Download or read book The Lowercase Jew written by Rodger Kamenetz and published by TriQuarterly Books. This book was released on 2003 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Table of contents
Download or read book The Missing Jew written by Rodger Kamenetz and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Jew written by Cynthia M. Baker and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-13 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jew. The word possesses an uncanny power to provoke and unsettle. For millennia, Jew has signified the consummate Other, a persistent fly in the ointment of Western civilization’s grand narratives and cultural projects. Only very recently, however, has Jew been reclaimed as a term of self-identification and pride. With these insights as a point of departure, this book offers a wide-ranging exploration of the key word Jew—a term that lies not only at the heart of Jewish experience, but indeed at the core of Western civilization. Examining scholarly debates about the origins and early meanings of Jew, Cynthia M. Baker interrogates categories like “ethnicity,” “race,” and “religion” that inevitably feature in attempts to define the word. Tracing the term’s evolution, she also illuminates its many contradictions, revealing how Jew has served as a marker of materialism and intellectualism, socialism and capitalism, worldly cosmopolitanism and clannish parochialism, chosen status, and accursed stigma. Baker proceeds to explore the complex challenges that attend the modern appropriation of Jew as a term of self-identification, with forays into Yiddish language and culture, as well as meditations on Jew-as-identity by contemporary public intellectuals. Finally, by tracing the phrase new Jews through a range of contexts—including the early Zionist movement, current debates about Muslim immigration to Europe, and recent sociological studies in the United States—the book provides a glimpse of what the word Jew is coming to mean in an era of Internet cultures, genetic sequencing, precarious nationalisms, and proliferating identities.
Download or read book Am I a Jew written by Theodore Ross and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-08-27 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I was nine years old when my mother forced me to convert to Christianity….” When Theodore Ross moved from New York City to small-town Mississippi, his mother insisted that the family pretend to not be Jewish. He was sent to an Episcopal school, where he studied the Bible, sang in the choir, and even took communion. As an adult, he abandoned the religious charade, but wondered: Am I a Jew? In search of an answer, Ross immersed himself within communities on the fringes of Jewish identity—“Crypto-Jews,” “Lost Tribes,” the ultra-Orthodox, and more. Filled with humor, curiosity, and sincerity, Am I a Jew? explores America’s riotous religious diversity, and one man’s quest to stake a claim within it.
Download or read book Burnt Books written by Rodger Kamenetz and published by Schocken. This book was released on 2010-10-19 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed author of The Jew in the Lotus comes an "engrossing and wonderful book" (The Washington Times) about the unexpected connections between Franz Kafka and Hasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav—and the significant role played by the imagination in the Jewish spiritual experience. Rodger Kamenetz has long been fascinated by the mystical tales of the Hasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. And for many years he has taught a course in Prague on Franz Kafka. The more he thought about their lives and writings, the more aware he became of unexpected connections between them. Kafka was a secular artist fascinated by Jewish mysticism, and Rabbi Nachman was a religious mystic who used storytelling to reach out to secular Jews. Both men died close to age forty of tuberculosis. Both invented new forms of storytelling that explore the search for meaning in an illogical, unjust world. Both gained prominence with the posthumous publication of their writing. And both left strict instructions at the end of their lives that their unpublished books be burnt. Kamenetz takes his ideas on the road, traveling to Kafka’s birthplace in Prague and participating in the pilgrimage to Uman, the burial site of Rabbi Nachman visited by thousands of Jews every Jewish new year. He discusses the hallucinatory intensity of their visions and offers a rich analysis of Nachman’s and Kafka’s major works, revealing uncanny similarities in the inner lives of these two troubled and beloved figures, whose creative and religious struggles have much to teach us about the Jewish spiritual experience.
Download or read book Exclusion Exile and the Wandering Jew in Jewish Literature written by Regine Rosenthal and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2024-02-06 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on a medieval extrabiblical Christian legend, the figure of the Wandering Jew has long served as a negative representation of all Jews. Condemned by Christ to endless wandering and everlasting life, the Wandering Jew has lived on ever since in literature and criticism as a legendary and symbolic paradigm, ranging from anti-Jewish stereotype to the generalized cultural Other. While Romanticism took him outside of the Jewish context, nineteenth-century antisemitic racism again adopted the figure in an evolving discourse that culminated in his image in Nazi propaganda as the despicable, racialized cultural Other who needed to be exterminated. The present work takes up this trope in all its complex, intersecting facets and shifts the focus of the inquiry from the perspective of the dominant culture to that of the Jewish Other. Starting with nineteenth-century American popular and mainstream writers, it explores the responses to, and the subversions and reinventions of, the paradigmatic figure in works by a variety of European, Canadian, and American Jewish writers and thinkers. It also opens the discussion to the broader issues of contemporary society and politics, such as pervasive uprootedness, transborder migration, the plight of refugees, and states’ rights versus human rights.
