Participants
Joel Berkowitz (Oxford University)
Hannah Berliner Fischthal (Hofstra University)
Harley Erdman (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
Itzik Nakhman Gottesman (University of Texas, Austin)
Matthew Hoffman (University of California, Berkeley)
Paula Hyman (Yale University)
Matthew Frye Jacobson(Yale University)
Ellie Kellman (Brandeis University)
Mikhail Krutikuv (Oxford University)
David Mazower (London, England)
Dan Miron (Columbia University)
Anita Norich (University of Michigan)
Avraham Novershtern (Hebrew University)
Joseph Roach (Yale University)
David Roskies (Jewish Theological Seminar of America)
Naomi Seidman (Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley)
Alisa Solomon (City University of New York)
Edward Stankiewicz (Yale University)
Rebecca Taichman (Yale University)
Nina Warnke (Indiana University)
Ruth Wisse (Harvard University)
Seth Wolitz (University of Texas, Austin)

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Location of Conference Sessions

Whitney Humanities Center (Yale University), 108 Wall Street, New Haven
Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, 80 Wall Street, New Haven

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Conference Program

Saturday evening, May 13th

• 6:00 p.m. Dinner at the Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale (invited guests only)
• 8:00 p.m. Performance of the play The People vs. The God of Vengeance at the Yale Repertory Theater
• 9:30 p.m. Discussion with Rebecca Taichman, writer and director of the play, and Alisa Solomon (CUNY) (will take place at the theater immediately following the performance)
• 10:30 p.m. Post-play reception at the Slifka Center

Sunday, May 14th

9:30-12:00
Asch and the Yiddish theater
• Chair, Joseph Roach (Yale University)
• Joel Berkowitz (Oxford University), The Brothel as Symbolic Space in Yiddish Drama
• Harley Erdman (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Upstaging Yankel, Upsetting the God of Vengeance
• Naomi Seidman (Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley), The Ambiguous Muse: Lesbianism and Torah in Asch's "God of Vengeance"
• Nina Warnke (Indiana University), "God of Vengeance": The 1907 Controversy

12:00-1:00, Lunch (on your own)



1:00-2:00

• David Mazower (Sholem Asch's great-grandson), Sholem Asch - Images of a Life (slide lecture)

2:00-3:30
Asch's Art of the Novel

• Chair, Ruth Wisse (Harvard University)
• Avraham Novershtern (Hebrew University), A Palace, A Fortress, a Battlefield: Images of the Family in Asch's Novels
• Seth Wolitz (University of Texas, Austin), The City as Cadre and Personage in Asch's "Dray Shtet"

3:30-4:00, Coffee break
 
4:00-6:30
The Christological novels

• Chair, Paula Hyman (Yale University)
• Hannah Berliner Fischthal (Hofstra University), The Reception of "The Nazarene" in the Yiddish Press
• Matthew Hoffman (University of California, Berkeley), Sholem Asch's True Christians
• Anita Norich (University of Michigan), Sholem Asch and the Christian Question

6:30-9:00

Reception and dinner at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (for invited guests only)

9:00

• Dan Miron (Columbia University and Hebrew University), Keynote speaker, Mimesis, Faith and the New Deal in Sholem Asch's "East River"--A Major Jewish-American Novel (Slifka Center)

 

9:00-10:30
Asch, the Political Activist
• Chair, Edward Stankiewicz (Yale University)
• Ellen Kellman (Brandeis University), Power, Powerlessness and the Jewish Nation in "Af Kidesh haShem"
• Mikhail Krutikov (Oxford University), The "Russian Dream" and the Development of Asch's Political Imagination

10:30-12:00
Asch in America

• Chair, Matthew Frye Jacobson (Yale University)
• David Roskies (Jewish Theological Seminar of America), Found in America: Sholem Asch and I. B. Singer
• Itzik Nakhman Gottesman (University of Texas, Austin), Asch's American Dramas

12:00-1:00, Conclusion of conference

Exhibits

• Exhibit of Sholem Asch manuscripts at Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Conference Sponsors
Yale University Library
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Program in Judaic Studies at Yale University
Whitney Humanities Center
Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale (the Yale Hillel)
The Edward and Dorothy Kempf Memorial Fund
Dr. Jerome H. Meyer and Dr. Roslyn M. Meyer
The Lucius N. Littauer Foundation

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Conference Director
Dr. Nanette Stahl, email: nanette.stahl@yale.edu
Judaica Curator
Yale University Library

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Planning Committee
Vincent Giroud
Curator, Modern Books and Manuscripts
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Yale University

Paula Hyman
Lucy G. Moses Professor of Modern Jewish History
Chair, Judaic Studies Program
Yale University

Rabbi James E. Ponet
Jewish Chaplain & Director, Yale Hillel/Slifka Center
Yale University

Nanette Stahl
Judaica Curator
Yale University Library

Rebecca Taichman
Graduate student
Yale Drama School

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Hotels in New Haven
If you are planning on remaining in New Haven for the entire conference and need hotel accomodations, you might try the following:

• The Colony Inn, 1157 Chapel Street, tel: 203-776-1234
• The Holiday Inn at Yale, 30 Whalley Avenue, tel: 203-777-6221
• The Omni Hotel, 155 Temple Street, tel: 1-800-THE OMNI
• New Haven Hotel, 229 George Street, tel: 203-498-3100

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Comments
Please send any comments or suggestions to Nanette Stahl.

Email: nanette.stahl@yale.edu

Regular mail:
Nanette Stahl, Judaica Curator
Sterling Memorial Library
130 Wall Street
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520-8240

Telephone: (203) 432-7207

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