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Sephardi Mizrahi Studies Caucus Discussion List
- Week of January 25, 2004
Association for Jewish Studies Sephardi/Mizrahi Studies Caucus Discussion
List
Editor/Moderator: Aviva Ben-Ur <aben-ur(at)judnea.umass.edu>
Week of Sunday, January 25, 2004 (2 Shevat 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. Synopsis of AJS Roundtable, Integrating the Sephardi/Mizrahi
Experience (Klein)
2. Synopsis of AJS Sephardi/Mizrahi Caucus, The Nexus Between Sephardi/Mizrahi
Studies and Atlantic Studies, With Jonathan Schorsch and Holly Snyder
(Ben-Ur)
3. Yemenite Manuscript Collection--Old Wine, New Jugs (Ferdman)
4. New Publication: *El Meam loez de Cantar de los cantares* (Romeu)
5. New Website on Sephardic Oral Literature (Rosenstock)
6. Call for Papers for the MLA: Childhood, Family and the Formation
of Sephardi Identities (Graizbord)
7. Last Weeks Lecture on The Sephardic Jews of China
(Zohar)
8. Last Months MLA Session, Sephardism in Modern Literature
and Roundtable, Uses and Abuses of Sephardic History (Halevi-Wise)
------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Synopsis of AJS Roundtable, Integrating the Sephardi/Mizrahi
Experience (Klein)
From: Elka Klein <kleinei(at)email.uc.edu>
Date: Sunday, January 4, 2004 2:03 PM
Aviva has asked me to report on the panel on integrating Sephardi/Mizrahi
Studies into the general Judaic studies curriculum which Mark Kligman,
Marina Rustow and I organized at the recent AJS conference.
[the panel was listed as:
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. (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)]
The original impetus for the panel came out of discussions over several
years at the Sephardi/Mizrahi caucus. In response to the perenial complaint
that despite all of the exciting new research (and even some exciting
old research) which has so expanded our knowledge of Sephardi and Mizrahi
Jewries, and despite the much higher profile of the scholarship (indicated
if nothing else by the increasing numbers of panels at AJS on related
themes), this scholarship has not trickled down into the classroom, in
particular into the survey. The vast majority of students in Jewish history
surveys are presented with a picture of normative (Ashkenazi) Jews, with
perhaps a token comparison to those "other" Jews. The panel
was organized to offer some concrete suggestions as to how to address
this situation.
Various barriers were acknowledged by the panelists and/or pointed out
by audience members:
- The 14 week survey (or for those of us on the quarter system, the 10-week
survey) is already rushed. Adding new material means leaving something
out.
- The textbook problem. There is no single textbook which offers an integrated
approach. Marcus' The Jew in the Medieval World and Mendes Flohr and Reinharz'
The Jew in the Modern World are still normative (Marcus at least does
include some material on Jews under Islam and on Sephardi Jews in Amsterdam);
Stillman's sourcebooks are essential for those wishing to look beyond
Europe, but the break at the nineteenth century does not work for all
courses. Fundamentally there are limits to how many books we can
ask our students to buy.
Nonetheless, it was felt that the tools are there for us to do more. Panelists
offered solutions at two levels: the incremental and the systematic.
The incremental approach was taken by Matt Goldish, who used the Early
Modern period to suggest ways that individual primary sources can be used
to supplement and expand the focus of a course. He offered a long list
of sources for primary sources, plus three interesting texts with examples
of how they could be used.
Another example of the incremental approach was offered by Mark Kligman,
who discussed the initiative currently underway at Hebrew Union College
to integrate the Sephardi experience into their entire curriculum. He
offered a grid including just a few of the individuals, texts, and themes
which professors are encouraged to integrate into their existing courses,
and discussed the value of such integration within a rabbinical school
curriculum.
The systematic approach was taken by Marina Rustow, discussing issues
with the teaching of the Middle Ages, particularly the need to look at
the entire experience of Jews under Islam, rather than focussing excessively
on Spain. She offered two syllabi which took this approach.Sarah Stein
addressed the inadequacy of current paradigms of modern history most directly.
