Oakland University Hosting Midwest Judaic Studies Association Conference

Oakland University hosting Midwest Judaic Studies Association Conference,

October 23 – 24, 2011

Sunday, October 23, 2011 All rooms are located in the Oakland Center

10:00am – 10:30amRegistration

10:30am – 12:00noonSession 1: includes IA and IB

1A: European Jews (room 126, Oakland Center)

Chair: Seth Korlitz or Derek Hastings

Silent Seer: John Milton and the Jews

Adam Reinherz, University of Cambridge

"Producing Spaces: Jewish Conflict in the Badenese Press during the mid-1840s"

David Meola, University of British Columbia

Performative Jewish Identity in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

Klaus Hoedl, Center for Jewish Studies, University of Graz/Austria

IB: The Wandering View: Jewish Themes in National Cinemas(room 127, Oakland Center)

Chair: Kirsten Fermaglich, Michigan State University

“Live and Become: Aliyah and Alienation of Ethiopian Jewry.”

Lawrence Baron, San Diego State University.

“The American Dream on St. Urbain Stree: Duddy Kravitz and the Canadian Film Industry.”

Scott Henderson, Brock University.

“Empathy and Character Identification in Popular German Holocaust Films of the Past Decade”

Jennifer William, Purdue University.

12:00 – 1:00pmLunch (Gold Room “C”, Oakland Center)

Announcement of the Graduate Student Paper Award

1:15 – 3:15pmSession II: includes IIA and IIB

IIA: Music from Europe to Texas(room 126, Oakland Center)

Chair:Jessica Payette, Oakland University

Kinky Friedman and His Texas Jewboys: in a New Historical and Geographical Perspective

Theodore Albrecht, Kent State University

Sholom Secunda

Susan Filler, Private Scholar

Life (or Death) is a Cabaret: Music and Theater at the Concentration Camp Westerbork

Edward Michael Hafer, University of Southern Mississippi

3:15 – 3:30pmBreak

3:30 --5:00pmSession III: includes IIIA and IIIB

IIIA: Using Popular Media(Room 126, Oakland Center)

Chair: Mara W. Cohen Ioannides, Missouri State University

A Cultural Language for the Folk: The Creation of a “Popular” Kulturshprakh in Yidish far ale, 1938-39

Jordana de Bloeme, York University

Science, Emancipation and TheJewish Chronicle

Matthew Kaufman, Private Scholar

The Missing Jewish Narrative: The Art and Emotional Politics of Jewish Outreach to Jews - A Mass Communication Analysis of Missionary and Counter-Missionary Books and Websites

Susan Kray, Indiana State University

IIIB: Zionism in Politics and Literature(Room 127, Oakland Center)

Chair:

The Jewish Question in Herzl’s ‘Das Neue Ghetto’ and Pappenheim’s ‘Tragische Momente’

Jai Deshpande, University of Illinois

Gandhi and the Jews/ The Jews and Gandhi

Joseph Hodes, York University

Quivers of a Novel: Rivka Alper’s Pirpurey Mahapekha

Orian Zakai, University of Michigan

5:00 – 6:15pmSession IV: includes IVA and IVB

IVA: Eichmann After 50 Years: New Considerations(Room 126, Oakland Center)

Chair: Lawrence Baron, San Diego State University

Adolf Eichmann at the Movies: An Examination of Film Portrayals of Eichmann and their Historical Significance

Paul R. Bartrop, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Re-reading Eichmann: Examining the Work of Papadatos, Aharoni, Arendt, Bascomb, Cesarani, Glock, Harel, Lipstadt, Minerbi, Robinson, Roqat, Rassinier
(!), Russell, and von Lang – and Others

Steven Leonard Jacobs, Aaron Aronov Endowed Chair of Judaic Studies, University of Alabama

IVB: People and the Land in Literature(Room 127, Oakland Center)

Chair: Mara W. Cohen Ioannides, Missouri State University

Polemical City: Jewish Coney Island and the Image of America

Benjamin H. Pollak, University of Michigan
Mourning, Reading, and Jewish Identity: Leon Wieseltier and His Books
Steven Weiland, Michigan State University

The City Limits: Mordkhe Spector's Rayze-bilder

Alexandra Hoffman University of Michigan

Evening Events: Banquet Room “B”, Oakland Center

6:15 – 6:45pmCocktails (cash bar).

6:45 – 7:30pmDinner

7:30 - 9:00pm Program:

Welcome message from Dr. Ron A. Sudol, Dean of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Oakland University.

Welcome Message from Mara Cohen Ioannides, Missouri State University and President of the Midwest Jewish Studies Association

Plenary: Digging at Biblical Sha’arayim, Israel: An Iron Age Site from the Time of King David. Michael J. Pytlik, Special Lecturer Oakland UniversityAnd Professor Richard Stamps, Oakland University. Oakland University

8:45 – 9:30pmCoffee and dessert: sponsored by Oakland University Religious Studies

Monday, October 24, 2011

8:30 – 10:30amSession V: Includes VA and VB

VA: Family and Jewish Identity in Literature(Room 126, Oakland Center)

Chair: Chris Apap, Oakland University

"Getting Your Mind in the Gutter: Non-Jewish Jewish Identity in Alison Bechdel's Graphic Memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic"

Jenna Goldsmith, University of Kentucky

Individual Choice and Family/Societal Pressure in Daniel Deronda

Anne Strauss, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion Rabbinic School

The Impact of Jewish Women Homesteaders on America and American Judaism

Mara W. Cohen Ioannides, Missouri State University

VB: Jewish Religious Texts(Room 127, Oakland Center)

Chair: Michael Pytlik, Oakland University

Computer Analysis of Midrashic Exegesis on Parallel Biblical Phrases

Russell Jay Hendel, Towson University

The Paratactic and Anthrocentric Creation Stories—The Real Message of Genesis 1 and 2

Joseph Klein, Oakland University

Lamdanut 2.0: Reintegrating Talmudic analytics with legal, ethical and moral theory

Chaim N. Saiman, Villanova Law School

10:30am – 10:45amBreak

10:45am – 12:15pmSession VI: Includes VIA and VIB

VIA: Philosophy, Metaphysics, and Identity(Room 126, Oakland Center)

Chair: Elysa White-Koppleman, Oakland University

Spinoza’s Doctrine of the Eternity of the Mind: Personal Immortality or A Case of Mistaken Identity?

Gregory Curtis, Florida State U.

Pedagogical Lessons Obtained thru Comparison: Religion and Ethics Through the Eyes ofMaimonides and Shinran

Ilana Maymind, The Ohio State University

American Metaphysical Judaism: Jewish Shaman and Rabbi Gershon Winkler

Celia Elaine Rothenberg, McMaster University

VIB: Memories (Room 127, Oakland Center)

Chair:

"Memories in Conflict: The Autobiographies of Rebeka Bettleheim Kohut and Elsie Kohut Sulzberger."

Howard N. Lupovitch, University of Western Ontario

Remembering and Ritual: Anna Mitgutsch’s Narratives of Memory

Christina Guenther, Bowling Green State

Evolving Memories: Conversos' Trials and their Stories

Jennifer Heilbronner Muñoz, Harvard University

12:30 – 1:30pmLunch / Recognitions / Closings (Banquet Room “B”, Oakland Center)

1:30- 2:15pmClosing Presentation: Rabbi Jason Miller’s Jewish Humor