פרופ' נתן כהן
קורות חיים
CURRICULUM VITAE
NATHAN COHEN
Date of Birth: 20.11.1961
Place of Birth: Israel
Education
1983-1986: B.Sc. with honors,
Yiddish department and Jewish History department, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
1986-1989 M.Sc. with honors,
Yiddish department, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
Title: “Day to Day life and Evaluation of the ‘Jewish Fate’ as Reflected in Diaries Written in Lithuania between the Years 1941-1945”.
Prof. Y. Guttman, Supervisor.
1990-1995 Ph.D,
Yiddish department, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
Title: ”The Jewish Literary and Journalistic Center in Warsaw Between 1920-1942 as Reflected by the Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists”
Prof. C. Shmeruk and Prof E. Mendelsohn, Supervisors.
Academic and Scholarly Positions and Activities
1984-1989 Research assistant to Prof. C. Shmeruk, Yiddish Department, Hebrew University.
Teacher, Yiddish Department, Hebrew University.
1988-1990 Teacher, Summer Courses in Yiddish, Hebrew University.
1988-1989 Interviewer of Holocaust survivors for Yad Vashem.
1991-1997 Historical guide for student groups visiting Poland.
1995 Lecturer at Tel-Aviv University and at the Hebrew University.
From 1996 Bar-Ilan University (Associate Professor).
Visiting professor, Hebrew University.
From 1996 Associate editor of Yad Vashem Studies.
2001 Visiting researcher, University College, London.
From 2003 Member of the managing board, Beit Shalom Aleychem,
Tel Aviv.
2003-2008 Academic consultant to a project investigating Rabbinical writings.
the Holocaust for a data base. Jerusalem Women’s College.
2005-2007 Member of the Planning Committee for Yiddish Studies.
in Israeli High Schools. Ministry of Education.
From 2010 Member of the academic council of The World Union
of Jewish Studies.
From 2012 Honorary Member of the Polish Association of Yiddish Studies
(Polskie Towarzystwo Studiów Jidyszystycznych).
From 2014 Member of the council of the National Authority for Yiddish Culture.
2015-2016 Coordinator, Historical Jewish Press project, National Library and Tel
Aviv University.
2022-2024 Academic consultant of an audiovisual project, Valley of Communities,
Yad Vashem.
From 2023 Member of the Selection Committee for Azrieli Fellowships in
Humanities.
מחקר
Main research interests and scientific activities
My research focuses primarily on the history of Yiddish culture in Eastern Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries.
My first research project and book provided a comprehensive and detailed examination of the tri-lingual Jewish literary life in interwar Warsaw in general, with particular emphasis on the Yiddish sphere. I devoted significant attention to the professional union of Jewish writers and journalists in Warsaw (better known as “Tłomackie 13”), under the umbrella of which Hebrew, Yiddish and Polish Jewish writers came together. This book constitutes an important resource. Indeed, after it had been out of stock for nearly ten years, Magnes Press created a digital edition, demonstrating its significance. In addition, two major Polish academic institutions initiated the translation and publication of a revised and updated version of the book. Furthermore, I examined other aspects of Jewish cultural life in the Second Polish Republic as expressed in various publications and forums, among them linguistic (including the growing acculturation process during the 1930s), literary (including the extensive Yiddish press) and political aspects.
One of the most significant voices in the Yiddish literary discourse of this period and later was that of Isaac Bashevis-Singer. His life and literary works receive significant attention in my academic work.
To provide a complete picture of the history of the Yiddish literary center in Warsaw, I also examined the attempts of writers and cultural activists, Holocaust survivors and those returning from the Soviet Union, to revive and rehabilitate the destroyed center in the years 1944–1949.
Among the subjects that I teach, I attribute significant weight to the three classic writers of modern Yiddish literature (Shalom Yankev Abramovitsh – better known as Mendele Moykher Sforim, Shalom Aleichem and Yitzhok Leibush Peretz), whose works indicate the transformation of Yiddish writing from a traditional folk literature into a significant artistic and aesthetic creative realm. I refer to these writers (and their counterparts) in my research and publications from social and cultural perspectives rather than from a poetic point of view.
