JDST eJournalCASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY PROGRAM IN JUDAIC STUDIES

INSIDEFeatured Faculty

Program in Judaic StudiesCase Western Reserve University

10900 Euclid Avenue

Cleveland, OH 44106-7112

Office: ClarkHall,208

Phone: (216)368-8961

Web: case.edu/artsci/jdst

Featured Faculty

Awards/Honors• Arielle Clayman• Madison Dore• Rebecca Frankel• Bradley Lander• Jonathan Meckler• David Pasternak• Sarah Resnick

StudentEssay/Outstand-ing Achievement• Amy Wang

POST IT • Prof. Milton Strauss Courses of Interest

Sampling of Paper Titles• Nityasri Gopinath• Shana Kalatardi• Ameera Khalid• Nicole Kochman• Jonathan Lee• Jonathan Meckler• Wm. Harrison

Smith• Hannah Steele• Kevin Wexler

JDST Information

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Spring 2014

PriortojoiningCase Western Reserve University this past summer, I held research positions and taught at a number of universities including Uni-versity of Massachusetts in Amherst, Boston University, Harvard Universi-ty and University of Michigan.Alongthe way, I also found myself drawn to planning and administering learning programsintheJewishcommunity.

Here at CWRUmyworkinthecom-munityandmyworkinacademiaarenolongerdisjointedendeavors.Iserveas Director of the Jewish Studies division of the Laura and Alvin Siegal Lifelong Learning Program, where I teach and organize a very lively host of lectures, courses, public conversations, seminarsandfilm-screeningsforthegreaterClevelandJewishcommunity.I love to hear from individuals who come to class with their own areas of expertise.Thesestudents—lawyers, so-cialworkers,translatorsandothersfrommanywalksoflife—helpmetothinkaboutmyownmaterialsinnewways.

“What exotic Jewish customs did you see on your travels?” This is what studentsandfriendsaskedmostoftenwhenIreturnedfrommyfirsttriptoCentralAsia(whereIdidresearchformydoctorateinculturalanthropology).I had seen enough to regale them with talesofintrigue.But,Iwasinterestedintalkingaboutsomethingelse.

Whatstruckmemuchmorethanthedifferences I encountered while I was in Uzbekistan,wasthefactthattheJewsImet there welcomed me into their homes and institutions as though I was a niece orcousin.

Nowthat’sremarkable!IamafourthgenerationAshkenaziAmeri-can.MyownEasternEuropeanfamilyhistory shares little with that of Central Asia’sBukharanJews.What,then,might account for the powerful sense of connection between us?

ThisisaJewishquestion.Butitisamuchbroaderonetoo.Itisaquestionabout the way in which people are able to maintain a sense of community that is disembeddedfromlocalspace.Todayit’s easy for far-away people to stay con-nected.Buthow(andwhy)didtheydoso in prior generations, when travel was expensiveandriskyandcommunicationwas slow?

This broad question—about the maintenance of communal ties in the face of dispersion—informs my recently publishedbookBukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism (IndianaUniversityPress)andmuchofmyaca-demicwork. The Alvin and Laura Siegal Life-long Learning Program is a rewarding way to stay connected in Cleveland’s Jewishcommunity.Iwelcomeyoutohavealookatourwebsite,andtotakepartinourevents!http://www.case.edu/lifelonglearning

Alanna E. CooperDirector, Jewish StudiesSiegal Lifelong Learning Program

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Student Awards and HonorsThe Ira and Ruth Bressler Prize ToastudentwhohasdoneoutstandingworkintheareaofJewishStudies.

Hometown:PepperPike,OH

Academic Interests:EconomicsandHistory

Extracurricular Activities:Memberof the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Hillel Jewish Student Group, and CWRU College Trivia Club.

Jonathan Meckler

The Eudese and Elmer Paull Prizes To one or several undergraduate or graduate students who demonstrate aninterestinJewishStudiesorJewishcontemporarylife.

