RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY …jewishnb/newsletters/CSJLNL2003final.pdf · RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY The Allen and Joan Bildner ... Paul, focusing

R U T G E R S , T H E S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W J E R S E Y

The Allen and Joan BildnerCenter for the Study of Jewish LifeANNUAL NEWSLETTER • NUMBER 7 • FALL 2003

From the Director’s Desk…

Yael Zerubavel with Rutgers’ President Richard L. McCormick (Seestory on page 10.)

The 2002–03 academic year demonstrated the continuing

growth of Jewish Studies at Rutgers. Since the establish-

ment of the academic program in 1998, a total of 256 studentshave graduated as majors or minors in Jewish Studies, and the

number of students enrolled in Jewish Studies courses annually

has reached 1,500. The rise of interest in Jewish Studies is atestimony to what can be achieved in a large public university

where so many students stand to benefit from its development.

In fall 2002, Dr. Azzan Yadin joined the Department of JewishStudies as Assistant Professor of Rabbinical Literature and has

added important courses to the Jewish Studies curriculum.Currently, the department is engaged in an international

search for the Laurie Chair in Jewish History, thanks to a

generous gift from the Laurie Foundation. Our faculty contin-ues to be actively engaged in teaching, research, and writing,

and have received fellowships and awards in recognition of

their work.One of the areas of academic strength for Rutgers’ Jewish

Studies Department is Israel Studies. A number of our faculty

members study and teach various aspects of Israeli history,society, culture, and politics, and the Bildner Center regularly

hosts visiting professors from Israel who contribute to its

activities through teaching, lectures, and faculty seminars. TheCenter also brings prominent scholars to Rutgers to speak at its

public programs. The Ruth and Alvin Rockoff annual lecture

this fall, presented by Professor Shlomo Avineri of The HebrewUniversity, attracted an overflow audience of community

members, faculty, and students. In addition, the Center is

sponsoring an ongoing series of informal lectures and discus-sions for faculty and students on a wide range of topics relating

to Israel.

The public programs offered during the 2002–03 academicyear focused on Jewish social and cultural history as well as

contemporary issues, including antisemitism, democracy and

security, and polemics over religious practices. Teachers’

workshops, under the auspices of the Herbert and Leonard

Littman Families Holocaust Resource Center, continue to be animportant feature of the Bildner Center’s mission, and the

Center is planning to expand its public education in this area.

Our Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival, underwritten bythe Karma Foundation, continues to enjoy great success and

attracts hundreds of community members.

In the seven years that have passed since the Bildner Centerwas founded, it has established Jewish Studies as a viable and

growing field at Rutgers. Its presence has made a significant

impact on students’ experiences as well as on the intellectualand cultural life of the community. We would like to welcome

Rutgers’ new president, Dr. Richard L. McCormick, who hasparticipated in recent Center events and expressed the

university’s support and recognition of the Center’s educational

mission.We look back with pride on the Center’s major achievements

to date, and we look forward to the continued growth of the

Jewish Studies faculty and the further development of theBildner Center’s educational programs and initiatives.

—Professor Yael Zerubavel

2 • C E N T E R F O R T H E S T U D Y O F J E W I S H L I F E

FACULTY

Courses 2003–2004Jewish Society & Culture I: From Antiquity to the Middle AgesJewish Society & Culture II:

The Modern ExperienceClassical Jewish PhilosophyModern Jewish PhilosophyHistory of East European JewryHistory of the HolocaustHolocaust Literature in TranslationHebrew Bible: Formation and

InterpretationJewish Places, Jewish SpacesSociology of American Jewish

Religious MovementsJewish MemoryArab-Israeli ConflictIsraeli PoliticsIsraeli CultureHistory of ZionismAmerican Jewish Experience in

LiteratureHistory of Jewish WomenRemembering the ShtetlJewish-American Women:

Contested LivesVision and Visuality:

The Rabbis and the ImageElementary Modern HebrewIntermediate Modern HebrewAdvanced Modern HebrewContemporary Hebrew Literature

and Media (in Hebrew)Readings in Modern Hebrew

Literature (in Hebrew)Introduction to Modern Hebrew

Literature (in Hebrew)The Hebrew Novel (in Hebrew)Elementary Modern Yiddish

Continued on page 9

FACULTY PROFILE

Maurice EliasProfessor of Psychology Maurice Elias

has always been interested in usinghis scholarly research as a tool toimprove community life. His orientationtoward action has led him to assisteducational institutions in implement-ing social and emotional learningprograms that foster compassionate,caring, and nurturing environments. Ithas also led him to aid organizationswithin the Jewish community to createprograms that nurture Jewish identity.With a Ph.D. in clinical psychology fromthe University of Connecticut, Eliasbrings varied perspectives and method-ologies to his research that give his worka unique quality. His combination of acommunity psychology perspective,clinical training, a background informedby Judaism, and broad knowledge aboutidentity development allows him toapproach his research in different andexciting new ways.

Elias’s research on social andemotional learning has had profoundeffects on both public and religiousschools. Concerned by the fact thatmany youth have not developed socialand emotional skills that would allowthem to treat others with respect,compassion, and empathy, but insteadturn to drugs, violence, and a life ofunderachievement, Elias began tosearch for the missing components. Heapplies this theory to Jewish educationas well as to the public school class-room. Elias has therefore spent a greatdeal of time working with teachers andadministrators in public schools,yeshivas, Jewish day schools, andsupplemental schools to implementemotionally intelligent classrooms.Elias’s concern for Jewish education, inparticular, is reflected in his involve-ment with the Network for Research inJewish Education and the JewishEducation Association.

Elias’s research interest in Jewishidentity development led him to explorewhy some Jewish youth embrace theirJewish roots while others disassociate

themselves from theirJewish identity as theymature. Fascinated bythe overarchingquestion of how to raisechildren in the UnitedStates so that they forma strong Jewish identity,Elias and Dr. JeffreyKress, a former Rutgersgraduate student and current colleagueat the Jewish Theological Seminary ofAmerica, created the Jewish IdentityDevelopment Project. The project beganby exploring differences in attitudes andbeliefs among Jewish youth of differentdenominations, and more recently it hasbroadened its framework. One of Elias’srecent research interests is the impor-tance of social and emotional learningfor Jewish educators, which convergeswith his interest in Jewish identity andis contained within the rubric of hisJewish Identity Development Project.

Elias has worked with Jewish youthorganizations, such as United SynagogueYouth (USY), to strengthen their role infostering Jewish identity. Recently, hisresearch has shifted to include theimportance of Jewish camping inhelping to build a Jewish identity. Eliasis currently seeking support for aresearch and action study to surveyalumni of Jewish camps in order toexplore the varying levels of Jewishidentity with which they have emerged.The data can be used to inform the waythe Jewish community approaches thedevelopment of informal educationalprograms for Jewish youth.

A psychology professor at Rutgers fortwenty-four years, Elias brings a uniqueapproach to his teaching in the Depart-ment of Jewish Studies. Teaching theseminar “Growing Up Jewish inAmerica,” he finds it fascinating to seehow his students, who have varyinglevels of Jewish interest or identifica-tion, process and integrate the conceptsdiscussed in the course in very differentways. He finds that his teaching can helpto confirm or disprove some of hisresearch findings and helps himgenerate ideas for further study.

Elias has become increasingly

involved with the JewishStudies department,supervising Jewish Studieshonors students and, forthe first time this past year,supervising the internshipof a Jewish Studies studentwith the United JewishCommunities. (Please seearticle on Aviva Kieffer on

page 11.) Elias has offered help to theJewish Studies department in develop-

R U T G E R S , T H E S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W J E R S E Y • 3

FACULTY SEMINARS 2003Rachel Elior, the John and Golda Cohen Professor of Jewish Thought at HebrewUniversity, presented a faculty seminar entitled “The Dispute on the Solar and LunarCalendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls.” She addressed the ways in which the Dead SeaScrolls preserve the ancient priestly calendar. The talk was based on her new bookThe Temple and Chariot, Priests and Angels, Sanctuary and Heavenly Sanctuariesin Early Jewish Mysticism.

