור ומשעול, לצד משוררים עבריים אחרים הפועלים במקביל להם. הספר מעמיק בבחינת התהליכים הנפשיים העומדים ביסוד פואטיקות אלה, ומצביע על האופן שבו מלמדים ביטוייה השונים על תבנית העומק העומדת בתשתיתן המשפיעה על עיצוב המבנה והתוכן שלהן. מחקר זה חושף את מגוון האמצעים התמטיים, המבניים, הפואטיים, והלשוניים – האובססיביים לעתים – שבהם חותרים השירים למימוש פואטי של “פנטזיית הזהב”.

ד”ר רוּזָ’ה פְלַנְצְבּוֹים גָבֵּר היא פסיכולוגית קלינית וחוקרת שירה באוריינטציה פסיכואנליטית.

 

 

 

New Article: Wiseman, Dahlia Ravikovitch’s ‘Egla ‘Arufa

Wiseman, Laura. “Voice of Responsibility: Dahlia Ravikovitch’s ‘Egla ‘Arufa (Felled Heifer).” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 15.2 (2016): 301-17.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14725886.2015.1133178

 

Abstract

In a cycle of poems, Sugeyot beyahadut bat zemanenu, “Issues in Contemporary Judaism,” Dahlia Ravikovitch protests against human suffering and fatalities that occur during war and conflicts of attrition involving Israel’s indigenous peoples and contiguous populations. Among the poetry, ‘Egla ‘arufa, with its cryptic title and densely encoded contents, requires textual “demystification” for its central message to be heard. First, this article identifies the most crucial pair of Hebrew sources underlying this poem and discusses their intertextual influence and the transition between them for an enriched reading. Second, through textual analysis this study applies a postmodern literary poetic – a “hermeneutic lag” – to a unique dynamic in the dimensions of the writing. In general, I relate to selected poems by Dahlia Ravikovitch as self-portraits, and regard “Felled Heifer” as an abstract figuration of the voice of the speaker: the voice of responsibility.

 

 

 

New Book: Hever, Suddenly the Sight of War

Hever, Hannan. Suddenly, the Sight of War. Violence and Nationalism in Hebrew Poetry in the 1940s. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016.

 

Suddenly, the Sight of War is a genealogy of Hebrew poetry written in pre-state Israel between the beginning of World War II and the War of Independence in 1948. In it, renowned literary scholar Hannan Hever sheds light on how the views and poetic practices of poets changed as they became aware of the extreme violence in Europe toward the Jews.

In dealing with the difficult topics of the Shoah, Natan Alterman’s 1944 publication of The Poems of the Ten Plagues proved pivotal. His work inspired the next generation of poets like Haim Guri, as well as detractors like Amir Gilboa. Suddenly, the Sight of War also explores the relations between the poetry of the struggle for national independence and the genre of war-reportage, uniquely prevalent at the time. Hever concludes his genealogy with a focus on the feminine reaction to the War of Independence showing how women writers such as Lea Goldberg and Yocheved Bat-Miryam subverted war poetry at the end of the 1940s. Through the work of these remarkable poets, we learn how a culture transcended seemingly unspeakable violence.

 

Table of Contents

Part I: Hebrew Symbolist Poetry During World War II
1. “The Real Has Become a Symbol”
2. The Dispute over War Poetry
3. Criticism of Nationalism Violence
4. Reading Nationalist Poetry Critically
5. Nationalism Anthologized
6. The Living-Dead in Joy of the Poor
7. Revence on a Nationalist Scale
8. Leah Goldberg Writes War Poetry
9. The Duality of the Symbolist Woman Poet
10. The Living-Dead and the Female Body
11. Amir Gilboa: Boy Poet

Part II: Historical Analogy and National Allegory During the Holocaust
12. A Surprising Moral Judgment
13. The Uncommon Stance of a Major Poet
14. Critical Reception
15. A Postnationalist Reading
16. A Symbol, Not an Allegory
17. Allegory in The Poems of the Plagues of Egypt versus Symbolism in Joy of the Poor
18. Allegory as a Nonhegemonic Stance
19. Alterman and the Memory of the Holocaust
20. The Father-Son Strategy
21. Blind Vengeance
22. Breaking the Cycle of Crime and Punishment
23. History of the Defeated

Part III: Symbols of Death in the National War for Independence
26. Return of the Hegemonic Symbol
27. The Living-Dead in the Independence War
28. Amir Gilboa and the Subversion of the Symbol
29. Gilboa versus the Metaphor of the Living-Dead
30. Poets as Reporters
31. Sorrow Petrified into Symbols
32. Hegemonic Strategies
33. From Reportage to Lyric
34. Women Write of Fallen Soldiers as Flesh and Blood
35. In the Service of National Subjectivity
36. Women and the Metaphor of the Living-Dead
37. Criticism of the Living-Dead Metaphor
38. The Authority and Power of Women
39. Popular versus Canonical Mourning
40. The Secrets and Power of Women

Conclusion
Index

 

HANNAN HEVER is the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at Yale University. He is the author of several books, including Producing the Modern Hebrew Canon.

