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Sephardi Mizrahi Studies Caucus Discussion List - December 14, 2003

Association for Jewish Studies Sephardi/Mizrahi Studies Caucus Discussion List
Editor/Moderator: Aviva Ben-Ur <aben-ur(at)judnea.umass.edu>
Week of Sunday, December 14, 2003 (19 Kislev 5764)

NOTE: IN ORDER TO LIMIT SPAM SENT TO DICUSSION LIST CONTRIBUTORS, EMAIL ADDRESSES WILL NO LONGER INCLUDE THE @ SYMBOL. TO REPLY TO A CONTRIBUTOR, SIMPLEY REPLACE (at) WITH THE @ SYMBOL. FOR EXAMPLE, hsmith(at)sephardi.com SHOULD BE RENDERED: hsmith@sephardi.

Index:

1. Announcement: Sephardi/Mizrahi Studies Caucus--Session on Atlantic Studies with Jonathan Schorsch and Holly Snyder--Final Paper Titles and Clarification about Lunch Orders (Ben-Ur)

2. Announcement Amended: 12 (not 11) Sephardi/Mizrahi Sessions at AJS 2003 (Ben-Ur)

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1. Announcement: Sephardi/Mizrahi Studies Caucus--Session on Atlantic Studies with Jonathan Schorsch and Holly Snyder--Final Paper Titles and Clarification about Lunch Orders (Ben-Ur)

I am pleased to remind readers that the 6th annual Sephardi/Mizrahi Studies Caucus will feature a presentation on the ever-growing field of Atlantic Studies.

The speakers will be:

Jonathan Schorsch (Columbia University), "Methodological Waves?: Sephardic and Atlantic World Studies"

and

Holly Snyder (Brown University), "The Sephardi Merchant at the Interstices of Empire in the Atlantic World."

The Caucus meets during lunchtime on Monday, December 22,
12:15 P.M.–1:15 P.M. at the Association for Jewish Studies conference. The session will begin promptly at 12:15. See you then! REMINDER: YOU NEED NOT SIGN UP FOR A LUNCH IN ORDER TO ATTEND.

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2. Announcement Amended: 12 (not 11) Sephardi/Mizrahi Sessions at AJS 2003 (Ben-Ur)

I am pleased to announce that this year’s Association for Jewish Studies conference features no less than *12* sessions either partly or fully devoted to Sephardi and Mizrahi themes. Thanks to Mark R. Cohen of Princeton University for alerting me to the session on the Cairo genizah, which overlooked my gaze. Show your support and interest by your attendance and active participation in the question and answer periods. The sessions are as follows:

1) Sephardi/Mizrahi Caucus (Monday, Dec.22, 12:15-1:15)
“Sephardic and Atlantic World Studies”

(Lunch by paid reservation only; no charge for the caucus itself--NO NEED TO RESERVE A LUNCH IN ORDER TO ATTEND)

Chair: Norman A. Stillman (University of Oklahoma)

2) 2.4: The Treasures of the Cairo Genizah: New Directions in Historical Research

Chair: Norman A. Stillman (University of Oklahoma)

“Islamic Geniza and Geniza for Islamicists”
Mark R. Cohen (Princeton University)

“Digging for Roots: The Cultivation of Ancestry on Islamic Soil”
Arnold E. Franklin (New York University)

“Rabbanite-Karaite Relations in Medieval Egypt and Syria:
Beyond Church-Sect Typology”
Marina Rustow (Emory University)

“The Cairo Genizah Digitization Project: A Demonstration of the Online Interface”
Seth Jerchower (University of Pennsylvania) and
Heidi G. Lerner (Stanford University) co-presenters

3) 1.6: “Sephardi/Mizrahi Voices in a New Cultural Context”
Chair: Angel Saenz-Badillos (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Session 1, Sunday, December 21, 9:30–11:00 A.M.

Poetic Originality or Plagiarism?: Zekharyah al-Dahiri's Adaptations of Andalusian Hebrew Poetry
Adena Tanenbaum (Ohio State University)

Reading Text/Navigating Space: SacredText, New World Exploration,
and the Construction of Identity in a Marrano Autobiography
Ronnie Perelis (New York University)

Funeral Sermons among the Western Sephardim
Julia R. Lieberman (Saint Louis University)

4) 1.12: “Literary Border Crossings”
Chair: Ruth R. Wisse (Harvard University)
Session 1, Sunday, December 21, 9:30–11:00 A.M.

The American Hebrew Writer as Rearguard Pioneer:
Reading Border Crossings in Lisitsky's `Eleh Toledot Adam
Jill Havi Aizenstein (New York University)

Writing in Tongues: German-Jewish Social Worker and Writer
Clementine Kraemer (1873–1942) as Bavarian Folk Author
Elizabeth Ann Loentz (University of Illinois at Chicago)

The Strange Fascination of Sepharad:
Moacyr Scliar's Rewriting of Brazilian and Jewish Histories
Monique R. Balbuena (University of California at Berkeley)

5) 3.8: “Music and Theater in Sephardi and Mizrahi Culture”
Chair: Kay K. Shelemay (Harvard University)
Session 3, Sunday, December 21, 2003 1:45 P.M.–3:45 P.M.

