Robin Zalben | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (original) (raw)

Books by Robin Zalben

Research paper thumbnail of No Small Matter: Features of Jewish Childhood

Studies in Contemporary Jewry, 2021

Front Matter of Vol 32 No Small Matter No Small Matter visits five continents and studies Jewish... more Front Matter of Vol 32 No Small Matter

No Small Matter visits five continents and studies Jewish children from the 19th century through the present. It includes essays on the demographic patterns of Jewish reproduction; on the evolution of bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies; on the role children played in the project of Hebrew revival; on their immigrant experiences in the United States; on novels for young Jewish readers written in Hebrew and Yiddish; and on Jewish themes in films featuring children. Several contributions focus on children who survived the Holocaust or the children of survivors in a variety of settings ranging from Europe, North Africa, and Israel to the summer bungalow colonies of the Catskill Mountains. In addition to the symposium, this volume also features essays on a transformative Yiddish poem by a Soviet Jewish author and on the cultural legacy of Lenny Bruce.

Research paper thumbnail of Textual Transmission in Contemporary Jewish Cultures

Studies in Contemporary Jewry, 2020

Front matter of Vol 31 Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means ... more Front matter of Vol 31

Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means of transmission. At various points in Jewish history, the primary mode of transmission has changed in response to political, geographical, technological, and cultural shifts. Contemporary textual transmission in Jewish culture has been influenced by secularization, the return to Hebrew and the emergence of modern Yiddish, and the new centers of Jewish life in the United States and in Israel, as well as by advancements in print technology and the invention of the Internet. Volume XXXI of Studies in Contemporary Jewry deals with various aspects of textual transmission in Jewish culture in the last two centuries.

Research paper thumbnail of Place in Modern Jewish Culture and Society

Studies in Contemporary Jewry, 2018

Front matter of vol. 30 Studies in Contemporary Jewry

Research paper thumbnail of Jews and their Foodways: Studies in Contemporary Jewry vol. 28

Research paper thumbnail of A Club of Their Own: Jewish Humorists and the Contemporary World

Volume 29 of Studies in Contemporary Jewry 2016

Papers by Robin Zalben

Research paper thumbnail of Textual Transmission in Contemporary Jewish Cultures

<p>Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means of transmission.... more <p>Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means of transmission. At various points in Jewish history, the primary mode of transmission has changed in response to political, geographical, technological, and cultural shifts. Contemporary textual transmission in Jewish culture has been influenced by secularization, the return to Hebrew and the emergence of modern Yiddish, and the new centers of Jewish life in the United States and in Israel, as well as by advancements in print technology and the invention of the Internet. Volume XXXI of Studies in Contemporary Jewry deals with various aspects of textual transmission in Jewish culture in the last two centuries. Essays in this volume examine old and new kinds of media and their meanings; new modes of transmission in fields such as Jewish music; and the struggle to continue transmitting texts under difficult political circumstances. Two essays analyze textual transmission in the works of giants of modern Jewish literature: S.Y. Agnon, in Hebrew, and Isaac Bashevis Singer, in Yiddish. Other essays discuss paratexts in the East, print cultures in the West, and the organization of knowledge in libraries and encyclopedias.</p>

Research paper thumbnail of Place in Modern Jewish Culture and Society

Oxford Scholarship Online

Notions of place have always permeated Jewish life and consciousness. The Babylonian Talmud was p... more Notions of place have always permeated Jewish life and consciousness. The Babylonian Talmud was pitted against the Jerusalem Talmud; the worlds of Sepharad and Ashkenaz were viewed as two pillars of the Jewish experience; the diaspora was conceived as a wholly different experience from that of Eretz Israel; and Jews from Eastern Europe and “German Jews” were often seen as mirror opposites, whereas Jews under Islam were often characterized pejoratively, especially because of their allegedly uncultured surroundings. Place, or makom, is a strategic opportunity to explore the tensions that characterize Jewish culture in modernity, between the sacred and the secular, the local and the global, the historical and the virtual, Jewish culture and others. The plasticity of the term includes particular geographic places and their cultural landscapes, theological allusions, and an array of other symbolic relations between locus, location, and the production of culture. This volume includes twel...

