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Diaspora Jewish nationalism and identity in America, 1914--1967.
No full textThis dissertation examines diasporic definitions of Jewish nationalism formulated by four immigrant Jewish intellectuals who translated European conceptions of Jewish nationalism into an American intellectual and political context. During the first half of the twentieth century, Horace Kallen (1882--1974), Mordecai Kaplan (1881--1983), Hans Kohn (1891--1971), and Shimon Rawidowicz (1896--1957) invented novel vocabularies for negotiating the social, cultural, and political boundaries between Jews and general American society. This research traces the development of these conceptions, notions such as "cultural pluralism," "civilization," and "civic nationalism," through a close reading of published works and archival sources. These disparate notions of diaspora Jewish nationalism shared an attempt to re-imagine the fundamental categories of Jewish "otherness" in a world increasingly defined by the homogenous nation-state. Rehabilitating these formulations necessitates the reconsideration of a neglected aspect of Jewish nationalism that challenged the inherent connection between national identity and political citizenship.Scholars of Jewish and American history alike have much to learn by examining expressions of Jewish nationalism in America. These thinkers' embrace of America was far more contested than American Jewish historians generally acknowledge. While historians often illustrate the influence of intellectual acculturation, few trace the strategies by which Jewish thinkers attempted to alter the dominant political discourse. Jewish thinkers were far from passive adaptors of American intellectual currents. Working at the permeable semantic boundaries between categories of nationalism, ethnicity, religion, and race, Jewish intellectuals challenged many basic assumptions of American political life and played an integral role in the construction of the majority culture. In addition, this project reveals that these four thinkers' formulations prefigured many contemporary debates regarding ethnicity and multiculturalism. As more and more scholars puzzle over the factors that constitute transnational ethno-religious identities, as well as the nature of the relationship binding diaspora communities with their homelands, the pioneering work of these four thinkers will provide fruitful historical models for consideration.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 2004.School code: 0265
The encoding of desire: Reflections of contemporary Messianism in German Expressionist drama.
No full textThis dissertation employs an interdisciplinary approach to address the literary-historical debate surrounding the definition of "Expressionism" in German-speaking literature. Foregrounding the movement's inherently messianic worldview, it argues that what commentators traditionally label "Expressionist" style or thematics is actually a secularized manifestation of the messianism that shapes the Jewish and Christian religions. No understanding of Expressionism as a major Modernist movement (roughly 1910--1925) is complete without an appreciation of its fundamental structuring device: a pervasive search for a Messiah---whether personal or notional---to redeem a highly troubled society. This study focuses on the dramatic genre, since its insistence upon renewal through martyrdom or spiritual rebirth most aptly demonstrates the centrality of messianism within the movement. Analyses of plays by Ernst Barlach, Georg Kaiser, Ernst Toller and Franz Werfel illustrate how the Expressionist desire for redemption is mapped onto the expectation of the Messiah that suffuses the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. Firm in the belief that their society was in need of salvation, these playwrights built their oeuvres around consistently blatant appropriation of rhetorical devices which remain intensely biblical (e.g., prophecy, proclamation). The dissertation takes its structure more from biblical than from other literary models, examining a succession of imagery and motifs from Judeo-Christian salvation history, from the Creation through the Apocalypse, while at the same time problematizing this supposedly continuous trajectory. Since this research is informed by the constant negotiation between sacred and secular in the modern era, the theoretical foundation for this project represents an admixture of literary and religious studies, applying originally biblical hermeneutics to secular texts in order to expose the particularly messianic theology and Christology of the Expressionist movement. Thus, this dissertation illustrates how biblical themes, motifs, imagery and rhetoric remain ingrained in even the most avowedly profane texts, and how the intensely prevalent desire for messianic redemption informs our reading of modern literature.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 2004.School code: 0175
The golem as metaphor in Jewish American literature.
