rutgers, the state university of new jersey the allen …

From the Director’s desk...

The 1999-2000 academic year was most productive and

rewarding for the Bildner Center. During this year, theCenter prepared for a major change in the academic program,

held wide-ranging public programs, co-sponsored a year-long

international research seminar, and planned major community

initiatives. We hope to share with our colleagues, friends, and

supporters some of the excitement that accompanies the

Center’s growth in meeting its multifaceted mission.This summer Rutgers took a major step forward by merging

the Jewish Studies Program and the Department of Hebraic

Studies into a single Department of Jewish Studies. This move

reflects the University’s confidence in the academic strength of

Jewish Studies and its future development. Students continue

to demonstrate their interest in Jewish Studies courses; wenow enter the new academic year with 20 majors and over 40

minors. Last Spring, the Center also recognized outstanding

students in Jewish Studies with a special scholarship award

ceremony that was well attended by families, faculty, and

donors.

Another important development this year was the researchseminar devoted to the study of democracy from comparative

and interdisciplinary perspectives. The weekly meetings

provided a highly productive forum for exploring the nature of

democracy and its future by an international group of partici-

pants. The Center’s two Visiting Fellows from Israel who

participated in this seminar also took part in the Center’soutreach programs and taught courses for the Jewish Studies

program. The Center will continue to provide visiting fellow-

ships as a means of fulfilling its goals to support research and

scholarship as well as strengthen its academic curriculum and

outreach activities.

The formal dedication of the Herbert and Leonard LittmanFamilies Holocaust Resource Center marked an important

development in our outreach mission. Following the dedication

ceremony at the Center, the Littman families, Rutgers Univer-

sity President, Dr. Francis L. Lawrence and his wife Mary Kay,

and other guests joined an audience of over 650 people for a

unique public performance entitled “Voices from

Thereisenstadt.” Another significant step in furthering the

development of the Holocaust Resource Center was the

formation of a new advisory committee of committed educa-

tors, Rutgers faculty, and community leaders that will helpguide its activities and growth.

Building a strong faculty base is essential for guaranteeing

the future of Jewish Studies. Thanks to a major gift by the

Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the new Department of

Jewish Studies has opened a search for the Blanche and Irving

Laurie Chair in Jewish history. With additional resources, theDepartment hopes to recruit more faculty in other areas of

Judaica vital for its curriculum. I hope you will enjoy learning

more about the Center’s programs in the following pages.

Wishing you a Happy New Year,

Yael Zerubavel, Director

Chair, Department of Jewish Studies

R U T G E R S , T H E S TA T E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W J E R S E Y

The Allen and Joan Bildner��Center for the Study of Jewish LifeANNUAL NEWSLETTER • NUMBER 4 • FALL 2000

I N S I D ECourses 2000-2001 ......................................................... 2New Courses ................................................................... 3Faculty Updates ............................................................... 4Faculty Profile .................................................................. 6Visiting Faculty 2000-2001 .............................................. 7Littman Families Dedicate Holocaust Resource Center .... 8Over 650 Attend “Voices from Theresientstadt” .............. 9Issues of Democracy examined at Rutgers .................... 10Rockoff Lecture Features Yaron Ezrahi .......................... 10Bloustein Memorial Lecture ExploresJewish Life in Poland ..................................................... 10Development News ........................................................ 13Student News ........................................................... 14-15Upcoming Programs 2000-2001 ................................... 16

2 • C E N T E R F O R T H E S T U D Y O F J E W I S H L I F E

Fall 2000 SemesterJewish Society & Culture I:From Antiquity to the MiddleAgesNancy Sinkoff

History of East EuropeanJewryNancy Sinkoff

Special Topics: Ritual,Mysticism and the Poetics ofJewish Life(mini-course 7 1/2 weeks)Michal Govrin

Special Topics:Jewish American Women:Contested IdentitiesLeslie Fishbein

German-Jewish Literature &Culture from the Enlighten-ment to the PresentKarina von Tippelskirch

Special Topics: Holocaustand the CinemaTerri Ginsberg

History of the HolocaustRebecca Kobrin

Israeli PoliticsMyron Aronoff

Classical Jewish PhilosophyLeonard Levin

Elementary Modern HebrewLily Levy, Orly Moshenberg,Akiva Roth

Intermediate Modern HebrewLily Levy, Akiva Roth

Elementary Modern YiddishJeffrey Shandler

Introduction to Hebrew Styleand LiteratureOrly Moshenberg

Modern Jewish LiteratureCurt Leviant

Hebrew Tales & Poetry (inHebrew)Curt Leviant

Holocaust Literature inTranslationCurt Leviant

Special Topics: YiddishFolklore & EthnographyJeffrey Shandler

Graduate Seminar: CulturalMemoryYael Zerubavel

Spring 2001SemesterJewish Society and CultureII: The Modern ExperienceRebecca Kobrin

Jewish Studies Seminar -Jewish MemoryYael Zerubavel

Special Topics: Introductionto TalmudLeonard Levin

Special Topics: IsraeliSocietyChaim Waxman

Israeli WomenOrna Sasson-Levy

American Jewish History &CultureMelissa Klapper

Blacks and Jews in AmericaDeborah White, Debra Schultz

Modern Jewish PhilosophyLeonard Levin

Arab-Israeli ConflictDina LeGall

History of the HolocaustTBA

Elementary Modern HebrewLily Levy, Orly Moshenberg,Akiva Roth

Intermediate Modern HebrewLily Levy, Akiva Roth

Elementary Modern YiddishJeffrey Shandler

Introduction to Hebrew Styleand LiteratureOrly Moshenberg

Yiddish Literature andCultureJeffrey Shandler

Jewish Experience in Lifeand StoryCurt Leviant

Hebrew Tales & Poetry (inHebrew)Curt Leviant

Jewish Cinema & FictionCurt Leviant

Literature & Spirituality: TheDevelopment of Anglo-Jewish Poetry, 1830-1998Daniel Harris

Courses 2000-2001

JEWISH STUDIES

JEWISH STUDIES FACULTY

Yael Zerubavel, HistoryChair, Jewish Studies

Myron Aronoff,Political Science

Matthew Baigell, Art HistoryWilliam Donahue, GermanMaurice Elias, PsychologyLeslie Fishbein,

American StudiesZiva Galili, History

Judith Gerson, SociologyDaniel A. Harris, EnglishDina LeGall, HistoryCurt Leviant, Hebrew LiteraturePhyllis Mack, HistoryMorris Moskowitz,

Yiddish LiteratureAlicia Ostriker, EnglishBarbara Reed, JournalismNancy Sinkoff, HistoryChaim I. Waxman, Sociology

HEBREW INSTRUCTORS

Lily LevyOrly MoshenbergAkiva Roth

AFFILIATED FACULTY

Steven Friedell

2000 GraduatesJEWISH STUDIESMAJORSTahlia AbelErica GrossMollie MandelJodi MednickAndres Y. MejerDara PapierLaura SimonAvi SlivkoJill Tanzman

HEBRAIC STUDIESMAJORSDavid CarusBenjamin GellisMichelle GresAviva Pollack

JEWISH STUDIESMINORSRachel KellermanAvi NavehKeren Rivlin

HEBRAIC STUDIESMINORSAdam BaffNaami DicksteinSara FreidenreichDavid GranoffMiriam JaffeOren LangerJason LefkowitzSally LermanEstee LiebermanDeena NovickJared SchultzNatania Schwartz

R U T G E R S , T H E S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W J E R S E Y • 3

