1 Mar 89 JUDAIC STUDIES #5 24 AdarI 49 BS"D Connecting geographically & otherwise disparate groups with a common interest in the study of Judaica. Edited by Y. Greenbaum CONTENTS 1) Direction 2) New Topic 3) Events, Turkish and otherwise 4) Employment Opportunities 5) More on Hebrew 6) Corrected Acknowledgments 1) Direction Our constantly evolving masthead and format are but external manifestations of change and growth. Dr. Tov has renewed our account, and the Computer Dept. has overridden the barriers of red tape so that the newsletter can be sent out. A quick review of our mailing list shows that we are in con- tact with a Jewish conference, mailing list, a bulletin board, and various publications. We mail to a number of important libraries here, as well as in the US. We reach a wide range of places in North America, the British Isles and Israel. In the immediate future, we hope to increase contact with the European continent, especially Germany, and to broaden our links with libraries significantly. The contents of the newsletter have emphasized computer applications in JS. I have not, as yet, had the opportunity to solicit as much general Judaic material as I would like. This should not prevent anyone from submitting topics for discussion... or, no less important, discussions of Judaic topics. 2) New Topic From: RELDRB @ EMUVM1 Date: 22 February 89, 12:06:29 I hear through the grapevine that you are compiling a list of Jewish Studies Bitnet addresses and a newsletter. My name is David Blumenthal and my fields are medieval Jewish theology and mysticism as well as creative Jewish thought. I am at Emory University, Department of Religion, Atlanta GA 30322 phone 404-634-3833 (home) and 404-727-7545 (0ffice); Bitnet address as above. Thank you. Shalom, David B. Yechiel responds- Well, sir, I'm closer to a list and a listserve. I'm mailing this thru a listserve and, to that end, I've compiled some of a list of bitnet addresses. I hope it will become a useful, wellrounded list as time goes on. Creative Jewish thought sounds interesting. When you find the opportunity to elaborate, please do. 3) Events First, some corrections and an addition. In 22 Feb, read "...Mystery of Divinity..." In 26 Feb 9:00, add "Economic" to the connections before the Turks. Dr. Renee Levine-Melammed Dr. Barnai spoke on Taxation Reverse the events of 1 & 2 Mar 9 Mar 19:00 Hebrew U Mt Scopus Humanities Room 5411 (the escalator lets out in the Humanities area, but beware, there exists a second set of similarly numbered rooms for Social Sciences) Dr. E. Z. Melammed will speak on the occasion of the comple- tion of the publication of the works of J. N. Epstein The Compleat Turkey (no offense intended!) I shall first list highlights and questions from the morning of the 26th, followed by a summary of a press release of a nascent organization of Turkish Jewry. Dr. Hacker detailed a very interesting phenomenon- the Jews of 16-17th cen- tury Turkey acted as scholarly middlemen in the transfer and translation of Oriental (non-Jewish as well as Jewish) books and manuscripts to the Christian West. Was this a sort of Humanist movement? (My friend D'n sug- gests that it was simply good economic policy to overcome the idealogical barriers that had separated Turkey from the West for almost a millenium.) He mentioned a projected tricolumn Chovos HaLevovos- Latin, Hebrew and Arabic, if memory serves. Drs. Levine-Melammed & Barnai spoke on the local and foreign economic situation and activities of the Turkish Jews. The collection of folksayings is part of a larger project to collect Jewish folksayings in general at Hebrew U. Dr. Kushner dealt with the topic of how the Turkey has dealt with minor- ities in general. Dr. Rodrigue outlined the unusual position of the Jews in Turkey as it began to westernize. In comments following his lecture, the community was characterized as an extreme case of similar situations in the westerniz- ation of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, with the peculiarly Turkish twist that they became more, not less, isolated from the Turkish nation as they became more western. Dr Levi (who spoke next to last) quoted the scant sociologic figures avail- able, and emphasized the importance of oral testimony. To the idea that there was