Weekend in Quest 2018 Study Sessions
Jewish Masculinity and Femininity
in the Premodern World
Scholars in Residence:
Professor Rena Lauer
and Professor Yiftakh (Kevin) Osterloh
Oregon State University
Yiftakh’s Seminars:
1. Masculine Mythologies and Diplomatic Realities: Jewish Foreign Policy in the Days of the Hasmoneans
The Maccabean Revolt is traditionally cast as a story of Jews vs. Greeks, Judaism vs Hellenism. But Judean diplomacy in the aftermath of this revolt reveals a far more complex story about Judean pragmatism, and the significance of masculinity to the conversations Jews entertained with Rome and Greek states. For the Judean allies, Rome and Sparta, manliness was an important social factor. In a series of moments that teach us much about the malleability and vitality of ancient Judaism, newly independent Judeans embraced open alliance with militarily dominant Rome, and new modes of diplomatic exchange whereby masculinity and mythology coalesce in surprising claims of kinship between Judea and Sparta and their respective forefathers, Abraham and Hercules.
2. Jewish Manliness and the “Effeminate” Greek: How Ancient Jews Imagined Self and Other
The pragmatic approach of Judean diplomacy under the Hasmoneans directly impacted Jewish communal self-conceptions versus other Greek and non-Greek communities. It is to Rome, and specific Greek states like Sparta, that Judeans looked at this time for both political support and cultural inspiration vis-à-vis the overall challenge of Greek culture (embodied, for example, by the gymnasium). This seminar will explore portrayals of Jewish manliness in the Books of Maccabees, inspired by the redefinition of Roman masculinity that came at the expense of the Greek effeminate other. Through such a reinvention of Jewish collective identity, Judeans sought to carve out space for themselves within the broader Greco-Roman World on their own authentically Jewish terms.
Rena’s Seminars:
3. How Medieval Jewish Women Fought (and Used) the Patriarchy
Rabbis and secular states in the Middle Ages agreed that women were physically and mentally weaker than men. Although this horrifies our modern sensibilities, it was taken for granted by premodern men and women alike. But this doesn’t mean women actually lived their lives simply accepting that men should make their decisions. This seminar explores medieval Jewish views of women, and the ways that Jewish women in the medieval Mediterranean (with the island of Venetian Crete as our main test case) were able to shape their own fates by playing with the ideas of female frailty and inability to protect themselves and their honor.
4. Converts, Lovers, Litigants: Finding the Women in Medieval Jewish-Christian Relations
Many of the most famous stories of medieval Jewish-Christian relations involve elite men debating each other and their holy books’ values in formal venues—rabbis vs. friars, in particular. But most Jewish-Christian interactions happened in less formal, less contentious everyday ways. And despite popular image of medieval Jews being stuck inside ghetto-like neighborhoods, and Jewish women being stuck inside the private sphere of the home, many women were involved in these cross-confessional interactions all across the towns in which they lived. This talk looks at a number of different kinds of situations in which real Jewish women (and real Jewish men, and real Christian men and women) got to know, and got to be known by, their neighbors of a different religion, and considers some of the implications of these relationships.
1. Masculine Mythologies and Diplomatic Realities: Jewish Foreign Policy in the Days of the Hasmoneans
The Maccabean Revolt is traditionally cast as a story of Jews vs. Greeks, Judaism vs Hellenism. But Judean diplomacy in the aftermath of this revolt reveals a far more complex story about Judean pragmatism, and the significance of masculinity to the conversations Jews entertained with Rome and Greek states. For the Judean allies, Rome and Sparta, manliness was an important social factor. In a series of moments that teach us much about the malleability and vitality of ancient Judaism, newly independent Judeans embraced open alliance with militarily dominant Rome, and new modes of diplomatic exchange whereby masculinity and mythology coalesce in surprising claims of kinship between Judea and Sparta and their respective forefathers, Abraham and Hercules.
2. Jewish Manliness and the “Effeminate” Greek: How Ancient Jews Imagined Self and Other
The pragmatic approach of Judean diplomacy under the Hasmoneans directly impacted Jewish communal self-conceptions versus other Greek and non-Greek communities. It is to Rome, and specific Greek states like Sparta, that Judeans looked at this time for both political support and cultural inspiration vis-à-vis the overall challenge of Greek culture (embodied, for example, by the gymnasium). This seminar will explore portrayals of Jewish manliness in the Books of Maccabees, inspired by the redefinition of Roman masculinity that came at the expense of the Greek effeminate other. Through such a reinvention of Jewish collective identity, Judeans sought to carve out space for themselves within the broader Greco-Roman World on their own authentically Jewish terms.
Rena’s Seminars:
3. How Medieval Jewish Women Fought (and Used) the Patriarchy
Rabbis and secular states in the Middle Ages agreed that women were physically and mentally weaker than men. Although this horrifies our modern sensibilities, it was taken for granted by premodern men and women alike. But this doesn’t mean women actually lived their lives simply accepting that men should make their decisions. This seminar explores medieval Jewish views of women, and the ways that Jewish women in the medieval Mediterranean (with the island of Venetian Crete as our main test case) were able to shape their own fates by playing with the ideas of female frailty and inability to protect themselves and their honor.
4. Converts, Lovers, Litigants: Finding the Women in Medieval Jewish-Christian Relations
Many of the most famous stories of medieval Jewish-Christian relations involve elite men debating each other and their holy books’ values in formal venues—rabbis vs. friars, in particular. But most Jewish-Christian interactions happened in less formal, less contentious everyday ways. And despite popular image of medieval Jews being stuck inside ghetto-like neighborhoods, and Jewish women being stuck inside the private sphere of the home, many women were involved in these cross-confessional interactions all across the towns in which they lived. This talk looks at a number of different kinds of situations in which real Jewish women (and real Jewish men, and real Christian men and women) got to know, and got to be known by, their neighbors of a different religion, and considers some of the implications of these relationships.
