JEWISH STUDIES. Ruth Wisse Receives National Humanities Medal S P R I N G 2008 IN THIS ISSUE: VISITING PROFESSORS page 1. COVER STORY page 2

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1 S P R I N G 2008 IN THIS ISSUE: VISITING PROFESSORS page 1 COVER STORY page 2 STUDENT PROFILES pages 3-4 COURSE LISTINGS pages 5-6 FALL 2007 LECTURES back cover VOL XVII, NUMBER 2 VE RI TAS C E N T E R F O R JEWISH STUDIES H A R V A R D U N I V E R S I T Y Ruth Wisse Receives National Humanities Medal for 2007

2 VISITING PROFESSORS The Center for Jewish Studies hosted two Visiting Professors during the fall 2007 semester. With the support of visiting professorships and certain other endowment funds, the Center is able to host leading scholars in Jewish studies to supplement the courses offered by our full-time faculty at Harvard. JEFFREY GUROCK, Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University, was sponsored by the Joseph Engel Fund. Professor Gurock offered two courses on American Jewish history: American Jewish History and The Social History of American Judaism: Research Seminar. STEVEN ZIPPER- STEIN, The Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University, was sponsored by the Leon I. Mirell Lecture Fund. Professor Zipperstein taught Jews in the Modern World and Jews and Communism in Russia: 1880 to the Fall of the Soviet Union. CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES DIRECTOR: Shaye J.D. Cohen ADMINISTRATOR: Rachel Rockenmacher STAFF ASSISTANT: Brenna Wells CHAIR, FRIENDS OF THE CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES: Peter J. Solomon EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Jay M. Harris, Miri Kubovy, Rachel Greenblatt, Jon Levenson, Peter Machinist, Avi Matalon, Jonathan Schofer, Bernard Septimus and Ruth Wisse CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES Harvard University 6 Divinity Avenue Cambridge, MA PHONE: cjs@fas.harvard.edu FAX: DESIGN: Erin P. Dowling BRENNA WELLS AT CARNEGIE HALL CJS s own Brenna Wells was selected as one of 30 singers to participate in the Ton Koopman Workshop [ON DATE]: Handel Choral Works for Singers as part of the Weill Music Institute Professional Training Workshops at Carnegie Hall. They performed Handel's Dettinger Te Deum and Ode on St. Cecilia's Day in the Zankel Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke's. Brenna was also recently chosen as one of two singers to perform in the Egida Sartori and Laura Alvini Early Music Seminars under the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, Italy this May. Bravo, Brenna! 1 CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES SPRING 2008

3 CENTERNEWS President George W. Bush awarded the prestigious National Humanities Medals for 2007 to Professor Ruth R. Wisse during a November 15 ceremony at the White House. In total, nine distinguished Americans and one cultural foundation were honored for their exemplary contributions to the humanities and were recognized for their scholarship, preservation efforts, philanthropy, and literary works. Immediately following the ceremony, the medalists, their families, and friends joined the president and first lady Laura Bush for a reception held in their honor. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH AWARDED THE PRESTIGIOUS NATIONAL HUMANI- TIES AWARD FOR 2007 TO PROFESSOR RUTH R. WISSE DURING A NOVEMBER CEREMONY AT THE WHITE HOUSE. RUTH WISSE RECEIVES NATIONAL HUMANITIES MEDAL ADAPTED AND PRINTED WITH PERMISSION HARVARD NEWS OFFICE The National Humanities Medal, first awarded in 1989 as the Charles Frankel Prize, honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation s understanding of the humanities, broadened U.S. citizens engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans access to important resources in the humanities. The Humanities Medal is the signal award for the humanities. Over the past decade, including this year s recipients, the National Humanities Medal has been awarded to 98 individuals and seven organizations. Among those recognized during this period are Bernard Lewis, Judith Miss Manners Martin, Madeleine L Engle, Harvey Mansfield, and John Updike. Medal recipients do not compete for this award but are specially selected by the president for their lifelong achievements in their diverse areas of expertise. Wisse, the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature, was recognized for scholarship and teaching that have illuminated Jewish literary traditions. Her insightful writings have enriched our understanding of Yiddish literature and Jewish culture in the modern world. Wisse has written several books on literature, including The Schlemiel as Modern Hero, A Little Love in Big Manhattan: Two Yiddish Poets, and The Modern Jewish Canon: A Journey through Literature and Culture. Her edited works include The I. L. Peretz Reader and (with Irving Howe) The Best of Sholem Aleichem. A frequent contributor to Commentary magazine and commentator on cultural and political affairs, she has published two political studies: If I Am Not for Myself: The Liberal Betrayal of the Jews and Jews and Power. Professor Wisse served as Director of the Center for Jewish Studies from and is a current member of its Executive Committee. SPRING 2008 CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES 2