 

 

 

New Article: Rosen, The Poetry of 1.5 and Second-Generation Israelis of Hungarian Origin

Rosen, Ilana. “The Poetry of 1.5 and Second-Generation Israelis of Hungarian Origin.” Hungarian Cultural Studies 8 (2015): 46-62.

ְְ 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/ahea.2015.218

 

Abstract

This article continues my 2014 article in this journal, in which I presented a beginning of work on contemporary Israeli prose writers of Hungarian origin. My analysis of those works showed that they are governed by recurring concerns, or literary themes, such as: the memory or post-memory of the Holocaust; Hungarian-to-Hebrew language and translation peculiarities; preoccupation with the family’s past, including that of remote relatives; and fascination with home objects, dishes, and recipes representing the family’s Hungarian past. Following my work on those prose works, in this article I focus on the works and worlds of 1.5 and second-generation Hungarian-Israeli poets and explore, first, the presence of the concerns or themes governing this group’s prose works, and, second, issues of identity through the poets’ depictions of experiences such as persecution, displacement, emigration, and re-settlement in Israel. My present discussion of the 1.5 and second-generation Hungarian-Israeli poets is divided into four themes: the Holocaust as an epitome of catastrophe, the Holocaust as memory and post-memory, co-fusion of languages and cultures, and the eternal mental displacement of the poets’ parents.

 

 

 

Conference: AJS Program Book now online (Boston, Dec 13-15, 2015)

The 47th Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies will take place in Boston, December 13-15, 2015.

The full program is now available on the AJS website: http://www.ajsnet.org/conference-menu.htm

You may also download the program here: PDF

 

 

ToC: World Literature Today 89.3-4 (2015); special section: New Voices in Contemporary Hebrew Literature

Cohen, Jessica, Adriana X. Jacobs, and Adam Rovner, eds. World Literature Today 89.3-4 (2015). Special Section: New Hebrew Writing

Prose, Poetry, and the Heresy of Normalcy: New Voices in Contemporary Hebrew Literature (pp. 60-63)
Jessica Cohen , Adriana X. Jacobs and Adam Rovner

Alas, Baghdad Sits Solitary (pp. 64-65)
Almog Behar and Translated by Lisa Katz

Rock, Paper (pp. 66-72)
Tomer Gardi and Translated by Jessica Cohen

To Jaffa (pp. 73-75)
Ayman Sikseck and Translated by Evan Fallenberg

Four Poems (pp. 76-77)
Mei-Tal Nadler and Translated by Rachel Tzvia Back

Helping Young Writers Find Their Voice: A Conversation with Dory Manor (pp. 78-81)
Adriana X. Jacobs, Translated by Adam Rovner and Adriana X. Jacobs

Nine Fictions (pp. 82-83)
Daniel Oz and Translated by Jessica Cohen

Screw You, Zamenhof (pp. 84-85)
Yiftach Ashkenazi and Translated by Adam Rovner

Book Week (p. 86)
Raveh Sagie and Translated by Daniella Zamir

Four Poems (p. 87)
Yaakov Biton and Translated by Yosefa Raz and Translated by Shaul Setter

Three Poems (pp. 88-89)
Tahel Frosh and Translated by Adriana X. Jacobs

The Sounds of Memory in Writing: A Conversation with Ronit Matalon (pp. 90-93)
Dinah Assouline Stillman and Translated by Dinah Assouline Stillman

Five Poems (pp. 94-95)
Saar Yachin and Translated by Alexandra Zelman-Doring

Mosquito (pp. 96-98)
Roy Chen and Translated by Jessica Cohen

Master of the Short Story (an excerpt) (pp. 99-101)
Maya Arad and Translated by Jessica Cohen

Readers’ Reports (pp. 102-105)
Yael Neeman and Translated by Jessica Cohen

ToC: Shofar 33.4 (2015); special issue: Contemporary Israeli Literature

Coming soon (by July 1) in Shofar, a special issue on contemporary Israeli literature, edited by Rachel S. Harris.

Shofar is available on JSTOR and Project Muse.

Hebrew in English: The New Transnational Hebrew Literature

by Melissa Weininger

Although the historiography of Hebrew literature has often retrospectively portrayed its development as an Israeli phenomenon, recent scholarship has shown the ways in which Hebrew literature’s origins lie largely in the Diaspora. Two new books by Israeli writers written in English, Shani Boianjiu’s The People of Forever Are Not Afraid and Ayelet Tsabari’s The Best Place on Earth, return to the diasporic roots of Hebrew literature by deliberately placing themselves as a challenge to the Zionist narrative of literary historiography. This article elaborates the ways that these books use English to explore the transnational nature of Hebrew literature and participate in a larger literary conversation about globalization. Their linguistic experimentation is also tied to the thematic challenges they pose to foundational Israeli mythologies, like that of the New Hebrew Man, through an emphasis on marginal characters and themes. This literature, which I call “Hebrew in English,” stands as a critique of hegemonic constructions of Israeli identity, nationalism, and culture.

Between the Backpack and the Tent: Home, Zionism, and a New Generation in Eshkol Nevo’s Novels Homesick and Neuland

by Rachel S. Harris

The relationship between travel and home are given new life in the novels of Eshkol Nevo. Framing the contemporary reality in narratives that explore Zionism, travel, and social activism, Nevo offers a conception of the new generation of Israeli writers torn between an Israeli identity, with its increasingly inclusive and polyethnic state, and a Jewish identity with its diasporic roots.