Courses in which 1492 represents the end of the relevance of Sephardi
Jews, and in which political emancipation is the central theme are ill
suited to encompass the Sephardi and Mizrahi experience in any way which
is not tokenism. She discussed the way in which she uses the diversity
Jewish experiences in the modern period to encourage her students to question
the very construction of "Modern Jewish history." She also advocated
the approach of treating different communities individually, rather than
trying to procede topically (Emancipation, religious reform, etc.)
Two themes emerged clearly from the subsequent discussion (which I will
not otherwise attempt to summarize)
1. Although it is clear that we need to explore new paradigms -- to rethink
the story that we tell our students in our courses -- that the mechanism
for such exploration is not clear. In particular, the panel was in some
sense preaching to the converted; there was only one specialist in Ashkenazi
Jews in the room, although many of us work on comparative themes.
One result of this sense of "where now" is that an article is
in preparation presenting the points made in the panel for submission
to AJS Perspectives, which we hope will carry the discussion to the wider
field.
2. It is clear that in the long run we need new textbooks which approach
the various periods holistically (the current trend for books with separate
regional and thematic chapters by different specialists is good news for
those who want a quick and dirty introduction to a topic, but are not
always useful as textbooks; few of us organize our courses country by
country).'
In the short run, however, the web provides an alternative to a new sourcebook.
There exist already places where primary sources can be posted and made
available to other professors to share with their students. The most important
is the Internet Jewish Sourcebook (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jewishsbook.html),
a spinoff of the Internet Medieval Sourcebook. The IJS has a lot of weaknesses;
it is stronger for the Middle Ages than for other periods, and it retains
a focus on Europe. But it is a work in progress. When I first got involved,
it had nothing much on Jews except a few exerpts from Maimonides and a
lot of material on anti-Judaism. It has come a long way, and Paul Halsall,
whose
site it is, is always open to adding new material.
I would like to conclude this report therefore with a CALL FOR SOURCES.
If you have translated interesting primary sources for your students,
and are willing to share them with others, you may send them either to
the Caucus (aben-ur@judnea.umass.edu) or to me (elka.klein@uc.edu)
and they will be made available, either on the Caucus website or in the
IJS. You can reserve copyright to yourself, so long as you permit copying
for educational (but not commercial) purposes. A few pointers:
a) If you can provide a brief introduction (of one or two paragraphs)
which offer students (and professors) a context for understanding the
document, that would be ideal.
b) If the document is more than a page or two, I recommend numbering paragraphs
or dividing it into numbered sections to make it easier to cite.
c) Provide a complete citation at the end of the source of the text.
Dr. Elka Klein
Department of Judaic Studies
University of Cincinnati
P.O. Box 210169
Cincinnati, OH 45221-0169
http://asweb.artsci.uc.edu/judaic/default.htm
-------
2. Synopsis of AJS Sephardi/Mizrahi Caucus, The Nexus Between
Sephardi/Mizrahi Studies and Atlantic Studies, With Jonathan Schorsch
and Holly Snyder (Ben-Ur)
This years AJS Caucus luncheon meeting focused on the ever-growing
field of Atlantic Studies and its relevance to Sephardi/Mizrahi Studies.
Atlantic Studies has been defined as the exchange of people, commodities,
crops, ideas, and microbes between the Americas, Africa and Europe in
the early modern period. At Sunday's AJS session on port Jews in
the Atlantic world, Professor Lois Dubin asked: "given the intersection
bewteen port Jews and Atlantic history, should we be considering Atlantic
Jewish history?" Our speakers, Jonathan Schorsch and Holly
Snyder, approached that question, focusing on the Sephardic nexus.
