Disability,pain and love in Jewish cosmology?

Individuals with disabilities face numerous barriers that limit their inclusion within the Jewish community (Trieschmann 2001 Trieschmann, R. B. 2001. “Spirituality and Energy Medicine.” Journal of Rehabilitation 67 (1): 26–32.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). While many Jewish communities have progressed and moved towards an attitude of ‘acceptance’ and ‘tolerance’ for people with disabilities out of religious obligation, it is often a practice without the spiritual ethical governing force and guiding principles of respect, equality, and human rights (Shatz and Wolowelsky 2004 Shatz, D., and J. B. Wolowelsky. 2004. Mind, Body, and Judaism: The Interaction of Jewish Law with Psychology and Biology. Ktav Publishing House: Yeshiva University Press. [Google Scholar]). People with disabilities are stereotyped as dependent, draining, incompetent, pitiful, victims, freaks, angels, embarrassments, innocent, pathetic, and asexual social burdens (Nario-Redmond 2010 Nario-Redmond, M. R. 2010. “Cultural Stereotypes of Disabled and Non-Disabled Men and Women: Consensus for Global Category Representations and Diagnostic Domains.” British Journal of Social Psychology 49: 471–488.10.1348/014466609X468411 [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). What is lacking is the consideration of people with disabilities as human beings. This injustice is most evident, painful, and damaging at an individual and communal level when it comes to Jewish singles and their pursuit of intimate relationships. A central Jewish value, right, and goal, one that is strongly promoted in Israeli society, is that of committed intimate relationships. However, this value does not apply to people with disabilities     

The power(lessness) of Czechoslovak Jews during the Second World War

The article evaluates the perceptions of Jewish power among the Czechoslovak exiles in Britain during the Second World War. The analysis documents the apparent persistence of prejudices against the Jewish minority among the Czechoslovak non-Jewish authorities that eventually formed the government-in-exile (1940–5), under the presidency of Edvard Bene? (1884–1948). The Czechoslovak exiles believed that the Jewish minority, in particular the Jewish nationalists (Zionists), had vehement supporters within Jewish circles in Western countries. Furthermore, they believed that the Jewish press played a significant role in the formation of public opinion in Britain and especially in the United States. In the early 1940s, the government-in-exile embarked on a policy of national homogenisation of post-war Czechoslovakia and was anxious to give concessions to the political representatives of the ethnic minority groups in exile, in particular the Germans, Hungarians and Jews. Yet the concerns about Jewish influence in liberal democracies granted several political concessions to the Jewish minority, in particular the appointment of a Zionist representative, Arno?t Frischer (1887–1954), to the exile parliament. This notwithstanding, by analysing the internal situation among the Czechoslovak Jewish groups in London, the article documents the internal weakness and disputes among the Jewish groups which gradually revealed the utter powerlessness of the Jewish exiles during their negotiations with the Czechoslovak authorities. The Jewish groups (the assimilationists, Orthodox and secular nationalists) were divided by mutual as well as internal disputes which were not concealed from outside observers and were utilised by the exile government. What emerges from the analysis is an impression of quarrelling groups that could not agree on any of the fundamental issues and whose only power was the ability to court the support of Western Jewish groups, which were perceived by the non-Jewish exiles as influential actors in US and British society.     

Jewish fearless speech: towards a definition of Soviet Jewish nonconformism

ABSTRACT

The article proposes a model for analyzing the utterances of Jewish nonconformism in the late-Soviet Russian literature, based on Michel Foucault’s theory of fearless speech and Eric Gans’ theory of the origins of culture. The utterances of nonconformism transform an asymmetrical conflict into symmetrical nonvictimary relations, in which a new, supposedly real identity of a figure is revealed and mobilized for protest. These new relations are based on mutual recodification of different discursive configurations – political, moral, social, aesthetical, metaphysical, or mystical. The discussion will focus on the selected novels of Fridrikh Gorenshtein, Felix Roziner, and, in greater detail, David Shrayer-Petrov.     