Study Abroad in Israelduring the 1999-2000academic year

Maureen Anacovich, RC ’02University of HaifaSpring ’00

Geoffrey Borshof, LC ’01University of HaifaSpring ’00

Sherry Daneshrad,Newark ’00University of HaifaFall ’99

Sharon Green, RC ’02University of HaifaFall ’99

Boris Koyfman, RC ’02University of HaifaSpring ’00

Marshall Lesack, RC ’01Hebrew UniversitySpring ’00

Philip Levy, College ofEngineering, ’02Hebrew UniversitySpring ’00

SharonMarkowitz, RC ’01Ben-Gurion UniversitySpring ’00

Stephanie Pell, RC ’01Hebrew UniversityFall ’99 and Spring ’00

Rachel Sacharow, RC ’01University of HaifaSpring ’00

Oleg Savitsky,University College ’01University of HaifaSpring ’00

Alana Schultz, RC ’01Hebrew UniversitySpring ’00

Elissa Winkelstein, RC ’01Hebrew UniversitySpring ’00

Rebecca Wohl, RC ’01Ben-Gurion UniversitySpring ’00

New CoursesIsraeli SocietyChaim WaxmanThis course will entail an in-depthanalysis of contemporary Israel societybased on lectures, readings, and severalfilms. The topics covered in the coursewill include: the Zionist movement andthe establishment of the State of Israel,immigration and social change,ethnicity, social stratification, religion,politics, gender relations, Arabs inIsrael, and Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Introduction to TalmudLeonard LevinWhat is Talmud? It is law, theology,legend, logic and literature all in one.A close reading and analysis of the firstchapter of Tractate Berakhot (“Bless-ings”) will reveal all these facets, andwill help the student understand why,after the Bible, the Talmud has been themost formative book for Jewish religionand culture through the ages. In typicalfashion, the original topic (when doesone pray?) quickly leads to deeper levelsof inquiry (what is prayer all about?Why do we live in a world in whichprayer is necessary?). The student willgain familiarity with the personalitiesand general cultural-religious milieu ofTalmudic Judaism.

Special Topics: Ritual, Mysticism andthe Poetics of Jewish LifeMichal GovrinThe course will investigate Jewish Life,defined by Halachah and customs as ahighly detailed ritual language withunique poetics. The codified Jewish lifeencompasses almost every aspect ofhuman existence. It spans from birth todeath and from human relationshipswith God to the web of socialbehavior. In the Kabbalistic tradition,Jewish ritual is bestowed with mysticalor even magical meaning and power. Thecourse will examine a few exemplaryrituals and their poetics. It will espe-cially stress the potential link between

aspects of Jewish ritual and the processof artistic creation.

Special Topics: American JewishWomen:Contested LivesLeslie FishbeinThis course examines various Jewish-American women’s lives, primarilythrough autobiography, but also throughbiography, social history, literature, andfilm, to assess the interplay of religiousbelief, secularism, social mobility, andother acculturating influences withinthe American experience.

Special Topics: Yiddish Folklore &EthnographyJeffrey ShandlerThis course surveys the wide range ofYiddish folk culture—includingfolktales, proverbs, traditional drama,songs, klezmer music, humor, andmaterial culture—from the seventeenthcentury to the present. The course alsoexamines how folklore has beenintegrated into modern Yiddish litera-ture and culture and how modernethnographers document traditionalfolkways. No knowledge of Yiddishrequired.

Special Topics: Yiddish Literature andCulture (in translation)Jeffrey ShandlerThis course examines the range ofmodern Yiddish literary and culturalactivities among Jews living in EasternEurope and America from the late

nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. Readings includeprose fiction, poetry, and drama bymajor writers (including SholemAleichem, Y. L. Peretz, Sholem Asch,Yankev Glatshteyn, I.J. Singer, IsaacBashevis Singer), as well as materialsrelated to Yiddish theater, film, languagepolicy, education, politics, and scholar-ship.

Cultural Memory (Graduate Course)Yael ZerubavelThis seminar focuses on the culturalproduction of the past and the politics ofcommemoration from a cross-cultural,comparative perspective. The courseexplores the relation between historyand memory, the transformation oftradition, and the emergence of counter-memories. It examines the role of “sitesof memory,” such as memorial books,monuments, museums, calendars,memorial rituals, and pilgrimages inshaping collective memory as well as theimpact of technology, media, andtourism on its commercialization andtrivialization.

For questions or furtherinformation regarding theacademic program, contactArlene Goldstein at (732)932-3571 or e-mail:[email protected].


Myron Aronoff’s book The Spy Novels ofJohn le Carré: Balancing Ethics andPolitics (1999) was nominated for theModern Language Association award forDistinguished Scholarly Editions and forthe Edgar Allan Poe Award for non-fiction from the Mystery Writers ofAmerica. The paperback edition is inproduction with St. Martin’s Press. Herecently published “Political Violenceand Extremism” Review essay in IsraelStudies, Vol.4, no. 2 (Fall 1999) 237-46and “The ‘Americanization’ of IsraeliPolitics: Political and Cultural Change,”Israel Studies, vol.5, no.1 (2000).Aronoff gave a talk on “Post-Zionism andOther Challenges to the DominantZionist Discourse” for the The AmericanJewish Committee, New York, NY(March 2000). He presented papers atthe Annual Meeting of the Middle EastStudies Association, Washington, D.C.(November 1999); the conference on“Toward a Sociology of Culture &Cognition,” Rutgers University (Novem-ber 1999); and the Annual Meeting ofthe Association for Israel Studies, TelAviv University, Israel (June 2000). Hewas a member of the organizingcommittee and a discussant for aconference on “Zionism: a Transitory orPermanent National Framework” at theBen-Gurion Research Center, Israel.

Matthew Baigell published Artist andIdentity in 20th Century America(Cambridge University Press, 2000), atwo-volume collection of his essays, andco-edited Complex Identities: JewishConsciousness and Modern Art(Rutgers University Press, 2000) withMilly Heyd of the Hebrew University.Baigell gave the following lectures:“American Impressionism,” Milburn Pub-lic Library (October 1999); “MarsdenHartley’s America,” Brooks Museum of Artin Memphis, TN (October 1999); “ThomasHart Benton in the 1930s,” Bruce Museum,Greenwich, CT (March 2000); and “RecentJewish Art,” Anshe Emeth Synagogue,New Brunswick (March 2000).

William Donahue published “The Endof History: ‘Eschatology’ in EliasCanetti’s Masse und Macht,” Fin desiècle-Fin du millénaire:Endzeitstimmungen in derdeutschsprachigen Literatur, Tübingen:Stauffenburg (2000) Helmut Koopmannand Hans-Jörg Knobloch, eds.; “DieBlendung (1935; Auto-da-Fé),” and“Masse und Macht (1960; Crowds andPower),” Encyclopedia of GermanLiterature, Michael Konzett, ed.Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn (2000); “TheReal ‘Tora Connection’ in BarbaraHonigmann’s Soharas Reise,” inSchreiben im heutigen Deutschland,Ursula Beitter, ed. (2000); “BeyondCultural Literacy: ‘Interactive Autobiog-raphy’ as Holocaust Pedagogy” inShedding Light on the Darkness: NorthAmerican Germanists Teach theHolocaust, Miriam Jokiniemi and NancyA. Lauckner, eds. New York: Berghahn(2000): 211-224; and “Die Blendung:Elias Canetti’s ‘Viennese’ Novel,”Sprachkunst: Beiträge zurLiteraturwissenschaft (AustrianAcademy of Arts and Sciences) 30.2(1999): 247-270. Donahue was a Fellowand Pew Scholar at the ErasmusInstitute for the Humanities and SocialSciences, University of Notre Dameduring the 1999-2000 academic year. Hewas awarded the FAS Teaching Award inSpring 1999.