I devoted many years studying the changing reading habits (in Yiddish) among Jews in the Pale of Settlement and Congress Poland between the 1860s and the First World War. This involves the shift from traditional to secular reading, including popular scientific texts and other genres, the rise of modern Yiddish publishing activities, journalism, and the establishment of public libraries. This project was awarded a research grant from the Israel Science Foundation, which supported its publication in book form. The book sheds new light on Jewish culture in Eastern Europe, on the development that the Yiddish language experienced from a scorned “Zhargon” to a legitimate cultural language, and on the history of (Jewish) reading in general. Thanks to an additional grant from the Israel Science Foundation The book was translated into English and published by berghahn books under the title Yiddish Transformed: Reading Habiuts in the Russian Empire, 1860-1914 (2023).
Among my research interests, a special place is reserved for the Holocaust period. This is reflected in the courses I teach regarding Yiddish literary works composed during and after the Holocaust. My first academic publications concerned diaries written by members of the Sonderkommando in Birkenau. It was the first time that this phenomenon was analyzed academically, and thereafter these documents and my study were further discussed by scholars in the field. In addition, I serve as the associate editor of the semi-annual scholarly journal Yad Vashem Studies, and I am involved in various projects and publications conducted by Yad Vashem and other similar institutions.
Thanks to another research grant from the Israel Science Foundation, I am currently working on a comprehensive study of Yiddish calendars and almanacs as a source of information and as a vehicle for both disseminating knowledge and refining the literary taste of East European Yiddish readers.
פירסומים
List of Publications
Books
- Books, writers and Newspapers: The Jewish Cultural Center in Warsaw, 1918-1942, Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2003, 363pp. (Hebrew)
A revised and upgraded edition in Polish translation: Książki, pisarze, gazety: Żydowskie życie literackie w Warszawie w latach 1918-1942, Warszawa: Żydowski Instytut Historyczny i Polskie Towarzystwo Studiów Jidyszystycznych 2020.
- Yiddish – The Linguistic Leap from a Common Dialect to a Cultural and Literary Language, Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center 2020, 465 pp. (Hebrew)
English translation: Yiddish Transformed: Reading Habits in the Russian Empire, 1860–1914, trans. Rebecca Wolpe, New York–Oxford: Berghahn Books 2023, 415pp.
Books Edited
3. Nathan Cohen, Esther Farbstein and Asaf Yedidya (eds.), Memory in Book: The Holocaust in Prefaces to Rabbinical Literature, Jerusalem: Reuven Mass, 2008, 320pp. (Hebrew)
4. Associate Editor of Yad Vashem Studies, from Volume 26 (1999).
Articles in Journals and chapters in Books
5. “The Destruction of the Jews of Butrimonys as Described in a Farewell Letter from a Local Jew”,
Holocaust and Genocide Studies 4(3) (1989) pp. 357-375
6. “Diaries of the Sonderkommandos in Aushwitz: Coping with Fate and Reality”,
Yad Vashem Studies 20 (1990) pp.273-312 (English and Hebrew)
7. “The Neurenberg Laws as Reflected in the Jewish Press in Warsaw”,
Yalkut Moreshet 48 (1992) pp.33-54 (Hebrew)
8. “The Sensationalist Jewish Press in Warsaw Between the Two World Wars”,
Qesher 11 (1992) pp.80-94 (Hebrew)
9. “The Reality of Extermination as Reflected in Diaries Written in Lithuania Between 1941 and 1945”,
Dapim Lecheker Tkufat Hashoa (1993) pp.257-278 (Hebrew)
10. “Diaries of the Sonderkommando”, in Y.Gutman and M.Berenbaum (eds.), Anatomy of the Aushwits Death Camp, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana university Press (1994) pp.522-534
11. “The Attitude of Lithuanians Towards Jews During the Holocaust as reflected in Diaries”, in The Days of Memory – International Conference in Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto, October 11-16 1993, Vilnius 1995, pp.211-216
