Faculty Year in Review

FACULTY YEAR IN REVIEW 2019-2020

Our faculty members come from a broad range of departments, and in any given year not all of their research and other activities necessarily relate to the feld of Jewish Studies. We include here a sampling of faculty accomplishments that may be of interest to supporters of the Center for Jewish Studies.

Patricia Ahearne-Kroll (Assistant Professor, Classical and Near Eastern Studies) co-presented with Stephen Ahearne-Kroll, “Jesus in His Context: Some Common Misunderstandings about Jesus in the First Century,” at the Philippine Minnesotan Medical Association Annual Clinical Conference (August 2019). She contributed the chapter, “A History of the Study of Pseudepigrapha” to a commemorative volume celebrating the work of scholars in the felds of Second Temple Judaism, Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament studies, and Late Antique Judaism and Christianity: The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Fifty Years of the Pseudepigrapha Section at the SBL, edited by Matthias Henze and Liv Ingeborg Lied (SBL Press, 2019). In addition, her monograph, Aseneth of Egypt: The Composition of a Jewish Narrative, is forthcoming in Fall 2020 (Early Judaism and Its Literature series, SBL Press), and at the upcoming SBL Annual Meeting in November 2020 a scheduled panel will use her monograph as a springboard for discussing broader issues in the feld (see feature article, above). This past year Patricia Ahearne-Kroll Ahearne-Kroll created a new graduate course, “Religion and Power in the Ptolemaic and Seleukid Empires,” which examines the interplay of religious practice and power, and which includes the evidence for and literature about the Maccabean revolt. She also taught Advanced Classical Hebrew (Book of Lamentations), “Sex, Murder, and Bodily Discharges: Purity and Pollution in the Ancient World,” and “Ancient Greece: Alexander and the East.”

Shir Alon (Assistant Professor, Asian & Middle Eastern Studies) presented a paper at the Association of Jewish Studies 51st Annual Conference in San Diego, “Middle Class Elegy: Mizrahi Literature in Precarious Times,” on Israeli writer Orly Castel-Bloom’s novel The Egyptian Novel (2015). Her article on Jewish memory in Polish art, “A Specter Is Haunting Poland: Art, Absence, and the European Union,” was published in boundary 2: an international journal of literature and culture 47, no. 1 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1215/01903659-7999520.

Shir Alon Alejandro Baer (Associate Professor, Sociology; Stephen C. Feinstein Chair & Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies) presented “‘Not only do we not apologize’… The Columbus Myth and Neo-Imperialist Identity Politics in Spain” at the Social Science History Association Conference in Chicago (November 2019). He was also a featured speaker and project team member at the international, interdisciplinary workshop, “Memory, Trauma, and Human Rights at the Crossroads of Arts and Science,” hosted by the University of Minnesota with the support of the Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop (College of Liberal Arts), the Institute of Advanced Study Collaborative, and the Imagine Fund; he spoke on “The Trauma Metaphor. A Sociological Perspective” (October 2019). Baer published three opinion pieces: “La lección de Auschwitz en España” in El País (January 27th, 2020); “The Pox of Vox. The Spread of Far-Right Populism in Spain” (Minnpost, November 18th, 2019) and “Europe’s Last Monument to Fascism and Spain’s Memory Problem,” (Minnpost, October

Alejandro Baer 23, 2019). In addition, he published “Spain and the Holocaust. Contested Past. Contested Present,” co-authored with Pedro Correa, in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Holocaust, edited by Simone Gigliotti and Hilary Earl (Wiley-Blackwell, 2020); and “From ‘No Pasarán’ to ‘Nunca Más, The Holocaust and the Revisiting of Spain’s Legacy of Mass Violence,” ’co-authored with Natan Sznaider, in Spain, World War II, and the Holocaust: History and Representation, edited by Sara Brenneis and Gina Herrmann (University of Toronto Press, 2020). Finally, under his direction and with the support of CHGS outreach coordinator. Joseph Eggers, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies was awarded an inaugural CLA Community Engagement Hub grant for the project, Bridges of Memory. The aim of the project is to bring communities impacted by genocide and mass violence together and create a better conduit between them and the University. In summer 2020 CHGS hosted a series of community dialogues and virtual educator workshops to learn about genocides from the experiences and perspectives of local survivors and survivor-descendant communities. This past year Baer taught “Never Again. Memory and Politics after Genocide.”

