Hoping people will love this 3D rendering of the Jodensavanne (Suriname) synagogue as much as I do. Below are pictures of it before it was destroyed (it is the tallest building in the town) as well as the remains today

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/3c615fc2ce14c0f2fc2d1d1b02e6bde5/Suriname-Para-Jodensavanne-synagogue?hl=es

The advertisement from Rebecca Gomez’s store reveals a shocking variety of places goods came from in a small town store.

Use this resource to look up the form of a poem. I haven’t added much to the Hebrew side yet, but I will continue to update it.

Hi all,

thank you for your feedback. In light of what people have said and the senate’s request, I am going to go with option #3 and make today completely asynchronous. 

Rafael had asked what were the big takeaways for today. I had three main things I wanted people to get out of today’s selections:

1. One of the primary types of literature written by Jews during this era are letters, and they are part of the rise of what Dierks and others call the “familiar letter” amongst the “middling sort.” they way people wrote was very much driven by convention and letter writing manuals such as this one. (Even schools for the poor during this era taught these manuals.) We saw women using letter writing conventions last week when Hannah Louzada wrote to the Mahamad asking for wood, but also we read letters to loved ones today from Rachel Pereire and Abraham da Costa Andrade. 
2. Primary sources by (and even about women) are scarce from this era and typically fall into what I have referred to as the “triangle of discontent”: either women are mentioned in passing with respect to life cycles, they have allegedly misbehaved, or they are requesting charity. What can we learn from these genres and how do they skew our understanding of women. You might also think about Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s famous comment that “well behaved women seldom make history.”
3. There were a variety of ways synagogues could establish their authority over people in their own ports and in other ports. Some were carrots (e.g. the Hannukiahs) some were sticks (see the adultery letter and the story of Rebecca Valverde Gomes).

I’d love it if people could post a comment/response to at least one of the posts on today’s readings by Hunter, Caitlin, or Jesse. Then come up with a creative response to one of today’s readings and post it as a blog post sometime between now and Monday. You are free to use your imagination, but if you get stuck, here are some ideas:

• Find a buddy in class and have one person pretend to be one of the women in the primary sources for today. Using zoom, record a brief interview with her in which you get at why she choose to “misbehave” and what pressures the Mahamad is trying to use to get her to comply. Or if you use the letter of Rachel Pereire you could be the son responding to his mother’s attempts to influence him from afar.
• Write a letter from Rebecca Valverde Gomes, Sarah Pardo, or Abraham da Costa Andrade to the Mahamad either begging for forgiveness or telling them your opinion of their attempts to control you. Or write a letter from Sarah back to Abraham. Or write a letter from the men of the Mahamad. You may want to use one of the letters in the Ladies Complete Letter Writer (1763) as a model to imitate or satirize. If you do use one as a model, make sure you take a snap shot of the letter you are imitating.
• Shortly after the incident with Rebecca Valverde Gomes, the Hazan who took part in censuring her came down with a venereal disease and was discovered to have impregnated one of the servants in the synagogue compound (he was married at the time). Moreover, then men castigating Rebecca almost all had children out of wedlock by women of color (including the president of the congregation). Write a letter to or from Rebecca that addresses the sexual double standard in the community. 
• Write a poem about or from the perspective of one of the women featured today.
• We don’t have any surviving portraits from these women. Using the style of ivory miniatures, make a fake portrait for one of the people in today’s readings.

Whatever you do, don’t obsess over it or spend more than you would have being in class. Also have fun!

If you want to talk about your ideas or any of the texts, I will be hanging out during class on the usual zoom link.

best,

Laura

Looking for a summer gig? The English department has a list of paid opportunities.

The Jewish Women’s Archive is also looking for summer interns to do remote work in Jewish women’s history. This would be a great pair for the The Summer Opportunity Fellowship Award (SOFA), which provides funding for a student to pursue academic work with a mentor at another institution/organization for up to 10 weeks over the summer. The purpose of this program is to expose Reed students to new environments and opportunities not available on campus. This program is intended as a learning experience for the student and mentorship should be at the forefront of the project. All majors are eligible. Student stipend is $5,600 for Summer 2021. Application deadline is March 3 at 12noon.  If you are interested in this, email me to start a conversation as I am on the board of the JWA and can connect you with the right people both at Reed and at the JWA!

Link to the Manuscript I mentioned today in class. Here is the calendar page:

This page is on #170 in the manuscript if you want it higher resolution or to be able to zoom.

“Luis de Carvajal the Younger (ca. 1567-1596), was the nephew of Luis de Carvajal y de Ia Cueva, the governor of Leon, Mexico. The Carvajals are the best known conversos (“New Christians”) in colonial Mexico, largely owing to Luis the Younger’s testimony at his trial before the Inquisition in 1595. He denounced more than 120 individuals as crypto-Jews–people who secretly practiced their old faith while publicly purporting to follow another faith–including members of his own family. He and many of his family were burned at the stake in 1596. These three bound documents, recently recovered after going missing from the National Archive of Mexico more than seventy-five years ago, are believed to be the only extant writings by a Jew in Mexico during the Spanish colonial period. They include Carvajal’s autobiography (written under the pseudonym Joseph Lumbroso), the principles of the faith, the Ten Commandments, and a prayer manual drawn from the Old Testament.” — brochure published for exhibition “The First Jewish Americans” at the New-York Historical Society (October 2016-March 2017).

National Jewish Book Award Winners, 2020

Dear all, welcome to English 303, Jews Across the Americas! For the first day, please have read the following:

• Introduction
• Jonathan Ray (Georgetown University), Edict of Expulsion (Spain, 1492).
• Relación de Antonio Montesinos (1644)
• Frances Levine (Missouri Historical Society), Doña Teresa Confronts the Spanish Inquisition in New Mexico (New Spain, 1662).

In class we will be signing up for cities. Your final project and many of your shorter assignments will involve Jewish literature and culture from this city, so take a look at the list and think about which interest you the most! We will also going over an Introduction to WordPress for those who haven’t used it before.