Material World

When is a text not a text? When it is an object. When a Torah scroll is held up in the air so that congregants can view its columns of words, it is not being read. The words that the congregation chants are indeed found in the scroll, but in two different places.

The Jewish Book  Cambridge University Press.  Articles from the AJS Review, presented by a "working group" on the Jewish book.  SAVE

Blog for the Study of the Jewish Book  Adam Shear.  Events, announcements, and links for the study of Jewish books.  SAVE

2011 AJS Conference  Association for Jewish Studies.  At the most recent conference of the Association of Jewish Studies, a session discussed "The Materiality of Texts and Jewish Experience: Past and Present."  SAVE

People of the Byte  Alex Joffe,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Jews have long been the People of the Book. But as computers replace books and possibly libraries, museums, and universities, what will happen to their understanding of their history?  SAVE

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Redefining Religious Activity

In August of 1790, Moses Seixas, a leading member of the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, composed a letter to then President George Washington, who was visiting Newport. In his letter, Seixas gave voice to his people's love of America and its liberties.

The Cult of Synthesis  Jack Wertheimer,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  For over a century, American Jews have asserted that America and the Jews are a perfect fit. Is it true?  SAVE

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In God They Trust?

Stick an average alumnus of the Israeli public school system into a synagogue during morning prayers, and chances are they would be bewildered. Even if they could recollect an arid Bible class they had to endure long ago, what good would it do them? They'd still be lost.

A Portrait of Israeli Jews  Asher Arian, Ayala Keissar-Sugarmen,  Avi Chai and Israel Democracy Institute.  Most Israeli Jews feel a sense of affinity—variously defined—to their country and the Jewish people. (PDF)  SAVE

A Jewish Public School  Ben Hartman,  Jerusalem Post.  Parents in Ra'anana, a middle class Israeli town, successfully lobby for a "pluralist, traditional public school." It only took 14 years.  SAVE

Returning to God  Haim Shine,  Israel Hayom.  Some of Israel's founders may have envisioned Jews without God, but their descendants are coming home in droves.  SAVE

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Highlights of 2011:
Part II

Part II of our round-up of the past year's most popular features on Jewish Ideas Daily. (Part I is here.)

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Part II"

In the Jewish Dark Continent

Most American Jews descend from ancestors who resided in the Pale of Settlement, the territory from the Black Sea to the Baltic in which Jews were confined by the Czars.  A new book describes one effort to chart that territory.

Still Lives  Vox Tablet,  Tablet.  An interview with the authors of a book on newly discovered photographs from the An-Sky expedition. (With slideshow)  SAVE

Of Devils and Dybbuks  Allan Nadler,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Far more than modern Jews care to admit, demons, imps, and spirits permeate the history, and even the present-day consciousness, of many of their co-religionists.  SAVE

The Weaver  Gabriella Safran,  Jewish Review of Books.  An-Sky the revolutionary hoped that by reminding Jews of their ancestors' lives and crafts, he could make them more creative, more socialist, and less capitalist.  SAVE

Photographic Memory  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Roman Vishniac created a famous book of photographs of shtetl Jews—but left out images that didn't fit his story.  SAVE

The Phonoarchive of Jewish Folklore  Lyudmila Sholochova,  National Library of Ukraine.  The story of the Jewish music archive at the Vernadsky National Library, which contains original wax cylinder recordings from the An-Sky expedition.  SAVE

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