2004-2005 Colloquium

Eleventh Annual
Gruss Colloquium in Judaic Studies

Modern Jewish Literatures: Language, Identity, Writing

May 3-5, 2005

(All academic sessions are free and open to the public.
Pre-registration or RSVP are not required)

TUESDAY, May 3	Logan Hall, Terrace Room, University of Pennsylvania, 249 S. 36th St.
10:00 am	GREETINGS David B. Ruderman Director, Center for Advanced Judaic Studies Rebecca Bushnell Dean, School of Arts and Sciences
10:15 am	WRITERS AND INTELLECTUALS Chair: Alan Filreis, University of Pennsylvania Liliane Weissberg, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS Hannah Arendt and the Politics of Jewish Literature Gideon Nevo, Ben-Gurion University/CAJS The Prophetic Mode in Natan Alterman's Journalistic Poetry Bryan Cheyette, University of Southampton, UK/CAJS Postcolonial Literature and the Holocaust: Beyond the Black-Jewish Imaginary Respondent: Arnold Band, University of California, Los Angeles/CAJS
12:15 am	Lunch Break
1:30 pm	LANGUAGE, CULTURE, REVOLUTION Chair: Kevin Platt, University of Pennsylvania Scott Lerner, Franklin and Marshall College/CAJS Proust's Swanns and the Legacy of 1789 Amelia Glaser, Stanford University/CAJS Revolutionary Eschatology in the Stories of Isaac Babel Anita Shapira, Tel-Aviv University/CAJS Revolutionary Russia and the Jews of Palestine: An Unrequited Love Olga Borovaya, Moscow State University for the Humanities/CAJS Changing the Discourse: Sephardi Journalism, the Young Turk Revolution, and the Collapse of the Ottoman Empire Respondent: Benjamin Nathans, University of Pennsylvania
4:00 pm	Coffee Break
4:30 pm	READING YEHUDA AMICHAI Chair: Nili Gold, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS Reading and discussion of the poem Rut ha-ketanah [Little Ruth], open to all in attendance, with interpretative introductions by: Nili Gold, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS Sheila Jelen, University of Maryland/CAJS Alan Mintz, Jewish Theological Seminary of America/CAJS
7:00 pm	Dinner and Evening Program (by invitation) Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, 420 Walnut Street Anita Shapira, Tel-Aviv University/CAJS Coming of Age in the Young State

WEDNESDAY, May 4	Houston Hall, Ben Franklin Room, University of Pennsylvania, 3417 Spruce St.
9:00am	LOCATING THE TEXT: PLACE AND JEWISH LITERATURE Chair: Gerald Prince, University of Pennsylvania Stephan Braese, University of Bremen/CAJS The Loss of Imperial Context: Kafka's Writings and the Collapse of the Hapsburg Empire Deborah Starr, Cornell University/CAJS A Mediterranean Vigor that Never Wanes: Alexandria in the Jewish Literary Imagination Marc Caplan, CAJS Sholem Aleichem's Kasrilevke Stories and the Conceptualization of Space Respondent: Sidra Ezrahi, Hebrew University
11:00 am	Coffee Break
11:30 am	AMERICAN JEWISH NARRATIVES Chair: Beth Wenger, University of Pennsylvania Michael Kramer, Bar-Ilan University/CAJS Melting Plots: Tales of American Assimilation Alan Rosen, Michlala College, Israel/CAJS Early Holocaust Writing and American Life Laurence Roth, Susquehanna University/CAJS Toward a Kashrut Nation: The World of American Jewish Cookbooks Respondent: Arthur Kiron, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS
1:30 pm	Lunch Break
3:15 pm	GENDER AND JEWISH IDENTITY Chair: Michele Richman, University of Pennsylvania Maurice Samuels, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS Eugenie Foa and the Invention of French-Jewish Fiction Kathryn Hellerstein, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS Women Poets and Women's Poetry: Yiddish, Gender, and Literary Tradition Respondent: Lori Lefkovitz, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College/CAJS
5:45 pm	Cocktails (by invitation)
6:30 pm	Dinner and Evening Program (by invitation) Logan Hall, Terrace Room, University of Pennsylvania, 249 S. 36th St. Modern Jewish Poems: A Reading Participants: Kathryn Hellerstein (Yiddish) Gidi Nevo (Hebrew) Laurence Roth (American) Maurice Samuels (French) Deborah Starr (Arabic)
THURSDAY, May 5	Houston Hall, Ben Franklin Room, University of Pennsylvania, 3417 Spruce St.
9:00 am	JEWISH LITERATURE: INTERSECTIONS AND BOUNDARIES Chair: David Stern, University of Pennsylvania Presenter: Hana Wirth-Nesher, Tel-Aviv University Respondents: Werner Sollors, Harvard University Anita Norich, University of Michigan/CAJS Nadia Valman, University of Southampton, UK/CAJS
11:00 am	Coffee Break
11:30 am	CONCLUDING DISCUSSION Chair: David Ruderman, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS
12:45 pm	Concluding Luncheon (by invitation) Houston Hall, Hall of Flags, University of Pennsylvania, 3417 Spruce St.

For further information, contact the

Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
University of Pennsylvania

Tel. 215-238-1290, Fax. 215-238-1540
allenshe@sas.upenn.edu