Synopses & Reviews
Commonly translated as the “Jewish Enlightenment,” the Haskalah propelled Jews into modern life. Olga Litvak argues that the idea of a Jewish modernity, championed by adherents of this movement, did not originate in Western Europe’s age of reason. Litvak contends that the Haskalah spearheaded a Jewish religious revival, better understood against the background of Eastern European Romanticism.
Based on imaginative and historically grounded readings of primary sources, Litvak presents a compelling case for rethinking the relationship between the Haskalah and the experience of political and social emancipation. Most importantly, she challenges the prevailing view that the Haskalah provided the philosophical mainspring for Jewish liberalism.
In Litvak’s ambitious interpretation, nineteenth-century Eastern European intellectuals emerge as the authors of a Jewish Romantic revolution. Fueled by contradictory longings both for community and for personal freedom, the poets and scholars associated with the Haskalah questioned the moral costs of civic equality and the achievement of middle-class status. In the nineteenth century, their conservative approach to culture as the cure for the spiritual ills of the modern individual provided a powerful argument for the development of Jewish nationalism. Today, their ideas are equally resonant in contemporary debates about the ramifications of secularization for the future of Judaism.
Review
andquot;
Space and Place in Jewish Studies is a valuable introduction to the roles that locations, real and imagined, have played in Jewish historical experiences, literary and artistic works, and scholarship.andquot;
Review
"Olga Litvak marshals stunning erudition in a nigh-magical fashion as she revises the reigning conception of the Haskalah as a Jewish version of the European Enlightenment."
Review
andquot;Benor's engaging and innovative study of language and identity surprises, delights, and educates. Becoming Frum is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand Jewish language and culture today.andquot;
Review
andldquo;
Becoming Frum offers a nuanced visual and sound portrait of Orthodox Jewish life, enabling us to hear the way individualsandrsquo; identities evolve.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;This volume by Benor is a sociolinguistic study of non-Orthodox Jews becoming frum (religious) by returning to the beliefs and practices of Orthodox Jewish life. Nine well-researched chapters underscore the state of hesitation, decision, and action of returnees.
Becoming Frum encodes dress change, eating habits, social outlook, and an impressive array of 'dos and don'ts' that will identify the newly observant. Very informative is Benor's investigative scrutiny of
frumster speech (religious Yinglish). This is a strong ethnographic study of issues and lessons related to becoming religiously Orthodox observant. Recommended.andquot;
Review
andquot;Aand#160;sophisticated, erudite study. Shandler's new book focuses not so much on the Eastern European market town as on the changing ways in which Jews have employed it as 'social space to think with,' a ready-made idiom with which to address contemporary concerns.andquot;
Review
andquot;Shandler's book is a tour de force. It will be a landmark addition to our understanding of modern Jewish culture.andquot;
Synopsis
Scholars in the humanities have become increasingly interested in questions of how space is produced and perceivedandmdash;and they have found that this consideration of human geography greatly enriches our understanding of cultural history. This andldquo;spatial turnandrdquo; equally has the potential to revolutionize Jewish Studies, complicating familiar notions of Jews as andldquo;people of the Book,andrdquo; displaced persons with only a common religious tradition and history to unite them.
Space and Place in Jewish Studies embraces these exciting critical developments by investigating what andldquo;spaceandrdquo; has meant within Jewish culture and traditionandmdash;and how notions of andldquo;Jewish space,andrdquo; diaspora, and home continue to resonate within contemporary discourse, bringing space to the foreground as a practical and analytical category. Barbara Mann takes us on a journey from medieval Levantine trade routes to the Eastern European shtetl to the streets of contemporary New York, introducing readers to the variety of ways in which Jews have historically formed communities and created a sense of place for themselves. Combining cutting-edge theory with rabbinics, anthropology, and literary analysis, Mann offers a fresh take on the Jewish experience.
Synopsis
Jonathan Boyarin explores a wide range of scholarship in Jewish studies to argue that Jewish family forms and ideologies have varied greatly throughout the times and places where Jewish families have found themselves. He considers a range of family configurations from biblical times to the twenty-first century, including strictly Orthodox communities and new forms of family, including same-sex parents, and suggests productive ways to think about possible futures for Jewish family forms.
