New Article: Wagner, Nietzsche’s Visions and Buber’s Israel

Wagner, Karin. “Hugo Kauder’s Unexpressed Philosophical Concept: Schelling’s Transcendence, Nietzsche’s Visions and Buber’s Israel.” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies (early view; online first).
 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14725886.2016.1144283
 
Abstract

Hugo Kauder, born in 1888 near Prague, composer, instrumentalist, theoretician and music-philosopher, came to Vienna in 1905, left Austria after the Novemberpogrom 1938 and reached New York via the Netherlands and England in 1940. In 1938 Tel Aviv was also one of his intended havens (parts of Kauder’s estate are kept at the National Library of Israel, Jerusalem). Engaged in the crisis discourse in Vienna’s postwar period of the early 1920s, Kauder drafted his philosophical ideas under the influence of Friedrich Schelling and Friedrich Nietzsche, also speculating on music-teleology, mysticism and cosmology. Corresponding with the German philosopher Rudolf Pannwitz, with the authors Karl Wolfskehl and Erich von Kahler, Kauder expressed his Jewishness – much more as a mindset than an active Jewish identity. Coming from a system of transcendental and natural philosophy combined with Christian ideas, Kauder moved to a more complex syncretism also reflecting on Jewish topics. Kauder did not organize his ideas into a concept, they are, rather, the theoretical framework of his educational books and are widespread in his essays and letters.

 

 

 

New Article: Amishai-Maisels, Ayana Friedman. Layers of Feminist Struggle

Amishai-Maisels, Ziva. “Ayana Friedman. Layers of Feminist Struggle.” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 15.1 (2016): 131-57.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14725886.2015.1114822

 

Abstract

Ayana Friedman is an Israeli multi-media artist who deals with politics, the Holocaust and society’s treatment of the Other. This article concentrates on her feminist works and how Judaism and being the child of a Holocaust survivor affected her approach to this subject. Three main feminist interests are highlighted. First, the turn to “feminine” materials. Second, the struggle against the restrictions and abuse imposed on women and their specific Jewish examples. Friedman demands equality for women in Judaism, opposing customs that demean them and creating new ritual objects for them. Third, the conflicts women have between a career and motherhood, and the inter-generational problems they involve.

 

 

 

ToC: Jewish Social Studies 21,1 (2015)

Jewish Social Studies 21.1 (2015)

Table of Contents

 Front Matter

•  A Modern (Jewish) Woman in a Café: Leah Goldberg and the Poetic Space of the Coffeehouse (pp. 1-48)

  Shachar Pinsker
• The Missing Beat Generation: Coming of Age and Nostalgism in Arik Einstein’s Music (pp. 49-88)

  Arie M. Dubnov
• Shame as an Existential Emotion in Modern Kabbalah (pp. 89-122)

  Jonathan Garb
• Yad Vashem and the State of Holocaust Education in Israeli Schools in the 1960s (pp. 123-150)

  Jeffrey C. Blutinger
• Jewish Liberal, Russian Conservative: Daniel Pasmanik between Zionism and the Anti-Bolshevik White Movement (pp. 151-180)

  Taro Tsurumi

New Book: Kritzman-Amir, ed. Where Levinsky Meets Asmara (in Hebrew)

Kritzman-Amir, Tally. Where Levinsky Meets Asmara: Social and Legal Aspects of Israeli Asylum Policy. Jerusalem: Van Leer Institute and Bney Brak: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2015 (in Hebrew).

