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A study on Philip Roth's fiction: Crisis of Jewish identity (필립 로스의 "포트노이씨 병" 연구: 유대적 정체성의 위기)

  • Baek, Nak-Seung
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.12 no.3
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    • pp.211-226
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    • 2006
  • This paper examines the crisis of the protagonist's Jewish identity in Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint. Jewish values are centered on the philosophy of Judaism and Jewish history. Judaism is based on an ethical monotheism which is Bible-centered. It is characterized by its covenant with God, its humanism, and its emphasis on moral action. It provides essential reasons for man's existence and stresses human confidence and sufficiency. Jewish values can be found in words such as "good," "humanity," "dignity," "responsibility," and "sense of community." These positive Jewish values pervade Philip Roth's fiction paradoxically. Throughout especially Portnoy's Complaint, the protagonist fails to embrace Jewish values in contrast to Bellow or Malamud's heroes and repeat the same mistakes eliciting fits of laughter from readers. The protagonist suffers from his strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses perpetually warring with his extreme sexual longings against which he struggles. His desperation grows as he finds himself unable to channel his dissatisfaction and change his situations. His dominating mother and his confusion over Jewishness and Americanism are the main obstacles to his establishment of self-identity. He attempts to build up his gender identity and Jewish identity through his ego-centric sexual relationship with shikses(female gentiles). His inability to embody Jewish values leads to the failure to fulfill his identity. Roth paradoxically shows that the protagonist's realization of Jewishness is essential to the cure for his fragmented self.

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A Study on the Comparison of Design Concepts in Libeskind's Jewish Museums (리베스킨트의 유태인 박물관에 나타난 건축 개념 비교에 관한 연구)

  • Chung, Tae-Yong
    • Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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    • v.21 no.2
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    • pp.46-55
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    • 2012
  • This study aims to analyze the design concepts of Libeskind's Jewish museums through their comparisons for figuring out his design intentions and characteristics in the realization process. Libeskind's realized four Jewish museums are chosen for this study. For more concrete study, their extracting and application process are also reviewed. The comparison of his museum designs can be good examples in that they show different design approaches on the same architectural type, Jewish museum, to tell their something in common from differences. He could realize his architectural thoughts and configuration methods made by experimental drawings for the first time as real buildings through a series of Jewish museum projects. The commonness of Libeskind's Jewish museums lie on their sharing design concept of Jewish 'history and memory', especially Holocaust, and realized as in contrast to surroundings and 'labyrinth' of spatial configuration to maximize spectator's experiences. As Libeskind regards museum architecture as a carrier of 'time and place', he tried to reflect surrounding context including places, cities, persons and events about museum programs. As a result, unprecedented museums which are not related to traditional museum systems about circulation and spatial configuration are suggested for users to experience Jewish life and history through architecture.

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A Study on Cultural Identities of Jewish Immigrants from Former Soviet Union in Israel : Focused on the Language Use and Acceptance of Religion of the Newcomers who immigrated during the 1990s (이스라엘의 구소련 유대인 이주자들의 문화정체성 연구 - 1990년대 이주한 뉴커머들의 언어 사용과 종교 수용을 중심으로)

  • Choi, A-Young
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.38
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    • pp.297-329
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    • 2015
  • Since 1989 about one million Jews from Former Soviet Union have immigrated to Israel. Now Russian speaking Jews are the second largest ethnic groups after the Israeli Jews who were born in Israel. Although FSU Jews have returned to their ethnic homeland, they continue to live as 'foreigners' due to a cultural distance between sending and receiving society, such as, lack of knowledge about Jewish tradition and religious practice and low level of Hebrew proficiency. Because of this reason FSU immigrants tend to continue remain strong ties with Russian language and culture. There are several reasons for such a relatively slow process of language shift of FSU Jewish immigrants, the language shift to Hebrew. Firstly, majority of FSU immigrants moved to Israel since the 1990s are older than 45. Secondly, their first residences in Israel are mostly located in small and mid-sized cities, where the proportion of Russian speaking immigrants is more than 30%. And finally they consider Russian culture is 'superior' to Israel's Levantine culture. For many Jewish diasporic communities, Judaism was a dominant factor for self-consciousness, but because of Soviet regime, aimed to break all the religious institution including Jewish, Soviet Jewry was uprooted from their religious traditions. Besides about 30% of FSU immigrants are not defined as Jews by the Jewish religious law(Halakhah). And many of them are reluctant to convert to Judaism. FSU Jewish immigrant agree that Israel must be a Jewish state, but for them 'Jewish' does not include religious elements. FSU immigrants consider that religious affiliation of citizens of Israel should not affect their civic rights.

