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

 

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

Event: Ilana Pardes discusses her new book at Stanford, Sep 30, 2014

Agnon’s Moonstruck Lovers: The Song of Songs in Israeli Culture

Lecture and conversation with Ilana Pardes,

Professor of Comparative Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Tuesday, September 30, 4:00pm  

Building 260, Room 252 

Stanford University

In adopting the Song of Songs, Zionist interpreters sought to return to the erotic, pastoral landscapes of biblical times. Their quest for a new, uplifting, secular literalism, however, could not efface the haunting impact of allegorical configurations of love. 

 

“This new study confirms Ilana Pardes as one of the most deeply interesting scholars in the field of comparative literature.”
-Robert Alter, University of California, Berkeley

Presented by the Taube Center for Jewish Studies in collaboration with Hebrew@Stanford and the Department of Comparative Literature.

 

New Book: Pardes, Agnon’s Moonstruck Lovers

Pardes, Ilana. Agnon’s Moonstruck Lovers. The Song of Songs in Israeli Culture, Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures in Jewish Studies. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2014.

 

 

Agnon’s Moonstruck Lovers explores the response of Israel’s Nobel laureate S. Y. Agnon to the privileged position of the Song of Songs in Israeli culture. Standing at a unique crossroads between religion and secularism, Agnon probes the paradoxes and ambiguities of the Zionist hermeneutic project. In adopting the Song, Zionist interpreters sought to return to the erotic, pastoral landscapes of biblical times. Their quest for a new, uplifting, secular literalism, however, could not efface the haunting impact of allegorical configurations of love. With superb irony, Agnon’s tales recast Israeli biblicism as a peculiar chapter within the ever-surprising history of biblical exegesis.

Ilana Pardes is professor of comparative literature at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: Upon the Handles of the Lock

2. The Song of Songs as Cultural Text: From the European Enlightenment to Israeli Biblicism

3. Rechnitz’s Botany of Love: The Song of Seaweed

4. The Biblical Ethnographies of “Edo and Enam” and the Quest for the Ultimate Song

Epilogue
Forevermore

Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index

 

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.

ToC: Israel Studies 17,3 (2012)

URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.issue-3

• SPECIAL SECTION: Israel’s Foreign Relations — Asian Perspectives

  1. 

     China’s Relationship with Israel, Opportunities and Challenges, Perspectives from ChinaChina’s Relationship with Israel, Opportunities and Challenges, Perspectives from China(pp. 1-21)

     Yiyi Chen

     DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.1

     Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.1

  2. 

     Indians and Israelis: Beyond Strategic PartnershipsIndians and Israelis: Beyond Strategic Partnerships(pp. 22-44)

     Maina Chawla Singh

     DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.22

     Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.22

  3. 

     Turkey and Israel in the 2000s—From Cooperation to ConflictTurkey and Israel in the 2000s—From Cooperation to Conflict(pp. 45-66)

     Özlem Tür

     DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.45

     Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.45

• Literature and Music

  1. 

     Samson’s Suicide: Death and the Hebrew Literary CanonSamson’s Suicide: Death and the Hebrew Literary Canon(pp. 67-91)

     Rachel S. Harris

     DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.67

     Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.67

  2. 

     Contested Zionist Masculinity and the Redemption of the Schlemiel in Levi Aryeh Arieli’s “Allah Karim!”Contested Zionist Masculinity and the Redemption of the Schlemiel in Levi Aryeh Arieli’s “Allah Karim!”(pp. 92-118)

     Philip Hollander

     DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.92

     Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.92

  3. 

     Israeli Art Music: A ReintroductionIsraeli Art Music: A Reintroduction(pp. 119-149)

     Assaf Shelleg

     DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.119

     Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.119

• Article

  1. 

     The Construction of Ethnic Identity in the Military—From the Bottom UpThe Construction of Ethnic Identity in the Military—From the Bottom Up(pp. 150-175)

     Dana Kachtan

     DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.150

     Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.150

• Zionist Dialectics

  1. 

     Zionism’s Conflicting Founding Designs and Their Ideological ImpactZionism’s Conflicting Founding Designs and Their Ideological Impact(pp. 176-190)

     Meir Seidler

     DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.176

     Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.176

• 

  Notes on ContributorsNotes on Contributors(pp. 191-192)

  DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.191

  Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.191

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  Guidelines for ContributorsGuidelines for Contributors(pp. 193-195)

  DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.193

  Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.3.193

Dissertation: Levinson, The End of the Founding Zionist Dream

Levinson, Rose L. The End of the Founding Zionist Dream: Reflections in Contemporary Israeli Fiction. Cincinnati: Union Institute and University, 2009.

 

Abstract

This dissertation explores dilemmas of contemporary Israeli culture through the work of four Israeli novelists: Yoram Kaniuk, Orley Castel-Bloom, Michal Govrin and Zeruya Shalev. The focus is on how these artists provide insight into vexing political, communal and individual situations in Israeli society. Using literature as cultural artifacts through which Israeli life is revealed, the research focuses on key aspects in which modern-day Israel is radically different from the state envisioned by its founding pioneers just over sixty years ago. The eight novels of the study–two by each author–are the basis for considering such issues as the role of religion and biblical text in contemporary Israeli life, particularly as they impact women; the nature of Israeli domestic life as it reflects larger issues of social unrest; the ongoing influence of the Holocaust in determining political and personal responses to perceived danger; and the use of satire as a means of examining dysfunction in Israeli institutions. The fictive worlds of the novels reveal a society deeply fragmented, one in which once familiar structures are breaking apart under the stresses and confusion of newly emerging challenges.

