At 3pm on Monday October 2, a group of students, faculty, and scholars from a variety of disciplines met in the library of the Elie Wiesel Center for the first forum in the 2017-2018 iteration of the Modern Mediterranean Identities series. After some socializing over refreshments, EWCJS Director Michael Zank welcomed the audience in attendance before introducing the series’ organizer Professor Kimberly Arkin who introduced each member of the panel.

Dr. Naomi Davidson (University of Ottawa) presented her work on “Our Beautiful Algerian Communities,” an analysis of Algerian Jews and how their relationship to the future changed in the decade following Algerian independence in 1962. Her work looked at primary sources, including letters and historical records, with an aim at understanding how Jewish Algerians who immigrated to France understood their relationship to the Jews who remained in Algiers. Dr. Mary Lewis of Harvard offered a response to Davidson’s work, followed by a discussion period where Davidson and Lewis took questions from the audience.

Dr. Abigail Jacobson (Hebrew University) shifted the topic from Algerian Jewish communities to Jewish peoples living on the West Bank, specifically the communities of Sephardi and Oriental Jews living in Haifa throughout the 20^th century. Her work observes the immigration of members in these communities during periods of unrest, and how these communities interacted with other Jews as well as Muslims throughout the Middle East. Dr. Michelle Campos (University of Florida) offered a response to her analysis, and the panel wrapped up that evening with further audience discussion.

The Elie Wiesel Center screened journalist Nir Baram’s documentary The Land Beyond the Mountains, based on his book A Land Without Borders, to a packed audience of students and faculty in CAS 226 on Monday, October 30.  

The film follows Baram as he travels throughout the West Bank, meeting people with a variety of opinions about how to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He interviews a member of Hamas, Israeli homeowners, Israeli and Palestinian political activists, and even Baram’s own father, a left wing politician. Through these conversations, Baram attempts to get to the truth of what life is like in this contentious stretch of land, which encompasses both beautiful neighborhoods and slum-like housing conditions that coexist along the border wall. While at the beginning of the film Baram seemed to believe in the possibility of a peaceful two-state solution, by the end of the film he questioned whether the conflict could be really be resolved by these means. The Palestinians he spoke with want to draw attention to their displacement in 1948, while Israelis on the whole want to negotiate around the borders designated in 1963. Baram argues that this difference in conversation, and miscommunications between the Palestinian activists and the Israeli government, makes the conflict more difficult to solve. He ends the film highlighting the grassroots work of groups like Two States One Homeland; it is the people of the West Bank organizing and speaking together that will, in his opinion, bring the conflict to an end.

Baram answered audience questions following the screening, discussing how he adapted his written work into the medium of film and how his viewpoint altered over the course of making the film. He also talked about a few of his subjects, including the Hamas member with whom he keeps in touch, and of his optimism that the conversation can be shifted in a way that promotes justice.

Baram answering audience questions following the screening.

The audience at the screening, which included Hebrew Program faculty Mira Angrist, Professor Abigail Gillman of Religion and Professor Michael Zank.

This was the first EWCJS event to be streamed live on Facebook. You can watch the livestream of Rabbi Anisfeld’s keynote speech here and the full panel here.

On October 26th, the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies hosted the fourth annual Leo Trepp Lecture at Boston University. The Leo Trepp Lecture Series honors Rabbi Leo Trepp (1913-2010), a revered German-American rabbi and philosopher who was exiled from Germany after brief internment during Kristallnacht. He became a much-beloved advocate of Jewish dialogue and engagement as a rabbi, first in Boston and then in Tacoma, Washington and Berkeley, California. His many publications include History of the Jewish Experience and The Complete Book of Jewish Observance. 

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld set the tone for the following discussion. She started with the analogy that rabbis are “doorways” to Jewish life; therefore, it is imperative for rabbis to realize that how they respond to people seeking connection to Jewish life can either open or close that door. She suggested that rabbis should emphasize authentic, human encounters in their day-to-day relationships in order to foster Jewish life in their communities. She continued by saying that she believes that rabbinic work in 21st century North American context also means retrieving a rich, emotionally resonant Jewish “language” that has been lost. The shared vocabulary, literature, and rituals that link Jewish communities to one another and the past has been diminished in the North American Jewish experience. This “cultural repair” can only occur, she argued, if rabbis have an answer to the question: “Why be Jewish?” Wrestling with this question enables rabbis to establish human connection and to respond with authenticity to their community members.