A Spatial Identity Crisis: Space and Identities in Nir Baram’s Novels

by Vered Weiss

The following article focuses on the use of spatial metaphors, and the presence (or absence) of Jewish-Israeli identities in Nir Baram’s novels, offering an overview of his work and locating it within a Hebrew literary tradition. In order to explore individual and collective identities in a (post)modern world, Baram makes extensive and elaborate use of spatial metaphors, blurring the boundaries between inside and outside, tampering with the stable organization of the world, and presenting homes that offer neither shelter nor warmth. The various characters in Baram’s texts—Israeli or not—are either homeless or otherwise displaced, yearning for a home they cannot fully comprehend or construct. The defamiliarization of space in Baram’s work creates the sense that Jewish-Israeli identities are implicitly present even when they are explicitly absent, and detached when they are, indeed, overtly present. This elusiveness seems to be the core of Jewish-Israeli identities as they manifest, or are alluded to, in Baram’s work.

Where You Are From: The Poetry of Vaan Nguyen

by Adriana X. Jacobs

In her debut collection The Truffle Eye (2014), the Vietnamese-Israeli poet Vaan Nguyen brings a mix of cultural and linguistic affiliations to her Hebrew writing that is arguably standard in today’s multilingual and multicultural Israeli society, particularly in the cosmopolitan milieu of Tel Aviv, where she locates much of her work. But as the daughter of Vietnamese refugees who have settled in Israel, Vaan also engages and challenges—through the double position of the insider/outsider—the discourse of exile and return and the politics of memory in Israeli culture. In the 2005 film The Journey of Vaan Nguyen, the Israeli filmmaker Duki Dror offered a nuanced portrait of the friction between Nguyen’s Israeli and Vietnamese identities and her family’s Israeli present and Vietnamese past. In this article, I address how Vaan negotiates and articulates her double position through a close examination of scenes from the film and selections from The Truffle Eye. Against the problematic reception and reading of her poetry as exotic, I argue that the cosmopolitan and transnational movements that shape her work evince a characteristically twenty-first century Israeli mode of travel and translation.

The Shape of Time in Microfiction: Alex Epstein and the Search for Lost Time

by Adam Rovner

This article presents a general theory of microfiction that focuses on the formal elements of the genre’s poetics. My analysis argues that a symmetry exists between microfiction’s contracted spatialization, and the compression—and hence violation—of temporal norms of the reader’s anticipation. The violation of conventional reading anticipation makes microfiction seem not only to be new but also transgressive. Indeed, much microfiction is transgressive of prevailing ideologies of time that are premised on the existence of contingency and the efficacy of human agency. This article takes the work of Israeli microfiction author Alex Epstein as its touchstone while advancing a framework for a theory of the genre.

Alon Hilu and the Hebrew Historical Novel

by Shai P. Ginsburg

In this paper, I discuss Alon Hilu’s two historical novels, Death of a Monk (2004) and The Dejani Estate (2008), as symptomatic of Israeli culture of the twenty-first century. I argue that the question of genre—historical fiction—is as central to the construction of the novels as it is to their reception. As the latter evinces, historical fiction is perceived as blurring the proper boundaries between the “objective” and the imaginary and thus feeds anxieties about the relationship of Jews to history, anxieties that have been haunting Zionist discourses from their inception. Hilu’s novels trace these anxieties to concerns about sexuality and desire and employ them to explore the relationship between two central foci of the Hebrew historical novel, namely, historical agency and historical writing. The novels construct numerous “scenes of writing,” in which writing seeks to retrieve historical agency, embodied in the two novels by desire and sexual potency. Simultaneously, writing is revealed as a mere substitute for desire and sex. Both novels consequently suggest that writing attests to the failure to produce historical agency.

Femininity and Authenticity in Ethiopia and Israel: Asfu Beru’s A Different Moon

by Adia Mendelson-Maoz

This article discusses the work of the female Ethiopian-Israeli author Asfu Beru, whose collection of stories, Yare’ah Aher (A Different Moon) was published in 2002. The small corpus of contemporary Hebrew literature by Ethiopian-Jewish immigrants in Israel usually focuses on the narrative of homecoming and the journey to “Yerussalem,” while often viewing the African space retrospectively in utopian terms. By contrast, the stories in Beru’s collection are set in Ethiopia and do not deal with the journey or immigration to Israel. They depict a rigid traditional society that the protagonist, an adolescent female in many of the stories, has to confront. This article analyzes the convoluted relationship between multiculturalism and feminism through Beru’s hyphenated identity as a member of a traditional society, a woman, a Jew, and a Black, but who identifies at times with the hegemonic Israeli-Western perspective and takes a critical stance toward traditional Ethiopian society.

Settlers versus Pioneers: The Deconstruction of the Settler in Assaf Gavron’s The Hilltop

by Yaakov Herskovitz

This paper engages in a close reading of settlers, settlements, and the portrayal of settler ideology in the novel The Hilltop. This trailblazing novel from 2013, written by Assaf Gavron, foregrounds the image of the settlers in the West Bank and their relationship to the State of Israel. The paper explores this relationship through a discussion of settler ideology and how this set of beliefs comperes to Zionist ideology at large. Thus, the images of the settler and of Zionist pioneers are coupled and reexamined.

