bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Studying Early and Silent Cinema
Authors: Withall Keith
Published: February 2021

In this introduction to early and silent cinema, which is currently enjoying a renaissance, both academically and in the popular imagination thanks to The Artist, the author provides both a comprehensive chronology of the period until the birth of sound and also a series of detailed case studies on the key films from the period—some well-known (including Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, Eisenstein's Strike and Chaplin's The Kid), some perhaps less well familiar (including Murnau's The Last Laugh and Oscar Micheaux's Within Our Gates). As well as covering in detail the major film-making figures and nations of the period, the book also provides insights into the industry in less well-documented areas. Throughout, the films and film-makers are placed in the context of rapid worldwide industrial change.
The Descent
Authors: Marriott James
Published: February 2021

The story of an all-female caving expedition gone horribly wrong, The Descent (2005) is arguably the best of the mid-2000s horror entries to return verve and intensity to the genre. Unlike its peers (Saw [2004], Hostel [2011], etc.), The Descent was both commercially and critically popular, providing a genuine version of what other films could only produce as pastiche. For Mark Kermode, writing in the Observer, it was “one of the best British horror films of recent years,” and Derek Elley in Variety described it as “an object lesson in making a tightly-budgeted, no-star horror pic.” Time Out's critic praised “this fiercely entertaining British horror movie;” while Rolling Stone's Peter Travers warned prospective viewers to “prepare to be scared senseless.” Emphasizing female characters and camaraderie, The Descent is an ideal springboard for discussing underexplored horror themes: the genre's engagement with the lure of the archaic; the idea of birth as the foundational human trauma and its implications for horror film criticism; and the use of provisional worldviews, or “rubber realities,” in horror.
Carrie
Authors: Mitchell Neil
Published: February 2021

Brian De Palma's adaptation of Stephen King's debut novel, Carrie (1976), is one of the defining films of 1970s ‘New Hollywood’ style and a horror classic. The story of a teenage social outcast who discovers she possesses latent psychic powers that allow her to deliver retribution to her peers, teachers, and abusive mother, Carrie was an enormous commercial and critical success and is still one of the finest screen adaptations of a King novel. This book not only breaks the film down into its formal components — its themes, stylistic tropes, technical approaches, uses of colour and sound, dialogue, and visual symbolism — but also considers a multitude of other factors contributing to the work's classic status. The act of adapting King's novel for the big screen, the origins of the novel itself, the place of Carrie in De Palma's oeuvre, the subsequent versions and sequel, and the social, political, and cultural climate of the era (including the influence of second wave feminism, loosening sexual norms, and changing representations of adolescence), as well as the explosion of interest in and the evolution of the horror genre during the decade, are all shown to have played an important part in the film's success and enduring reputation.
From Page to Screen: Bringing Carrie to Life
Authors: Mitchell Neil
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines Carrie's transition from page to screen, which involved numerous changes to the style and tone of Stephen King's novel decided upon for creative and budgetary reasons by Brian De Palma and screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen. Alterations to the final shooting script (the second draft of the adaptation) were brought about by a combination of time constraints, on set improvisation, and decisions made during post-production editing. Though the studio approved the second draft, a fairly rare occurrence in Hollywood, United Artists would waver on the project in other areas. Even given the horror genre's commercial and critical successes during the period, United Artists were, perhaps understandably, unconvinced that the adaptation of a debut novel by an experienced director still looking for a major commercial success was worth risking any more than the figure allocated. It is telling that the only real problem De Palma had with the project was in relation to those controlling the marketing of the movie. For De Palma, Carrie was a serious movie, with serious points to make about the cruelty of teenagers, the insidious effects of religious fervour, and the state of contemporary American society, regardless of it being wrapped up in supernatural trappings. United Artists, however, marketed Carrie as cheap popcorn entertainment.
The Thing
Authors: Conolly Jez
Published: February 2021

Consigned to the deep freeze of critical and commercial reception upon its release in 1982, The Thing has bounced back spectacularly to become one of the most highly regarded productions from the 1980s 'Body Horror' cycle of films, experiencing a wholesale and detailed reappraisal that has secured its place in the pantheon of modern cinematic horror. Thirty years on, and with a recent prequel reigniting interest, this book looks back to the film's antecedents and to the changing nature of its reception and the work that it has influenced. The themes discussed include the significance of The Thing's subversive antipodal environment, the role that the film has played in the corruption of the onscreen monstrous form, the qualities that make it an exemplar of the director's work and the relevance of its legendary visual effects despite the advent of CGI. Topped and tailed by a full plot breakdown and an appreciation of its notoriously downbeat ending, this exploration of the events at US Outpost 31 in the winter of 1982 captures The Thing's sub-zero terror in all its gory glory.
‘It’s not dead yet!’
Authors: Conolly Jez
Published: February 2021

