We begin with a walk through Prof. Pinsker’s own intellectual history, discussing how he became enchanted with Jewish literature and how he came to write about coffee houses.  His tale is instructive for all scholars.  While working on his dissertation and first book, Shachar kept gathering information about European cafés where the literary figures and intellectuals he was studying all seemed to be assembling.  Although not thinking a project about cafés would be all that interesting, he was encouraged by others to write about the topic and it eventually led to his fascinating new book.  We discuss the history of coffee houses, noting that they originated several centuries ago in the Near East and were imported to Europe from the Ottoman Empire, first to England in the16th century where they were named “taverns without wine” or “penny universities.”  These cafés were not only local gathering places for people in a community, but they also represented an important “other” place given the exotic nature of coffee and their transnational connections.  We discuss why the period from roughly the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century represented the “Golden Age” of coffee houses and how it corresponded with the era of Jewish modernization.  Cafés represented places where one could get a sense of community within the growing anonymous city, and was a place where people debated and shared ideas.  Often these cafés became closely identified with different schools of thought, attracting certain artists and intellectuals, and fomenting spirited divisions that often led opposing schools of thought to take up residence in other cafés.  Tony notes that many of the photographs in Shachar’s book were of individuals who were dressed up in fancy clothing, and this leads to some observations about how cafés represented places where people presented themselves publicly, but also served to reinforce class, gender, nationality, and ethnic status.

The coffee houses of Europe became important places for Jews during the late 19th and early 20th century as the Jewish population was on the move.  Prof. Pinsker uses the travels of S.Y. Agnon to illustrate this point as he moved through many of the cities discussed in Shachar’s book including Warsaw, Odessa, Berlin, and Vienna.  Networks of migration were set up in these cafés and travelers would know to go to coffee houses to find community.  Shachar points out that cafés represent an important “thirdspace” in urban areas, occupying area between the public and private, as well as the objective and subjective.  We then walk through the various cities he highlights in his book — Odessa, Warsaw, Vienna, and Berlin — pointing out how the differed from one another, yet how the cafés in each city provided a sense of continuity, acculturation and integration.  Jews became identified with café culture in many of these places and Shachar points out the tension in the phrase “Jew belong in the coffee house” often heard in Vienna; cafés were places where Jews did find belonging, but also became a focal point of anti-Semitism.  We then discuss how coffee culture moved beyond Europe and into New York and Tel Aviv, along with how and why cafés seemed to lose their intellectual and cultural vibrancy in the last half of the 20th century.  Jewish socio-economic mobility (e.g., to the Upper West Side of New York) as well as the growing presence of second and third generation Jews in Tel Aviv who lost a sense of their migratory culture are possible reasons why coffee houses have lost their cultural impact.  Prof. Pinsker also speculates about the role that the Internet is having on community, noting that while people in coffee shops nowadays can often be seen interaction with their computers and phones (and not socializing directly), the world wide web may actually be crafting new spaces for community.  Only time will tell.  Recorded: March 14, 2018.

RELATED LINKS

Prof. Shachar Pinsker’s bio at the Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan.

Prof. Shachar Pinsker’s personal website.

A Rich Brew: How Cafés Created Modern Jewish Culture, by Shachar Pinsker.

Literary Passports: The Making of Modernist Hebrew Fiction in Europe, by Shachar Pinsker.

RELATED PODCASTS

Shari Rabin on Jews on the American Frontier.

David Fishman on Saving Jewish Documents During World War II.

Carmel Chiswick on the Economics of Being Jewish in America.

Other podcasts related to Judaism.

We then move into our discussion on Jewish migration in 19th century America, first with a general overview of Jewish migration patterns dating back to the early colonial period in America.  We learn that Charleston actually has the second oldest synagogue in the US dating back to the mid-17th century.  Our conversation covers the various “push” and “pull” factors that led many Jews to migrate to American in the early 1800s.  In Europe, governments tightly regulated Jewish behavior and living patterns, which served to shape their communities.  In the US, by contrast, no such regulations existed and with the opportunity to head out West, it became very easy for one to lose one’s religious identity.  The struggle to retain one’s heritage serves to focus the rest of our discussion.  It is noted that much of the early Jewish migration was comprised of single males, making it difficult to find a spouse and raise a Jewish family.  Intermarriage with Christians always presented itself as one possibility, but there were efforts to provide Jewish matchmaking services in order to retain cultural continuity.  Issues of circumcision are also discussed, with Prof. Rabin noting that it was very difficult to find someone qualified to perform the procedure within the required eight days of birth.  This, in turn, led to some creative flexibility on the part of Jews who needed to bend the strict rules.  Other challenges facing Jews on the move related to finding Jewish “stuff,” such as kosher food, Torah scrolls, prayer shawls, and other elements of the faith that were used on a daily basis.  And setting up a synagogue that helped to reinforce communal worship was also difficult as in some communities it was difficult to gather a quorum of believers to establish the congregation.

