Bookmark This is a feature that highlights new books by College of Arts and Sciences faculty and alumni, published each month. The December featured book is The Lives of Jewish Things: Collecting and Curating Material Culture (Wayne State University Press), edited by Gabrielle Anna Berlinger and Ruth von Bernuth.
Q: Can you give us a brief synopsis of your book?
A: The Lives of Jewish Things was born out of an invigorating three-day international symposium entitled, “Wandering Objects: Collecting and Curating Jewish Material Culture,” that we co-organized with the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) in 2018. Specifically, UNC’s Carolina Center for Jewish Studies collaborated with the Judaic Art Gallery of the NCMA to invite esteemed scholars, museum curators, and private collectors — all experts in Jewish material culture — to participate in a series of panels, roundtables and convivial meals to engage their diverse perspectives on the collection, interpretation, display and use of Jewish objects in the 21st century.
This book extends the symposium conversations, featuring essays by participants that trace the journeys of Jewish “things” across time periods, places and cultures. Each time Jewish materials cross geographic, cultural or social borders, their Jewishness is redefined through new insights into maker and user, buyer and seller, insider and outsider. One essay, for example, explores the sounds of synagogues, while another examines benches in synagogues and other spaces of Jewish expression. Several essays focus on Jewish objects in museums and the politics of their display. Each contributor brings a unique perspective. John Coffey, retired deputy director of the NCMA and co-organizer of the symposium, recounts the storied history of the Judaic Art Gallery there. Diego Rotman traces the background of a sukkah with Bedouin origins now exhibited at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. We invite readers to follow the journey of two silver bowls in the South or to experience a West Texas Salvage Store.
Q: How does this fit in with your research interests and passions?
A: Gabrielle: As a folklorist and ethnologist, I study traditional creative expression in everyday life. I focus on the nature and significance of material culture (vernacular architecture, in particular) and ritual practice in the context of contemporary Jewish communities. By examining how the use, interpretation and re-use of objects, architectures and landscapes express their creators’ and users’ histories, social practices, cultural customs and beliefs, I learn about locally and culturally distinct notions of identity, community, belonging and home. This project aligned perfectly with my interests as we probed the changing values and shifting purposes of Jewish material things across cultures, geographies and time periods.
Ruth: Modern museums have their roots in early modern cabinets of curiosity — collections that assembled images and objects considered exotic and rare at the time. Although I am a literary scholar, I explored these early modern collections in my first book. My current research focuses on Yiddish literature written between the 15th and 18th centuries, much of which is based on German literature. My interests include Bible translations, as well as literary texts such as chapbooks and story collections. I became involved in our book project while serving as director of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. Working with Gabi has inspired me to incorporate this interest into my next book project. I plan to dedicate a chapter to examining Bible verses inscribed on everyday objects like brooms and towels, as well as larger structures such as musical instruments and houses.
Q: What was the original idea that made you think: “There’s a book here?”
A: This book emerged from the symposium that was so well attended that it led us to realize that a publication was necessary for teaching and research in universities and museums — one that would cut across the fields of Jewish studies, material culture studies, folklore studies, museum studies, history, heritage studies and so much more. Our publication moves toward a deeper and more democratic understanding of Jewish experience by acknowledging the power and potential of material things in everyday life.
Q: What surprised you when researching/writing this book?
A: This was truly an interdisciplinary collaboration, not just because we as the editors come from different disciplines, but because the contributing authors all hailed from diverse fields across the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. We were surprised by how difficult it was to define a “Jewish thing” and spent hours discussing it, as we wanted to encompass all the examples our contributors included in their essays, ranging from tangible material objects made of wood or silver to intangible elements like sound and memories. As these “things” moved through history, passing through the hands of makers, users, and collectors with richly storied lives, how could we accurately label them? Both the material things and associations with Jewishness continued to change throughout our years of editing the book, underscoring its point.
Q: Where’s your go-to writing spot, and how do you deal with writer’s block?
A: We often worked together outside during the pandemic years, meeting at Weaver Street Market in Carrboro or on a bench on campus. This past year, we also visited each other during our respective office hours to work on the introduction, one paragraph at a time, in between teaching and meetings. Working together and with our international array of contributors certainly added time and sometimes complicated logistics to the research, writing and editing process, but shared deadlines and accountability kept us honest! And it really was a joy to collaborate.
Gabrielle Anna Berlinger is an associate professor of American studies and folklore and the Babette S. and Bernard J. Tanenbaum Scholar in Jewish History and Culture. Ruth von Bernuth is a professor in the department of Germanic and Slavic languages and literatures and the former director of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies.
Read more books by College authors via our fall 2024 books list and nominate a book we should feature by emailing college-news@unc.edu.