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"Our religious future": Girls' education and Jewish identity in nineteenth-century France.
No full textThis dissertation examines the extensive changes that occurred in both Franco-Jewish rhetoric about girls' education and the actual educational experiences of Jewish girls in Paris between 1822 and 1914. Based on close analysis of discussions of girls' upbringing and archival sources relating to a diverse array of Jewish and non-Jewish schools, I argue that changes in girls' instruction played an important and complex role in French Jews' search for a balance between a Jewish and a national identity in the post-emancipation world. In the nineteenth century, many Jewish leaders began to identify women as key to maintaining Jewish identity; in particular, they insisted that a balanced program of religious and secular instruction for girls provided the best means of countering assimilation and ensuring that becoming French would not mean discarding Judaism. I trace this belief to the interaction between traditional Jewish conceptions of gender roles and contemporary French customs as the Jews integrated into French society over the course of the century. Paying careful attention to class differences, I then examine the religious and secular instruction received by Jewish girls in a variety of educational venues, including public and private primary schools, day and boarding schools, vocational programs, and at home by governesses. While Jewish girls' secular education fostered Jewish integration into French society by preparing them for lives largely similar to those of their non-Jewish counterparts, their religious instruction melded French and Jewish characteristics in often subtle ways. Although influenced in form and content by French norms, Jewish girls' religious training remained far more limited than that of girls of the majority Catholic society, a surprising result given the dominant new rhetoric about the importance of women to Jewish life. Rather than representing eagerness to assimilate, however, this lack of intensive religious instruction in factreflects deep ambivalence in the Jewish community about transforming an important aspect of the Jewish heritage, namely traditional Judaism's privileging of male over female religious learning and practice. This study thus sheds new light on the formation of modern Jewish identity and the roles of women and gender in the process of Jewish acculturation.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Emory University, 2004.School code: 0665
Jewish American identity: A grounded-theory model.
No full textJewish identity has only recently been a focus of research within the field of multiculturalism and racial/ethnic identity research. In spite of increased investigations, a comprehensive model of Jewish American identity that accounts for the range of factors that contribute Jewish identity had not previously been produced. This qualitative study examined the Jewish identities of 13 Jewish Americans in order to develop a model of Jewish American identity. Semistructured interviews were conducted with participants who represented a range of religious affiliation from non-practicing to Orthodox and who lived throughout the United States. Grounded theory methodology was used to generate a theoretical model of Jewish American identity. Five primary categories emerged to form the Jewish American Identity Model: (a) Jewish History, (b) Being Jewish in a Non-Jewish World, (c) Relations Among Jews, (d) Family, and (e) Being Jewish. Jewish History explored the impact of both individual family histories as well as the collective history of the Jewish people on the participants' identities. Being Jewish in a Non-Jewish World emerged from the participants' often contradictory experiences of being both assimilated and an outsider in American society and its profound impact on their Jewish identities. Relations Among Jews developed from the both the personal identity strengths and struggles that were related to the connections and issues among Jews. Family highlighted the immense impact that families had on the development and maintenance of the participants' Jewish identities. Lastly, Being Jewish emerged from the individuals' experiences of their Jewish identities, including their practice of Judaism and how being Jewish has influenced their worldviews and self-concepts. The five categories are conceptualized as concentric circles, with the outer circles representing more external factors and the inner circles representing more personalized and internal factors. This resulted in a nested design that captures both collective and individual influences on Jewish identity. The five categories are theorized to influence and inform each other, incorporating the complexity and interrelated nature of Jewish identity. The Jewish American Identity Model highlights the commonalities of Jewish American identity that exist across the varying religious affiliations and geographical locations of the participants in the study. Implications of the theoretical model for research and clinical practice are discussed.Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Utah, 2004.School code: 0240
Keeping up with the Goldbergs: Gender, consumer culture, and Jewish identity in suburban Nassau County, New York, 1946--1960.
No full textIn 1953, Rita Newborn, a founder of the Plainview Jewish Center in Nassau County, New York, asked the Waring Company to loan her a blender so she could make latkes for a Hanukkah party. By incorporating this blender into her Hanukkah celebration, rather than grating the potatoes by hand, Newborn combined her identity as a suburban American consumer with that of a Jewish homemaker concerned with maintaining traditional Jewish foodways.In the wake of widespread migration of Jews to the suburbs during the 1950s, social critics predicted the attenuation of Jewish affiliation in the face of assimilation. This dissertation, however, argues that second-generation Jews, like their parents and grandparents, used consumer culture to connect with Judaism, and shows how Jewish suburban experience was refracted through the practices of consumer culture.Building on the existing literature examining the intersection of Jewish identity and consumer culture, this dissertation shows that in the typically homogenous suburbs Jews used the culture of consumption to create Jewish space. Like earlier immigrants who fashioned an American element in their personal identity through consumer culture, suburban Jews used the culture and process of consumption to enhance their individual and communal Jewish identities and to create a Jewish space in suburbia. Women, men, and children purchased goods and services that helped them construct their identity, not only by supplying the items necessary for religious celebration and observance, but also by assisting in their presentation of themselves as Jews. These purchases announced the consumers' membership in the group or, alternatively, separated them from the group. Moreover, the products and services needed on an individual level, such as kosher food or Jewish education, encouraged the creation of businesses and institutions that in turn helped create Jewish community. In other words, Jewish suburban migrants' engagement with consumer culture helped to create Jewish American space.Situated at the intersection of developing literatures in American Jewish history, suburbanization, and consumer culture, this study engages significant issues from each field, including the conflict between traditional Judaism and secular acculturation, the transformation of ethnic identity in the 1950s, and the gendered experience of the suburbs.Thesis (Ph.D.)--The American University, 2004.School code: 0008
El Llanto: A liturgiological journey into the identity and theology of the northern New Mexican Penitentes and their spiritual siblings.