The final part of our conversation relates to how Jewish theology responded to the physical challenges of living as a minority in mobile times.  Shari discusses two central figures in American Jewish history who were aware of these challenges and sought to shape religious identity to the new circumstances — Isaac Mayer Wise and Isaac Leeser.  The former was a central figure in the creation of Reform Judaism, whereas the latter tried to preserve more traditional forms of Judaism.  Despite their seemingly divergent approaches, Shari points out that these two religious entrepreneurs also shared much in common, using newspapers as a means of communication within the American Jewish community.  She notes that the newspapers were not only there to broadcast to Jews the changes in Jewish culture that were occurring, but as Jews wrote into the paper describing their daily challenges, these men were able to keep their “ears to the ground” of the culture and diagnose the problems of the faithful.  Their answers to these challenges often led to expanding notions of cultural authenticity, demonstrating that theology can be very flexible to one’s contextual environment.  Shari also reveals that because Wise outlived Leeser by nearly three decades, he had a larger imprint on the nature of American Jewish culture.  We sum up our discussion with the importance of the year 1877 and two important events.  First Isaac Wise’s trip to California led him to write a series of travel letters that indicated his awe of how vibrant the Jewish culture remained in new lands, but also how he was concerned about how some changes (such as intermarriage with Christians) was threatening the long-term viability of the faith.  The second major event of that year was the Seligman Affair, wherein a prominent Jewish businessman was prohibited from obtaining lodging in Saratoga, New York.  This latter incident revealed that up until that time, Jewish life in American was largely individualistic and invisible, but as the population started to grow and find ways to enhance their communal relationships it often brought with it anti-Semitism and other forms of negative attention.  We end the podcast with Prof. Rabin’s thoughts on what she has learned throughout her studies of Jewish life and migration.  Recorded: February 23, 2018.

RELATED LINKS

 Prof. Shari Rabin’s bio at the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture at the College of Charleston.

Prof. Rabin’s personal website (with links to her various writings).

Jews on the Frontier: Religion and Mobility in Nineteenth-Century America, by Shari Rabin.

The American Israelite, the newspaper founded by Isaac Mayer Wise (originally named The Israelite).

RELATED LINKS

Colleen Haight on Jewish Peddlers in 19th Century America.

Carmel Chiswick on the Economics of Being Jewish in America.

Carmel Chiswick on the Economics of American Judaism (different than episode listed above).

Daniel Libenson on Present and Future Judaism.

Ken Wald on the Puzzling Politics of American Judaism.

Linda Weiser Friedman on Jewish Humor.

Click out “Jewish” category on the right hand side of our website for more episodes related to Judaism.

We begin with how Dr. Levin fell into the world of religion & health and his more specific interest in what is going on in the world of Judaism.  He relates a rather fortuitous story of seeing an advertisement for a panel on Judiasm and healing at Hebrew Union College.  Although he had been writing on religion and health for awhile, this event prompted him to begin exploring what had been happening in the Jewish community with respect to health.  This journey took him back into the Torah and Midrash, taking notes on anything he saw written about health, as well as an examination of the contemporary Jewish scene.

We then cover a variety of topics that bridge the link Judaism and health starting with bioethics.  Jeff connects this to historical interpretations (the “responsa” literature) of Jewish law (halakhah).  Tony observes that we seem to be on the cusp of a new set of bioethical debates that were unimaginable just a few decades ago including genetic engineering.  Jeff then talks about how the rabbinical community is addressing these issues within the tradition of Jewish law.  A brief detour is taken to address the Jewish response to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was not surprisingly varied within the Jewish community.  Another aspect of Jewish health we examine is the growing institutionalization of pastoral care, including Jewish hospices and the creating of organizations designed to aging-related issues given that the US Jewish demographic is aging faster than most other demographics.  Tony wonders if this specific emphasis on building formal institutions is related to the “new diaspora” to suburbs and how this might threaten Jewish solidarity.  Jeff responds to this query and it leads us to an interesting discussion of the Jewish community in Waco where we learn that Jews were instrumental in the settlement of central Texas.  We finish off with Jeff’s empirical work on Judiaism and health, noting how active observance in the Jewish faith actually has positive health outcomes (i.e, a protective factor) for individuals.  Recorded: December 12, 2013.

