AJS 43rd Annual Conference December 18-20, 2011 • Washington, DC

Sephardi/Mizrahi-related sessions, papers and posters at the 2011 AJS Meetings in Washington, DC.

Sunday, December 18

1. Session Title: Reversion to Judaism in the Crown of Aragon During the Late Middle Ages

–          Differing Rabbinic Approaches toward Reverting Apostates in Christian Spain: Sources and Strategies.  *Ephraim Kanarfogel (Yeshiva University)

–          Anti-Christian Polemic and the Art of Re-Judaizing Apostates in Fourteenth-Century Aragon. *Paola Ymayo Tartakoff (Rutgers University)

–          The Treasure Across the Sea: Economic Motivations of Post-1391 Majorcan Converso Exiles. *NATALIE B OELTJEN (UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO)

–          Chair: Benjamin R. Gampel (The Jewish Theological Seminary)

–           Respondent: Benjamin R. Gampel (The Jewish Theological Seminary)

Sun, Dec 18 – 11:15am – 1:00pm, Wilson Room

2. Session Title: Across the Aegean: Mapping Sephardi Modernities in Izmir and Salonica

–          Jewish Leadership and the Ladino Press in Late Ottoman Salonica. *Paula Daccarett (University of California, Santa Cruz)

–          Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of 19th Century Izmir *Dina Danon (Stanford University)

–          In Defense of the Jewish Cemetery of Salonica: Official and Unofficial Jewish Leaders Confront the Greek Nation-State,1917-1942.  *Devin Naar (University of Washington)

–          Chair: Matthias B. Lehmann (Indiana University)

Sun, Dec 18 – 2:00pm – 4:00pm, Wilson Room

3. Session Title: “Intelligences Without Matter”? Angels in Pre-Modern Jewish Thought and Culture

–          Thinking with Angels: On the Ritual and Literary Functions of Angels in Judaism in Late Antiquity. *Michael D. Swartz (Ohio State University)

–          Angel Names in the Cairo Genizah: Classification and Analysis. *Ortal Paz SAAR (Tel Aviv University)

–          The Invocation of Angels in Medieval Sephardic and Italian Sources.* Katelyn Mesler (Northwestern University)

–          Chair: Shaul Magid (Indiana University, Bloomington)

–          Respondent: Ephraim Kanarfogel (Yeshiva University)

Sun, Dec 18 – 2:00pm – 4:00pm, Renwick Room

4. Session Title:  Jewish-Christian Relations in Early Modern Europe

–          CONVERSO, Convert, Christian: Marranism in Early Modern England. *Jeffrey Spencer Shoulson (University of Miami)

–          Jews and Flemish in the Brazilian Sugar Trade: between rivalry and cooperation. *Daniel Strum (Stanford University)

–          The Idea of Freedom of Conscience among Seventeenth-Century Portuguese Jews.*Miriam Bodian (University of Texas at Austin)

–          Chair: Ruth Langer (Boston College)

Sun, Dec 18 – 2:00pm – 4:00pm, Burnham Room

5. Paper Title: The A-Historic Charity of A. B. Yehoshua’s HESED SFARADI: Spanish/Sephardic /Roman Charity? *Yael Halevi-Wise, McGill University.  In Session: Migration/Translation: Cultures in Contact in Modern Jewish Literature

Sun, Dec 18 – 4:15pm – 6:15pm, Arlington Room

Monday, December 19

6. Session Title: Late-Medieval and Early-Modern Spain

–          The Quality of Leadership in the Generation of the Expulsion from Spain. *Marc Saperstein (Leo Baeck College)

–          The Canonization of the Fatimid Decoration of Hebrew Bibles and Qur’ans in Late Medieval Spain. *Vivian Beth Mann (The Jewish Theological Seminary)

–          Chair: Joy A. Land (University of Connecticut, Stamford)

Mon, Dec 19 – 8:30am – 10:30am, Lafayette Park Room

7.   Session Title: North African Jewry: Recent Library Findings

–          On the Collection: A Few Examples from Morocco. *Moshe Bar-Asher (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

