"Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia". Studies in Jewish History, Culture and Religion (original) (raw)
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As Andrea Most points out, every comic artist dealing with Jewish characters has to decide “how to represent a Jewish body and how to determine what exactly a Jewish narrative looks like” . Hence, “[t]he choices each artist makes about how to represent Jewish bodies tell a story about the shifting status of Jewishness in contemporary […] popular culture” . In fact, when it comes to gendered Jewish identities, the body plays a crucial role. In her expressionistic (auto-)biographical comics Jewish-American Underground cartoonist Aline Kominsky Crumb addresses the central role of the body for the representation and cultural construction of Jewish women, showing that [..] the Jewish body is always inevitably a gendered body” . Paying particular attention to comic-specific modes of (visual) representation, my paper explores how Kominsky Crumb’s distinctive style manages to generate Jewish Gender Trouble. As will be shown, her ‘grotesque’ and cartoony drawings not only question the reliability and authenticity of the things depicted, they also undermine established notions of what is considered to be suitable, acceptable and beautiful to look at – especially when it comes to representations of the female (Jewish) body. In this respect, the gendered Jewish identities found in the comics of Kominsky Crumb must be understood as constructed, performative concepts, of doing gender and doing (Jewish) identity.
Once Italian Jews in the second half of the 19th century achieved full emancipation, the debate about the reform of Judaism shifted from liturgical and educational issues to the very practical legal problems created by the clash between the law of the new Kingdom of Italy and the Halakhah. Issues related to the compatibility of Judaism with the requirements of citizenship and the new frames of socialization were widely debated within Jewish circles The figure of Daniele Pergola (Pitigliano 1830 – Turin 1914), until now almost completely disregarded by scholarship, stands out as one of the most radical Jews in Italy who devoted his whole oeuvre and existence to promoting a general revision of the legal and theological foundations of Judaism in the second half of the century. In his impressive list of writings – over 50 books and pamphlets – one may distinguish between the works pleading for a reform of Judaism written before 1883, when he was expelled from the Jewish community of Turin, and the texts composed after this date. The latter are characterized by a bitter acrimony against Judaism and Jews that led him to embrace the incipient racial antisemitism of his time, calling for the abolition of the decree of Jewish emancipation and justifying the persecution of the Jews in both the past and the present. Pergola’s writings in favor of a complete reform of Judaism as well as those depicting the moral abjection of Jews reveal his obsession with the question of honor and shame, contempt and respect. I therefore propose to examine Daniele Pergola’s perception of the Jewish inadequacy to the standards of contemporary civilization in the frame of the political emancipation of Italian Jews and the role shame played in shaping the religious debate in the 19th century. By examining the figure and the work of Daniele Pergola, I wish, on one hand, to challenge the current assessment of Reform in Italy in the 19th century as a marginal aspect of the history of an allegedly well-integrated Italian Jewry, overall indifferent to religious matters. On the other, I hope to measure to what extent reformist trends among Italian Jews were motivated by their ambivalent desire to emulate non-Jewish frames of reference.
Program 11th EAJS Conference - Krakow 15-19 July 2018
The aim of this roundtable is to find means and ways to improve the teaching of Jewish studies in Europe by developing new or improving existing programs of Jewish studies, focusing mainly on the history and culture of Eastern European Jewry. We set out to discuss how to provide balanced, high quality study programs for future young scholars and to ensure their existence in the future. We will also discuss how to make the study of East European Jewry dynamic, global and engaged with the teaching of East European History, both local and general.