This theme of relationship-driven change continued into the panel discussion. Maharat Rachel Kohl Finegold (Congregation Shaar Hashomayim of Quebec) started by asking the question, “How do we engage Jewish institutions in the 21st century?” As one of the first Orthodox women to be ordained as a maharat, she spoke from her own experience when she said that Jewish institutions such as the synagogue and the rabbinate itself are rapidly shifting and changing. Although some of these institutions might resist change, she argued that leaders cannot force change. Leaders must first build relationships and trust before change can occur. The second panelist, Rabbi Suzie Jacobson (Temple Israel of Boston), followed by emphasizing that she also prioritizes relationships in her work. She does not position herself as an all knowing repository of knowledge with her community, but rather, as a seeker also wrestling with the questions of the world, including the question posed by Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld: “Why be Jewish?”

Rabbi Elie Lehmann of BU Hillel ended the panel discussion by reflecting on his experience working at a university. He remarked that many of the questions that Jewish undergraduates ask him, on the surface, might not seem like “Jewish” questions. They ask him what classes they should take, what careers they should pursue, or who they should date. Rabbi Lehmann argued that these questions should also be part of their Jewish questions as well, and a rabbi can help them respond to these questions. His aim therefore is to provide access to Jewish life. This means being present and listening to the concerns of undergraduates and helping them to participate fully in Jewish community.

The lecture and panel sparked a robust discussion with the audience. Because of the wealth of experience on the stage, audience members asked very practical questions like how to navigate discussions surrounding the State of Israel while working with college students. Another audience member asked about how to welcome non-Jewish spouses or partners into Jewish life. The panelists responded by drawing on their own experience, sharing anecdotes from their work in their own communities on how rabbis can respond to the unique challenges of the 21st century.

Photos by Lauren Andrea-Lucia Hobler

The Modern Mediterranean Identities series reconvened on November 17, 2017 in the EWCJS library, this time focusing on “Catholic Pasts and Futures in France.” Professor Zank welcomed the audience over lunch, and thanked Professor Kimberly Arkin for her continued work to make the series possible.

Professor Arkin introduced Professor Elayne Oliphant, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at NYU, and her respondent Cornell Professor of History Camille Robcis. She also thanked the audience as well as the staff of the Elie Wiesel Center for continuing to host and support this series. 

Professor Oliphant began her presentation by explaining the framework of her research, arguing that permeable ideas about what makes a space “public” allows for nuance in how the French understand Catholic ideas. She challenges the idea that France has moved past the Catholic Church as a guiding social force, and claims that the idea that the culture is “vanishing” highlights how Catholicism is in fact still privileged in France. Catholicism has become part of, as she puts it, “French architecture” as it has become a part of the “ambiance” despite the widely held conception that French society encourages laïcité (secularism).

In the 19th century, churches were designed and built with support from the state, and they have become part of an imagined past of the people of France and what they have believed. Catholicism in France maintains a historical image of being crucial to French life, which Oliphant argues makes it an unmarked, privileged category despite being a religion.

Camille Robcis responded to Oliphant’s paper by complimenting her focus on the “unacknowledged privilege” of Catholicism rather than statistical numbers. Robcis questions the use of the word “infrastructure” to describe Catholicism as ambient rather than “norm” or “ideology”. She also highlights Oliphant’s point about marriage as a social structure, and she argues that marriage became a social and legal agreement (and therefore more secular) to ensure that the state could survive. Both scholars discussed how French society negotiates the Catholic influences on marriage with currently changing norms around gay marriage and national identity. Catholic traditions in public life, they argue, impact the people of France regardless of race, class or religious affiliation.

The event concluded with further discussion about this blend of secularism and religious tradition in political and social life.

On the afternoon of December 4, 2017, Professor Jonathan Klawans (BU Department of Religion) spoke at the fall semester’s BUJS Research Forum. Elie Wiesel Center Director Michael Zank introduced Professor Klawans to a large and engaged audience of scholars and students. Klawans presented his sabbatical research on Mordecai Kaplan and Jewish antiquity with his talk “Judaism was a Civilization: Towards a Reconstruction of Ancient Jewish Peoplehood.”