Maurice Elias recently became amember of the Professional AdvisoryBoard of the New Jersey Commission onHolocaust Education. Last Spring, hetaught an honors seminar on GrowingUp Jewish in America: Historical,Psychological, and Spiritual Identity,Culture, and the Role of Childhood.Elias presented a paper with Dr. JeffKress on Jewish adolescent identitydevelopment at the annual conferenceof the Jewish Research Network at theJewish Theological Seminary in NewYork, NY (June 2000).

Leslie Fishbein presented a paper on“From Shtetl Tochters to Ghetto Girls:The Transformation of Jewish Women onthe Lower East Side” to the Businessand Professional Women of the JewishFederation of Greater Monmouth County(October 1999). She introduced the filmAmerica and the Holocaust: Deceit andIndifference at the Monroe TownshipPublic Library (May 2000). Under theauspices of the New Jersey Council forthe Humanities, Fishbein gave talks atthe Paper Mill Playhouse (November1999), the Jewish Community Center ofMiddlesex County (February 2000), theSouth River Public Library for BrandeisWomen (April 2000), the JewishCongregation of Concordia for theJewish Family Service of SouthernMiddlesex County (May 2000), and theMonmouth County Library for theNational Council of Jewish Women (May2000).

Judith Gerson gave a presentation on“German Jewish Life in New York City”to a visiting delegation from Wiesbaden,Germany in New York (May 2000).Gerson co-organized a session andpresented a paper on “A Sociology ofHolocaust/Post-Holocaust Life” at themeeting of the American SociologicalAssociation (August 2000).

Daniel Harris’s educational program,JEWISH VOICES: 200 YEARS OFPOETRY IN ENGLISH, has been greetedwith enthusiasm in the Mid-Atlanticregion. During the last year , he gavepresentations and short courses at over30 synagogues and cultural Jewish sitesincluding the Katz Jewish CommunityCenter, Cherry Hill and the Holocaustand Genocide Research Center atBrookdale Community College in NewJersey; Congregation Emanu-El in NewYork City; and Congregation Beth AmIsrael in Penn Valley, PA. Harris’slectures on Jewish-American and Anglo-Jewish poetry, dating back to about1800, have included texts characteristi-

FACULTY UPDATES


cally excluded from mainstreamanthologies. He has spoken on EmmaLazarus, Karl Shapiro, Isaac Rosenberg,Delmore Schwartz, Adrienne Rich, thepoetry of immigration, Jewish women’spoetry, Palestine and Israel, and theShoah. He addresses problems of poeticrepresentation, modern midrashim,Jewish poems on urban themes, poemsabout Jewish family relations, and theportrayal of Jews in institutions such aschurches and universities. Harris hasalso introduced congregations tomodern liturgical poetry.

Dina LeGall gave a Munir ErtegunFoundation Lecture on the “NaqshbandiSufi Brotherhood and the OttomanStruggle Against the Kizilbash” atPrinceton University (February 2000)and presented a paper on “NaqshbandiIdentity” at the Third Biennial Confer-ence of the Society for Iranian Studies,Bethesda, MD (May 2000). She partici-pated in a NEH Summer Institute on“Women and Gender History in GlobalPerspective” at Rutger’s Institute forResearch on Women (July 2000), andpresented two papers on women andgender in Islamic history. LeGall’s bookreview of Arthur Buehler’s Sufi Heirs ofthe Prophet was published in the MiddleEast Studies Association Bulletin, 33,no. 2 (Winter 1999). She was a visitingfellow at the Department of NearEastern Studies, Princeton University inthe fall of 1999.

Phyllis Mack presented a paper on“Motherhood and Spirituality in EarlyModern England” at Holloway Collegeand the University of London inEngland. She also gave a talk on“Religion and the Enlightenment” atCornell University. She completedrevisions on a forthcoming book entitledIn God’s Name: Genocide and Religionin the 20th Century, co-edited withOmer Bartov, to be published byBerghahn Books.

Alicia Ostriker’s “Jephthah’s Daughter:A Lament” appeared in Bridges: AJournal for Jewish Feminists and ourFriends, Vol. 8, 2000. Her volume ofessays, Dancing at the Devil’s Party:Essays on Poetry, Politics and theErotic (University of Michigan Press,2000), includes an essay on “AllenGinsberg: The Poet as Jew.” She taughtweeklong Midrash writing workshops atthe Institute for Contemporary Midrash,Camp Isabella Friedman, CT and atAleph Kallah, Corvallis, OR (Summer1999); and a half-day workshop at theWomen’s Institute for Continuing JewishEducation, San Diego, CA (April 2000).Ostriker gave a lecture series on“Midrash Today” at the Anshe EmethMemorial Temple, New Brunswick(January-February 2000).

Barbara Straus Reed published threechapters in “The Civil War and thePress,” edited by David B. Sachsman, S.Kittrell Rushing, and Debra Reddin vanTuyll (Transaction Press, 1999).Shespoke on narrow casting in broadcastingat the regional convention of the Societyof Professional Journalists. Reeddiscussed civic education and democ-racy in the journalism curriculum at themeeting of the New Jersey Communica-tion Association (April 2000).She waselected to the national office of theAssociation for Education in Journalismand Mass Communication, serving on itsstanding committee on ProfessionalFreedom and Responsibility. Reed servedas a judge for the American Jewish PressAssociation’s annual competition.

Nancy Sinkoff published “BenjaminFranklin in Jewish Eastern Europe:Cultural Appropriation in the Age of theEnlightenment,” Journal of the Historyof Ideas 61.1 (January 2000): 133-152and “Triestine Jewry: The Exceptionthat Proves the Habsburg State-BuildingRule,” a review of Lois C. Dubin, ThePort Jews of Habsburg Trieste: Absolut-ist Politics and Enlightenment Culture

on HABSBURG, H-Net Reviews, May 24,2000. Sinkoff presented the followingpapers: “Between Hasidism andAtheistic Rationalism: Moderating theJewish Enlightenment in EasternEurope” at the “Utopia, Violence,Resistance: Remaking and UnmakingHumanity” seminar at the RutgersCenter for Historical Analysis (Novem-ber 1999); “Of Beards, Divorce andInterest: Joseph Perl as Historian ofJewish Law,” in a panel on HabsburgJewry at the annual conference for theAssociation for Jewish Studies (Decem-ber 1999); and “Between History andLaw: The Case of Joseph Perl inAustrian Galicia,” at the SecondInternational Conference on the Historyof the Jewish Enlightenment, Bar-IlanUniversity, Israel (April 2000).

Chaim Waxman co-authored theHistorical Dictionary of Zionism(Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2000).He also published “Language andIdentity Among America’s Jews,” inDavid Zisenwine and David Schers, eds.,Present and Future: Jewish Culture,Identity and Language, Tel-Aviv: Tel-Aviv University (1999); “The ‘American-ization’ of Israel: A Demographic,Cultural and Political Evaluation” (withUzi Rebhun), Israel Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1(Spring 2000). Waxman presentedpapers at the Annual Congress of theInternational Institute of Sociology, Tel-Aviv University (July 1999); the Van LeerInstitute, Jerusalem (July 1999); theconference on “Establishing A ResearchAgenda for the Jewish Community,”sponsored by the Mandell L. BermanInstitute - North American Jewish DataBank, City University of New YorkGraduate Center (October 1999); theJewish Community Center of CentralNew Jersey, Scotch Plains, NJ (March2000); and at the Orthodox Forum inNew York (April 2000). Waxman chaireda session on “The Israeli-Palestinian

Continued on page 6


FACULTYwelfare.” It led to the topic for his doctoral dissertation, whichgrew into his 1977 book, The Stigma of Poverty.