John Gager, the William H. Danforth Professor of Religion at Princeton University,delivered a talk entitled “Jewish Scholarship in Early Christianity: The Case of DavidFlusser.” The talk surveyed Jewish scholarship surrounding the New Testament figurePaul, focusing on the work of the late–twentieth-century Israeli scholar David Flusser.Gager demonstrated a recent shift in Jewish scholarship about Paul, who historicallyhad been represented negatively by Jewish scholars but has begun to be seen as amore legitimately Jewish figure.

Josef Stern, professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, presented a talkentitled “Two Concepts of Holiness: Maimonides vs. Nahmanides.” The talk focused onthe scriptural interpretations of Nahmanides and the philosophical writings ofMaimonides and compared these two thinkers’ understanding of the concept ofholiness.

Steven J. Zipperstein, the Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture andHistory and Taube Director of the Program in Jewish Studies at Stanford University,delivered a talk entitled “‘A Passion and a Conception of the World’: On Rereading theProtocols of the Elders of Zion.” He considered how this work, one of the mostnotorious of anti-Semitic literature, has endured in its appeal to a wide range ofreaders from the end of the nineteenth century in Russia, where it was created, to thepresent day.

The First Visiting Blanche andIrving Laurie Chair in Jewish HistoryProfessor Elliott Horowitz served as the first Visiting Blanche and Irving LaurieChair in Jewish History during the 2002–2003 academic year. Horowitz taught twocourses that were new to the Department of Jewish Studies curriculum: “Jewish-Christian Relations” and “The Jewish Life Cycle in Historical Perspective.” He alsoenriched the Bildner Center’s community-outreach efforts by delivering the publiclecture “Sabbath Pleasures in Medieval and Modern Times.”

Horowitz, an associate professor in the Department of Jewish History at Bar-IlanUniversity, is co-editor of The Jews in the Early Modern Mediterranean (Bar-IlanUniversity Press, 2001) and has published and lectured widely on themes such as Jewishculture in Italy; Jewish ceremonies, rituals, and leisure activities during the Middle Ages;and Jewish-Christian relations. Horowitz has held visiting professorships and receivedfellowships from Yale, Oxford, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard,among other universities.

The Blanche and Irving Laurie Chair in Jewish History was established by a major giftfrom the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation. The Department of Jewish Studies has openeda formal search for the permanent Chair.

(Left to right) Laurie Foundation ExecutiveDirector Gene Korf, FAS Executive DeanHolly Smith, Yael Zerubavel, LaurieFoundation President Adelaide Zagoren,and Elliott Horowitz

JEWISH STUDIES FACULTYYael Zerubavel, Chair, Jewish

Studies; HistoryMyron Aronoff, Political ScienceWilliam Donahue, GermanMaurice Elias, PsychologyLeslie Fishbein, American StudiesZiva Galili, HistoryJudith Gerson, SociologyPaul Hanebrink, HistoryDina LeGall, HistoryPhyllis Mack, HistoryAlicia Ostriker, EnglishBarbara Reed, JournalismJeffrey Shandler, Jewish StudiesNancy Sinkoff, Jewish Studies

and HistoryChaim I. Waxman, SociologyAzzan Yadin, Jewish Studies

LANGUAGE INSTRUCTORSOrly Moshenberg,

Hebrew Language CoordinatorEdna Bryn-NoimanEve JochnowitzLily Levy

PART-TIME LECTURERSLeonard LevinMarc MillerRachel NeisDaniel OdenMoshe Sherman

VISITING FACULTYOren Soffer, fallEliezer Don-Yehiya, spring See Page 4 for Visiting Scholars from Israel


ISRAEL STUDIES

ExploringDemocracy andCivil Rights inIsraelIn February 2003, the Bildner Center

sponsored several forums thatexplored democracy and civil rights inIsrael. The Center brought ProfessorPnina Lahav to Rutgers to lecture andlead discussions in this subject areawith Rutgers faculty and students aswell as with the larger community. Aprofessor of law at Boston University,Lahav teaches constitutional law,political and civil liberties, and com-parative law. She is the author ofnumerous journal articles and books,including the award-winning bookJudgment in Jerusalem: Chief JusticeSimon Agranat and the Zionist Century.

Lahav delivered two talks entitled

“Democracy in the Balance: Securityand Justice in the Israeli Courts”. Thefirst, held on Rutgers’ College AvenueCampus, was designed for Rutgersfaculty and students, and was co-sponsored by Rutgers Hillel and theLegow Family Israel Program Center ofthe United Jewish Communities (UJC)of MetroWest. The second, held at theRutgers School of Law in Newark, wascosponsored by Rutgers School of Law–Newark and the Community RelationsCommittee of the United JewishCommunities of MetroWest. The talkdrew members of the Rutgers faculty oflaw and law students, UJC leadership,and community members with specialinterest in the topic. Lahav examinedthe increasing pressure on the IsraeliSupreme Court to mediate betweenprinciples of human rights and politicaland civil liberties on the one hand, andmilitary and security concerns on theother, noting that the court’s decisions

are affected by current social, political,and legal considerations.

Lahav also delivered the RaoulWallenberg Annual Public Lecture,funded by Leon and Toby Cooperman,entitled “Up Against the Wall: Women’sLegal Struggle to Pray at the WesternWall.” Her talk documented the effortsby women of different religious back-grounds, including Orthodox women, topray collectively at the women’s sectionof Jerusalem’s Western Wall for morethan a decade. Lahav examined thewomen’s fight for the right to pray, theattitude of the Knesset and the public,and the legal opposition they haveconfronted.

F O C U S O N

Center Explores Israeli Culture through Literature and FilmBest-selling Israeli author, filmmaker, and cartoonist Etgar Keret read from his shortstories and spoke about the challenge of writing about contemporary Israeli societyduring a talk at Rutgers in January 2003. Born in 1967, Keret is one of the leading newvoices in Israeli literature and cinema. His story collections, best-sellers in Israel, havebeen published in eight different languages, and his film Malka Red-Heart won the IsraeliOscar. His works include Pipelines, Gaza Blues, Kneller’s Happy Campers, Jetlag and TheBus Driver Who Wanted to be God & Other Stories. The event was sponsored by theBildner Center, the Consulate General of Israel in New York, and the Rutgers Office ofStudent Leadership, Involvement, and Programs.

Award-winning Israeli authors Michal Govrin and Ronit Matalon participated in“Passages: Encounters with Jewish Writers,” a writers symposium presented by theBildner Center in October 2002. (See article on page 8.) In addition, the acclaimed filmsLate Marriage and Promises, which explore various aspects of Israeli society, werepresented at the Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival in November 2002. (See articleon page 9.)

Pnina Lahav

Jewish Studies Courses on IsraelFall 2002–Spring 2003Trauma and Memory in Israeli CultureIsrael in the 1950sArab-Israeli ConflictHistory of ZionismIsraeli Culture: Formative Years,

1920s–1940sIsraeli SocietyIsraeli Politics


I S R A E LVisiting Scholarsfrom Israel 2003Anat Helman received a Ph.D. from theHebrew University of Jerusalem, whereshe is currently a lecturer in theDepartment of Jewish History and theInstitute of Contemporary Jewry. Herdissertation, which focuses on thedevelopment of civil society and urbanculture in Tel Aviv during the 1920s and1930s, earned the Yitzhak Rabin Prizefor outstanding doctoral thesis, and shehas subsequently written and lecturedextensively on the development of TelAviv as a modern city. At Rutgers duringthe spring semester, Helman taught thecourse “Israeli Culture: Formative Years,1920s–1940s,” which examines Zionists’efforts to consolidate a Hebrew nationalculture during the period of Jewishimmigration to the British mandate ofPalestine. She also delivered a publiclecture, “Purim in 1920s–1930s Tel Aviv:Carnival or Festival?” exploring Purim

ISRAEL STUDIES

Norman Samuels, Alvin Rockoff, Dvora Hacohen, andRuth Rockoff

celebrations as major urban publicevents in early-twentieth-century TelAviv. Her publications in English includea chapter entitled “East or West? TelAviv in the 1920s and 1930s,” whichappears in People of the City: Jews andthe Urban Challenge (1999); the article“‘Even the Dogs in the Streets Bark inHebrew’: National Ideology and EverydayCulture in Tel Aviv,” in the JewishQuarterly Review (2002); and aforthcoming article, “European Jews inthe Levant Heat: Climate and Culture in1920s and 1930s Tel Aviv,” to appear inthe Journal of Israeli History.