Klawans spoke not just on how we think about Jewish antiquity, but also the particular frames that scholars use to shape that thinking. By using the work of Mordecai Kaplan, who wrote about American Jewish identity as well as Jews of the Second Temple period in the 19^th century, Klawans argues that we should embrace anachronism. The terms we use to study ancient people did not exist when those ancient people were alive, he argues, and that defining Judaism as solely a “religion” in a Protestant sense (absent from race or ethnicity) ignores the nuance in how Jews have identified themselves. Kaplan encouraged the use of the term “peoplehood” in order to understand Jewish identity as a “social heritage.” Klawans argues that this utilitarian term allows us to study Jewish history with a flexible way of categorizing.

This terminology opens up the usefulness of primary sources when looking at early periods of Jewish life, and the context of folk art and traditions that have been associated with certain groups of Jews. The study of Jewish peoplehood releases the baggage, Klawans claims, of terms like “nation” or “religion.”

The event concluded with a Q&A session about Klawans’ research and how he plans to expand these definitions in his upcoming book.

Our final week of the retrospective includes more messages from those impacted by the work of Elie Wiesel, including words from Mayor Marty Walsh and former President Barack Obama.

#1 Professor Stephen Esposito, Associate Professor of Classical Studies and First Semester Core Curriculum Coordinator at Boston University. “Some 60 years ago, Elie Wiesel, at the age of 28, wrote the following 115 words, which were to become the most renowned and powerful passage in all of Holocaust literature. “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky. Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments that butchered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes. Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.” (Night, p. 34, trans. Marion Wiesel, 2006) That haunting seven-fold refrain, “Never shall I forget…” was to become the motto of Prof. Wiesel’s life. And so in honor of the dead and the living Elie bore witness. More than anyone in the past generation Wiesel spoke truth to power, and he did so with astonishing results — from Auschwitz and Buchenwald to the Soviet Jews, from the Cambodian Boat People to the victims of violence in Dafur, Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Argentina. I met Prof. Wiesel some 22 years ago and over time we became friends. For over a decade he invited me to teach in his classes and together we studied numerous Greek tragedies that he loved – Antigone, Oedipus, Prometheus Bound. Team-teaching with Elie Wiesel was by far the greatest privilege and joy of my B.U. career. Those classes together also turned out to be the most intellectually stimulating experiences of my life. For over 20 years Prof. Wiesel lectured to students in Boston University’s Core Curriculum –on Genesis, on Exodus, on Job. And then, of course, he held court to thousands of listeners in those remarkable presentations every Fall in the Metcalf Auditorium. Students were always at the center of his world. He loved to question students and to be questioned by them. Somehow I felt especially at home with Professor Wiesel when he invited me to speak to his students about my own specialty, Greek tragedy. Those plays often focus on themes that permeated Wiesel’s life: memory and mystery, suffering and solitude, friendship and ferocity.. In his presence I often felt as if I were being transported to the sacred center of the world, to a place where fierce Nobility and benevolent Blessing stood side by side. The students, too, felt it, especially in those last years—their teacher’s voice ever softer and more oracular, the wisdom of eight decades carved into his face ever more deeply, the wizened eyebrows highlighting the sunken eyes that had seen the unseeable—and survived. Like the ancient figure of Oedipus, whom Sophocles wrote so beautifully about 2,500 years ago, Professor Wiesel spent his life daring to pry open the clenched fist of the past, daring to reveal the wrath, the rage and somehow, through his relentless questioning, to summon forth redemption. Thank you, Elie, for the fierce courage in the face of despair, for the never-ending fight to find the words to tell THE story. Thank you for not surrendering, for remembering your sister, your mother, your father, and your people. Thank you for carrying the torch so bravely, for holding such a steadfast beacon to the smoke-filled darkness of night, for helping us to keep our souls on fire, for teaching us what our children and our children’s children must not forget.”

#2 Mayor Marty Walsh of Boston. “Early in his life, Elie Wiesel experienced the worst of humanity. But through his perseverance, he showed the resilience of the human spirit. I remember reading his powerful memoir, Night, when I was a young student in Boston. Today, I am still moved by his strength and compassion. Elie was a man who dedicated his life to improving the lives of oppressed people all over the world. Between his time spent teaching about the horrors of the Holocaust as a professor at Boston University, and his work campaigning for victims of oppression in places like South Africa, Nicaragua and Sudan, Elie remained steadfast in his commitment to the human rights and freedoms deserved by everyone. I’m proud that Boston was the welcoming home of this great man. As a City and nation founded by immigrants, Boston must continue its work to embody the ideals of compassion and stewardship so well represented in the work of Elie. We continue to strive to match the ideals and virtues modeled by Elie, and I am grateful for he brought, and what he taught, to Boston.”