A 1960s rise in ethnic consciousness and the Six Day War inIsrael helped refocus his work. At a 1967 convention of socio-political groups he was involved in, he found “very little, if any,empathy with Israel. I just felt abandoned by those veryorganizations I felt so close to. I changed my focus and becamemore and more interested in looking at Jews in America,” andmore recently, at Jews in Israel. Waxman visits Israel fre-quently where his three children and 13 grandchildren nowlive.

Waxman has published a book, which he co-edited with Dr.Uzi Rebhun of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, on Jews inIsrael.The book will examine central issues of the Jewishsociety in Israel over the last two decades. The approach ofWaxman and Rebhun to understanding Jewish life in Israel islargely interdisciplinary and they focus on the behaviors ofpeople, rather than institutions or organizations, within varioussocial, cultural and political realms.

The professor delights in his interactions with students. “I thinkjust being able to hear their ideas, to express my ideas, to some-times see their eyes light up when they see something they haven’tbefore and they understand things in a new way. I love teaching.I just find all of that very fascinating - very rewarding.”

FACULTY PROFILE

Chaim Waxman

Religion, a strong sense of socialwelfare, and events in Israel have

helped shape the life and work of Dr.Chaim I. Waxman, professor of sociologyat Rutgers who is widely known for his

teaching, research and writing.As one of the faculty members who initiated the Jewish

Studies Program, which recently became a university depart-ment, Waxman has been teaching a course on the Sociology ofAmerican Jewish Religious Movements. He will be teaching anew course on Israeli Society next Spring.

Waxman’s research into subjects as varied as poverty, Arabideology, changes in American Jewry, and politics of religion inIsrael has resulted in about a hundred publications. HistoricalDictionary of Zionism co-authored with Dr. Raphael Medoffand Jewish Baby Boomers: A Communal Perspective areamong his recent publications. Waxman said, Jewish BabyBoomers is based on the 1990 Jewish Population Survey ofrespondents born between 1945-65, comparing them toAmerican baby boomers in other religious and ethnic groupsand to American Jews born 1925-45. “I wanted to see how theJewish baby boomers differ from others. What I found was thatdistinct Jewish patterns are decreasing and they are increas-ingly similar to other American baby boomers of similar socio-economic status,” he said. “The findings have significantimplications for the organized American Jewish communitybecause they indicate decreasing communal identification.”

The professor said a combination of things led to his currentprofessional specialization in the sociology of religion andethnicity. His youthful goal was to be a criminal lawyer likeClarence Darrow and Perry Mason. A required college courseintroduced him to sociology.

“I’ve focused on the things I’ve studied and been involved inpersonally. Being Jewish is a combination of religion andethnicity,” Waxman said. “I was raised in a family where religionplayed a strong role.” His father, Nissan Waxman, was a rabbi.Studying under Peter L. Berger whom Waxman considers one ofthe most prominent theoreticians in the sociology of religion,“sparked tremendous interest in me in the subject of religion.”

Waxman initially focused on social welfare. He graduatedfrom Yeshiva University, New York, in 1963 and went on to earnmaster’s and doctoral degrees at The New School for SocialResearch, New York. Jobs with the New York City Departmentof Welfare and the Federal Office of Economic Opportunity,“left me completely frustrated with the structure of the welfaredepartment,” he said, “but, I gained insight and empathy formany of my clients. This got me into poverty and social

Conflict in Historical Perspective” at the annual conference ofthe Association for Israel Studies, Tel-Aviv University (June 2000).

Yael Zerubavel’s new articles include “Revisiting the PioneerPast: Continuity and Change in Hebrew Settlement Narratives”Hebrew Studies 41: (Fall 2000); “Rachel and the Female Voice:Labor, Gender, and the Zionist Pioneer Vision,” a volume inhonor of Arnold Band’s 70th Birthday, edited by David C.Jacobson and William Cutter. Brown Judaic Studies Series(forthcoming); “Female Images in a State of War: Ideology,Crisis, and the Politics of Gender in Israel,” in Amir Weiner, ed.Modernity and Population Management in the 20th Century,”Stanford University Press (in press); and a book review,“Monuments for Fallen Soldiers: The Culture of Commemora-tion in Israel,” Katedra 94 (1999):182-84 (in Hebrew).Zerubavel was a Visiting Fellow and gave a series of lectures atthe Ecole Pratique des Haute Etudes, Sorbonne, during Spring2000. She presented the following papers: “The Desert as aHistorical Metaphor,” a symposium on “Landscapes of History,”Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis (October 1999); “TheBinding of Isaac and the Patriotic Martyr: Contested Represen-

Faculty UpdatesContinued from page 5


VISITING FACULTY 2000-2001Michal Govrin is an Israeli writer, poetand theater director. She received herPh.D. from the University of Pariswhere she studied Jewish Ritual andTheater. Govrin has published six booksof fiction and poetry and her criticaland personal essays on the theater, theHolocaust and contemporary Jewishtheology have appeared in magazinesand anthologies in several languages.Since the early 1970s, Govrin has been

considered a leading creator of experimental Jewish theaterand literature through her avante-garde poetics which drawupon Talmudic, Kabbalistic and liturgical sources. She is thelaureate of several literary prizes, most recently The 1999Prime Minister Prize for Writers in Israel. Her novel, The Name(HaShem), received the 1997 Kugel Literary Prize and wasnominated for the 2000 Koret Jewish Book Award. Govrin alsoteaches at The School of Visual Theater, and is the honoraryhead of the Theater Department at Emuna Women’s College inJerusalem. As the Aresty Visiting Fellow at the Center and aWriter-In-Residence, she will be teaching a new course on Ritual,Mysticism and the Poetics of Jewish Life during Fall 2000.

Jeffrey Shandler is a scholar of modern Jewish culture. Heholds a Ph.D. in Yiddish Studies from Columbia University andwas a Dorot Teaching Fellow at the Skirball Department ofHebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University as well as apost-doctoral fellow at the Annenberg School of Communica-tion and the Center for Judaic Studies at the University ofPennsylvania. Shandler has written and lectured widely onsuch topics as Jewish culture, modern Yiddish literature,American responses to the Holocaust, and the role that mediaplays in modern Jewish life. Shandler’ s book, While AmericaWatches: T elevising the Holocaust (Oxford University Press,1999) is a full-length study of the presentation of the Holocauston television in all genres of broadcasting from the late 1940s

to the end of the twentieth century. Shandler was the curatorof exhibitions and media programs at the National JewishArchive of Broadcasting at the Jewish Museum in New York,the YIVO Institute, and the National Museum of AmericanJewish History in Philadelphia. As the Center’ s Smart FamilyFellow, Shandler will be teaching Yiddish Language coursesand courses on Yiddish culture, literature, and folklore duringthe upcoming academic year.