4 STUDENTPROFILES PROFILE EITAN KENSKY Acollege class on Sholem Aleichem with David Roskies sparked Eitan s interest in Yiddish. Leaving Jewish day schools in eighth grade to attend a secular, private high school made me more interested in studying Jewish studies, he explains. Making friends with people of different backgrounds increased his awareness of his own Jewish heritage. Until recently, Eitan had little interest in the work of his grandfather, Berel Frymer, a prominent Yiddish writer who worked for the Labor Zionist Association of America, wrote a column in a Yiddish newspaper, and published two volumes of essays in Yiddish, and one in English. Now Eitan is reading his grandfather s written work, examining his prose style, and imagining what would have been the continuation of his work if he had lived longer. As a child, Eitan took no more interest in the Yiddish theater in which his grandmother worked. Though Jewish tradition was important to Eitan s family growing up, their discussions emphasized the importance of traditional Hebrew texts rather than Yiddish. Eitan s late mother was a professor of Bible at the University of Chicago, and his father is a rabbi. Now in his second year of Harvard s doctoral program in Jewish studies, Eitan is particularly interested in post-war Yiddish literature in the broader context of American literature and culture. He explains, the United States was the center of Yiddish literature after World War 2, but the rise of English Jewish literature (by writers like Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud) seemed to overshadow it. This summer, Eitan hopes to study Yiddish in Vilnius, with the support of the Center for Jewish Studies, and to examine archives of American Jewish writers such as Bellow, I.B.Singer and Roth in Chicago, Texas and Washington, respectively. Eitan feels fortunate to be at Harvard, where there are amazing resources,...especially the professors who always make themselves available. He describes his advisor, Ruth Wisse, as one of the most open people; she listens to your ideas, no matter how crazy they are. He lists some particularly helpful opportunities provided by the Center for Jewish Studies, including as Avi Matalon s class on deconstruction and Jewish identity, Visiting Professor Ray Scheindlin, last year s conference on Jewish education, and a lecture by Patricia Grieve which provided background for a paper. The various research opportunities provided by the Center for Jewish Studies have had a significant influence on my scholarly development. Eitan hopes to pursue an academic career, and perhaps also to follow in his grandfather s footsteps by writing Yiddish newspaper articles or short fiction. PROFILE JESSICA FECHTOR Amusic major at Columbia University, Jessica Fechtor took her first Jewish studies class after graduating from college. In a post-graduate program at Oxford University, Jessica was captivated by classes on Hebrew and Yiddish literature. I was interested in how the Hebrew language was renewed and reinvented in the modern period, how new questions of Jewish identity were created through both Hebrew and Yiddish literature. The authors and their editors saw literature as a means for redefining what it meant to 54 CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES SPRING

5 be Jewish. During a year of study in Israel at the Pardes Institute, she called Professor Ruth Wisse to discuss her interest in studying Yiddish and Hebrew language and literature at the doctoral level. Currently a third-year doctoral student, Jessica is focusing on bilingual writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her interests include the language politics between Hebrew and Yiddish, the stylistic developments of both languages, and how these literatures reflect the intellectual climates of the time and place in which they were written. Jessica applauds Professor Ruth Wisse as everything a graduate student could hope for in an advisor. Jessica is grateful that she can have a foot in the Literature Department while housed in the Near Eastern Languages department, and for the phenomenal collection of Judaica at Widener Library. Working as a teaching fellow at Harvard has been one of the absolute highlights of her Harvard experience. Teaching Harvard undergraduates who engage both intellectually and personally with the texts is a wonderful and inspiring reminder that ideas matter, and confirms her desire to pursue academia as a career path. Currently, Jessica is co-organizing an interuniversity conference planned for this spring at Harvard, New Approaches: Home, Nation and Landedness in Modern Jewish Identity. The interdisciplinary conference, which has attracted participants from the United States, Europe, and Israel, is sponsored in part by Harvard s Center for Jewish Studies. Jessica was thrilled by the response to the conference announcement and the opportunity to gather around this theme as a community of scholars. PROFILE MISHY HARMAN 08 Mishy Harman grew up and went to school in Jerusalem through high school. After three years of service in the Israeli army, coming to Harvard was a happy adjustment for him. I was excited to devote all my time to school, he says, unlike college students in Israel, who must work and maintain an apartment. Mishy has fond early memories of his father taking him to archeological digs in Israel as a child. After his military service, Mishy s attention was piqued by a book, Unearthing the Bible by Israel Finkenstein, that claimed very little evidence exists for most momentous Biblical stories that are main cultural references. What if Kind David wasn t a king as described? What if Moses didn t lead the Jews from Egypt? Mishy returned to a question raised by this book while shooting a short film for a class at Harvard two summers ago, based on the debate about the historicity of King David and exploring his significance in contemporary life, which was shown in the Jerusalem Film Festival. David is the fourth most popular name in Israel. It is such a symbol. Next year, Mishy plans to study archaeology at Cambridge University next year, and received the Harvard- Cambridge Scholarship. While conducting interviews with men named David for his film, Mishy encountered CONTINUED NEXT PAGE 65 SPRING 2008 CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES 4