Oren Soffer, the Aresty VisitingFellow for fall 2003, comes to Rutgersafter undertaking a Halbert Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University ofToronto’s Munk Center for InternationalStudies. Soffer received his Ph.D. inpolitical science at the Hebrew Univer-sity of Jerusalem, preparing a disserta-tion entitled “‘Hazefira’ Paper —Modernization of the Political-Social

Discourse in the Hebrew Language.” Healso received a law degree from Tel AvivUniversity. Soffer has a primary aca-demic interest in political communica-tion, particularly Hebrew politicaljournalism in the late nineteenth andearly twentieth centuries. He is alsointerested in the interrelationshipsamong law, politics, and communication.His publications include an article inHebrew entitled “Judicial Review in aPolarized Society,” in the professionaljournal Law Review (2001), and anothercalled “Convergence and Distance in theRelationship between the Center andthe Periphery in the JournalisticDiscourse,” for the journal Qesher(2000). He also has a forthcoming articlein English called “Anti-Semitism,Statistics, and Scientization of HebrewPolitical Discourse,” which will appearin Jewish Social Studies: History,Culture, and Society. As a visitingprofessor at the Bildner Center, Sofferwill teach the undergraduate course“Israeli Culture” during the fall term.

The Ruth and Alvin RockoffAnnual LectureOver 200 people gathered at the Busch Campus Center onNovember 19, 2002 for the Ruth and Alvin Rockoff AnnualLecture. “Israel in the Fifties: The DemographicRevolution” was delivered by Dvora Hacohen, the BildnerCenter’s Norman and Syril Reitman Visiting Fellowduring the 2002 fall semester. Hacohen, professor of Jewishhistory at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and the author ofnumerous publications on immigration to Israel, discussedmass immigration to Israel during the early years ofstatehood and its effect on the demographic composition ofthe country. She focused on the sociopolitical effects ofsocietal rifts between religious and secular Jews as well asbetween Jews from European and Islamic countries.


From the Associate DirectorThe Bildner Center’s community outreach programs continue

to educate and enrich the community. Our public lecturesbring large and diverse audiences to the Rutgers campus and theRutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival is now one of the majorJewish cultural events in the region. Due to the overwhelmingsuccess of the Jewish film festival we expanded the program for2003 to include a vintage film, a special screening for teenagersand a double feature of shorter documentaries with a guestappearance by the director. The Center’s public events, such as“Rediscovering Jewish Eastern Europe,” a lecture and musicalpresentation, bring large numbers of community members to

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Programs for EducatorsThe Littman Holocaust Resource Centersponsored a variety of educationalprograms for teachers this year.“Teaching the Holocaust throughLiterature,” a four-session mini-course,brought together high school teachersand Rutgers faculty to discuss Holocaustliterature published in Yiddish, Hebrew,German, and English. Finishing its second year, the middleschool teachers discussion groupincluded eighteen public schoolteachers who met four times over thecourse of the year. Led by DeniseColeman, the group addressed a wide

range of topics, including ways ofpreparing one’s class for a visit by aHolocaust survivor, films on theHolocaust, and the incorporation ofmusic and theater into the curriculum.Guest speakers brought new perspec-tives to the group and included DannyTamez, educational director of theGeorge Street Playhouse; HelenSimpkins, chair of the New JerseyCommission on Holocaust Education’scurriculum committee for grades K–4and 5–8; and Hans Fisher, who gave atalk on the music of Theresienstadt. Inaddition, the group viewed a specialmultimedia presentation, “Through theEyes of a Friend: The World of AnneFrank.” Sixty-five educators attended a one-day conference on “Teaching theHolocaust in Elementary School:Focus on Friendship, Respect andTolerance” for teachers of grades K–4.Participants in the program came fromacross the state, including teachers fromMiddlesex, Monmouth, Somerset,Passaic, Bergen, and Hunterdoncounties, as well as from Philadelphia.The conference featured Janice Cohn,author of The Christmas Menorahs:How a Town Fought Hate, whodiscussed how to foster compassion and

moral courage in children, and HelenSimpkins, who presented the revisedelementary school curriculum guide.Gail Rosenthal, director of the HolocaustResource Center at Richard StocktonCollege, gave a lively presentation aboutthe video series “Different and theSame,” which was created inconjunction with Mister Rogers’Neighborhood to help children identifyand prevent prejudice.

The Herbert and Leonard Littman Families Holocaust Resource Center

Participants at the conference onteaching the Holocaust in elementaryschool

Community Yom HashoahCommemoration The BildnerCenter and the Jewish Federa-tion of Greater Middlesex Countywere co-sponsors of the commu-nity Yom Hashoah Commemora-tion. Held at the Rutgers StudentCenter on College Avenue, theprogram, which was attended byapproximately 400 communitymembers and survivors, featureda poignant talk by author andsurvivor Inge Auerbacher on herchildhood experience inTheresienstadt. A highlight ofthe event was a series of musicalselections performed by malesingers from the community, whojoined together under the artisticdirection of Cantor Anna Ott ofTemple Anshe Emeth for thissolemn occasion.

campus and stimulate dialogue on a variety of topical Jewishissues.

The Littman Families Holocaust Resource Center continuesto educate teachers throughout New Jersey. Last year, wesponsored our first conference for elementary school teacherswhich drew 65 educators to the Rutgers campus. Next spring theCenter will host the State of New Jersey’s Yom Hashoahcommemoration sponsored with the NJ Commission onHolocaust Education and the Jewish Federation of MiddlesexCounty.

We look forward to seeing you at our events and invite you tovisit the Center next time you are on campus.

—Karen Small


Rediscovering JewishEastern EuropeIn a number of remarkable new ways, Americans have

been rediscovering the rich culture of Ashkenazi Jewsthat flourished in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust.The increase in tourism to Poland, the renewed interest inJewish culture among non-Jews in Poland, and theflourishing of klezmer music were explored at “Rediscover-ing Jewish Eastern Europe,” a special program presentedby the Bildner Center’s Herbert and Leonard LittmanFamilies Holocaust Resource Center. More than 350people gathered for the event, which included lectures,slide shows, and live klezmer music. Jeffrey Shandler, anassistant professor in Rutgers’ Department of JewishStudies, moderated the program.

Jack Kugelmass, the Irving and Miriam Lowe Professorof Holocaust and Modern Jewish Studies at Arizona StateUniversity and co-author of From a Ruined Garden: TheMemorial Books of Polish Jewry, examined the recentrise of Jewish tourist culture in Kazimierz, the traditionalJewish quarter of Cracow for generations before World WarII. He discussed the flourishing of Jewish restaurants,Jewish folk art, and Jewish cultural events in Kazimierzsince the 1990s and considered the ways in which theyhave appealed to both Jews and non-Jews. In a dynamiclecture accompanied by slides, Kugelmass probed thecomplexities of this resurgence of Jewish life, noting thatmany of those who have championed it and are reaping itsbenefits, such as restaurant owners and klezmer perform-ers, are not Jewish, while the number of actual Jews living

in Cracow today remains very low.Mark Kligman, associate professor of Jewish musicol-

ogy at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religionin New York and visiting professor in Rutgers’ Departmentof Jewish Studies, was joined by Michael Alpert, a leadingfigure in the current renaissance of Eastern EuropeanJewish klezmer music, to address the resurgence thatklezmer music has enjoyed over the past twenty years.Through slides, audiotapes, and a musical performance byAlpert, the two demonstrated the development of klezmer,the traditional music of Eastern European Jewry, and itsrevival in the United States and Europe, which offers newways for Jews to connect with their Yiddish and Jewishcultural heritage.

