{"id":564,"date":"2015-09-14T13:40:06","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T17:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=564"},"modified":"2015-09-14T13:40:06","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T17:40:06","slug":"monday-missive-september-14-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2015\/09\/14\/monday-missive-september-14-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Missive – September 14, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"
Jewish Literature and Culture<\/b> — Today is Rosh Hashanah, which marks the start (or head) of the Jewish New Year.\u00a0 I did not know much about Rosh Hashanah or the other Jewish holidays when I was growing up even though my father came from a long line of Polish Jews.\u00a0 My father identified with Jewish-American culture, but he was not an observant Jew, so our family did not celebrate Jewish holidays during my childhood.<\/p>\n

\"jay<\/a>With the birth of our son (Gavin), my wife and I decided to introduce Gavin to some Jewish traditions, and one of the people I turned to for advice on this matter was Jay Jacoby.\u00a0 Jay was then a professor in the English Department, and he and I had many conversations over the years.\u00a0 An expert on Jewish culture, Jay explained to me the significance of several of the major Jewish holidays.\u00a0 Like my father, I am not a religious man, but I took an interest in the stories that Jay told about these holidays.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
More than any other professor in the English Department at the time, Jay introduced our students and faculty to the rich tradition of Jewish literature and culture.\u00a0 He regularly taught a course on Jewish-American literature, and he often wrote conference papers and articles on related topics.\u00a0 The article that he wrote <\/i>titled “The Golem in Jewish Literature” is still cited today even though it was originally published in 1984.\u00a0 Jay retired in 2004, and he now lives in Asheville where he is involved in UNC Asheville’s Center for Jewish Studies.<\/div>\n

Several current members of the English Department share Jay’s interest in Jewish literature and culture.\u00a0 Here are three examples.\u00a0 Jeffrey Leak is currently researching the connections between mid-twentieth-century African American poets and Rosey Poole, a Jewish scholar and editor who lived in Holland and Great Britain.\u00a0 Alan Rauch has taken an interest in graphic novels that deal with Jewish themes, and he will be teaching a course on this topic in the spring semester.\u00a0 Maya Socolovsky has written on Allegra Goodman’s most recent novel, The Cookbook Collector, <\/i>which deals with contemporary Jewish-American culture.<\/p>\n

The topic of cookbooks reminds me that Jewish holidays almost always have some sort of food connection. \u00a0 Apples dipped in honey is associated with Rosh Hashanah.\u00a0 In keeping with this culinary tradition, I will bring in some apple-honey tarts of my own invention tomorrow<\/span><\/span> and set them out in the faculty\/staff lounge.\u00a0 In the meantime, I wish you all a happy Jewish New Year.<\/p>\n

Upcoming Events and Deadlines<\/b>\u2014\u00a0Here is a date to keep in mind:<\/p>\n

October 19<\/span><\/span> — The deadline to apply for a Faculty Research Grant is October 19<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0 For more information, click on the following link: \u00a0 http:\/\/research.uncc.edu\/proposal-development\/locating-funding<\/a><\/div>\n

Quirky Quiz Question<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 In addition to teaching in the English Department, Jay Jacoby served as the interim chair for two departments.\u00a0 Can you name these departments?<\/p>\n

\n
Last week’s answer: Alexander Calder\"\"<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
What is the name of the American sculptor who is largely responsible for introducing mobiles to the art scene?<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jewish Literature and Culture — Today is Rosh Hashanah, which marks the start (or head) of the Jewish New Year.\u00a0 I did not know much about Rosh Hashanah or the other Jewish holidays when I was growing up even though my father came from a long line of Polish Jews.\u00a0 My father identified with Jewish-American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-missive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":566,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions\/566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}