#3 An excerpt from former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power’s foreword to the commemorative edition of Elie Wiesel’s Night to be published this month by Hill and Wang. “Arguably no single work did so much to lift the silence that had enveloped survivors, and bring what happened in the ‘Kingdom of Night’ out into the light, for all to see. And yet. Injustice was still rampant. Genocide denial against the Armenians, the horrors of his lifetime — Pol Pot, Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, Syria in his later years. He lived to see more and more people bear witness to unspeakable atrocities, but he also saw that indifference remained too widespread. Amid all the pain and disappointment of Elie’s remarkable life, how is it that the darkness did not envelop him, or shield him from the sun? How is it that the light in Elie Wiesel’s gaze was every bit as defining as his life’s experiences? ‘What is abnormal,’ Elie once told Oprah Winfrey, ‘is that I am normal. I survived the Holocaust and went on to love beautiful girls, to talk, to write, to have toast and tea and live my life — that is what is abnormal.’ Elie raged against indifference to injustice, to be sure, but he also savored the gifts of life with ferocious zeal. ‘We know that every moment is a moment of grace,’ he once said, ‘every hour is an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them.’ Maybe it was because Elie had such a strong sense of purpose on his journey—to help those who could still be helped. A duty to his neighbor. To the stranger, the stranger that he once was. He called it his 11th commandment: ‘Thou shalt not stand idly by…. You must speak up. You must defend. You must tell the victims,… ‘“You are not alone, somebody cares.’” ….As our nation goes through difficult days, Night is a book that is firmly ingrained in that small canon of literature that kids and young adults read when they are growing up in America. Alongside Atticus Finch and Scout, one of the narrators that will have an early shot at shaping our children’s moral universe is 16-year-old Elie. So, while the void is enormous — above all, for Marion, Elisha, and the rest of the family — and the void is enormous for our world, I too am filled with profound joy knowing that my 7-year-old boy and my 4-year-old girl — like Elie’s grandkids, and their children after them — will wade into big questions for the first time with Elie Wiesel as their guide. That they will be less alone for having Elie with them. That Night will be one of the works that lay the scaffolding for their moral architecture. All because Elie Wiesel was optimistic enough to keep going — and to find the strength to shine his light on us all.”

#4 Professor Abigail Gillman, Associate Professor of German and Hebrew, and last year’s Interim Director of the EWCJS. “What I miss now are the ‘Three Encounters with Elie Wiesel,’ the trio of lectures that I attended at the 92nd Street Y in New York City long before hearing them in Metcalf Hall. What we experienced on those evenings was not studying, but learning: the restless ‘turn it and turn it’ described in the Mishnah.  Each lecture wove together scholarship, wisdom, memory. Professor Wiesel managed to present the Torah and the Talmud as Great Books with universal relevance.  His words drew us into the Jewish textual universe as to a place he had actually visited, whether through anamnesis, or by the power of his imagination; the insights we left with were psychological, ethical, humanistic.  I miss listening to his voice—the musicality, the familiar cadences; the parentheses, humble thank-you’s to his students and to the police officers; the never-ending questions and what ifs; the irrepressible joie de vivre. The good news is that the lectures were recorded. The video recordings can be found on both the 92nd St. Y and the BU Howard Gotlieb Center websites, for anyone to study—and to learn from.”

#5

Islam, Christianity, and Judaism in historical and cultural context, origins to the present. Examines the diversity of practices, belief systems, and social structures within these religions. It also addresses debates within and between communities as well as contemporary controversies and concerns. This course carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.

Instructor: Professor Jonathan Klawans

A thematic introduction to mysticism and philosophy, with a focus on the dynamics of religious experience. Readings will be drawn from medieval Jewish and Islamic philosophy; Sufi mysticism and philosophy; Kabbalah, Sufi poetry, Hebrew poetry from the Golden Age of Muslim Spain.

Instructor: Professor Diana Lobel

Exploration of complex encounters between Judaism and modernity from the Renaissance and Reformation to expulsion from Spain and creation of Jewish centers in the New World; emancipation and its consequences; assimilation, conversion, Reform Judaism, Zionism, the American Jewish community, modern anti-Semitism. BU HUB areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking

Instructor: Professor Steven T. Katz

Rise of German (and European) antisemitism; rise of Nazism; 1935 Nuremberg Laws; the initial Jewish reaction; racial theory; organizing mass murder including ghettos, concentration camps, killing squads, and gas chambers; bystanders and collaborators (countries, organizations, and individuals); Jewish resistance; post-Holocaust religious responses; moral and ethical issues. BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.