This chapter talks about the initial reception of the film and its rise to cultdom. It discusses how a film that gets prematurely dismissed as bad is able to rise above by gaining some high profile and highly vocal supporters. One such supporter that was cited was Quentin Tarantino who mentioned The Thing as an inspiration to Reservoir Dogs. The chapter states that this was a crucial stage in the film's journey from flop to classic. It discusses how The Thing qualifies as a cult film citing its budget, its approach to goriness, and its troubled production story. It also discusses the transformations the film had to go through as it was transferred for home-video release, and for cable TV. The chapter describes the film's reception in the 1990s and the decades that have followed. It also discusses the film's influence on films and TV shows in the 2000s.
The Blair Witch Project
Authors: Turner Peter
Published: February 2021

Few films have had the influence and impact of The Blair Witch Project (1999). Its arrival was a horror cinema palette cleanser after a decade of serial killers and postmodern intertextuality, a bare bones ‘found footage’ trendsetter. The Blair Witch Project was the tenth biggest box office earner of 1999. Even with strong competition in the horror genre, the film managed to stand out from the rest. It was arguably a product of its time more than any other film of the 1990s, heralding the advent of digital filmmaking. Backed up by an internet marketing campaign, The Blair Witch Project became a glowing example of what could be achieved with cheap emerging technology, imagination, and a ‘less is more’ approach. By the year 2000, and due to the influx of digital video cameras, there were far more independent features being made than ever before. This book explores the aesthetics of The Blair Witch Project, how identification is encouraged in the film, and the way it successfully creates fear in contemporary audiences. The book tells the story of the film from his conception and production, and then provides a unique analysis of the techniques used, their appeal to audiences and the themes that helped make the film such an international hit, including the pioneering internet marketing.
The Making of The Blair Witch Project
Authors: Turner Peter
Published: February 2021

This chapter details the making of The Blair Witch Project (1999). The stories that surround the production of The Blair Witch Project are as fascinating as the final product. The circumstances of the film's low-budget production are legendary with stories of the cast being filled with real fear by the ‘method’ directing techniques of the two directors. From developing the script and financing the film to the extensive post-production period and taking the finished product to the Sundance Film Festival, the entire process is an inspiring example of inventive independent filmmaking. Ultimately, The Blair Witch Project is a film that could not have been made without advancements in camera technology beyond the early days of cinema.
Cinema Part 1: Horror before Hammer
Authors: Harmes Marcus K.
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the influences of earlier gothic works on the making of The Curse of Frankenstein. It describes the use of the uncanny, or the appearance of things, objects, situations or people that promote feelings of dread or uncertainty as characteristic of the gothic style. It discusses some of the earlier gothic works in literature and cinema, and the state of horror films in the 1950's as a low point in horror cinema. It discusses comedy horror and points out that in the early development of The Curse of Frankenstein, the film was originally going to at least be partly comedic, which is a reminder of the condition of the horror industry in both Britain and the United States prior to 1956. The chapter points out that while conventional wisdom insists that these horrors made in Hollywood eventually tailed off in quality, they did not lose popularity, giving Hammer a viable model for adaptation.
Image of the Non-Jew in Judaism
Authors: Novak David
Published: February 2021

Throughout history the image of the non-Jew in Judaism has profoundly influenced the way in which Jews interact with non-Jews. It has also shaped the understanding that Jews have of their own identity, as it determines just what distinguishes them from the non-Jews around them. A crucial element in this is the concept of Noahide law, understood by the ancient rabbis and subsequent Jewish thinkers as incumbent upon all humankind, unlike the full 613 divine commandments of the Torah, which are incumbent on Jews alone. The approach adopted in this now classic study is to consider the history of the idea of Noahide law, and to show how the concept is relevant to practical discussions of the halakhah pertaining to non-Jews and to relations between Jews and non-Jews. The seven chapters that make up the first part of the book examine each of the Noahide laws in turn, with a view to showing their halakhic development in the rabbinic sources, in the codes, and in the responsa literature. The discussion draws primarily on classical texts by traditional commentators as they attempt to deal with living issues from the rabbinic world as equally vital concerns in their own time. The second part deals with the theory of Noahide law, concluding with a consideration of why it is an appropriate starting point for Jewish philosophy today.
Conclusion: The 1960s and Beyond
Authors: Weinberg David H.
Published: February 2021

