<p> The purpose of this thesis was to obtain a grant to develop a Somatic Therapy Program for at-risk Jewish female adolescents attending Camp Extreme for Girls, sponsored by Project Extreme of New York. This population has unique needs, is underserved in residential style programs, and has been found to respond positively with measurable changes. The goal of the Somatic Therapy Program was to reduce the effects of traumatic experiences through lowering trauma induced anxiety, enhancing emotional health, and supporting enduring personal growth.</p><p> The Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation was recognized as a suitable funding agency as this foundation supports youth development and promotes strategies that enhance positive results. The grant writer developed the Somatic Therapy Program in order to provide at-risk Jewish female teens quality, long lasting emotional changes within a therapeutic setting. The actual submission and/or funding of this grant was not a requirement for the successful completion of this project.</p>

<p> Using theories of nationalism from Anthony D. Smith, Benedict Anderson, and Barry Shenker, alterity as discussed by Kim Knott and Jonathan Z. Smith, and conversion theories from Joseph Rosenbloom, Lewis Rambo, and Andrew Buckser, this thesis examines four "snapshots" of Israelite/Jewish history for evidence of the use of conversion as a necessary component of "nation building." Periods analyzed include the Israelite Period, Post-Exilic Ezra and Nehemiah, Second Temple Hasmonean Kingdom, and the Late Antique Mishnaic Period. By analyzing primary sources and related scholarship, this thesis seeks to show that conversion is not only a necessary component of building an intentional community, but also that the early Jewish community leaders employed conversion as a means to ensure the continuity of their people and history.</p>

<p> Poetry is a creative instrument of inquiry and revelation expressed through images, sounds, and metaphors. In this dissertation, I argue that Solomon Alkabez's poem "Lecha Dodi" (Come, My Beloved) demonstrates this hypothesis. The poem's mythological story connects with people of diverse Jewish movements in many lands, inviting their participation and varied expressions. While singing the poem keeps historic traditions alive, the song itself inspires communities to express the poem's beauty in ever-changing ways. The poem's mythos embraces the following concepts that are explored in this work: <i> Adam Kadmon, Shekhinah,</i> and <i>Tikkun ha-Olam.</i> Its logos, which follow structured grammatical forms, and archetypal mythos are examined in this study. </p><p> Drawing on insights from C. G. Jung, wisdoms revealed in Kabbalistic text and inherent within Hebrew terminology, this paper examines sacred time, ceremonial space, and Kabbalistic motifs in Lecha Dodi. Further, it addresses the question: "What Kabbalistic motifs in Lecha Dodi parallel those found in depth psychology?" For in this work, I argue that the process of individuation, imagery, and alchemical symbolism in Jung's writings find common ground in the mystical landscape of Kabbalah, as this poem illustrates. </p><p> Rediscovering the poem's motifs may shed light on, and contribute to, reconstructing the balance, harmony, and healing requested in our frenzied world today. In the process, according to Kabbalah's alchemical nature, one's foothold in the mundane world may scatter and shatter one's self through transitional experiences of disrepair and chaotic disarray. These aspects of Kabbalah are reflected in Jung's writings on shadow, descent, and death. Meanwhile, codes embedded in the poem identify pathways on Kabbalah's <i>Etz Hayim</i> (Tree of Life). In turn, the psyche may travel these pathways during such shadow periods, or times necessary to repair and individuate itself. In this way, the poem's Kabbalistic motifs share motifs that are common to depth psychology and mysticism. This dissertation seeks to imagine Lecha Dodi's essence forward for future generations. It includes the author's original musical composition, a production designed to express the beauty of this mystical poem. </p><p> <b>Keywords:</b> <i>Adam Kadmon,</i> Alkabez, <i> Etz Hayim,</i> individuation, Jung, Kabbalah, Lecha Dodi, Luria, Shabbat, <i> Shekhinah,</i> soul, <i>Tikkun ha-Olam</i></p>