Bruno Chaouat ( (Professor, French & Italian) co-organized with historian Manuela Consonni a symposium at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “Tradition, Fascism and Esoterism,” where he also provided the opening remarks (December 2019). He also co-organized with the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies a panel discussion, “’The Great Replacement’: Conspiracy Theories and Far-right Mass Violence in the Trump Era” (November 13, 2019), in which he was one of the featured panelists and was subsequently interviewed by the MN Daily (November 15, 2019). Chaouat published “Being and Jewishness: Levinas Reader of Sartre,” in Sartre, Jews and the Other: Rethinking Antisemitism, Race and Gender, edited by Manuela Consonni and Vivian Liska (De Gruyter, 2020), and he has forthcoming “Understanding Antisemitism,” an invited essay for a new volume to be published by Cambridge University Press, The Cambridge Companion to Antisemitism, edited by Steven T. Katz.

Bruno Chaouat

Mohsen Goudarzi (Assistant Professor, Classical and Near Eastern Studies) presented “A Common Archetypal Scripture, or Major and Minor Scriptures? Narratives of Scriptural History in Academic and Exegetical Writings” at the SBL/International Qur’anic Studies Association Annual Meeting in San Diego (November 2019). He had two lectures canceled due to COVID-19: the frst was his talk for the CJS Community Lecture Series, “Judaism in the Qur’an,” which has been rescheduled for October 14, 2020, and the second was a lecture for the Center for Medieval Studies, “Perusal at the Palace: Qur’an Scholarship in the Ottoman Empire.” Goudarzi published an essay on Qur’an exegesis, “Inspiration, Intellect, and the Interpretation of Scripture in Post-Classical Islam,” in Treasures of Knowledge: An Inventory of the Ottoman Palace Library (1502/3-1503/4), edited by G. Necipoglu, C. Kafadar, and C. Fleischer (Studies and Sources on Islamic Art and Architecture: Supplements to Muqarnas, vol. 14, Brill,

Mohsen Goudarzi 2019). He also published an article on the signifcance of Ishmael in the Qur’an, which also discusses the image of Ishmael in the Torah, various para-biblical texts, and rabbinic literature: “The Ascent of Ishmael: Genealogy, Covenant, and Identity in Early Islam,” Arabica 66/5 (2019), as well as a methodological essay, “Peering Behind the Lines,” that discusses the intertextual study of the Qur’an in light of the Bible and other Judeo-Christian writings: Harvard Theological Review 113/3 (2020). He has forthcoming an essay on the fgure of Lot in the Qur’an and its comparison with Lot’s portrayal in the Bible as well as with other Jewish and Christian writings before Islam: “Lot,” in Biblical Traditions in the Qur’an, edited by N. Sinai and M. Klar (forthcoming, Princeton University Press, 2021). This past year Goudarzi taught “Exploring the Quran,” which among other things introduces students to the close relationship between the Qur’an, the Bible, and biblically-inspired literature.

Bernard Levinson (Professor, Classical and Near Eastern Studies) received a University of Minnesota Imagine Fund for the Arts and Humanities grant to support his research project, “Zedekiah’s Release of Slaves as the Babylonians Besiege Jerusalem (Jer 34): The Problematic Relation of the Ancient Hebrew and Greek Texts.” He also was awarded a Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Foundation grant for the project, “Betrayal of the Humanities.” He lectured on “The Impact of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Discovery of the ‘Original’ Version of the Ten Commandments upon Biblical Scholarship: The Myth of Jewish Particularism and German Universalism” at the Biblical Colloquium in Baltimore, MD (November 2019), as well as “Some Neglected Contributions to the Study of Kingship in the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic History: Gary Knoppers in Memoriam” at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in San Diego (November 2019). Due to the pandemic, his scheduled plenary address in April at the Regional Meeting of the Society of Biblical Bernard Levinson Literature at the University of Saint Thomas was canceled and rescheduled for next year. Similarly, his keynote address at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver for a special symposium on legal reasoning, in which he was to speak on the role of biblical law in the development of the idea of rule of law and the separation of powers, was also canceled due to COVID-19. Levinson was the posthumous editor of Paul Heger, Institutionalized Routine Prayers at Qumran: Fact or Assumption? Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplements 32. (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019). In addition, he edited Law, Society, and Religion: Essays in Memory of George E. Mendenhall, a special supplementary volume for Maarav: A Journal for the Study of the Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures 24 (June 2020), which included publication of his essay, “Revisiting the ‘and’ in Law and Covenant in the Hebrew Bible: What the Evidence from Tell Tayinat Suggests about the Relationship between Law and Religion in the Ancient Near East.” Levinson also published “The Impact of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Discovery of the “Original” Version of the Ten Commandments upon Biblical Scholarship: The Myth of Jewish Particularism and German Universalism,” in Confronting Antisemitism in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Vol. 2 of An End to Antisemitism!, edited by Armin Lange, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Dina

Porat, and Lawrence H. Schiffman (de Gruyter, 2020). He has forthcoming “Neglected Contributions to the Study of Kingship in the Pentateuch and the Deuteronomistic History,” in The Formation of Biblical Texts: Chronicling the Legacy of Gary Knoppers, edited by Deidre Good, Margaret Cohen, Jonathan S. Greer, and Ken Ristau (Mohr Siebeck, forthcoming 2021), as well as “At the Intersection of Scribal Training and Theological Profundity: Chiasm as an Editorial Technique in the Primeval History and Deuteronomy,” in Chiastic Refections: The State of the Art, edited by John W. Welch and Donald W. Parry (volume under review). This past year Levinson taught “Biblical Law & Jewish Ethics.”