 

 

 

In recent years, thousands of non-Jewish African asylum seekers have arrived to Israel, the state of Jewish refugees, numbering several tens of thousands. Migration of asylum seekers is a common phenomenon in almost all countries of the world. Questions of sovereignty and control of borders and society, belonging and status, demographics and security, culture and religion, as well as welfare and social justice have a decisive influence on the attitude towards asylum seekers in Israel and abroad, and cast a dark shadow over their future. Against this background, it is no wonder that the treatment of refugees became a politically charged issue arousing severe controversies between the legislative, the executive and the judiciary authorities.
This volume is the most comprehensive collection of articles that dealing with asylum seekers in Israel. It includes twelve articles seeking to characterize the communities of asylum seekers in Israel and to critically and comparatively describe the changing policy applied by the authorities and civil society. The articles are by scholars of various disciplines as well as involved activists. Among other topics, the book discusses the bureaucratic system of the State of Israel dealing with asylum applications; the experiences of asylum seekers in Israel and their ways of integration in the urban landscape; the religious life of Christian asylum seekers; asylum and gender; the exclusion of asylum seekers by restricting their entry at the border and their confinement in detention camps; refugees who are citizens of enemy states and Palestinian refugees; and viable solutions to the refugee problem. The essays in the volume serve as a foundation for studying this field and future research, and can be employed to assist policymakers and decision-makers.
.

 

 

New Article: Abu-Raiya et al, Religious Coping and Social Support for Israeli Muslim Parents of Children with Cancer

Abu-Raiya, Hisham, Liat Hamama, and Fatima Fokra. “Contribution of Religious Coping and Social Support to the Subjective Well-Being of Israeli Muslim Parents of Children with Cancer: A Preliminary Study.” Health & Social Work (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/hsw/hlv031

 

Abstract

No single study has examined the subjective well-being (SWB) among Israeli Muslim parents of children treated for cancer. To fill this gap in the literature, this preliminary study espouses a positive psychology orientation and examines the contribution of social support and religious coping to the SWB among this population. The study’s sample consisted of 70 Israeli Muslim parents of children who were receiving active treatment for their cancer. Participants were asked to provide demographic information on themselves and their ill child and to complete measures of SWB (that is, positive affect, negative affect, satisfaction with life), social support, and religious coping (that is, positive religious coping, punishing God reappraisal). The authors found that higher scores on social support were correlated with higher scores on satisfaction with life and lower scores on negative affect. Higher scores on positive religious coping were correlated with higher scores on satisfaction with life. Punishing God reappraisal did not correlate with any of the SWB indices. Social support emerged as a partial mediator between positive religious coping and satisfaction with life. Social support and some methods of religious coping seem to enhance the SWB of Israeli Muslim parents of children treated for cancer.

New Book: Snir, Who Needs Arab-Jewish Identity?

Snir, Reuven. Who Needs Arab-Jewish Identity? Interpellation, Exclusion, and Inessential Solidarities. Leiden: Brill, 2015.

 

In Who Needs Arab-Jewish Identity?: Interpellation, Exclusion, and Inessential Solidarities, Professor Reuven Snir, Dean of Humanities at Haifa University, presents a new approach to the study of Arab-Jewish identity and the subjectivities of Arabized Jews. Against the historical background of Arab-Jewish culture and in light of identity theory, Snir shows how the exclusion that the Arabized Jews had experienced, both in their mother countries and then in Israel, led to the fragmentation of their original identities and encouraged them to find refuge in inessential solidarities. Following double exclusion, intense globalization, and contemporary fluidity of identities, singularity, not identity, has become the major war cry among Arabized Jews during the last decade in our present liquid society.

Table of contents

Preface
Introduction
Chapter One: Identity: Between Creation and Recycling
Chapter Two: Arabized Jews: Historical Background
Chapter Three: Arabized Jews in Modern Times between Interpellation and Exclusion
Chapter Four: Globalization and the Search for Inessential Solidarities
Chapter Five: White Jews, Black Jews
Conclusion
Appendices
I. Iraqi-Jewish Intellectuals, Writers, and Artists
II. Sami Michael, “The Artist and the Falafel” (short story)
References
Index

Reuven Snir is a Professor of Arabic Literature and Dean of Humanities at Haifa University. He has published many books, articles, translations, and encyclopedia entries. His latest book is Baghdad – The City in Verse (Harvard University Press, 2013).