No full textResearch concerning the Penitentes of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado holds out many unique gifts to scholarship. Unfortunately, because of the difficulties inherent in the study of this population, the information available is incomplete. One of the largest gaps in current scholarship lies in investigation of the medieval roots of Penitente devotion, another in the documentation and examination of their unique tradition of musical worship (the alabados), and a third in the role of women in Penitente society and spirituality. Further, work is still necessary to explore the theology expressed in Penitente art, ritual, and daily living. The area of Liturgical Studies offers the methods and approach necessary to address all of these issues.This dissertation will present an historical analysis of the evolution of the northern New Mexican Penitente cult with an attempt to establish its relationship to the traditions of medieval Spain. This relationship can be revealed especially through the study of Penitente devotional music. The medieval musical roots that evolved into the expression known as Flamenco in Spain (including Arab/Islamic, Jewish/Ladino, and extra-Iberian Catholic/European traditions) appear to have been preserved in their more primitive forms in the isolation of northern New Mexico, perhaps because of the liturgical conservatism of the Penitentes, and reveal much about the group's origin and the genesis of their spiritual world view. Therefore, where the history of the group's development has been disputed (and the prevalent theories will be explored), the arts give insight. In close relationship to this investigation, the dissertation will attempt an inquiry into Penitente understandings of their own unique theology. Finally, it will be the hope of this dissertation to demonstrate an active and even leadership-oriented role in for women in Penitente society and spirituality, which preliminary but extensive field interviews have so far confirmed, and which would be more consistent with the tradition's medieval roots than the more popularly held understanding that the expression and devotion of the Penitentes is an exclusively male endeavor.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2004.School code: 0165
The French internment camp Le Vernet d'Ariege: Local administration, collaboration, and public opinion in Vichy France.
No full textFrom late 1938 to mid-1939, the French Third Republic held an estimated 350,000 Spanish civilian and military refugees in camps located across France and its North African territories. After the outbreak of war with Germany, the Third Republic detained approximately 40,000 enemy nationals (including Jewish refugees) and political suspects in the camps. The Vichy regime which came to power in the wake of France's defeat continued the Third Republic's internment of political suspects and expanded the repressive character of internment, explicitly targeting foreign nationals, Jewish civilians, and "undesirables." Vichy detained approximately 120,000 individuals between the summers of 1940 and 1944, and its camps played an important role in domestic repression, collaboration with the German occupation authorities, and French participation in the Holocaust.Recent historical studies of wartime France have examined the relationship between the Vichy regime's repression and that of the late Third Republic which preceded it. To determine Vichy's correct place in France's modern history, they ask whether the late Third Republic paved the way for Vichy's crimes or whether Vichy broke with democratic precedents. As French camps were continuously administered by both governments, the history of internment provides a field of analysis for this continuity question. Part One presents a comparative history of French camps between 1939 and 1945, arguing that despite certain continuities the nature and national function of internment during the late Third Republic and Vichy were distinct.Part Two uses the daily activities of the camp Le Vernet d'Ariege (Ariege) as a window into local administration, collaboration, and public opinion in Vichy France. Known as Vichy's most repressive camp, Le Vernet detained thousands of "dangerous" foreign males, offered economic resources to local communities, facilitated German labor recruitment, and participated in the deportation of Jewish persons from France. Part Two shows that despite widespread apathy government repression, regional involvement in camp activities, and ground-level collaboration with the German occupation authorities proceeded relatively smoothly at Le Vernet until late 1943, when the facade of French sovereignty crumbled. This local history adds a new perspective to the growing literature on the Vichy regime as seen from below.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Princeton University, 2004.School code: 0181
From Islamic Ishbiliya to Christian Sevilla: Transformation and continuity in a multicultural city.