This concluding chapter addresses the impact of the Holocaust on established forms of collective Jewish identity and commitment in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The profound rupture in both Jewish and general life during the war and the physical dislocation that followed meant that thousands of survivors in western Europe had to rediscover or discover for the first time their place among other Jews and among their fellow citizens. In attempting to find a new rationale for Jewish survival, leading Jewish figures of all stripes recognized that there could be no simple return to what they believed were the pre-war polarities of religious orthodoxy on the one hand and assimilationism on the other. With the aid of money from reparation payments and the guidance of organizations like the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), French, Belgian, and Dutch Jewish leaders created new institutions, such as Jewish community centres, summer camps, and sports clubs, to appeal to a mobile and unsettled population. While not all of these efforts were immediately successful, what slowly emerged were new forms of Jewish consciousness that enabled young men and women to express their commitment to a shared fate outside the traditional framework of formal religious and educational institutions.
Dimensions of Collective Self-Understanding
Authors: Wiskind-Elper Ora
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses some dimensions of self-understanding in the early generations of Hasidism. It analyses how collective self-image is expressed through the Hasidic masters' choice of motifs and themes. It also mentions the cogent subtext at work in the masters' discourses, as well as their ironic response to opponents of Hasidism and a strong assertion of identity. The chapter considers some central elements of motifs and images that Hasidic authors develop, which appear in a wide range of Hasidic homiletical works. It explores the originality of derashot lies that can be found in earlier Jewish sources and discusses ethos and sensibility that the Ba'al Shem Tov developed in his teachings and bequeathed to his followers.
Dedication of Ceremonial Objects
Authors: Yaniv Bracha
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores 179 dedicatory inscriptions, which are grouped according to object, origin, and chronology and reflect customs relating to various aspects of the donation of the objects to the synagogue. It covers the dedicatory inscription on a ceremonial object donated to a synagogue that reflects the emotions and aspirations of the donor that conveys information relating to the event or person commemorated or honoured. It also explains how inscriptions can contribute significantly to the study of the community's customs, social life, and history. The chapter explores the tradition of having a dedicatory inscription that is known from ancient times, from inscriptions in the mosaic floors of synagogues. It also analyses the inscription of a name as a means of establishing the donor's rights that is mentioned in medieval halakhic sources.
The Polish–Lithuanian Background
Authors: Polonsky Antony
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the emergence and rapid expansion of the Jewish community of Poland–Lithuania. By the middle of the seventeenth century, the Jewish community of Poland–Lithuania was the largest in the world, the result of the establishment of a new geography of the Jewish world that had started at the end of the thirteenth century. This was primarily a consequence of the worsening situation of the Jews in the countries of western and central Europe. At the same time, new opportunities opened up for Jews in the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The situation of Jews in pre-modern Poland–Lithuania had a paradoxical character. On the one hand, they were the representatives of a despised minority whose religious beliefs were regarded not only as false, but as harmful to the society around them. On the other hand, they occupied a position in Polish–Lithuanian society that was recognized by law and that gave them a certain amount of economic leverage and security.
Social and Religious Change, 1750–1914
Authors: Polonsky Antony
Published: February 2021

This chapter details how the period between 1750 and 1914 saw significant urbanization in north-eastern Europe. In the towns of Warsaw, St Petersburg, Moscow, Lviv, Kraków, and Poznań, a new Jewish way of life came into being. Jews earned their living in changed ways, Jewish communal institutions were transformed under the impact of government policies aimed at Jewish integration and the new needs created by the burgeoning of an industrial society, and, in those states where constitutional norms existed, Jews participated in municipal government. Jews also built modernized synagogues and schools and founded monthly, weekly, and eventually daily Jewish newspapers, which also provided a living for Jewish writers in Hebrew and Yiddish. Ultimately, too, it was in these new conurbations that a new pattern of interaction between Jews and non-Jews was created. The Jewish popular culture that emerged in the four decades before the First World War was an international phenomenon that accompanied the emigration of Jews in large numbers from the lands of former Poland–Lithuania to western Europe, the Americas, and even the Antipodes.
Jews in Eastern Europe and Russia since the End of Communism
Authors: Polonsky Antony
Published: February 2021

This chapter highlights how the collapse of communism in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union initiated a new period in the history of the Jews in the area. Poland was now a fully sovereign country, and Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Moldova also became independent states. Post-imperial Russia faced the task of creating a new form of national identity. This was to prove more difficult than in other post-imperial states since, unlike Britain and France, the tsarist empire and its successor, the Soviet Union, had not so much been the ruler of a colonial empire as an empire itself. All of these countries now embarked, with differing degrees of enthusiasm, on the difficult task of creating liberal democratic states with market economies. For the Jews of the area, the new political situation allowed both the creation and development of Jewish institutions and the fostering of Jewish cultural life in much freer conditions, but also facilitated emigration to Israel, North America, and western Europe on a much larger scale.
Jewish Preaching in Times of War, 1800 - 2001
Authors: Saperstein Marc
Published: February 2021