–          Some Linguistic Features in a Document from Djerba. *Yehudit Henshke (University of Haifa)

–          Preliminary Studies on a Prayer Book (Mahzor) from Constantine (East Algeria). *Ofra Tirosh-Becker (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

–          Chair: Steven D. Fraade (Yale University)

Mon, Dec 19 – 8:30am – 10:30am, Cabin John Room

8. Poster Title:  RABBI or REBECO: the Sephardic-flamenco myth in the 20th and 21st centuries, *Judith R. Cohen, York University. In Session: Digital Media and Poster Session

Mon, Dec 19 – 10:30am – 12:45pm, Independence Ballroom

9. Sephardi/Mizrahi Pedagogy Roundtable

–          Discussant: Ari Ariel (New York University)

–          Discussant: Julia Phillips Cohen (Vanderbilt University)

–          Discussant: Dina Danon (Stanford University)

–          Discussant: Ethan Katz (University of Cincinnati)

–          Moderator: Ranen Omer-Sherman (University of Miami)

–          Discussant: Pamela Dorn Sezgin (Gainesville State College)

Mon, Dec 19 – 11:00am – 12:45pm, Constitution A

10.Paper Title: The Changing Faces of American Jewry: Jewish Immigration to the United States Since 1945. *Marianne Sanua Dalin, Florida Atlantic University. In Session Submission: Innovations in American Jewish Culture after World War II

Mon, Dec 19 – 2:00pm – 4:00pm, Wilson

11. Session Title:  New Directions in the History of Jewish-Muslim and Jewish-Arab Relations

–          Listening for Colonialism, Migration, and Ethno-Religious Identities: Oral Histories as a Source for Jewish and Muslim Mutual Perceptions in France. *Ethan Katz (University of Cincinnati)

–          Religious Apologetics as a Source for the Study of the Jewish-Arab Encounter. *Jonathan Marc Gribetz (Rutgers University)

–          From Beit Din to Shari‘a Court: Jewish and Muslim Legal Documents from Nineteenth-Century Morocco. *Jessica M. Marglin (Princeton University)

–          The Arab Jew and the Historiography of Jewish-Arab Relations in Mandatory Palestine. *Moshe Naor (York University), *Tammy Razi (Sapir College)Respondent: Daniel J Schroeter (University of Minnesota)

–          Chair: Lital Levy (Princeton University)

Mon, Dec 19 – 2:00pm – 4:00pm, Cabin John Room

12. Session Title:  Multilingual Jewish Identities in the Sephardic/Mizrahi Context

–          The Martyrdom of a Moroccan Jewish Saint. *Sharon Vance (Northern Kentucky University)The Hybrid Text: Language and Identity in Postmemorial French Sephardic Literature. *Celine Piser (University of California, Berkeley)

–          (Post)vernacular embodiment: Judeo-Arabic in the everyday language of young Syrian Jewish Mexicans. *Evelyn Dean-Olmsted (Indiana University)

–          Respondent: Monique Rodrigues Balbuena (University of Oregon)

–          Chair: Marcy Brink-Danan (Brown University)

Mon, Dec 19 – 4:30pm – 6:30pm, Renwick Room

13.  Session Title: Beyond Absorption: African and Middle-Eastern Jews in Recent Israeli Film and Theater

–          LIVE AND BECOME: Beta Israel in the State of Israel. *Lawrence Baron (San Diego State University)

–          Left Out of the Frame: Libyan Jewry Has No Room on the Screen.*Yvonne Kozlovsky-Golan (University of Haifa)

–          Feminism, Zionism, and Persecution in Iraq : BRAIDS-The story of Herzliya Lokai and her imprisonment in the Baghdad Women’s Jail.*Daphne Tsimhoni (The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology)

–          “We Can Speak Our Own Language:” African Tongues in the Israeli Theatre.*SARIT COFMAN-SIMHON (Kibbutzim College / Emunah College)

–          Chair: Avi Picard (Bar Ilan University

Mon, Dec 19 – 4:30pm – 6:30pm, Burnham Room

Tuesday, December 20

14. Session Title:  Transitions in Jewish-Muslim Relations in North Africa

–          Fragile Coexistence: Jewish-Muslim Cooperation in Interwar Colonial Algeria. *Sophie B. Roberts (University of Kentucky)