New Article: Abu-Raiya et al, Religious/Spiritual Struggle among Israeli Jews

Abu-Raiya, Hisham, Kenneth I. Pargament, Andra Weissberger, and Julie Exline. “An Empirical Examination of Religious/Spiritual Struggle among Israeli Jews.” International Journal for the Psychology of Religion (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2014.1003519

 

Abstract

The current investigation examined the prevalence, predictors and psychological implications of religious and spiritual (r/s) struggles among a sample of Israeli-Jewish university students. R/s struggle was assessed by the Religious and Spiritual Struggles (RSS) Scale. This is a newly-constructed scale that assesses a wide array of r/s struggles. The RSS is composed of 6 factors of struggles: Divine, Doubt, Demonic, Interpersonal, Moral and Ultimate Meaning. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) of the RSS in this study confirmed this six-factor structure. Of the 164 Jewish participants, between 1.2% and 30.5% experienced various r/s struggles. Beliefs in a cruel God and distant God, religious participation, and fundamentalism predicted higher levels of different types of struggle. All six forms of struggle were correlated with greater psychological distress. In regression equations including r/s struggles as well as demographic and religious variables, Moral struggles predicted lower life satisfaction, Divine struggles predicted depressive symptoms, and both Divine and Doubt struggles predicted generalized anxiety. Possible explanations and implications of the findings are offered. We conclude by pointing to the limitations of the study and suggesting a few directions for future research.

New Article: Freas, Christian versus Muslim Employment in Mandatory Palestine

Freas, Erik Eliav. “Christian versus Muslim Employment in Mandatory Palestine.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2015.1041258

 

Abstract

During the British Mandate in Palestine, there existed among the majority Muslim Arab population a perception that the British favoured Christian Arabs for administrative positions. While such a preference was arguably justifiable during the early years of the Mandate, inasmuch as Christian Arabs were initially more qualified from an educational standpoint, over the ensuing years, the number of Muslim youths with a suitable, secular-based education very quickly increased. There nonetheless persisted a perception of Christian favouritism – that is, that Christians still enjoyed preferential treatment with respect to government employment – and this soon came to define a significant Muslim grievance, one that would periodically prove divisive between Muslim and Christian Arabs, not least within the context of the Palestinian nationalist movement. This article seeks to ascertain whether, on the basis of a statistical analysis of the actual numbers of Muslim and Christian Arabs employed by the British Mandatory government and their respective educational qualifications, Christian Arabs did in fact constitute a privileged group. Also considered (in light of certain sociological concepts regarding group and national identity) are the ramifications of such a perception – regardless of whether reflective of the actual reality – with respect to Muslim–Christian unity, the shaping of Palestinian Arab national identity and the relationship between Arab national identity and Islam.

ToC: Israel Studies Review 29.2 (2014): New Age Culture in Israel

Editors’ Note
pp. v-vi

Guest Editors’ Introduction: New Age Culture in Israel
pp. 1-16
Authors: Werczberger, Rachel; Huss, Boaz

Articles

Ethno-national Identity and the New Age World View in Israel
pp. 17-38
Author: Simchai, Dalit

This article focuses on the concept of identity by juxtaposing New Age philosophy and nationalism in the Israeli context. Based on my qualitative research, I deconstruct the Israeli New Age discourse on ethno-national identity and expose two approaches within this discourse. The more common one is the belief held by most Israelis, according to which ethno-national identity is a fundamental component of one’s self. A second and much less prevalent view resembles New Age ideology outside Israel and conceives of ethno-national identities as a false social concept that separate people rather than unite them. My findings highlight the limits of New Age ideology as an alternative to the hegemonic culture in Israel. The difficulty that Israeli New Agers find in divorcing hegemonic conceptualizations demonstrates the centrality and power of ethno-national identity in Israel.