Wartime sermons reveal how Jews perceive themselves in relation to the majority society and how Jewish and national values are reconciled when the fate of a nation is at stake. They also illustrate how rabbis guide their communities through the challenges of their times. The sermons reproduced here were delivered by American and British rabbis from across the Jewish spectrum from the Napoleonic Wars to the attacks of 9/11. Each sermon is prefaced by a comprehensive introduction explaining the context in which it was delivered. Detailed notes explain allusions unfamiliar to a present-day readership and draw comparisons where appropriate to similar passages in contemporary newspapers and other sermons. A general introduction surveys more broadly the distinctive elements of modern Jewish preaching. What Jewish religious leaders said to their congregations when their countries went to war (or, in some cases, were considering going to war) raises questions of central significance for both modern Jewish history and religious thinking in the civic context. This book makes an important contribution to the American- and Anglo-Jewish history of this period while also making available a collection of mostly unknown Jewish texts produced at dramatic moments of the past two centuries.
A Penitential Sermon
Authors: Saperstein Marc
Published: February 2021

This chapter presents Isaac Luria's 1803 sermon and compares it with other Christian sermons presented at the time. First, Luria seems unwilling to specify national sins, while the Christian preachers exemplified the moral decay of British society with condemnations of sexual immorality, profanity, and the slave trade. Second, the often contemptuous disparagement of Napoleon in the Christian sermons is absent from Luria's text, perhaps reflecting an ambivalence stemming from the emperor's benevolent policies towards Jews. An important motif that understandably does not appear in the Christian sermons is Luria's insistence on the loyalty of Jews to their country, not only in England, but wherever Jews live, carrying out the instructions of the prophet Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylonia. This will become a central theme of Jewish discourse at the beginning of the First World War.
A Time of War, and A Time of Peace
Authors: Krauskopf Joseph
Published: February 2021

This chapter provides Joseph Krauskopf's discourse regarding war. It was delivered after the United States Congress's formal declaration of war against Spain. The theological underpinning of his sermon is a reassertion of a traditional providential view of God in control of history, patient with Spain despite its many sins (going back at least four centuries), yet certain to punish the unrepentant sinning nation to reassert justice in the world. Two powerful rhetorical passages build to the climax of the sermon. The first is based on a pronounced use of anaphora and parallelism. The second was apparently triggered by the media, as a New York Times article stated that women of the Spanish aristocracy were ‘organizing religious associations, under the auspices of the Bishops, for the purpose of holding, day and night, special services of prayer for the success of the Spanish arms’.
Christmas and War
Authors: Joseph Morris
Published: February 2021

This chapter contains the reflections of Morris Joseph on war. He was one of the founders of the Jewish Peace Society, established in early 1914, and served as its chairman for many years. One can imagine the psychological toll exacted on a man of such convictions by the outbreak of the First World War. He did not question the decision by the British government to enter the war — ‘To have remained passive would have been a crime’, both against national honour and against the principles of justice and freedom — or the need for British Jews to ‘rally to the help of our beloved country in her hour of need’. But the chapter finds in these words feelings not of exhilaration but of profound distress.
A Time for War, and A Time for Peace
Authors: Levy J. Leonard
Published: February 2021

This chapter investigates a sermon by J. Leonard Levy, delivered immediately after American entry into World War I. Despite his German sympathies, he supported Wilson's call for American neutrality as one that ‘reveals his wisdom and splendid statesmanship’. Yet his sermon contains a resounding paean to the achievements of German science, culture, and society. However, when the United States declared war against the Central Powers, Levy followed the pattern of anti-militarists (and even many pacifists) among the clergy in expressing his apparently unreserved support for the policy of the Wilson administration, in a long, somewhat sprawling, Sunday discourse delivered the following weekend. Here, he presents two themes of the biblical text in counterpoint: ‘The time for peace will come… The time for war is here’.
Nationalism Within Bounds
Authors: Gollancz Hermann
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes how Hermann Gollancz's Rosh Hashanah sermon enunciates a powerful and principled attack on nationalistic extremism and an endorsement of the fundamental value of inclusiveness, buttressed both by the religious theme of universal divine sovereignty and by an appeal to venerable British traditions. His sermon responds not to the external threat but to an internal issue: the treatment of German-born aliens. There were two main periods of xenophobic activism in Britain during the war. The first followed the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915 with the loss of over 1,000 lives. The second such period was the summer of 1918, immediately preceding the Rosh Hashanah sermon.
The Lure of Peace
Authors: Franklin Leo M.
Published: February 2021