 

ToC: Hebrew Higher Education 17 (2015)

Hebrew Higher Education 17 (2015): Table of Contents

Click here to download the full issue as a PDF.

EDITOR’S NOTE

5 ADINA OFEK

 

ARTICLES

Hebrew literature over various periods

 

7-18 ESTHER HANOCH

האומנם מרחם אלוהים על ילדי הגן? אינטרפרטציה לארבעה שירי יהודה עמיחי

(Does God Pity Little Children? An Interpretation of Four Yehuda Amichi Poems)

 

19-34 TAMAR SETTER

קריאה חדשה בחיי נישואים בעקבות גילויו של רומן וינאי לדוד פוגל

(A New Reading of Married Life Following the Discovery of Viennese Romance by David Vogel)

 

35-47 MICHAL FRAM COHEN

הפילוג החסידי-מתנגדי בספר מזכרונות ימי ילדותי או מראה העיר דווינסק מאת שרה פייגה פונר: עדות היסטורית או הטיה אישית?

(The Hasidic-Mitnagdi Schism in the book Memories of My Childhood or a View of Dvinsk by Sarah Feiga Foner: Historical Testimony or Personal Bias?)

 

49-73 ABDALLAH TARABEIH and ADEL SHAKOUR

The Influence of the Letter of the Sword and the Pen by Ibn Burd on the Maḥbarot of Alharizi and Ibn Ardutiel

 

Linguistics

 

75-86 LIOR LAX

שקיפות מורפו-סמנטית ומורפו-קטגוריאלית כגורם לשינוי לשוני

(Morph-Semantic and Morpho-Categorical Transparency as a Trigger for Language Change)

 

87-99 BAT-ZION YEMINI

רטוריקה ריגושית בסוגה השימושית בלשון העיתונות

(Emotional Rhetoric in the Journalistic Instrumental Genre)

 

101-115 SHMUEL BOLOZKY and RESPONDENTS

אוריינות בעברית הישראלית ומעמד הגרוניות-לשעבר א’ ה’ ע’

(Literacy in Israeli Hebrew and the Status of the Formerly-“Guttural” ‘alef, he, and `ayin)

 

Teaching Biblical Hebrew

 

117-129 MICHAEL B. SHEPHERD

Hebrew Exegesis Worksheets

 

131-152 RAHEL HALABE

Realistic and Effective Practice and Assessment System for the Biblical Hebrew Introductory Course Teaching Modern Hebrew

 

153-158 ESTER SIMONS

שיקולים לשוניים ותוכניים בכתיבת ספרי לימוד בעברית: עדויות מן השטח

(Writing Hebrew Language Textbooks: Linguistic Considerations and Content Choices)

 

BOOK REVIEWS

159-162 ERAN BUCHALZEV

Modern Hebrew: The Past and Future of a Revitalized Language. By Norman Berdichevsky

163-167 RUTH BEN-YEHUDA ADLER

קשרים. A Text Book for Advanced Learners of Hebrew

מאת אביטל פויר, טל נורמן, שירלי מליחי, רינה קרייטמן ומיכל כהן

(Ksharim: A Text Book for Advanced Learners of Hebrew.

by Avital Feuer, Tal Norman, Shirly Malichi, Rina Kreitman and Michal Cohen)

 

169-170 RINA DONCHIN

חדשון בעברית קלה

(Hadshon: An Online Newspaper for Hebrew Learners)

 

171-173 MICHAL RAIZEN

Poetic Trespass: Writing between Hebrew and Arabic in

Israel/Palestine. By Lital Levy

 

175-180 ORA (RODRIGUE) SCHWARZWALD

The Languages of the Jews: A Sociolinguistic History. By Bernard Spolsky

 

181-183 JODY WASHBURN

Learning Biblical Hebrew Interactively. Instructor

Edition. By Paul Overland

 

OTHER PUBLICATIONS IN THE SUBJECT OF HEBREW

 

185-188 HED HA’ULPAN 102-103: Table of Contents

 

189-198 HELKAT LASHON 47-46: Table of Contents

 

INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTERS

New Book: Natkovich, Jabotinsky’s Oeuvre in Its Social Context (In Hebrew)

נטקוביץ’, סבטלנה. בין ענני זוהר. יצירתו של ולדימיר (זאב) ז’בוטינסקי  בהקשר החברתי. ירושלים: מאגנס, 2015.

 

 

URL: http://www.magnespress.co.il/

 

Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky – journalist, cultural critic, translator, author, poet and politician – is an enigmatic and controversial figure in the history of Zionism. His presence in the political and intellectual discourse of the Zionist movement, from the early twentieth century to present day, made his ideological legacy a formative factor of Israeli reality, but the public image attributed to him positioned his life and work and his literary legacy in the shadow of his ideological discourse.