Tamar Katriel is a professor in the Departments of Educationand Communication and the former Chair of the Department ofCommunication at the University of Haifa. She received herPh.D. from the Department of Speech Communication at theUniversity of Washington, Seattle. Katriel has held visitingappointments at the University of Pennsylvania, the Universityof Texas at Austin, Northwestern University, Arizona StateUniversity, The Getty Center for the Study of the Humanities,and the Advanced Studies Institute at the Hebrew University.Her research and teaching focus on the ethnography ofcommunication, intercultural communication and anthropo-logical approaches to the study of children and youth. Katriel’swork includes research on Israeli speech styles and culturalsymbolism, Israeli children’s peer group culture, and therhetoric of educational discourse in such domains as schools,youth movements, museums and media. Her most recent bookis Milot Mafte’ach: Dfusei Tarbut Vetikshore Beisrael (Patternsof Culture and Communication in Israel) (University of HaifaPress, 1999). Katriel will be conducting an ethnographic studyof Jewish education in area schools while at Rutgers during the2000-2001 academic year.

Orna Sasson-Levy is a doctoral candidate in the department ofSociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University ofJerusalem, where she is completing her dissertation on theconstructions of gender identities within the Israeli Army. HerM.A. thesis, which offered a feminist and organizationalanalysis of a protest movement in Israel, won the OutstandingThesis Award from the Israel Anthropology Association in 1995.Sasson-Levy will be teaching a course on Israeli Women atRutgers during Spring 2001.

Michal Govrin

tations of Heroism and Sacrifice in Israeli Culture,” PrincetonUniversity (March 2000); “Utopia: Between Good and Evil,”sponsored by the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis (March2000); “Mythical Sites, Symbolic Meaning: The Case of theDesert,” an international conference at Ben-Gurion University(June 2000); “Death on the Altar: Transforming Representa-tions of Patriotic Sacrifice in Israeli Culture” at the annual

meeting of the Association for Israel Studies (June 2000). Shewas co-organizer and moderator of a conference on “TheNature of Community in Judaism,” co-sponsored by Rutgers andUnited Jewish Federation of MetroWest (October 1999) andgave several community lectures in New Jersey, New York, andAtlanta, GA. She continues to serve on the Board of Directors ofthe Association for Jewish Studies and the Board of theAssociation for Israel Studies. She also serves on the EditorialBoard of the journal Israel Studies and the Association forIsrael Studies Review.

Faculty UpdatesContinued from page 6


From the Associate DirectorOver the past year, the Center’s community outreach experiencedsignificant growth in its breadth and scope. The array of interna-tional scholars and speakers presented by the Center served toenhance the academic and public programs. Attendance at theCenter’s events increased dramatically as more people learned oftheir quality and diversity. We are particularly proud of theproduction “Voices from Theresienstadt,” the Center’s first forayinto the cultural arena. The overwhelming attendance of this eventhighlighted the importance of the Holocaust Resource Center atRutgers and the interest in its mission.

Several new community ventures are projected for the upcomingprogram year. The first annual Central New Jersey Jewish FilmFestival opens on Sunday, November 5. The festival schedule ofinternational award winning films, filmmakers, and speakers, addsa new dimension to the Center’s program. Another new project onthe agenda for the Center is an innovative statewide initiative forJewish Federation Leadership. This collaborative effort will engagelay and professional leaders in statewide creative problem-solving.Among other topics planned for next year are lectures on IsraeliArt, Yiddish in America, German women, and Black-Jewishrelationships.

—Karen Small

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Littman Families Dedicate Holocaust Resource Center

public service. “We felt we were in a position to

make a large contribution and putmoney back into the community that hasbeen so supportive of us our entire lives.It is important that people never forgetthe Holocaust,” he said.

The Holocaust Resource Center wasestablished in 1997 to teach future

Leonard Littman, Barbara Littman, President Francis Lawrence, Linda Littman,Herbert Littman and Yael Zerubavel dedicate the Herbert and Leonard LittmanFamilies Holocaust Resource Center.

It is now the Herbert and LeonardLittman Families Holocaust Resource

Center (HRC) at the Allen and JoanBildner Center for the Study of JewishLife at Rutgers.

The HRC was rededicated in Febru-ary in honor of two families who havebeen prominent supporters of philan-thropic organizations and communityactivities throughout Central NewJersey. Rutgers President, Francis L.Lawrence, and Center Director, YaelZerubavel, were among the speakers atthis special celebration.

Last year, Herbert (RU ’52) andLeonard Littman provided a $350,000endowment to name the HolocaustCenter. “It was one of the value choiceswe wanted to make,” said LeonardLittman who, with his brother Herbert,returned from military service in the1950s to build Littman Jewelers into thelargest family owned jewelry chain inthe United States and the seventhlargest jeweler.

Leonard and Barbara Littman ofHighland Park and Herbert and LindaLittman, formerly of Watchung and nowBoca Raton, Fla., have a long history of

generations about the Holocaust bytraining educators and providing educa-tional materials to teachers, students andscholars. The Center’s activitiesenhance public awareness of theHolocaust and promote discussion ofracism, genocide, discrimination andthe importance of protecting humanrights.


Over 650 attend “Voicesfrom Theresienstadt”“Voices From Theresienstadt,” amonodrama with music, launched theinauguration of the Herbert and LeonardLittman Families Holocaust ResourceCenter (HRC) on February 8. The play isbased on the poetry of Ilse HerlingerWeber, a victim of the Holocaust.“Voices” is the story of five fictionalJewish women whose paths cross in theTheresienstadt ghetto where Weberwrote her final poetry.

Skillfully performed by the Norwegianactress, Bente Kahan, the one-womanplay which she co-authored wasproduced by the Bildner Center incooperation with the Edward J.Bloustein School of Planning and PublicPolicy and the Mason Gross School ofthe Arts. The event was the Ruth EllenSteinman Bloustein Memorial Concert.

HOLOCAUST RESOURCE CENTERADVISORY COMMITTEE

Coordinator:Karen Small

Dr. William FernekesProf. Hans FisherHerbert GilsenbergDr. Mary Jean GuidetteDavid Jefferson

Harris, Jr.Devorah HilsenrathDr. Norman Kansfield

In line with the Center’s commitmentto Holocaust education, the full produc-tion was given as a free public perfor-mance in the Nicholas Music Center,New Brunswick. The performanceattracted over 650 people, the largestprogram yet sponsored by the BildnerCenter. That afternoon, seventh- andeighth-graders at the Paul RobesonCommunity School, New Brunswick, sawa 20-minute excerpt from the play,which was followed by a discussion withMs. Kahan. “It is important to us thatstudents be exposed to different ways oflearning about the Holocaust,” said KarenSmall, who coordinates the activities ofthe Holocaust Resource Center.

The Center’s presentation grew out ofa search by Rutgers Professor Hans Fisher(RU ’50) for the author of a storybook hehad loved during his childhood in pre-Holocaust Germany. He learned about

Weber’s death at Auschwitz, met hersurviving son and obtained a volume ofher last poems. When the Fishersdiscovered Kahan’s recording of “VoicesFrom Theresienstadt” in a Jewishbookstore in Berlin they brought it tothe Center’s attention.

