Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies

2008

Tobias Green, "Equal Partners? Proselytising by Africans and Jews in the 17th Century Atlantic Diaspora", Melilah 2008/1, pp.1-12.
PDF or Word Related maps: Caboverde and Peoples and Cultures

This paper examines the processes by which Africans proselytised Sephardic Jews on the coast of West Africa in the 16th and 17th centuries and were in their turn prosleytised by Jews both in West Africa and elsewhere in the Atlantic world in the early modern era. Drawing on a wide range of archival and published sources, it shows that these activities were far from unusual in the Atlantic world at the time, and are evidence of a world of receptivity and understanding that belies traditional interpretations of Atlantic history. Analysing the conditions which produced the atmosphere in which such mutual conversions could occur, the paper argues that a relatively equitable balance of power was central to this process. Personal knowledge and human experience were crucial in breaking down cultural barriers in a way which permitted conversion; however the wider economic forces which facilitated these exchanges were themselves distorting power relations, helping to shape Atlantic history on its more familiar, and intolerant, path.

2007

Roy Shasha, "The Forms and Functions of Lists in the Mishnah" (PhD thesis, University of Manchester, 2006)

This study researches from a synchronic standpoint the different forms and functions of lists in the Mishnah. The study commences with a brief survey not only of lists in Biblical and early Rabbinic texts, but also the wider literature of the Ancient Near East. The relationship of the mishnaic list to its surrounding text is investigated in depth. The appendices contain comprehensive databases of the locations and descriptions of the different types of mishnaic lists, as well as a comparison of lists of the Mishnah to the lists of the Tosefta.

Contents and Introduction
Chapter 1: The definition of a Mishnaic list
Chapter 2: The components of the Mishnaic list
Chapter 3: Types and features of lists in the Mishnah
Chapter 4: Special features that modify the structure of simple and compound lists
Chapter 5: The list's relationship with its co-text and with the entirety of the Mishnah
Conclusion, Appendices and Tables

2006

Tony Kushner, "Bill Williams and Jewish Historiography: Past, Present and Future", Melilah 2006/1, pp.1-14.
PDF or Word See also The Bill Williams Jewish Studies Library

Any student of modern British Jewry who wants to understand not only the subject matter but how to approach it has to begin with Bill Williams’ The Making of Manchester Jewry, 1740-1875 (1976). Williams’ approach blurs the barriers between politics, culture and society and his influence can be detected as much within literary and cultural scholars of British Jewry, such as Bryan Cheyette and Nadia Valman, as historians such as Tony Kushner and David Cesarani. With his many accomplishments in the fields of heritage and history, Williams has provided a remarkable legacy in terms of publications, museums, organisations and in the training and inspiration of later generations of scholars and activists. Sander Gilman has asked us to “imagine a new Jewish history written as the history of the Jews at the frontier, a history with no center; a history marked by the dynamics of change, confrontation, and accommodation; a history which focuses on the present and in which all participants are given voice. It is the place of the ‘migrant culture of the in-between.’“ Rather than a utopian vision, Bill Williams’ work has provided an example of how this ideal can be achieved in practice.

Ghil'ad Zuckermann, "Comparative Constructions in 'Israeli Hebrew'", Melilah 2006/2, pp.1-16.
PDF or Word

'Hebrew' is one of the official languages - with Arabic and English - of the State of Israel, established in 1948 on 20,770 km2 in the 'Middle' East. Israeli emerged at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. Its symbolic first native speaker, Itamar Ben-Yehuda, began speaking in 1886. Israeli is a fusional synthetic language, with non-concatenative discontinuous morphemes realised by vowel infixation. This typological paper demonstrates that the typical Israeli comparative construction involves a copula or verbless clause construction, with the 'Parameter' as copula complement (CC) or as a verbless clause complement (VCC). However, there is another mono-clausal comparative construction, in which the 'Index' of comparison is the main verb in an extended intransitive clause. Future research would demonstrate that Israeli comparatives correspond with Yiddish and 'Standard Average European', although the forms used are Hebrew.

2005

Rabbi Dr. Yehudah Abel, "The Plight of the 'Agunah and Conditional Marriage", Melilah 2005/1, pp.1-41.
PDF or Word

The debate over conditional marriage as a possible solution to the problem of ‘iggun receives relatively little attention from contemporary halakhic authorities. The issue is assumed to have been “put to sleep” by the opposition to the French and Turkish proposals of the early 20th century, as voiced in the responsa collected in ’Eyn Tenai Be-Nissu’in (1930) and despite the response to those arguments by R. Eliezer Berkovits in his Tenai Be-Nissu’in Uv-Get (1966). This paper provides a detailed summary and review of the arguments in those publications (which are not universally accessible). An analysis of further sources relevant to conditional marriage is being prepared, and will appear in a separate working paper.

Stephen M. Passamaneck, "Biblical Arsonists and Sabbath Firemen: Matters of Public Safety", Melilah 2005/2, pp.1-28.
PDF or Word

Fire was both a frequent and unwelcome visitor to all manner of human settlements, and until very recent times usually spelled large scale destruction and a heavy toll of dead and injured. Curiously, the Hebrew Bible clearly refers to the destructive power of fire, yet mentions its destructive capacity only once in a legal context, and takes no notice at all of the crime of arson which apparently appears in a few incidents in biblical narrative. Early rabbinic literature focuses on what sort of property may be saved from flames on the Sabbath, when the law forbids both the kindling and the extinction of fire. Obviously, fire is no respecter of Jewish law and the ruling against extinguishing flames on the Sabbath – except where human life was in clear danger – went through a long and slow process of transformation, until firefighting was no longer forbidden. This article examines that transformation over the centuries.

