Passover Dessert Recipe from Mexican/Jewish Chef Pati Jinich
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Tag Archives: Assingment
Precis for Gordon’s article on Jewish diversity
Henry Belman
Common ground: Jews are often racialized, more so than most other religions and eventually some achieved “whiteness” and are widely considered white.
However Jews are in fact far more diverse than some would have you think, since they are spread across the world and are not just white or european.
So we need to readjust our way of studying jewish history, more through the ideas of colonization rather than act as if jews are homogenous.
It is important to look at Jewishness not as a race but as a diverse religious ethnicity and to study the complexities and different people who make it up.
This paper has strong evidence and research for the things it was trying to prove. There was a good mix of general statements, and specific examples throughout the paper and it even brings in some personal experiences which ground the paper. The authorial voice is pretty strong in some places, which is good. The claims are strong enough to be seen as basically factual and almost indisputable and the topic itself was interesting.
However, I felt that the thesis was somewhat buried, and it wasn’t that argumentative. For better or for worse, most arguments were laid out as facts which made the paper feel pretty one sided throughout. Sometimes, the writing got a bit too academic, going in circles at points rather than getting to the point. This is frankly a large part of the reason the thesis felt buried.
Overall, the strength out weigh the weaknesses though the weaknesses made it harder to write the precis.
Henry’s Precis on The Pandemic, AntiSemitism, and the Lachrymose Conception of Jewish History (Magda Teter, Jewish social studies)
The Jewish people have suffered throughout history, in pandemics and elsewhere. But there is more to Jewish history than just suffering at the hands of antisemites. Learning only about the victim hood of the jews is unhealthy for many reasons, such as occasionally causing more antisemitism as well as just being ignorant. So what we should do is try to show both sides of this history While the suffering of Jews in history is important, it is imperative that we as Jewish historians teach/learn about the prosperity as well as the suffering that was indeed all too common.
The Arguments of this paper are incredibly strong. It is undeniable that Jewish history is all too often overly fixated on the victimhood of the jewish people, often forgetting to mention the great accomplishments of jews and how they added to various cultures. This is weaved well into this essay. It is able to do this without trivializing the suffering. The evidence is pulled from many good sources and the article brings in a good amount of Jewish history to back up many of its points. It also manages to be very concise and not too hard to read, both important tools in getting the message across. All of that said, this article has its weaknesses. It tries to connect the Jewish historical stuff to the current pandemic, and it only works part of the time and doesn’t connect all that fluidly to the main arguments of the piece. That is the only real major weakness of the article. Unfortunately, this weakness is highlighted by the fact that the title of the thing mentions the pandemic. To a degree, it almost seems clickbaity, as people are potentially more likely to read an article that touches on major current events and connects the past to the present rather than an article on the validity of how to look at the past.
Exhibit Types Of Immigration
“Every season has its inconvenience and every month its devil, many say. This could be true, but what you still have not noticed is that: each year our youth and even our aged are leaving for a new country of immigration.
At one point, it was Paris; then it was London; then Buenos Aires; then New York; then Egypt, and, a little later, immigration to Mexico suddenly took off.
The idea of immigration is a sickness that takes hold of the minds of many, and no matter how dark you paint for them the situation of the place to which they want to immigrate, they do not hear you, nor do they believe you, only later, when they go and they become sick and without gentizmo [people, community], or they remain there in captivity because they do not have the means to repatriate.
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“As for the others, you should know,” he said, “That all natures are not the same. There are people who are born to beg and to be ashamed of nothing. As for Shalom Segura, with whom I left and who remains there, it does not matter to him to attach a smile in his eyes and to ask for alms. He is all day asking one person or another for a cigarette, five cents for food, and many other pittances.
Such types could perhaps be able to lengthen their trip, but they will never be able to return with money, because first: the country is poor and it does not allow the foreigner to earn; second: once accustomed to begging, they can procure for themselves with much struggle the needs of the day and, accustomed to living from it, without caring for their families, prolong their stay there.