The Caucus theme this year dovetailed nicely with the session Professor
Elka Klein (University of Cincinatti) organized on the Sephardi Studies
curriculum, at which new sources and new paradigms for Sephardi/Mizrahi
Studies were discussed. Here are synopses of the two Caucus presentations:
From: Jonathan Schorsch <js1167(at)columbia.edu>
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004
Jonathan Schorsch (Columbia University)
Methodological Waves?: Atlantic Studies and Sephardic Studies
Today I will talk briefly about the relations between Atlantic World studies
and Sephardic/Mizrahi studies. The two fields share certain traits and
topics, especially for those treating western Sephardim, and scholars
of both fields could profitably learn from one another. I thank Aviva
Ben-Ur and the Sephardic Studies Caucus for inviting me to speak to you
today.
Perhaps the first study to conceptualize a field based on the geographic,
demographic, sociologicl and economic specificities of the Atlantic world
is the French book by Huguette and Pierre Chaunu, *Seville and the Atlantic,
1504-1650* (1954). The significance of ports and ships as conveyors of
people, goods and ideas quickly became a staple of recent historiography
dealing with the newly-forged category of Atlantic studies or Atlantic
history, a rubric centered appropriately enough around an ocean. The new
hybrid category -- assuming, justifiably, the importance of
movement, transmission, reflexivity and simultaneity -- has been of great
use in the study of regions deeply affected by the colliding of worlds
proverbially said to have begun in 1492. In 1989, Anthony Pagden co-edited
an anthology called *Colonial Identity in the Atlantic World, 1500-1800.*
A 1991 title is *Atlantic Port Cities: Economy, Culture, and Society in
the Atlantic World, 1650-1850.* In 1996, Harvard established its famous
annual seminar on the Atlantic world.
Atlantic world studies has been especially significant for certain minority
groups, especially the Africans forcibly removed from their continent
and their descendants, hitherto foreigners in both European and American
history. The appearance of Paul Gilroys *The Black Atlantic: Modernity
and Double Consciousness* in 1993, Jeffrey Bolsters 1997 *Black
Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail* and a 1998 anthology
of the earliest slave narratives from the Enlightenment era, called *Pioneers
of the Black Atlantic,* John Thorntons, *Africa and Africans in
the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800* (1998), a 1999 study of Revolutionary-War-era
Black loyalists in the Afro-Atlantic world -- all evoke and promulgate
the hermeneutic tool of the Atlantic. Here one sees that which was previously
marginalized and denigrated held aloft to trump its abusers: mobility,
in-betweenness.
By now Atlantic world studies has become a veritable cottage indstry.
An increasing number of titles now include the term Atlantic
or Atlantic world. So useful and fruitful has the field become
that a 2001 anthology, *Witches of the Atlantic World,* also re-centered
its topic away from Europe to delineate the flows and exchanges
in magical culture across the Atlantic. Reflecting the acceptance of,
even the requirement for multidisciplinarity, a growing number of academic
positions are now couched as Atlantic world studies positions. Just by
way of example, Brandeis is now advertising a two-year fellowship in the
Atlantic world, c. 1500-1800. Speaking to the interdisciplinarity I have
mentioned, the fellowship is sponsored by the departments of History,
Romance and Comparative Literature, African and Afro-American Studies,
American Studies, Anthropology and Latin American Studies. Foci for the
fellowship could include cultural and material exchanges among Africans,
Europeans and Native Americans, comparative slavery or trans-Atlantic
narratives.
When dealing with the Sephardic populations of the Atlantic world -- in
places such as Bordeaux, Amsterdam, London, Recife, Surinam, Curaçao,
Newport or Kingston -- an emphasis on the importance of intercontinental
exchange, ports, maritime intercourse justifies itself with equal ease.
Given the realities of Jewish history, in some ways, the study of Jews
and Judaism has always been an exercise in interdisciplinarity, yet it
is only recently that Atlantic world studies has had an impact on Sephardic
studies.
Two separate areas of inquiry touching on Sephardim have, indeed, begun
to reflect the growing importance and influence of Atlantic world studies.