12. “’The Press is Swallowing Up our Literature”: The Relationship Between Yiddish Authors and Journalists in Poland During the Interwar Period’,
Qesher 18 (1995) pp.87-92 (Hebrew)
13. “The Jewish Writers and Journalists Association in Warsaw in the Life and Writings of I.B.Singer”, in Chone Shmeruk and Shmuel Werses (eds.), Between Two World Wars , Jerusalem: Magnes Press (1997) pp.247-264 (Hebrew)
14. “The Last Days of the Jewish Literary and Press Center in Warsaw”,
Galed 15-16 (1997) pp.145-168 (Hebrew)
15. “The Hebrew Literary Milieu in Poland (1920-1939) and its Connections with the Literary establishment in Eretz Yisrael”,
Tarbitz 67 (1998) pp.379-395 (Hebrew)
16. “A Doomed Struggle: Hebrew Dailies in Warsaw Between the World Wars”,
Qesher 23 (1998) pp. 93-101 (Hebrew)
17. “The Contribution of the Bund to Jewish Cultural Life in Poland Between the Two World Wars”,
Chulyot 5 (1999) pp. 291-306 (Hebrew)
18. “Czy mozliwa jest ortodoksyjna beletrystyka? Polemika w ortodoksyjnych czasopismach” (Is there any Orthodox Belles-Letters? A Polemics in Orthodox Journals), M. Galas (red.), Duchowosc Zydowska w Polsce, Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka, 2000, pp. 383-390 (Polish)
19. “Tłomackie 13 – The Heart and Soul of Jewish Literary Warsaw”, in: Eleonora Bergman and Olga Zienkiewicz (eds.), Żydzi Warszawy, Warszawa: Żydowski Instytut Historyczny, 2000, pp. 91-98
20. “Young Yiddish Literature in Interwar Poland: its Publications and Struggle for recognition”, Israel Bartal and Israel Gutman (eds.), The Broken Chain: Polish Jewry through the Ages, II, Jerualem: Zalman Shazar Center, 2001, pp. 233-252 (Hebrew).
21. “Jewish Daily Newspapers in Poland”,
Israel Bartal and Israel Gutman (eds.), The Broken Chain: Polish Jewry through the Ages, II, Jerualem: Zalman Shazar Center, 2001, pp. 301-326 (Hebrew).
22. “Zvi Prilutski’s Memoirs as a Source for the Research of Yiddish Journalism in Warsaw”, David Assaf, Israel Bartal, Shmuel Feiner and others (eds.), Studies in East European Jewish History and Culture in Honor of Professor Shmuel Werses, Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2002, pp. 385-402 (Hebrew).
23. “The Bund’s Contribution to yiddish Culture in Poland between the two World wars”, in: J. Jacobs (ed.), Jewish Politics in Eastern Europe: the Bund at 100, Hampshire: Palgrave, 2001, pp. 112-130 (revised version of number 16)
24. “Revealing Bashevis’s Earliest Autobiographical Novel, Varshe 1914-1918”,
Seth L. Wolitz (ed.), the Hidden Isaac Bashevis singer, Austin: University of Texas Press 2001, pp. 151-161
25. “The Jews of Independent Poland – Linguistic and Cultural Changes”,
Ernest Krausz and Gitta tulea (eds.) Starting the Twenty-First Century, New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 2002, pp. 161-175.
26. “Jewish Libraries in Interwar Poland and Their Readers”,
Zion, 67 (2002), pp. 163-188 (Hebrew)
27. “Yitskhok Bashevis-Zinger and the Writers’ and Journalists’ Association in Warsaw”, In: Hugh Denman (Ed.), Isaac Bashevis Singer: His Work and His World, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2002, pp. 169-182 (revised version of number 12)
28. “The Last Days of the Vilna Ghetto: Pages from a Diary”,
Yad Vashem Studies 31 (2003), pp. 15-60.
29. “Shund and the Tabloids: Popular Reading in Inter-War Poland”,
Polin, 16 (2003), 189-211.
30. “The Renewed Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists in Poland, 1944-
1948”, in: Joseph Sherman (ed.), Yiddish after the Holocaust, Oxford: Boulevard,
2004, pp. 15-36
31. “’An Ugly and Repulsive Idler’ or a Talented and Seasoned Editor: S.Y. Yatzkan
and The Beginnings of the Popular Yiddish Press in Warsaw”, Jews in Russia and
Eastern Europe 1-2 (54-55) (2005), 28-53
32. “The Publicistic Writings of of Yitzhak Katzenelson during
the Nazi Rise to Power”,
Gal-ed 20 (2006), pp. 101-111 (Hebrew).
33. “Between the Pain of Survival and the Joy of Rescue: The History of Two Rabbis
during and following the Nazi Occupation”,
Dapim: Studies on the Shoa 20 (2006), 113-124 (Hebrew).