BILDNER CENTER PROGRAMHIGHLIGHTS 2002-2003

Jack Kugelmass, Yael Zerubavel, and Jeffrey Shandler

Historical Reflections onContemporary Anti-SemitismSteven J. Zipperstein, Stanford UniversityThe Ruth Ellen Steinman Bloustein and Edward J.Bloustein Memorial LectureCo-sponsored by the Edward J. Bloustein School ofPlanning and Public Policy

Jewish Experience in the CatskillsPhil Brown, Brown UniversityA lecture co-sponsored by Rutgers’ Institute for Health,Health Care Policy and Aging Research

The Social History of the BagelBarbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, New York UniversityThe Inaugural Toby and Herbert Stolzer Endowed Lecture

From the Urban Ghetto to the Suburbs:The Reshaping of the American JewishLandscapeJenna Weissman Joselit, Princeton UniversityThe Abram Matlofsky Memorial ProgramA lecture sponsored by the Karma Foundation


COMMUNITY OUTREACHPassages:Encounters withJewish WritersImmigration is a wound of belonging...

I found myself among those Israelisobserving those wounds,” said RonitMatalon, a critically acclaimed Israeliauthor whose presentation onindividuality, belonging, and identity inIsrael was one of several by prominentauthors featured during “Passages:Encounters with Jewish Writers,”sponsored by the Bildner Center inOctober 2002. Made possible by a grantfrom the New Jersey Council for theHumanities and supported in part by theSagner Family Foundation, this writers’symposium exposed anintergenerational audience to contem-porary award-winning and multiculturalJewish writers. After presentations byeach of the featured authors, theprogram culminated with a paneldiscussion during which the audiencemembers were able to engage in livelydiscussion with the authors.

The symposium addressed the themeof “passages” and the ways in which theauthors’ journeys between culturalworlds and identities have affectedthem, both as Jews and as authors.These diverse, individual journeys wereexplored in relation to the passagestheme ingrained in the collective Jewishexperience of immigration, emigration,exile, and expulsion. Yael Zerubavelsaid, “The movements between varioussocial, cultural, and political milieusintroduce deep ruptures into the lives ofindividuals and transplantedcommunities, while also producing acreative tension that becomes fertileground for exploring the constantlyshifting and elusive categories of homeand exile.”

Michal Govrin, an award-winningIsraeli poet, author, and theater directorand the Bildner Center’s Aresty VisitingFellow and Writer-in-Residence, servedas program moderator. The author of TheName, which received Israel’s Kugel

Prize, and other works,Govrin noted the diversityof the panelists andreferred to them aswitnesses of the passagesthat took place during thetwentieth century, a periodnotorious for its massmigrations and wars. She furtherobserved that this past century wit-nessed perhaps the greatest historicaluprooting of the Jewish people, which isechoed in the writers’ personal historiesor the biographies of their familymembers and is articulated in variousways through their writings.

Among those joining Matalon, theauthor of The One Facing Us andStrangers at Home, was NormanManea, the award-winning Romanianauthor of numerous works including OnClowns: The Dictator and the Artist andThe Black Envelope. Manea addressedhow moving among numerous languagesand political ideologies has shaped hiswriting. He noted that although he haslived in numerous places and knowsmany languages, he has always beenlabeled a Romanian writer. Displeasedby such a label, he explained that as aJew he believes he has a broaderidentity. Nonetheless, he remarked, thelabel persists.

Jonathan Rosen, the award-winningAmerican author of the novel Eve’sApple and the work The Talmud and theInternet: A Journey Between Worlds, aswell as an avid bird-watcher, made acompelling comparison between birdsand Jews. He noted that both birds and

Jews always pass from one location toanother, live in numerous places, exist ascreatures of both earth and air, mediatebetween two worlds. While Jewsconstantly cross back and forth betweentwo elements or worlds, between theirreligious tradition and the culture of thesociety in which they reside, he said, theJewish experience in America andAmericans’ faith in happy endings makebringing these two worlds togetherpossible.

Marjorie Agosin, the criticallyacclaimed Latin American poet andauthor of Taking Root: Growing UpJewish in Latin America, among manyother works, focused on her difficultchildhood experiences as a Jewish girl inCatholic Chile. She said she felt she wasan outsider or “visitor” in her owncountry. She remarked, “People wouldask me, ‘What are you? Are you a Chileanor a Jew?’ I wanted to be both.” Agosin’sfamily moved to Georgia when she wasfourteen, and she had to adapt to thisnew cultural environment, once againliving as a minority within a community.Agosin indicated that her parents wereinstrumental in helping to mold heridentity. “Through my parents, I came tounderstand my own Diaspora. Only thenwas I able to become a Jewish writer.”

Left: Allen Bildner, YaelZerubavel, Joan Bildner,and Alan Sagner

Below: Ronit Matalon,Michal Govrin, MarjorieAgosin, Jonathan Rosen,Yael Zerubavel andNorman Manea


Rutgers NewJersey JewishFilm FestivalThe Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film

Festival, a much-anticipated culturalevent in central New Jersey, offeredan expanded selection of criticallyacclaimed international films, stimulat-ing speakers, and festivities over aneleven-day period. The sold-out opening-night screening of Focus set the tone forthe festival, which drew large to sold-outcrowds. Robert Sklar, film historian,critic, and professor of cinema at NewYork University, offered insight into thisdramatic feature film, which exploresanti-Semitism and extreme socialparanoia in a Brooklyn neighborhoodtoward the end of World War II. About120 people gathered at the opening-night reception to enjoy a light supperand live music by Michael Alpert ofBrave Old World, Margot Leverett, andPaul Morrissett of the Klezmatics.

The festival welcomed Rutgersstudents, high-school students, andyouth groups to the documentaryscreenings. With the generous financialsupport of the dean of Rutgers College,one hundred students from Rutgers’“History of the Holocaust” course were

able to attend the screenings of ClaudeLanzmann’s acclaimed documentarySobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 P.M., whichfocuses on a successful uprising byJewish prisoners in the Sobiborextermination camp during World WarII. A class of fifty students from a highschool on Staten Island attended thisfilm as well. Many members of theaudience were drawn by the opportunityto hear New Jersey’s own Esther TurnerRaab, an escapee from Sobibor, whooffered moving testimony on herexperiences during the war. In addition,a confirmation class from the AdathIsrael Congregation of Lawrencevilleattended a screening of the documen-tary Promises, which explores theMiddle East conflict through the eyes ofseven Israeli and Palestinian childrenliving in Jerusalem after the Oslo PeaceAccords and before the most recentintifada (Palestinian uprising).

The festival closed with the New Jersey

Fall 2002 Festival FilmsFocusUSA, 2001, director: Neal Slavin

PromisesUSA, 2001, directors: JustineShapiro, B.Z. Goldberg,Carlos Bolado

Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 P.M.(Central New Jersey Premiere)France, 2001,director: Claude Lanzmann

Leo and ClaireGermany, 2000,director: Joseph Vilsmaier

SilenceUnited Kingdom, 1998,directors: Orly Yaddin andSylvie Bringas

Late MarriageIsrael, 2001,director: Dover Kosashvili

Anna’s SummerGermany, 2001,director: Jeanine Meerapfel

Yael Zerubavel, Sharon Karmazin, Leslie Fishbein, Karen Small

premiere of Anna’s Summer, a visuallystunning dramatic feature film about awoman exploring her husband’s SephardicJewish ancestry. Rutgers’ own AmericanStudies and Jewish Studies ProfessorLeslie Fishbein discussed the Jewishthemes featured throughout the film.Festival patrons enjoyed an exclusivereception at the conclusion of the event.

The festival is made possiblethrough the generous support of theKarma Foundation. The Fourth AnnualRutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festivalwill be held from Thursday, November 6,through Sunday, November 16, 2003.

ELIAS PROFILE (Continued from page2)

ing its internship program for students,and he hopes the department will beable to offer a master’s degree programin Jewish communal service or Jewisheducation.

Elias’s research on emotionalintelligence is reflected in his numerouspublications, which include SocialProblem Solving: Interventions in theSchools (1996); Emotionally IntelligentParenting: How to Raise a Self-Disciplined, Responsible, SociallySkilled Child (2000); and RaisingEmotionally Intelligent Teenagers:Parenting With Love, Laughter, andLimits (2002). The two books on

parenting have been translated intoHebrew and published in Israel. Elias’smost recent publication, with JeffreyKress, is entitled “A ComprehensiveSkill Building Approach to JewishValues: Social and Emotional Learningand Caring Early Childhood Class-rooms,” and is featured in the Coalitionfor the Advancement of JewishEducation’s most recent volume, JewishValues for Growing Outstanding JewishChildren. In addition to his academicpublications, Elias used to write oneweekly column called “ParentingMatters” for the Home News Tribuneand another called “Family Matters” forthe Star-Ledger, dealing with theconcerns of parenting.

