Imperfect but better than nothing, It’s more of a basic outline, but I don’t have my format or sources all figured out. I may edit this later. If anyone wants to take a look and give ole’ Henry some suggestions, be my guest, just comment.

Here is a PDF of my exhibit brief! I’m incredibly excited to begin constructing an exhibit dedicated entirely to the Jewish community in Paramaribo and look forward to any feedback one can supply. I hope you’re all having a wonderful spring break and will see you in class soon!

this is a short reflection on a class I took in twelth grade, I am tempted to edit this to include some of my long rants(for instance, the fact that there was an entire chapter called “Beating off,” the time he had sex with a piece of liver or the degrading sexaul terms used on his girlfriend, like calling her “the monkey”)

Henry Belman

World Jewish Literature

December, 2017

Kehillah Jewish High School

Independent Reading Project 

Philip Roth’s controversial novel Portnoy’s Complaint is a well written but often perverse read. It explores Alex Portnoy’s crisis of identity and struggle with the two contradicting sides of himself: the well educated, champion of the people, pride of his parents side, and the sex obsessed, perverted, narcissist, and generally freudian side. The book appears to be a love letter to psychologist Sigmund Freud, thanks to its embracing so many of his ideas, such as all problems in life stemming from sexaul problems in the childhood. The whole book is a monolog to a psychiatrist, but at points, the plot almost seems over the top Freudian, what with the oedipus complex, the penis envy with his own dad, the constant mastribation, and the amount it has affected him during his life.  

There were two key themes within Portnoy’s Complaint that deeply affected me. His struggle with his identity both as a jew and as a person, and portnoy’s obsession with sex and constant mastribation. His crisis of identity is deeply interesting and is consistent throughout the book, but the graphic descriptions of his sexaul extipade, specificaly mastribation are sickining and made me uncomfortable reading it at school. The writing was good and I know it is a bit immature of me to be so squeemish about the disgusting sexaul stuff but I cannot help it. The writing of the book is just as juxtiposialy as its main character, with an even balance between the witty, the yiddish and well educated, and the smutty, self hating and antisemitism. Just like Portnoy himself, the book is great academically, but really is not for school. 

In terms of stylle, the writing feels like the exact middle ground between Franz Kafka and Isaac Babel. It feels very psychological, being in my opinion a tribute to Sigmund Freud, but being incredibly graphic in descriptions. The actual themes of Portnoy’s Complaint are a mixture between the fairly common trope of a self-hating Jew with an identity crisis, the identity crisis part coming up in a lot of the poetry and in the Lispector. The graphic sexaul parts and themes however are not like anything I have ever read in this class. In books I have read in general previous to this, all sex was either implied or given a sentence or paragraph confirming that intercourse had happened. Overall, while Philip Roth is indeed a great author, and Portnoy’s Complaint is an essential piece of jewish literature and far more than some simple pornigraphic psudo-story, the amount of smut in the book proved a little over my head. I would recommend this book to a friend as it is good, but I would warn anyone who reads it of the amount of disgusting and graphic scenes in it first. I do not regret reading this book. I just think I may have not been ready for it.

This is a section from a 1944 letter written by rabbi Bernard J. Bamberger to his congregant, Allen Bernstein. The letter reveals that Bernstein was discharged from the United States Army for his homosexual identity. A closer reading of the letter reveals Bamberger’s tone expresses genuine concern for Bernstein’s well-being while also showing a personal battle with his developing ideas concerning homosexual relationships through his friendship with Bernstein.

In the early 20th century, Jewish writers and artists were often discriminated against, making it hard to find work. Many of them turned to a “low-brow” yet popular form of art: comic books. Jewish creators were able to influence American politics through these cheap, fun stories.

This is an excerpt from a letter written in1944 from Rabbi Bamberger, a practitioner of Reform Judaism, to Allen Bernstein, a congregant. In the letter, Bamberger responds to Bernstein’s recent ‘less-than-honorable’ discharge from the military as a result of homosexual behavior. Bamberger and Bernstein’s open discussion of homosexual feelings is rare for the time period. Note how Bamberger’s language reflects both harmful ideas about homosexuality but also a sense of tough love for Bernstein and concern for his future.

Sources: Noam Sienna (University of Minnesota), “A Rabbi counsels  a Gay Jewish G.I” (New York, 1944)

Snitow, Edited Ann, Christine Stansell, and Sharon Thompson. “The Politics of Sexuality,” n.d., 7.

Cuordileone, K A, “Politics in an Age of Anxiety”: Cold War Political Culture and the Crisis in American Masculinity 1949-60″, The Journal of American History; Sep 1, 2000; 87, 2; Periodicals Index Online pg. 515

The Devon House in Kingston is the home of Jamaica’s first black millionaire, George Stiebel. Stiebel was of black and Jewish descent, and made his millions through gold mining in South America. He constructed his home in the late 19th century, and to this day, the interior of the mansion is preserved in the fashion of the time. Since the Devon House was made a national monument in 1990, it has become a cultural heritage site that offers tours, is open to the public, and serves as a nexus of the Kingston community. Among the shops and restaurants that now surround the house is its famous ice cream shop, Devon I Scream, selling its eponymous treat, the Devon Ice Cream.

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….

I couldn’t find any Mexico City Jewish Cookbooks. While I do have no doubt that some jews used the general Mexican cookbooks, and there are in turn some Jewish Cookbooks that Mexican Jews possibly used. I did find some modern Jewish Mexican recipies(or is it Mexican Jewish Recipies), but I believe that it was supose to be from the 40s or such and not from resturaunts. Then I saw what the next class was going to be on. Comic books are a passion of mine, and I have a lot of Background info on them. Captain America is my favorite Marvel Hero and I couldn’t help but make an H5P on it. I hope that is okay.