6 CJS COURSE LISTINGS MISHY HARMAN, CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE the question which is the basis of his senior thesis. An Ethiopian man (named David) explained his ethnic group s belief that they were descended from King Solomon and Queen Sheba. Mishy thus began to explore the question of the origins of the Falash Mura, a group of Ethiopian Falasha Jews who converted to Christianity beginning in the mid 19th century. Despite being religiously Christian, many Falash Mura still claim Jewish ethnicity and ancestry, and demand to be taken to Israel like their Jewish relatives. Though prompted to convert by missionaries, many Falash Mura maintained close social, cultural and work ties with their relatives who practiced Judaism, and were never really accepted into the Christian majority. Mishy s senior thesis deals with the hotly contested debate about accepting the Falash Mura under Israel s law of return. Of his experience at Harvard, Mishy says with a smile, I love being here. He is grateful for the many academic resources and opportunities for travel for research and adds, and above all, I met my girlfriend here. FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES CORE CURRICULUM Literature and Arts A-48. Modern Jewish Literature Literature and Arts A-70. The Book of Job and the Joban Tradition Literature and Arts C-70. From the Hebrew Bible to Judaism, From the Old Testament to Christianity Moral Reasoning 54. If There is No God, All is Permitted : Theism and Moral Reasoning FRESHMAN SEMINARS *Freshman Seminar 42s. Jews on the Tube: Images and Integration in American Jewry (New) *Freshman Seminar 49g. The Holocaust, History and Reaction LITERATURE AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE Literature 153 (formerly Comparative Literature 153). Saul Bellow and the New York Intellectuals HISTORY History 1091 (formerly Jewish Studies 125). Jewish History in the Second and Post-Temple Period History The Jews in Muslim and Christian Spain *History On Display: Commemoration, Collection and Public Spaces (c ) History Women s Voices in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (New) *History Citizenship, Migration, and European Cultures Since 1945: Reading Seminar (New) CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES SPRING 2008