34. “The Yiddish Press and Yiddish Literature: A Fertile but Complex Relationship”
Modern Judaism 28 (2) 2008, pp. 149-172
35. “Kadya Molodowsky’s Status and Activity in the Jewish Literary Milieu in Warsaw”,
Bikoret uparshanut 40 (2008), pp. 163-174 (Hebrew)
36. “’We are Mourners as Long as we are Alive’: Coping with the Painful Memory”, in: Nathan Cohen, Esther Farbstein and Asaf Yedidya (eds.), Memory in Book: The Holocaust in Prefaces to Rabbinical Literature, Jerusalem: Reuven Mass, 2008, pp. 63-68 (Hebrew)
37. “Przyczyny emigracji pisarzy jidysz z polski (1945-1948)”, Magdalena Ruta (ed.), Nusech Pojln: Studia z dziejów kultury jidysz w Powojennej Polsce, Kraków, Budapeszt: Austeria, 2008, pp. 231-246 (Polish).
English version: “Motives for the Emigration of Yiddish Writers from Poland (1945-1948)”, Elvira Grözinger and Magdalena Ruta (eds.), Under the Red Banner:
Yiddish Culture in the Communist Countries in the Postwar Era, Wiesbaden: Harissowitz verlag, 2008, pp. 157-163.
38. “Theater and Politics: The Debate in the Warsaw Jewish Press Regarding Itsik Manger’s Adaptation of the ‘Kishefmakherin’ (1937),
Bikoret uparshanut 41 (2009), pp. 131-140 (Hebrew).
39. “Ben Tzion Katz & Yiddish”,
Kesher 38 (2009), pp. 117-120 (Hebrew)
40. “Isaac Bashevis-Singer’s Attitude to the Yiddish Theater as Shown in His Works”, in: Edna Nahshon (ed.), Jewish Theatre: A Global View, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2009, pp. 49-61
41. “Polish Literature for Yiddish Readers: Yiddish Translations of Polish Literature”, Teksty Drugie 6 (2009), pp. 174-184 (Polish)
42. "The Presentation of The Shoa in Isaac Bashevis' Works", Bishvil Hazikaron 8 (2011), pp. 32-37 (Hebrew)
43. "What did East European Yiddish Readers Know about Cancer (1902-1939)?", Modern Judaism 32 (2012), pp. 216-241
44. "Sherlock Holmes in the Pale of Settlement: Yiddish Crime Stories 1860–1914", in: Marion Aptroot, Efrat Gal-Ed Roland Gruschka and Simon Neuberg (eds.) Leket: Yiddish Studies Today, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, 2012, pp. 253-278
45. "'A Jewish Woman with the Head of a Man': A Portrait of the Rebetsn Bath-Sheva Singer", in: Israel Bartal and others (eds.), A Touch of Grace: Studies in Ashkenazi Culture, Women's History, and the Languages of the Jews Presented to Chava Turniansky, Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History and The Center for Research on Polish Jewry, The Hebrew University: Jerusalem 2013, pp. 335-349 (Hebrew)
46. "Jewish Youth Reads Polish", in: Daniel Blatman (ed.), Conflicting Histories and Coexistance: New Perspectives on the Jewish-Polish Encounter, The Center for Research on Polish Jewry, The Hebrew University and Magnes Press: Jerusalem 2014 (Hebrew)
47. "From the Market Place to the University: Yiddish Language and Culture as an
Academic Field", Studia Judaica 1 (33) (2014), pp. 7-17 (Polish)
48. "Distributing Knowledge: Warsaw as a Center of Jewish Publishing, 1850-1914",
Glenn Dynner and Franҫois Guesnet (eds.), Warsaw. The Jewish Metropolis: Essays
in Honor of the 75th Birthday of Professor Antony Polonsky, Leiden and Boston:
Brill, 2015, pp. 180-206
49. "The Love Story of Esterke and Kzimierz, King of Poland – New Perspectives",
European Journal of Jewish Studies 9 (2015), pp. 174-207
50. "Reading Polish among Yong Jewish People", Polin 28 (2016), pp. 173-186
51. “I.L. Peretz’s Part in the Warsaw Yiddish Publishing Arena”, in: Alina Molisak and Shoshana Ronen (eds.), The Trilingual Literature of Polish Jews from Different Perspectives: In Memory of I.L. Peretz, Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Cambridge 2017, pp. 254-267
52. “’No More Beardless Small Jews’: Insights and Deeds Regarding East-European Yiddish Children-Literature before WWI”, Bikoret uparshanut 46 (2020), forthcoming (Hebrew). English translation in: Modern Judaism 41.1 (2021), pp. 92-109.