The first is the field of Inquisition studies. Here scholars have long
recognized the continuities uniting both sides of the Atlantic. This awareness
can be seen in the title and purview of a recent monumental 3-volume history
of the Spanish Inquisitions edited by Joaquín Pérez Villanueva
and Bartolomé Escandell Bonet, *Historia de la Inqusición
en España y América* (1984- ). Such insights inform David
Gitlitzs pathbreaking book on marrano religiosity, *Secrecy
and Deceit.* Though not theorized as an Atlantic world study, Gitlitzs
work takes obvious pains to encompass trends in both the Iberian peninsula
and the far-flung Iberian colonies of the Americas. To some degree, Nathan
Wachtels new book, *La Foi du souvenir: labyrinthes marranes* (2001),
similarly draws a trans-Atlantic portrait of marrano religious
culture.
A second example of the successful importation of Atlantic world studies
into coverage of early modern Sephardic history and culture in western
regions is the book (and original conference) sponsored by the John Carter
Brown Library in Providence, RI, *The Jews and the Expansion of Europe
to the West, 1450-1800* (2001). Though awareness of the economic and,
less so, the cultural contributions Sephardim made regarding the discovery,
establishment and maintenance of the European colonies in he Americas
has long been a favorite topic of Jewish and non-Jewish scholars (one
need only look at the work of Meyer Kayserling, Jacob Rader Marcus, Jonathan
Israel and many publications coming from Portugal in particular), this
anthology of essays is the first to explicitly consider and wield recent
developments in Atlantic world studies as such. Even so, the focus remains
on the exportation of Europe, rather than the impact the New World
had on the Sephardim and the construction of a relatively unified and
long-standing trans-Atlantic Sephardic culture.
New studies promise to inform us even more profoundly of the realities
of this trans-Atlantic Sephardic culture. I do not wish to discuss my
own work, but my forthcoming book, *Jews and Blacks in the Early Modern
World,* addresses the existence of a fairly cohesive trans-Atlantic racial
attitude among western Sephardim, reflected in their attitudes and behavior
toward Blacks or slaves whether in Amsterdam or Suriname. Along more traditinal
socio-economic lines, Holly Snyders work has been pushing the envelope
in exploring trans-Atlantic continuities among Sephardic merchant communities.
She will present her work in a few moments far better than I can. An example
of the kinds of Atlantic/Sephardic studies we can anticipate can be found
in Ronnie Perelis, who is now writing a fascinating dissertation called
Marrano Autobiography in its Transatlantic Context: a Literary Analysis
of Crypto-Jewish Writing on Exile, Exploration, and Spiritual Discovery.
As he explains it, Perelis seeks to analyze texts born out of the
experience of crypto-Jewish travel in the early modern period. These texts
include the autobiographical writings of Luis de Carvajal el mozo, Antonio
de Montezinos (a.k.a. Aharon haLevi), and Manuel Cardoso de Macedo (a.k.a.
Abraham Pelengrino). I argue that these disparate texts comprise a singular
textual corpus: Transatlantic Marrano Autobiography. All three texts express
the peculiarities of crypto-Jewish experience and partake of the dynamism
of transatlantic travel. While these texts have previously been analyzed
as historical documents, the present analysis reads them as literature,
inquiring into their aesthetic, rhetorical and existential force. The
project seeks not only to expand the borders of early modern Iberian and
Ibero-American literature by recovering marginalized and forgotten voices,
but also to reorient Sephardic studies towards those texts on its geo-historical
periphery. We look forward to this and other such innovative studies.
