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DTSTART:20241103T020000
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UID:calendar.3676.events_uoft_date.0@www.humanities.utoronto.ca
CREATED:20240925T132134Z
DESCRIPTION:\nWhen and Where: \nMonday, September 30, 2024 4:00 pm to 6:0
 0 pm \n JHB100 \n Jackman Humanities Building \n 170 St. George Street, 1
 st floor \n\nSpeakers \nSarah Gracombe \n\nDescription: \nDavid Lipson Mem
 orial Lecture “Pledging Allegiance?: Adapting the Book of Ruth in American
  Literature and Culture”\nDescription:: In an 1898 article on the Book of 
 Ruth in The American Jewess, Rabbi Julius Magil urged readers to “look in
 to this beautiful story and learn a lesson.” He was not alone. For America
 n writers frequently turned to the figure of Ruth to offer “lessons” not j
 ust about how to be a dutiful daughter-in-law or faithful convert but abou
 t immigration, intermarriage, and national belonging. From the 1850s-192
 0s, many writers saw key questions about American-Jewish identity refract
 ed through the Book of Ruth, particularly Ruth’s famous pledge to Naomi (
 “Where you go, I will go...your people shall be my people, and your God 
 my God”) and marriage to Boaz. Can immigration and intermarriage be benefi
 cial? Does joining a new “people” require joining a new faith? Can “my peo
 ple” pledge allegiance to “we the people” without losing their Jewishness 
 (and what exactly is that Jewishness)?  I explore these questions in part 
 by examining how writers interpreted Ruth’s story as a possible template f
 or successful Jewish immigration, integration, and intermarriage in Amer
 ica. Texts considered include Israel Zangwill’s drama The Melting Pot (190
 8), which popularized that much-debated metaphor; Emma Wolf’s admired no
 vel Other Things Being Equal (1892), which takes on interfaith marriage a
 nd Jewish-American belonging; and a variety of poems, religious commenta
 ries, and images that illustrate how resonant the issues in the Book of R
 uth were in a geographically and conceptually expanding America cast as a 
 “new Israel” (but not always a welcome one) for the roughly two million Je
 ws who arrived between 1880-1925 and their descendants. I conclude by brie
 fly considering how the Book of Ruth has been employed in our own cultural
  moment, one in which the relationship between immigration, religion, a
 nd what “makes American great” are central to national debates.Sarah Graco
 mbe is a Professor of English. Previously, she served as the Director of 
 the Moreau Honors Program and before that the Director of the IDEAS (Integ
 rating Democratic Education at Stonehill) Program. Her teaching and resear
 ch interests include Victorian representations of national identity, race
 , gender, psychology, and religion, particularly constructions of Jewi
 shness. \n\nContact Information: \n A\ne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studi
 es cjs.events@utoronto.ca A\ne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies \n\nSpo
 nsors \nA\ne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies \n170 St. George Street,
  1st floor \n\nCategories \n Lecture \n\nAudiences \n All
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240930T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240930T180000
LAST-MODIFIED:20240925T132216Z
LOCATION:170 St. George Street, 1st floor
SUMMARY:“Pledging Allegiance?: Adapting the Book of Ruth in American Litera
 ture and Culture”
URL;TYPE=URI:https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/events/%E2%80%9Cpledging-al
 legiance-adapting-book-ruth-american-literature-and-culture%E2%80%9D
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