RELATED LINKS

Jeff Levin’s bio at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion.

Judaism & Health: A Handbook of Practical, Professional, and Scholarly Resources, edited by Jeff Levin.

Divine Love: Perspectives from the World’s Religious Traditions, edited by Jeff Levin and Stephen Post.

National Center for Jewish Healing.

RELATED PODCASTS

Jeff Levin on Religion & Health.

Rodney Stark on How Religion Benefits Everyone, Even Atheists.

Proeschold-Bell and Adams on Clergy Mental Health.

Our conversation begins with some historical context, first probing how Dr. Fishman became interested in the topic of modern Jewish history and then laying out the historical context of Jews in Eastern Europe during the first half of the 20th century.  We learn that Jews were present in the region as far back as the 1300s with Vilna becoming the “Jerusalem of Lithuania” (or the “Jerusalem of the North”) by the 1500s.  By the turn of the 20th century, roughly 40% of Vilna’s inhabitants were Jewish, although this number decreases to 29% on the even of the Soviet and German invasions largely due to the flight of many individuals to safer territory.  Our discussion then moves to the present when Tony asks about the discovery of 170,000 pages of documents discovered in 2016, which added to the roughly 150,000 pages discovered in 1991.  Tony was curious about how such a large stockpile of works could go missing for such a long time.  David explains that instead of destroying the documents as per Soviet orders following World War II, clergy with foresight of their value hid them at the bottom of other stacks of books and documents.  Eventually, when folks started to go through these mountains of literary works they eventually came across a portion of the piles that had manuscripts written in Hebrew and Yiddish.  We talk about the significance of such documents, including even the most seemingly mundane ones.  David provides a fascinating example of a contract between a local rabbi in Vilna and a guild of Jewish water porters.  (Lacking plumbing, buckets of water had to be carried to various establishments each day.)  The Association of Water Carriers of Vilna agreed to bring water to the synagogue in exchange for a place to pray, a seemingly simple transaction but one that reveals the importance of faith in the lives of everyday individuals at all socio-economic levels.  Tony wonders what it is like to just merely touch some of these historical documents as it provides an opportunity for someone in our age to be transported back in time.  We also talk about the necessity of preserving cultural documents as attempts to destroy such treasures are really efforts to erase the memory of entire groups of people.

This discussion about the importance of cultural memory then takes us directly into a discussion of how The Paper Brigade risked their lives to preserve all sorts of documents.  Prof. Fishman conveys to us the danger and desperation for Jews in Vilna at this time, noting how the Nazis rounded up all Jews into a small ghetto and summarily murdered over 50,000 Jews as an extension of the Holocaust into Lithuania.  We also discuss the efforts of Johannes Pohl, a former Catholic priest who became the Nazi director tasked with gathering and destroying Jewish documents around Europe.  Part of the documents collected by the Nazis were preserved for propaganda purposes in an effort to show the evil nature of Jews, but any other documents not used for that purpose were ordered to be destroyed.  In Lithuania, the primary target of this documentary round up was YIVO, an academic center for gathering and studying Jewish historical records that was founded in 1925.  David tells the fortuitous tale of how the director of YIVO was in Denmark on the eve of the Soviet invasion of Lithuania (as result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) and how he escaped to re-establish YIVO in New York City, where the recent discoveries we mentioned earlier are now being archived.  Because most non-Jewish Lithuanians were not able to read Hebrew or Yiddish, the Nazis used Jewish slave laborers to sort through the various documents of YIVO (and other sources) to determine which were to be saved and which to be destroyed.  It was amongst these slave laborers that a group of about forty brave individuals formed “The Paper Brigade,” and began smuggling documents past German and locally-employed guards.  The risk of being caught often entailed execution.  David tells us of a number of creative ways that the “book smugglers” were able to get these documents to safe-keeping, including hiding some in scrap paper or promising small gifts to the guards.  We are also told about some of the leaders of this group — Schmerke Kaczerginiski (a local poet in Vilna) and Abraham Sutzkever, two of the member of The Paper Brigade that survived through the war.

We finish our discussion with David reviewing some of the remarkable finds within this treasure trove of documents, including a handwritten diary of Theodore Herzl and the original versions of poems written by Sutzkever and Kaczerginski.  Prof. Fishman also shares his reflections on what he has learned about the human condition over the course of his studies related to The Paper Brigade as well as his more general research into East European Jewish life.  He notes how fragile human life and culture can be if not cared for, the importance of a chain of generations to preserve the identify of a people, and how humans can both be intensely cruel and heroic.  Most of all, he notes how ordinary people can courageously rise to the call of an occasion where hope seems highly dim.  Recorded: November 22, 2017.