Instructor: Professor Steven T. Katz 

How can we understand the impact of the Holocaust and its ongoing legacies? Holocaust representation in literature, film and memorials, including discussions of bystander complicity and societal responsibilities, testimonial and fictive works by Wiesel and Levi, documentaries and feature films. BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Ethical Reasoning.

Instructor: Professor Nancy Harrowitz

The Fascist regime and the Holocaust in Italy: how the civic status of Italian Jews changed from the beginnings of discrimination against them to deportations of 1943, posing larger questions about bigotry and racism, and the role of bystander complicity. BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness.

Instructor: Professor Nancy Harrowitz

Using a broad array of readings, popular music, documentaries, film and art, this course explores Israel's political system, culture, and society, including the status of minorities in the Jewish state; post-1967 Israeli settlement projects; and the struggle for Israel's identity.

Instructor: Staff

History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, analysis of conflicting narratives through primary sources and film. Students present their reflections on the conflict and debate possibilities of resolution. Counts toward majors and minors in History, International Relations, Middle East & North Africa Studies, and Jewish Studies. BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship, and Intercultural Literacy.

Instructor: Professor Ingrid Anderson 

Explores the role of gender and sexuality in Judaism and Jewish experience, historically and in the present. Subjects include constructions of masculinity and femininity, attitudes toward (and uses of) the body and sexuality, gendered nature of religious practice and authority. BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.

Instructor: Professor Deeana Klepper

Israel has a rich cuisine that reflects the diversity of Israeli society, Jewish and Arab culinary traditions, and a wide range of regional influences. Through reading/viewing a variety of authentic materials, students will enhance their language and cultural proficiency. BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Creativity/Innovation.

Instructor: Professor Miriam Angrist

The Elie Wiesel Center screened journalist Nir Baram’s documentary The Land Beyond the Mountains, based on his book A Land Without Borders, to a packed audience of students and faculty in CAS 226 on Monday, October 30.  

The film follows Baram as he travels throughout the West Bank, meeting people with a variety of opinions about how to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He interviews a member of Hamas, Israeli homeowners, Israeli and Palestinian political activists, and even Baram’s own father, a left wing politician. Through these conversations, Baram attempts to get to the truth of what life is like in this contentious stretch of land, which encompasses both beautiful neighborhoods and slum-like housing conditions that coexist along the border wall. While at the beginning of the film Baram seemed to believe in the possibility of a peaceful two-state solution, by the end of the film he questioned whether the conflict could be really be resolved by these means. The Palestinians he spoke with want to draw attention to their displacement in 1948, while Israelis on the whole want to negotiate around the borders designated in 1963. Baram argues that this difference in conversation, and miscommunications between the Palestinian activists and the Israeli government, makes the conflict more difficult to solve. He ends the film highlighting the grassroots work of groups like Two States One Homeland; it is the people of the West Bank organizing and speaking together that will, in his opinion, bring the conflict to an end.

Baram answered audience questions following the screening, discussing how he adapted his written work into the medium of film and how his viewpoint altered over the course of making the film. He also talked about a few of his subjects, including the Hamas member with whom he keeps in touch, and of his optimism that the conversation can be shifted in a way that promotes justice.

Baram answering audience questions following the screening.

The audience at the screening, which included Hebrew Program faculty Mira Angrist, Professor Abigail Gillman of Religion and Professor Michael Zank.

This was the first EWCJS event to be streamed live on Facebook. You can watch the livestream of Rabbi Anisfeld's keynote speech here and the full panel here.

On October 26, 2017, the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies hosted the fourth Leo Trepp Lecture at Boston University. The Leo Trepp Lecture Series honors Rabbi Leo Trepp (1913-2010), a revered German-American rabbi and philosopher who was exiled from Germany after brief internment during Kristallnacht. He became a much-beloved advocate of Jewish dialogue and engagement as a rabbi, first in Boston and then in Tacoma, Washington and Berkeley, California. His many publications include History of the Jewish Experience and The Complete Book of Jewish Observance. 

