Jewish Home Research Articles

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the reconstruction of destroyed Jewish homes in Lithuania, 1921–1924

ABSTRACT This article presents the reconstruction of housing for Jewish Lithuanian refugees returning home after World War I. The refugees found their original homes ‘completely destroyed’ or ‘partially destroyed,’ which were the formal categories used by the government. Between 1921 and 1924, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) worked with the refugees and the Lithuanian government to rebuild communities, and also collaborated with the local Jewish National Council (JNC) in providing financial and organizational support for reconstruction. This was a tenuous relationship based on JDC and JNC differences and oft-changing government housing policies. This article analyzes the rebuilding of two cities: Šiauliai (completely destroyed) and Panevėžys (partially destroyed).

Presence as Absence: The Homely and the Unhomely in Jewish Photography under Nazism

This article traces the change in practice and the transition of meaning in the photographs taken in Jewish homes in Germany under the Nazi regime. It draws on the ontological duality of absence and presence embedded in the medium of photography to analyze examples of such photographs selected from numerous archival and private collections, discerning a move away from the practice of interior photography as a tool of social affirmation in the late Weimar Republic toward its attestation of absence and loss shortly before emigration from Germany. Employing the Freudian term uncanny in its original spatial connotation as “unhomely,” the analysis contextualizes the latent presence of the inhabitants in images of vacant interiors through a discussion of the historical change in the domestic life of Jews in the face of the increasing Nazification of the public space. Focusing on the commemorative and mnemonic function of the photos, the article concludes by addressing their constitutive role in personal narratives as a private lieu de mémoire and as the generator of future postmemories.

Museums, Memory, And The Imaginary: Jewish Homes Of The Past In Contemporary Artworks

Abstract: Museums provide prominent encounters with past Jewish domesticity. The most provocative encounters appear in contemporary art installations by Christian Boltanski, Simon Fujiwara, Maira Kalman and Alex Kalman, Elaine Reichek, Ellen Rothenberg, the Sala-Manca Group, and Maya Zack that variously evoke, conjure, or problematize Jewish home life in former times. Unlike historic residences or re-creations staged for historical or ethnographic exhibitions, these artworks are entirely “at home” in the museum, where they simultaneously present and interrogate notions of Jewish domesticity. This attention to artworks looks beyond the primary focus of most historians’ studies of Jewish homes, which examine the social and cultural contexts of actual houses of a bygone era, or the work of scholars in various fields who explore Jewish domestic practices as expressions of a collective identity. The artworks in question scrutinize what it has meant for Jews to feel “at home” and reveal how the imagination figures in representations of bygone Jewish domestic life as memory sites.

Hospitality, Hostility and the Issues of Interiority and Secrecy

Hospitality as a value originates from religious traditions, be they Greek and Roman, embodied by the New Testament or the Hebrew Bible. Their prescriptive force remains as the foundation of the view of hospitality still ongoing today in the Jewish tradition, thus constituting the other pole of the tension between hospitality as a value, and hospitality as modern practice. This pole of values will be addressed through the ethical and practical lived experiences and approaches of the Hebrew Bible. It is difficult to be hospitable. Punishments for breaches of the laws of hospitality amount to acknowledging this obligation as a trial for both hosted and welcoming host. I have developed the concept of hospitality as the great trial of and, indeed, the great adventure of dwelling (Serfaty, 2016). Why is hospitality the great trial of dwelling? What is at stake in the risk of hospitality drifting into hostility? I will address that question by defining and further exploring the experience of dwelling and the issues of the inhabitants’ interiority and secrecy. The conclusion of this chapter will take us back to the Jewish tradition regarding the intimate links between home, hospitality and journeying, through the exploration of the multiple emblematic meanings of one of the letters of its alphabet, the letter B (bet) and of the mezuzah, the piece of parchment enclosed in a case that is placed on the doorposts of Jewish homes.