Between two worlds: late Soviet Jews in Leningrad

ABSTRACT

In this article, Ann Komaromi reads late Soviet Jewish culture in Leningrad in terms of the “two worlds” Jewish activists negotiated: official and unofficial, Soviet/Russian and Jewish, present and past, etc. While the public rhetoric of the struggle for Soviet Jewry suggested dramatic binaries of death and salvation that resonate with the eschatological extremes of the “Petersburg text,” Komaromi argues for a more prosaic approach to the imaginative and cultural project of reconstructing Jewish identity by people in this context. The article features the recollections of former Jewish activists taken from interviews and memoirs to reveal the range of endeavors in which they engaged, including Hebrew learning and teaching, seminars, demonstrations, Jewish soccer teams, local history walking tours, unofficial book collections, and ethnographic expeditions.     

犹太传统在犹太文学中的具体特征化——论犹太作家创作手法上的特质

本文试图以三位犹太作家贝娄、马拉默德和辛格的短篇小说作品为对象,探讨在犹太民族特有的文化传统和悲惨历史遭遇的衬托下,三位文人各自创作的民族特点以及他们所共有的文学特质,从而对犹太文学中人物形象的多种塑造手法进行分析和讨论,进一步阐释犹太文学潜在内涵之所在。     

徘徊在敬畏与犹疑之间——辛格创作思想探析

战后美国犹太小说几乎感应了整个社会的脉搏。题材的多样性和深刻性涉及到社会的每一个角落。作为一个特殊群体的作家群,无论他们对自己的犹太身份持何种态度,他们在自己的作品中,或多或少会流露出双重文化对自己的影响。犹太文化根深蒂固的向心力与西方（美国）传统潜移默化的渲染,在他们身上迸出巨大的生命力量,这种文化的骚动与融合,造成了兼收并蓄、缤纷多彩的文学奇观。索尔·贝娄如何由开始时对犹太文化的背离最终又走向回归;辛格强调犹太文化与现代社会的冲突;罗斯的小说关注犹太人在美国社会世俗化过程中的种种困惑。所有这些都从细枝末节中揭示了美国犹太人如何在各个方面与西方传统痛苦而又成功的嫁接。     

两种文化的融合、冲突与变迁——读辛格的《卢布林的魔术师》和《童爱》

解读辛格的《卢布林的魔术师》和《童爱》两部小说,分析犹太格托和格托精神,认为美国犹太小说是对犹太文化的反衬,折射出犹太文化进入美国社会,是对美国本土文化的融合,并在碰撞中得到了发展和升华。     

历史观照下的美国梦与犹太身份文化变迁——菲利普·罗斯《美国牧歌》解读

菲利普·罗斯后期代表作《美国牧歌》讲述了犹太移民利沃夫一家三代20纪初到20世纪60年代在美国梦追寻中传统文化身份的历史变迁过程。小说既包涵了丰富的犹太民族文化要素,又体现了当代美国主流文化的时代元素,呈现出了独特的社会文化意义。本文将考察小说主人公利沃夫家族三代人在历史观照下美国梦的演进与传统身份文化变迁之间的内在关联性,并以此为研究主线,探究构成小说各文化要素的深层文化运行机制。     

从《只争朝夕》中的父子关系看犹太文化内涵

《只争朝夕》是美国作家索尔.贝娄以犹太文学传统的"父与子"母题为主题而创作的作品。本文主要从父辈因素与子辈因素的对立关系分析在美国文化背景下的犹太人特殊的文化现象。     

清末中国对反犹主义的了解——兼与《犹太文明》一书的作者商榷

《犹太文明》一书的作者认为20世纪初之前中国对世界各地的反犹主义一无所知。作者这一论断不符合实际,事实是从19世纪末到20世纪初,中国对世界各地犹太人遭受迫害而处于十分悲惨境地的情况多有记述,对反犹主义持反对和谴责的态度,对犹太复国主义持赞赏态度。