This book traces Jabotinsky’s intellectual biography as an author. It examines his literary oeuvre in the broad context of his life and his political activity and in relation to his writing in other genres and formats – his journalistic writing, his literary and art criticism, and his discourse of the self that was formed in his letters, in his autobiographical writings and in testimonies of his time. Alongside an indication on continuums and recurring motifs in his work, this book reveals conflicts and fissures between various periods, genres and themes in Jabotinsky’s writing, as well as between the literary, political and personal spheres in his life. In addition to engagement with his canonical work – the novels “Samson” and “The Five” – the book presents works that have not been hitherto discussed.

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: Jacobs, Hebrew on a Desert Island: The Case of Annabelle Farmelant

Jacobs, Adriana X. “Hebrew on a Desert Island: The Case of Annabelle Farmelant.” Studies in American Jewish Literature 34 (2015): 154-74.

 

URL: https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/studies_in_american_jewish_literature/v034/34.1.jacobs.html

 

Abstract

The poetic output of the American-born poet and playwright Annabelle “Chana” Farmelant consists entirely of two books of Hebrew poetry, Iyyim bodedim (Desert Islands) and Pirchei zehut (Flowers of Identity), published in Israel in the early 1960s. In this article, I offer an overview of Farmelant’s oeuvre through my own English translations of her poems and in the context of American Hebrew literary history and scholarship, which has long neglected women writers. Farmelant’s short career as a poet notwithstanding, her work engaged directly—and thereby offers crucial attestation of—the gender politics and U.S.-Israel literary relations that contributed to the decline of American Hebrew literature in the mid-twentieth century and to Farmelant’s early departure from the field of modern Hebrew poetry.

New Article: Stahl, Theomorphism and Modern Hebrew Literature’s Search for the Divine: Brenner and Shlonsky

Stahl, Neta. “Theomorphism and Modern Hebrew Literature’s Search for the Divine: Brenner and Shlonsky as a Case Study.” Jewish Studies Quarterly 22.1 (2015): 62-85.

 

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mohr/jsq/2015/00000022/00000001/art00003

 

 

 

Conference Program: 12th Int’l Conf on Jewish Names (BIU, March 18, 2015)

Bar-Ilan Univeristy
The Faculty of Jewish Studies
The Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Judaism
The Project for the Study of Jewish Names

The Twelfth International Conference on Jewish Names
Wednesday, March 18, 2015, Feldman Hall, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

The conference was organized in cooperation with the Dahan Center and aided by a grant from the office of the vice president for research, Bar-Ilan University.

 

Session F: 15:45-17:45: Names in Modern Hebrew Literature and Linguistics:
Chair: Prof. Aaron Demsky, Head of the Project for the Study of Jewish Names, Bar-Ilan University
Greetings: Rabbi Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz, President, Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Elie Assis, Dean, Faculty of Jewish Studies, Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Yaron Harel, Head of the Department of Jewish History and the Dahan Center, Bar-Ilan University
Erez Biton, Poet, Bialik Prize Laureate for 2015: Names in My Literary Ouvrage (Heb)
Ofra Matzov-Cohen, Ariel University: Names and their Contribution to the Text: A Comparative Study of the Novel Ahavah Shel Saltanat (Saltanat’s Love) and the Biography Zion Ezri, Beoz Ubehahavat Zion (With Courage and the Love of Zion) (Heb)
Ziva Feldman, Ariel University: The Poetics of Hanoch Levin and the Names of the Characters in his Works (Heb)
Tsvi Sadan, Bar-Ilan University: Toward the Onomastic Lexicography of Modern Hebrew (Heb)

Session G: 18:00-19:30: Names in the Land and State of Israel:
Chair: Dr. Dotan Arad, Bar-Ilan University
Shlomit Landman, Achva Academic College: The Cultural Perspective of Given Names in Israel, Based on Qualitative Interviews with Parents (Heb)
Sapir Omer Osias, Bar-Ilan University: Hebraization of Names in the Yishuv Period from the Second Half of the 19th Century: Perception, Progression and Effects (Heb)
Matanya Weynberger, Ariel University: The Hebraization of Family Names: Knesset Discussions from the 1950s (Heb)
Adel Shakour, Al-Qasemi Academy: Giving Children Hebrew Names in Druze Society in Israel (Heb)
The organizing committee: A. Demsky, Y. Levin, B. Kotlerman, I. Breier, T. Sadan

The Public is Welcome!

ToC: Naharaim 8,2 (2014)

Naharaim volume 8, issue 2 (2014)

 

Front matter

Editorial

Weidner, Daniel / Weiss, Yfaat / Wiese, Christian

Pages 169-171

Horkheimer und Adorno über „jüdische Psychologie“. Ein vergessenes Theorieprogramm der 1940er Jahre

von Wussow, Philipp

Pages 172-209

The World of Yesterday versus The Turning Point: Art and the Politics of Recollection in the Autobiographical Narratives of Stefan Zweig and Klaus Mann

Ganani, Uri and Issler, Dani

Pages 210-226

Rückkehr in den Elfenbeinturm: Deutsch an der Hebräischen Universität

Weiss, Yfaat

Pages 227-245

Introduction: Arie Ludwig Strauss Between Hölderlin and Yehuda Halevi

Barouch, Lina and Shahar, Galili

Pages 246-252

Arie Ludwig Strauss: “A Psalm Returns Home”

Sandbank, Shimon

Pages 253-272

A Blessed Journey: The Imprint of Yehuda Halevi’s Poetry on Ludwig Strauss’s Land Israel Poems

