How much Latin should a rabbi know? State finance and rabbinical education in nineteenth-century France

In 1829, the French government authorized the establishment of anofficial national rabbinical academy charged with creating amodern French rabbinate that would facilitate the integration ofFrench Jewry. The most effective method of achieving this goal,however, remained the subject of continuous debate, both withinthe government and within the Jewish Consistory (the officialJewish administration of France) which oversaw the school operation. State involvementintensified after 1831, when the government assumed theresponsibility for the Jewish religious budget. Thereafter, therabbinical school budget depended upon the government's politicaland financial support. Under these circumstances, the Jewish administration neededto pay careful attention to government expectations for theschool and its students. The study of Latin and Greekconstituted one of the focal points for debate between theConsistory and the State, and generated discussion within bothgovernment and Jewish circles. Rabbinical students studiedclassical languages as a regular part of their education; thedegree of emphasis placed upon these subjects, however, variedover time. This article argues that the Latin issue gainedgreater importance as a result of the financial relationshipbetween Judaism and State in nineteenth-century France, and thatthis relationship gave the State considerable leverage in shapingthe curriculum at the French rabbinical school. For schooladministrators, these political and budgetary issues necessitateda course of study delicately balanced between government andJewish ideological goals and the practical realities of running arabbinical school.     

RELIGION FOR THE SECULAR

This article introduces two national religious‐oriented (dati‐le’umi) organizations that have emerged within Israeli society since the 1990s. Neither has openly called for the dismantling of the state rabbinate. Nevertheless, they challenge central aspects of its hegemony over religious life. Both are independent initiatives whose main mandate is to provide the average non‐observant Israeli with an alternative address for religious guidance and services. Beyond engendering a re‐conceptualization of the nature of the rabbinate in Israel, the article suggests that these new frameworks offer a window into broader realignments that began to emerge at the turn of the twenty‐first century both in regard to the relationship of the secular population to religion and within Israeli national religious Orthodoxy.     

Creating a taste for news: Historicizing Judeo-Spanish periodicals of the Ottoman Empire

This essay explores the cultural impact of Judeo-Spanish periodicalspublished in the Ottoman capital in the late nineteenth century andsituates this literary milieu within the political landscape of lateimperial Ottoman Jewish culture. In particular, it examines El Amigode la Familiya, an instructional journal published from 1881 to1886 by David Fresco, editor of the Judeo-Spanish daily ElTiempo (1872–1933). El Amigo de la Familiya, likeEl Tiempo, supported the Alliance Israélite Universelleand, in the spirit of this educational organization, encouraged readersto adopt the language and habits of the French bourgeoisie. To this end,El Amigo de la Familiya translated instructional literaturefrom contemporary French periodicals: advice on the grooming ofthe body, on child rearing and nutrition, on proper gender roles. Bytranslating such articles into Judeo-Spanish, El Amigo de laFamiliya produced a cultural synthesis that was neither French,Ottoman, nor (at least in so far as it has traditionally been defined)Jewish. The journal reveals, instead, a cultural landscape that was theunique product of late imperial Ottoman Jewry: the expression of aform of Jewishness and a form of acculturation unparalleled in Europe.     

The Increasing Reliance on Ritual Handbooks in Pre–Print Era Ashkenaz

Handbooks devoted to a single area of ritual practice figure prominently among the works produced by German Jews from the thirteenth century to the fifteenth. These handbooks include minhagim books intended primarily as liturgical guides for cantors and manuals for other types of communal functionaries, such as scribes and ritual slaughterers. Historians typically associate minhagim books with the post–Black Death period and the desire to provide guidance during a time of decline for German Jewry. Similarly, the flourishing of halakhic manuals is considered a fourteenth-century phenomenon, a result of the rabbinate’s professionalization. However, these explanations are insufficient since both genres emerged earlier. This article links the production of ritual handbooks to two trends: geographic mobility and a more text-oriented culture. Between the thirteenth century and the fifteenth, major changes in German Jewish settlement patterns disrupted the transmission of ritual practice and led to a need for practical guides. The proliferation of ritual handbooks was also related to the increase in Ashkenazic society—as in medieval Europe generally—in the production of written texts. These texts included liturgical genres and practical halakhic works, some of which served as sources for the handbooks. However, the handbooks tend to be more accessible than their predecessors and to include more practical details. The proliferation of late medieval ritual handbooks demonstrates that changes typically associated with the advent of print, including a growing reliance on written sources for practical information and a move toward the standardization of ritual practice, began to emerge in earlier centuries.     