Madison DoreArielle Clayman

Bradley Lander

Hometown:Chicago,IL

Academic Interests:ArtHistory,Archaeol-ogy, and Judaic Studies

Extracurricular Activities:ShabbatChair,HillelUndergraduateLeadershipCouncil,Treasurer,AnthropologyStudentAssociation/LambdaAlphaCoChair,BanotiWomen’sGrp.,ClevelandHillel,ArtandArtHistoryClub, Alpha Phi Fraternity, Zeta Pi

Hometown:Youngstown,OH

Academic Interests:IsraelAdvocacy,PublicHealth,MedicalEthics,HebrewLan-guage, Jewish History and Philosophy

Extracurricular Activities:Iamactivelyinvolved in the Jewish Community Health Initiative(jewhealth.org)andChabad.Addi-tionally, I volunteer at the Cleveland Clinic

Hometown:LosAngeles,CA

Academic Interests:Engineering,Business(Finance)

Extracurricular Activities:Jewishinvolve-ment, water polo, community service

Hometown:Solon,OH

Academic Interests:Medi-cine, health literacy, health care technology

Extracurricular Activities:Tennis,basketball,spendingtime with friends and family

David Pasternak

Hometown:Livingston,NJ

Academic Interests:Marketing,Accounting, and Dance

Extracurricular Activities:Hillel,Co-PresidentofBanoti,Fellow at the Center for Civic EngagementandLearning,Foot-lighters, Mather Dance Collective, WRUW, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Alpha Kappa Psi

Sarah Resnick

Hometown: Solon, OH

Academic Interests:Pediatric medicine

Extracurricular Activities: Volunteering with Hands On Northeast Ohio, co-leader of the Pediatrics Interest Group and the Jewish Medical Student Association

Rebecca Frankel

Amy Wang

CaseWesternReserveUniversity3

Recognition for Outstanding Achievement

From Synagogue to Carousel:The Art of Holding Jewish Cultural Boundaries

TobeJewishcanbedifficulttoexplaininterms of religion, ethnicity, and nationality as many Jews do not consider themselves to be religious, or to share common ances-tryorhistory.Butethnographicstudycanhelp us understand how Jewish identity is generated,modifiedandmaintained.As

As anthropologistAnyaPetersonRoycestates:“nogroupcanmaintainabelievable(viable)identitywithoutsigns,symbols, and underlying values that point to a distinctive identity” (1982:7).MyfocuswillbeonhowJewishcommunitiesgenerate,modify and maintain such symbols to create a viable, distinct identi-ty.WewilllookfirstatpremodernPoland,once home to the largest Jewish com-munity in the European diaspora, and we will follow regional synagogue carvers to America.Becauseartistslikesynagoguecarvers are designated tradition-bearers, an ethnographic approach to their American carouselcarvingislikelytoyieldmoreaccurate ethnic information than an art historicalapproach.

Accordingtoherbooktitle,PetersonRoyce demonstrates that maintaining an ethnic identity requires “strategies of diversity”(1982).ForJewswhosettledinPoland, such strategies ranged from syna-gogue design, to foodways and language (Roskies:1979).Invernacularspeech,for example, the Yiddish word lehavdl (todifferentiate)becameahabitualmeansofseparating that which was Jewish from thatwhichwasnot,e.g.,“Therabbiandlehavdlthegovernortookpartinthecer-emony”(Roskies1979:34).Hebrew,aconsecrated tongue, was used in turn as a consecrating tongue to “Hebraize” the pronunciation of Polish place-names, “rendering places of Jewish habitation‘kosher’andeliminatinganyneedforlehavdlasaprefixtothenamesofthe‘holycommunities’thuscreated”(Neulander:n.d).InthiswayPolishJewsmadethelandfitforJewishsettle-ment, and retained their identity by creating a linguistic cultural boundarybetweenthemselvesandtheirnon-Jewishneighbors.

Polish Jews inevitably came in contact with people of other faithsandethnicities.Thistypeofinteractioncreatesopportunitiesforculturalexchange.Suchexchangeoccurswhereverthereiscloseculture contact, but only as long as the borrower is able to adapt, or modify, the borrowed tradition to reinforce his own cultural bound-aries—justasPolishJewsadopted,butalsoadapted,localPolishplace-names.