The End Begins in Me: New Forms of Political Action in Israeli Channeling
pp. 39-56
Author: Klin-Oron, Adam

In this article I examine eschatological beliefs and practices among channels in Israel and abroad, and show that they demonstrate an avoidance of traditional, group-oriented political action, and an embrace of alternative, spiritual action performed individually. This is linked to Israel’s shift to a neo-liberal economy and culture in the last few decades, where self-accountability has become the norm. Channeling teaches an extreme version of self-divinity, claiming that a person creates all aspects of his or her life and objecting to outside authority and regulation. It believes in a coming of a New Age of light and that the means to achieve it are personal quests for individual empowerment, which are anticipated to affect the whole world via the “virtual aggregate group,” an energetic reservoir that replaces the traditional group. Channels are engaged in alternative political action, attempting to change the world by virtually pooling spiritual resources.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The Shaping of a Community-Building Discourse among Israeli Pagans
pp. 57-77
Author: Feraro, Shai

This article charts the recent development of Modern Paganism in Israel (1999–2012) and analyzes the discourse maintained by Israeli modern-day Pagans when discussing questions of organization and of religious-political rights. As such it deals with the complexities of identifying oneself as a (Jewish-born) Pagan in Israel, the nation state of the Jewish people. I argue that although Israeli Pagans may employ a community-building discourse, they constantly fear the perceived negative consequences of public exposure. They see the bond between (Jewish) religion and the state in Israel as a main factor in the intolerance and even persecution that they expect from the government and from Haredim (“ultra-Orthodox” Jews). The result of this discourse during the first ten years or so of the presence of Modern Paganism in Israel can be seen through the metaphor of a dance, in which participants advance two steps, only to retreat one.

The Place of Politics: The Notion of Consciousness in Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh’s Political Thought
pp. 78-98
Author: Tamari, Assaf

The notion of consciousness change as a political concept has re-emerged as a central issue in recent Israeli political discourse in diverse and seemingly remote groups. The following is a study of some of the contexts and implications of according primacy to consciousness change in political thought, through the tensions between the highly individualistic character of this discourse and its collective language and aims. I focus on one study case, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, a key figure in both extreme settler groups and current New Age Hasidic revival. Analyzing his political writings, I explore his notion of consciousness as the true place of politics. Finally, I return to the question of the context in which Rabbi Ginsburgh’s binding of the political to consciousness should be read, and propose liberal individualism, and the direct line it draws between the individual’s consciousness and that of the state, as an alternative hermeneutical perspective.

Hitbodedut for a New Age: Adaptation of Practices among the Followers of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav
pp. 99-117
Author: Persico, Tomer

The quest for personal and inner spiritual transformation and development is prevalent among spiritual seekers today and constitutes a major characteristic of contemporary spirituality and the New Age phenomenon. Religious leaders of the Bratslav community endeavor to satisfy this need by presenting adjusted versions of hitbodedut meditation, a practice that emphasizes solitary and personal connection with the divine. As is shown by two typical examples, popular Bratslav teachers today take full advantage of the opportunity to infuse the hitbodedut with elements not found in Rabbi Nachman’s teachings and to dispense with some elements that were. The article addresses the socio-political rationale at the root of these teachers’ novel interpretation of Bratslav hitbodedut and the ways they attempt to deal with the complications that arise out of their work.

Spirituality under the Shadow of the Conflict: Sufi Circles in Israel
pp. 118-139
Author: Bram, Chen

This article describes the new “field” of Sufi ideas and practices in Israeli Jewish society and analyzes the mutual relations between new Western Sufi influences and traditional Sufi orders of the Middle East. It focuses on the role of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this evolving field. While the current rise of interest in spirituality is often described as emphasizing an apolitical approach, the evolving Sufi field in Israel is an example of a field that cannot detach itself from the overarching conflict. Moreover, efforts are made by some of the actors in this field to present Sufism as representing a different Islam and, hence, as a potential bridge between the rival parties. These approaches, as this article shows, have their own complexities and influences on the emerging Sufi field in Israel.