53. “A Market of Anarchy: Writers’ Wages and Copyright Claims.” Zion, vol. 87, no. 3, 2022, pp. 383-405 (Hebrew).
54. “Translations and Translators : An Ongoing Debate (1890 – 1939)”, in: Efrat Gal-Ed and Daria Vakhrushova (eds.), Minority Language – World Literature: Yiddish and Translation, Berlin and Boston: Düsseldorf University Press and de Gruyter 2024, pp. 17-38.
Book Reviews in periodicals:
55. “Ken Frieden, Classic Yiddish Fiction: Abramovitsh, Sholem Aleichem and Peretz (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995, pp. 364)”, Studies in Contemporary Jewry 15 (1999), pp. 234-236.
56. “Encyclopedia of Holocaust Literature: A First Step”, S. Lillian Kremer, ed., Holocaust Literature: An Encyclopedia of Writers and Their Work, 2 vols. (New York and London: Routledge, 2003, xlvii+1499 pp.), Yad Vashem Studies 32 (2004), pp. 495-500 (Hebrew and English).
57. “Shimon Frost, Schooling as a Socio-Political Expression: Jewish Education in Interwar Poland (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1998); pp. 176”, Polin 18 (2005), pp. 413-415.
58. “Hagit Cohen, At the Bookseller’s Shop: The Jewish Book Trade in Eastern Europe
At the End of the Nineteen Century (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2006); 188 pp. Zion
71 (2008), pp. 90-93 (Hebrew)
59. “Writing Styles and Political Ideology – David Bergelson and his Work”, Joseph Serman and Gennady Estraikh (ed.), David Bergelson: From Modernism to Socialist Realism (Oxford: Legenda 2007, 363pp.), Tarbiz 77 (2008), pp. 601-608
60. "Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov et. al. (eds.), Studia z dziejów trójjęzycznej prasa Żydowskiej na ziemiach Polskich (XIX-XX w.), (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Neriton: Instytut Historii PAN, 2012, 573 pages)", Gal-Ed 24 (2015), pp. 181-187
61. "Literature Tells History": Literature of the Holocaust, Edited by Alan Rosen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 2013, 310 pp., Yad Vashem Studies 43:2 (2015), pp. 229-237
Entries in Encyclopedia and Lexicons
1. “Butrymonis”, in Dov Levin (es.), Pinkas Hakehilot: Lithuania, Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1996, pp. 163-166
2. “Turniansky Chava”, in: Paula E. Hyman & Dalia Ofer (eds.), Jewish women: a comprehensive historical encyclopedia (electronic resource), Jerusalem: Shalvi Publishing, c2006 https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/turniansky-chava
3. “Isaac Meir Weissenberg”, in: Joseph Sherman, Dctionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 333: Yiddish Writers, Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007, pp. 332-336
4-5. “’Shund’ Literature and Newspapers”; “Warsaw as a Yiddish Cultural Center”, in: Yirmiyahu Yovel (ed.), New Jewish Time: Jewish Culture in a Secular Age- an Encyclopedic View, Vol. 1 and 3, Jerusalem: Keter, 2007, pp. 314-315, 350-354
6-32. “Association of Jewish Writers ans Journalists”, “Bader, Gershom”, “Emyot, Yisroel”, “Finkelshteyn, Leo”, “Gebirtig, Mordkhe”, “Globus”, “Haynt”, “Horontshik, Shimen”, “Horovits, Ber”, “Imber, Shmuel Yankev”, “Jaszunksi, Jozef”, “Kaganovski, Froyim”, “Karlinski, Ber”, “Kenigsberg, Dovid”, “Lerer, Yekhiel”, “Literarishe Bleter”, “Literarishe Tribune”, “Mieses, Matthias”, “Der Moment”, “Olitski Brothers”, Perle, Yoshue”, “Rapaport, Yoshue”, “Reyzen, Avrom”, “Shtern Yisroel”, “Spektor, Mordkhe”, “Segalovitsh, Zusman”, “Yustman, Moyshe Bunem” (27 entries) in: Gershon David Hundert (ed.), The YIVO Encyclopedia of
Jews in Eastern Europe, 1-2, New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2008
33. “Eastern Europe, Book Production After c. 1750.” The Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures (EJBC), edited by Emile Schrijver, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2023, online resource.
תאריך עדכון אחרון : 12/12/2024