This chapter deals with a sermon by Leo M. Franklin. The occasion for the present address was a period of intense diplomatic activity following a note from the German Imperial Chancellor in 1918 to President Wilson, requesting a general armistice among all belligerents. This led to negotiations for a restoration of peace. Independently, the Austro-Hungarians sent a similar note. Wilson replied by setting the evacuation of enemy forces from all Allied territory as a precondition for any armistice, and seeking unambiguous clarification of whether the Germans accepted the Fourteen Points and whether the Imperial Chancellor was indeed ‘speaking for the constituted authorities of the Empire who have so far conducted the war’. The British and French generally approved of Wilson's response, many interpreting it as having avoided a German ‘peace trap’. Some, however, criticized it as weakening the Allied position; and there was little public support for an armistice on terms short of an unconditional German surrender. The position taken by Franklin in his first Sunday address following the dramatic exchange of diplomatic correspondence was therefore in the mainstream of American public opinion.
Civilian Morale
Authors: Hertz Joseph H.
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses a wartime sermon by Joseph H. Hertz. The sermon predictably uses motifs from the Passover: the comparison with Pharaoh's oppression of the ancient Israelites, the homiletical application of phrases from the liturgy of the Haggadah (‘Next year may we all be free men’ to the conquered peoples of Europe, ‘Next year in Jerusalem’ specifically to the Jewish people). Several themes are perhaps more surprising. The first is the commitment to the integrity of the British empire and, consequently, the insistence on total victory not only in Europe but in the Near and Far East. There is also reference to failures on the ‘civilian front’, including Jewish connections with the black market, and the ringing assertion at the sermon's climactic conclusion of Zionist goals, despite their incompatibility with current British policy.
Founder of Hasidism
Authors: Rosman Moshe
Published: February 2021

The Ba’al Shem Tov is an elusive subject for historians because documentary evidence about his life is scanty and equivocal. Until now, much of what was known about him was based on stories compiled more than a generation after his death, many of which serve more to mythologize him than to describe him. The portrait that this book provides is drawn from life instead of from myth. The book goes further than any previous work in uncovering the historical Ba’al Shem Tov. Additionally, documents in Polish and Hebrew discovered by the author during research for the book enable a detailed description of the cultural, social, economic, and political context of the Besht’s life to be given.The book supplies the history behind the legend. It presents the most convincing description that can be drawn from the existing documentary evidence, changing our understanding of the Besht and with it the master-narrative of hasidism. A new introduction considers what has changed in the study of hasidism since the influential first edition was published. New approaches, new sources, and new interpretations have been introduced, and these are critically assessed. Criticisms of the original edition are answered and key issues reconsidered, including the authenticity of the various versions of the Holy Epistle; the ways in which Jacob Joseph of Polonne’s books can be utilized as historical sources; and the relationship to history of the stories about the Ba’al Shem Tov in the hagiographical collection Shivhei Ha-Besht.
Leadership and Conflict
Authors: Saperstein Marc
Published: February 2021

This book offers a multifaceted analysis of how Jewish leaders in medieval and early modern times responded to the challenges presented by a changing world. Based largely on the study of sermons and response, the book reveals how they handled intellectual, social, and political diversity and conflict. As medieval Jews were exposed to new philosophical ideas, many began to question and challenge rabbinical leadership. The book explores the process by which these ideas became more accessible, the doubts that consequently arose regarding certain biblical and rabbinic texts, and the attempt by some leaders to ban the study of philosophical texts altogether. It also addresses the rhetoric of rebuke used by preachers to criticize behaviour within their community that they considered to be a violation of Jewish law and tradition. Another set of challenges to traditional Jewish life emerged from political developments in the wider world. The book asks whether criticism of the talent and leadership of rabbis in times of crisis was justified. The final section of the book is devoted to conflicting attitudes within Jewish society: towards the Holy Land, exile and diasporic existence, and messianic movements and personalities. The book represents three decades of scholarship by the author. Bringing these perceptive essays together in a single volume allows a new generation of students and scholars to have access to the author's insights and conclusions.
Introduction
Authors: Saperstein Marc
Published: February 2021