Social and religious controls in pre-revolutionary France: The beginnings of modernity

Focusing on social and religious controls enacted by the kehillotof northeastern France in the ancien régime, this articleexamines the dynamics of social change in the century precedingthe Revolution. At the heart of this study is the propositionthat Metz and Alsace represent two distinct frameworks in whichthe encounter of Jewish tradition and modernity can be observed. The sumptuary laws issued by the Metz community in 1690–1697 and in1769 reflect the efforts of an increasingly powerful urban laityto assert its authority over a declining rabbinate. Sumptuarylegislation was used as a tool to freeze the existing socialhierarchy and exclude from the communal power structure a youngergeneration whose wealth was derived from new commercialopportunities. Acknowledging that certain cultural changes werean inevitable consequence of the expanding mercantile economy,lay leaders endeavored to limit conspicuous consumption, curb theinsubordination of youth, and legislate standards of moral andreligious behavior. An analysis of the takkanot ratified by theprovincial assemblies of Alsace in the 1770s reveals severalimportant differences. The Alsatian legislation reflected moretraditional concerns about the influence of the surroundingvillage culture and the potentially harmful impact of modernityon moral and religious life; neither consumption nor classdivisions were mentioned. In rural Alsace, where the social,cultural, and economic milieu differed sharply from Metz, thecommunal leadership was far more aggressive in its efforts tostrengthen rabbinic authority and religious institutions. Thecomparison between the urban and rural settings suggests thatthere is a correlation between economic condition and religious change, and that modernization, at least in its preliminary stage, wasalready underway well before the advent of civic emancipation.     

Response to Abrusán,Shaw, and Elbourne

In my book Category Mistakes (OUP 2013), I discuss a range of potential accounts of category mistakes and defend a pragmatic, presuppositional account of the phenomenon. Three commentators discuss the book: Márta Abrusán focuses on a comparison between my book and Asher’s Lexical Meaning in Context, suggesting that Asher’s theory has the advantage of accounting not only for category mistakes, but also for additional phenomena such as so-called ‘coertion’ and ‘co-predication’. I argue that Asher’s account of all three phenomena is deficient, and, moreover, that it is far from clear that the latter two phenomena are related to that of category mistakes. James Shaw challenges two of my arguments against the MBT view. I respond to these challenges. Paul Elbourne provides a novel argument in support of my account of category mistakes, involving multi-sentence discourses and ERP experiments. I show that it is not entirely straightforward for my account to explain this data, but that his argument does ultimately provide support for my view.     

Biology and the Jewish question after the revolution: one Soviet approach to the productivization of Jewish labor

In the 1920s a group of health professionals and biologists in the Soviet Union embraced the nascent eugenics movement in order to justify the promotion of physical labor among Jews. Eugenics offered a scientific approach to solving the “Jewish question” through the productivization of Soviet Jewry. Drawing upon the work of Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, this group linked the settlement of Jews on the land to the belief that the physiognomy of Jews engaged in physical labor would be genetically passed on to their offspring. The goal was to overcome the perceived debilitating psychological and physical traits of shtetl Jewry by mobilizing Soviet Jewry for the building of socialism. By the late 1920s, however, eugenics fell victim to the Kremlin’s materialist conception of human society that emphasized social engineering and voluntarism and excluded biological influences on the transformation of Soviet society.     