Download or read book Jews and Other Differences written by Jonathan Boyarin and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book You Should See Yourself written by Vincent Brook and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2006-07-24 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past few decades have seen a remarkable surge in Jewish influences on American culture. Entertainers and artists such as Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Allegra Goodman, and Tony Kushner have heralded new waves of television, film, literature, and theater; a major klezmer revival is under way; bagels are now as commonplace as pizza; and kabbalah has become as cool as crystals. Does this broad range of cultural expression accurately reflect what it means to be Jewish in America today? Bringing together fourteen new essays by leading scholars, You Should See Yourself examines the fluctuating representations of Jewishness in a variety of areas of popular culture and high art, including literature, the media, film, theater, music, dance, painting, photography, and comedy. Contributors explore the evolution that has taken place within these cultural forms and how we can best explain these changes. Are variations in our understanding of Jewishness the result of general phenomena such as multiculturalism, politics, and postmodernism, or are they the product of more specifically Jewish concerns such as the intermarriage/continuity crisis, religious renewal, and relations between the United States and Israel? Accessible to students and general readers alike, this volume takes an important step toward advancing the discussion of Jewish cultural influences in this country.
Download or read book The Ruined House written by Ruby Namdar and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “In The Ruined House a ‘small harmless modicum of vanity’ turns into an apocalyptic bonfire. Shot through with humor and mystery and insight, Ruby Namdar's wonderful first novel examines how the real and the unreal merge. It's a daring study of madness, masculinity, myth-making and the human fragility that emerges in the mix." —Colum McCann, National Book Award-winning author of Let the Great World Spin Winner of the Sapir Prize, Israel’s highest literary award Picking up the mantle of legendary authors such as Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, an exquisite literary talent makes his debut with a nuanced and provocative tale of materialism, tradition, faith, and the search for meaning in contemporary American life. Andrew P. Cohen, a professor of comparative culture at New York University, is at the zenith of his life. Adored by his classes and published in prestigious literary magazines, he is about to receive a coveted promotion—the crowning achievement of an enviable career. He is on excellent terms with Linda, his ex-wife, and his two grown children admire and adore him. His girlfriend, Ann Lee, a former student half his age, offers lively companionship. A man of elevated taste, education, and culture, he is a model of urbanity and success. But the manicured surface of his world begins to crack when he is visited by a series of strange and inexplicable visions involving an ancient religious ritual that will upend his comfortable life. Beautiful, mesmerizing, and unsettling, The Ruined House unfolds over the course of one year, as Andrew’s world unravels and he is forced to question all his beliefs. Ruby Namdar’s brilliant novel embraces the themes of the American Jewish literary canon as it captures the privilege and pedantry of New York intellectual life in the opening years of the twenty-first century.
Download or read book Jewish with Feeling written by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and published by Jewish Lights Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A how-to for Jewish spirituality that works. "A spiritual seeker is a person whose soul is awake. In this book I make no assumptions about how much you know about Judaism, what holidays you keep, or whether you believe in God. I want us to start from your soul's experience and carry on from there." --from the Introduction "Virtually anyone remotely affiliated with Judaism should read this book," wrote Publishers Weekly, which listed Jewish with Feeling among its Best Religion Books of the Year. "Without question the best, most readable introduction to Reb Zalman's philosophy of Judaism, it is also the best beginner's guide to Jewish spirituality available today," wrote the Forward, "the perfect book for both the spiritual seeker and the curious skeptic." Taking off from basic questions like "Why be Jewish?" and whether the word God still speaks to us today, Reb Zalman lays out a vision for a whole-person Judaism. This is not only Sinai then but Sinai now, a revelation of the Torah inside and all around us. Complete with many practical suggestions to enrich your own Jewish life, Jewish with Feeling is "a mystical masterpiece filled with spiritual practices and an exciting vision of the future" (Spirituality & Health). Spiritual experience, as Reb Zalman shows, repays every effort we make to acquire it.
Download or read book Louisiana Poets written by Catharine Savage Brosman and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2019-04-10 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Louisiana has long been recognized for its production of talented writers, and its poets in particular have shined. From the early poetry of the state to the work crafted in the present day, Louisiana has nurtured and exported a rich and diverse poetic tradition. In Louisiana Poets: A Literary Guide authors Catharine Savage Brosman and Olivia McNeely Pass assess the achievements of Louisiana poets from the past hundred years who, Brosman and Pass assert, deserve both public notice and careful critical examination. Louisiana Poets presents the careers and works of writers whose verse is closely connected to the peoples, history, and landscapes of Louisiana or whose upbringing or artistic development occurred in the state. Brosman and Pass chose poets based on the scope, abundance, and excellence of their work; their critical reception; and the local and national standing of the writer and work. The book treats a wide range of forty poets—from national bestsellers to local celebrities—detailing their histories and output. Intended to be of broad interest and easy to consult, Louisiana Poets showcases the corpus of Louisiana poetry alongside its current profile. Brosman and Pass have created a guide that provides a way for readers to discover, savor, and celebrate poets who have been inspired in and by the Pelican State.