German Jewish Soldiers and the Celebration of Yom Kippur in Wartime: Patriotic Images and Jewish Aspirations

Abstract: One of the enduring themes in German Jewish history has been the deep-seated desire of Jews to be fully accepted as equals by other Germans, including the right to worship freely. Their conscription and voluntary service in the military during both the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) and World War I (1914–1918), provided an opportunity for Jews to demonstrate their fealty to the nation. Moreover, their requests for Jewish military chaplains were granted, enabling them to celebrate their traditional High Holy Days services. This article tells the story of Jewish religious worship on Yom Kippur during both wars as depicted by German artists. We examine contemporaneous accounts of the scenes depicted, and find that while some were accurate with respect to venue and mood, the most popular images of throngs of Jewish soldiers worshiping on open-air battlefields were fictionalized images of events that never took place. These pictorial images, exaggerated, romanticized, and idealized, portrayed Jews as patriotic Germans, fully engaged with the wartime goals of the German government while practicing their unique forms of worship. German Jews and Jews throughout the diaspora clung to these images which became widely available on postcards, lithographs, and cloth wall hangings. They continued to be proudly displayed in Jewish homes as symbols of Jewish patriotism, until the end of World War I when blatant antisemitism falsely blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat.

Wild Visionary: Maurice Sendak in Queer Jewish Context by Golan Moskowitz (review)

Reviewed by: Wild Visionary: Maurice Sendak in Queer Jewish Context by Golan Moskowitz Dainy Bernstein (bio) Wild Visionary: Maurice Sendak in Queer Jewish Context, by Golan Moskowitz. Stanford UP, 2021. In Wild Visionary, Golan Moskowitz reads Maurice Sendak's works through the Jewish and queer identities of the celebrated children's [End Page 224] author, making a convincing argument for these identities as essential to understanding Sendak's body of work. The book is organized both chronologically and thematically. Each chapter provides a comprehensive overview of one stage of Sendak's life, drawing from a variety of sources to piece together the narrative of the author's life. Since Sendak ordered all his papers destroyed upon his death, Moskowitz relies on newspaper and magazine profiles, published interviews, letters from Sendak surviving in the collections of those he wrote to, and interviews with those who knew Sendak. In addition to Sendak's personal life, each chapter delves into the social and cultural landscapes of the era, providing rich context within which Sendak's work can be understood. Throughout the book, Moskowitz traces queer history, American Jewish history, and the development of American children's literature. The first chapter, narrating Sendak's parents' histories as well as his own childhood, analyzes the effects of growing up in interwar Jewish Brooklyn on the author and artist's work. The chapter discusses the shifting models of childhood in early-twentieth-century America, as well as the shifting models of childhood in European Jewish culture, both of which provided the context for Sendak's upbringing as the child of European Jewish immigrants. The structure of the family and the child's sense of home and safety were affected as the American government and culture attempted to "loosen parent-child bonds in order to cultivate pliable citizens and consumers" (28), and Sendak's parents, like many immigrants, put their hopes for American success on their children. At the same time, relatives newly immigrating to America arrived and kept "Old World" Jewish sensibilities alive in the Sendak household. Moskowitz traces the effects of all these factors on Sendak's work, particularly his grappling with parental figures. The second chapter opens with Sendak's bar mitzvah at age thirteen against the backdrop of the Holocaust in Europe and his parents' worry over relatives and old friends as news of deaths came through via Jewish organizations. In many American Jewish homes, the specter of dead relatives affected the way family was perceived, and children were often viewed as both the continuation of a lost line and a reminder of all those children who did not survive. Moskowitz describes Sendak's tumultuous adolescence and his reconceptualization of the family unit. As his parents mourned dead relatives, their children were put into the position of comforting them, and Sendak's relationship with his brother and sister deepened to near-inappropriate levels. With his queerness becoming undeniable during this same period, Sendak's [End Page 225] ability to understand himself, platonic affection, and romantic affection became troubled. Later in life, Sendak would apologize "for his inability to understand boundaries between himself and those with whom he formed close relationships" (91). Moskowitz draws connections between this period of Sendak's life and his portrayal of sexualized parent-child and sibling relationships. The third chapter follows Sendak from Brooklyn to Manhattan as he begins his adult life and his career as an illustrator. Moskowitz begins with a deep dive into the postwar explosion of American children's literature and the vibrant culture of Jewish children's periodicals, contexts which shaped Sendak's early interaction with the world of publishing, especially as a Jewish artist illustrating Jewish children's books. Sendak became part of the queer Manhattan community, and his sphere grew to include both Jewish and queer friends and mentors who encouraged him to be more confident and embrace his own voice. Layering onto the previous chapters' discussions of Sendak's views of childhood emotion and parent-child relationships, Moskowitz argues here that "[t]hrough a focus on early childhood and his own coming of age, Sendak's creative vision increasingly blared and demanded dignity for queer truths that he could not always speak...