The Rise of the Ladino Theater in the Ottoman Empire
Olga Borovaia (Russian State University for the Humanities)

Sounds of Emancipation: Shaping Jewish Identity through Music
in Nineteenth-Century Italy
Francesco Spagnolo (Universit? Statale di Milano)

`?Ay Paxarico!': Ladino Songs and Mystical Hebrew Poetry
Vanessa Paloma (Los Angeles, CA)

From Raja Mashiah to the Sion Sangam:
Indian Cultural Elements in Cochin Jewish Women's Zionist Songs
Barbara C. Johnson (Ithaca College)

6) 4.7a: “Modern Sephardi/Mizrahi Responsa: Alterity and Gender”
Chair: Norman A. Stillman (University of Oklahoma)
Session 4, Sunday, December 21, 2003 4:00 P.M.–5:30 P.M.

Biblical Norms, Rabbinic Law, and Gender Otherness
Norma Baumel Joseph (Concordia University)

The `Other' in the Eyes of a Mizrahi Posek
Zion Zohar (Florida International University)

7) 4.7b: “Trade and Modernization in the Sephardic Mediterranean”
Chair: Paul Lawrence Rose (Pennsylvania State University)
Session 4, Sunday, December 21, 2003 4:00 P.M.–5:30 P.M.

Trust, Reputation, and the Market: Sephardic Networks in the Early Modern Mediterranean
Francesca Trivellato (Yale University)

How to Westernize Ottoman Jews: The Eighteenth Century
Matthias B. Lehmann (Indiana University)

8) 5.5: “Sephardi Identity in the Caribbean and Latin America”
Chair: Shmuel Shepkaru (University of Oklahoma)
Session 5, Monday, December 22, 2003 8:30 A.M.–10:30 A.M.

Old and New Sephardim: The White and Mulatto Jews of Suriname, South America
Aviva Ben-Ur (University of Massachusetts-Amherst)

Religious Assimilation in the Nineteenth Century:
Curaçaoan Sephardim in Coro and Santo Domingo
Josette Goldish (Newton, MA)

Becoming `Argentine': Sephardic/Jewish Women and the Zionist Project
Adriana Brodsky (Duke University)

The Heritage of Place in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands:
Enacting Sephardic Ethnicity within an American Reform Congregation
Judah Cohen (New York University)

9) 5.11: “Post-Zionism and Beyond: Current Perspectives on Israeli Culture and Society”
Chair: Nina Spiegel (Stanford University)
Session 5, Monday, December 22, 2003 8:30 A.M.–10:30 A.M.

Literary History in the post-Zionist Era: Etgar Keret and the Emergence of a First-Person Dual in Modern Hebrew Literature
Yaron Peleg (George Washington University)

History, Parody, and Representation: Orly Castel-Blum's post-Zionist Poetics
Todd S. Hasak-Lowy (University of Florida)

The Nation State in an Age of Globalization: Reclaiming Zionism as a Movement of Liberation
Eran Kaplan (University of Cincinnati)

Black Panthers, Black Hats, and Beyond: Rethinking Mizrahi Politics
Adam Rubin (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion)

10) 6.5: “Integrating the Sephardi/ Mizrahi Experience: a Roundtable”
Sponsored by The Sephardi/Mizrahi Caucus
and presented through the generosity of the Maurice Amado Foundation
Chair: Elka B. Klein (University of Cincinnati)
Session 6, Monday, December 22, 2003 10:45 A.M.–12:15 P.M.

Sephardic Studies in the Early Modern Jewish History Curriculum
Matt Goldish (Ohio State University)

Integration of Sephardic Studies into the Core Curriculum at HUC-JIR
Mark Kligman (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion)

Beyond Spain: The Study of Medieval Jewry in the Islamic Mediterranean and Middle East
Marina Rustow (Emory University)

Approaches to Modern Sephardi and Mizrahi Studies
Sarah Abrevaya Stein (University of Washington)

11) 7.11: “Conversos and Conversions in Early Modern Europe”
Chair: Sharon Koren (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion)
session 7, Monday, December 22, 2003 1:30 P.M.–3:30 P.M.

A Convert among the London Conversos: New Light on the Oral Law Debate
Matt Goldish (Ohio State University)

Marginal Jews as Christian Proselytes among Conversos in Seventeenth-Century Iberia
David L. Graizbord (University of Arizona)

To Convert or Not to Convert?: Slaves and Non-Whites in the Western Sephardic Diaspora
Jonathan Schorsch (Columbia University)

Conversion and the Writing of History
in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Dutch Sephardic Culture
Adam D. Sutcliffe (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

12) 9.15: “The Role of History in the Israeli Novel” (Conducted in English)
Chair: Eric Zakim (Duke University)
Session 9, Tuesday, December 23, 2003 8:30 A.M.–10:30 A.M.

Re/Complicating the Old Yishuv: Sephardic History in Works by Non-Sephardic Israeli Authors
Stacy N. Beckwith (Carleton College)

The Jewish Subject in the Fiction of Aharon Appelfeld
Emily Budick (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Of Triangles and Generations: Historical Undertones of a Structural Paradigm in Agnon, Oz, and Yehoshua
Yael Halevi-Wise (McGill University)

History and Identity in Yehoshua's Mr. Mani,
Journey to the End of the Millennium, and The Liberating Bride
Bernard Horn (Framingham State College)