<p> Sexual dysfunction is a major clinical and social issue. There has been a lack of research literature exploring the treatment implications involved in conducting sex therapy with Orthodox Jewish couples. Many standard sex therapy treatment interventions are incongruent with the religious beliefs held by Orthodox Jewish individuals regarding what they consider to be sexually appropriate practices. In order to increase the probability of Orthodox clients getting the treatment they need, it is crucial for mental health clinicians to demonstrate a high-level of understanding, awareness, and sensitivity toward their clients' religious beliefs. By fostering a sense of appreciation and understanding of Orthodox Jewish sexual practices, the clinician can then gain the ability to increase their clients' level of trust, safety, comfort, and willingness to participate in the treatment process. This doctoral project explored the issues surrounding the provision of sex therapy to Orthodox Jewish couples, and aimed to bridge the gap between the research literature and clinical practice. The purpose of this project was to increase the level of awareness of mental health professionals regarding how Orthodox Jewish religious beliefs influence views about sexuality, understand the treatment implications that arise during sex therapy with Orthodox couples, and methods of effectively modifying standard sex therapy interventions by incorporating Jewish laws into the therapeutic process. The author also incorporated a summary of the clinical findings obtained from interviews conducted with four expert field consultants who have worked with Orthodox Jewish couples in their practices.</p>

Dissertation Abstract “Making Jews at Home: Jewish Nationalism in the Bohemian Lands, 1918-1938.” Tatjana Lichtenstein Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Department of History, University of Toronto This dissertation examines the efforts of Jewish nationalists to end Jews’ social marginalization from non-Jewish society in the Bohemian Lands between the world wars. Through the 1920s and 1930s, the Jewish nationalist movement sought to transform Czechoslovakia’s multivalent Jewish societies into a unified ethno-national community. By creating a Jewish nation, a process challenged by the significant socio-cultural differences dividing the country’s Jews, Jewish nationalists believed that they could restore Jews’ respectability and recast the relationship between Jews and non-Jews as one of mutual respect and harmonious coexistence. The dissertation explores Jewish nationalists’ struggle to make Jews at home in Czechoslovakia by investigating a series of Zionist projects and institutions: the creation of an alliance between Jews and the state; the census and the making of Jewish statistics; the transformation of the formal Jewish communities from religious institutions to national ones; Jewish schools; and the Jewish nationalist sports movement. Exploring a Jewry on the crossroads between east and west, the dissertation delves into broader questions of the impact of nationalism on the modern Jewish experience. Within the paradoxical context of a multinational nation-state like Czechoslovakia, Zionists adopted a strategy which sought integration through national distinctiveness, a response embodying elements of both west and east European Jewish culture. The study thus complicates the history of Zionism by showing that alongside the Palestine-oriented German and Polish factions, there were significant ideological alternatives within which ideas of Jewish Diaspora nationalism co-existed with mainstream Zionism. Moreover, the study points to the continuities in the relationship between Jews and the state. As in the time of empire, Jews cultivated partnerships with the political elite, a strategy developed to balance the interest of the state and its Jewish minority. In the interwar years, Jewish activists thus looked to the state for assistance in transforming Jewish society. This dissertation seeks to broaden our understanding of Jewish responses to nationalism, the relationship between Jews and the modern state, and more broadly, about the complex ways in which marginalized groups seek to attain respectability and assert their demands for equality within modern societies.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Lehigh University, 2007. / Adviser: Seth Moglen.

Abstract not available.