Synopsis
From stories of biblical patriarchs and matriarchs and their children, through the Gospel’s Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and to modern Jewish families in fiction, film, and everyday life, the family has been considered key to transmitting Jewish identity. Current discussions about the Jewish family’s supposed traditional character and its alleged contemporary crisis tend to assume that the dynamics of Jewish family life have remained constant from the days of Abraham and Sarah to those of Tevye and Golde in
Fiddler on the Roof and on to Philip Roth’s
Portnoy’s Complaint.
Jonathan Boyarin explores a wide range of scholarship in Jewish studies to argue instead that Jewish family forms and ideologies have varied greatly throughout the times and places where Jewish families have found themselves. He considers a range of family configurations from biblical times to the twenty-first century, including strictly Orthodox communities and new forms of family, including same-sex parents. The book shows the vast canvas of history and culture as well as the social pressures and strategies that have helped shape Jewish families, and suggests productive ways to think about possible futures for Jewish family forms.
Synopsis
Space and Place in Jewish Studies embraces how notions of andldquo;Jewish space,andrdquo; diaspora, and home continue to resonate within contemporary discourse, bringing space to the foreground as a practical and analytical category. Barbara Mann takes us on a journey from medieval Levantine trade routes to the Eastern European shtetl to the streets of contemporary New York, introducing readers to the variety of ways in which Jews have historically formed communities and created a sense of place for themselves. Combining cutting-edge theory with rabbinics, anthropology, and literary analysis, Mann offers a fresh take on the Jewish experience.
Synopsis
Conventionally translated as the “Jewish Enlightenment,” the Haskalah propelled Jews into modern life. Based on imaginative and historically grounded readings of primary sources, Olga Litvak presents a compelling case for rethinking the relationship between the Haskalah and the experience of political and social emancipation. Litvak challenges the prevailing view that the Haskalah provided the philosophical mainspring for Jewish liberalism.
Synopsis
When non-Orthodox Jews become frum (religious), they encounter much more than dietary laws and Sabbath prohibitions. They find themselves in the midst of a whole new culture, involving matchmakers, homemade gefilte fish, and Yiddish-influenced grammar. Becoming Frumand#160;explainsand#160;how these newcomers learn Orthodox language and culture through their interactions with community veterans and other newcomers. Some take on as much as they can as quickly as they can, going beyond the norms of those raised in the community. Others maintain aspects of theirand#160;pre-Orthodox selves, yielding unique combinations, like Matisyahuandrsquo;s reggae music or Hebrew wordsand#160;and sing-song intonation used with American slang, as in andldquo;mamish (really) keepinandrsquo; it real.andrdquo;
Sarah Bunin Benor brings insight into the phenomenon of adopting a new identity based on ethnographic andand#160;sociolinguistic research among men and women in an American Orthodox community. Her analysis is applicable to other situations of adult language socialization, such as students learning medical jargon or Canadians moving to Australia. Becoming Frum offers a scholarly and accessibleand#160;look at the linguistic and cultural process of andldquo;becoming.andrdquo;
About the Author
JEFFREY SHANDLER is a professor of Jewish studies at Rutgers University. He is the author of While America Watches: Televising the Holocaust; Adventures in Yiddishland: Postvernacular Language and Culture; and Jews, God, and Videotape: Religion and Media in America.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
Transcription Conventions
1. Introduction: Orthodox Jews and Language Socialization
2. andquot;Now You Look Like a Ladyandquot;: Adventures in Enthnographic and Sociolinguistic Fieldwork
3. andquot;He Has Tzitzis Hanging Out of His Ponytailandquot;: Orthodox Cultural Practices and How BTs Adapt Them
4. andquot;This Is Not What to Recordandquot;: Yiddish, Hebrew, and the English of Orthodox Jews
5. andquot;Torah or Toyrahandquot;: Language and the Modern Orthodox Black Hat Continuum
6. andquot;Just Keepin' It Real, Mamishandquot;: Why Ba'alei Teshuva Adopt (or Avoid) Orthodox Language
7. andquot;I Finally Got the Lingoandquot;: Progression in Newcomers' Acquisition of Orthodox Language
8. andquot;A Ba'al Teshuva Freakandquot;: Distinguishing Practies of Newly Orthodox Jews
9. Matisyahu and My Fair Lady: Reflections on Adult Language Socialization
Notes
Bibliography
Index