Nancy Sinkoff is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and History and Director of the Center for European Studies at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
This chapter focuses on Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanow, a fascinating maskil, who was a link bet... more This chapter focuses on Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanow, a fascinating maskil, who was a link between the German and the east European Haskalah. Because he often wrote in Yiddish, he has usually been seen as a populist who advanced the maskilim's criticism of east European Jewish life and culture. He attacked the intoxication with mysticism, became involved in the literary battle against hasidism, and proposed the maskilim as leaders who could heal the ills of Jewish society. In contrast to the view of Lefin as a populist, which was rooted in earlier scholarship's nationalist bias, the chapter notes his sophisticated use of literary strategies aimed at different audiences according to the language of the text. It illustrates these strategies in an analysis of a text written for his fellow Jews; an adaptation and translation of a travel story in the New World meant as a tool of social criticism and anti-hasidic polemics; and also in a text written for a wider audience, an anonymous French memorandum that Lefin submitted to the Polish Sejm in 1791.
<p>This chapter focuses on Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanow, a fascinating maskil, who was a... more <p>This chapter focuses on Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanow, a fascinating maskil, who was a link between the German and the east European Haskalah. Because he often wrote in Yiddish, he has usually been seen as a populist who advanced the maskilim's criticism of east European Jewish life and culture. He attacked the intoxication with mysticism, became involved in the literary battle against hasidism, and proposed the maskilim as leaders who could heal the ills of Jewish society. In contrast to the view of Lefin as a populist, which was rooted in earlier scholarship's nationalist bias, the chapter notes his sophisticated use of literary strategies aimed at different audiences according to the language of the text. It illustrates these strategies in an analysis of a text written for his fellow Jews; an adaptation and translation of a travel story in the New World meant as a tool of social criticism and anti-hasidic polemics; and also in a text written for a wider audience, an anonymous French memorandum that Lefin submitted to the Polish Sejm in 1791.</p>
Ajs Review-the Journal of The Association for Jewish Studies, Apr 1, 2004
A typographic error appears on page 295 of “The Maskil, the Convert, and the עAgunah: Joseph Perl... more A typographic error appears on page 295 of “The Maskil, the Convert, and the עAgunah: Joseph Perl as a Historian of Jewish Divorce Law,” by Nancy Sinkoff, in the November 2003 issue of AJS Review [2003:27(2), pp. 281–299]. In the indented paragraph from Joseph Perl&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s manuscript, the original Hebrew phrase “vekhatav”—which is noted in footnote 61 as appearing in the text itself—was elided, leaving an underline with no text. The passage containing the missing Hebrew phrase follows in its entirety:
IN FEBRUARY 1963, employed in the research division of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), Lucy ... more IN FEBRUARY 1963, employed in the research division of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), Lucy S. Dawidowicz (née Schildkret, 1915– 90) published a Hebrew article in its Israeli cultural journal Amot (Evaluations).1 Her article, “Revolution and Tradition: The Jewish Labor Movement in America,” treated the issue that would consume her throughout her career: the relationship of Jewish tradition and values to modern Jewish politics.2 Not yet a public figure, Dawidowicz would soon play a singular role in the postwar representation of East European Jewry for the Anglophone world with the publication of The Golden Tradition: Jewish Life and Thought in Eastern Europe (1967) and The War against the Jews, 1933–1945 (1975).3 Little known is that Dawidowicz’s engage-
Edward Fram. My Dear Daughter: Rabbi Benjamin Slonik and the Education of Jewish Women in Sixteen... more Edward Fram. My Dear Daughter: Rabbi Benjamin Slonik and the Education of Jewish Women in Sixteenth-Century Poland. Monographs of the Hebrew Union College, no. 33. Transi, by Edward Fram and Agnes Romer Segal. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 2007. xx, 337 pp. Notes. Tables. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. $39.95, cloth.This important book, which contains a bilingual translation and transcription of the 1585 edition of a Yiddish handbook educating Jewish women (and men) in the laws of the menstruant (niddah), belongs to the fields of early modern Poland, women's and gender history, Yiddish language, the history of the book and printing, sexuality, and Jewish law. Deserving of a broad authence, it is nonetheless a highly specialized study of the prescriptions for early modern Polish Jewish marital life and sex.In 1577, Rabbi Benjamin Slonik (ca. 1550-after 1620) wrote Seder mitzvos ha-noshim (The Order of Women's Commandments, Yiddish) to guide Jewish couples, particula...
Page 1. OUT OF THE SHTETL Making Jews Modern in the Polish Borderlands Nancy Sinkoff Brown Judaic... more Page 1. OUT OF THE SHTETL Making Jews Modern in the Polish Borderlands Nancy Sinkoff Brown Judaic Studies 336 Page 2. OUT OF THE SHTETL Page 3. Program in Judaic Studies Brown University Box 1826 Providence ...
This chapter focuses on Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanow, a fascinating maskil, who was a link bet... more This chapter focuses on Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanow, a fascinating maskil, who was a link between the German and the east European Haskalah. Because he often wrote in Yiddish, he has usually been seen as a populist who advanced the maskilim's criticism of east European Jewish life and culture. He attacked the intoxication with mysticism, became involved in the literary battle against hasidism, and proposed the maskilim as leaders who could heal the ills of Jewish society. In contrast to the view of Lefin as a populist, which was rooted in earlier scholarship's nationalist bias, the chapter notes his sophisticated use of literary strategies aimed at different audiences according to the language of the text. It illustrates these strategies in an analysis of a text written for his fellow Jews; an adaptation and translation of a travel story in the New World meant as a tool of social criticism and anti-hasidic polemics; and also in a text written for a wider audience, an anonymous French memorandum that Lefin submitted to the Polish Sejm in 1791.