Exploring the Ethical Aspects of Leadership: From a Korean Perspective

Theories of ethical leadership provide important insights about the effect of leader’s ethics on the relationship between leaders and followers. However, there is an increasing demand for addressing key constructs that enhance the capacity to explain theoretical aspects of ethical leadership. The purpose of this study is to expand the theoretical framework of ethical leadership based on Korean traditional leadership by focusing on personal cultivation, morality, and social responsibility. Using a framework of intrapersonal process as leadership and core value and competence as components of leadership, this study examines the ethical aspects of Korean traditional leadership and provides the implications to further develop the theory of ethical leadership. It is found that ethical integrity ensued from sugi (self-cultivation) is an essential precondition to develop leadership, and the core value of ethical leadership includes Zhixin-Chijing (cultivation of the mind and internal piety) and the competence consists of both Ipzhi (setting a solid self-vision/establishing goal) and Silsim (practical mind, grasp changes in reality with a sound mind) in Korean traditional leadership that contributes to expanding the theoretical understanding of ethical leadership. Implications for future research in the area of ethical leadership are discussed.     

CONCEPTIONS OF IDOLATRY AND SECULAR ART IN CHAIM POTOK'S ASHER LEV NOVELS

This article analyses changing perceptions regarding idolatry and secular art in two major Jewish-American novels: Chaim Potok's My Name Is Asher Lev (1972) and The Gift of Asher Lev (1990). The analysis focuses on the ways in which Potok subverts, recasts, and reinterprets several key tropes from the intertextual reservoir of Judaic culture, along the lines of emphatically American concerns, in order to transform traditionally discursive rejections of visual art into affirmative themes for creative endeavours and spiritual renewal in Jewish-American life. In particular, this study demonstrates how the major didactic component in Potok's re-envisioning of Judaism's long-standing association of the visual arts with idolatry stems from the author's advocacy of the tenets of the American branch of Conservative Judaism, according to which the best aspects of modern secular culture are to be integrated with a non-literalist view toward conventional religious principles.     

French Halakhic Tradition in the Late Middle Ages

This study examines the legal writings of the two leading rabbinic figures in French Jewry in the mid-fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. It characterizes their legal and Talmudic methodology and argues that fifteenth- and sixteenth-century French scholars in Italy were generally following in the footsteps of their predecessors in France. Furthermore, it argues for the ongoing existence of a uniquely French subtradition within the larger Ashkenazic tradition in the late Middle Ages.     

Leadership styles and occupational stress among college athletic directors: the moderating effect of program goals

The interaction between an individual's abilities and the perceived demands of the workplace appears to make a unique contribution to job-related stress above and beyond that of dispositional or situational factors alone (R. S. Lazarus, 1990). In the present study, the author evaluated this contention among 245 male intercollegiate athletic directors by assessing the combined influence of leadership style and program goals on occupational stress. Regression analyses revealed the presence of both significant main effects and interaction effects of leadership style and program goals in the prediction of emotional exhaustion, daily job stress, and personal accomplishment. Findings are discussed in terms of person-environment fit theory (J. R. P. French, R. D. Caplan, & R. V. Harrison, 1982) and the notion of perceived control within the occupational setting.     

The Montreal Jewish Community and the Holocaust

In 1933 Hitler and the Nazi party came to power in Germany. At the same time, in Canada in general and in Montreal in particular, anti-Semitism was becoming more widespread. The Canadian Jewish Congress, as a result of the growing tension in Europe and the increase in anti-Semitism at home, was reborn in 1934 and became the authoritative voice of Canadian Jewry. During World War II the Nazis embarked on a campaign that resulted in the systematic extermination of millions of Jews. This article focuses on the Montreal Jewish community, its leadership, and their response to the fate of European Jewry. The study pays particular attention to the Canadian Jewish Congress which influenced the outlook of the community and its subsequent actions. As the war progressed, loyalty to Canada and support for the war effort became the overriding issues for the community and the leadership and concern for their European brethren faded into the background.     

