Back from Shingly: revisiting the premodern history of Jews in Kerala

Jewish history in Kerala is based on sources mainly from the colonial period onward and mostly in European languages, failing to account for the premodern history of Jews in Kerala. These early modern sources are based on oral traditions of Paradeśi Jews in Cochin, who view the majority of Kerala Jews as inferior. Consequently, the premodern history of Kerala Jews remains untold, despite the existence of premodern sources that undermine unsupported notions about the premodern history of Kerala Jews—a Jewish ‘ur-settlement’ called Shingly in Kodungallur and a centuries-old isolation from world Jewry. This article reconstructs Jewish history in premodern Kerala solely based on premodern travelogues and literature on the one hand and on historical documents in Old Malayalam, Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic on the other hand. Sources of the early modern period are then examined for tracing the origins of the Shingly myth, arguing that the incorporation of the Shingly legend into the historiography of Kerala Jews was affected by contacts with European Jews in the Age of Discoveries rather than being a reflection of historical events

Menorah Review (No. 20, Fall, 1990)

Abba Hillel Silver, The Holocaust and American Politics: 1943-1944 -- Different Jews - One Judaism -- Book Briefing -- Rescuing Jews During the Holocaust -- Balancing -- Text and Context: The Case of American Judaism -- Book Briefing

Menorah Review (No. 10, Spring, 1987)

Jews by Birth and Jews by Choice: Conversion in Jewish History -- Modernization Theory and Contemporary Jewish History -- The Language of Extermination -- The Predicate Theology of Judaism -- Streams of Depth -- Noah and Universalis

Is Hanukkah responsive to Christmas?

We study the extent to which religious activity responds to the presence and activity of other religions. Specifcally, we employ individual-level survey data and county-level expenditure data to examine the extent to which Hanukkah celebration among U.S. Jews is driven by the presence of Christmas. We find that: (1) Jews with children at home are more likely to celebrate Hanukkah than Jews without children. (2) The effect of having children on Hanukkah celebrations is higher for reform Jews than for orthodox Jews; and, it is higher for Jews who feel a stronger sense of belonging to Judaism. (3) Jewish-related expenditures in Hanukkah are higher in counties with lower share of Jews. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that Jews increase religious activity during Hanukkah because of the presence of Christmas, and this response is primarily driven by the presence of children at home. One underlying motivator might be that Jewish parents in the U.S. celebrate Hanukkah more intensively so heir children do not feel left out, and/or because they are concerned that their children will convert or intermarry.Religions, Hanukkah, Identity

Menorah Review (No. 46, Spring/Summer, 1999)

The Quintessential Other -- Were Jews Ignored by All? -- Critical Perspectives on Israel the 1990s: Politics, Society, Scholarship -- Early Spring -- From Auschwitz to Meaning Therapy -- Jews and Muslims Together -- Noteworthy Book

Jews and the British Empire c.1900

In the years of high imperialism at the beginning of the twentieth century what bearing did the British Empire have on the Jews, or Jews on the British Empire? The silence of scholarship might lead us to answer ‘not very much’. Concerned with the legacy of Jewish emancipation, the dynamics of social integration, the challenge of large-scale migration, and the representation of Jewish difference in political argument, historians of the Jews have barely touched on the subject. Historians of empire, for their part, have had other preoccupations too. Perhaps the identification of imperialism with Jewish finance by J. A. Hobson and other radical critics of empire in the 1890s and early 1900s, as well as the Jew-baiting rhetoric of some critics, has rendered the relationship of Jews to the Empire a difficult problem for later generations to address

Menorah Review (No. 77, Summer/Fall, 2012)

A Golden Poet of Spain\u27s Golden Age -- Beyond the Second Coming -- Books in Brief: New and Notable -- Cantorial Challenges -- Jewishness in the World: A Chabad Definition -- Moreshet - From the Classics: A 1797 Wedding -- Painful Presence: Jews in Russian Music -- Zachor: Sicut Judaeis ( And Thus to the Jews

Beyond Distancing: Young Adult American Jews and Their Alienation from Israel

This research reports on a mounting body of evidence that has pointed to a growing distancing from Israel of American Jews, most pronounced among younger Jews, and explores critical questions behind their presumably diminished attachment to Israel

Review of Jews and the left: the rise and fall of a political alliance by Mendes, P.

Jews and the Left is an ambitious book, in that it attempts to provide an historical and global overview of a complex, changing relationship over a period of more than two centuries. The book is not only about the relationship of Jews to Left-wing politics, but also about the Left’s relationship with Jews. At present, that relationship is, perhaps, at its most fraught, but Mendes’ account suggests the possibility that it may, as in the past, improve once more. It is the ebb and flow of the relationship that sits at the heart of the book, and the historical account provides a story in four parts

Critique [of Asians, Jews, and the Legacy of Midas by Alan Spector]

The author of Asians, Jews, and the Legacy of Midas presents a provocative comparative analysis of Asians and Jews. Spector utilizes both a cultural and economic basis for understanding the function of Asian stereotyping and applies his analysis to the Jewish situation. While the American context provides the locus of his research, he does present his argument in an international context. Spector illustrates how the categorization of Asians and Jews as the model for economic success is dehumanizing as such a perception drain(s) the life out of human beings and concretizes them into non-human statues. The conclusion of this author\u27s work in dealing with oppression based in stereotype is actually a starting point which scholars should begin addressing. To be sure, the model minority, as applied to Asians and Jews, has generated numerous articles and papers, and yet scholars have failed to develop analyses which reflect an interdisciplinary and historical approach to the reasons for propagating such stereotypes