Religious Zionism as a Dealigned partisan sub-system – Israel’s 2019–21 elections

ABSTRACT During the second decade of the twenty-first century, Israel’s Religious Zionist camp has undergone a process of accelerated Dealignment of its partisan system, resulting in the transformation of the political parties comprising it into a Dealigned Partisan Subsystem. An example of this process can be found in the transformations that took place in the ‘Jewish Home’ Religious-Zionist political party led by Naftali Bennett. Within 9 years and seven election campaigns, the party succeeded in trying out the Open Camp Party model, experiencing a division led by Bennett himself, and finally reaching the verge of disappearing and once again initiating renewed revival attempts. The Dealignment of partisan systems includes a high level of voters’ mobility; a decline in the support of existing mainstream parties; a decline in voting rates; and a decline in the strength of partisan identification, while voting patterns become more personal. The partisan system itself changes during this stage, with old parties disappearing and others rising in their place, often only to disappear from the political map as quickly as they appeared. This article illustrates the extent to which the Religious-Zionist partisan subsystem in Israeli politics during the second decade of the twenty-first century until the 2022 elections campaign corresponds with most characteristics of a Dealigned system.

When a neighbourhood falls off the map: Jewish disappearance from Samarkand’s Post-Soviet landscape

ABSTRACT Established in 1843, the Jewish residential quarter in Samarkand (located at the time in the Bukharan kingdom, and today in independent Uzbekistan) has been emptied of its Jewish residents in the wake of the Soviet Union’s demise. Since then, physical markers testifying to their history in the neighbourhood have also been eroding. This process has been organic, rather than a deliberate program of erasure. Still, these shifts in the built environment fit within Uzbekistan’s larger project of state-building, as Jewish homes and communal structures belie the Russian and Soviet colonial legacy, which has been spurned since independence. Drawing on recent and historical accounts, as well as my own observations in the 1990s and in 2013, this article documents the built environment in the very moment of transition, as physical structures transform and are separated from the history and memories that enlivened them. With this disappearance, a tourist opportunity for encountering global Jewish diversity is lost, and Uzbekistan’s project of nation-building – absent its historical minority populations – is further solidified.

Zwei neuerschlossene Dokumente zur Frühgeschichte der Juden in Eslohe

Abstract In the chronicle of the Catholic parish of Eslohe in Westphalia there are two Hebrew manuscripts that have not yet been edited or researched. Both provide a glimpse on religious life in a small Ashkenazi Jewish community at the end of the 18th century. One manuscript, dated March 9, 1800, contains the answer written by a certain Simon ben Eljakum on behalf of Joseph Friedländer from Padberg to a request from Jacob Zander from Eslohe regarding the creation of a mikveh, i. e. a ritual immersion bath. The second Hebrew manuscript, dated September 2, 1796, contains the text of a Hebrew eulogy that begins with a song that is sung in Jewish homes on Friday evening after dinner and begins with the Hebrew words zamah nafschi l'elohim (= my soul thirsts for God). Both manuscripts are examined and commented on here for the first time. In the appendix follows a complete transcription of both Hebrew (and partly also Yiddish) texts as well as a translation into German.

Wound Care Consultation in Postacute/Long-term Care: Characteristics and Practice Implications.