The orchestral conductor Heinz Unger (1895-1965) was born in Berlin, Germany and was reared from a young age to follow in his father's footsteps and become a lawyer. In 1915, he heard a Munich performance of Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde conducted by Bruno Walter and thereafter devoted the rest of his life to music and particularly to the dissemination of Gustav Mahler's music. This doctoral dissertation is conceived as a contextual biography that explores the manner in which the strands of German Jewish identity converge and are negotiated by a musician who, as a consequence of persecution, lived a sizeable portion of his life in a Double Diaspora (in the Jewish Diaspora as well as exiled from his European home) yet never cut the ties to a German Jewish tradition informed by the strains of a European cultural heritage. It is a work that discusses the process of Jewish emancipation in Central Europe and in so doing sheds light on the complex issues of ethnicity, "race," nationalism, secularization, and culture and thought as they developed in the modern period and impacted upon Europe and beyond in the first half of the twentieth century. In tracking Heinz Unger's many movements and activities around the world and covering his eventual emigration to Canada, the work simultaneously probes the manner in which European cultural values manifested themselves in disparate parts of the world. It is also a detailed examination of the values that Mahler's oeuvre represents and of one musician's negotiation of these sites of meaning by way of his commitment to Gustav Mahler's music. The first three chapters serve as an extended introduction that in turn surveys Jewish identity in the Diaspora, constructions of Jewish music and their meaning, and the specific cultural significance of Mahler's music in a German Jewish context. The following five chapters are cast as a biography of Heinz Unger (based on the Heinz Unger Fonds at Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario) that explores the manner in which the German Jewish musician understood and expressed his dual identity by way of his allegiance to music.

Anti-Semitism, or Jew hatred, much of which is expressed and communicated through folklore, has a long history and continues unabated today. Incendiary opinions, deadly misconceptions, and insidious accusations have plagued Jews throughout history. Anti-Semitic expressions and incidents are scattered throughout countless texts, but no single comprehensive reference work that compiles all forms of anti-Semitic folklore motifs exists. This thesis attempts to fill that gap by supplying an index of anti-Semitic motifs. To establish a baseline of already catalogued anti-Semitic motifs, all six volumes of Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folklore-Literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books and Local Legends were scanned and any relevant motifs listed were archived in a card index. Approximately 250 more previously unidentified motifs were documented from historical materials, published books and articles, artifacts, and personal communications. All motifs used in this study were developed from English sources, or from English speakers borrowing from other languages and cultures. The procedure to categorize the folklore motifs is based on a numbering system developed by folklorist Stith Thompson in 1955. Using Thompson's classifications of motifs as a base, the approximately 250 newly identified anti-Semitic folklore motifs I discovered have been integrated with Thompson motifs. Anti-Semitic materials covered begin with the Middle Ages and continue to the present day. Although not comprehensive, this motif index incorporates examples of anti-Semitic folklore from all genres, making motifs and examples easily accessible for anyone who wishes to analyze historical and current anti-Semitism. Indexing anti-Semitic folklore in a single reference work based on a universal folklore indexing system creates a body of information to be used as a resource tool for education and research of anti-Semitism. Furthermore, the index can easily be expanded as more material comes to light.

This thesis examines how the remembrance of deportation from France during the Second World War impacted the creation of two memorials in Paris in the postwar years. The two memorials, located just over 500 meters apart in the center of Paris and inaugurated within seven years of one another, physically embody each of these narratives. The Tomb of the Unknown Jewish Martyr, created by the Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center (CDJC) in 1956, represents the narrative of Jewish persecution and genocide throughout Europe during the Second World War. Expanded in 2005, the Tomb is now known as the Shoah Memorial and is an internationally recognized research center. The Memorial of Deportation, created by the Réseau du Souvenir in 1962, exemplifies the narrative of French deportees; typically made up of resisters and political enemies of the Vichy regime, and represents French universalism – downplaying the difference in victim identity. This thesis observes how the deportee narratives aligns with the postwar Resistance myth – which sought to unify the nations after war, defeat, occupation, and near civil war by papering over French culpability – influenced the memorialization of the deportee experience as well as how memorialization changed over time. It argues that the Memorial of Deportation maintained a national narrative, focusing on French victims regardless of the political or religious beliefs, wanting to highlight universal French victimhood, while the other, the Tomb of the Unknown Jewish Martyr, sought to commemorate the millions of Jews persecuted and targeted for destruction despite the canonization of the myth as history in France and fought to hold France responsible for its role in the genocide.