Hanne Loeland Levinson Hanne Loeland Levinson (Assistant Professor, Classical and Near Eastern Studies) presented “Praying for Death: Death-Wishes in the Hebrew Bible,” a public lecture at St John’s Episcopal Church, Saint Paul (March 31, 2019). She published “Die nie aufhörende Suche nach Gottes weiblicher Seite: Weibliche Aspekte im Gottesbild der Prophetie“ in Prophetie, edited by Irmtraud Fischer and L. Juliana M. Claassens. Die Bibel und die Frauen: Eine Exegetisch-kulturgeschichtliche Enzyklopädie, vol. 1.2. (Kohlhammer, 2019). The essay will also appear in English as “The Never-Ending Search for God’s Feminine Side: Feminine Aspects in the God-Image of the Prophets” in Prophecy, edited by Irmtraud Fischer and L. Juliana M. Claassens. The Bible and Women: An Encyclopaedia of Exegesis and Cultural History, vol. 1.2. (SBL Press, anticipated 2020). A Spanish version is also in press, with an Italian version forthcoming. This past year Levinson taught “The Bible: Context and Interpretation” and “Women, Gender, and the Hebrew Bible.

Rick McCormick (Professor, Department of German, Nordic, Slavic, and Dutch) published his book, Sex, Politics, and Comedy: The Transnational Cinema of Ernst Lubitsch (Indiana University Press, 2020). The book is part of the Indiana University Press series on German-Jewish Cultures, and the press received a subsidy to allow McCormick’s book to be available for free in an open access, online version to those unable to order it: https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/212299/9780253048363_web. pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Rick McCormick

Leslie Morris (Professor, Department of German, Nordic, Slavic, and Dutch), was an invited speaker at the conference, “Reimagining the Discipline,” at Cornell University (September 2019), where she spoke on “Unsettling German Jewish Studies.” She co-organized, moderated, and served as panelist for an event that was part of “Deutschlandjahr,” the “Year of German-American friendship,” initiated by the German Federal Foreign Offce and the Goethe-Institut, along with the Leo Baeck Institute, and held at Mt Zion Temple in St Paul (October 30, 2019); incoming CJS faculty member Sheer Ganor was the invited speaker, lecturing on “Lessons from the German-Jewish Migration.” Morris also moderated the discussion and interview with cellist Janet Horvath at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide studies event commemorating Kristallnact, “Piercing the Silence. Holocaust Memories and Lessons in Context (November 7, 2019). Morris also served as a project team member for the international, interdisciplinary workshop, “Memory, Trauma, and Human Rights at the Crossroads of Arts and

Leslie Morris Science,” hosted by the University of Minnesota with the support of the Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop (College of Liberal Arts), the Institute of Advanced Study Collaborative, and the Imagine Fund. Morris’s creative engagement with She Did Not Speak, an ongoing hybrid memoir that moves between prose poetry, memoir, and philosophical meditation (published in the Georgia Review volume LXXII, number 4 (Fall/Winter, 2018)) continued with a public reading hosted by the Rimon Jewish Arts Council, June 3, 2019. On April 4, 2020, a large-scale experimental choral and orchestral piece, composed by Isaac Roth-Blumfeld and based on She Did Not Speak, entitled “I See You,” was to premiere at the New England Conservatory of Music, followed by a performance in New York City on April 24, 2020. The performance was postponed because of the pandemic, as was an April reading from She Did Not Speak at Wisdom Ways, a ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Morris published “Interrogating the Archive,” co-authored with MJ Maynes, in Perspectives on History. Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association 57:9, 2019. She has forthcoming “German Jewish lengevitch: A Plurilingual Poetics of Meddling,” in Nexus: Essays in German Jewish Studies, edited by Ruth von Bernuth and Eric Downing (forthcoming, Boydell & Brewer, 2020), and she is co-editor with Joseph Moser and co-author of the introduction to a special issue on “Czernowitz,” Journal of Austrian Studies (forthcoming Fall 2020). This past year Morris taught “The Holocaust: Memory, Narrative, History.”

Karen Painter (Associate Professor, School of Music) published a review article of Sara Levy’s World: Gender, Judaism, and the Bach Tradition in Enlightenment Berlin, edited by Rebecca Cypess and Nancy Sinkoff (Eastman Studies in Music), in The American Historical Review (February 2020).