Bente Kahan performs for students atthe Paul Robeson Community School

Steven W. KatzDr. Munr KazmirDr. Penelope LattimerMurray J. Laulicht, Esq.Herbert LittmanLeonard LittmanProf. Ruth B. MandelProf. Clement PriceTurbi SmilowProf. Yael Zerubavel

Judy Weiss (DC ’52), Yael Zerubavel, David Weiss, Joan Bildner,Allen Bildner and Sima Jelin Lichtman at David Weiss’s talk on hisbook “Reluctant Return: A Survivor’s Journey to Austria”

■ WORKSHOP FOR TEACHERS —�Images of the Holocaust in TV and FilmApril 7, 2000• Hollywood’s Impact on Holocaust Memory, Alan Mintz,Brandeis University• The Holocaust in Prime Time TV, Jeffrey Shandler, New YorkUniversity• Adolescent Perspectives on the Holocaust, Mary Johnson,Facing History and Ourselves• Utilizing Holocaust Images in the Classroom, Panel Discussion

■ FOUR WEEK MINI-COURSE — The Holocaust: An OverviewTaught by Israel Bartal, March 2000 — Through lectures, films anddiscussion, the mini-course addressed the major themes of theHolocaust including flight, destruction, resistance, and rescue.

Resource Library — The Holocaust Resource Center isbuilding a collection of reference and history books,memoirs, journals, instructional materials, and video-tapes of survivors’ testimonies and documentary, andother films relating to the Holocaust. Thanks to the gen-erosity of the Laurie Foundation, the Library alsohouses the Jewish Heritage Video Collection, which in-cludes 200 videotapes of Jewish interest. A computerstation and CD-Roms are available for individual studyor preview purposes. The Resource Center is open toeducators, students, and community members.

1 0 • C E N T E R F O R T H E S T U D Y O F J E W I S H L I F E

COMMUNITY OUTREACHIssues ofDemocracyexamined atRutgers

Ayear long seminar on Cultures ofDemocracy and Democratization:

Israel, Eastern Europe and Beyond,offered in conjunction with the Centerfor Russian, Central and East EuropeanStudies at Rutgers, was the Center’s first

Bloustein MemorialLecture Explores JewishLife in PolandKonstanty Gebert, one of Poland’s leading social and

political analysts, delivered The Third Annual Ruth EllenSteinman Bloustein & Edward J. Bloustein Memorial Lectureon The Revival of Jewish Life in Poland. Gebert is the founderand editor in chief of Midrasz, the only Jewish monthlypublished in Poland. An organizer of the unofficial “JewishFlying University” in the 1970s, he gained prominence as adissident journalist during martial law, writing under the nameof Dawid Warszawski. Gebert described the complexities ofliving in a small yet thriving Jewish community in Warsaw thatsupports a Jewish day school but has no kosher food available.During a lively exchange following the talk, members of theaudience questioned Gebert on how Jews continue to live inPoland after the Holocaust.

Rockoff lecture features Yaron EzrahiYaron Ezrahi, Senior Fellow at the Israel DemocracyInstitute and Professor of Political Science at the HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem delivered the Inaugural Ruth andAlvin Rockoff Annual Lecture. Professor Ezrahi’s talk,entitled “Democratization and its Opponents in Contempo-rary Israel,” addressed the dilemmas of Israeli democracy:Israel’s dual commitment to the Jewish people and itsvision of democracy. His talk drew a large audience andwas followed by an engaging discussion and a reception.

James Hughes (Dean, Bloustein School of Planning andPublic Policy), Yael Zerubavel, Jan Kubik (Director, Center forRussian, Central, and East European Studies), KonstantyGebert (editor, Midrasz), Myron Aronoff (Professor ofPolitical Science)

major research project. The goal of theseminar was to compare the role ofvarious collective identities in theongoing formation and reformation ofpolitical cultures in Israel and suchdemocratizing states as Poland,Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.Professors Myron J. Aronoff and JanKubik coordinated the seminar.According to Aronoff, “the internationalgroup of scholars were concerned withvery similar problems and the uniqueinterdisciplinary approach lent to the

success of the seminar.” Participantsfocusing on the study of Israelincluded Professors Israel Bartal andIlan Peleg and graduate students EzraKopelowitz and Gadi Taub. Otherseminar participants included visitingscholars from the U.S. and Europe,Rutgers faculty, and advanced graduatestudents. Renowned guest scholarsinvited to address the seminar includedLech Welesa, Konstanty Gebert, andProfessors Yaron Ezrahi, Joel Midgal,and Robert Hayden.

Yael Zerubavel, Yaron Ezrahi, Ruth and Alvin Rockoff(RU ’49)

R U T G E R S , T H E S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W J E R S E Y • 1 1

‘The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg’screening, Sharon Karmazin (DC ’67,SCILS ’69) spoke about her father. Shesaid “he had a lot of pride in Jewishathletes and followed their careers. TheHank Greenberg film is a wonderfultribute to his memory.” As America’sfirst Jewish baseball star, Greenberghelped break down barriers of discrimi-nation in American sports and society.

The film also served as a preview forthe upcoming Central New JerseyJewish Film Festival, sponsored by theBildner Center, which will premiere theweek of November 5 - 12. The festival,featuring international award winning

Other Lectures & Programs

The Nature of Community in JudaismOctober 24, 1999One-day conference co-sponsored with theJewish Education Association of the UnitedJewish Federation of MetroWest.(See photo, pg. 12)

Creativity, Kabbalah and the MysticalExperienceOctober 26, 1999Speakers: Moshe Idel, Max CooperProfessor of Jewish Thought, the HebrewUniversity & award-winning Israeli writer,Michal Govrin.The public lecture was preceded by a studysession with Moshe Idel on Varieties ofKabbalah Today: Old and New.

Jews and Addictions: The ParticularProblem of GamblingOctober 28, 1999Rabbi Eric Lankin, Executive Director of theNew Jersey Region of the United Syna-gogue of Conservative Judaism, co-sponsored with Hillel.

Prayer, Poetry and Women’s SpiritualityNovember 7, 1999Readings by Shirley Kaufman, poet, GalitHasan Rokem, poet and professor at theHebrew University; and lecture by ChavaWeissler, Philip and Muriel Berman Chair ofJewish Civilization, Lehigh University.

Inventing the Past: The Ultra-OrthodoxResponse to ZionismNovember 17, 1999Israel Bartal, The Hebrew University &Rutgers Visiting Senior Fellow.

Reluctant Return: A Survivor’s Journey toan Austrian TownNovember 21, 1999David W. Weiss, author and ProfesssorEmeritus, Hadassah Medical School

Comparing Israeli and German Responsesto the Holocaust in ArtFebruary 22, 2000Ziva Amishai-Maisels, the Alice and EdwardG. Winant Chair for Art History, The HebrewUniversity.

Is Life Beautiful? Can the Holocaust beFunny? Notes on Older and Newer FilmsMarch 1, 2000Sander L. Gilman, Henry R. Luce Distin-guished Service Professor of the LiberalArts in Human Biology, University ofChicago, co-sponsored with the Rutgers’Department of Germanic Languages andLiteratures.

A Cross and A Star: Growing Up Jewish inLatin America; the Inaugural RaoulWallenberg Annual Lecture funded by theCooperman FamilyMarch 30, 2000Marjorie Agosin, author and professorWellesley College.

The Problem of Evil in the BibleApril 4, 2000Edward Greenstein, Tel Aviv University.The public lecture was preceded by a studysession on the Book of Job.

Jewish Culture Wars: Changing AttitudesTowards Religion and Ethnicity amongAmerican and Israeli JewsApril 12, 2000Ezra Kopelowitz, The Syril and NormanReitman Visiting Fellow at Rutgers.