Review Essay

An Intellectual Journey through the Civil-Military Relationship in Israel
pp. 140-145
Author: Michael, Kobi

Author’s Response to Galia Golan’s Review Essay on 1973: The Road to War
pp. 146-152
Author: Kipnis, Yigal

Book Reviews

Book Reviews
pp. 153-170

Daniel Bar-Tal and Izhak Schnell, eds., The Impacts of Lasting Occupation: Lessons from Israeli Society

Review by Ned Lazarus

Alan Craig, International Legitimacy and the Politics of Security: The Strategic Deployment of Lawyers in the Israeli Military

Review by Ariel L. Bendor

Joel S. Migdal, Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East

Review by Aharon Klieman

Miriam Fendius Elman, Oded Haklai, and Hendrik Spruyt, eds., Democracy and Conflict Resolution: The Dilemmas of Israel’s Peacemaking

Review by Jay Rothman

Eyal Levin, Ethos Clash in Israeli Society

Review by Gabriel Ben-Dor

Danielle Gurevitch, Elana Gomel, and Rani Graff, eds., With Both Feet on the Clouds: Fantasy in Israeli Literature

Review by Ari Ofengenden

New Article: Chyutin, Fleshing Out the Haredi Male Body in Avishai Sivan’s The Wanderer

Chyutin, Dan. “Judaic Cinecorporeality: Fleshing Out the Haredi Male Body in Avishai Sivan’s The Wanderer.” Shofar 33.1 (2014): 57-82.

 

URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v033/33.1.chyutin.html

 

Abstract

This essay discusses the representation of the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) male body in Avishai Sivan’s noted feature The Wanderer (2010) as representative of contemporary Israeli cinema’s attitude towards Judaic corporeality. Using both sociological and theological literature, it highlights the ways by which this film orchestrates the details of ultra-Orthodox reality to mount a damning critique of Judaic regimes of corporeal regulation. According to this critique, Judaic corporeality exists in a condition of continuous repression, whereby it seeks to absent bodily desires, and even its own material presence. Through the adolescent protagonist Yitzhak, The Wanderer charts a trajectory of transgression and release from this repressive framework. The journey, however, does not entail liberation but rather culminates in destructive violence, consequently allowing the film to define pathological bodily behavior as inescapable both inside and outside the Haredi ghetto. While foregrounding the relevance of this assertion, the essay’s conclusion also traces its limits, which derive from the film’s problematic attempt to reduce ultra-Orthodox corporeality to the contours of certain antisemitic stereotypes of Old World Jewry.

New Article: Barouch, Gershom Scholem’s Early Critique of Zionism and Its Language

Barouch, Lina. “The Erasure and Endurance of Lament: Gershom Scholem’s Early Critique of Zionism and Its Language.” Jewish Studies Quarterly 21.1 (2014): 13-26.

 

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mohr/jsq/2014/00000021/00000001/art00003

Excerpt

Gershom Scholem’
s 1917 essay “On Lament and Lamentation” portrays the Hebrew lament as the “language of the border,” which suffers an infinite cycle of exile and return. Scholem employs a paradoxical discourse in order to develop these cyclical borderline dynamics on the discursive and performative levels of the text. The idea of lament recurs in Scholem
s polemic writings between 1917 and 1931, a period marked by his emigration from Berlin to Jerusalem in 1923 and by his constant struggling with questions of Jewish exile and Zionist return. In other words, Scholem transfers his theoretical ideas on lament to the empirical realm of German-Jewish and Zionist history. More specifically, he deems the absence of lament in the language of his contemporaries as symptomatic of a Jewish generation whose wish to “enter history” has dangerously superseded the question of its metaphysical standing. Couched in a combination of modernist Krausian and Jewish apocalyptic vocabulary, Scholem
s writings caution of a “Wailing Wall of the new Zion” in the form of journalistic prattle and of the revengeful return of sacred Hebrew.