RELATED LINKS

Prof. David Fishman’s bio at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets, and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis, by David Fishman.

The Rise of Modern Yiddish Culture, by David Fishman.

Russia’s First Modern Jews: The Jews of Shklov, by David Fishman.

From Mesopotamia to Modernity: Ten Introductions to Jewish History and Literature, edited by Burton Visotzky and David Fishman.

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

“Five Amazing Discoveries from Trove of Documents Hidden During the Holocaust,” article on recent find in Vilnius from The Jerusalem Post.

RELATED PODCASTS

Mark Glickman on the Cairo Genizah.

]]> http://www.researchonreligion.org/historical-topics/david-fishman-on-saving-jewish-documents-during-world-war-ii/feed 0 http://www.researchonreligion.org/historical-topics/carmel-chiswick-on-the-economics-of-being-jewish-in-america-encore-presentation http://www.researchonreligion.org/historical-topics/carmel-chiswick-on-the-economics-of-being-jewish-in-america-encore-presentation#comments Sun, 12 Nov 2017 09:00:02 +0000 http://www.researchonreligion.org/?p=5303 Welcome new visitors.  Please enjoy this episode and other great discussions in our archives (now 350+ episodes deep), and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
Also, we are on a short sabbatical but will return soon with some crescent fresh interviews.

What are the various cost constraints with being Jewish in America?  Prof. Carmel Chiswick, a research professor of economics at George Washington University, uses the lens of economics to reveal the various constraints facing a religious minority in the United States and how this affects Jewish culture.  We walk through her book Judaism in Transition: How Economic Choices Shape Religious Tradition.

We start the conversation with a general overview of Jews in America, including the size of the population, their immigration history, and other demographic features.  It is pointed out that Jews are both an ethnic group, and a group with a distinct religion.  We chat a bit about how Jewish (in terms of religion) Jews are in America.  Prof. Chiswick then discusses the difference between Great Tradition and small tradition Judaism.  The former focuses on the essential religious components of Judaism, including the Torah,  Talmud, Mishnah and several key holy days.  Small tradition Judaism, on the other hand, is a reflection of different cultural practices and emphases that can vary across different groups of Jews (e.g., Spehardi or Ashkenazi) and across time.  This is mixed with some personal reflection on her own life growing up Jewish, which gives this academic topic a much more personal touch.  Carmel explains why she chose to write her book with these personal stories, noting that she uses economics everyday to understand her own daily choices.

We then begin a discussion of how economics is used to explain Jewish behavior and traditions.  Carmel gives us a good introduction of how actions not only have a financial cost but a time cost as well, resulting in what economists call the “full price” (or “real cost”).  She points out that there are a variety of constraints on Jews in America that affect how they make decisions about worship and other aspects of life.  For example, as an individual becomes wealthier, the cost of their time also increases and this has an impact on how synagogue worship has been conducted given that Jews have been an upwardly mobile community.  We also talk about the issue of human capital and education and the constrained choices that have to be made here.  Carmel reflects upon her family’s decision whether to send their children to Hebrew or public school, as well as the reliance upon summer camps and other activities that are designed to preserve Jewish religious culture in an environment where time becomes more valuable for professional parents.

Carmel next lays out some of the contemporary challenges facing Jews in America.  Most notable among these challenges are the new demographic categories that are emerging, principally “young adult singles” and “empty nesters.”  With marriage ages increasing quite substantially over the past few decades, there is a growing population of individuals in their 20s and early 30s who are not married, do not have children, and who do not feel as connected to the synagogue.  Whereas people often connect with religious institutions when they have children, and synagogues often cater to the needs of this group, the decade or so wherein individuals are not married or having children becomes a time when they can drift away from their faith.  We also discuss the issue of intermarriage and how that might affect the Jewish population in the future.  Interestingly, the rise of “young adult singles” also gives rise to another demographic group known as “empty nesters” who are not actively raising kids yet are not grandparents either.  Once again, this becomes a life cycle point where people do not feel as connected to the synagogue.  (Note: These issues arise again in next week’s podcast with Daniel Libenson, who discusses some attempts to deal with this new environment.)

We finish off with some of Carmel’s personal observations on what she has learned in her years studying the economics of religion, being Jewish in America, and writing her highly readable book.  Recorded: April 7, 2015.

RELATED LINKS

Prof. Carmel Chiswick’s bio at the George Washington University.

Judaism in Transition: How Economic Choices Shape Religious Tradition, by Carmel U. Chiswick.

Association for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Culture (ASREC).