a "gentlemens agreement" that no Jew would hold a ministerial position, he replied that this was, in any case, unthinkable. Dr. Azariah added that each minority had one token representative in the parliament. Dr. Benbassa said she'd meant to allude to the disparate character of Turkish Zionism by referring to it in the plural in her title. A member of the audience who'd lived thru the period noted the special nature of Zion- ism in Salonika. The central role of the Hebrew language as a vehicle to teach, no less than an excuse to organize, was cited. Moreshet Yahadut Tograma This organization plans to establish a center including: 1) an archive, 2) a library, 3) a museum, 4) a synagogue, 5) an information center, 6) a permanent exhibition and 7) a meeting hall. Also in the offing, a collection of pictures, in conjunction with the Diaspora Museum, and a multilingual bulletin. This Sukkot, 17-19 Oct 89, they plan to hold the First International Con- vention of Turkish Jewry (with the approach of the 500th anniversary of their expulsion from Spain and absorption into the Ottoman Empire). The covention will be opened at the Land of Israel Museum (Tel Aviv). The second day will be devoted to discussions and lectures at the Diaspora Museum (Ramat Aviv). The last day will include a visit to the Israel Museum (Jerusalem) which is mounting an "Ethnographic Exhibitionon Spanish Jewry in the Ottoman Empire" beginning this March. It will close with a dinner at the Daniel (Herzliya). The address of the organization is POB 1300, Bat Yam 59112. Incidentally, Akiva Garber advises that if the zip is sandwiched in one line between the city and the word "ISRAEL", the letter will not tend to be misrouted by US Mail, since it no doesn't appear in the position of an ordinary code. 4) Employment Opportunities From: Larry Schiffman Date: Fri, 24 Feb 89 15:12 EST Anyone interested in a one year position as a Judaica Librarian in N.Y. as a replacement should contact Marlewne R. Schiffman, Hebrew Union College, 1 W. 4th St., New York, N,.Y. 10012 or via schiffman@nyuacf. Tel. 212 674 5300. From: Steve Benin Date: Fri, 24 Feb 89 12:45 CST .. at Memphis State, we are looking for an ABD to teach two sections of modern hebrew per semester next year as a half-time position which may become permanent. If there are any interested people, let them write to S. Benin 301 Mitchell Hall MSU, Memphis 38152. 5) More on Hebrew From: Ron Kiener Date: Wed, 22 Feb 89 16:24 EST Subject: Sending Hebrew (and more) through the BITNET system I've seen much discussion in the newsletter concerning Hebrew romanization for BITNET transmission. Are people aware of two programs, DECODE.COM and UUENCODE.COM? Using UUENCODE.COM, I have been able to send EinsteinWriter files directly to colleagues at TAUNVM. This procedure will also work with any other binary file, including executable files. After receiving the file, you simply DECODE it on your PC, and then read it in whatever word processor. No longer are we limited to "low-ASCII" texts! I believe there are other methodologies available for transmitting the whole ASCII range through BITNET, like PKUNPAK. Could you review any other schemes used in Israel, and when you set up the listserv, could you make sure that a clear standard is adopted? Yechiel replies: I can if we all agree not to do otherwise. From: ELSegal@UNCAMULT.BITNET Date: Wed, 1 Mar 89 15:02 MST [Dr. Eliezer Segal writes] ...I use an Atari ST, a pretty rare-though-excellent computer. I recently ran across an ad for one in a stray issue of Yedi'ot Aharanot, so I presume Hebrew software exists, at least for WP use. Can someone steer me to a supplier? 6) Corrected Acknowledgments Eitan Horwitz spells his name with an 'o', and it is Rachel Wahaba. In the first issue, I spelled "acknowledgments" with an 'e' after the 'g'. I did it mistakenly, but it is a variant which Sir James Murray labels "a spelling more in accordance with Eng. values of letters." I mention this in order to allude to the subject of usage vs. theory, an especially important question in Jewish Law (custom "uproots" law, we do not decide based on general rules, etc.). I am pleased to find myself able to side with usage. NEXT WEEK- I'll attempt to deal with some items previously listed but not yet discussed