To study the characteristics of residents in postacute (PA)/long-term care (LTC) facilities with wounds and prevalence of wound types other than pressure injuries (PIs). The authors conducted a retrospective review of all wound care consultations over 1 year at The New Jewish Home, a 514-bed academically affiliated facility in an urban setting. Investigators analyzed residents by age, sex, type of wound, presence of infection, and whether the resident was PA or LTC. Authors designated PIs as facility acquired or present on admission. During the study period, 190 wound care consultations were requested; 74.7% of consults were for those in PA care. The average patient age was 76.3 years, and there were 1.7 wounds per resident receiving consultation. Of studied wounds, 53.2% were PIs, 15.8% surgical, 6.8% arterial, 6.3% soft tissue injury, 5.8% venous, 2.6% malignant wounds, and 2.1% diabetic ulcers; however, 11.6% of residents receiving consults had more than one wound type. In this sample, 13.2% of residents had infected wounds, and 76.2% of PIs were present on admission. The wide variety of wounds in this sample reflects the medical complexity of this population. The transformation of LTC into a PA environment has altered the epidemiology of chronic wounds and increased demand for wound care expertise. These results challenge traditional perceptions of wound care centered on PIs. Given its importance, a wound care skill set should be required of all PA/LTC providers.

Surviving intimate partner violence in a segregated community: the case of ultra-Orthodox Jewish women

ABSTRACT As a “faith-based community”, the ultra-Orthodox society is a differentiated minority group, which has recently recognised intimate partner violence as a social problem. The members of this conservative, patriarchal society keep themselves in a secluded sphere, apart from the modern, secular Western society. The aim of this paper is to explore the experience of ultra-Orthodox women coping with intimate partner violence. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 17 ultra-Orthodox women coping with intimate partner violence in Israel, 27–49 years of age, all clients of the social services. Thematic analysis revealed three themes: The experience of not being able to build a “faithful Jewish home”; strengthening one’s faith as a means to survival; and the meaning of “tikun” and choice. The impact of these findings is examined in the context of culture-sensitive interventions.

German Jewish Soldiers and the Celebration of Yom Kippur in Wartime: Patriotic Images and Jewish Aspirations

One of the enduring themes in German Jewish history has been the deep-seated desire of Jews to be fully accepted as equals by other Germans, including the right to worship freely. Their conscription and voluntary service in the military during both the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) and World War I (1914-1918), provided an opportunity for Jews to demonstrate their fealty to the nation. Moreover, their requests for Jewish military chaplains were granted, enabling them to celebrate their traditional High Holy Days services. This article tells the story of Jewish religious worship on Yom Kippur during both wars as depicted by German artists. We examine contemporaneous accounts of the scenes depicted, and find that while some were accurate with respect to venue and mood, the most popular images of throngs of Jewish soldiers worshiping on open air battlefields were fictionalized images of events that never took place. These pictorial images, exaggerated, romanticized, and idealized, portrayed Jews as patriotic Germans, fully engaged with the wartime goals of the German government while practicing their unique forms of worship. German Jews and Jews throughout the diaspora clung to these images which became widely available on postcards, lithographs, and cloth wall hangings. They continued to be proudly displayed in Jewish homes as symbols of Jewish patriotism, until the end of World War I when blatant antisemitism falsely blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat.

Pensjonariusze żydowskich domów dla osób starszych na ziemiach polskich (do 1939 r.)

Residents of Jewish Homes for the Aged in the Polish Lands (until 1939) Jewish homes for the aged (moshav zkenim) began to be established in Eastern Europe in the 1840s. In the interwar period, probably over sixty Jewish institutions of this kind operated in Poland, providing care for several thousand people. We know relatively much about the figures of their founders, benefactors, social activists, and senior employees. However, gaining information about residents themselves requires much more intensive queries. The article is based primarily on articles, reports, and announcements appearing in Jewish press, supplemented by accounts published in memorial books and other sources, to recreate a general portrait of people who lived under the care of such institutions in Warsaw, Lemberg (Lviv), Vilnius, and other places.