This introductory chapter provides a brief look into rabbinic leadership and its relationship to the broader population. Throughout the centuries of diaspora history, rabbinic leadership in the Jewish community has had a Janus-like function. Facing inwards, it has sought to exercise authority in defence of unity and tradition: mediating and communicating the sacred texts, interpreting and applying them in a manner that is both rooted in the past and that refracts them with novel insight; providing guidance and making decisions to address the various internal problems that arise; speaking out or acting to secure any breach in the discipline necessary for Jewish continuity and survival under trying circumstances. Facing outwards, rabbinic leadership (sometimes the same individuals, often others) has been expected to represent the Jewish community before the Gentile world, whether in symbolic rituals that dramatize the Jewish role in the larger society or by active intervention at the highest levels of government to defend Jewish needs. Sometimes the leaders function in solidarity with their own people and the external society; frequently, however, there is tension and conflict with one group or another.
Philosophy and Jewish Society in the Late Middle Ages
Authors: Saperstein Marc
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the influence of philosophy within Jewish society. It considers the dynamic changes which occurred when philosophical texts begin to penetrate a cultural environment where such texts had never before been studied or even accessible, and what happened when philosophical ideas started to appear in forms intended for the consumption of the ordinary educated Jew. The chapter goes on to seek out whoever paid for the scholars who translated Arabic (or Latin) philosophical texts into the Hebrew language or for the scribes who copied manuscripts of lengthy, specialized, technical works. From there, the chapter finds a setting for this study of philosophy in Jewish society, investigating whether or not philosophy was studied in formal Jewish academies or were merely private arrangements between teacher and student, or provider and consumer. The chapter then turns to a potential correlation between interest in philosophy and socioeconomic status. Finally, it considers whether or not philosophy undermined commitment to traditional beliefs and practices, or was used to rationalize a flagging allegiance to Jewish distinctiveness.
Four Kinds of Weeping: Saul Levi Morteira’s Application of Biblical Narrative to Contemporary Events
Authors: Saperstein Marc
Published: February 2021

This chapter returns to Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira of Amsterdam and follows a single sermon as he adapted it some years after its original delivery. This contains explicit reference to catastrophic events that had befallen Jewish communities far away — in Lublin to the east and Recife to the west — and also a plague that had just decimated the population in Amsterdam though sparing most of its Jewish inhabitants. The body of the sermon makes a generalization about the occasions for weeping in the Bible. The same words may be used — ‘weeping’, ‘tears’ — but the significance of the words varies dramatically. Morteira affirmed that there are four different reasons for, or functions of, ‘tears that fall from the eyes’, and he provided a paradigmatic example of each.
The Reaction of the Polish Press to Baron Maurice de Hirsch’s Foundation for Jewish Education in Galicia
Authors: Friedrich Agnieszka
Published: February 2021

BARON MAURICE DE HIRSCH (1831–96) was one of the most important Jewish philanthropists of the late nineteenth century. One of the regions where he systematically engaged in charity was Galicia, whose Jewish population lived in particularly dire conditions. From the early 1880s he donated considerable sums to cover the needs of the people of Galicia (including, though not exclusively, its Jewish inhabitants),...
From Theory to Practice
Authors: Koss Andrew N.
Published: February 2021

IN 1916—while the eyes of the world were fixed on the bloody battle between France and Germany at Verdun—Moyshe Shalit, a Yiddish-language journalist in Vilna, proudly described a recently created elementary school as ‘the first experiment with a model elementary school [folks-shul] in Yiddish’....
Economic Struggle or Antisemitism?
Authors: Rudnicki Szymqn
Published: February 2021

IN RECENT times all kinds of ‘judaeo-sceptics’, as well as some historians, have attempted to prove that there was no antisemitism in Poland before the Second World War; rather, there was simply an economic struggle. This serves to hide the fact that the aim of this struggle was not to ‘Polonize’ the economy but was against the Jews as such: the economic war was an important aspect, but only an aspect, of a wider phenomenon. While collecting material for this chapter, I came to the conclusion that this apologetic point of view was also upheld by the radical nationalists. ...
‘I am in no hurry to close the canon’
Authors: Wolski Paweł
Published: February 2021

PW:

I would like to centre this conversation on your book Holocaust Literature: A History and Guide.1 The book presents a very interesting vision of a Holocaust canon, mainly because of the ‘Guide to the First Hundred Books’ included at the end. But before we focus on the list, could you comment on one of the initial statements, in which you argue against a ‘one model fits all’ canon of Holocaust literature and postulate that it ought to be read ‘in all languages. From the beginning: before time, in time and against time’?...
A Woman's Life
Authors: Magnus Shulamit
Published: February 2021

Pauline Wengeroff was born in 1833 into a pious Jewish family in Bobruisk. Her life, as recounted in this biography, based in part on the author's critical edition of Wengeroff's Memoirs of a Grandmother, was one of upheaval and transformation during Russian Jewry's passage from tradition to modernity. Wengeroff's narrative refracts communal experience and larger cultural, economic, and political developments through her own family life. In this, her memoirs are the basis for much new thinking about gender and modernity. This book probes Wengeroff's consciousness and social positioning as a woman of her era and argues that, though Wengeroff was well aware of the women's movement in Russia, she wrote not from a feminist perspective but as a by-product of her socialization in traditional Jewish society. This book gives readers entrée to Wengeroff's life, aspirations, and her disappointments, and raises the question of Wengeroff's actual intended audience for Memoirs of a Grandmother. Finally, the book probes the reception of Memoirs, to reveal a surprising story of the same work being read both as an apologia for tradition and for assimilation and even conversion. When Wengeroff died in 1916, the world was very different from the one in which she had grown up. Her story makes a significant contribution to Jewish women's history; to east European Jewish history; to the history of gender, acculturation, and assimilation in Jewish modernity; and to the history of Jewish writing and Jewish women's writing.
Wengeroff in America
Authors: Magnus Shulamit S.
Published: February 2021