See Table of Contents for further discussion of Scholem’s “On Lament and Lamentation,” including full text.

 

New Article: Huss, Imber’s Perception of Kabbalah

Huss, Boaz. “Forward, to the East: Naphtali Herz Imber’s Perception of Kabbalah.” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 12.3 (2013): 398-418.

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14725886.2013.826464

 

Abstract

Naphtali Herz Imber is famous as the author of the Jewish national anthem, “Hatikvah” (“The Hope”). He is also quite well known for his non-conformism, vagabond lifestyle, and excessive drinking. However, his interest in the occult and Kabbalah are much less known. Imber wrote several articles on Jewish mysticism, translated some kabbalistic texts, and published the first journal on Kabbalah—Uriel: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Cabbalistic Science (of which only one issue appeared). Although much scholarly literature has been devoted to Imber and his famous poem, his interest in the occult and Jewish mysticism has not been investigated. This article will discuss Imber’s encounter with late-nineteenth-century esotericism, specifically the doctrines of Laurence and Alice Oliphant and the Theosophical Society. It presents Imber’s notions concerning Jewish mysticism and examines the impact that the Theosophical Society and the Oliphants’ principles had on his perception of Kabbalah. Finally, it discusses the connection between Imber’s Zionism and his interest in Kabbalah and shows that his perception of Jewish mysticism, which was greatly influenced by Western esoteric ideas, was shaped in the framework of fin de siècle Orientalism and Jewish nationalism. Imber’s positive evaluation of Jewish mysticism and its nationalistic interpretation anticipates the position of later Zionist scholars of Jewish mysticism, whose vision of Kabbalah and Hasidism largely shaped the way Jewish mysticism is perceived and studied today.

New Article: Mendelson-Maoz, Asterai and the Hebrew literature of Beta Israel

Mendelson-Maoz, Adia. “The Road to ‘Yerussalem’ – Asterai and the Hebrew Literature of Beta Israel.” Social Identities (online first).

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504630.2013.864465

 

Abstract

The immigration of the Beta Israel community from Ethiopia to Israel during the 1980s and the 1990s posed a challenge to Israeli society in relation to its ability to know, understand, and absorb a Jewish community with differing religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. For the Beta Israel, immigrating to Israel created a rift between their dream of returning to Jerusalem, a dream that would only be fulfilled after a journey of suffering, and its realization – in which they became an inferior and excluded minority within Israel. This article discusses Hebrew Ethiopian-Israeli literature, focusing on the major narrative of homecoming – the Journey to Yerussalem. This literature, which is relatively new and small, brings the voice of two generations – those who immigrated to Israel as adults, and the younger generation who were small children during the journey. Presenting various texts, and focusing on Asterai by Omri Tegamlak Avera I shall show how Ethiopian-Israeli literature constituted itself as a journey literature, contrasting the old generation with the younger generation’s identity formation as it appears in the representation of this journey narrative, constructing a more complex, ambivalent approach to the concepts of immigration and absorption, homeland and diaspora.

Reviews: Inbari, Messianic Religious Zionism Confronts Israeli Territorial Compromises

Inbari, Motti. Messianic Religious Zionism Confronts Israeli Territorial Compromises. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

 

Reviews

• Brill, Alan. “Motti Inbari on Messianic Religious Zionism and other Fundamentalists.” The Book of Doctrines and Opinions: Notes on Jewish Theology and Spirituality, October 30, 2013.
• Tuten, Eric E. “Religious Worldviews and Evolving Political Realities.” H-Net Reviews (for H-Judaic), November 2013.
• Munson, Henry. “Review.” Politics, Religion & Ideology 14.4 (2013): 584-587.
• Newberg, Eric N. “Review.” Nova Religio  18.4 (2015): 112-114.

