Check out my completed exhibit on Chicago Jewish life here!

Edit 5/13/21 3:30pm: For some reason the guided tour doesn’t seem to be working and the information that I put in the descriptions for the tour is also not showing up. I deleted and re-did all of the guided tour points, but that didn’t change anything. You can just walk around or use the menu of points to jump from object to object!
Check out the “Chicago Guide Point Info” section on the Chicago City Directory for the guide point labels.

I have to say, this was one of the most fun projects I’ve done in a while. Thank you to everyone in this class and Laura for making this an awesome semester filled with learning and great conversation. I wish everyone luck in getting through the last day of finals week and I hope you all have relaxing summers! Congrats to the seniors and I hope to see everyone else in the classroom again 🙂

Find all sources for the exhibit and further reading on the subject on this page on the Chicago City Directory blog.

While skimming through 500 Choice Recipes (1930), a cookbook published by the Temple Sholom Sisterhood in Chicago, IL, I noticed that there were more than a few mentions of non-Kosher foods, such as shrimp and pork. I thought this might relate to the Der Keneder Adler article we read for today, except that this cookbook offers blatantly, not concealed, un-Kosher recipes.

Check out the images below and see if you can click on the foods that are NOT kosher!

Also—I have to share this one. Not only is this not kosher, but it offends my 21st-century palette a little too much. If anyone has had something like this and begs to differ, let me know! I’ll try anything once. The “beverage” recipe following the “Clam Juice Cocktail” is a “Duo-tone Cocktail,” which suggests mixing 2/3 cups of tomato juice with 1/3 cup of “sauer kraut” juice in such a way that the latter is floating on the other, creating the “duo-tone.” I love sauerkraut, but I can’t quite imagine that combination is very good….

The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs is a leading Jewish voice for social justice and reform across the country. It was founded in 1964 by Rabbi Robert Marx (who passed away very recently, over Pesach actually) and continues to combat injustice, racism, antisemitism, and poverty today. Learn more about the history of JCUA here.

JCUA also houses the Kol Or Jews of Color Caucus, which provides a space for Jews of Color to meet and build community in a social landscape that often disregards and erases them. Read this page about the caucus and then answer the following questions to see how much you learned!

Rafael Monkarsh
Laura Leibman
ENG 303
1 April 2021

Gordon, Lewis R. “Rarely Kosher: Studying Jews of Color in North America.” American Jewish History 100, no. 1 (2016): 105–16. https://doi.org/10.1353/ajh.2016.0006.

            Gordon’s article begins by acknowledging the relatively recent racializing of Jews as one people, as white in most instances, despite all observable and concrete evidence to the contrary. In the eyes of the general public, Jews went from being an entirely non-white people to, somehow, a mostly-white people excepting  “Jews of color.” Jews who were not white “simply disappeared, or at least disappeared as Jews” (106). Reiterating W.E.B. DuBois, Gordon establishes that racism often treats minority groups as a collective problem rather than a group of human beings facing problems. He extends that to the Jews: as they become more racialized, they are seen more as problems than as people. Gordon asserts that people generally miss the “possibility of blacks who are Jews or Jews who are blacks” (108). After reviewing the history that led to each country/nation/empire’s conception of “the Jews” rather than just “Jews,” Gordon argues that the “Afro-Jewish question” is, when viewing Judaism through a religions perspective rather than a racial one, oxymoronic (110). Gordon points out the racist double standard between Russian Jews (or even Christians) facing little to no obstacles when claiming their right to return to Israel and Afro-Jews facing intense scrutiny even when they can trace their Jewishness back many generations. All of this, Gordon argues, is complicated by the various conceptions of who is Jewish being governed by who appears to be Jewish. Ultimately, Gordon urges Jewish scholars to advance research “that facilitate the appearance of communities,” including “learning about Jewish communities beyond their own” (115). Jews seem to be distributed across the globe, so one should not hesitate to learn about those who lay beyond one’s initial communal boundaries.

            Gordon’s article is well-written and includes ample data from the past as well as the present. His argument benefits greatly from his attention to history, even if those sections can seem dense and divergent from the article’s main focus. Although he confines his focus to North American and Caribbean Jews, a deficit he acknowledges, he dives deep into those areas and presents a comprehensive analysis of the issues that come with racializing those Jewish communities and failing to gather data from a sufficient number of global populations. He does state his article’s purpose at the outset, but he doesn’t present a concrete thesis until nearing the end of the article, making a second read imperative for anyone who would like to read it all with the thesis in mind. More attention to the thesis throughout would help ground some of the paragraphs that are somewhat free-floating, but I don’t view that as a necessary alteration. At its strongest, Gordon’s paper is profoundly educational and contains more than a few insightful observations and compelling arguments relating to the discussed content. One would be hard-pressed to read this article and not find oneself better-educated after, unless you were Gordon himself.