A Study on Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin viewed from critical theory (비판이론을 통해서 본 리베스킨트의 베를린 유태인 박물관 연구)

  • Lee, Kyoung-Chang
    • Journal of architectural history
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    • v.24 no.3
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    • pp.7-16
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    • 2015
  • It is not easy to clarify the historical perspective of architect through his architecture. Exceptional cases, it will be the time to design a history museum. As an institution, a Museum already became an apparatus to represent the history to it itself. Libeskind's Jewish museum Berlin has been presented as the controversial case most of all. In particular, in that it instead of dealing with history positive, that contains a tragic history, this building is a building that history a unique interpretation of the architect has been a problem. Therefore, it is difficult to find a suitable example to Libeskind's Jewish museum in Berlin to try and look at the problem of the history of contemporary history and interpretation of the architect. In this paper, I am trying to interpret Libeskind's Jewish Museum Berlin through the aesthetics and history philosophy of Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin. They are Jewish and the central figures of the Frankfurt School, known as 'critical theorists'. Their critical theory was formed based on the experience of the Jewish genocide and war.

A Study on the Characteristics of the Design Expression in the Exhibition Spaces of the Jewish Museums (유대인 뮤지엄 전시공간의 조형적 표현 특성에 관한 연구)

  • Suh, Swoo Kyung
    • Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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    • v.22 no.6
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    • pp.233-240
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    • 2013
  • Today, museums are designed with specific purposes with themes to raise issues based on themes, history, culture or other special focuses. Among many of these thematic museums, Jewish museums are built around the world in order to let the future generations know the history and dark past memory of the Jewish people. Accordingly, the aim and significance of this study are to analyze the characteristics of design expressions of the museum architecture of Jewish museums done by various architects to help visitors empathize the dark period of the Jews during the holocaust. This particular study will be focused on analyzing 7 museums under the theme of holocaust and Jewish people's life affected because of the tragic event. Spatial organization, exhibition space composition, exhibition techniques such as the exhibition storytelling or scenario and natural light distribution will be analyzed to find expressional characters of Jewish museum's design and how the design form strengthen the museum's purpose. To achieve the aim of the study, targets for the theoretical discussion and case analysis regarding the design approach are discussed in chapter 2, characteristics of the cases are analyzed and synthesized in chapter 3, and finally the conclusion in chapter 4. The study found, that distinctive characters of spatial expression have direct impact on visitor's understanding of the museum purpose and it helps viewers to empathize and to be educated about the situation. Well designed architectural form, spatial organization, choice of materials and colors as well as story telling techniques of the museum will solidify the meaning of the exhibitions inside. Results found in the study will be the guidance for future study on thematic museum planning.

Characterization of Immune Cells From the Lungs of Patients With Chronic Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria or Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection

  • Alan R. Schenkel;John D. Mitchell;Carlyne D. Cool;Xiyuan Bai;Steve Groshong;Tilman Koelsch;Deepshikha Verma;Diane Ordway;Edward D. Chan
    • IMMUNE NETWORK
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    • v.22 no.3
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    • pp.27.1-27.13
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    • 2022
  • Little is known of the lung cellular immunophenotypes in patients with non-tuberculous mycobacterial lung disease (NTM-LD). Flow-cytometric analyses for the major myeloid and lymphoid cell subsets were performed in less- and more-diseased areas of surgically resected lungs from six patients with NTM-LD and two with Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung disease (PsA-LD). Lymphocytes, comprised mainly of NK cells, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and B cells, accounted for ~60% of all leukocytes, with greater prevalence of T and B cells in more-diseased areas. In contrast, fewer neutrophils were found with decreased number in more-diseased areas. Compared to NTM-LD, lung tissues from patients with PsA-LD demonstrated relatively lower numbers of T and B lymphocytes but similar numbers of NK cells. While this study demonstrated a large influx of lymphocytes into the lungs of patients with chronic NTM-LD, further analyses of their phenotypes are necessary to determine the significance of these findings.