Ordinary Moments of Demise: Photographs of the Jewish Home in Late 1930s Germany

Ordinary Moments of Demise: Photographs of the Jewish Home in Late 1930s Germany

British Policy in Palestine: Interests versus Reality (1917-1922)

The period between the publication of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and League of Nations mandates official assignment to Great Britain in 1922 was not lengthy, but highly eventful. All this time England was maneuvring between the Jewish and the Arab national movements, which also gradually formed their own demands and objectives. The problem was, pursuing British interests was possible through maneuvring only, as support of just one local force was not quite strategically advantageous. Britains official commitment to the Balfour Declaration remained at the core of its policy, however it could not completely ignore the demands of the Arab polutaion of Palestine. Although there were quite a number of British administrators and imperial politicians, who were sympathetic towards the Zionist cause and thus were ready to meet their requests to a certain extent, adherence to the British Middle East interests remained crucial to them. The idea of a Jewish national home (not a state, though) in Palestine did not come into contradiction with the general policy of Great Britain in the Middle East: it was rather its integral part. At the same time implementing the Zionist project had to be in line with it: any relatively radical (from the British administrators point of view) proposals were rejected or postponed indefinitely. Towards the Arabs of Palestine Great Britain was conducting mainly declarative policy without any serious consideration of their problems and grievances, although trying to appease their demands to a certain extent. Even the Arab riots of 1920 and 1921 did not cause a serious change in the British political course in Palestine, although they did contribute to the emergence of Churchills White Paper in 1922, declaring certain concessions to the Arab national movement, which never accepted the document. At the same time British policy in general was neither pro-Zionist, nor pro-Arab: England was pursuing its long-term strategic goals in the Middle East, skillfully utilizing Zionist and Arab national movements to achieve them.

The Betrayal of the Duchess: The Scandal that Unmade the Bourbon Monarchy and Made France Modern by Maurice Samuels

Reviewed by: The Betrayal of the Duchess: The Scandal that Unmade the Bourbon Monarchy and Made France Modern by Maurice Samuels Robert J. Young The Betrayal of the Duchess: The Scandal that Unmade the Bourbon Monarchy and Made France Modern. By Maurice Samuels. New York: Basic Books, 2020. 383 pages. $19.99 (cloth). Maurice Samuels closes this very fine work with two and a half pages acknowledging the support that he, and the book, have received from a very large field of friends. One of those "friends" is his father, who apparently thought that it was high time for his son to write "something that normal people might actually read" (327). Today, I should think, dad is a very happy man, for The Betrayal of the Duchess is excellent in every respect, including the way it weaves together the biographies of its two principal characters. Because a good number of "normal" people will not be familiar with the story of the Duchess de Berry, a few introductory words may be helpful. Italian by birth, a Bourbon by genes, a widow at 21, her self-defined mission in life was to see her son inherit the throne of France from her uncle, the ruling King Charles X (1824–1830). In fact, this king was pushed off the throne by the July Revolution of 1830, and forced to flee to England when his cousin, Louis Philippe, of the Orléanist line, proclaimed himself "King of [End Page 397] the French." That seemed to scotch the plan to see her son installed as Henri V so, accordingly, the 32 year old duchess and her two children became part of Charles' retinue in England. At least she did so for a while; however, this remarkable lady, now calling herself Marie Caroline, had not given up. Between 1830 and 1832, first from England, then from northern Italy, the duchess managed to rally royalist supporters in southern and western France, people who considered themselves "Legitimists" of the Bourbon line, as opposed to the now ruling Orléanist usurpers. Propaganda, both public and private, was followed by sporadic fighting over the course of several weeks in May and June 1832, particularly in the Vendée, but on a scale that barely supports the common expression "civil war." The government forces of Louis Philippe soon prevailed over a disorganized and disheartened opposition, and in mid-June the duchess was forced to go into hiding in the northwest city of Nantes. It was there that she was betrayed by one of her confidantes, a betrayal that led to her incarceration in several gloomy fortresses, and eventually her eviction from France in June 1833—her hopes now dashed of ever seeing a Bourbon restoration in the form of her son. She died in 1870, having led a comfortable married life in Sicily and Austria. The man who betrayed her to the police services of the Orléanist regime was a German-born Jew whose father, by the 1830s, was the Chief Rabbi of Paris. Simon Deutz, the son, had spent his youth in Paris, living in a Jewish home situated in the Marais quarter. But in 1828, at the age of 26, and without a word to his father, Simon was baptized in Rome and awarded the Christian name of Hyacinthe. That conversion soon opened two doors. One led to the Bourbon-bred and Catholic duchess, who was set on toppling the regime of Louis-Philippe. The other door led to the Orléanist and Catholic regime of Louis-Philippe. Hyacinthe, whom Maurice Samuels continues to call Deutz, was thus in a position to potentially serve two diametrically opposed forces, although any reader would soon conclude that service to anyone but himself was foreign to Deutz. Having turned the duchess over to the police for a substantial financial reward, and having converted back [End Page 398] to Judaism, this remarkable character gets on a ship and basically disappears somewhere in New Orleans, under at least one assumed name. There is no record of the date of his death. That is the skeleton of a story to which Samuels gives flesh. He has been able to do so for three reasons...