This is the wealth that my colleagues will be able to bring from there, yes, after having escaped begging in Mexico City and descending to Veracruz (port of Mexico, 10,000 inhabitants), they do not extend their time there and earn the only wealth of the place, which has the name “yellow fever” (a malady that comes from the great heat and dirtiness of the country).”
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I write these notes today at the instigation of Sr. Izak Algranati, newly arrived from Mexico, and it is he himself who pleaded that I write all of this, in the hopes of making those who will want to immigrate to this country renounce this idea.”
Moses Ben Ghiat”
-This is a primary source from the notes from the interview of Sr Izak Algranati by Moses Ben Ghiat in the Ottoman port city of Izmir. It details some of the pitfalls of immigration and how immigrating to lands of “oportunity” can sometimes be more trouble than they are worth and infact be done in folly.
Izak Algranati was an immigrant to Mexico, but, judging from theses note, found Mexico to be a major disappointment to say the least.
This document was clearly meant to discourage people from immigrating, using langague that clearly scoffs at the idea of immigrating and it is particularly hostile torwards Mexico.
Criminal Case of Faith against María de Zárate, Wife of Francisco Botello, for Judaizing (New Spain, 1656)
translated from a Primary source
At the end of the aforesaid accusation [of crypto-Judaism], she [María de Zárate] said that everything in it is false, because she is, has been, and will be a faithful Catholic Christian with the favor of God, as a daughter, granddaughter, and descendent of such Christians. She believes firmly in the law of our Lord Jesus Christ, which she confesses is the only true law for the salvation of souls and in which she insists she lives and dies. She does not know nor had notice of anyone who keeps the Law of Moses, because she would have accused them in this Holy Office. Nor has she kept nor knows what it is. If she, insignificant and wretched, had fallen into it, she would have confessed when she entered as prisoner and would have sought mercy, as she requests [now], imprisoned without guilt, having not passed through her mind the crimes of which she is accused. All these accusations are false, which she presumes some mortal enemy has raised against her.
It seems to her that this person [who falsely accused her] can be none other than a youth named Jusepe, whose surname they say is Sánchez, who was born in the house of the mother of this confessant, and is a mestizo, son of an unwed mestiza woman whom the mother of this confessant raised. This mestiza, having given birth to her son, left him at the age of eight or ten months without reappearing anymore. Thus, this confessant took as her charge his upbringing, and she insinuated that he was an orphan, to exempt him from the shame of being the son of a mestiza. She took care of him, teaching him Christian doctrine and, paying a teacher, to read, write, and count, and clothing and feeding him as if he were her own child. Along with him, she had four nieces–Catalina, María, Ana, and Clara–daughters of her sister Ana de la Paz, and of Juan de la Serna, now deceased, a public scribe, as well as her sister, all living in her house in this city. About three years ago, Jusepe, who must have been 16, fell in love with her niece [Ana de la Serna], due to their being raised together. Treacherous, he impregnated her without this confessant, nor her sister, the mother of this girl, finding out until the day she gave birth, about which they became so upset that her sister thought she might lose her mind, especially upon discovering the author of this evil deed.
Criminal Case of Faith against María de Zárate, Wife of Francisco Botello, for Judaizing (New Spain, 1656)
source Matthew D. Warshawsky, University of Portland
This is text translated from a primary document from the inquisition in Mexico City in 1656. It was from a report of a crime of Judaizing, specifically Crypto-Judaism, the crime of proffessing to be another faith while practicing Judaism.
The person being acused of the crime of crypto-Judiasm, the secret practice of judiasm while proffecing to be another faith, was María de Zárate. While her family was proven to be Catholic, she had aledgely been pacticing judaism with her husband who did have Jewish root. She proved her self to be a loyal Catholic by pointing her finger at her accuser and questioning his own morality.
She used his racial status to defame him and make his claims questionable. She also emphasized her own morality by claiming to have taught him the christian doctrine and questioned his through his possible sexual exploits. It is hard to prove beyond a doubt that some one didn’t do something, but it is very easy to prove that someone did. It was in this way that she was able to escape punishment from the inquistion.