A Study on Restitution Activities of Germany's Libraries to Overcome the Past: Jewish Book Collection (과거사 극복을 위한 독일도서관의 도서반환 활동에 관한 연구 - 유대인 장서를 중심으로 -)

  • Ro, Moon-Ja
    • Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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    • v.41 no.2
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    • pp.273-295
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    • 2010
  • Germany has started restitution process for most of collections from its occupied countries after World War II which was strongly led by the United Nations. However, this process did not include many of the plundered Jewish collections. In 1989, restitution for the Jewish's properties confiscated by the Nazis became important international issue with success in Jewish material claims against Germany in the U.S and Europe countries after German unification. German libraries has still possessed collections sequestered by the Nazis from 1933 to 1945. With Washington conference on holocaust-era assets in 1998, libraries began to sympathize with restoration of their Jewish confiscated collections. In present, by identifying the provenance of those collections at primary level, German librarians focus on various restitution activities for those collections in order to introspect and overcome their past. Specifically, the libraries publish the practical guidebook of studies on the provenance identification and open the database for the pillaged collections to the public. Few libraries start to restore the collections, but the numbers of the restituted collections are still insignificant.

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Breast Cancer in Bedouin-Arab Patients in Southern Israel: Epidemiologic and Biologic Features in Comparison with Jewish Patients

  • Lazarev, Irina;Flaschner, Maayan;Geffen, David B.;Ariad, Samuel
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.15 no.18
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    • pp.7533-7537
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    • 2014
  • Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent cancer type, and the leading cause of death from cancer among women in Israel. The Bedouin-Arab (BA) population in southern Israel is characterized by a high rate of consanguinity, common hereditary disorders, and transition from a semi-nomadic, traditional society to a more sedentary and urbanized society. In this hospital-based study, the demographic and the clinicopathological characteristics of BC in BA were compared with Jewish patients. Materials and Methods: 85 BA patients treated at the Soroka Medical Center, Beer Sheba, during the years 2004-2012, were studied and compared with 180 consecutive Jewish patients treated during the year 2007. Clinicopathological features compared included age, menopausal state, number of births, a history of BC in first-degree relatives, tumor size (T), extent of lymph-node involvement (N), distant metastases (M), stage, grade, estrogen and progesterone receptor (ER/PR), and Her2 status. Types of treatment, relapse rate and site, as well as outcome were also studied. Cox's regression models were applied for studying disease-free, and overall survival. Results: Compared with Jewish patients, BA patients were younger (average age $49{\pm}12$ yrs vs $59{\pm}13$, p<0.001), had a lower rate of BC in first-degree relatives (p<0.001), and a larger number of births ($6{\pm}4.2$ vs $2.5{\pm}1.9$, p<0.001). BA patients had larger tumors (p=0.02), more extensive lymph-node involvement (p=0.002), and more advanced stage (p=0.003). Grade, ER, PR, and Her2 status were similar in the two ethnic groups. Relapse type was most commonly systemic in BA patients (p=0.05), and loco-regional in Jewish patients (p=0.02). Median survival was 63, and 35 months for Jewish and BA patients, respectively (log-rank test, p=0.02). In Cox multivariate analysis, stage and PR status (HR-0.14, p<0.0001; HR-3.11, p=0.046), but not ethnicity, influenced overall survival. Conclusions: BC presents a decade earlier, and with more advanced disease in BA compared with Jewish patients. Biologic parameters including grade, ER, PR, and Her2 status were similar in both groups. Although prognosis was worse in BA than in Jewish patients, it was affected only by stage and PR status, but not by ethnicity.