공동주거 기술로서의 정동적 실천: 영국의 정통유대인요양원에서 인지증(치매)과 사는 에일라의 사례를 중심으로

지금까지 인지증(치매) 연구는 주로 생의학적·약학적·치료적 측면에 집중되었다. 이러한 접근은 인지증과 사는 사람의 목소리를 놓친다. 본고는 영국의 정통유대인요양원에서 인지증과 사는 에일라의 사례를 통해, 그녀가 실제 몸으로 느끼고 상상하는 삶을 보여주고 그 의미와 가치를 드러내고자 한다.<BR> 이 연구에서는 인지증이 진행됨에 따라 나타나는 반복적인 행위나 말을 비정상적이거나 병리적인 현상으로 간주하지 않고 삶의 한 방식으로 이해한다. 여기에 웨더웰(Wetherell)의 ‘정동적 실천(affective practice)’개념과 인골드(Ingold)의 ‘주거 관점’ 및 ‘분위기’와 ‘만들기’ 개념을 결합하여, 인지·언어·판단·수행능력 등을 잃어감에도 불구하고 끊임없이 현실에 참여하고 세상과 관계 맺는 일상의 실천을 정동적인 측면에서 밝힌다. 이를 통해 에일라가 제한적이지만 정동적 실천을 통해 요양원을 어떻게 경험하고 새로운 정동적 분위기를 만드는 것에 기여하는지를 묘사하고 분석한다. 이 과정에서 에일라가 영향을 미치기도 하고 받기도 하는 공동생산자이자 실질적인 구성요소로서 존재하고 있음을 보여줄 것이다.

Kontekst i przebieg noworocznej liturgii rodzinnej judaizmu w świetle księgi Sefer habrachot

Artykuł jest poświęcony żydowskiej liturgii domowej w święto Nowego roku (Rosz haszana). Omówiono kontekst noworocznego świętowania, poprzedzonego miesiącem rachunku sumienia, i jego związek z nadchodzącym 10 dni później Dniem Pojednania. Opisano przebieg liturgii rodzinnej w dniu Rosz haszana i objaśniono jej symbolikę. Teksty liturgiczne zaczerpnięto z księgi Sefer habrachot zawierającej tradycyjne modlitwy z nurtu ortodoksyjnego z wariantami wschodnimi (sfarad) i zachodnimi (aszkenaz). We wnioskach szczególną uwagę zwrócono na elementy wychowawcze i scalające rodzinę.

Co-creative Affordance: Rethinking “Beyond Loss” in Dementia through Co-dwelling

ABSTRACT Based on a decade of voluntary work and a year of intensive ethnographic fieldwork in an orthodox Jewish care home in London, I demonstrate the ways in which an individual’s loss of cognition, language and memory is challenged, rethought and facilitated in everyday life. Drawing on Ingold’s idea of dwelling, I examine how loss is constantly negotiated and distributed in ways of becoming that are radically contingent, profoundly relational and potentially generative during an art activity in the context of co-dwelling. I refer to this as dementia-becoming. I suggest a more inclusive understanding of loss as a way of life, constitutive of life, and appreciated as a potential co-creative affordance.

Are Your Quality Assessment and Assurance Documents Safe From Prying Eyes?

Are Your Quality Assessment and Assurance Documents Safe From Prying Eyes?