In some cases, strategies of diversity were used to set Jewish communitiesapartfromeachother.Bythemid1700’s,Hasidism(amysticalreligiousmovement)sweptacrossmostofPolandwiththemajorexceptionofLithuania,dividingtheHasidimfromtheMitnagdim,theirstaunchLithuanianopponents.Thetwocommunities developed distinct ways of preparing traditional foodslikegefiltefish(choppedandrolledintoaball),andfarfl(anoodleboiledinbroth),alongwithdistinctdialects.AsRoskiesstates“JewswhopreparedspicyfishandchoppedfarflspokeadifferentdialectofYiddishfromthosewhoatesweetfishandcuttheirfarfl”(1979:39).Linesofculturaldistinction,drawnalongideological borders, suggest some degree of strategic differentia-

tion.Butlikejazzvariations,whichalwaysretain the bounded structure of a core melody, distinct Yiddish dialects always remained rec-ognizably Yiddish, and traditional foodways, no matter how distinctly prepared, always remainedrecognizablyJewish.

Religious symbols, above all, are held by all ethnic communities as treasured family heirlooms, handed down from generation to generation, and never entered into the main-stream; such a breach of cultural boundaries would cause the community to lose its self-definition—itsveryexistenceasadiscernableculturalentity.InJewishcontext,acaution-ary tale from Poland notes that if a designated tradition-bearer were to do such a thing, it wouldbetantamounttoblasphemy.Inthetale, a master craftsman carves into a Torah arkaspecificanimalclusteruniquetoJewishiconography:theleopard,eagle,deerandlionfound in a tractate of the Mishnah(PirkeAvot5:23):

Beboldasaleopard,lightasaneagle, swift as a deer, and strong as a lion, to

carry out the will of your Father in Heaven.

Butfivemonthslater,onShavuot,theanniversaryofthedaytheTorahwasgiven,thecarver’snamewasstruckfromthearkbyaboltoflightning.Thebaffledcongregationsoonlearnedwhy(Roskies1979:180):

The same engraver had made similar carvings inaCatholicchurch.Thiswasseenasblas-phemy.Theheavensdecidedtostrikeouthisnameinpunishment. If immigrant carvers transferred sacred Jewish art motifs to the American carousel, as asserted in a recent art historical study Zimilies2007:xvi),itwouldbeaclearviolationofthevalues

Animal cluster from Pirkei Avot (5:23) Polish Torah Ark, 1600s

Amy Wang

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that underlie Jewish tradition-bearing, and not surprisingly, the assertiondoesnotholdupunderethnographicscrutiny.

An eagle, for example, is simply a bird, an ethnically neutralimagethatcanonlygainethnicspecificitybythecontextinwhichanartistchoosestoplaceit:asanAmericaniconsur-rounded by stars and stripes on a carousel; to signify a monarchy on a royal coat of arms, or carved in a synagogue to symbolize theDiety.Ofallanimalsymbols,theonemostpublicizedasasacred Jewish art motif, transferred to the carousel, is a roaring lionwitha“swishing”ors-shapedtail(Zimilies2007:xvi).Butthis pattern belongs to the realm of secular, traditional art.Itisaclassicheraldicpattern—a French tradition of “signature emblems” that emerged in the twelfth centurytoidentifyknightsinjoustingcompetitions.The attractive, ethnically neutral patterns of French heraldrywerequicklybor-rowed into pan-European iconography(VonVolborth1991).Inheraldictradi-tion, the lion’s s-shaped tail is patterned to very specificposes:thes-shapeis the heraldic tradition for a roaring lion rearing up on two feet, or with four feet ontheground.