1 0 • C E N T E R F O R T H E S T U D Y O F J E W I S H L I F E

DEVELOPMENTOutreach ToBergen CountyIn an initiative to broaden itsoutreach, the Bildner Center hosteda special gathering on April 30 forthe leadership of the UJA Federa-tion of Bergen County and NorthHudson, which co-sponsored theevent.

Organized with the assistance ofthe federation’s executive vicepresident, Howard Charish, andpresident, Dr. Len Cole, theprogram included addresses byRutgers’ new president, Richard L.McCormick, and Professor YaelZerubavel, followed by a question-and-answer period. Their presenta-tions highlighted Rutgers’ mission asa public university, the unique scopeof activities of the Bildner Center,and the development of the Depart-ment of Jewish Studies. Attendeeshad the opportunity to engage indialogue with President McCormickat a reception held in advance of theformal program.

The event was an opportunity tofurther strengthen the relationshipthat the Bildner Center hasdeveloped with the Jewish federa-tions throughout New Jersey duringthe two-year Think Tank program in2000–2002.

Friends of the Bildner Centerat the Jewish MuseumFriends of the Bildner Center gathered inJune at the Jewish Museum in New YorkCity for a festive evening featuring aninsider’s look at the acclaimed exhibit“EntertainingAmerica: Jews,Movies, andBroadcasting.” Thisexclusive eventincluded a specialtour of the exhibitand a reception atwhich participantsenjoyed the uniqueopportunity to learnmore about this fascinating exhibit from Rutgers’ Professor of Jewish StudiesJeffrey Shandler, who served as guest co-curator of the exhibit.

“Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting” is an arcade-likesetting of media installations, posters, vintage photographs, and memorabiliarelated to the history of American Jews and the media. The exhibit seeks toamplify and extend the conversation generated over the past century aboutAmerican Jews and how they have made, responded to, and been perceived inmotion pictures, radio programs, and television shows.

MEETING THE BILDNERS’ CHALLENGE GRANT

Allen and Joan Bildner’s generous gift of$2 million helped establish the Center forthe Study of Jewish Life in 1996. Theirsupport of the center has continued with a$1 million matching grant, challengingothers to support the growth of Jewishstudies at Rutgers. The Center is halfwaytoward meeting this goal, but we need yourhelp. Your gift will help us capitalize on the

Center Appoints New Director of DevelopmentPaul Kuznekoff was appointed director of development for the Bildner Center. He hasworked in the field of development since 1975, most recently serving as director ofdevelopment in the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers.His prior experience in fund-raising includes serving as director of development forAmerican ORT and as assistant director of development for the Anti-DefamationLeague. He has also served as the New York director of commerce and industry forthe Development Corporation for Israel (State of Israel Bonds) and as the seniordirector for comprehensive fund development in the national office of the AmericanLung Association.

potential of this challenge and contributeto the Center’s endowment. When thechallenge is met, the Bildners’$1 million gift will support a facultyposition; other gifts will help fund a broadrange of activities that the Center offers.the process of meeting with very inter-ested individuals to meet the goal. But, westill need your help because we need tomaximize the potential of this grant.

Harriet Tabakwith Ellenand HerbHersh

Left: TobyStolzer andArlineSchwartzman

Campaign Leadership CommitteeWelcomes New MembersWe are pleased to welcome ArlineSchwartzman and Roy Tanzman tothe Center’s Campaign LeadershipCommittee. They join JoanBildner and Alvin Rockoff,campaign co-chairs, and committeemembers Bruce Freeman, HerbertKlein, Sima Jelin, NormanReitman, and Adelaide Zagoren.The committee is hard at work onraising funds for the Center’sendowment campaign in support ofthe academic program andeducational initiatives for school-teachers and the community.

R U T G E R S , T H E S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W J E R S E Y • 1 1

Ami FogerWhen Ami Foger enrolled at

Rutgers, he planned to become aJewish history major. After taking hisfirst course with Leonard Levin, anadjunct professor of Jewish studies andphilosophy, his interests shifted towardstudying Jewish philosophy in itshistorical context. Professor Levin’s

course on classical Jewish philosophy sparked his interest inthe relationships between general and Jewish philosophy,affirming his long-standing interest in Jewish philosophywhile whetting his appetite for further research in the field ofgeneral philosophy. Ami, a recent graduate and recipient ofthe award of the Baruch S. and Pearl W. Seidman ScholarshipFund, became a double major in Jewish studies (with a focuson philosophy) and philosophy.

While at Rutgers, Ami undertook challenging independentresearch projects in the areas of Jewish philosophy andJewish law. Ami’s fascination with Maimonides’ radicalconception of prophecy led him to undertake an independentstudy on this topic, exploring the meaning of Maimonides’views and attempting to reconcile various scholarly works onthe subject.

Soon after, Ami began work on his Henry Rutgers ScholarsHonors Thesis. He had planned to write about the relationshipbetween the Talmud and philosophy, a very broad topic. As hesought to narrow down his topic, he took a course on the DeadSea Scrolls with Professor of Jewish Studies Azzan Yadin.During the semester, Professor Yadin introduced theoriesregarding the rabbinic method of formulating andtransmitting law that broadened Ami’s previous approach tothe subject. Ami’s profound interest in this area caused a shiftin his research to a study of the methodologies used in theformulation of rabbinic law. Ami’s thesis, “Evolution ofRabbinic Law—Tradition vs. Exegesis,” was written under thejoint supervision of Professor Levin and Professor Yadin, and itdraws on a wide body of scholarship to demonstrate the waysin which Jewish law is based on both biblical and rabbinicauthority.

Ami says that as an observant Jew, his research has beenchallenging and has carried both intellectual and emotionalimport. He believes that it is important to have a thoroughunderstanding of his religion and is excited by how much hisacademic research has broadened his knowledge andunderstanding of Jewish law.

Ami is currently deciding whether to pursue a law degree orto work toward a Ph.D. in Jewish philosophy while simulta-neously studying to become a rabbi. His interest in becoming arabbi does not stem from the goal of serving as a rabbi, butrather is motivated by his wish to balance the secular,academic study of Judaism with religious learning. In this way,he hopes to gain as broad a knowledge of Judaism as possible.

STUDENT NEWSAviva KiefferRaised in a home imbued with Zionism

and a love of Israel, Aviva Kiefferdeveloped a passion for Israel early in life.A recent Rutgers graduate and recipient ofthe award of the Maurice Meyer III andIrma Meyer Endowed Student SupportFund, she spent her freshman year at theHebrew University in Jerusalem, gaining a

deeper understanding of Israeli society and grappling withquestions about the role that Israel should play in her Jewishidentity. When she arrived at Rutgers, Aviva became a Jewishstudies major with a concentration in Israel studies.

Aviva was particularly influenced by her early course “JewishSociety and Culture I,” which offered her insight into the social,economic, religious, and political experience of the Jews frombiblical times through the fifteenth century. She later pursuedmajor interests in modern Zionism and contemporary Israeliculture through her course work.

Through the Department of Jewish Studies and supervised byMaurice Elias, professor of psychology and Jewish studies, Avivaundertook an internship with the United Jewish Communities(UJC). This internship marked the culmination of her efforts as acampus activist in support of Israel and of strengthening thecollective voice of Jewish youth on college campuses. As the UJCRutgers campus intern, Aviva served as a liaison between the UJCand the Jewish students on campus with the goal of connectingthese students to all aspects of the Jewish Federation system. AsAviva noted: “I did a great deal of networking so that Rutgers’rapidly growing, vibrant Jewish community will be able to accessresources in the organized Jewish community. I also wanted tospread the message locally and nationally to Jewish organizationsabout how strong the Jewish community is at Rutgers.”