Koplowitz-Breier, Anat

Pages 273-288

Hölderlin in Jerusalem: Buber and Strauss on Poetry and the Limits of Dialogue

Barouch, Lina

Pages 289-307

ToC: Israel Studies 20,1 (2015)

 

 

1. Special Section: Landscapes
   1. Zippori National Park as a Composite Narrative (pp. 1-30)

      Tal Alon-Mozes and Matanya Maya
   2. The Geopolitics of Interment: An Inquiry into the Burial of Muhammad Ali in Jerusalem, 1931 (pp. 31-56)

      Maoz Azaryahu and Yitzhak Reiter
   3. Greening the Curriculum: Current Trends in Environmental Education in Israel’s Public Schools (pp. 57-85)

      Gonen Sagy and Alon Tal
2. Articles
   1. The Need to be Part of Europe: Israel’s Struggle for an Association Agreement with the EEC, 1957–1961 (pp. 86-109)

      Gadi Heimann
   2. Crisis and Development: Menachem Begin’s Leadership Throughout the 1960s (pp. 110-133)

      Amir Goldstein
   3. Imperialism and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Revisions in Matzpen’s Historical Perspective (pp. 134-158)

      Joshua Blass
   4. Pinchas Sadeh’s Religiosity (pp. 159-179)

      Gideon Katz
   5. Homogeneity vs. Heterogeneity in the Young Adult and Children’s Literature of Devorah Omer (pp. 180-194)

      Rima Shikhmanter
3. Notes on Contributors (pp. 195-197)
4. Guidelines for Contributors (pp. 198-200)

Calendar of Events: Taub Center for Israel Studies, NYU, Fall 2014

Please join the Taub Center for Israel Studies for these exciting events in Fall 2014.

Event details can be found at www.taub.as.nyu.edu

October 21 – 5pm

“Is Arab/Jewish Coexistence in Israel Possible?”

Professor Yuli Tamir, former Israeli Education Minister

 

October 28 – 5:30pm

“Shattered Rhymes: The Life and Poetry of Erez Bitton”

Film Screening, Poetry Reading and Panel Discussion

 

November 9 – 4pm

“Invisibles” and “Write Down, I’m Arab”

Film Screenings and Discussion

Part of the Other Israel Film Festival

 

November 17 – 5pm

“The World Jewish Congress during the Holocaust: Between Restraint and Activism”

Professor Zohar Sagev, University of Haifa

 

November 24 – 5pm

“Israel as Western and Non-Western”

Professor Sammy Smooha, University of Haifa / NYU Visiting Professor

 

December 1 – 5pm

Title TBD

Professor Alon Confino, University of Virginia

 

December 4 – 5pm

“Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel’s Liberal Settler State”

Professor Shira Robinson, George Washington University

Newsletter: Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, Fall 2014

Click here to see original.