Finally, in deference to the question in my title, some questions. By
methodological waves I have no intention of prognosticating
any kind of demise for either Atlantic or Sephardic studies. I simply
want to touch on some of the issues that trouble the waters (as an old
gospel song has it) in which these fields swim. One entails the question
of borders or boundaries. Atlantic studies admirably seeks to unite or
at least hold up for close comparison vasty disparate entities, whether
demographic, geographic, linguistic, religious, or economic. This must
be done with utmost caution, lest the desire to construct a conceptual
Atlantic world system overrides the critical differences between these
entities and even within each itself. A related question of boundaries
concerns defining the Atlantic world itself. How far into Europe, Africa
and the Americas can we go before losing the tumult of the ocean, its
coasts and ports? This second question may not be less pertinent to Sephardic
studies than the first. The Atlantic Sephardic world was built as much
by those stemming from Ottoman lands and central Asia. True, the resulting
complex became very much Atlantic, but to pronounce, for instance, a Balkan-American
Atlantic world seems to challenge some of the coherence of the Atlantic-world
category. Are such relations across the Atlantic truly reciprocal, multidirectional
or constitutive of the kind of Atlantic world culture the fields
theorists imply? Sehardic/Mizrahi studies already constitutes a multifarious
panoply of populations and locations. As is the case when we are dealing
with a complex of Quakers on the North American east coast and Caribbean,
native populations in the Mexican interior, runaway African slaves, or
imported Indonesian laborers in Suriname, does much, or anything, remain
uniquely Sephardic or Mizrahi given such a similarly wide spread? What,
if anything, unites the study of Sephardim in England, Yemenite Jewry
and the Bnei Israel of India? At what point do rubrics such as Atlantic
or Sephardic/Mizrahi begin to unravel as useful hermeneutical
tools?
Another major question concerns the issue of periodization. Atlantic world
studies initially derived its interpretive energy from the situation in
colonial times. Does an Atlantic world system continue after the collapse
of colonialism proper? Is the late-modern or post-colonial Atlantic decidedly
different than its colonial predecessor? Taking care to ensure a nuance
approach to such chronological matters remains essential in Sephardic/Mizrahi
studies as well, even in the Atlantic world. The well-woven network of
Sephardic international trade, for instance, disappeared by the eighteenth
century, leaving in its wake a very different Sephardic world. Similarly,
the loosening of the tight bonds, often of dependence, between colonial
Sephardic communities and European metropoles that paralleled in many
ways the growing independence of the Americas yielded a rather anemic
version of an Atlantic Sephardi culture. The conceptual miscegenation
between Sephardim and Mizrahim in the state of Israel, and hence in Israeli
scholarship, has also transformed the landscape we claim to study. In
discussing an Sephardic Atlantic, what happens to our vista when we include
nineteenth-century Moroccan immigrants to Brazil, Syrian communities in
Argentina or Jews from Rhodes in Atlanta?
These are merely a few of the many questions confronting us as we consider
the implications of Atlantic world studies for us as scholars of Sephardim
and Mizrahim. Much more, obviously, could, and should, be said. I hope
I have managed here simply to begin or continue beginning the necessarily
constant provocation of thought and self-assessment.
2.
From: Holly Snyder <holland56(at)mindspring.com>
Date: Sunday, January 18, 2004 8:19 PM
Sephardi Merchants at the Interstices of Empire in the Atlantic
World, 1400-1800
Dr. Holly Snyder
John Nicholas Brown Center
Brown University
This talk covered the broad outlines of my long-term study entitled "The
Jewish merchant in the Atlantic World, 1400-1800." The research involved
covers the experience of Jewish merchants in transatlantic trade between
1400 and 1800, limited in scope to economic encounters, and will explore
the connections between the Jewish merchants in the British Atlantic colonies,
the French and Dutch colonies in North America and the Caribbean and the
Converso merchants who lived and operated within the Iberian colonies
in Central and South America along with the mercantile strategies they
pursued. Topics discussed were the genesis of the project, key issues
relative to substance and interpretation that have been encountered to
date, and preliminary connections between this project and current historiography
in the emerging field of Atlantic studies.
Holly Snyder
-----
3. Yemenite Manuscript Collection--Old Wine, New Jugs (Ferdman)
From: Glenn Ferdman gferdman(at)spertus.edu
Via: Rachel Simon <rsimon(at)Princeton.EDU>
Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 8:32 AM
Dear Collleagues: FYI, we have recently converted to pdf and made accessible
via our website "Spertus College of Judaica Yemenite Manuscripts:
An Illustrated Catalogue," by Norman Golb (Spertus College Press,
1972).