Download or read book Paul Among the Gentiles A Radical Reading of Romans written by Jacob P. B. Mortensen and published by Narr Francke Attempto Verlag. This book was released on 2018-08-13 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exciting new interpretation of Pauls Letter to the Romans approaches Pauls most famous letter from one of the newest scholarly positions within Pauline Studies: The Radical New Perspective on Paul (also known as Paul within Judaism). As a point of departure, the author takes Pauls self-designation in 11:13 as apostle to the gentiles as so determining for Pauls mission that the audience of the letter is perceived to be exclusively gentile. The study finds confirmation of this reading-strategy in the letters construction of the interlocutor from chapter 2 onwards. Even in 2:17, where Paul describes the interlocutor as someone who calls himself a Jew, it requests to perceive this person as a gentile who presents himself as a Jew and not an ethnic Jew. If the interlocutor is perceived in this way throughout the letter, the dialogue between Paul and the interlocutor can be perceived as a continuous, unified and developing dialogue. In this way, this interpretation of Romans sketches out a position against a more disparate and fragmentary interpretation of Romans.
Download or read book Sunrise Sunset written by Kim Weiss and published by Health Communications, Inc.. This book was released on 2014-10-14 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much like life, the stage changes even when our vantage point doesnt. And so it is with the rising and setting sun, no two are ever the same. Every picture tells another color, shape and shadow story . . .
Download or read book Strange Meetings written by Peter Edgerly Firchow and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building upon his earlier book The Death of the German Cousin (1986), renowned author Peter Edgerly Firchow focuses Strange Meetings on major modern British writers from Eliot to Auden and explores the development of British conceptions and misconceptions of Germany and Germans from 1910 to 1960.
Download or read book Antisemitism and Its Opponents in Modern Poland written by Robert Blobaum and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Antisemitism and Its Opponents in Modern Poland serves as an effective guide to some of the most complex and controversial issues of Poland's troubled past. Fourteen original essays by a team of distinguished Polish and American scholars explore the different meanings, forms of expression, content, and social range of antisemitism in modern Poland from the late nineteenth century to the present. The contributors focus on both the variations in antisemitic sentiment and those Poles who opposed such prejudices. Central themes of this significant, balanced, and timely contribution to a contentious and often emotional debate include the deterioration of Polish-Jewish relations in the era of national awakening for both the Poles and the Jews, the meaning of the various forms of violence against the Jews, intellectual movements in opposition to antisemitism, the role of the Catholic Church in promoting antisemitism, and the prospects for the Church to atone for this shameful chapter in its recent history.
Download or read book Fabulous Small Jews written by Joseph Epstein and published by HMH. This book was released on 2004-07-06 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Witty, “utterly compelling” short stories about Jewish men of a certain age, by the New York Times–bestselling author of Snobbery (San Francisco Chronicle Book Review). Set in Chicago and populated by characters ranging from lawyers and professors to scrap metal dealers, this collection of insightful and entertaining short fiction examines the crossroads and turning points of life, and the challenge of growing older and feeling suddenly adrift in a radically changed world. “Epstein’s narrators tend to be tough, hardworking, and solitary men who have survived poverty, the Holocaust, ruthless competition, and impossible domestic situations only to confront old age and a jittery new world that to their pragmatic eyes seems neurotic, flimsy, indulgent, and vacuous. Yet Epstein’s heroes—guys like salesman Moe Bernstein, dry-cleaner mogul Artie Glick, a bartender, a scamming ex-con, and a few soulful academics—do not despair. They maintain their sense of humor, they take chances, they open their hearts, and they find life sweeter than ever before. As rich in clever banter as in philosophic musings, Epstein’s funny and wise stories celebrate independence, the inner life, generosity of spirit, and rolling with the punches.” —Booklist “Epstein, always a graceful writer, also happens to possess a stand-up comic’s gift for punch lines.” —The New York Times Book Review
Download or read book Leaving Russia written by Maxim D. Shrayer and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2013-12-03 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Narrated in the tradition of Tolstoy's confessional trilogy and Nabokov's autobiography, Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story is a searing account of growing up a Jewish refusenik, of a young poet's rebellion against totalitarian culture, and of Soviet fantasies of the West during the Cold War. Shrayer's remembrances ore set against a rich backdrop of politics, travel, and ethnic conflict on the brink of the Soviet empire's collapse. His moving story offers generous doses of humor and tenderness, counterbalanced with longing and violence.