No full textThis dissertation discusses the use of the golem legend in Jewish American Literature. Analysis of the fiction of Michael Chabon, Thane Rosenbaum, Nomi Eve and Steve Stern reveals the use of the golem as a metaphor for power and powerlessness, and for the complexities surrounding the act of creation. The introduction explicates the golem legend in traditional Jewish texts and folklore and reviews the critical literature. An analysis of Chabon's use of the golem in Kavalier and Klay illustrates the ideas of power and powerlessness, and an analysis of the self-reflexivity present in the works of the authors is introduced.Chapter one considers Rosenbaum's uses of the golem in his two novels, Second Hand Smoke and The Golems of Gotham. Based on art historian Dora Apel's articulation of "sites of resistance," the analysis considers Rosenbaum's fiction in the context of the legacy of the Holocaust for the second generation and theorizing about Holocaust representation, and argues that Rosenbaum creates three "sites of resistance" in his fiction.Chapter two analyzes Eve's novel, The Family Orchard in context of the Jewish exegetical tradition of PaRDeS, and of the complex relationship between fiction and auto/biography. The chapter argues that Eve uses the figure of the golem to complicate the reader's view of the historian's task, placing her text in the context of Linda Hutcheon's articulation of historiographic metafiction.Chapter three considers Stern's short fiction collection, Lazar Malkin Enters Heaven along with his children's book, Mickey and the Golem. The necessity for the centrality of the author is established, and the ethics of intertextuality are questioned through investigations of the folkloric, literary and oral history antecedents to Stern's work. Using the figure of the golem, Emmanuel Levinas' theorizing about the relationship between self and other is applied to Stern's relationship and responsibilities to his sources and his texts.The dissertation concludes with two original golem stories, "Mr. Goli" and "An Open Wound."Thesis (Ph.D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, 2004.School code: 0260
The art of interruption: A comparison of works by Daniel Libeskind, Gerhard Richter, Ilya Kabakov.
No full textThis dissertation examines the Jewish Museum Berlin by Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind, the painting cycle October 18, 1977 by German painter Gerhard Richter and three installations--- Incident at the Museum, or Water Music; Healing with Paintings ; and the Communal Kitchen---by Russian artist Ilya Kabakov within the context of Rezeptionsasthetik (aesthetics of reception), associated with Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser, and the aesthetic theories of Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht, Martin Heidegger and Victor Shklovsky in order to illustrate the commonalities between the works of art in terms of thematic content, the use of "interruptive" techniques and their capacity to create the conditions for the possibility of a valid aesthetic experience in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Each of the above works of art addresses issues of memory, loss, mourning or exile, and does so in a manner that, I argue, acknowledges and successfully contributes to the development of its respective medium (whether architecture, painting or installation). Such innovations are revealed to a greater degree, I believe, when the works are considered in conjunction with one another rather than separately. Similarly, corresponding aspects of the theoretical writings by the various authors are illuminated when they are brought into a dialogue around the notion of "interruption" and in tandem with actual experiences with the works of art.The "interruptive" techniques and particular innovations of these artists emerge as significant tendencies for post-World War II and post-Soviet era art in a European context.Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Ohio State University, 2004.School code: 0168
Beyond war and peace in the Arab Israeli conflict.
No full textThis PDE consists of a book entitled Beyond War and Peace in the Arab Israeli Conflict, accompanied by a contextual essay that places Worldwork in the context of the larger field of conflict management. The book is based on applying Worldwork, the group process and conflict work based on process-oriented psychology. Assuming that traditional war and peace methods are inadequate for dealing with the growing identity-based conflicts the world is facing, the book examines key parts of conflict in a way that moves beyond traditional approaches to war and peace, including working with hopelessness, fear, grief, revenge, and other difficult emotions that perpetuate war. The book then focuses on how to work directly with violence, including working with the energy of the killer. Beyond War and Peace contains nineteen exercises that the reader can utilize to understand points from an experiential as well as intellectual perspective.Both the book and the contextual essay address specifically the history of the conflict between Jews and Arabs, and apply the methods of Worldwork to these specific conflicts. A major purpose of both documents is to provide specific information about the conflict between Arabs and Jews, and to expand the field of conflict work so that these methods can be applied to similar conflicts worldwide.Because Beyond War and Peace is written for the general public, the contextual essay is a more appropriate forum for in-depth explanation of process-oriented psychology and Worldwork. The contextual essay also covers the methodology utilized to discover concepts in the book, including the seminars I taught, the seminar films I studied, and future directions of this work. The essay also addresses the limits of Worldwork, as well as covering Worldwork's and process-oriented psychology's approach to research.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Union Institute and University, 2004.School code: 1414
Staatliche Entschädigung für staatliche Verfolgung : Die Entschädigung verfolgter Juden aus Gladbeck.
