Author: Lucas Sirovich

Throughout Allison Schachter and Shai Ginsburg’s panel on “Women’s Internationalism and Jewish World Literature” and “World Literature, Jewish Literature, and the Question of the Law”, each speaker explored their own interpretation of how Jewish literature intersects with other literary types across the globe. The panelists extensively discussed Jewish literature’s niche within the larger scope of world literature, with Schachter emphasizing the instrumental role that female Jewish writers had in challenging gender norms internationally. Shachter examined this phenomenon through the work of Lorraine Hansberry, who was the first black playwright to be featured on Broadway, and who also married a Russian-Jewish immigrant. Schachter emphasized that Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun prompted her to be labeled as a “freedom fighter” with a “Marxist, existentialist ideology”. Schachter also highlighted Hansberry’s grappling with the intersection between European Nazism and American racism with the quote, “Hitler isn’t dead when a black man gets lynched in America”. This quote illustrates an example of Jewish literature as world literature in a grotesque fashion. Schachter also accentuated poet Deborah Vogel’s prose as being “radically equalizing” and said her writing “cuts through the chauvinism of personal subjectivity”. In one such example that Schachter quoted, Vogel writes “one does not need Africa in order to exoticize people”, pointing to European women as a counterexample. Overall, Schachter spotlighted examples of Jewish literature as literary activism, helping to shift towards a more inclusive space for women in the early 20th world literature.

 Ginsburg’s discussion on the panel followed a different route although it contained common threads from Schachter’s focus on women’s internationalism through Jewish literature. Ginsburg focused primarily on Jewish literature and its relation to the rule of law and how Jewish writers have influenced Jewish and global politics in the past century. Ginsburg read passages from S. Y. Agnon’s In the Heart of Seas which resembled a biblical text. Ginsburg highlighted these excerpts, which detail a group of Hasidic Jews making a pilgrimage to the land of Israel, as examples of Jewish literature serving as world literature due to their global and political nature. Possibly my favorite moment of the panel was when Ginsburg and Schachter began to debate whether or not Agnon was respected and followed by the most observant Jews. Schachter argued that Agnon used a “double voice” in his writing and that he was often being somewhat sarcastic while Ginsburg maintained that he was revered by ultra-religious communities. While I have no insight to offer on this matter, this discourse between the two literary experts demonstrated that there is extensive disagreement about literature and that it is never guaranteed to be resolved. Ginsburg’s portion of the panel showed that Jewish literature constitutes as world literature because it prompts political discussion in the region of Palestine, just as Schachter emphasized Jewish literature’s disruptive role in promoting women’s rights. 

I learned that Jewish literature is as multifaceted as the people who produce it. Both Schachter and Ginsburg provided substantial evidence for their claims of Jewish literature as world literature, each in varying ways. The panel was a direct extension of our class discussions about mapping world literature, most evidently in that it discussed Jewish literature in the context of global literature, just as we often do. In addition to this conversation about Jewish literature’s role in global literature, Schachter in particular highlighted Jewish literature as radically modernist through Vogel and Hansberry’s disruptive stance on women’s rights by simply being loud and outspoken. Finally, both Schachter and Ginsburg’s sections of the panel exemplified many of our conversations about mapping Jewishness and Jewish literature over time, with Schachter’s including a modernist aspect as well. Ginsburg’s discussion of Jewish literature as World literature focused on the movement of Jews from Eastern Europe to Palestine, while Schachter monitored the movement of Jewish Modernist literature from Deborah Vogel in Poland to Lorraine Hansberry in the United States. The latter brings together all three aspects of our course’s title. I am left with a few questions about the panel. Firstly, were Jewish female writers the first group to rebel against the confines of heavily male literary circles? And if not, who may have inspired them? Secondly, are there other examples of persecution of Jews in Europe being likened to American racism against blacks besides A Raisin in the Sun? And as a follow-up, how has the literary representation of these systems of oppression affected relations between Jews and Blacks in the United States?

