Gruss Colloquium in Judaic Studies
Learning and Literacy in the Judaic Tradition:
A Comparative and Interdisciplinary Inquiry

April 29 - May 1, 1996

 
Sunday,
April 28
1:45 PM

History, Memory Narratives
Van Pelt Library, Rosenwald Gallery
Chair, Wendy Steiner, University of Pennsylvania

 
Monday
April
29
Van Pelt Library, Rosenwald Gallery

3:00 pm

Greetings:
Stanley Chodorow, Provost, University of Pennsylvania
David Ruderman, Director, Center for Judaic Studies
3:15 pm The Social and Literary Context of Oral 
and Written Transmission 
Session I: 
Oral and Written Elements in Textual Transmission 
Chair: Robert Kraft, CJS/University of Pennsylvania 
Werner Kelber, Rice University 
Memorial Aspects in the Composition of the Gospels 
Paul Mandel, CJS/Hebrew University 
Recording the Oral, Reciting the Written: Transformations of a Rabbinic Text
Malachi Beit-Arie, CJS/Hebrew University 
The Impact of Scribes and Copyists on Transmitted Hebrew Texts in the Middle Ages
5:15 pm Reception and Tour of Book Exhibit 
6:45 pm Dinner (by invitation)
Center for Judaic Studies, 420 Walnut Street 
Tuesday
April 30
Benjamin Franklin Room, Houston Hall
9:00 am The Social and Literary Context of Oral
and Written Transmission 
Session II: 
The Social Context of Authoritative Oral Transmission 
Chair: David Stern, University of Pennsylvania 
Daphna Ephrat, CJS/Hebrew University, and
Yaakov Elman, CJS/Yeshiva University 
Orality and the Institutionalization of Tradition: The Growth of the Gaonic Yeshiva and the Islamic Madrasa 
Elliot Wolfson, New York University 
Orality, Textuality, and Revelation: Transmission of Secrets in Kabbalistic Fraternities 
Respondent to Sessions I and II:
Ruth Katz, CJS/Hebrew University 
11:00 am Coffee 
11:15 am Gender and Genre: Reading and Readers in Cultural Context
Chair: Maureen Quilligan, University of Pennsylvania
E. Ann Matter, University of Pennsylvania 
Portraits of Women Readers in Seventeenth-Century Italy 
Beth Baron, City University of New York
The Womenís Press in Egypt in the Early Twentieth Century 
Tamar El-Or, CJS/Hebrew University 
'Due to Righteous Women': Zionist Religious Women's Reading of Midrash 
Respondent: Liliane Weissberg, University of Pennsylvania 
1:15 pm Lunch Break 
2:30 pm Yiddish and The Dissemination of Jewish Culture
in the Modern Era 
Chair: Ellen Prince, University of Pennsylvania 
Chava Turniansky, Hebrew University
Yiddish and the Transmission of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe 
David Fishman, CJS/Jewish Theological Seminary
The Language Debate in Russian Jewry, 1897-1914 
Michael Steinlauf, Franklin and Marshall College
Possessing Tradition: The Dybbuk On and Off the Yiddish Stage 
Respondent: Kathryn Hellerstein, University of Pennsylvania 
5:15 pm Reception and Dinner (by invitation)
Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall
7:30 pm Evening Program
Lecture by David Olson, Ontario Institute for Studies in
Education/University of Toronto
The Written Word: On the Relation between Speech and Writing 
Wednesday
May 1
Benjamin Franklin Room, Houston Hall
9:00 am Forms of Transmission and the Invention of
National Identity 
Chair: Warren Breckman, University of Pennsylvania 
Israel Gershoni, CJS/Tel-Aviv University
Secondary Intellectuals: Readers and Readership as Agents of National-Cultural Reproduction in Modern Egypt 
Israel Bartal, CJS/Hebrew University 
The Ingathering of Traditions: Zionismís Anthology Projects 
Alon Confino, University of Virginia 
Consumer Culture and the Commercialization of the Past
Respondent: George Mosse, University of Wisconsin 
11:00 am Coffee 
11:30 am Conference Summary 
Chair, Marc Saperstein, CJS/Washington University 
Dan Ben-Amos, University of Pennsylvania
Israel Bartal, Yaakov Elman, David Olson 
1:00 pm Concluding Luncheon and Board of Overseers Meeting 
(by invitation)
Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall 

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