The internship taught Aviva a great deal about issues facingIsrael, American Jewry, and Jewish students on campus, as wellas the ways in which the Jewish community addresses theseconcerns. Her final project included writing an op-ed piece aboutresponses to anti-Semitic provocation on college campuses. Herresearch shows that the potency of Jewish students’ responses toanti-Semitism has been underestimated, and that these studentsare helped tremendously by a multitude of resources provided tocollege campuses by organizations such as Hillel: The Foundationfor Jewish Campus Life, on whose international board of directorsAviva sat for several years.

A Hebrew school teacher for many years, Aviva plans to earn amaster’s degree in education and begin a career teaching in aJewish day school. She remembers her own experiences at Jewishday school fondly, but would also like to improve upon the currentsystem of Jewish day school education to be inclusive of specialneeds students. Aviva has worked with special needs children inboth a summer camp and a school setting, and she would like tobe an instrumental force in promoting widespread specialeducation programs in Jewish day schools.


Student AwardsJonathan Kobrinski ’03The Leonard and Adele BlumbergStudent AwardThe Sandra and Stephen M.Greenberg Student Award Fund

Ami Yares ’03The Louis Fishman MemorialStudent Support Fund

Leo Brown ’04The Betty and Julius GillmanMemorial Student Support FundThe Gertrude and Jacob HenochMemorial Student Support Fund

Tatyana Knizhnik ’03Leora Trub ’03The Rudolph and Mary SolomonKlein Undergraduate Scholarship

Jeffrey Delle Chiaie ’03The Norma U. and David M. LevittStudent Award

Deborah Gill ’03The Bernice and Milton I.Luxemburg Student Award Fund

Aviva Kieffer ’03The Maurice Meyer III and IrmaMeyer Endowed Student SupportFund

Sarah Cohen ’03The Harold and Betty Perl EndowedScholarship

Ari Corman ’04The Reitman Family Student Award

Rebecca Leibowitz ’04The Ruth Feller Rosenberg EndowedStudent Award Fund

Rachel Berger ’03Ami Foger ’04Sara Kellerman ’03Amy Weiss ’05The Baruch S. and Pearl W.Seidman Scholarship Fund

STUDENT NEWS

Above: Rachel Berger with Prof. OrlyMoshenberg and Prof. Leonard Levin

IN MEMORIAM: TRIBUTE TO BARUCH SEIDMANThe Bildner Center is deeply indebted to Judge Baruch Seidman, whogenerously supported the center during the crucial moments of its earlydevelopment and who died in August of 2002. A Rutgers alumnus, JudgeSeidman benefited from a Rutgers scholarship and wished to give back to theuniversity by supporting students. Judge Seidman’s multifaceted supportincluded the endowment of an annual scholarship award for studentsmajoring in Jewish Studies who demonstrate outstanding achievement. TheBaruch S. and Pearl W. Seidman Scholarship Fund will continue to provideannual scholarships that profoundly affect the lives of Jewish Studiesstudents.

THE STUDENT AWARD CEREMONY

Sarah Cohen with Prof.Chaim I. Waxman

Below: Amy Weisswith TheodoreMetzendorf


JEWISH STUDIES GRADUATES MAY 2003MajorsRachel BergerMarisa BernsteinRobyn BluestoneSarah CohenJeffrey Delle ChiaieDaniela GrossSara KellermanAviva KiefferMarissa LiebermanRaina SpivackLiliya TanenbaumMary Thomas

Leora TrubAllison WeinsteinAmi Yares

MinorsRebecca BaronJonathan BerkowitzOrit CarmielSara ChvalaAndrew EisDavida EisenbergEdythe FinemanDeborah Gill

Jackie GreenbaumJoshua JacobsMichelle KleinTatyana KnizhnikRebecca NovickJustine ReubenStephen RosenbergJulia RoytburdMichal SchindelRenee SteinElizabeta TertychnayaAvital YarmushJanette Zeligman

HONORS THESESSara Cohen — “Modern Mikvah Use: Traditional Viewpoints and ContemporaryAttitudes in the Conservative Movement” (Jewish Studies Honors Thesis)

Ami Foger — “The Evolution of Rabbinic Law: Exegesis or Tradition?” (JewishStudies Honors Thesis; Rutgers College: Henry Rutgers Scholars Honors Thesis)

Leora Trub — “The Counselor Within: Exploring the Role of Counseling in theRabbinic Identity” (Jewish Studies Honors Thesis; Rutgers College: Henry RutgersScholars Honors Thesis)

Ami Yares — “The Evolving Tradition of Contemporary Iraqi Jewish Music” (Jew-ish Studies Honors Thesis; Livingston College: Paul Robeson Honors Thesis)

Career Night: Post-College OpportunitiesWhat do Jewish Studies students do with their B.A. degrees when they leave

Rutgers? Students gathered at the Bildner Center learn about career opportuni-ties in the Jewish community. Dr. Ilana Abramovitch, manager of curriculum at theMuseum of Jewish Heritage, talked about careers with Jewish museums; Rabbi UriGordon, director of the Jewish Teacher Corps, spoke about post-college work in thefield of Jewish education; Rabbi David Wise of Temple Beth El in Somerset talkedabout the rabbinate; Azzan Yadin, assistant professor in Rutgers’ Department ofJewish Studies, spoke about academia; and Karen Small, the Bildner Center’sassociate director, talked about Jewish communal service.

Alumni NewsSharon Green, RC ’01, is working inWashington, D.C., as a programinstructor for the Close Up Foundation,a nonprofit organization that runs civiceducation programs for high school andmiddle school students, as well as newAmericans and other groups. Sharon’sresponsibilities include planning andleading daily student workshops andmediating discussions between studentsand members of Congress with the goalof offering students greater knowledgeof their government and currentpolitical issues. One of her mostchallenging experiences has beenrunning a workshop on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Shoshana Kordova, RC ’00, made aliyahin June 2000 after completing hermaster’s degree in journalism atColumbia University. She moved toJerusalem and became acting associateeditor for the Jerusalem Post’sinternational edition. Subsequently, shewrote for Ha’aretz’s English edition,where she was involved primarily with“Anglo File,” the weekly section devotedto news and feature items of interest toEnglish speakers. She is now doingfreelance work for American and Britishnewspapers while continuing tofreelance for Ha’aretz.

Ari Yares, RC ’99, is finishing adoctorate in school psychology atTemple University in Philadelphia. Aspart of the doctoral program, he taughtan educational technology course toeducation majors at Temple and iscurrently interning in the Newark publicschool system as a school psychologist.Upon graduating, he plans to work as aschool psychologist, but he hopesultimately to enter academia and teachpsychology at the undergraduate andgraduate levels. He also works for UnitedSynagogue Youth as a religion/educationfield worker for Northern New Jersey,planning the educational curriculum forthe region’s conventions.

Authors of JewishStudies Honors Theseswith their advisors:Back Row – Prof. LennyLevin, Sarah Cohen,Prof. Phyllis Mack,Prof. Yael Zerubavel,Leora Trub, Prof. AzzanYadin. Front Row – AmiFoger, Prof. MauriceElias, Ami Yares


FACULTY UPDATESYael Zerubavel continued to serve as director ofthe Bildner Center and was chair of theDepartment of Jewish Studies. Among herpublications this past year are “The Mythologi-cal Sabra and the Jewish Past: Trauma, Memory,and Contested Identities,” Israel Studies 7, no.2 (summer 2002); “Rachel and the FemaleVoice: Labor, Gender, and the Zionist PioneerVision,” in History and Literature: NewReadings of Jewish Text in Honor of Arnold J.Band, edited by David C. Jacobson and WilliamCutter (Brown Judaic Studies Series, 2002), and“The Israeli War Widow in Fiction and Film,” inLandscaping the Human Garden, edited byAmir Weiner (Stanford University Press, 2003).Her professional activities included participa-tion in an Institute for Teachers on Israel, atEmory University in summer 2002. She gave apresentation on “Language of Loss in aLandscape of Conflict: On War Widows,Bereaved Mothers and the Literary Imaginationin Contemporary Israel,” in a conferencesponsored by the Leo Baeck Institute inJerusalem (December 2002) and was a guestlecturer at Hebrew University, Haifa University,and Alma College in Tel Aviv (December 2002).Zerubavel also presented “The Desert and theSettlement: The Construction of Space, Memoryand Identity in Modern Israeli Culture,” in aconference on “Jewish Conceptions andPractices of Space” at Stanford University and“Major Themes in Israeli Literature” in asymposium on “The Jewish State and theDemocratic Tradition” at CUNY, the GraduateCenter (May 2003). She also participated in apanel discussion on “Building the JewishFuture: Jewish Life and the College Campus,”sponsored by the Trust for Jewish Philanthropyat the Jewish Federations’ General Assembly inPhiladelphia in fall 2002. Zerubavel continues toserve on the editorial boards of Israel Studies(Indiana University Press), Journal of IsraeliHistory (Tel Aviv University), and Israel StudiesForum (Association for Israel Studies).