Throughout Allison Schachter and Shai Ginsburg’s panel on “Women’s Internationalism and Jewish World Literature” and “World Literature, Jewish Literature, and the Question of the Law”, each speaker explored their own interpretation of how Jewish literature intersects with other literary types across the globe. The panelists extensively discussed Jewish literature’s niche within the larger scope of world literature, with Schachter emphasizing the instrumental role that female Jewish writers had in challenging gender norms internationally. Shachter examined this phenomenon through the work of Lorraine Hansberry, who was the first black playwright to be featured on Broadway, and who also married a Russian-Jewish immigrant. Schachter emphasized that Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun prompted her to be labeled as a “freedom fighter” with a “Marxist, existentialist ideology”. Schachter also highlighted Hansberry’s grappling with the intersection between European Nazism and American racism with the quote, “Hitler isn’t dead when a black man gets lynched in America”. This quote illustrates an example of Jewish literature as world literature in a grotesque fashion. Schachter also accentuated poet Deborah Vogel’s prose as being “radically equalizing” and said her writing “cuts through the chauvinism of personal subjectivity”. In one such example that Schachter quoted, Vogel writes “one does not need Africa in order to exoticize people”, pointing to European women as a counterexample. Overall, Schachter spotlighted examples of Jewish literature as literary activism, helping to shift towards a more inclusive space for women in the early 20th world literature.

 Ginsburg’s discussion on the panel followed a different route although it contained common threads from Schachter’s focus on women’s internationalism through Jewish literature. Ginsburg focused primarily on Jewish literature and its relation to the rule of law and how Jewish writers have influenced Jewish and global politics in the past century. Ginsburg read passages from S. Y. Agnon’s In the Heart of Seas which resembled a biblical text. Ginsburg highlighted these excerpts, which detail a group of Hasidic Jews making a pilgrimage to the land of Israel, as examples of Jewish literature serving as world literature due to their global and political nature. Possibly my favorite moment of the panel was when Ginsburg and Schachter began to debate whether or not Agnon was respected and followed by the most observant Jews. Schachter argued that Agnon used a “double voice” in his writing and that he was often being somewhat sarcastic while Ginsburg maintained that he was revered by ultra-religious communities. While I have no insight to offer on this matter, this discourse between the two literary experts demonstrated that there is extensive disagreement about literature and that it is never guaranteed to be resolved. Ginsburg’s portion of the panel showed that Jewish literature constitutes world literature because it prompts political discussion in the region of Palestine, just as Schachter emphasized Jewish literature’s disruptive role in promoting women’s rights. 

I learned that Jewish literature is as multifaceted as the people who produce it. Both Schachter and Ginsburg provided substantial evidence for their claims of Jewish literature as world literature, each in varying ways. The panel was a direct extension of our class discussions about mapping world literature, most evidently in that, it discussed Jewish literature in the context of global literature, just as we often do. In addition to this conversation about Jewish literature’s role in global literature, Schachter in particular highlighted Jewish literature as radically modernist through Vogel and Hansberry’s disruptive stance on women’s rights by simply being loud and outspoken. Finally, both Schachter and Ginsburg’s sections of the panel exemplified many of our conversations about mapping Jewishness and Jewish literature over time, with Schachter’s including a modernist aspect as well. Ginsburg’s discussion of Jewish literature as World literature focused on the movement of Jews from Eastern Europe to Palestine, while Schachter monitored the movement of Jewish Modernist literature from Deborah Vogel in Poland to Lorraine Hansberry in the United States. The latter brings together all three aspects of our course’s title. I am left with a few questions about the panel. Firstly, were Jewish female writers the first group to rebel against the confines of heavily male literary circles? And if not, who may have inspired them? Secondly, are there other examples of persecution of Jews in Europe being likened to American racism against blacks besides A Raisin in the Sun? And as a follow-up, how has the literary representation of these systems of oppression affected relations between Jews and Blacks in the United States?