Craig Karmazin, Sharon Karmazin andDina K. Elkins at the reception for theAbram Matlofsky Memorial Programfunded by the Karma Foundation

It was a full house at the screening ofthe “The Life and Times of Hank

Greenberg” on Sunday, June 4. AvivaKempner, the writer, producer anddirector, introduced the film andengaged in a discussion with theaudience following the screening. Theevent was the Inaugural AbramMatlofsky Memorial Program, fundedby the Karma Foundation in memory ofSharon Karmazin’s father, and presentedunder the auspices of the Bildner Centerand the Rutgers Film Co-op/New JerseyMedia Arts Center.

At a special reception prior to the

Shirley Kaufman (Poet) and GalitHasan Rokem (Poet and Professor atHebrew University) confer at thePrayer, Poetry and Women’s Spiritual-ity program

films, is made possible through agenerous contribution from the KarmaFoundation.


COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Toby and Leon Cooperman, Marjorie Agosin, Yael Zerubaveland Karen Small at the inaugural Raoul Wallenberg Lectureendowed by the Cooperman Family Foundation

Participants in the conference on The Nature of Communityin Judaism: Seated (l to r): Ismar Schorsch (Chancellor,Jewish Theological Seminary); Robert Chazan (New YorkUniversity); and Lawrence Schiffman (New York University);Standing (l to r): Wallace Green (UJA of Bergen County andNorth Hudson); Sylvia Barack Fishman (Brandeis Univer-sity); William Neigher (United Jewish Federation ofMetroWest); Yael Zerubavel.

Visiting Scholars EnhanceCenter’s Programs

This year, the Center was privileged to benefitfrom the scholarship of its Visiting Fellows, Israel

Bartal and Ezra Kopelowitz. Their contributions tothe Jewish Studies curriculum and the Center’s activi-ties have greatly enriched the intellectual and academiclife at Rutgers and the surrounding communities.

Israel Bartal, former chair of the Department ofJewish History at Hebrew University, served as aSenior Fellow at the Bildner Center this year.Professor Bartal’s research in the area of the pre-Zionist Jewish community in Palestine, and thehistory and culture of Polish Jewry greatly enhancedthis year’s Jewish Studies curriculum. In the fall, hetaught a course on the History of Zionism, and in thespring semester, a non-credit mini-course for high-school teachers on the Holocaust. Professor Bartalwas one of a select group of scholars who partici-pated in a year-long international research seminarfocusing on the challenges facing democracy.

As part of the Center’s outreach initiative,Professor Bartal presented a thought-provokinglecture at Rutgers entitled, “Inventing the Past: TheUltra-Orthodox Response to Zionism.” The Centersponsored several community lectures delivered byProfessor Bartal, which included talks at theHighland Park Conservative Temple, and at theJewish Community Center of Central New Jersey.

Ezra Kopelowitz, the Norman and Syril ReitmanVisiting Scholar, recently submitted his dissertationto the department of Sociology and Anthropology atthe Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Kopelowitzutilized his research in many venues includingteaching a course on Israeli Politics during the springsemester. He also served as an active participant inthe international research seminar on democracy. Asthe inaugural Norman and Syril Reitman VisitingFellow, he delivered a talk on, “Jewish Culture Wars:Changing Attitudes Towards Religion and EthnicityAmong American and Israeli Jews,” which wasattended by over 120 people. Kopelowitz deliveredseveral community lectures sponsored by the Center,including a talk in conjunction with Jewish FamilyService’s Russian refugee program, and a lecture atthe Highland Park Conservative Temple.

Norman (RC ’32) and Syril(DC ’33) Reitman with EzraKopelowitz, the firstNorman and Syril ReitmanFellow who delivered a talkon Jewish Culture Wars:Changing AttitudesTowards Religion andEthnicity Among Americanand Israeli Jews


DEVELOPMENT

Campaign Leadership

Campaign Co-chairsJoan BildnerAlvin Rockoff

Campaign Vice-chairsBruce FreemanHerbert KleinSima Jelin LichtmanHarold PerlNorman ReitmanAdelaide Zagoren

We greatly appreciate those donors whodecided to honor their family bycontributing a significant gift to ourgeneral endowment fund and naming aspecial program or room at our facility.This year Herbert & Linda Littman,and Leonard & Barbara Littmanprovided such support to dedicate theCenter’s Holocaust Resource Center thisspring (see article on page 8).

Please consider including theCenter in your charitablegiving plan this year. Now isthe time when your gift canmake a significant difference.We would appreciate theopportunity to give you a tourof our facility and answer anyinquiries. Please contactNaomi L. Adler, Esq., Directorof Development, at 732-932-3575 or [email protected].

There are many ways in which this year’s major donors to the Center have become partners in our success.

Major gifts to the CenterJuly 1, 1999 through June 30, 2000Jerome and Lorraine ArestyElliot and Thelma BartnerFelix M. and Doris L. BeckLillian FertigMichael GoodkindFranklin Hannoch, Jr.Karma FoundationBradford R. and Robin KlattJanice LevinHerbert and Leonard Littman FamiliesMrs. Cecilia PavlofskyThe Charles H. Revson FoundationArline SchwartzmanAlexander SeamanThe Smart FoundationRobert SteinbergThe Henry and Marilyn Taub FoundationUSA Detergents/Sen. Jack SinagraBert Wolf

Our thanks to new donor, FranklinHannoch, Jr. As a member of the RutgersCollege Class of 1951, his gift qualified himas a member of the President’s Counciland was also credited toward his class re-union campaign.

Foundation and Corporate grantsWe are grateful to The Smart Founda-tion for a grant to provide the necessaryfunds to bring to the Center an addi-tional visiting professor as well as themulti-year commitment from The Henryand Marilyn Taub Foundation for theCenter’s curriculum enhancement fund.Thanks also to USA Detergents, Inc.,which honored New Jersey StateSenator Jack Sinagra by giving a majorgift to the Center’s general endowmentfund in his name.

Many of the Center’s newest donors havedonated stock and received additionalcharitable tax advantages as a result.Others have taken advantage of theability to designate their gift to theCenter and also receive quarterlyinterest payments through the RutgersUniversity Gift Annuity Program.Lillian Fertig and Alexander Seamanare two such individuals. All donors whomake planned gifts receive the rightsand privileges of membership in theColonel Henry Rutgers Society.

Jerome and Lorraine Aresty andNorman and Syril Reitman establishedendowments to fund Visiting Scholars inJewish Studies as a means to augmentthe academic program. These scholarshave also become an important elementof the Center’s community outreachmission as they deliver public lecturesduring their tenure at Rutgers.

Jerome and Lorraine Aresty

ArlineSchwartzman,recognizingher husbandHenry’sspecialcommitmentRutgers,recently gave

a generous contribution to dedicate oneof the Center’s seminar rooms in thefamily’s name. Such unrestricted giftsreflect a strong commitment to theCenter’s overall mission of promotingscholarship, research and communityoutreach.


STUDENT NEWSAndres Yoav MejerSome students are content with one

college major. Andres Yoav Mejer,who received an award from the LouisFishman Memorial Student SupportFund, has three: History/PoliticalScience; Jewish Studies; and HebraicStudies.

“My interests overlapped. Israel hasbeen my focus,” said the new liberal artsgraduate of Rutgers, the State Univer-sity. “My goal is international law with afocus on the Middle East. Conflictresolution is what I like, or internationalpolitical law.” Yoav plans to move backto Israel and, “down the road, I want toget into foreign service for Israel.”Further in the future, he is considering apolitical career.