Autoethnography is included in the methodology. The inclusion of an autobiographical element draws attention to the impact Israeli issues have on a non-Israeli Jew for whom this country remains a strong embodiment of core aspects of Jewish identity. This Cultural Study of Jewish Israel links questions of Israeli Jewish identity to issues of Jewish identity in general. The autobiographical elements are used as a bridge between the novelists’ insights and the preoccupations of individuals seeking to grapple with perplexities around identity by studying Israeli cultural maladies through its storytellers.

Cite: Amiran, Cultural Nationalism and the Formulation of the Political: Reflections on the Jewish National Movement

Amiran, Revital. “The Cultural Nationalism and the Formulation of the Political: Reflections on the Jewish National Movement in the Works of D. Frishman and M. J. Berdichevski.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 18.2 (2012): 193-215.

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URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537113.2012.680857

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Abstract

Regarding culture as the very basis of the concept of a nation, this article reflects on cultural nationalism’s attitude towards the idea of a nation-state and national-political life. I will suggest that cultural nationalism is a concept that inevitably invokes the aspiration that art will overcome political life, undermining its role to provide the soon-to-be citizens with an adequate arena on which to contest their ethics. Thus, cultural nationalism might prevent politics from being involved in questions of identity and may imply some questionable consequences regarding democratic values such as individual autonomy. Hence, cultural nationalism keeps open the option to contradict its own intrinsic postulation that aims for self-sovereignty. This claim will be demonstrated with the case study of the Jewish national movement and more specifically through the examination of the writings of two important literary personae within it: David Frishman and Micha Joseph Berdichevski.

Cite: Stahl, Jesus as the New Jew

Stahl, Neta. "Jesus as the New Jew: Zionism and the Literary Representation of Jesus." Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 11.1 (2012): 1-23.

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14725886.2012.646693

 

Abstract

This article deals with Modern Hebrew writers’ attempt to present Jesus as part of the national project of Zionism. It argues that Jesus functions in these works in different and sometimes opposite ways and that the Zionist project was eager to distinguish itself from the world of traditional Judaism by embracing its ultimate Other. In this sense, the reclamation of Jesus by Zionist writers can be understood as an attempt to mark the boundaries of the new Jewish self vis-à-vis traditional Judaism. But Jesus’s Otherness functioned as more than that––it provided a kind of mirror that reflected to Zionist writers their own communal identities. In order to find themselves in this mirror, they had to distinguish between the Jesus of Christianity and the historical, “authentic” Jewish Jesus.

Reviews: Silver, Our Exodus

Matthew Silver. Our Exodus: Leon Uris and the Americanization of Israel’s Founding Story. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2010.

 

Reviewed by Henry Gonshak (Montana Tech of the University of Montana)
Published on H-Judaic (May, 2011)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

 

Reviews:

– Gonshak, Henry. “Exploring the Influence of Uris’s Exodus.” H-Net Reviews, May 2011.

 

[See also description]

Cite: Tadmor-Shimony, Cultivating the Soil as an Educational Message

Tadmor-Shimony, Talia. "Cultivating the Soil as an Educational Message in Israeli Schools During the 1950s and 1960s." Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 10.1 (2011): 23-42.

URL: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a936080543

 

Abstract

One of the founding principles of the Zionist ethos is cultivation of the soil. This article examines the ways in which this ethos was “translated” into educational values in Israeli State (secular) primary schools during the 1950s and 1960s. The translation took place at three levels. First, agriculture was presented as a paragon and the rural way of life as idyllic in the written curriculum. Reading textbooks included collections of stories about farmers who had fulfilled the myth of “making the wilderness bloom”; history textbooks emphasized the importance of Hebrew agriculture in the Zionist narrative. The second level was the physical cultivation of the soil in agriculture lessons: children learned how to grow radishes and onions, maintain an irrigation grid, and put together a sprinkler. The third level was the creation of an agricultural timeframe by teaching in accordance with the timeline of agrarian seasons. Schools celebrated “agrarianized” versions of Jewish festivals in order to emphasize the renewal of the Jewish people’s connection with its land through agricultural work.

Cite: Reitter, Zionist Self-Help Writing and the "Jewish Self-Hatred"

Reitter, Paul. "Interwar Expressionism, Zionist Self-Help Writing, and the Other History of ‘Jewish Self-Hatred." Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 55 (2010): 175-192.

 

URL: http://leobaeck.oxfordjournals.org/content/55/1/175.extract?etoc

New Publication: Pinsker, Literary Passports

Shachar M. Pinsker. Literary Passports. The Making of Modernist Hebrew Fiction in Europe. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010.

 

URL: http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?isbn=0804770646

Reviews: Glenda Abramson, Hebrew Writing of the First World War

Abramson, Glenda. Hebrew Writing of the First World War. London and Portland, Ore.: Vallentine Mitchell, 2008.

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Reviews: Tsila Ratner. Journal of Israeli History 28,2 (2009): 239-242.

 

Keywords: World War 1, Zionism, Literature, Poetry, Hameiri, Avigdor, Agnon, Shmuel Yosef, Tchernichowsky, Greenberg, Uri Zvi, Shofman, Gershon, Vogel, David, Reuveni, Aharon, Burla, Yehuda, Brenner, Yosef Haim

Cite: Mysticism in New Hebrew Poetry

בר-יוסף, חמוטל. "מיסטיקה בשירה העברית החדשה ופניו הרוחניים של הקיום הציוני." הדור 3 (2009): 122 – 126.

Keywords: Religion, Poetry, Israeli Literature, Hebrew Literature, Zionism