Lecture: Dr. C. Tova Markenson, “Jewish Feelings: Performing Tsuris (Troubles) at the Yiddish Theatres in Buenos Aires, 1880-1940” (3/15)

Online webinar (only). Register here.
In partnership with the Jewish Studies Program at Kent State University

Dr. C. Tova Markenson
Assistant Professor
Academy for Jewish Religion

“Jewish Feelings: Performing Tsuris (Troubles) at the Yiddish Theatres in Buenos Aires, 1880-1940″

Tuesday, March 15, 2022 at 5:00 pm (eastern) / Online only with registration in advance.

Dr. Markenson asks, “How can we be present to the past when that history is filled with shame?” This project is the first full-length study of a locus of shame for diasporic Jews, the Yiddish theatres in Buenos Aires, which many believed maintained business ties with Jewish pimps. Amidst antisemitic stereotypes that Jews were sexually deviant—and the historical reality that some Jews were sex workers—many have dismissed the Argentinean Yiddish theatres as a “low brow” cultural arena. Arguing that the Yiddish theatres in Buenos Aires were a flash point for conflict about acceptable performances of Jewishness, I build on methods from theatre studies and affect studies to support interdisciplinary scholars of Jewish Studies in “making sense” of shame.

Dr. Eli Rosenblatt, “Creole Israel: The Jews of Suriname, 1890-1960,” Emerging Scholars Lecture Series (Feb. 16, 2022, YSU / Kent State)

Dr. Eli Rosenblatt joined us to deliver the first of three talks in our Emerging Scholars Lecture Series, which we co-organize with the Jewish Studies Program at Kent State University. For more information about our Emerging Scholars Lecture Series and to register for the remaining two talks, click here.

Full Video

Dr. Rosenblatt will explore a Caribbean Jewish society on the northeastern coast of South America. Among the oldest continuously existing Jewish communities in the Western Hemisphere, my talk will argue that the Jews of Suriname, though distinctly situated in their tropical environment and largely unknown outside the Dutch sphere today, are the “relatives” of all American Jews. While most scholarship on race and racism in American Jewish culture has focused on the United States, this talk will focus on Surinamese Jews as they experienced events we commonly associate with America – the rise of Black Power politics, the mass migration of East European Jews to American cities, the emergence of Zionism, the Holocaust, and local antisemitism. In the context of a different American society divided by color and radically diverse in its cultural, linguistic, and religious makeup, the history of the Jews of Suriname provides us with a way of looking at American Jewish futures through the expanded lens of a lesser-known past.

Lecture: Dr. Eli Rosenblatt, “Creole Israel” (2/16)

Online webinar (only). Register here.

Dr. Eli Rosenblatt
Visiting Assistant Professor
Religious Studies, Northwestern University

“Creole Israel: The Jews of Suriname, 1890 – 1960

February 16, 2022 at 5:00 pm (eastern) / Online only

Dr. Rosenblatt will explore a Caribbean Jewish society on the northeastern coast of South America. Among the oldest continuously existing Jewish communities in the Western Hemisphere, my talk will argue that the Jews of Suriname, though distinctly situated in their tropical environment and largely unknown outside the Dutch sphere today, are the “relatives” of all American Jews. While most scholarship on race and racism in American Jewish culture has focused on the United States, this talk will focus on Surinamese Jews as they experienced events we commonly associate with America – the rise of Black Power politics, the mass migration of East European Jews to American cities, the emergence of Zionism, the Holocaust, and local antisemitism. In the context of a different American society divided by color and radically diverse in its cultural, linguistic, and religious makeup, the history of the Jews of Suriname provides us with a way of looking at American Jewish futures through the expanded lens of a lesser-known past.

Deadline Extended for Submitting Proposals to Symposium

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

The CJHS and the Jewish Studies Program at Purdue University have extended the deadline for submitting proposals to our joint symposium: “CONTACT: The Movement and Meetings of Jewish People and Artifacts across Cold-War Boundaries

Please submit a brief proposal and your CV by Monday, February 7 to ContactSymposium22@gmail.com.

Contact postcard front

For more information click here or on the flyer above.

“Jews Around the World” Videos Posted (2021-2021)

The Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies a YSU and the Jewish Studies Program at Kent State University collaborated on a lecture series in Spring 2021, “Jews around the World.” The videos—save one, in process—are up! Watch them here.

Moshe Bernstein, “The Jews of Kaifeng, China: Identities Then and Now” (2/23/2021)

Galia Sabar, “Ethiopian Jews: The Long Quest for Zion” (3/23/2021)

Alma Rachel Heckman, “The Sultan’s Communists: Moroccan Jews and the Politics of Belonging” (4/20/2021)