Myron Aronoff published “Democratizations inDiversely Fissured Societies,” in Democratiza-tions: Complex Perspectives, CompoundContexts, edited by J.V. Ciprut; and “Temporaland Spatial Dimensions of Contested IsraeliNationhood,” in Exploitation andOverexploitation in Societies Past and Present,edited by Brigitta Benzig and Bernd Hermann.In addition, he contributed entries in twoencyclopedias: “Political Culture” in theInternational Encyclopedia of the Social andBehavioral Sciences (Neil J. Smelser and PaulB. Baltes, editors in chief) and “Political andLegal Anthropology” in the EncyclopaediaBritannica. Aronoff is listed in the sixth editionof Who’s Who in American Education, as he hasbeen in previous years. He was a discussant of apanel at the meeting of the Association forIsrael Studies, held in San Diego (April 2003).

William Donahue received the Aldo and JeanneScaglione Prize for Studies in GermanicLanguages and Literatures, for “The End ofModernism: Elias Canetti’s Auto-da-Fé,” TheModern Language Association of America(December 2002). During the past year, hedelivered a number of lectures and papers:“Orientalism Reconsidered: Elias Canetti’sVoices of Marrakesh,” at the RutgersTransliteratures Conference (March 2003);“The Sacred & Secular in Fritz Lang’sMetropolis,” at Canisius College (March 2003);“The Holocaust in Fiction and History,”Teaching Strategies from History, Literature,and Sociology, Lessons & Legacies, Minneapolis(November 2002); “The Holocaust and thePostmodern: Recent German Literature,” Serieson Teaching Holocaust Literature, at theBildner Center (October 2002); “Old and NewWorlds in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and EliasCanetti’s Auto-da-Fé,” at the Chicago ViennaSymposium, University of Illinois–Chicago(October 2002); “The Popular Culture Alibi:Bernhard Schlink’s Detective Fiction and theCulture of Left-Liberal ‘Repression,’” at theGerman Studies Association Annual Convention,San Diego (October 2002); and “The Graying ofthe Red: The Repudiation of ’68er Activism (andBeyond) in Bernhard Schlink’s Der Vorleser,” in“Ich will anders sein”: Difference in Contempo-rary Germany, conference, at NottinghamTrent University (July 2002). In addition,Donahue was named to the Advisory Board ofthe Encyclopedia of Antisemitism and Anti-Jewish Prejudice, edited by Richard Levy.

Maurice Elias published Academic and Social-Emotional Learning, Educational PracticesSeries, booklet no. 11 (International Academy ofEducation [IAE] and International Bureau ofEducation [IBE], 2003); He also wrote “RoadSigns for Raising an Emotionally IntelligentTeenager,” The Humor Connection 16, no. 5(2002). He co-edited with H.A. Arnold and C.S.Hussey, EQ + IQ = Best Leadership Practicesfor Caring and Successful Schools (CorwinPress, 2003). In addition, Elias co-authored thefollowing: with J.S. Kress, “Creating LastingProgramming for Jewish Identity and Values:Keeping Initiatives Afloat in Rough Seas,”Journal of the Jewish Educators Assembly(winter 2003); with I. Cohen and J.S. Kress,“Classroom Climate in an Orthodox Day School:The Contribution of Emotional Intelligence,Demographics, and Classroom Context,”Journal of Jewish Education 68, no. 1 (2002).Elias gave the following keynote presentations,“Emotional Intelligence: The Missing Piece inEducation,” at the Second InternationalSeminar on Educational Trends for the 21stCentury, at DUXX, the Graduate School ofBusiness Leadership, in Monterrey, Mexico(October 2002) and “Exemplary and PromisingPrevention Programs in the Schools: Key

Components and Implementation Strategies,” atthe annual conference of the Middlesex CountyDivision of Mental Health and AddictionServices in Sayreville (October 2002). Hepresented “Parents Today Are Different: How toWork with Them with Emotional Intelligence” atthe annual meeting of the N.J. Association forthe Education of Young Children, in EastBrunswick, (October 2002); “Be a Mensch,Raise a Mensch: How to Be an EmotionallyIntelligent Parent and Raise Strong, Self-Disciplined, Responsible, and Socially ResilientChildren,” to Jewish Family Services/JewishFederation of Durham–Chapel Hill, NorthCarolina (November 2002); and “Parenting withEmotional Intelligence: Guiding the Way toCompassionate, Committed, Courageous Adults”at the annual meeting of the New Jersey PTA,Atlantic City (December 2002). Elias and J.S.Kress presented a paper, “Building LearningCommunities of Character: How to CreateEffective, Enduring Programs to EnhancePositive Values, Identity, and AcademicSuccess,” sponsored by the Center for AppliedPsychology, of Rutgers University’s GraduateSchool of Applied and Professional Psychology,in Piscataway (January 2003).

Leslie Fishbein organized a session entitled“Too Jewish” at the annual meeting of theAmerican Studies Association in Houston(November 2002), and presented a paper duringthat session entitled “So Jewish, Too Jewish,Not Jewish: The Intersecting Axes of Identity ofJewish-American Women in the Public Sphere.”

Ziva Galili spent the year pursuing her researchon Zionism in Soviet Russia in the 1920s. Afterfive years as Vice Dean of the Graduate Schooland before starting a three-year term as Chair ofthe History Department, Galili spent the year onsabbatical. She participated in a research groupon the “Russian Context of Modern JewishCulture” at the Institute for Advanced Studiesin Jerusalem (Spring 2003). During this time,she completed three chapters for a co-authoredbook, entitled Prison or Palestine: TheImmigration of Soviet Zionist Convicts, 1924-1937, to be published by Kass Publishers ofLondon. Galili also completed an article to bepublished in the Journal of Israeli History (TelAviv University) entitled “”The Soviet Experi-ence of Zionism: Importing Soviet PoliticalCulture to Palestine.”

Phyllis Mack delivered the keynote address,“Women and John Wesley,” at a conference onJohn Wesley in Manchester, England (June2003). She also presented papers on “Writingand the Construction of Emotion in 18thCentury England,” at the Mid-AtlanticConference on British Studies, Baltimore(November 2002); and on “Women, Writing, and


Religion,” before the International Society forEighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS), at theUniversity of California at Los Angeles (August2003). In addition, she delivered lectures on“Religion, Feminism, and the Problem ofAgency,” at the University of Michigan (April2002); and on “18th Century ReligiousDissenters,” at the University of Minnesota(February 2003).

Alicia Ostriker published “Psalm and Anti-Psalm: A Personal View,” American PoetryReview (August 2002); and “The Book of Ruthand the Love of the Land,” Biblical Interpreta-tions (fall 2002). She also delivered severallectures: “The Nakedness of the Fathers:Feminism and Contemporary Midrash,” at theBrandeis University Center for Research onWomen (April 2002); “A New Genre: Contempo-rary Midrash,” at the Frost Place WritingConference (August 2002); “War and Peace inBiblical Texts,” part of a four-day workshop thatshe led at the National Havurah Conference,New Hampshire (August 2002); “A New Genre:Contemporary Midrash,” as the BenningtonWriting Program Visiting Faculty Lecture(January 2003); and “Visions and Revisions inAllen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl,’” as the BenningtonWriting Program Visiting Faculty Lecture. Theselast two lectures were also delivered at Bar-IlanUniversity in May 2003. In addition to numerouspoetry readings, there were three performancesof her cantata, Jephthah’s Daughter (set tomusic by Moshe Budmor): the premiere, at theCollege of New Jersey (March 2002); DetroitUniversity’s Mercy College (October 2002); andWest-Park Presbyterian Church (November2002).

