Vered Tohar
Studia Judaica, Issue 1 (49), 2022, pp. 85-106
https://doi.org/10.4467/24500100STJ.22.003.16297The article focuses on three poems authored by Aron Lyuboshitsky (1874–1942?), a Hebrew teacher, author, poet, editor, and translator, who lived and worked in Warsaw and Łódź, and his contribution to building a Jewish national identity through his literary works for children and youth. The prism through which the article views Lyuboshitsky’s activities is that of ethno-symbolism, a concept drawn from the field of cultural studies. For an ethno-symbolic analysis of his works, three key criteria were considered: (1) linking the present to the past; (2) using cultural symbols; and (3) actively promoting the formation of a shared ethnocultural identity. Lyuboshitsky’s literary-cultural and didactic oeuvre was devoted to reawakening the Jewish nation by appealing to the younger generation. He interconnected the Hebrew language, Hebrew literature, the Jewish people, and the Holy Land.
Vered Tohar
Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 15, 2017, pp. 47-61
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.17.003.8172This article proposes a reading of three stories from the Hebrew morality book Tzemach Tzadiq [The Righteous Shoot], composed by Leon Modena (1571-1648) and based upon the 13th century Italian treatise Fiore di Virtu [The Flowers of the Virtues]. These stories, which present plots with female protagonists, demonstrate women’s mystique in this early Modern Hebrew compilation and reveal the attitude of Modena and his readership towards women who deviated from the norm. Although Tzemach Tzadiq is a hegemonic patriarchal text, it reveals an intra-gender relationship where these female protagonists protest against their social inferiority by means of self-violence.