Weknowofonlyonepatterned heraldic lion carved for a carousel by a Jewish carver, Marcus Charles Il-lions,c.1910.Illions’slionwith a “swishing” s-shaped tailwaseithertakenfromthe traditional heraldic template for a lion on four feet, or was a direct copy of the same heraldic lion carved several years earlier—in 1903—byItalianCatholiccarousel carver, Salvatore Cernigliaro(Manns1990:135;40-41).Aswitheagleimagery,itisonlyinspecifi-cally Jewish context that he-raldic lions can symbolize “lions of Judah”; the exact same lions on the State Chair of the Prince ofWaleswillperfectlysymbolizetheBritishmonarchy.Clearly,a classic heraldic lion placed on an American carousel, void of a single Jewish symbol, is not a sacred Jewish art motif, but only a secular, pan-European art motif used by all European-trained art-ists,liketheCatholiccarver,SalvatoreCernigliaro—andlater—

theJewishcarver,MarcusCharlesIllions.

Theonlywaytoidentifyanartist’swishtomakeadistinctlyJew-ish statement, outside of Jewish context, is if the symbol he uses is “pri-vateJewishproperty.”Suchsymbolsdoexistinsynagoguecarving,butthese exclude eagles, the Decalogue, the six-pointed star, royal crowns, heraldic lions, seven-branched candelabra, or even Hebrew calligraphy, all of which are frequently found in Christian and other non-Jewish con-texts.AsseeninthesynagogueartofJewishcarouselcarvers,uniquelyJewish symbols include animal clusters from uniquely Jewish liturgical andliterarytraditions(asnotedinthecautionarytaleabove),theshofar

(orram’shorn),Torahscrolls,and hands splayed in the sign ofthePriestlyBenediction.

Symbolslikeroyalcrowns,etc.,canonlybeseenas distinctly Jewish in dis-tinctly Jewish context, as when they appear in a synagogue, or in combination with symbols recognized as Jewish private property.Itisthereforesignifi-cant that throughout the history of American-Jewish carousel carving, not one Jewish carver transferred even one uniquely Jewish art motif onto even one carousel.Thisconfirmsthatwhatever their religious com-mitment(orlackthereof),noJewish carvers ever betrayed

the trust placed in them as designatedtradition-bearers. Rather, by restricting uniquely Jewish symbols to the synagogue, Jewish carvers for American carousels helped fortify the community’s cultural boundaries against whatever cul-tureshocksAmericahadinstoreforit.

The Jewish people, for all their different religious, ethnic, na-tional, and cultural characteristics, form a community that depends on self-definingsymbolsandtradi-tions that have sustained Jewish cultural boundaries throughout

timeandacrosstheglobe.Becausesymbols and traditions are easily blurred and lost among the many cultural pressures brought by displacement and relocation, tradition-bearers in America clearly remained vigilant, holding fast to Jewish signs, symbols and underlying values—the precious heirlooms of Jew-ishidentity—justastheyhadintheEuropeanpast.

Carousellion,FrenchheraldictraditionbyCatholiccarverS.Cernigliaro,1903

Carousellion,FrenchheraldictraditionbyJewishcarverM.C.Illions,1910

References Cited

Manns,William,et.al.1990.PaintedPonies:AmericanCarouselArt.Milwood,NewYork:ZonInternationalPublishing.

Neulander,J.(n.d.).“LegendsoftheWoodenSynagogues:NegotiatingBoundariesinTalk,TimberandTales”(Unpublishedms.),Cleveland,Ohio:CaseWesternReserveUniversity.

PetersonRoyce,Anya(1982).EthnicIdentity:StrategiesofDiversity.Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress.

Roskies,DavidandDianeRoskies.1979.TheShtetlBook:AnIntroductiontoJewishLifeandLore.NewYork:KTAVPublishers.

VonVolburth,Carl-Alexander.1991.Heraldry, Customs, Rules and Styles.London:NewOrchardHouse.

Zimilies,Murray.2007.GildedLionsandJeweledHorses:TheSynagoguetotheCarousel.Hanover:UniversityPressofNewEngland.

Illustration:CernigliarolioncourtesyofWilliamManns.

Case Western Reserve University 5

POSTIT!

Prof. Milton Strauss

As you may recall, since I retired from Case,I’vemovedtoNewMexico.IrecentlyreadJonathanMeckler’spiece“TheThreeStoogesTakeOnHitler”(Dec.2013).InevergottoseemuchoftheStooges.Bythe time we got TV I was older, and before that, Saturday morning extravaganzas at the movie theater were off limits for my observantfamily.IreallyenjoyedJonathan’sessay.