This chapter addresses Pauline Wengeroff's strange tale about her brother Ephraim, who had converted to Christianity while in the United States and then reverted to Judaism during a family conclave in Germany under the agonized plea of their aged mother. After the death of their mother, who had made Ephraim swear not to return to the United States as long as she lived, he returned there. In fact, Ephraim returned to Christianity, too, and more, to proselytizing Jews. Ephraim played a large role in the near-publication of Memoirs of Grandmother in America: first, in translating both volumes into English from the predominant German in which they had appeared; in helping to identify potential publishers and in shopping the volumes around; and then in sinking Wengeroff's promising prospects of having them published by the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) when its publication board learned the truth about him. Wengeroff, who was terrified of pogroms, wished very much to come to America; she also tried mightily to have her memoirs published there. She succeeded in neither goal. Yet in a real sense she did come to America because her attempt to get published there set off a remarkable exchange among American Jewry's most prominent leaders about Jewish boundary lines and the ‘right’ story of Jewish modernity for American Jewry.
Introduction
Authors: Lehman Marjorie , Kanarek Jane L. , Bronner Simon J.
Published: February 2021

This chapter unravels motherhood from idealized notions of the Jewish family and stereotypes of the Jewish mother and presents a complex, nuanced, and robust perspective on motherhood in the Jewish cultural imagination. It emphasizes the variety of identities held by mothers and the vast array of cultural and social patterns that characterizations of mothers reflect. It also shows how Jews used motherhood across time and place as a way to construct and comprehend their culture. The chapter refers to writers, activists, rabbis, artists, printers, and poets who have projected, created, engaged, and contested Jewish culture by relying on the trope of the Jewish mother. It goes on to explain how Jews break away from biological conceptions of motherhood.
Cooking, Cuddling, and Candle-Lighting: Motherhood in Award-Winning Jewish Children’s Literature
Authors: Sigalow Emily
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the idealization of Jewish motherhood in contemporary award-winning Jewish children's books. It reviews books that portray mothers and mothering stereotypically associated with private, domestic Jewish practice and childrearing. It also explores Jewish children's books that feature fathers as central figures in public Jewish ritual observances and civic leadership, and as responsible for children's formal education. The chapter shows the pious, domestic mother and the oriented father, which reinforce a gendered conception of what it means to be a mother and encode gendered stereotypes within the formative experiences of Jewish early childhood education. It cites children's books that promote an uncomplicated idealization for children of what it means to live within a Jewish culture and show varieties of contemporary family structure that include interfaith, same sex, and single parents.
The Jewish Mother as Metonym for Community in Postwar America
Authors: Lambert Josh
Published: February 2021

This chapter considers the way in which the mother–son relationship depicted in Adele Wiseman's novel Crackpot in 1974 functions as a feminist critique of the Jewish mother in post-war America. It identifies a maternal character who affirms traditionalism and parochialism that acts as the guardian of identity and a bridge between the old world and the new. It also mentions Hoda, the protagonist of Crackpot and a prostitute, who decides to continue having sex with her son to create a relationship through which she can pass on the Jewish culture she learned from her father's stories. The chapter discusses the incestuous relationship in Crackpot, which models a picture of community that is simultaneously dependent and independent of genealogy. It argues that the novel vision of the Jewish mother is consonant with other Jewish cultural trends of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
‘Where Was Sarah?’ Depictions of Mothers and Motherhood in Modern Israeli Poetry on the Binding of Isaac
Authors: Marx Dalia
Published: February 2021

This chapter analyses the existential crisis that illuminates contemporary Israeli poetry about the binding of Isaac or the akedah. It investigates a series of poems that portray Isaac's mother Sarah and argues that these texts strive to embody and construct the history of the State of Israel. It also reviews earlier poems that entwine Sarah with collective questions of post-Holocaust faith and Jewish national fate, recent texts that turn to individual destiny. The chapter cites Sarah as a mother-figure in the Jewish poetic imagination who struggles with the tensions between an instinctual maternal impulse to preserve life and an ideology rooted in the sacrifice of sons for the sake of the creation and preservation of the State of Israel. It looks at poems that reconstruct the biblical story of Sarah, giving mothers the voice that Sarah lacked at the moment of the akedah.
Mothers and Ma’asim: Maternal Roles in Medieval Hebrew Tales
Authors: Baumgarten lisheva
Published: February 2021