No full textMaster's thesis at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universitaet in Muenster about official restitution payments following official persecution, particularly in the town of Gladbeck in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.Laura Ewers, October 200
The Spanish inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews from Andalucia : [1482-1492].
No full textTranslation of Haim Beinart's "La inquisicion espanola y la expulsion de los Judios de Andalucia" by John GrossmannJohn Grossmann, June 2004Spanish original availabe in the LBI librar
Israel, "a light unto the nations"? Hannah Arendt, Gershom Scholem and the founding of the Jewish state.
No full textHannah Arendt and Gershom Scholem, two of the 20th century's greatest German Jewish thinkers, are commonly regarded as antagonists. This perception reflects their diverging views on the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961, but represents a fundamental misreading of their political thought. While important ideological differences did indeed divide Arendt and Scholem, both shared a commitment to political radicalism and specifically regarded the Zionist movement as a revolutionary movement par excellence whose national-revolutionary potential could not, and, indeed, should not be exhausted in the creation of a state. In emphasizing the revolutionary dimension of Zionism, Arendt and Scholem thus both defined Zionism as a transformative form of politics, and consequently challenged both the liberal emphasis on individual rights and the nationalist emphasis on sovereignty. The task of Zionism, Arendt and Scholem argued against both paradigms, was not to adapt Jewish liberalism to its new transplanted surroundings in the Middle East, but to fundamentally transform the Jewish people from a victim of failed liberal assimilation in Europe into a "nation." While Scholem eventually accepted the idea of a Jewish state as a practical necessity, Arendt opposed it as a goal that was incongruous with the revolutionary mission of Zionism. Notwithstanding these differences, however, Arendt and Scholem's radically transformative understanding of Zionism represents a groundbreaking common effort to articulate a new theory of nationalism, and ultimately a new theory of politics.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 2004.School code: 0265
Historical fictions: Representations of nineteenth-century Jewish salons.
No full textThis dissertation investigates how perceptions of Jewish salons in nineteenth-century Berlin have been shaped and manipulated by various kinds of texts. The story of salons is a non-linear tale with a complex and often obscure transmission history that is reflected in the primary and secondary literature. Most salon research appears to be based on letters, memoirs and other "non-fictional" writings. However, as the subsequent analysis illustrates, historical novels have played a significant role in transmitting reliable and unreliable information about Jewish women and their social circles.As narratives, histories have certain structural principles in common with other texts. The first chapter examines the similarities between fictional and non-fictional narratives and addresses problems associated with representing historical events in writing. Three case studies demonstrate how texts that appear to be legitimate historical representations may in fact lead to the transmission of myths and misperceptions about the past. These examples show that the distinction between history and historical fiction is actually quite subtle.The next three chapters examine representations of Jewish women and their salons in six nineteenth-century novels. Fanny Lewald's Prinz Louis Ferdinand and Kathinka Zitz's Rahel oder dreiunddrei&bgr;ig Jahre aus einem edeln Frauenleben depict Rahel Levin Varnhagen in historical novels that rely heavily on contemporary sources. Luise Muhlbach's Rastatt und Jena and George Hesekiel's Vor Jena examine the role of Jewesses in Prussian society from diametrically opposed political perspectives. Finally, Willibald Alexis' Ruhe ist die erste Burgerpflicht and Theodor Fontane's Schach von Wuthenow draw implicit parallels between the experiences of Jewesses and other disadvantaged social groups in critical portraits of nineteenth-century society.The last chapter of the dissertation traces how a diverse selection of twentieth-century texts transmits inaccurate information about Jewish salons. Close readings of these writings reveal their reliance on a small body of literature that includes the historical novels discussed in the previous chapters. In their treatment of various kinds of primary and secondary sources as though they were interchangeable, these studies approach the status of historical fiction themselves.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Princeton University, 2004.School code: 0181