Barbara Reed presented a paper, on the(London) Jewish Chronicle’s coverage of theAmerican Civil War, to the tenth annualsymposium on “The Press, Civil War, and FreeExpression in the 19th Century,” in Chatta-nooga, Tennessee. In addition, her bookOutsiders in 19th-Century Press History:Multicultural Perspectives, co-edited with Dr.Frankie Hutton, was accepted by the Universityof Wisconsin Press.

Jeffrey Shandler is co-author and co-editor,with J. Hoberman, of Entertaining America:Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting (PrincetonUniversity Press/The Jewish Museum, 2003); heis also the editor of Awakening Lives:Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Polandbefore the Holocaust (Yale University Press/YIVO Institute, 2002), for which he was afinalist for the 2003 Koret Jewish Book Award.In addition, Shandler wrote “The Testimony ofImages: The Allied Liberation of Nazi Concen-tration Camps in American Newsreels,” inAmerican and International Journalism

During the Holocaust, edited by Robert MosesShapiro (Yeshiva University Press, 2003); and“The State of Yiddish Studies: Some Observa-tions and Thoughts,” Conservative Judaism 54,no. 4 (2002).

Shandler presented papers at numerousconferences and other events including“Audiences as Artifacts,” at the 2003 Council ofAmerican Jewish Museums Conference; “InYiddish/On Yiddish: The Self-Reflexive YiddishPoem,” at the 118th Modern LanguageAssociation Annual Convention; “Mirroring Evil:Reflections of Controversies Past,” at the 34thAnnual Association for Jewish StudiesConference. “Autobiography and the Holocaust:Reflections on Oskar Rosenfeld’s In theBeginning Was the Ghetto,” at Deutsches Haus,New York University; “The Image of IsaacBashevis Singer in American Films” (inYiddish), at the Third International AdvancedSeminar in Yiddish Studies; “The Jewish MarkTwain: Sholem Aleichem’s Life and Legacy inAmerica,” at McGill University; “At Home on theSmall Screen: American Jews and Television,” atPrinceton University; “Post-vernacular Yiddish:Language as a Performance Art,” at Northwest-ern University; “Living Room Witnesses:American Television and the Holocaust,” at theUniversity of Missouri; “The Virtual Rebbe: TheMedia Culture of the Lubavitcher Hasidim,” atthe University of Maryland; and “Staging theShtetl: The Memory Projects of Yaffa Eliach,” atthe Center for Advanced Jewish Studies,University of Pennsylvania. For the BildnerCenter, Shandler presented “Yiddish Literatureof the Holocaust” for public school teachers. Inaddition, he was the co-curator of a mediaexhibition, “Entertaining America: Jews,Movies, and Broadcasting,” at the JewishMuseum in New York.

Nancy Sinkoff wrote a chapter, “Strategy andRuse in the Haskalah of Mendel Lefin ofSatanow,” in New Perspectives on the Haskalah,edited by Shmuel Feiner and David Sorkin. (TheLittman Library of Jewish Civilization). Hermanuscript Out of the Shtetl: Making JewsModern in the Polish Borderlands was awardeda 2002 Koret Jewish Studies PublicationsProgram subvention, and is forthcoming fromBrown University Press Judaic Studiesmonograph series. Her article “The Maskil, theConvert and the Agunah: Joseph Perl as aHistorian of Jewish Divorce Law” is forthcomingin the AJS Review; also forthcoming are“Haskalah,” an entry in the Dictionary of EarlyModern Europe, edited by Donald Kelley(Scribner’s); and, in Hebrew, “Between Historyand Law: The Case of Joseph Perl in AustrianGalicia,” Proceedings of the Second Interna-tional Conference on the Enlightenment, Bar-Ilan University. Sinkoff gave lectures on “1772:Polish Jews and the Transformation of

European Jewry,” at the Jewish TheologicalSeminary of America (December 2002); and“Doing Jewish Women’s History in AustrianGalicia,” in Hebrew, at Bar-Ilan University.

Chaim I. Waxman served as acting chair of theDepartment of Jewish Studies in spring 2003.Waxman co-edited, with Uzi Rebhun, Jews inIsrael: Contemporary Social and CulturalPatterns (Brandeis University Press/UniversityPress of New England, scheduled for 2003). Inaddition, Waxman wrote “The AmericanMizrachi Organization, American Orthodoxy,and the American Jewish Community” (inHebrew), Hadoar 82, no. 1 (September 2002);four entries in the Encyclopedia of AmericanReligion and Politics, edited by Paul A. Djupeand Laura R. Olson (Facts On File, 2003); “TheJewish Identity and Identification BabyBoomers, Youth, and Children in the US,” inContemporary Jewries: Convergence andDivergence, vol. 2 of Jewish Identities in aChanging World (Brill, 2003); “What We Don’tKnow about the Judaism of America’s Jews,”Contemporary Jewry 23 (2003); and “JewishEducation Does Matter,” in Knowing What:Jewish Culture, Identity and Language, editedby David Zisenwine, Studies in Culture, Identityand Community (Tel Aviv University, School ofEducation, 2003). Waxman presented a paper,“The Impact of 9/11 on the American JewishCommunity and Jewish-Muslim Relations,” at aconference in Hebrew on “September 11,2002—One Year after: Dialogue or Tension?” atthe Mosaica-Research Center for Religion,Society and State, in Jerusalem (September2002). He was also a panelist-presenter on thetopic “The Significance and Implications of theNational Jewish Population Survey,” at theInternational Conference on Jewish Demogra-phy, in Jerusalem (December 2002).

Azzan Yadin published “4QMMT, RabbiIshmael, and the Origins of Legal Midrash,”Dead Sea Discoveries 10 (2003); “A GreekWitness to the Semantic Shift ‘lkh’–‘buy,’”Hebrew Studies 43 (2002); “‘Shnei ketuvim’ andRabbinic Intermediation,” Journal for theStudy of Judaism 33 (2002); and “Samson’s‘Hida,’” Vetus Testamentum 52 (2002). Inaddition, his book, Scripture as Logos: RabbiIshmael and the Origins of Midrash, wasaccepted by the University of PennsylvaniaPress. He is currently working on a new book onthe halakhic interpretation of Rabbi Akiva.Yadin also gave scholarly talks on “RabbanGamliel and Proclus in the Bathhouse,” at theJewish Theological Seminary, and “The RabbinicBiography of Rabbi Akiva,” at SwarthmoreCollege; he also taught a community course atBnai Tikvah in North Brunswick, consisting offive evening lectures serving as an introductionto the Zohar. Yadin continues as Rabbinics bookreview editor at Prooftexts.


The Allen and Joan BildnerCenter for the Study of Jewish LifeRutgers, The State University of New Jersey12 College AvenueNew Brunswick, NJ 08901

Nonprofit OrganizationU.S. POSTAGEPAIDNew Brunswick, NJPermit no. 157

THE ALLEN AND JOAN BILDNERCENTER FOR THE STUDYOF JEWISH LIFE

Director: Professor Yael Zerubavel

Associate Director: Karen Small

Director of Development: Paul Kuznekoff

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Special Projects Coordinator: Darcy Maher

Department Secretary: Simone Fisch

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey12 College Avenue

New Brunswick, NJ 08901Tel: (732) 932-2033 • Fax: (732) 932-3052

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Invest in the future ofJewish Studies at RutgersYou can help promote Jewish Studies teaching,research and scholarship at Rutgers University. Yourgift guarantees that Rutgers Department of JewishStudies and the Bildner Center for the Study of JewishLife will continue to develop the Jewish Studiescurriculum and ensure the growth and development ofcommunity programs. We welcome and appreciate allgifts.

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Please make checks payable to Rutgers Universityand return the enclosed envelope to The Allen andJoan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life,12 College Ave, New Brunswick, NJ 08901.

For further information or questions, contact PaulKuznekoff, Director of Development, at 732-932-3575.

Documents

RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY …jewishnb/newsletters/CSJLNL2003final.pdf · RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY The Allen and Joan Bildner ... Paul, focusing