RELATED PODCASTS

Carmel Chiswick on the Economics of American Judaism.

Daniel Libenson on the Jewish Future.

Linda Weiser Friedman on Jewish Humor.

Colleen Haight on Jewish Peddlers in 19th Century America.

Larry Iannaccone on Sacrifice, Stigma, and the Economics of Religion.

Jeff Levin on Judaism and Health.

Mark Glickman on the Cairo Genizah.

Mark Koyama on the Economics of Jewish Expulsions.

Ken Wald on the Puzzling Politics of American Jews.

Ellie Estrin on the Traditions of Chanukah.

Rajdeep Singh on American Sikhs and Religious Liberty.

We start off with a bit of computer humor (?!) as a means of figuring out what humor really is and who it may appeal to at times.  Tony reveals a little-known secret of his past during this interchange.  Linda discusses the difficulty in getting publishers to take an academic book on humor seriously and this leads to all sorts of ruminations about the role of popular scholarship.  We then plunge headlong into an examination of Jewish humor with a tale of a Jewish grandmother on a beach and her relationship with God.  Indeed, prepare to be delighted throughout the conversation with some of Linda’s favorite pieces of comedy.

Prof. Friedman then lays out what Jewish humor is and why it is so unique.  She observes that few, if any, minority communities have such a rich tradition of using humor to describe and relate the history of their people, particularly when it comes to the often tragic history of persecution that has beset Jews.  Linda points out, much to Tony’s surprise, that there is even a tradition of “Holocaust humor” that might appear shocking to a non-Jews ears.  But as we come back later to in the discussion, none other than Mel Brooks in answering the critics of his film The Producers, laughter is how Jews can get back at Hitler.

Our attention then turns to sources of Jewish humor.  It may come as a surprise to some, but Jews were making jokes and being playful with words long before Jerry Seinfeld or Sid Caesar.  In fact, it dates back to the foundational documents of the Jewish faith.  To help our host Tony make sense of this all, Linda provides a quick summary of the terms Talmud, Torah, and Midrash, among others.  We then plunge headlong into some examples of humor that appear in the Talmud and Midrash, including interpretations of stories involving Abraham, Balaam, Jonah, Joseph, and even Job.  Linda points out that one of the key themes of Jewish humor found in these sources is humans arguing with God and God’s rhetorical and ironic questions posed to humans.  For example, God calls out to Adam in Genesis asking where Adam is, as if Adam would not know that God knew where he was all along.  These little observations made by Prof. Friedman really help to bring subtle new interpretations to Biblical passages that one might not have ever thought about.

We cover a number of other themes of Jewish humor including mocking of idolatry, hubris, the role of rabbis and education, and several other topics.  Tony’s complete lack of humor is on full display when Linda explains why the story of Rachel stealing Laban’s idols (Gen 31) is funny.  We continue with other ancient tales and more modern forms of humor.  The interview then concludes with some general reflections on how humor tends to be culturally specific, how it can cross ethnic and religious boundaries, and whether or not Jews joking about Jews can reinforce stereotypes of the community.  We venture some thoughts on political incorrectness and Linda discusses how Mel Brooks could make light of Hitler and the Nazi regime in his movie The Producers.  Linda finishes with her thoughts on what she learned from her study of comedy.  Recorded: June 24, 2014.

(Please note there is audio interference that was difficult to edit out at the 31-32 minute mark of the interview.)

RELATED LINKS

Linda Weiser Friedman’s bio at City University of New York.

Hershey Friedman’s bio (co-author) at City University of New York.

God Laughed: Sources of Jewish Humor, by Hershey Friedman and Linda Weiser Friedman.

Laughter in Hell: The Use of Humor during the Holocaust, by Steve Lipman (mentioned in podcast).

RELATED PODCASTS

Carmel Chiswick on the Economics of American Judaism.

Christopher Grenda on Religious Satire During the Enlightenment.

Ken Wald on the Puzzling Politics of American Jews.

Mark Koyama on the Economics of Jewish Expulsions.

After a bit of introductory chat about how Prof. Haight stumbled on this project, rituals, and her aunt’s oyster stew, our conversation about Jewish merchants begins with a rather odd and seemingly unrelated topic — used car lemons.  Nobel Laureate George Akerloff’s famous “lemons problem” will become an important foundational point for Colleen’s argument about Jewish peddlers.  Akerloff used the selling of used cars to highlight what is known as an asymmetric information problem in economics.  While the seller of a used auto knows the various problems the car has, the buyer is uncertain whether or not the information about the car is correct or not.  If no trust can be established between the buyer and seller, such economic transactions are likely to break down.  We then discuss various solutions to this problem including, and most importantly, the role that reputation and investments in one’s trustworthiness makes.

