Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies

American Jewish Life

Going Greek offers a look at the relationship between American Jewish students and fraternity life during its heyday in the first half of the twentieth century. Widely viewed as a key to success, membership in these organizations was desirable but not easily accessible, especially to non-Protestants and nonwhites. Marianne R. Sanua examines the founding of Jewish fraternities in light of such topics as antisemitism, the challenges faced by Jewish students on campuses across the U.S., responses to World War II, and questions pertaining to assimilation and/or identity reinforcement.

Hasia Diner traces Jewish participation in American history and portrays it as a constant process of negotiation undertaken by ordinary Jews who wanted at the same time to be Jews and full Americans. Diner draws on both American and Jewish sources to explain the chronology of American Jewish history.

Out of a small group of Jewish settlers that came to Cleveland in 1839 sprang the large, vibrant, and diverse Jewish community, numbering in excess of 81,500, that has contributed significantly to Cleveland's life. This [End Page 218] revised and updated pictorial review of the nearly two-century history of the Jewish community tells the story of Jewish settlement and achievement in Northeast Ohio and continues in the spirit of the original, illuminating the struggles and the successes of one particular immigrant group and providing a valuable perspective on Cleveland's Jewish community, past and present.

Ancient World and Archaeology

Arguing from scientific data—the discovery of the "Cohen (Priestly) Gene" and Abraham's chromosome signature—Kleiman discusses the implication that modern-day Jews are in fact related to the ancient Hebrews.

The six studies in this volume, composed by an international group of scholars of Diaspora studies, explore key features of the cultural dynamics of the Jewish Diaspora. Studies on Jews in Rome (Margaret Williams) and Alexandria (Sarah Pearce) examine the dialectic of local and translocal identities, including a new theory on Jewish sabbath-fasting in Rome. Through careful analysis of inscriptions in the Balkans (Alexander Panayotov) and Asia Minor (Paul Trebilco), the often ambiguous expression of Diaspora Jews is examined. Two essays on the historian Josephus (by James McLaren and John Barclay) examine his crafted reconstructions of Judaean history and indicate his subaltern tactics, deploying the tools of colonial culture for the advantage of his own. An Introduction relates these studies to the broader field of Diaspora studies in current cultural anthropology.

This volume holds 21 chapters arranged in chronological order from the Hellenistic to the Byzantine periods, each of them based on the results of archaeological excavations or field surveys conducted by the author during the past 25 years. It is a summary of field work as well as summaries [End Page 219] of studies carried out in Galilee during the last 100 years. Further, it is a study of the Galileans and their material culture...