FALL HIGHLIGHTS TUESDAY, OCT. 21 The Future of the Peace Process   Abraham Sofaer, Hoover Institution; Former Legal Advisor, State Dept. Janine Zacharia, Stanford University; Former Jerusalem Bureau Chief, Washington Post 5 pm | Bancroft Hotel THURSDAY, NOV. 6 ROBBINS LECTURE IN JEWISH LAW Maimonides on Mourning: Jewish Law and Emotion Moshe Halbertal, Hebrew University/NYU 5 pm | Bancroft Hotel PUBLIC EVENTS CALENDAR WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 10 Canada and the Holocaust: The Untold Story Irving Abella University of Ottawa 12 noon | Goldberg Room, Berkeley Law Click here to RSVP WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 10 Gourmet Ghettos: Modern Food Rituals  Exhibit Opening Event 5 pm | The Magnes THURSDAY, NOV. 13 Piyyut: Hebrew Poetry and World Music Prof. Robert Alter & Yair Harel, Schusterman Visiting Israeli Artist Co-hosted by The Magnes 7 pm | The Magnes, For more information see our events page  _____________________              FALL 2014 Berkeley Institute Newsletter Prof. Ken Bamberger A Word from the Faculty Director: The Berkeley Institute is experiencing a growth spurt. Its role as a hub for student and faculty engagement has expanded exponentially, as has the national presence of its Program on Israel Studies and its Program on Jewish Law, Thought, and Identity. Our talented staff has doubled, with the addition of Andrei Dubinsky, Program Administrator, and Leah Wagner-Edelstein, Director of Institutional Advancement. As the fall term begins, I’d like to share a taste of the past year’s accomplishments, as well as some of what’s planned for this year – ten visiting faculty and scholars, seven new courses, programs on the future of the peace process and Israeli music and culture, the Annual Robbins Lecture in Jewish Law, and two speaker series for students. And that’s just the beginning. I look forward to seeing you throughout the year. Four Professors – Yudof, Davidoff Solomon, Lawton, and Zilberman – Join the Institute’s Faculty The Institute welcomes four new members to its Faculty Advisory Committee: Mark Yudof, Steven Davidoff Solomon, Leora Lawton, and David Zilberman. Two hail from law: Mark Yudof, former UC President, is a leading scholar of education law, while Davidoff Solomon studies international issues of law and finance.  Lawton, a demographer, heads the Berkeley Population Center and has extensive experience in Israel. Zilberman is a leading environmental economist working on water resources in the Middle East. Their addition to our faculty contributes greatly to the Institute’s programmatic scope, its resources for student advising, and its academic breadth. Read more about Berkeley Institute Faculty Advisory Committee Members Welcoming Ten Visiting Faculty and Scholars In addition to new faculty affiliates, the Institute has brought ten visiting faculty and scholars to spend the 2014-2015 year at Berkeley. Four Israeli visiting faculty will teach courses in History, Sociology, Environmental Policy, and Legal Studies. Six additional scholars – American and Israeli – will conduct research and contribute to the Institute’s ongoing programs. Read more about Berkeley Institute 2014-2015 visiting faculty Read more about Berkeley Institute 2014-2015 visiting scholars Read more about Berkeley Institute 2014-2015 courses Bidding Farewell to our 2013-2014 Visiting Professors: As we welcome our new visiting faculty, we also say goodbye and thank you to our 2013-2014 visitors, Lisa and Douglas Goldman Visiting Israeli Professor Sharon Aronson-Lehavi and The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Visiting Professor Amnon Lehavi. Their courses greatly enriched Jewish and Israel Studies offerings on campus – engaging with topics in contemporary Israeli art and culture and Israeli law and society – and touched the lives of the many students they taught and advised and faculty with whom they collaborated. We are grateful for their many contributions in and outside the classroom during their year at Cal. Read more about Sharon Aronson-Lehavi Read more about Amnon Lehavi An article in the J Weekly about Professor Aronson-Lehavi An article highlighting Professor Aronson-Lehavi on the Theater Department website. Expanding the Student Focus: Student Fellows, Programs, and Support Ambassador Dennis Ross meeting with Berkeley students The Berkeley Institute has over the past year magnified its resources and programming for students. Highlights include student programs with Ambassador Dennis Ross and Israeli writer Ari Shavit, and the facilitation of a successful student-initiated course, “Paradigms of Jewish Identity.” The Institute is expanding these programs this year and offering two lecture series for students. “Different Angles on the Middle East Conflict” will host discussions with campus and community experts. “Religion, Law, and State in Israel” will bring distinguished scholars and public intellectuals to Berkeley for student-focused talks. These programs will supplement the seven Israel and Jewish Studies courses supported this year by the Institute. Undergraduate Fellows Tiana (left) and Mallory (right) Spring 2014 semester also saw the launch of the Institute’s Undergraduate Fellows program. Our Fellows serve as ambassadors of the Institute to the rest of the student body, promoting student engagement with the Institute’s existing courses, programs, and activities, and working with others in the student body to develop student-focused programming. Examples of Fellows’ involvement include: Students conduct staged theater reading Staffing and promoting the Institute’s programs Coordinating student events including a panel discussion on Israeli Start-Ups, the multicultural celebration “From India to Israel,” and a staged theater reading for Yom Hashoah Planning an Israeli film series for Fall 2014 2013-2014 in Review: A Year of Landmark Programming: The Institute achieved new programming heights in 2013-2014, attracting collaborations from across the Cal campus. Professor Michael Walzer at Berkeley Fall 2013: In the fall, the Institute hosted Fania Oz-Salzberger, Professor of History at the University of Haifa, who spoke about her new book, Jews and Words, written with her father, novelist Amoz Oz. Later in the semester, leading American political thinker Michael Walzer gave the Fifth Annual Robbins Collection Lecture: “What We Can Learn from the Jewish Political Tradition?” Fall public programming concluded with Ambassador Dennis Ross speaking before a packed audience about the prospects for peace in the Middle East, before meeting a group of Berkeley students for an in-depth dinner discussion. Dean Joan Bieder and Ari Shavit in conversation Spring 2014: Spring semester highlights included a series, co-hosted by the Graduate School of Journalism, on “Covering Israel.” Associate Journalism Dean Joan Bieder moderated discussions with three contemporary journalists: award-winning author and Ha’aretz columnist Ari Shavit; Ha’aretz Editor-in-Chief Aluf Benn; and Janine Zacharia, former Jerusalem Bureau Chief for the Washington Post. In March, the Institute hosted an international conference titled “Israeli and Palestinian Waterways: History, Politics, and Technology of Water and Environment in the Middle East,” drawing seven institutional partners from across campus and beyond. Spring programs concluded during the week of Yom HaShoah with a staged reading of the play by Robert Skloot If the Whole Body Dies: Raphael Lemkin and the Treaty against Genocide. Many of the Institute’s public programs, including the lectures by Ambassador Ross and Michael Walzer, the Journalism series, and the international conference, were recorded and are available for viewing online. Watch a video of Professor Walzer’s Robbins Lecture Watch the video of Ambassador Ross’ Lecture  Watch the “Covering Israel” journalist series Watch the Israeli and Palestinian Waterways Conference Thank you to our supporters! Contact Information Faculty Director Kenneth A. Bamberger Professor of Law kbamberger@law.berkeley.edu Executive Director Rebecca Golbert rlgolbert@law.berkeley.edu Director of Institutional Advancement Leah Wagner-Edelstein, MA lwedelstein@law.berkeley.edu Program Administrator Andrei Dubinsky adubinsky@law.berkeley.edu For more information check our website at http://www.law.berkeley.edu/JLILES.htm Follow us on Facebook or contact Andrei Dubinsky at adubinsky@law.berkeley.edu