We then turn to the issue of “middlemen” — peddlers and merchants who provide a very important role in the economy by transporting resources to their highest use, but who are often much maligned because they do not seem to add any value to the goods they are trading.  Colleen notes that the role of the merchant is not one that many people like to do because of its negative image.  We then discuss the very unique role that religious minorities and immigrants have played in this portion of the economy.  She explains how dense networks of trust create the right environment to overcome many of the financing (credit) problems that beset peddlers.  This then moves us to a discussion of the role that stigma plays in differentiating a community, binds people more tightly in their networks, and makes it difficult for members to defect upon agreements when it might be easy to do so.  We note that Jews out in pioneer territory would have found it hard to “fit in” with the dominant community because of their religious rituals and particular ethnic markers.  This was also exacerbated by a cultural hostility that was exhibited towards Jews in the 19th century.  But we further note that this hostility created a “love-hate” relationship between pioneers and Jewish peddlers in that the pioneers needed the vital services of the travelling merchants even though they didn’t fit in with the community.  Indeed, it was the fact that they didn’t quite fit in to the dominant culture that enhanced their ability to be trustworthy businesspeople.

We finish off the podcast with Colleen’s broader reflections this study and she notes that scholars need to look more closely at behaviors that seem odd or misplaced in order to find some interesting underlying logic to those cultural rituals and traits.  Recorded: November 6, 2014.

RELATED LINKS

 Prof. Colleen Haight’s personal website.

“Hostile Territory: High-tension Religion and the Jewish Peddler,” by Colleen Haight.

“Lessons from Delphi: Religious markets and spiritual capitals,” by Laurence Iannaccone, Collen Haight, and Jared Rubin.

“Is Fair Trade in Coffee Production Fair and Useful?” by Colleen Haight (one of Tony’s favorite economic articles).

RELATED PODCASTS

Colleeen Haight on the Oracle of Delphi.

Carmel Chiswick on the Economics of American Judaism.

Larry Iannaccone on Sacrifice, Stigma, and the Economics of Religion.

Mike Munger on Middlemen (an EconTalk podcast).

Mark Koyama on the Economics of Jewish Expulsions.

Gary Richardson on Religion & Craft Guilds in the Middle Ages.

Mark David Hall on Religious Minorities in the American Founding.

Evan Haefeli on the Dutch Origins of Religious Tolerance .

Larry Witham on the Economics of Religion.

Our conversation, as usual, begins with getting to know our guest.  We talk with Rabbi Estrin about how he ended up as a military chaplain and whether he had to go through basic training.  We also discuss his path towards the rabbinate and his current work with Chabad, and Elie graciously explains what that organization is all about.

We then dive into the historical origins of Chanukah, going back some 2200 years and the efforts of the Greeks to Hellenize Judaism, or assimilate it into Greek pagan culture.  Elie reviews some of the main historical figures in the story and the lead up to a guerrilla war against the Greeks.  Upon retaking the Temple Mount, Judah Maccabee had his band of followers cleanse and rededicate the altar, which required burning oil for eight days.  Although they only had enough pure olive oil to burn for one day, the supply miraculously lasted for the full eight days giving rise to the tradition of lighting a menorah.  Tony learns that Chanukah stands for “rededication” and Elie also explains the reason we see different spellings of the holiday (e.g., Hanukkah).  He also brings up some recent archaeological finds in Israel that are of importance to the history of Chanukah.  Rabbi Estrin re-emphasizes the importance of the holiday for religious freedom — the right to practice one’s faith according to one’s conscience freely, particularly in a realm where you are a religious minority — and its importance for remembering and celebrating Jewish identity.

Following our discussion of the events 2200 years ago, Elie explains where Chanukah fits into the grand scheme of Jewish holidays.  Although we often hear of “High Holy Days,” Rabbi Estrin notes that there really are no “minor” holidays in the Jewish calendar and each celebration has its own particular and important meaning.  He reviews the difference between rabbinic holidays and biblical holidays.  We then explore a number of the traditions associated with Chanukah, beginning with the lighting of the menorah.  Elie notes that there has been some historical debate whether Jews are to light one candle on the first day of the holiday and progress to eight, or whether one starts with eight candles lit and roll down to one.  The former tradition has tended to predominate as a means of representing how light increasingly pushes back darkness.  We also discuss what can constitute a menorah, and Elie tells Tony that whatever is available is fine and points out Jews have been incredibly creative in always finding ways to celebrate even under the harshest of conditions such as the Holocaust and Soviet persecution.  This emphasizes the resilience of the Jewish people and the seriousness with which they take their faith.  Our conversation also covers a number of other traditions such as the dreidel, gelt (and giving of presents), and the various foods associated with Chanukah.  The emphasis on fried foods and dairy leads Tony to conclude that this might be one of the most delicious holidays ever.