Bill Williams, "'Displaced Scholars': Refugees at the University of Manchester", Melilah 2005/3, pp.1-29.
PDF or Word

The paper explores the responses of one institution of higher learning in Britain, the University of Manchester, to those academics and students displaced by the rise of European Fascism and particularly by the discriminatory polices of the Nazi regime. Drawing on material in the Vice Chancellor’s Archive at the University it assesses the degree to which the undoubtedly liberal intentions of the University hierarchy, which found expression in the formation of a Joint Committee of Council and Senate on Assistance to Foreign Scholars (JCAFS), were complicated by its willingness to work within the restrictions on alien immigrants imposed by the British state, by considerations of self-interest and by the innate elitism of the Manchester academy. In doing so, it examines the membership and selection procedures the JCAFS, the sources of its funds, its relationship to the national Academic Assistance Council, and its achievements in terms of the scholars and scholarship attracted to the University and, through it, to the British and American academies. The Vice-Chancellor’s archive also makes it possible to assess the consequences of the Anglo-German student exchange scheme of which the university was a party and the degree to which the University co-operated with the International Student Service (ISS) in finding places for students whose hopes had been dashed by the rise of Fascism. One theme throughout the paper is the extent to which University policies were influenced by the Jewish origins of most displaced academics and students.

2004

Bernard S. Jackson, "Agunah and the Problem of Authority: Directions for Future Research", Melilah 2004/1, pp.1-78.
PDF or Word

This paper provides a preliminary analysis of the issues to be researched by the Agunah Research Unit at the University of Manchester, which seeks a global solution to the halakhic problems of the agunah (mesurevet get). Frequently, halakhic resistance to change appears to be based on historical claims which appear questionable in the light of research into halakhic history. Thus terminative conditions, commencing with one discussed by R. Yose in the Jerusalem Talmud, appear to have been used from time to time, despite the maxim eyn t’nai benisu’in. There is a variant reading of Amemar’s ruling on the wife proclaiming ma’us alay in Ketubot 63b, according to which he appears to have been willing to coerce the husband. The nature of the coercion practised by the Geonim in favour of the moredet may well have amounted to the Rosh’s later description of that practice as amounting to annulment. The extent of Rabbenu Tam’s opposition to the measures of the Geonim is unclear, in the light of apparently contradictory statements in the Sefer Hayashar. Such historical claims have to be viewed in the context of the authority structure of the halakhah, and in particular such questions as the status of the demand for consensus, the application of the principle of (and exceptions to) hilkheta kebatr’ai and the theological arguments advanced against reliance on new manuscript discoveries. The paper concludes with an outline argument for a multi-faceted approach, combining conditions, coercion and annulment, and exploiting the possibilities for leniency opened by the doctrine of sfek sfeika.

Rocco Bernasconi, "Reasons for Norms in Mishnaic Discourse: Some Formal, Functional, and Conceptual Observations", Melilah 2004/2, pp.1-61.
PDF or Word

The Mishnah does not generally account for the validity of its legal provisions, yet, occasionally reasons or warrants are given. This thesis tries to explore, classify and analyse the reasons encountered in seven sample tractates. Within these limits, the thesis attempts to identify formal and functional classifications of different kinds of reasons, based on literary-synchronic investigation. For the initial analysis of the Mishnaic text, a classification of reasons distinguishes them according to their grammatical, syntactical and argumentative traits. As for reason type, one can find ‘dependent’ and ‘independent’ reasons: the former quotes Scripture, a ma’aseh, or a minhag, while the latter articulates directly some fact or observation which is logically related to the apodosis (or protasis). It is also possible to distinguish between arguments and types of reasons in that a single argument may possibly carry various kinds of explanation (e.g. linguistic, legal, or factual). The second section describes the co-textual and contextual relations in which Mishnaic reasons stand to the hypothetical legal cases, and their function within the discourse. An attempt to conceptualise the Mishnaic activity of ‘giving reasons’ leads me to pose the following wider questions: 1. How is the reason formally expressed? 2. Does the reason increase or limit the range of application of the protasis (or of the apodosis)? 3. What is the type of argument used in support of the reason? 4. What kind of explanation does the reason, seen in the context of its argument provide? 5. What type of norm is explained by the reason? 6. Is the reason provided a final reason or does it call, in the way in which it is formulated, for further interpretation or expansion?

Daniel R. Langton, "A Question of Backbone: Comparing Christian Influences upon the Origins of Reform and Liberal Judaism in England", Melilah 2004/3, pp.1-47.
PDF or Word

The late British historian David Englander once described the Judaism practiced by the acculturated upper classes of nineteenth-century British Jewry as “an invertebrate religion”. It was, he explained, “deficient in doctrine, without rigour in ritual, and lacking spiritual warmth.” Many contemporary Jews would have agreed with his assessment and the emergence of Reform Judaism in 1840 and of Liberal Judaism some 70 years later can be viewed as attempts to remedy the situation, to inject some backbone in the religious belief and practice of the Anglo-Jewish community. Without wishing to detract from a range of other historical and sociological explanations, one very significant factor for such developments was the internalisation of Christian criticism of Judaism, and it will be from this angle that the respective beginnings of these two institutions will be compared. The first half will recount and synthesize existing scholarly explanations of early Reform Judaism. It will explore its origins, the impact of the evangelical Christian critique of Judaism, and attempts to reform Reform Judaism. The second half, reflecting the dearth of existing scholarship, will look in greater detail at the development of early Liberal Judaism. It will explore the idea of Liberal Judaism as an alternative to Orthodoxy and Reform, controversies regarding Christian infuences, and the liberal Anglican impact of the Christian critique of Judaism.