No full textA city is more than a physical imprint. Through its architecture and human use of urban space, it is an extension of its residents, an expression of their culture.This investigation is situated within the domain of urban historical geography, focusing on both humanistic and structural dimensions of Spanish urbanism. A late medieval through early modern time frame was chosen because it compares and contrasts the Islamic and Christian experiences and imprints during periods of major urban change. By investigating change and continuity across several centuries it was possible to identify the differences between cultural, socio-political, and economic moments and trajectories.Several themes emerged during preliminary fieldwork in southern Spain in the regions of Andalusia and Extremadura, and were later developed and refined during dissertation fieldwork at the microscale of Sevilla, and barrio, San Bartolome: (a) Spanish cities in the early modern period (1500--1800) were not predominately Roman from an earlier tradition, or a resuscitation of Roman ideas in the wake of Renaissance. Spain reflects a complex process of cultural exchange---Roman, Visigothic, Jewish, Islamic, and Christian---in planning urban settlements, in which each cultural group had a concept of "cities" from their own experience which they grafted on the structures of the existing infrastructure and expressed in rituals and architecture; (b) Urban planning decisions and use of urban space were motivated by practical considerations, people adapting to their urban environment, planning and administering their cities in a functional pragmatic way, yet ensconced within cultural traditions; (c) The religious use of space in ritual and architecture is embedded in a multi-faceted religious framework, encompassing not only theology, but identity exploration, political and social dimensions, resulting in a continually changing religious context. This research, based on extensive fieldwork, historical and archaeological data, reveals the complexity of the relationship between people and their urban environment, and rejects a single factor deterministic explanation of urbanism.Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Texas at Austin, 2004.School code: 0227
Joke-making Jews/jokes making Jews: Essays on humor and identity in American Jewish fiction.
No full textBeginning from the premise that humor plays a prominent role in the construction of group and individual identities, as a social phenomenon and a simultaneously alienating and assimilating force, these essays explore and examine humor and its construction of American Jewish identity within the context of various works of American Jewish fiction. Though organized as "chapters," the essays do not build upon one another progressively, nor do they center on a unified thesis; rather, each is written to stand alone; however, each approaches the general subject of humor and identity in American Jewish fiction, and as a collection it is intended that the whole equal more than the sum of its parts.Following the Introduction, chapter two examines Abraham Cahan's Yekl and the relationship between humor and identity for the Jewish immigrant at the turn of the 20th century. Attention is also paid to the absences of humor, and how these are likewise capable of constructing identity.Chapter three raises questions regarding the ethics of humor, particularly when dealing with the Holocaust. It examines Saul Bellow's The Bellarosa Connection under the guiding question of "What is to be gained by reading this novella?"---with specific attention being given to the connective function of the novella's humor.Bernard Malamud's God's Grace is examined in chapter four, which seeks to read the novel as a retelling of an old Jewish joke, in the form of the story of Abraham and Isaac; Malamud's reversal of the story, and his use of absurdist humor, is read as an affirmation of humanism and Jewish identity.Chapter five examines the humor of Philip Roth and Woody Allen, as representatives of second-generation anxieties about Jewish identity in America.Then, chapters six and seven explore two possible responses to these anxieties. Chapter six looks at the works of the Coen brothers and asserts that Jewishness has been deliberately absented from their narratives; chapter seven looks at the works of Allegra Goodman and Nathan Englander and asserts that, in their fiction, a new, anxiety-free Jewish Self is being constructed, with humor playing a prominent role in this postassimilationism.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2004.School code: 0506
The travel motif in contemporary Latin American Jewish literature.
No full textThe purpose of this work is to study: Tiempo al tiempo (1984), by the Peruvian Isaac Goldemberg; Colombina descubierta (1991), by the Venezuelan Alicia Freilich Segal; Mujeres pudorosas (1993), by the Argentinian Silvia Plager; El alma al diablo (1994), by the Argentinian Marcelo Birmajer; and La piel del alma (1996), by the Uruguayan Teresa Porzecanski as Latin American Jewish novels. I have selected these works written by Jewish authors because they present Jewish themes or subjects. At the same time, I examine the literary aspects that allow us to consider them as Latin American, and to illuminate their connections with national, Latin American and universal literature. In other words, I examine both components of the diptych in the phenomenon known as "Latin American-Jewish literature." In order to achieve this goal, I concentrate on the analysis of the literary travel motif in these novels, in its multiple manifestations (real and imaginary, literal and symbolic travel), and its connections with Jewish and Latin American issues. Selecting the literary travel motif as the focus of my analysis has allowed me to observe a level of cohesion among different works. Thus, I study Tiempo al tiempo as a novel of search of identity, as a manifestation of the literary travel motif. Based on the theoretical frame of the Latin American new historical novel I analyze Colombina descubierta as a journey into the past in order to examine conflicts in the present. I show that in Mujeres pudorosas the protagonists' travels represent their attempts to transcend their geographic, personal, social and intellectual milieu in a process of search of expansion of those limitations through love, eroticism, memory, literary creation. I demonstrate that El alma al diablo belongs to the genre Bildungsroman or apprenticeship novel, as a type of travel novel. Finally, I study the travel motif in La piel del alma from different points of view: journey in space and in time; internal trip of self-awareness of the protagonists; persecution and exile; search for a home.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Temple University, 2004.School code: 0225
The Jews in the villages of present-day Erftstadt.
No full textTranslation of Karl Stommel's "Die Juden in den Orten der heutigen Stadt Erftstadt
Moscow (Box 114, Folder 15)
No full textThis folder of material was located in Box 114. Folder originally titled: Moscow - 2004.Digital ImageDigital finding aid