<p>This chapter focuses on Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanow, a fascinating maskil, who was a... more <p>This chapter focuses on Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanow, a fascinating maskil, who was a link between the German and the east European Haskalah. Because he often wrote in Yiddish, he has usually been seen as a populist who advanced the maskilim's criticism of east European Jewish life and culture. He attacked the intoxication with mysticism, became involved in the literary battle against hasidism, and proposed the maskilim as leaders who could heal the ills of Jewish society. In contrast to the view of Lefin as a populist, which was rooted in earlier scholarship's nationalist bias, the chapter notes his sophisticated use of literary strategies aimed at different audiences according to the language of the text. It illustrates these strategies in an analysis of a text written for his fellow Jews; an adaptation and translation of a travel story in the New World meant as a tool of social criticism and anti-hasidic polemics; and also in a text written for a wider audience, an anonymous French memorandum that Lefin submitted to the Polish Sejm in 1791.</p>
Ajs Review-the Journal of The Association for Jewish Studies, Apr 1, 2004
A typographic error appears on page 295 of “The Maskil, the Convert, and the עAgunah: Joseph Perl... more A typographic error appears on page 295 of “The Maskil, the Convert, and the עAgunah: Joseph Perl as a Historian of Jewish Divorce Law,” by Nancy Sinkoff, in the November 2003 issue of AJS Review [2003:27(2), pp. 281–299]. In the indented paragraph from Joseph Perl&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s manuscript, the original Hebrew phrase “vekhatav”—which is noted in footnote 61 as appearing in the text itself—was elided, leaving an underline with no text. The passage containing the missing Hebrew phrase follows in its entirety:
IN FEBRUARY 1963, employed in the research division of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), Lucy ... more IN FEBRUARY 1963, employed in the research division of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), Lucy S. Dawidowicz (née Schildkret, 1915– 90) published a Hebrew article in its Israeli cultural journal Amot (Evaluations).1 Her article, “Revolution and Tradition: The Jewish Labor Movement in America,” treated the issue that would consume her throughout her career: the relationship of Jewish tradition and values to modern Jewish politics.2 Not yet a public figure, Dawidowicz would soon play a singular role in the postwar representation of East European Jewry for the Anglophone world with the publication of The Golden Tradition: Jewish Life and Thought in Eastern Europe (1967) and The War against the Jews, 1933–1945 (1975).3 Little known is that Dawidowicz’s engage-
Edward Fram. My Dear Daughter: Rabbi Benjamin Slonik and the Education of Jewish Women in Sixteen... more Edward Fram. My Dear Daughter: Rabbi Benjamin Slonik and the Education of Jewish Women in Sixteenth-Century Poland. Monographs of the Hebrew Union College, no. 33. Transi, by Edward Fram and Agnes Romer Segal. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 2007. xx, 337 pp. Notes. Tables. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. $39.95, cloth.This important book, which contains a bilingual translation and transcription of the 1585 edition of a Yiddish handbook educating Jewish women (and men) in the laws of the menstruant (niddah), belongs to the fields of early modern Poland, women's and gender history, Yiddish language, the history of the book and printing, sexuality, and Jewish law. Deserving of a broad authence, it is nonetheless a highly specialized study of the prescriptions for early modern Polish Jewish marital life and sex.In 1577, Rabbi Benjamin Slonik (ca. 1550-after 1620) wrote Seder mitzvos ha-noshim (The Order of Women's Commandments, Yiddish) to guide Jewish couples, particula...
Page 1. OUT OF THE SHTETL Making Jews Modern in the Polish Borderlands Nancy Sinkoff Brown Judaic... more Page 1. OUT OF THE SHTETL Making Jews Modern in the Polish Borderlands Nancy Sinkoff Brown Judaic Studies 336 Page 2. OUT OF THE SHTETL Page 3. Program in Judaic Studies Brown University Box 1826 Providence ...
A talk given in memory of Ezra Mendelsohn at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Association for Jewis... more A talk given in memory of Ezra Mendelsohn at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Association for Jewish Studies.
A concert, “Soundscapes of Modernity: Jews and Music in Polish Cities,” featuring an important, b... more A concert, “Soundscapes of Modernity: Jews and Music in Polish Cities,” featuring an important, but little-known repertoire of choral pieces from “Progressive” synagogues, compositions associated with Jewish music societies, and avant-garde works by Jewish composers, will be held on Monday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Kirkpatrick Chapel in New Brunswick.
All events are free and open to the public. For more information, and a full list of participants, please see:
Founded in 2013, the Polish Jewish Studies Initiative (PJSI) is an international, interdisciplina... more Founded in 2013, the Polish Jewish Studies Initiative (PJSI) is an international, interdisciplinary forum for scholars involved in research and teaching at the intersection of Polish and Jewish studies. This collaboration has generated an annual Polish Jewish Studies Workshop (PJSW) that brings together scholars, public intellectuals, artists, and cultural workers to identify new theoretical and methodological developments in the field of Polish Jewish Studies; to help scholars keep abreast of each others' work across linguistic and continental divides; and to consider new vocabularies and research strategies in a hybrid and transnational cultural landscape. The PJSI Advisory Committee welcomes inquiries from institutions and organizations interested in applying to host the annual international Polish Jewish Studies Workshop. The 2018 Polish Jewish Studies Workshop will focus on Jewish cultural production, but also on cultural collaborations and tensions between Christians and Jews in the years of Poland's partitions and independence (1772-1939) in urban centers other than Warsaw— especially Wilno, Lwów, Kraków, and Łódź. We will explore these topics through fresh approaches and methodologies. Panels are listed below-for a full schedule, see the conference
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All events are free and open to the public. For more information, and a full list of participants, please see:
http://www.sas.rutgers.edu/cms/ces/polish-jewish-workshop/workshop