Research paper thumbnail of A Club of Their Own

Research paper thumbnail of No Small Matter: Features of Jewish Childhood

Studies in Contemporary Jewry, 2021

Front Matter of Vol 32 No Small Matter No Small Matter visits five continents and studies Jewish... more Front Matter of Vol 32 No Small Matter

No Small Matter visits five continents and studies Jewish children from the 19th century through the present. It includes essays on the demographic patterns of Jewish reproduction; on the evolution of bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies; on the role children played in the project of Hebrew revival; on their immigrant experiences in the United States; on novels for young Jewish readers written in Hebrew and Yiddish; and on Jewish themes in films featuring children. Several contributions focus on children who survived the Holocaust or the children of survivors in a variety of settings ranging from Europe, North Africa, and Israel to the summer bungalow colonies of the Catskill Mountains. In addition to the symposium, this volume also features essays on a transformative Yiddish poem by a Soviet Jewish author and on the cultural legacy of Lenny Bruce.

Research paper thumbnail of Textual Transmission in Contemporary Jewish Cultures

Studies in Contemporary Jewry, 2020

Front matter of Vol 31 Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means ... more Front matter of Vol 31

Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means of transmission. At various points in Jewish history, the primary mode of transmission has changed in response to political, geographical, technological, and cultural shifts. Contemporary textual transmission in Jewish culture has been influenced by secularization, the return to Hebrew and the emergence of modern Yiddish, and the new centers of Jewish life in the United States and in Israel, as well as by advancements in print technology and the invention of the Internet. Volume XXXI of Studies in Contemporary Jewry deals with various aspects of textual transmission in Jewish culture in the last two centuries.

Research paper thumbnail of Place in Modern Jewish Culture and Society

Studies in Contemporary Jewry, 2018

Front matter of vol. 30 Studies in Contemporary Jewry

Research paper thumbnail of Jews and their Foodways: Studies in Contemporary Jewry vol. 28

Research paper thumbnail of A Club of Their Own: Jewish Humorists and the Contemporary World

Volume 29 of Studies in Contemporary Jewry 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Textual Transmission in Contemporary Jewish Cultures

<p>Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means of transmission.... more <p>Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means of transmission. At various points in Jewish history, the primary mode of transmission has changed in response to political, geographical, technological, and cultural shifts. Contemporary textual transmission in Jewish culture has been influenced by secularization, the return to Hebrew and the emergence of modern Yiddish, and the new centers of Jewish life in the United States and in Israel, as well as by advancements in print technology and the invention of the Internet. Volume XXXI of Studies in Contemporary Jewry deals with various aspects of textual transmission in Jewish culture in the last two centuries. Essays in this volume examine old and new kinds of media and their meanings; new modes of transmission in fields such as Jewish music; and the struggle to continue transmitting texts under difficult political circumstances. Two essays analyze textual transmission in the works of giants of modern Jewish literature: S.Y. Agnon, in Hebrew, and Isaac Bashevis Singer, in Yiddish. Other essays discuss paratexts in the East, print cultures in the West, and the organization of knowledge in libraries and encyclopedias.</p>

Research paper thumbnail of Place in Modern Jewish Culture and Society

Oxford Scholarship Online

Notions of place have always permeated Jewish life and consciousness. The Babylonian Talmud was p... more Notions of place have always permeated Jewish life and consciousness. The Babylonian Talmud was pitted against the Jerusalem Talmud; the worlds of Sepharad and Ashkenaz were viewed as two pillars of the Jewish experience; the diaspora was conceived as a wholly different experience from that of Eretz Israel; and Jews from Eastern Europe and “German Jews” were often seen as mirror opposites, whereas Jews under Islam were often characterized pejoratively, especially because of their allegedly uncultured surroundings. Place, or makom, is a strategic opportunity to explore the tensions that characterize Jewish culture in modernity, between the sacred and the secular, the local and the global, the historical and the virtual, Jewish culture and others. The plasticity of the term includes particular geographic places and their cultural landscapes, theological allusions, and an array of other symbolic relations between locus, location, and the production of culture. This volume includes twel...

Research paper thumbnail of A Club of Their Own