HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY The Voice of the Lehigh Valley Jewish Community
JANUARY 2014 | TEVET/SH’VAT 5774
Two universities Imagining Jews: New lecture withdraw from American series kicks off at Muhlenberg Studies Association over Israel boycott WOMAN OF THE WALL Anat Hoffman to speak at Lehigh University Jan. 28. See pages 2 and 4. YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90
Penn State-Harrisburg is one of two universities to withdraw from the American Studies Association after it voted to boycott Israeli universities, such as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where students are shown in October 2013.
By JPOST.COM STAFF Reprinted with permission from The Jerusalem Post NACHAS AT 90 Mort Miller invents, reads, celebrates. See pages 12 and 13.
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where Dr. Daniel Leisawitz, an expert in Italian studies in the Languages, Literatures and Cultures Department at Muhlenberg, will present, “Imagining the Vanishing World of the Roman Ghetto.” On March 20, Ruth Knafo Setton, writer-in-residence at the Berman Center for Jewish Studies at Lehigh University, will speak in Easton on “Living Between Question Marks,” based on her forthcoming novel, “Darktown Blues. “ In the first week of April, Professor Henry Bial of the American Studies and Theater Departments at the University of Kansas, and author of “Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage and Screen,” will give a talk entitled, “Jew Media: Performance and Technology for the 58th Century” at Muhlenberg. The first half of the series will culminate with a special lecture by Dr. Jeffrey Shandler of Rutgers University. Shandler, a scholar of modern Jewish culture specializing in Yiddish culture, and the president of the Association for Jewish Studies, will give a talk entitled “Tchotchkes: Collecting Yiddish Popular Culture” at Muhlenberg. Anyone who owns an interesting Yiddish “tchotchke” is invited to bring it in to be displayed before the talk. Shandler may even select some of the tchotchkes for discussion. Six additional talks are scheduled for the fall of 2014, so there’s plenty more to come. The series is co-sponsored by the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley. Learn more about upcoming programs, including exact times and locations, at www.jewishlehighvalley.org.
Snow blankets Jerusalem Jerusalem was covered with nearly two feet of snow the morning of Dec. 13. Israel’s main international airport resumed operations following a brief closure due to a winter storm that left thousands stranded and cut off traffic to Jerusalem. Ben Gurion Airport was closed early Dec. 13 for about 40 minutes. Police instructed citizens to avoid driving, citing lifethreatening conditions, Army Radio reported. The snow delayed by an hour a meeting between John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Highways which connect Jerusalem to the country’s center were closed because of heavy snowfall. Thousands were left stranded overnight, with many sleeping in their cars, according to the news site
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Two American universities, Brandeis and Penn State Harrisburg, have decided to withdraw from the American Studies Association (ASA) in protest of the organization’s decision to join the academic boycott against Israeli universities. “It is a with deep regret that we in the American Studies Program at Brandeis University have decided to discontinue our institutional affiliation with the American Studies Association,” a message on the university’s American Studies [website] said. The program views the ASA vote to affirm the academic boycott of Israel “as a politicization of the discipline and a rebuke to the kind of open inquiry that a scholarly association should foster.” “We remain committed to the discipline of American studies but we can no longer support an organization that has rejected two of the core principles of American culture - freedom of association and expression,” the Brandeis statement continued. Dr. Simon J. Bronner of
Penn State-Harrisburg also issued a statement, saying that the ASA resolution to boycott Israel “curtails academic freedom and undermines the reputation of American Studies as a scholarly enterprise.” As a result, the American Studies program at Penn State Harrisburg announced it would drop its institutional membership and will “encourage others to do so.” Dr. Bronner, the chair of the American Studies program at the Pennsylvania university, is a prominent member of the ASA, and serves as the editorin-chief of the Encyclopedia of American Studies, an ASAsponsored publication.
Following the success of its adult education series on “Jews, Money and Capitalism,” the Jewish Studies Program at Muhlenberg College will present a new series of public lectures and events in 2014. Funded by a grant from the Legacy Heritage Jewish Studies Project and directed by the Association for Jewish Studies, these programs are free and open to the public. The theme of the new series – spearheaded by Muhlenberg professors Jessica Cooperman and Hartley Lachter -- is “Imagining Jews: From the Ancient World to the American Present.” Drawing on a wide range of topics and scholarly expertise, the series will explore how Jews have understood themselves, and been understood by others, in diverse historical settings. “We thought it would be a topic that is interesting to people in the community and that would let us work with some really dynamic departments at the college, particularly the theater and dance program and media and communications,” Cooperman said. “They were programs we hadn’t worked with in the past series and we wanted to tap into the exciting things and exciting work that people were doing in those departments.” The first talk in the series, on Thursday, Jan. 30, at Muhlenberg will be led by Professor William Gruen, chair of the Religion Studies Department. Gruen, a scholar of early Christianity, will discuss “The Image of the Jew as Anti-Imperial Rebel in the Ancient Roman World.” The second event will take place in February at the JCC,
Young people sit at a cafe table set up amid the snow on Jerusalem's Jaffa Road on Dec. 15, 2013.
nrg.co.il. Police and Israel Defense Forces troops led rescue missions as the snow fell. Rescuers evacuated approximately 500 people from Route 443, the road connecting Jerusalem and Modiin. In total, around 2,000 people were rescued from vehicles
during the night, according to Israel Radio, and hundreds were evacuated to shelters set up at convention centers in Jerusalem. Power outages also plagued Israel’s capital and the surrounding areas, leaving many without heat to seek shelter at the centers.