Valley Beit Midrash

Professor Rachel Rubinstein, professor of American literature and Jewish studies at Hampshire College, presents her lecture "Contextualizing Antisemitism on College Campuses" before an audience at Congregation Or Tzion (www.congregationortzion.org) in Scottsdale, AZ. ABOUT THIS LECTURE: How did Jewish immigrants to the United States imagine themselves at home in their new country? How did Jews identify with “America”? The figure of the imaginary Indian has long functioned in the American cultural imagination as an object both of vilification and romantic longing, frequently in relation to governmental policies towards actual Native tribes and communities. It is not surprising then that the figure of the American Indian loomed large in the Jewish imagination as well. This lecture describes a long and varied history of Jewish immigrant fascination with the indigenous peoples of the Americas, seeing in them a mirror for Jews’ own anxieties about tribal and national belonging. Ranging across multiple languages,