We conclude with conversation about how Jews celebrate Chanukah in various settings, including America.  Rabbi Estrin, who works closely with college students through Chabad, recognizes that it is often difficult to retain one’s religious identity when in the minority and Chanukah becomes an important time for Jews to reconnect with their faith.  We talk about the issues of assimilation and cultural/religious identity that we have discussed on previous podcasts (see below) with Elie noting that it is a constant challenge to convince folks that being Jewish is not just about being dependent on a synagogue, but is something that must be lived daily in one’s life and that you need to build upon your faith one piece at a time, a message that is applicable to individuals within all faiths.  Recorded: November 13, 2015.

RELATED LINKS

Chabad at the University of Washington.

Rabbi Elie Estrin on Twitter.

RELATED PODCASTS

Daniel Libenson on Present and Future Judaism.

Carmel Chiswick on the Economics of Being Jewish in America.

Linda Weiser Friedman on Jewish Humor.

Carmel Chiswick on the Economics of American Judaism.

Jeff Levin on Judaism and Health.

Rajdeep Singh on American Sikhs and Religious Liberty.

]]> http://www.researchonreligion.org/historical-topics/elie-estrin-on-the-history-and-traditions-of-chanukah/feed 0 http://www.researchonreligion.org/practioneers/daniel-libenson-on-present-and-future-judaism http://www.researchonreligion.org/practioneers/daniel-libenson-on-present-and-future-judaism#comments Sun, 19 Apr 2015 08:00:58 +0000 http://www.researchonreligion.org/?p=3812 What are the challenges facing contemporary Jews in America?  Following on Carmel Chiswick’s interview last week, we invite Daniel Libenson — director of jUChicago and founder/president of the Institute for the Next Jewish Future — discusses his perceptions of the landscape facing American Jews and how he has been engaged in organizations such as Hillel and the rationale behinds the ones he now directs.  As a “thinker-practitioner,” we get an inside look into how somebody is leveraging research being conducted in academic circles, including by Daniel himself, to adapt to a changing environment.

Our conversation begins with a discussion of challenges facing contemporary Jews in America.  Dan notes that Judaism is not only seen as a religion, but as an ethnicity.  And even though there has been an increase in the number of “secular Jews” religiously, there remains a great deal of pride in heritage among this group, which he notes provides a great opportunity for engaging Jews who may have been falling away from their spiritual roots.  We talk about some of the demographic categories that were mentioned in last week’s interview with Carmel Chiswick.  Dan works closely with college students and understands the difficulty of “young adult singles” as they enter a period of their lives that is often devoid of Jewish rituals.  He also spends some time discussing how Jews have always had to respond to changing circumstances, and discusses the emergence of a “controversial re-imagination of Israel” in the form of secular Zionism over the past century and a half.  He notes that young people today are trying to grapple with these changes, and likens the challenges and adaptations he sees going on currently to the business concept of “disruptive innovation.”

We then turn attention to his work with young Jews on college campuses, first looking at Hillel.  He explains the historical background of Hillel as a place designed to make Jews feel comfortable in a culturally Christian college setting dating back to the 1940s.  Over time, Hillel has tried to appeal to Jews who are intensely religious, occasionally involved in the faith, and those who have no conscious need for Jewish ritual activities but nonetheless want to feel connected to their ethnic heritage.  Balancing the needs and wants of these three communities can be difficult.  It is in this context that we talk about his work with jUChicago, which seeks to meet many of the more secular Jews in spaces they feel comfortable and yet still make them feel part of a larger community.  Unlike Hillel that has a building where college students come to assemble, jUChicago is designed with no real central location (other than some administrative space) and will engage students for dinners in their apartments, social events in the city, or wherever the participants desire to be met.  This flexibility is a key feature of the organization that adapts to student needs, a process Dan calls “design thinking.”   During this discussion, Tony also learns about the “small letter” culture spurred on by Apple media products, and a little bit about Chabad.