Cite: Mendelson-Maoz, Israel and Africa in Beta Israel’s Hebrew Literature and Culture.

Mendelson-Maoz, Adia. “Diaspora and Homeland—: Israel and Africa in Beta Israel’s Hebrew Literature and Culture.” Research in African Literatures 44.4 (2013): 35-50.

 

URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/research_in_african_literatures/v044/44.4.mendelson-maoz.html

 

Abstract

Diaspora and homeland, seemingly opposite concepts, constitute the foundation of a historical narrative in which immigrant groups are forced to leave their homeland and live in a foreign country, while continuing to dream of returning to their old home. In the case of Zionism, specifically the Beta Israel community in Ethiopia, the conditions were set to fulfill the dream of returning “home”—to Jerusalem. Yet, the realization of this collective dream uncovered a complex relation between the concept of “diaspora” and “homeland.” This article discusses the relationship between diaspora and homeland—Africa and Israel—in Hebrew Ethiopian-Israeli literature. It focuses on two major biblical narratives, the Exodus from Egypt and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and explores the transition from the representation of Israel as “home” and Africa as “diaspora” to its invert picture in which Africa is the “home” and Israel is the “diaspora.”

Job: U Cincinnati, Assistant Professor in Israel and Modern Jewish Thought

https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47483

The Department of Judaic Studies at the University of Cincinnati invites applications for an Assistant Professor in Israel and Modern Jewish Thought.   This is a full-time tenure-track position, beginning August 1, 2014.

The successful candidate will be a promising scholar with demonstrated excellence in research and teaching. Qualified candidates will be familiar with the critical, academic study of Israel and Modern Jewish Thought within a broader, global context. Also desirable would be background in theories and methods in the study of religion, competency in Modern Hebrew, and the ability to integrate digital technologies into the research and teaching of Jewish Studies.   Teaching responsibilities include the introductory courses Modern Jewish Civilization, Modern Jewish Thinkers, and Modern Israel, advanced courses on Israel and Jewish thought, and advising research projects of advanced undergraduate and graduate students.  The successful candidate will also serve on committees and generally work to further the department’s growth and prestige. We are seeking individuals whose research and teaching activities are consistent with our mission, which emphasizes a commitment to diversity and to collaborative projects nationally and internationally.

Qualifications: Ph.D. in hand by July 31, 2014, clear evidence of research and publication activity, solid evidence of teaching effectiveness, and knowledge of Modern Hebrew.

Applicants for this position must apply online to http://www.jobsatuc.com (position number 213UC6187). Cover letter should address the candidate’s effectiveness and consistency with both the position and the mission of the Department and indicate experience and success with teaching and interacting with culturally diverse populations. Include a current vita, samples of scholarly work, and evidence of teaching effectiveness. Three letters of recommendation should be sent electronically to Matthew Kraus matthew.kraus@uc.edu  (phone: 513-556-2298) or mailed to Judaic Studies Search Committee C/O Matthew Kraus Dept. of Judaic Studies, University of Cincinnati, PO Box 210169 Cincinnati, OH 45221-0169. Applications must be submitted by November 7, 2013 and will not be considered complete until all letters of recommendation have been received. For questions, please contact Professor Jana Braziel, Chair of Search Committee (513) 556-0350 [jana.braziel@uc.edu].

Application deadline:  November 7, 2013. Screening of applications will begin promptly on November 7 and will continue until the position is filled. The University of Cincinnati is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.  Women, people of color, people with disability and veterans are encouraged to apply.  Preliminary interviews will be conducted at the annual meetings of AAR/SBL and AJS.

Cite: Lissovsky, From Sacred Grove to National Park: The Tale of Hurshat Tal

Lissovsky, Nurit. “From Sacred Grove to National Park: The Tale of Hurshat Tal in Israel.” Landscape Journal 32.1 (2013): 1-18.

URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/landscape_journal/v032/32.1.lissovsky.html

 

Abstract

This paper presents Hurshat Tal (literally Dew Grove) in the Upper Galilee as a case study for one of the fiercest disputes in the history of landscape conservation in Israel. A proposal to convert this ancient grove, a sacred site for Muslims and the sole remnant of an ancient forest of Tabor oak that once extended over the country’s northern region, into a recreation resort highlights the profound differences between the desire to “beautify” and “improve” the landscape and the commitment to preserve natural and cultural remnants of the past. This paper underlines the conflict between the scientific interest of naturalists and the interests of the planning and tourism bodies, and describes the central role played by landscape architects Lipa Yahalom and Dan Zur, who endowed the ancient grove with a new visual image and cultural identity.

Cite: Irshai, Dignity, Honor,and Equality: Torah Reading by Women in Israeli Modern Orthodoxy

Irshai, Ronit. “Dignity, Honor, and Equality in Contemporary Halachic Thinking: The Case of Torah Reading by Women in Israeli Modern Orthodoxy.” Modern Judaism 33.3 (2013): 332-56.

URL: mj.oxfordjournals.org/content/33/3/332.extract.html

Extract

The past few years have witnessed the halachic discussion, in Modern Orthodox circles, of various suggestions for radical changes in the structure of prayer in the synagogue.According to these suggestions, women would be permitted to perform the reading of the Torah in synagogue in the framework of a standard orthodox congregation, and not in separate women’s prayer groups.

[…]

Can we honestly say, even in this case, that the dignity of women is not impinged upon as a result of their being deprived of honor? In other words, we can see that in situations in which one must set an order of precedence, women’s inferior religious status (their lower level of “holiness”) becomes more prominent, and a wealth of such examples exists throughout halachic literature.

As a result of all that has been said thus far I would like to challenge the claim that an attitude of “different but equal” does not, in practice, constitute an injury to women’s religious status or their level of holiness.

Cite: Ben-Shitrit, Women Activists in Shas and the Islamic Movement

Ben Shitrit, Lihi. “Women, Freedom, and Agency in Religious Political Movements: Reflections from Women Activists in Shas and the Islamic Movement in Israel.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 9.3 (2013): 81-107.

URL: muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_middle_east_womens_studies/v009/9.3.shitrit.html

 

Abstract

Women’s activism in conservative religious-political movements poses a
challenge to liberal feminism. Why do women participate in great numbers
in political organizations that seem to limit women’s freedom and
equality? My work with women activists in the Islamic Movement and the
Jewish ultra-Orthodox Shas Movement in Israel, both explicitly
patriarchal religious revivalist groups similar to other movements
across the Middle East, finds that these movements offer women powerful
liberatory narratives. This paper takes issue with recent arguments that
suggest that pious women experience agency in acts of submission rather
than in resistance and that the association of agency with emancipatory
desire and action is an expression of a patently Western tradition that
celebrates the fiction of the autonomous individual. I find that women
activists’ interpretations of agency in piety practices are highly
invested in the idea of the autonomous individual. The validity of
practices, according to activists, rests on the choice and consciousness
of the individual and on the rejection of submission to social norms.
Furthermore, when we take into account the various class and cultural
contexts of Middle Eastern women’s piety practices and activism, we find
that for many women religious movements offer real liberation from
oppressive socio-economic realities and limiting cultural norms.

New Book: Cohen, God, Jews, and the Media

Cohen, Yoel. God, Jews and the Media. Religion and Israel’s Media, Routledge Jewish studies series. London and New York: Routledge, 2012.

Reviews

• Abrams, Nathan. “Review.” Journal of Religion, Media, and Digital Culture 2.1 (2013): 4 pp.
• Shapiro, Haim. “Review.” Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, August 12, 2013.
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• Rosenthal, Michelle. “Review.” (in Hebrew).