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld set the tone for the following discussion. She started with the analogy that rabbis are “doorways” to Jewish life; therefore, it is imperative for rabbis to realize that how they respond to people seeking connection to Jewish life can either open or close that door. She suggested that rabbis should emphasize authentic, human encounters in their day-to-day relationships in order to foster Jewish life in their communities. She continued by saying that she believes that rabbinic work in 21st century North American context also means retrieving a rich, emotionally resonant Jewish “language” that has been lost. The shared vocabulary, literature, and rituals that link Jewish communities to one another and the past has been diminished in the North American Jewish experience. This “cultural repair” can only occur, she argued, if rabbis have an answer to the question: “Why be Jewish?” Wrestling with this question enables rabbis to establish human connection and to respond with authenticity to their community members.

This theme of relationship-driven change continued into the panel discussion. Maharat Rachel Kohl Finegold (Congregation Shaar Hashomayim of Quebec) started by asking the question, “How do we engage Jewish institutions in the 21st century?” As one of the first Orthodox women to be ordained as a maharat, she spoke from her own experience when she said that Jewish institutions such as the synagogue and the rabbinate itself are rapidly shifting and changing. Although some of these institutions might resist change, she argued that leaders cannot force change. Leaders must first build relationships and trust before change can occur. The second panelist, Rabbi Suzie Jacobson (Temple Israel of Boston), followed by emphasizing that she also prioritizes relationships in her work. She does not position herself as an all knowing repository of knowledge with her community, but rather, as a seeker also wrestling with the questions of the world, including the question posed by Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld: “Why be Jewish?"

Rabbi Elie Lehmann of BU Hillel ended the panel discussion by reflecting on his experience working at a university. He remarked that many of the questions that Jewish undergraduates ask him, on the surface, might not seem like “Jewish” questions. They ask him what classes they should take, what careers they should pursue, or who they should date. Rabbi Lehmann argued that these questions should also be part of their Jewish questions as well, and a rabbi can help them respond to these questions. His aim therefore is to provide access to Jewish life. This means being present and listening to the concerns of undergraduates and helping them to participate fully in Jewish community.

The lecture and panel sparked a robust discussion with the audience. Because of the wealth of experience on the stage, audience members asked very practical questions like how to navigate discussions surrounding the State of Israel while working with college students. Another audience member asked about how to welcome non-Jewish spouses or partners into Jewish life. The panelists responded by drawing on their own experience, sharing anecdotes from their work in their own communities on how rabbis can respond to the unique challenges of the 21st century.

Photos by Lauren Andrea-Lucia Hobler

The Modern Mediterranean Identities series reconvened on November 17, 2017 in the EWCJS library, this time focusing on “Catholic Pasts and Futures in France.” Professor Zank welcomed the audience over lunch, and thanked Professor Kimberly Arkin for her continued work to make the series possible.

Professor Arkin introduced Professor Elayne Oliphant, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at NYU, and her respondent Cornell Professor of History Camille Robcis. She also thanked the audience as well as the staff of the Elie Wiesel Center for continuing to host and support this series. 

Professor Oliphant began her presentation by explaining the framework of her research, arguing that permeable ideas about what makes a space “public” allows for nuance in how the French understand Catholic ideas. She challenges the idea that France has moved past the Catholic Church as a guiding social force, and claims that the idea that the culture is “vanishing” highlights how Catholicism is in fact still privileged in France. Catholicism has become part of, as she puts it, “French architecture” as it has become a part of the “ambiance” despite the widely held conception that French society encourages laïcité (secularism).

In the 19th century, churches were designed and built with support from the state, and they have become part of an imagined past of the people of France and what they have believed. Catholicism in France maintains a historical image of being crucial to French life, which Oliphant argues makes it an unmarked, privileged category despite being a religion.

Camille Robcis responded to Oliphant’s paper by complimenting her focus on the “unacknowledged privilege” of Catholicism rather than statistical numbers. Robcis questions the use of the word “infrastructure” to describe Catholicism as ambient rather than “norm” or “ideology”. She also highlights Oliphant’s point about marriage as a social structure, and she argues that marriage became a social and legal agreement (and therefore more secular) to ensure that the state could survive. Both scholars discussed how French society negotiates the Catholic influences on marriage with currently changing norms around gay marriage and national identity. Catholic traditions in public life, they argue, impact the people of France regardless of race, class or religious affiliation.

The event concluded with further discussion about this blend of secularism and religious tradition in political and social life.