A New Challenge to Korean American Religious Identity: Cultural Crisis in Korean American Christianity

  • Ro, Young-Chan
    • Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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    • v.18
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    • pp.53-79
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    • 2004
  • This paper explores the relationship between Korean immigrants to the United States and their religious identity from the cultural point of view. Most scholarly studies on Korean immigrants in the United States have been dominated by sociological approach and ethnic studies in examining the social dimension of the Korean immigrant communities while neglecting issues concerning their religious identity and cultural heritage. Most Korean immigrants to America attend Korean churches regardless their religious affiliation before they came to America. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the fact that Korean church has provided a necessary social service for the newly arrived immigrants. Korean churches have been able to play a key role in the life of Korean immigrants. Korean immigrants, however, have shown a unique aspect regarding their religious identity compared to other immigrants communities in the United States. America is a nation of immigrants, coming from different parts of the world. Each immigrant community has brought their unique cultural heritage and religious persuasion. Asian immigrants, for example, brought their own traditional religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism. People from the Middle Eastern countries brought Islamic faith while European Jews brought the Jewish tradition. In these immigrant communities, religious identity and cultural heritage were homo genously harmonized. Jewish people built synagogue and taught Hebrew, Jewish history, culture, and faith. In this case, synagogue was not only the house of worship for Jews but also the center for learning Jewish history, culture, faith, and language. In short, Jewish cultural history was intimately related to Jewish religious history; for Jewish immigrants, learning their social and political history was indeed identical with leaning of their religious history. The same can be said about the relationship between Indian community and Hinduism. Hindu temples serve as the center of Indian immigrantsin providing the social, cultural, and spiritual functions. Buddhist temples, for that matter, serve the same function to the people from the Asian countries. Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Tibetans, and Thais have brought their respective Buddhist traditions to America and practice and maintain both their religious faith and cultural heritage. Middle Eastern people, for example, have brought Islamic faith to the United States, and Mosques have become the center for learning their language, practicing their faith, and maintaining their cultural heritage. Korean immigrants, unlike any other immigrant group, have brought Christianity, which is not a Korean traditional religion but a Western religion they received in 18th and 19th centuries from the West and America, back to the United States, and church has become the center of their lives in America. In this context, Koreans and Korean-Americans have a unique situation in which they practice Christianity as their religion but try to maintain their non-Christian cultural heritage. For the Korean immigrants, their religious identity and cultural identity are not the same. Although Korean church so far has provides the social and religious functions to fill the need of Korean immigrants, but it may not be able to become the most effective institution to provide and maintain Korean cultural heritage. In this respect, Korean churches must be able to open to traditional Korean religions or the religions of Korean origin to cultivate and nurture Korean cultural heritage.

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"A Very Sudden Thing": Recapturing Cold War History in Philip Roth's American Pastoral

  • Lew, Seunggu
    • English & American cultural studies
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    • v.10 no.2
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    • pp.49-72
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    • 2010
  • As the first of Philip Roth's recent series of novels that delve into American Cold War history deeply entwined with the post-war Jewish American experience, American Pastoral traces the tragic fall of a third-generation Jewish American named Seymour "Swede" Levov, whose dream of complete assimilation to the post-ethnic American paradise is irrecoverably disrupted when his young daughter blows up the local post office to protest against the Vietnam War. This essay proposes to examine Swede Levov's interrupted pursuit of the American dream by locating it within specific Cold War contexts and national imaginaries propagated particularly during the years from John F. Kennedy to Lyndon B. Johnson. In so doing, I will argue that Roth presents a paradoxical vision of Jewish American identity that could be acquired by performing perpetual self-effacement and submergence into the non-place of anonymity and doubleness, a mythic location of the post-ethnic Cold War American family. Levov's life becomes true part of the mythic narrative of American history when he realizes that his life, just like the nation's history, is a series of temporalities radically discontinued without any manageable detour ot divine bypass to cross over. Rather than indicating Roth's retraction from the postmodern understanding of subjectivity, the novel's historical realism, I will argue, serves to illuminate the postmodern conditions of American Cold War history and ethnic identity.