Motivated or Demotivated to Be Creative: The Role of Self‐Regulatory Focus in Transformational and Transactional Leadership Processes

Numerous studies have recognised the importance of transformational leadership style for encouraging employees’ creativity. Self‐regulation studies have highlighted the influence of a promotion focus on employees’ creative behaviours. Yet both leadership and self‐regulation theories have paid less attention to the role transactional leadership style and situational prevention regulatory focus may play in affecting employees’ creativity. In this article we present a theoretical model which examines transformational and transactional leadership styles and both promotion and prevention situational self‐regulatory focus (SRF). The model suggests that while transformational leadership promotes creativity, at least partially by enhancing follower's situational promotion SRF, transactional leadership style (transactional active) is aligned with followers’ prevention situational SRF, which is associated with leaders’ hindering of followers’ creativity. Findings from two studies, an experimental study (N = 189) and a field study (N = 343 employees and 75 managers), support this model, showing that the relationship between different types of leadership and creativity are more complex than previously regarded. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Educating Evolutionary Co-Leadership to Embody a Radically New Development Paradigm

The purpose here is to explore why and how to develop an emerging form of integral leadership—called evolutionary co-leadership—that is responsibly dedicated to the co-evolution of life and humanity on Planet Earth. After offering some fresh distinctions about leadership, this article calls for a shift to a radically new development paradigm, and identifies key qualities and practices of evolutionary co-leadership. It then shares some views on the multiplying effects of an integral approach to co-leadership development—in the context of transforming education—and concludes with some avenues to disseminate this emerging leadership form, mainly to deal constructively with what Barbara Marx Hubbard (2001) calls the current “birthing pains” of a new civilization.     

BEYOND BAIS YA'AKOV: ORTHODOX OUTREACH AND THE EMERGENCE OF HAREDI WOMEN AS RELIGIOUS LEADERS

The twentieth century witnessed an array of fresh models of Jewish women's educational and religious leadership. Quite understandably, the majority of the scholarly focus has been on burgeoning egalitarian trends featured in the new roles for women within liberal Jewish denominations and among the Modern Orthodox. Yet increased appreciation for gendered perspectives within Jewish studies has also led to recognition that seemingly conventional female roles, once viewed as purely supportive in nature, have evolved into platforms for voicing uniquely feminine styles of Jewish authority. This article offers an initial portrayal and analysis of a relatively new phenomenon: the American female non-hasidic Haredi outreach activist. It does so, first, by locating these figures within overall trends of American Haredi Jewry as well as in relation to the broader phenomenon of Orthodox feminism. The central contention is that inasmuch as American Haredi Orthodoxy vehemently opposes many of the changes advanced by the Modern Orthodox sector, a “silent” revolution is actually taking place within its own elite frameworks. The instigation for the emergence of new religious leadership roles for Haredi women is the increasing focus of this sector on outreach to the non-observant, and the recognition that woman can be especially effective in these capacities. Yet such activities demand types of public behavior, often in mixed gender settings, that are inconsistent with the messages of strict modesty put forward within Haredi female education. Moreover, some of the female Haredi figures have begun to advance the notion that their functions are not merely vehicles for increasing engagement with Judaism, but actually represent a new empowered model of Orthodox women's leadership and activism.     

All for us and us for all: Introducing the 5R Shared Leadership Program

While most leadership programs seek to develop the leadership qualities of the formal team leader, programs that aim to develop the leadership qualities of team members are rare. This article draws on insights from organisational and sport psychology to develop and introduce a new leadership development program — the 5R Shared Leadership Program (5R^S) — that (1) implements a structure of shared leadership (through Shared Leadership Mapping) and (2) further develops participants’ leadership potential (through the 5R’s of Readying, Reflecting, Representing, Realising, and Reporting). More specifically, being a close intertwinement of shared leadership theorising and the social identity approach to leadership, 5R^S helps leaders in the team to create, embody, advance, and embed a collective sense of ‘us’ in their teams. In this article, we aim to shed light on the underpinning theoretical foundation of 5R^S, while also sharing insights about how 5R^S can be delivered in practice. Furthermore, to provide initial insight into the applicability of 5R^S in both organisational and sport contexts, we conducted a longitudinal qualitative comparison study. This involved collecting qualitative data from two initial implementations: with an organisational team (N = 16) and a sport team (N = 16). A critical reflection on these initial implementations of 5R^S leads to recommendations for future efforts to develop shared leadership in organisational and sporting teams. In particular, we highlight the importance of explaining the nature of shared leadership at the start of the program and of having multiple follow-up sessions for participants. In conclusion, by helping leaders in the team to develop and mobilise a sense of ‘us-ness’, 5R^S gives leaders and their teams the tools to create the best possible version of ‘us’.     