7 History American Jewish History (New) *History The Social History of American Judaism: Research Seminar (New) ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN AND BIBLICAL STUDIES Ancient Near East 90. History, Kingship, and the Gods in the Ancient Near East (New) Ancient Near East 107. History and Historiography in the Ancient Near East Ancient Near East 117. Biblical Archaeology Ancient Near East 120. Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures Ancient Near East 128. Jewish Apocalypticism Ancient Near East 222. History of the Study of the Hebrew Bible: From the Renaissance to the missing type here Ancient Near East 236. Biblical Theology: Seminar POSTBIBLICAL JEWISH STUDIES Jewish Studies 55. Jews, Judaism, and Jewishness (New) Jewish Studies 104. Introduction to Yiddish Culture Jewish Studies 111. Modern Jewish Thought Jewish Studies 112. The Poet as Translator (New) Jewish Studies 114. History versus Literature in Modern Jewish Texts Jewish Studies 135. Jewish-Arab Encounters: the Classical Age (New) Jewish Studies 140. Deconstruction and Questions of Jewish Identity: Seminar Jewish Studies 143. Jews in the Modern World (New) Catalog Number: 8216 Jewish Studies 144. History and Memory: Modes of Jewish Discourse (New) Jewish Studies 153. Jews and Communism in Russia: 1880 to the Fall of the Soviet Union: Seminar (New) Jewish Studies 206. The Law at Qumran and the Law of the Mishnah *Jewish Studies 300. Reading and Research in Postbiblical Jewish Studies HEBREW LANGUAGE COURSES Classical Hebrew A. Elementary Classical Hebrew Classical Hebrew 120a. Intermediate Classical Hebrew I Classical Hebrew 120b. Intermediate Classical Hebrew II Classical Hebrew 130ar. Rapid Reading Classical Hebrew I Classical Hebrew 130br. Rapid Reading Classical Hebrew II Classical Hebrew 135. Introduction to Mishnaic Hebrew Modern Hebrew B. Elementary Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew 120a. Intermediate Modern Hebrew I Modern Hebrew 120b. Intermediate Modern Hebrew II Modern Hebrew 125a. Advanced Modern Hebrew I Modern Hebrew 125b. Advanced Modern Hebrew II Modern Hebrew 130r. Contemporary Israeli Culture Modern Hebrew 134r. The Layers of Hebrew in Texts about Jerusalem Modern Hebrew 136r. Hebrew for Academic Reading HEBREW LITERATURE AND HISTORY COURSES For Undergraduates and Graduates Hebrew 176. Aristotle s Ethics in Medieval Jewish Thought (New) Hebrew 177. Introduction to Critical Talmud Scholarship (New) Hebrew 191. From Jewish Literature to Israeli Literature: Seminar *Hebrew 200r. Problems in the Literature, History, and Religion of Israel: Seminar Hebrew 230. Midrash: The Figure of Abraham: Seminar (New) *Hebrew 300. Classical Hebrew Language and Literature *Hebrew 350. Postbiblical Hebrew Language & Literature YIDDISH Yiddish A. Elementary Yiddish Yiddish Ba. Intermediate Yiddish I Yiddish Bb. Intermediate Yiddish II Yiddish Ca. Advanced Yiddish I Yiddish Cb. Advanced Yiddish II Yiddish 200r. Modern Yiddish Literature: Bashevis Singer and Grade: Seminar *Yiddish 300. Yiddish Language and Literature STUDY OF RELIGION Religion 11. World Religions Today: Diaspora, Diversity and Dialogue Religion 28. The Hebrew Bible and Its Worlds (New) Religion Competing Fundamentalisms in the Holy Land (New) Religion Religion in Multicultural America: Case Studies in Religious Pluralism Religion Religion and Politics in Current Fundamentalist Movements Religion Midrash: Jewish Biblical Interpretation in the Rabbinic Period Religion The German Church Struggle and the Holocaust (New) HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL COURSES 1469 Reading Midrash 1881 Ritual, Gender, and Space in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity 3660 Gender, Justice, and Jewish Law HARVARD LAW SCHOOL COURSES Jewish Law: The Legal Thought of Maimonides EXTENSION SCHOOL COURSES FORE E-169 Modernity and Tradition in Jewish Literature (22770) RELI E-1076 Religion and Politics in Current Fundamentalist Movements (22767) SPRING 2008 CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES 6

8 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2007 NOAM ZOHAR Associate Professor in Jewish Philosophy, Director of the Graduate Program in Bioethics, Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Bar Ilan University Form, Content and Values in The Redaction of Rabbinic Texts 4:30pm. The Humanities Center, Room 133, Barker Center, Harvard University Yanoff-Taylor Lecture and Publication Fund CJS LECTURES FALL 2007 All co-sponsored by the The Harvard Center for the Humanities, Jewish Societies and Cultures Seminar THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2007 DAVID BIALE Emanuel Ringelblum Professor of Jewish History, Director, Program in Jewish Studies, University of California, Davis From Blood Libel to Blood Community: Discourses of Blood in Modern Jewish Culture 4:15pm.Harvard Center for European Studies, Cabot Room, 27 Kirkland Street Martin and Helen B. Schwartz Lecture Fund WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2007 MARTIN GOODMAN Professor of Jewish Studies, the Oriental Institute, and Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Oxford Rome and Jerusalem: The Origins of Anti- Semitism 5:00pm.Semitic Museum, Room 201, 6 Divinity Avenue, Harvard University Friends of the Center for Jewish Studies TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2007 STEVEN ZIPPERSTEIN (WITH RUTH WISSE, RESPONDENT) Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History, Stanford University and the Gerard Weinstock Visiting Professor of Jewish History, Harvard University I Have Not Told Half of What I Saw : On Reading Isaac Rosenfeld 4:15pm.The Humanities Center, Room 133, Barker Center, Harvard University Joseph Engel Fund WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5,2007 JEFF GUROCK Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History, Yeshiva University and the Joseph Engel Visiting Professor in American Jewish History, Harvard University The Diaries of Mordecai M. Kaplan and Early 20th Century American Jewish Religious Life 4:15pm.The Humanities Center, Room 133, Barker Center, Harvard University Joseph Engel Fund VE RI C E N T E R F O R TAS JEWISH STUDIES H A R V A R D U N I V E R S I T Y 6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID BOSTON, MA PERMIT NO. 1636