Jack Mayesh wrote these lyrics to the popular tune “Missirlu,” originally a Middle Eastern melody. Although it tells the story of a man, the speaker, and his love who abandoned him, the feelings of isolation and sadness he expresses can be related to many different Jewish histories, from the Passover story to that of immigration in the first half of the 20th century. The speaker starts out as distinct from the addressee, but eventually the two almost merge, as he predicts that she will one day cry as he is right now.

Rafael Monkarsh

Laura Leibman

ENG 303

23 March 2021

Teter, Magda. “The Pandemic, Antisemitism, and the Lachrymose Conception of Jewish History.” Jewish Social Studies, vol. 26, no. 1, 2020, pp. 20–32. Project Muse, doi:10.2979/jewisocistud.26.1.02.

            Against a backdrop of revived anti-Semitic tropes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Teter ultimately argues for the reconsideration of the thoughts of two prominent Jewish historians, Salo Baron and Cecil Roth. Both Baron and Roth “strove to show Jews not as insular victims of violence but as historical actors integrated into the societies in which they lived,” attempting to divest from the view that Jewish history is primarily about surviving persecution (24). Teter does not aim to completely ignore the oppression and suffering that Jews have faced throughout history; rather, she encourages contemporary scholars and journalists to view anti-Semitism as part of a larger machine which also includes many positive aspects of Jewish life, traditions, and societal contributions (26). In Teter’s eyes, Baron and Roth most recently began this modern movement towards a holistic view of Jewish history, and it would be in today’s Jews’ best interest to continue it.

            Although Teter’s article begins with a strong hook that easily engages a current, pandemic-era reader, she abandons the twenty-first century almost entirely to focus on the thoughts of Baron and Roth. While she repeatedly mentions current versus past thoughts on the history of anti-Semitism, Teter’s refusal to directly bring the discussion back to COVID- and Trump-inspired prejudice results in the reader feeling like they were made an empty promise. By the end of the article, the reader surely has a sense of what her argument is, yet it is not until the last paragraph that it is put into clear focus. Following the introductory few pages, she does posit that current “intellectuals who write about Jews in times of COVID-19 and Trump are distorting Jewish history” (22), yet it is not until the end that she argues that writers “today would do well to revisit and appreciate Baron and Roth’s efforts” to focus on a “much more multifaceted Jewish historical experience” as opposed to one occupied with suffering (29). Establishing the link between the twentieth-century historians and the study of Jewish history today earlier on would have helped the reader maintain a clearer focus on Teter’s goal. Her placement of photos of Roth and Baron within the article might foster an appreciation of the two historians within the reader due to visual acquaintance, but the photos feel unrelated to the discussion beyond the obvious connection (24, 25). Ultimately, Teter presents a convincing case for the revisitation of Baron and Roth’s positions on what should be the perception of modern Jewishness and anti-Semitism. Her strong hook, although left somewhat unfulfilled, is not betrayed by the remainder of her writing, which remains engaging and thoughtful. Teter’s has a prominent sense of historical placement, as she provides context when necessary and understands where Baron, Roth, and herself lie with respect to others’ thoughts. Her penultimate and final paragraphs are perhaps the strongest, as they concisely tie together all of the threads developed throughout the article.

Background

Dankmar Adler (1844-1900) was born in Stadtlengsfeld, Germany, to Rabbi Liebman and Sara Adler. His mother passed away in labor, leaving him and his father to immigrate to the United States. Adler had an early interest in drawing and architecture, and soon after serving in the Civil War, formally began his career. His partnership with Louis Sullivan would create one of the most influential in American architectural history, and he became a driving force in advancing the employment of revolutionary building techniques.

Check out the image hotspots to learn more about his gravestone!

Fun fact: Frank Lloyd Wright got essential early work experience at Adler & Sullivan and remained profoundly influenced by his time there, particularly with Sullivan’s work.

How does Dankmar Adler’s gravestone commemorate his life and accomplishments?
Conversely, how does the gravestone show that Adler was a person beyond his career?
What feelings does the unique design evoke?

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Information and images (except Hebrew epigraph): source
Hebrew epigraph: source
Fun fact: source

To Mrs. Rebecca Gomez,

A few months now I’ve been visiting your Chocolate Canufactory, and I am routinely surprised by the variation in products offered. You have familiarised me with products I never have dreamed of, foremost having been Chocolate, and each time I come I shiver to think what next might meet me! I consider you my Guide to the world’s bounty, although I never set foot out of New York.

It is a longstanding tradition in my family to be wary of those potential dangers so abound in Modern Society, and I confess this learning has oft kept me from running afoul in my life, and you sparked caution in me whence I learned firstly of your personal history and your family’s dubious affiliations, but then there must be exceptions to the rule, and while I cannot speak for your family, I can say that you are indeed one of the good ones, hiding your unnatural and compromising faith from the face of your business.

I count you among those who have given me a taste of the natural world, endowed to all of man by the Creator, and this is undeniably His work. I pray you have a swell week, and I will see you the next, surely the next after that if not.

Sincerely,

Christopher Williams