–          Colonialism and Anti-Jewish Violence in Libya and Yemen. *Ari Ariel (New York University)

–          A Jewish Riot Against Muslims in Late Colonial Algeria: Fear and Privilege at the End of Empire. *Joshua Samuel Schreier (Vassar College)

–          The Fate of Friends: Tracing Stories of Judeo-Muslim Friendship in Two Tunisian Works of Fiction. *Charlotte Rouchouze (Northwestern University)

–          Chair: Sarah Abrevaya Stein (University of California, Los Angeles)

Tue, Dec 20 – 10:45am – 12:45pm, Cabin John Room

15. Session Title: Looking in and Looking out: Jews of the Americas and the World at Large (1930s-1970s)

–          Jewish-Argentines Side with the Spanish Republic: A Trans-National Struggle with National and Ethnic Goals. *Raanan Rein (Tel Aviv University, Dept. of History)

–          “Hadassah Makes You Important”: Gender, Affluence, and the Romance of Israel Among Postwar American Jews. *Rachel Kranson (University of Pittsburgh)

–          “To extend a bonding gesture:” Argentine Sephardic olim and their families and friends in Argentina, 1967. *Adriana Brodsky (St. Mary’s College of Maryland)

–          BREIRA – A Case Study of a Transnational Social Movement, 1973-1977. *Hadassa Kosak (Yeshiva University)

–          Chair: Hasia R. Diner (New York University)

Tue, Dec 20 – 10:45am – 12:45pm  Building/Room: Grand Hyatt Washington, Roosevelt

16. Session Title: Crises of French and Maghrebi Jewry in the 20th Century

–          Jewish women in the Holocaust: A colonial perspective. *Daniel Lee (The European University Institute, Florence)

–          Jewish Women in the Algerian War *Jessica Hammerman (The Graduate Center, CUNY)

–          French Jews, Nazis and the Vel d’Hiv’ Roundup: A New Trend in French Literature and Cinema. *Dinah Assouline Stillman (University of Oklahoma)

–          Sephardic Women in the Holocaust. *Nina Lichtenstein (The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute)

–          Chair: Aimee Israel-Pelletier (University of Texas at Arlington)

Tue, Dec 20 – 1:45pm – 3:45pm, Cabin John Room

17. Session Title: Israel Between East and West

–          Israel In or of the Middle East? *David Tal (University of Calgary)

–          The Fall and Rise of Mizrachi Identity  from early Zionism to Postmodernism.*Avi Picard (Bar-Ilan University)

–          The Integration of the Jewish National Homeland into the Resurgent Orient: Central-European Trained Orientalists at Hebrew University in the Pre-state Era.*Ruchama Johnston-Bloom (University of Chicago)

–          The Ritual Rhythm: Religious Order and Social Upheaval in the Mizrahi South of Tel Aviv-Yafo.*Gabrielle A. Berlinger (Indiana University)

–          Chair: Eric Engel Tuten (Slippery Rock University)

–          Respondent: Donna R. Divine (Smith College)

Tue, Dec 20 – 1:45pm – 3:45pm, Constitution E

18. Session Title: Jewish Pasts and Presents: Memories of the Holocaust, Patterns of Jewish History, and Changing Jewish Identities

–          Exile in Sepharad: Myth and Memory in an Oral History of Barcelona’s Jewish Community. *Tabea Alexa Linhard (Washington University in St. Louis)

–          The 1952 Monuments to “Jewish Victims of Fascism” and the Evolution of a Jewish Culture of Remembrance in Early Postwar Yugoslavia. *Emil Kerenji (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

–          “Who can feel with us, who can understand us:” surviving survival, defining Jewishness from the post-war to post-Holocaust age. *Leah Wolfson (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

–          Chair: Adriana Brodsky (St. Mary’s College of Maryland)

–          Respondent: Alexandra Garbarini (Williams College)

Tue, Dec 20 – 4:00pm – 5:45pm, Constitution E