Have a Great Summer!

LET’SHEARFROMYOU! postit@case.edu

C o u r s e s o f I n t e r e s t f o r F a l l 2 0 1 4

JDST/ ARTH 220 JEWISH TRADITIONAL ART AND ARCHITECTURETR 10:00-11:15 Judith Neulander

The course traces tradition and transformation in Jewish artisticexpressionovertimeandacrossspace.Thesemes-ter will carry us through the Israelite phase beginning with Solomon’s Temple, to the present day in Israel and America, overthecourseofwhich29centuriestermslike“Jewish,”andeven“art,”willundergoremarkablechange!TherewillbeafieldtriptoaJewishMuseum.

For courses in Hebrew and Arabic visit the Modern Languages and Literatures website:

http://www.case.edu/artsci/dmll/

JDST 201INTRODUCTION TO JUDAIC STUDIESMW 12:30-1:45 Jay Geller

An Introduction to Jewish religion, culture, history and life, this course requires no previous study of, or experience withJudaism.StudentswillexaminethediverseissuesandquestionsthataredrivingthecurrentfieldofJudaicStud-iesandcometoconclusionsaboutthestateofthequestion.Therewillbesome“field”experienceincludingavisittoasynagogueandaJewishMuseum.ThecourseisrequiredfortheminorinJudaicStudies,butmaybetakenonitsown.

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S a m p l i n g o f F i n a l P a p e r T i t l e s

AsamplingoftitlesforfinalresearchpapersinIntroduction to Jewish Folklore JDST 233 reflectsthediversityofinterestsinatypicalJDSTclassroom.

Prophetic Dreams in Torah, Tales and Popular CultureWm. Harrison Smith

BreakingtheGlassataWedding:ModernBeliefsontheMeaningoftheRitualAmeera Khalid

JewishSymbolsasCulturalBoundary-MarkersKevin Wexler

TheBloodLibelfromthe12thtothe21stCenturyShana Kalatardi

AMutant,aMouse,andanArtist:HowHolocaustMemoryShapedComicBooksHannah Steele

YouAreWhatYouEat:FoodasanExpressionofJewishIdentityNicole Kochman

WaterintheBiblicalBetrothalType-Scene:ASymbolofLifeandRegenerationJonathan Lee

TheGolemandPost-HolocaustLiteratureNityasri Gopinath

It’saBird,It’saPlane,It’sSupermentsh!:TheJewishRootsofanAmericanSuperheroJonathan Meckler

Case Western Reserve University 7

Program in Judaic StudiesCase Western Reserve University10900 Euclid AvenueCleveland, Ohio 44106-7120case.edu/artsci/jdst

Bybringingavarietyoffieldsanddisciplines to bear on its subject,the Judaic Studies Program at Case Western Reserve University con-veys to students the complex inter-action of forces that create Jewish ethnic identity. Students complet-ing the program will have a broad knowledge of the field along withthe tools necessary for continued academic study of Jewish civi-lization in all its manifestations.

The Program in Judaic StudiesEditor:Dr.JudithNeulanderCo-Director, Judaic Studies Program judith.neulander@case.edu

ContributingEditor:Dr.PeterHaasDirector, Judaic Studies Pro-grampeter.haas@case.edu

Technical SupportLaurenGallittoDept.RLGN/JDSTlauren.gallito@case.edu

Support the Program in Judaic StudiesPlease consider supporting the Program in Judaic Studies as wecontinue building on our achieve-ments.YoucancontributetooursuccessbymakingagifttotheCol-legeofArtsandSciences.Yourgiftallows us to continue to offer oppor-tunities for our students to excel aca-demically and to conduct important research.Youcangiveonlineat:

giving.case.eduMara Cohen Ioannides, President of the Midwest Jewish Studies As-sociationspoketostudentson“FolkTraditionsforPassoverandSeder”inApril,2014.