It contains descriptive text and illustrations (i.e., plates)
of all 95 items in this collection (which date to
the 17th century).
http://www.spertus.edu/asher/yemenite_manuscripts/index.html
Sincerely,
Glenn Ferdman
director, Asher Library
and president, Judaica Library Network of Chicago
Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies
618 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60605
(312) 322-1753
www.spertus.edu/library.html
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4. New Publication: *El Meam loez de Cantar de los cantares* (Romeu)
From: Tirocinio SL <tirocinio(at)tirocinio.com>
Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 4:50 AM
Estimados amigos:
En los aledaños de Hanuká 5764
/ diciembre 2003, hemos visto nacer un nuevo número de la Colección
Fuente clara. Estudios de cultura sefardí.
Se trata de la obra de Rosa Asenjo, *El
Meam loez de Cantar de los cantares (Sÿir ha-sÿirim)* de Hayim Y. Sÿakí
(Constantinopla, 1899). Barcelona,
2003, 214 págs., (21 x 14). ISBN 84-930570-70-5-3.
Esta es una de las obras imprescindibles
de la preciada literatura en lengua sefardí, de la que se han tirado
únicamente 100 ejemplares numerados.
Quienes estéis interesados podéis acceder
a www.tirocinio.com para ver la información.
Un saludo
Pilar Romeu
Directora de la colección
Tirocinio
c/ Cavallers 56
08034 Barcelona -Spain
tirocinio@tirocinio.com
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5. New Website on Sephardic Oral Literature (Rosenstock)
From: Bruce Rosenstock <brsnstck(at)ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: Thursday, January 8, 2004 11:54 AM
A new website that makes available one of the richest archives of
Sephardic oral literature in the world has been launched. It may be accessed
at:
http://www.sephardifolklit.org
Bruce Rosenstock
Humanities Computing Specialist, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Associate Professor, Program for the Study of Religion
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
phone: 217-244-2380
fax: 217-244-8753
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6. Call for Papers for the MLA: Childhood, Family and the Formation
of Sephardi Identities (Graizbord)
From: David Graizbord dlgraizb(at)email.arizona.edu
Date: Wednesday, January 7, 2004 6:43 PM
***CALL FOR PAPERS***
For MLA 2004--the Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association
(Philadelphia, December 27-30, 2004)
Organizer:
The Sephardi Studies Discussion Group of the MLA
Title of the panel session:
Childhood, Family and the Formation of Sephardi Identities
Description:
In an interdisciplinary manner, the session will explore literary and
historical reflections of the intersection between childhood, family life,
and the construction of Sephardi identities. Proposals addressing every
time period and geographical location are welcome.
Please send abstracts of approximately 500 words, and/or any relevant
inquiries, by electronic mail no later than March 15, 2004, to:
David Graizbord
Committee on Judaic Studies
University of Arizona
816 E. University Blvd.
Tucson, AZ 85721
PLEASE NOTE: To participate in the panel, all presenters must be or become
members of the MLA by April 1 and be listed on its membership rolls by
April 7, 2004. Additional guidelines for participation in the MLA convention
are published in the September 2003 issue of PMLA (pp. 746-757) and posted
on-line
at www.mla.org.
------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Last Weeks Lecture on The Sephardic Jews of China
(Zohar)
From: Zion Zohar <zoharz(at)fiu.edu>
Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 5:04 PM
[Note from Editor/Moderator Aviva Ben-Ur: though this issue appears after
the date of the lecture described below, I post the announcement here
to spread word of the exciting programming developed at FIU]
Florida International University
Institute for Judaic and Near Eastern Studies,
President Navon Program for the Study of
Sephardic and Oriental Jewry,
The office of the Vice Provost,
Religious Studies Department,
The Academy for Lifelong Learning, Hillel
and Yovel are very proud to present:
The Sephardic Jews of China
Thursday January 22, 2004
7:30 PM
Biscayne Bay Campus WUC- Room 155 (Wolf University Center)
By:
Prof. Xu Xin
Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Nanjing
University, Peoples Republic of China
XU XIN, Professor of History of Jewish Culture, and Director of the Center
for Jewish Studies at Nanjing University, Peoples Republic of China,
is President of the China Judaic Studies Association. He became full professor
in 1994 at Nanjing University. He is author of Legends of the Chinese
Jews of Kaifeng (with Beverly Friend, Hoboken: KTAV Publishing House,
Inc., 1995), Anti-Semitism: How and Why (Shanghai: Shanghai Shanlian Books,
1996), A History of Western Culture (Peking University Press, 2002), and
The Jews of Kaifeng, China: History, Culture, and Religion (KTAV Publishing
House, Inc., 2003). He has also written numerous articles on Judaic topics,
including Studies of Jewish Diaspora in China, S.Y. Agnon, Saul Bellow,
I.B. Singer, and Surveys of Jewish Communities in Shanghai, Tientsin,
Harbin, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. His article, Practice of Judaism
in China appears in Encyclopedia of Judaism.
