From LISTSERV@msu.edu Thu May 16 12:48:16 1996 Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 00:10:02 -0500 From: Automatic digest processor Reply-To: H-Net Jewish Studies List To: Recipients of H-JUDAIC digests Subject: H-JUDAIC Digest - 11 Dec 1995 to 12 Dec 1995 There are 14 messages totalling 322 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. administravia (Hyman) 2. New York City (Toll) 3. B.C. and B.C.E. (BenUr) 4. peace process and Holocaust (Kellner) 5. Ham's curse (Kuzmack) 6. female innkeepers (Baskin) 7. folk songs (Seid) 8. histories of Jewish Federations (Sachs) 9. Jewish dissertations (Best) 10. Conferences Meeting on Religous or Ethnic Holidays (Tuerk) 11. Jerusalem apartment sought (Sarna) 12. The Curse on Ham (Braude) 13. "ultra-Orthodox" designation (Dovid) 14. The names 'Ben Artzi and Filosof' (Braude) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 16:34:06 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: administravia (Hyman) From: Avi Hyman Dear list members, I have decided to slow down for Hannukah starting tomorrow. I am not shutting the list down, just slowing it down, which means I'll send out the notes less frequently between now and December 26. Please feel free to continue your submissions as regularly as you like. Best regards for the festive season to all members. Avi Hyman, managing editor, Jewish Studies On-Line ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 16:36:09 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: New York City (Toll) From: TERRY R. TOLL Subject: New York City JEWISH LIFE IN NEW YORK CITY IN THE 1960'S Eli Lederhendler of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem is writing a book about Jewish life in New York City in the 1960's. He would like to explore the subject with people who lived there then, either as children or as adults. Specific topics Eli is focussing on include: 1. neighborhoods: streets people lived on, types of school attended, social encounters, moves to different locations (where and when?) 2. involvement in new organizations and political activism: such as SSSJ, JDL, campus activism, etc. 3. City College in the 1960's 4. earliest remembered Holocaust commemorations 5. Yiddish, in your own or your parents' home(s) 6. New York City teachers' strike of 1968 7. documents of the decade, such as letters, clippings, memorabilia, journals, copies of rabbis' sermons 8. willingness and availability to be interviewed in person or by mail Eli can be reached at Dr. Eli Lederhendler, Institute of Contemporary Jewry The Hebrew University, Mt Scopus Jerusalem 91905 Israel ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 16:37:47 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: B.C. and B.C.E. (BenUr) From: BENUR@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU Subject: B.C. and B.C.E. Does anyone know who introduced the terms, "Common Era" and "Before the Common Era" and when? I am interested in when the terms B.C. and A.D. were substituted for more "inclusive" terminology. Aviva Ben-Ur ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 16:41:39 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: peace process and Holocaust (Kellner) From: M.KELLNER@UVM.HAIFA.AC.IL Subject: peace process and Holocaust Some weeks ago in this list Tzvee Zahavy wrote of individuals on the poltical right who view the current peace process as a precursor to a new Holocaust. I wonder if anyone out there is aware of scholars here in Israel who have written/thought about the issue? Thanks in advance for your help, Menachem Kellner Menachem Kellner, Dean of Students and Wolfson Chair of Jewish Thought University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 16:43:18 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: Re: Ham's curse (Kuzmack) From: Linda Kuzmack Subject: Re: Ham's curse > I am researching the influence of religion on racial attitudes, and would > appreciate help in tracing down written sources which use the following > [mis]quote: > "the seed (or descendants) of Ham shall be hewers of wood and > drawers of water." There was some discussion of Jewish traditional sources related to racism, including Talmudic sources, a while back on Mail-Jewish, a mailing list devoted to halakhic issues. Archives can be retrieved from the gopher or Web sites at shamash.nysernet.org. The following are from the subject index, showing the volume and issue numbers where the postings appeared: Jewish Racism [v14n93] Judaism, Racism and Vegetarianism [v15n15, v15n21] Judaism and Racism [v14n96, v15n2, v15n20] Marc Shapiro and racism [v15n20] Racial Slurs [v14n93, v14n96] Racism [v15n16, v15n20, v15n22, v15n24-v15n25, v15n30, v15n36, v15n45, v15n50, v15n59, v15n78, v15n83, v15n90, v16n11,v16n47] Racism (in 15#36) [v15n45] Racism, et al. [v16n14] Racism, letter to Tradition on [v15n24] Racism, The Message of the Book of Jonah [v15n30] Racism/Marc Shapiro [v15n26] Racism and the curse of Ham [v15n20] racism and the modern world [v15n78] Racism in Orthodoxy [v15n2] Racist thoughts [v15n88] Torah Perspective on Racism [v15n78] Arnie Kuzmack kuzmack@umbc.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 16:44:33 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: Re: female innkeepers (Baskin) From: Judith Baskin Subject: Re: female innkeepers Re: Susan Erony's query about female innkeepers, she might look at Solomon Maimon's ^Autobiography.^ He describes his mother's interactions with merchants who lodged in their home, as well as his formidable mother-in-law and her equally formidable daughter who ran a tavern and inn. Judith Baskin ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 16:45:31 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: Re: folk songs (Seid) From: JudithSeid@aol.com Subject: Re: folk songs Another great source is Kinderbuch's songbook. Kinderbuch is based in New York City and can also be reached through the Zhitlowsky Foundation. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 16:48:08 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: histories of Jewish Federations (Sachs) From: Amy B. Sachs Subject: histories of Jewish Federations I am working on my master's thesis, and I am looking for sources/references that deal with Jewish Federations, specifically with their history and creation/development. I would like to correspond with anyone knows of any sources? Thank you. Amy Sachs Case Western Reserve University ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 16:50:49 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: Jewish dissertations (Best) From: esb@mbpdb.attmail.com Subject: Jewish dissertations Over the past few years I have found dissertations to be a wonderful source of knowledge but other than searching dissertation abstracts (I am a lawyer and can access the database through a computerized legal database), I have found no good source listing dissertations written on Jewish topics. Is there such a source? Eddie Best (mbpdb!esb@attmail.com) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 16:52:42 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: Conferences Meeting on Religous or Ethnic Holidays (Tuerk) (ed. note: Richard Tuerk forwarded this note from another of his lists) From: Richard Tuerk Subject: Conferences Meeting on Religous or Ethnic Holidays >From: David Katzman I am always amazed when professional organizations and groups, especially those concerned with multi ethnicity, hold their meetings over major religious and/or ethnic holidays. The call for papers for the tenth annual MELUS (Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States) to be hosted by the Department of English,University of North Carolina at Greensboro, April 4-6, 1996, is a good example. They solicited on H-AMSTDY ideas for forums and plenary sessions on all types of ethnic literature. Warning: not everyone will feel welcome. The MELUS conference is planned over the first two days of Passover, which is the most widely celebrated religious/ethnic holiday by Jewish-Americans. And a warning to Catholics and Protestants who might need to stay over a Saturday night to get a reasonable airfare: Sunday is Easter. Students of ethnicity in the United States (or elsewhere) know that any event can be structured to be inclusive or exclusive, and a good instrument is the scheduling calendar. David M. Katzman dkatzman@falcon.cc.ukans.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 16:54:09 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: Jerusalem apartment sought (Sarna) From: SARNA@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU Subject: Jerusalem apartment sought Seeking 2-3 bedroom apartment in Jerusalem (preferably Baka, Center City, Ramot B), June 24 - July 31 (negotiable). Will also consider swap for Newton home during this period. Contact Jonathan D. Sarna & Ruth Langer (617)-736-2977; fax: 617-736-2070; e-mail: "SARNA@BINAH.CC. BRANDEIS.EDU". ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 16:57:51 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: Re: The Curse on Ham (Braude) From: BBRAUDE@smith.smith.edu Subject: Re: The Curse on Ham The most recent newsletter contained an exchange between Greil and Peterson on Ham, a subject on which I am working. The posting contained Greil's e-mail address, but not Peterson's. Does anyone have Peterson's from the original posting on the Ethnic History Network? With regard to the Greil-Peterson exchange on the so-called Curse of Ham, much of the existing literature on the subject -- e.g. Fredericksen, Jordan, Peterson -- insofar as it pertains to the pre-eighteenth century notions of Ham, slavery, and African identity is faulty. Simply put the ethnic identity of Ham was not clearly fixed in the European mind before the eighteenth century. Ham was identified with Asia and Africa, with slavery and with empire, and with European rustic serfs and with the Mongols, among many other options. The Rabbinic sources which have been misleadingly summarized by Patai and Graves, among others, are, ambiguous, as to Ham's true identity. Furthermore the Biblical account is confusing as well. Medieval Christian and early modern sources furnish a variety of interpretations of Ham and the so-called curse. While Islamic sources are more consistent in identifying Ham with black slavery, Ham himself never appears in the Quran so the so-called curse has a different valence in Muslim society than it does in Christian or Jewish. It is not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that a clear and consistent claim that the so-called curse of Ham justifies enslavement of Black Africans emerges. Of course in this case it is the social-economic institution of slavery and the slave trade that shapes and distorts a complex and contradictory set of religious traditions, not the other way around. Any discussion of religious and racial attitudes which ignores the prevailing social-economic circumstances is bound to be faulty. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 17:03:13 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: "ultra-Orthodox" designation (Dovid) From: YacovDovid@aol.com Subject: "ultra-Orthodox" designation A recent posting referred to "ultra-Orthodox" Jews. I do not believe Orthodox Jews call themselves "ultra-Orthodox" or are even comfortable with the term. To the contrary, I have met many who consider the word offensive and delegitimizing. Therefore, I would suggest that the use of such a term is inappropriate in academic discourse. Possible alternatives might include "chareidi," "deeply religious," "devout," "Orthodox," and so on. (ed.note: this item has been edited, please correspond directly with author to discuss changes) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 17:13:39 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: The names 'Ben Artzi and Filosof' (Braude) From: BBRAUDE@smith.smith.edu Subject: The names 'Ben Artzi and Filosof' Does anyone know the process by which Rabin's grand-daughter, Noa Ben Artzi Filosof, got her last names? Her mother is Rabin's daughter. Her maiden name presumably Rabin. Filosof is a good Sefardi name and Ben Artzi sounds like the Hebraization of an Ashkenazi name. Does anyone know if the mother has been married twice and somehow the daughter, Noa, acquired both names? On the other hand Filosof could conceivably be Noa's married name, but well-connected Israeli Askenazi girls don't tend to get married at 17. The names suggest a number of issues, to which I alluded in my formulation: - First, Ashkenazi-Sefardi intermarriage: a common enough phenomenon among elite Sefardim (read European, largely Salonican and Istanbul) and Ashkenazim, but still one worth noting. - Second, increased family tension and divorce among politicians' families: Ben-Artzi and Filosof might suggest two marriages for Rabin's daughter. Incidentally Filosof was an important family in the Sabbatean movement. ------------------------------ End of H-JUDAIC Digest - 11 Dec 1995 to 12 Dec 1995 ***************************************************