Limits of authenticity: How organizational politics bound the positive effects of authentic leadership on follower satisfaction and performance

The authentic leadership paradigm has been widely advocated as an effective leadership approach for organizations interested in promoting positive and ethical leader—member relations. Despite accumulating evidence concerning the positive follower effects of authentic leadership, research examining potential boundary conditions remains limited. The political influence theoretical perspective promises to shed new light on the effects of authentic leadership by proposing that authentic leadership may be less effective in political contexts, bounding its positive operation on followers. Specifically, we anticipate that organizational politics will erode the motivational power of authentic leaders on followers, reducing their ability to engender positive performance contributions in followers. We also predict that organizational politics will weaken the positive relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction by reducing the ability of employees to realize their goals at work. To explore these theoretical assertions, we incorporated a two-study functional replication (n₁ = 265; n₂ = 175) to ascertain how authentic leadership and organizational politics impact follower job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and task performance. We find that organizational politics consistently weaken the positive effects of authentic leadership on follower OCB across two studies. Furthermore, in Study 2, our findings suggest that organizational politics attenuate the positive impact of authentic leadership on follower job satisfaction and task performance. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.     

Investigating occupational well-being and leadership from a person-centred longitudinal approach: congruence of well-being and perceived leadership

The overall objective of this longitudinal study was to investigate the association between perceived leadership and employee well-being from a person-centred approach utilizing the principles of the conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44, 513–524; Hobfoll, S. E. (2002). Social and psychological resources and adaptation. Review of General Psychology, 6, 307–324). First, we aimed to identify latent classes (i.e., subgroups) of employees that demonstrated similar mean levels of stability and change in occupational well-being (i.e., vigour and emotional exhaustion) across a mean time-lag of 14 months. Second, we ascertained whether employees in the latent well-being classes differed in their ratings of transformational, authentic, and abusive leadership behaviours across time. Self-report data were obtained from Finnish employees (N = 262, 88% women) working in a variety of municipal jobs. Using factor mixture modelling, four latent well-being classes were identified, indicating good (79%), low (10%), improving (8%), and deteriorating (3%) well-being. Congruence in both level and change of well-being and perceived leadership was found. That is, employees with better well-being across time reported more favourable leadership behaviours at both time points, and changes in employee well-being were reflected as changes in perceived leadership. The close relationship between perceived leadership and well-being is discussed from both a leader-centric (leadership as a resource) and a follower-centric (well-being as a resource) perspective.     

“Two Jews walk into a Coffeehouse”: the “Jewish question,” utility, and political participation in late eighteenth-century Livorno

This article examines the distinct ways in which the Jewish condition was perceived during the Enlightenment in the port city of Livorno, arguing that the privileged status of certain mercantile Jewish communities could be a force for conservatism and not necessarily a trigger of emancipation. On the basis of literary and governmental sources, including the little-known ironic philosophical dialogue Les Juifs (Livorno, 1786), and an analysis of Tuscan municipal reforms, it appears that Livorno offers an alternative model of integration to the better-known Prussian and French cases. The Tuscan government and intellectual elite did not consider the useful Livornese minority in need either “to be improved” or better “integrated into society,” and thus the Enlightenment critiques of Jewish society typical of French and Prussian reformers and the calls for Jewish self-improvement that characterized the Haskalah are not applicable to Livorno. However, the notion of utility that defined the Livornese community during the Old Regime was not a station on the road to emancipation. Jewish utility in Livorno did not bring about greater civil rights for individual Livornese Jews. Rather in both function and perception, it contributed to the arrested political integration of Livornese Jewry in the 1780s compared to events in all other Tuscan Jewish communities