This chapter analyses a series of stories from the early-thirteenth-century, northern-French writer Sefer hama'asim, which describe mothering and forms of agency that challenge stereotypical characterizations of medieval Jewish mothers. The chapter focuses on specific references to mothers and underscores mothers' public prominence and their active interventions within the nuclear family. It also investigates scholarly understandings of medieval Ashkenazi Jewish life that encourages readers to rethink perceptions of mothers in contemporary Jewish culture. The chapter exposes the multiplicity of resources that are available for understanding Jewish motherhood. It considers a wider frame of reference for the study of motherhood and looks at texts for references that might otherwise have been overlooked.
Conclusion
Authors: Feldmann Kaye Miriam
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores how Tamar Ross and Rav Shagar advocate restoring theology according to the linguistic cultural turn and the postmodern critique. It shows tentative responses to postmodernism that bring creative and liberating insights into the wellspring of Jewish thought. It also looks at attempts at weathering the storm of challenges set by deconstructionism, relativism, and cultural particularism. The chapter examines the involvement of major theological reconfigurations that are designed to reshape traditional concepts in order to make them thrive alongside the postmodern critique. It reviews how Ross and Shagar outline a new methodology for the construction of a compelling Jewish theology in a postmodern age.
Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement
Authors: Seidman Naomi
Published: February 2021

Sarah Schenirer is one of the unsung heroes of twentieth-century Orthodox Judaism. The Bais Yaakov schools she founded in interwar Poland had an unparalleled impact on a traditional Jewish society threatened by assimilation and modernity, educating a generation of girls to take an active part in their community. The movement grew at an astonishing pace, expanding to include high schools, teacher seminaries, summer programmes, vocational schools, and youth movements, in Poland and beyond; it continues to flourish throughout the Jewish diaspora. This book explores the movement through the tensions that characterized it, capturing its complexity as a revolution in the name of tradition. The book presents the context which led to its founding, examining the impact of socialism, feminism, Zionism, and Polish electoral politics on the process, and recounts its history, from its foundation in interwar Kraków to its near-destruction in the Holocaust, and its role in the reconstruction of Orthodoxy in subsequent decades. A vivid portrait of Schenirer shines through. The book includes selections from her writings published in English for the first time. Her pioneering, determined character remains the subject of debate in a culture that still regards innovation, female initiative, and women's Torah study with suspicion.
Introduction
Authors: Seidman Naomi
Published: February 2021

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov schools she founded in interwar Poland. Bais Yaakov had been controversial among Orthodox Jews at the outset. Even after it had become a fait accompli, discussions about its legitimacy continued, and continue to the present day. Sarah Schenirer was seen by some in the Orthodox community as a dangerous innovator, and had thus faced opposition, which she turned into support. She was a brave and determined pioneer who stood up to elements within her own community, and may even be seen as having saved Orthodoxy by making a place in it for girls and women. This book deals with the interplay and tensions in the Bais Yaakov movement between tradition and innovation, radicalism and piety. This tension manifests itself not only in the question of the character of Bais Yaakov, as a new phenomenon devoted to Jewish tradition and continuity, but also in the role of its founder.
‘A New Thing that Our Ancestors Never Imagined’
Authors: Seidman Naomi
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the first few years of Sarah Schenirer's enterprise, a story one has access to almost solely through her own writings and the legends that surround Bais Yaakov's origins. Schenirer's revolution not only expanded the educational options for Orthodox girls, it also created a cohort of educated, mobile, committed, and independent Orthodox young women, giving them unprecedented opportunities to combine religious commitment and socio-economic freedom. These seminarians and young faculty at the Kraków seminary were her closest associates, her travelling companions on her many trips around Poland, and the ones who welcomed her on her return from every journey. Ultimately, Schenirer's account of her great programme to save Jewish girls through inspiring lectures, a library, and a youth movement sheds light on some of the ways that Bais Yaakov culture developed. Her descriptions of the beginnings of Bais Yaakov also provide insight into how she viewed the school she founded after her other projects had failed.
Introduction to the 1955 Edition
Authors: Seidman Naomi
Published: February 2021

This chapter details the phenomenology of the Bais Yaakov movement during the Holocaust and after. The experiment that was Bais Yaakov was still expanding at a rapid rate and had hardly had a chance to come into its own when it fell victim to the destruction of European Jewry. Despite the disbanding of Bais Yaakov schools with the outbreak of the Second World War, numerous memoirs and histories of the movement attest to its continued clandestine activity during the war years. The networks forged in the interwar movement aided in the rapid re-emergence of Bais Yaakov schools and Bnos groups in the immediate aftermath of the war. Bais Yaakov established itself more permanently after the Holocaust in the centres of Orthodox life throughout the world, particularly in North America and Israel. Bais Yaakov schools had already been founded in both countries during the interwar period, and the Beth Jacob High School established in 1938 by Sarah Schenirer's student Vichna Kaplan operated under the authority of the Central Office in Europe.