The final portion of the podcast picks up on the theme of where American Jews are heading in the 21st century and the creation of the Institute for the Next Jewish Future.  While based on college campus, this organization is aimed at engaging the Jewish community throughout the entire life cycle.  The goal of the institute is three fold.  First, it is designed as a think tank to study Jewish needs and strategies in the coming decades.  Second, there is an emphasis on training religious and lay leaders in ways that continue to foster Jewish human capital.  And finally, the institute seeks to facilitate the networking and funding of Jewish leaders who they train.  Tony asks Dan about his thoughts on where Judaism is heading and he connects back to his earlier thoughts on how Judaism has changed historically.  While conveying an anecdote about how a Jewish sociologist thought that Judaism might not be recognizable a century from now, Dan did not think that was necessarily a bad thing given his optimistic belief in how humans adapt to new environments, yet preserve lineages to the past.  Recorded: April 8, 2015.

RELATED LINKS

Daniel Libenson’s bio at the Institute for the Next Jewish Future.

jUChicago.

Hillel International.

The Jewish Innovator’s Dilemma, an ELItalk by Daniel Libenson.

The Vanishing American Jew: In Search of Jewish Identify for the Next Century, by Alan Dershowitz.

RELATED PODCASTS

Carmel Chiswick on the Economics of Being Jewish in America.

Carmel Chiswick on the Economics of American Judaism.

Linda Weiser Friedman on Jewish Humor.

Colleen Haight on Jewish Peddlers in 19th Century America.

Jeff Levin on Judaism and Health.

Mark Glickman on the Cairo Genizah.

Mark Koyama on the Economics of Jewish Expulsions.

We start the conversation with a general overview of Jews in America, including the size of the population, their immigration history, and other demographic features.  It is pointed out that Jews are both an ethnic group, and a group with a distinct religion.  We chat a bit about how Jewish (in terms of religion) Jews are in America.  Prof. Chiswick then discusses the difference between Great Tradition and small tradition Judaism.  The former focuses on the essential religious components of Judaism, including the Torah,  Talmud, Mishnah and several key holy days.  Small tradition Judaism, on the other hand, is a reflection of different cultural practices and emphases that can vary across different groups of Jews (e.g., Spehardi or Ashkenazi) and across time.  This is mixed with some personal reflection on her own life growing up Jewish, which gives this academic topic a much more personal touch.  Carmel explains why she chose to write her book with these personal stories, noting that she uses economics everyday to understand her own daily choices.

We then begin a discussion of how economics is used to explain Jewish behavior and traditions.  Carmel gives us a good introduction of how actions not only have a financial cost but a time cost as well, resulting in what economists call the “full price” (or “real cost”).  She points out that there are a variety of constraints on Jews in America that affect how they make decisions about worship and other aspects of life.  For example, as an individual becomes wealthier, the cost of their time also increases and this has an impact on how synagogue worship has been conducted given that Jews have been an upwardly mobile community.  We also talk about the issue of human capital and education and the constrained choices that have to be made here.  Carmel reflects upon her family’s decision whether to send their children to Hebrew or public school, as well as the reliance upon summer camps and other activities that are designed to preserve Jewish religious culture in an environment where time becomes more valuable for professional parents.

Carmel next lays out some of the contemporary challenges facing Jews in America.  Most notable among these challenges are the new demographic categories that are emerging, principally “young adult singles” and “empty nesters.”  With marriage ages increasing quite substantially over the past few decades, there is a growing population of individuals in their 20s and early 30s who are not married, do not have children, and who do not feel as connected to the synagogue.  Whereas people often connect with religious institutions when they have children, and synagogues often cater to the needs of this group, the decade or so wherein individuals are not married or having children becomes a time when they can drift away from their faith.  We also discuss the issue of intermarriage and how that might affect the Jewish population in the future.  Interestingly, the rise of “young adult singles” also gives rise to another demographic group known as “empty nesters” who are not actively raising kids yet are not grandparents either.  Once again, this becomes a life cycle point where people do not feel as connected to the synagogue.  (Note: These issues arise again in next week’s podcast with Daniel Libenson, who discusses some attempts to deal with this new environment.)

We finish off with some of Carmel’s personal observations on what she has learned in her years studying the economics of religion, being Jewish in America, and writing her highly readable book.  Recorded: April 7, 2015.

RELATED LINKS

Prof. Carmel Chiswick’s bio at the George Washington University.

Judaism in Transition: How Economic Choices Shape Religious Tradition, by Carmel U. Chiswick.

Association for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Culture (ASREC).

RELATED PODCASTS

Carmel Chiswick on the Economics of American Judaism.

Daniel Libenson on the Jewish Future (forthcoming April 19).

Linda Weiser Friedman on Jewish Humor.

Colleen Haight on Jewish Peddlers in 19th Century America.

Jeff Levin on Judaism and Health.

Mark Glickman on the Cairo Genizah.

Mark Koyama on the Economics of Jewish Expulsions.

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