He has given about 300 lectures in the USA, Israel, Canada, Hong Kong
and China since 1995 at places such as Harvard University, Yeshiva University,
Yale University, University of Chicago, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv University, Haifa University, University
of Pennsylvania, The UCLA, Stanford University, City University of New
York, Northeastern University, Northwestern University, and various Jewish
organizations across the USA. In 2003, Bar-Ilan Universitys Board
of Trustees and Senate in Israel awarded him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
Honoris Causa in recognition of the extremely important work he has done
on research of the Jewish people in China.
Upon Prof. Xins visit in Israel, he told the Jerusalem Post that
Israel, to the Chinese, is an alien and mysterious country, even
more so than the countries of the Western Hemisphere, and that what
little the Chinese do know is negative. We learned that Israel was
the running dog of the Western imperialist powers, he said. Xu Xins
work is a mitzvah, building a Great Wall of knowledge against
the inroads of anti-Semitism.
In explaining one culture to another, he has enriched both.
The Lecture is free and open to the public
----
8. Last Months MLA Session, Sephardism in Modern Literature
and Roundtable, Uses and Abuses of Sephardic History (Halevi-Wise)
From: Yael Halevi-Wise <yael.haleviwise(at)mcgill.ca>
Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2003 00:53:50 -0500
[Note from Editor/Moderator Aviva Ben-Ur: though this issue appears after
the date of the session and roundtable described below, I post the announcement
here to spread word of this exciting new scholarship.]
At the MLA meeting in San Diego [last month], two sessions [were]
devoted to Sephardism as a Literary Metaphor in Modern Literature.
"Sephardism in Modern Literature"
Program arranged by the Discussion Group on Sephardic Studies.
Sunday 12/28/2003 7:15-8:30 p.m.
Leucadia, San Diego Marriott Hotel
Presiding: Yael Halevi-Wise, McGill University
1. Sephardisms Appeal: Where, When, Why,
Yael Halevi-Wise
2. Homero Aridjiss Picaresque Novel 1492: The Life and
Times
of Juan Cabezon de Castile
Jane Esther Mushabac, New York City College of Technology, CUNY
3. Jewish Pasts, German Fictions: Sephardism in German Literature
Jonathan S. Skolnik, University of Maryland
4. Prismatic Memory: Sephardism in Contemporary Spanish and
Israeli Literature
Stacy Nan Beckwith, Carleton College
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"Round Table: Uses and Abuses of Sephardic History from Rushdie to
Arendt, Jabès, Machado de Assis, and the Yiddish Theater"
Special Session Organizer: Yael Halevi-Wise, McGill University
Monday 12/29/2003 10:15-11:30 a.m.
Torrey 1, San Diego Marriott Hotel
Presider: Monique R. Balbuena, University of California, Berkeley
Speakers:
Bindu M. Malieckal, Saint Anselm College
Joanna Bankier, University College of Southern Stockholm
Erin D. Graff Zivin, New York University
Sam W. Bloom, Haifa University
Yael Halevi-Wise
English and Jewish Studies
McGill University
3438 McTavish St., Montreal, QC
Canada H3A 1X9
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