UC Berkeley School of Law | 2850 Telegraph Ave., Suite 500 | Berkeley | CA | 94705

ToC: Israel Affairs 20,2 (2014): Special Issue, Politics and Poetry

Israel Affairs 20,2 (2014)

Special Issue: Politics and Poetry in Israel

http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/fisa20/20/2

 

Articles

Poetry and poets in the public sphere

Assaf Meydani & Nadir Tsur; pages 141-160

• DOI:10.1080/13537121.2014.889889
• Published online: 01 Apr 2014

The leader as a poet: the political and ideological poetry of Ze’ev Jabotinsky

Arye Naor; pages 161-181

• DOI:10.1080/13537121.2014.889890
• Published online: 22 May 2014

The image of the ‘living-dead’ in Nathan Alterman’s poetry: from archetype to national symbol

Ortsion Bartana; pages 182-194

• DOI:10.1080/13537121.2014.889886
• Published online: 29 May 2014

The art of politics and poetry: the political poetry of Jacques Prevert and Aryeh Sivan

Samuel (Muli) Peleg; pages 195-213

• DOI:10.1080/13537121.2014.889892
• Published online: 07 May 2014

Hegemony inside and out: Nathan Alterman and the Israeli Arabs

Yochai Oppenheimer; pages 214-225

• DOI:10.1080/13537121.2014.889891
• Published online: 04 Apr 2014

‘Silent in white ink’: the motif of silence in Israeli-Palestinian women’s poetry translated from Arabic to Hebrew

Leah Baratz & Roni Reingold; pages 226-239

• DOI:10.1080/13537121.2014.889885
• Published online: 16 Apr 2014

Politics and poetry in the works of Shalom Shabazī

Yosef Tobi; pages 240-255

• DOI:10.1080/13537121.2014.889893
• Published online: 14 Apr 2014

Why did poetry and piyut disappear from the religious-Zionist High Holy Day prayer book, and what prompted their return?

Shimon Fogel; pages 256-270

• DOI:10.1080/13537121.2014.889887
• Published online: 04 Apr 2014

An Israeli Bob Dylan is yet to be born: the politics of Israeli protest music

Yitzhak Katz; pages 271-279

• DOI:10.1080/13537121.2014.889888
• Published online: 26 Mar 2014

New Article: Katz, Niagara, Primitivism, and the Hebrew Literary Imagination

Katz, Stephen. “Power and Powerlessness: Niagara, Primitivism, and the Hebrew Literary Imagination.” Modern Judaism 34.2 (2014): 233-56.

URL: http://mj.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/2/233

 

Excerpt

Despite the impression of having attained tranquility and a stable existence, the Jews in Semel’s novel have not found their proper rest, not even on their IsraIsland by the Niagara River. The Falls, just a hop-skip-and-jump downstream, issue forth a foreboding mushroom-like pillar of vapor that rises into the air taking the form that evokes a nuclear explosion (pp. 80, 176, 203, 225–26), a force that threatens to annihilate all of humanity. The metaphor stands as a constant reminder of the violence lurking behind human affairs, from the destruction of Native American culture to the events of September 11, 2001. In addition, it is a threat to Jewish existence as its relatively pristine homogeneous culture gives rise to an Americanized hybridity, as is the life of all who reside in this place.

The image of the Falls resembling the mushroom-shaped aftermath of a nuclear explosion resembles an analogous image frequently applied to Israel. As opposed to life on the precipice of a torrential waterfall, Israel’s condition has often been likened to existence on the edge of a volcano. Nava Semel merely substitutes water for fire. The Falls, it turns out, become a harbinger for the devastations of September 11 as a mark of the end of things, and perhaps some new beginnings.

[…]

At the time when Jews migrating to Eretz Israel were occupied with learning the lay of the land (yedi‘at ha’aretz, knowledge of the land), Hebrew writers in America were also making the acquaintance of the Golden Land. Assimilation into America—whether by those dwelling in America literally, or figuratively for those Hebraists demonstrating their worldliness by writing of vistas other than their own—was also a process of yedi‘at ha’aretz for America’s Hebraists. Their writings testify to an act of inscribing America, of acculturation and internationalization, an adoption of the New World, its environment and myths. In this process, Niagara was but one of many sites of intersection, of American places introduced to the Hebrew reader. As we see, more than a few works in prose or verse were preoccupied with this project, either directly or as an incidental setting of the plot in a new milieu. In so doing, these poems and tales were making the American landscape part of the Jewish experience, fixing it within the reader’s conscience, as a “coming out” of Hebrew literature from the cocoon of self-absorption to an exploration and adaptation to the world.

We might even detect in these American-centered vistas a legacy of the haskalah, when Hebrew writing was praised for the attention devoted to the intricacies of nature and the natural world or was criticized for not doing so. In their fixation on Niagara, writers were inevitably challenged to add their own powers of observation, replication, and metaphorizing, when needed, to broaden it for the host of uses in the Hebrew literary canon.