Mejer got an early start toward hisgoals as a senior-year intern withRutgers’ Middle Eastern StudiesDepartment, creating a resource pageon international law and designing a

web course for high school teachersfocusing on international law specializ-ing in the Middle East. This spring, heinterned for the Media and PublicAffairs Department of the ConsulateGeneral of Israel, New York.

A native of Chile, Mejer, 25, has spentabout seven years in Israel where hisfamily currently lives. When he enteredRutgers in 1993, he enrolled in severalHebraic Studies courses. When he

Andres Yoav Mejer with Gene andRichard Fishman

returned in 1998, after a break in Israel,the new Jewish Studies Program wasavailable.

“It definitely adds a lot to theeducation you get here. There are reallyamazing professors,” he said. He took 23Jewish Studies courses “just out ofinterest. I was quite honored to get theFishman Award as a result. It was a verynice feeling to meet the benefactors,” headded.

His academic achievements - includ-ing three semesters on the Dean’s Listand membership in Golden Key NationalHonor Society - came while working fulltime in front office and staff trainingduties for a number of hotels and at theAT&T Learning Center in Basking Ridge.He was program director for the RutgersIsrael Political Activist Committee andwas also active in the American IsraelPolitical Activist Committee, RutgersAssociation for Zionism in Israel, and“Hamagshimim” (University ZionistMovement).

AcademicAchievementAwardsThe Leonard and AdeleBlumberg Student Award

Daniel Schimel, ’02

The Louis Fishman MemorialStudent Support Fund

Andres Yoav Mejer, ’00

The Betty and Julius GillmanMemorial Student Support Fundand The Gertrude and JacobHenoch Memorial StudentSupport Fund

Ayelet Margolin, ’02

The Rudolph and Mary SolomonKlein Undergraduate Scholarship

Sara Elias, ’00

The Maurice Meyer III and IrmaMeyer Endowed Student SupportFund and The Norma U. and David M.Levitt Student Award

Marla Kotler, ’00

The Bernice and Milton I. LuxemburgStudent Award

Tahlia Abel, ’00

The Harold and Betty Perl EndowedScholarship

Dara Papier, ’00Max Likin, Graduate Student

The Reitman Family Student Award

James Casteel, Graduate Student

The Baruch S. and Pearl W. SeidmanScholarship Fund

Sarah Finkelstein, ’01Gad S. Taub, Graduate Student

Honors ThesesHenry Rutgers Thesis

Jewish Suburbia in the West BankTheresa Pletchon

Jewish Studies Honors Thesis

Newly Observant JewsDara Papier(See photo, page 15)


Forum forStudentsWho Teachin HebrewSchoolsA special forum for HebrewSchool teachers providededucators an opportunity toexchange ideas and concerns,and to network with each other.The participants consistedprimarily of Rutgers studentswho were joined by severalteachers from the localcommunity. Sponsored by theCenter and Hillel, the programwas led by Paul A. Flexner, theDirector of the Department ofHuman Resources Develop-ment for the Jewish EducationAssociation of America(JESNA) and the Center’sAssociate Director, KarenSmall. Seasoned educatorsElliott Spack (ExecutiveDirector, CAJE), Bill Robinson(Anshe Emeth MemorialTemple), Irene Bolton (educa-tional consultant for theReform movement in NewJersey) were available to answerquestions. The program was ini-tiated by Rutgers students.

Tahlia AbelTahlia Abel took her first Jewish

Studies class as a sophomore atDouglass College, and it changed heruniversity career.

“I decided to major in JewishStudies,” said the new graduate ofRutgers, who received the Bernice andMilton I. Luxemburg Student Awardfrom Jewish Studies. “It was veryinterdisciplinary. My classes were small,and my teachers knew who I was. I feltpeople in the class were sort of on mywavelength. I didn’t feel lost in the crowd.”

She found many of her professorsparticularly influential and helpful. Onewas Dr. Maurice Elias with whom shehad an honors seminar on ‘Growing UpJewish in America’. “It was just anamazing class,” said Abel, who hasdecided she wants to go into Jewisheducation. I learned what it means totry to influence a child positively andJewishly at the same time.”

She found Dr. Yael Zerubavel, withwhom she took a course on IsraeliCulture, “a remarkable teacher.” Dr.Chaim I. Waxman taught her “howimportant it is to remember I am part ofa huge community that makes up a2,000-year-old civilization. Even as we

Student award recipients with Yael Zerubavel at the Jewish Studies awardsceremony held at the Center, April, 2000.

are influenced by so many thingsAmerican, it is important to retain ourJewish identity.”

That is not all. Abel has been active inHillel throughout college, serving twoyears on the Hillel Leadership Counciland as educational chairperson and vicepresident for Israel Programs. She was amanager at the Douglass Café, taught atAnshe Emeth Memorial Temple, NewBrunswick, and was Senior Youth Groupadvisor at Sha’arai Tefillah Israel, SouthOrange. She volunteered at Elijah’sPromise Soup Kitchen, New Brunswick,and helped coordinate weekly visits byHillel members to the Central NewJersey Jewish Home for the Aged,Somerset.

Abel plans to spend a year working inMinneapolis while preparing forgraduate school. Her first choice isHebrew Union College, Los Angeles,where she plans to enter the RheaHirsch School of Education.

“My ultimate goal would be to teachon a university level - probably in theJewish Studies Department or Women’sStudies Department,” she said.


The Allen and Joan BildnerCenter for the Study of Jewish LifeRutgers, The State University of New Jersey12 College AvenueNew Brunswick, NJ 08901

Upcoming Programs2000-2001

The Decline of Messianism inContemporary Israel and its Implica-tions on Religious ViolenceCo-sponsored with the Department ofPolitical ScienceGideon AranSeptember 14; 4:30 p.m.

The Language of Silence: WestGerman Literature and the HolocaustThe Ruth Ellen Steinman & Edward J.Bloustein Memorial LectureErnestine Schlant BradleySeptember 20; 5:00 p.m.

Frauen: German Women Recall theThird ReichCo-sponsored with the GermanDepartmentAllison OwingsOctober 5; 4:30 p.m.

Jewish Renewal in Israeli Art - aView from WithinMichal GovrinThe Aresty Visiting FellowOctober 26; 7:30 p.m.

Central NJ Jewish Film FestivalNov. 5 — “Yana’s Friends”; “After theEnd of the World”Nov. 7 — TBANov. 9 —“Y ana’s Friends”Nov. 12 —TBA

The ‘Jewish Mark Twain’: SholemAleichem and Yiddish in AmericaJeffrey ShandlerThe Smart Visiting FellowNovember 29; 7:30 p.m.

Ethnicity Transnationalized:Contemporary German JewsMichael BodemannMarch 21; 7:30 p.m.

The Ruth and Alvin RockoffAnnual LectureSpeaker: Pnina LahavMarch 11; 7:00 p.m.

Nonprofit OrganizationU.S. POSTAGEPAIDNew Brunswick, NJPermit no. 157

T H E � A L L E N � A N D � J O A N � B I L D N E R

Center for the Studyof Jewish Life

Director: Professor Yael Zerubavel • Associate Director: Karen SmallDirector of Development: Naomi L. Adler • Assistant to the Director: Arlene Goldstein

Department Secretary: Simone Fisch

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey12 College Avenue • New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Tel: (732) 932-2033 • Fax: (732) 932-3052e-mail: csjl@rci. rutgers.edu •Visit our website: http://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu

Photography: Steve Goodman • Contributing Writer: Sandra Cummings

rutgers, the state university of new jersey the allen …

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