Karen Painter

Daniel Schroeter (Professor, History and Amos S. Deinard Memorial Chair in Jewish History), gave the keynote lecture, “Refugees from Arab Muslim Countries after 1948? Towards an Understanding of Forced Migration of Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews in Modern History,” at the conference, “New Directions: Sephardi-Mizrahi Migrations in Global Contexts,” Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer, Israel. He also gave an invited lecture, “Kikar Hashalom, Ashkelon, 1986: The Ephemeral Monument to ‘King of Morocco, Mohammed V, Friend of the Jewish People, Righteous Among the Nations’,” Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheva (December 2019). He led a post-screening discussion of the flm, “The Unorthodox,” at the 2019 Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival (September 22, 2019). Schroeter published an article, co-authored by Aomar Boum, “Why did Morocco Just demolish a Holocaust Memorial?” Haaretz, https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premiumDaniel Schroeter why-did-morocco-just-demolish-a-holocaust-memorial-1.7871393 (September 22, 2019). His teaching contributions included an undergraduate seminar, “Jerusalem: Jews, Christians, & Muslims in the Contested City, Ancient to Modern Times,” and a graduate seminar with Professor Michael Lower, “Muslims, Christians, and Jews from Muhammad to Modernity (Fall 2019), and he co-taught with Hiromi Mizuno, “Global History of World War II” (Spring 2020). Schroeter’s PhD advisee, Noam Sienna, successfully defended his dissertation at a Zoom defense in May 2020.

Renana Schneller (Director of Hebrew Language Instruction, Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies) was again awarded an Andrew M. Mellon Foundation Grant for Less Commonly Taught Languages to develop three more courses in advanced Hebrew in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Maryland and at the University of Michigan, to be shared as open source courses within the Big Ten Academic Alliance. The courses developed are “Ethics and Religion in Israel,” “Societies in Israel,” and “Gender Issues in Israel.” Schneller also developed an online, asynchronous Hebrew course offered for the frst time at the University of Minnesota in Spring 2020, consulting with experts in the CLA Language Center, Liberal Arts Technologies and Innovation Services (LATIS), and The Center for

Renana Schneller Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA). The course drew both traditional students and non-traditional students from the Twin Cities and from other states. Schnelle was also again invited to conduct graduate level courses in the summer Hebrew language program of Middlebury Language Schools, teaching “Theories and Methodologies in Language Teaching” and “Language Assessment.” Schneller was to have delivered a paper at the 2020 National Association of Professors of Hebrew conference in Toronto, but the conference was postponed due to the pandemic. This past year Schneller taught beginning, intermediate, and advanced Modern Hebrew as well as “Multiculturalism in Modern Israel.”

Rachel Trocchio (Assistant Professor, English) has published an article (see feature) on the Puritans and Karaites, “Lost Tribes East and West,” New England Quarterly 93, no.3 (Sep 2020).

Rachel Trocchio

WELCOME NEW CJS FACULTY Sheer Ganor (Assistant Professor, History) joins the faculty of the University of Minnesota in fall 2020. Dr. Ganor received her PhD in history, with a focus on Jewish history and modern European history, from the University of California, Berkeley in 2019. She is currently adapting her dissertation, In Scattered Formation: Displacement, Alignment and the GermanSheer Ganor Jewish Diaspora, into a book manuscript; this work traces the emergence of a transnational diasporic network of Jewish refugees who escaped Nazi Germany and its annexed territories. A historian of Germanspeaking Jewry and modern Germany, Dr. Ganor’s research focuses on the nexus of forced migration, everyday histories and cultural identities, and her next book-length study will analyze forced migration into Germany throughout the twentieth century. One section of this project will focus on the arrival of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe into Germany in the aftermath of the First World War and the Russian Revolution.

Rachel Trocchio (Assistant Professor, English) joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota in fall 2019. Dr. Trocchio earned her PhD in English from the University of California, Berkeley, where she wrote a dissertation (currently being adapted into a book manuscript) titled American Puritanism and the Cognitive Style of Grace. Her research on New England Puritanism maps onto Jewish studies typologically, proceeding from the Puritans’ obsession with the Israelites and their belief that they had assumed the Jews’ place as God’s chosen people--which in turn led to meticulous Puritan study of both Jewish history and the Hebrew language. Dr. Trocchio’s research, however, has uncovered a more specifc connection growing out of the Puritan insistence that America’s Native inhabitants were Jews, as well as a historiographical tendency that explicitly connected Puritanism and Karaite Judaism. She is interested in exploring how the Jewish imagination of exile shaped Puritan doctrinal commitments and social bonds. Rachel Trocchio

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