• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.43
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• pp.377-404
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• 2016

In this paper, I intend to focus on the 1991 racial tension and violence portrayed in Anna Devear Smith's book Fires in the Mirror, which was published in book form in 1993. I make use of a series of interviews with many of those involved in the conflicts, which were based on the Jewish Holocaust and the history of African American enslavement. In Crown Heights, the black community and the Jewish community have each suffered terrible losses, but individuals and communities become rhetorically attached to foundational historical traumas that lie at the center of each group's cultural identity rather than try to understand each other's pain. Smith lets this rhetoric dominate Fires in the Mirror by putting contradictory monologues side by side in order to show how discourses on 'slavery' and 'the Holocaust' still have control over specific ethnic communities. My intention is not to delve into the conflict between the Jewish and black communities exclusively. Rather, I attempt to form an understanding of the problems of the critical/theoretical tenets proposed by 'the rhetoric of holocaust,' including the Jewish Holocaust and the black experience of enslavement. Such an understanding will help us see the failure in the theories, illuminating the ways that such rhetoric should have recognized its own violence and helped to forge a new relationship between racism and anti-Semitism. Fires in the Mirror mirrors back to us the ways that 'the Holocaust' betrays the possibility of error to indicate its own susceptibility to blindness. The cracks brought forth by conflicting narratives enable readers to observe wounds being healed and the possibility of new narrative looming up.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.64
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• pp.109-144
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• 2020

In the 21st century, Our Korean churches should be reborn and truly restored in the situation korean churches have been criticized socially and adversely affected Christian missions. In this situation, the researcher analyzed the Zeraim(Agriculture) of the Jewish scripture Talmud as an alternative to solving the problems of the Korean church. In order to achieve the purpose of this research, the background of the emergence of Talmud, the main contents of Talmud Zeraim, and the application of Talmud Zeraim's Christian education were divided and analyzed. Through the Jewish Talmud Zeraim, five possibilities of application were suggested to solve the problems of Korean churches. First, it is a Christian education for a blessed life. Second, it is a Christian education that pursues social justice, life, and integrity of creation. Third, it is Christian education for a life that appreciates God's grace. Fourth, it is a Christian education for realizing the commandments and practicing the teachings. Fifth, it is a Christian education that pursues conventional spirituality. Researchers believe that the mission and direction of Christian education without losing their identity and faith under the numerous hardships in history should be found in the faith and life of Jews who have regained their traditional spirituality centered on the law (Torah) and Talmud which are the God's words. From now on, the Korean church should boldly clear up its mistakes and move on to education that humbly accepts the sounds of social criticism and can make a fresh recovery.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.42
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• pp.251-276
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• 2015

The purpose of this article is to examine Israeli intelligence activity which had contributed to the building of Israel and of its national identity. In the late 19th, the Jews scattered around the world had shared the image of victims shaped in the history of the persecution. In this process, intelligence activity was a staple factor which established the state of Israel; political and religious community. Fighting against Arabs, Israel's intelligence agents had played key role in migrating Jews to Palestine and building their own state. In other words, Intelligence activity was the instrument of implementing political Zionism, Jewish nationalism. Even after independence in 1948, despite the opposition of Arab, Israeli intelligence agencies had persuaded the United States and the Soviet Union to recognize Israel as a member of the international society. Arab countries, nevertheless, had regarded Israel as 'a state to be disappeared', and its national identity was totally denied. However, Israel officially gained recognition for statehood through Arab-Israeli war and summit talks with Egypt. Israel finally restored the 'Promised Land' that is recorded in the Bible and established its identity of a winner. In conclusion, Israeli intelligence agency played a decisive role in founding the nation and even forming the consciousness of the people.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.38
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• pp.265-295
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• 2015

This article is concerned about a reason for which Cervantes participates an arabic author named Benengeli and morisco translator in his work instead of christian author. From the multi-cultural point of view, the time in which Don Qujote was published, belongs to the Golden Age. In other words, the society can not be supported by the ideology of Purity of Blood in that the morisco, converso (Christian Jewish) have been permitted to coexist in the name of christian proselyte or New Christian despite of invisible discrimination. An invisible discrimination is based on the prejudice and negative stereotype of Old Christian against the New Christian. Cervantes offers an o open space for readers to participate in the creative reading, giving up the absolute authority of author named Benengeli. The deep-rooted prejudice against morisco or muslim author makes the readers of Don Quijote do reinterpret the contents and have question about his sincerity. This disbelief is partly on the basis of hypothesis that Don Quijote would be passed on orally by an arabic or morisco. Leaving the hypothesis alone, Romance, festival performances of morisco or the aljamia literature in the Iberian Peninsula have the chivalry or knights of the Occident. The chivalry in Romance of morisco means that morisco would seek assimilation into the mainstream of Occidental Christian community. At the same time, morisco would be faced with the dilemma of loss of religious identity. But Taqiyya, islamic doctrine, offsets the dilemma between yearning to assimilate into mainstream and religious conscience of morisco in that Taqiyya permits morisco to convert to Christianity in case that they are in danger of life or the following risk. From this point of view, There is no room for doubt about the fact that Taqiyya contributed to social assimilation or multicultural society of the Iberian Peninsula. It has been a long time since a narrow-minded religious dogma and ideology became a anachronistic relic in multicultural society of Spain such as the Purity of Blood. From a relative viewpoint, Don Quijote provides a ground for the collective intelligence among christian, muslim(morisco) and converso through a liberal community between readers and authors who form a pluralistic society.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.107-130
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• 2008

The study of Korean diaspora has focused on migration, adaptation, and identity of overseas Koreans in China, the CIS, Japan, and the United States. However, the contemporary concept of a diaspora is a way of understanding migration, cultural difference, identity politics, and so on. Thus, this more broadly defined diaspora is used to mean a dispersion of people of a common national origin or of common beliefs living in exile. As of 2007, it is estimated that there are about 7 million Koreans living in 170 countries outside the Korean peninsula. Some have left Korea involuntarily and some others voluntarily. But most of them actively try to maintain their identity and culture as Koreans. With the large number of overseas Koreans, there has recently been the recognition of the importance of networking among overseas Koreans in the 21st century. The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the necessity of Korean Global Network of overseas Koreans. In doing so, this paper reviewed the case of Jewish and Chinese network. Then, this paper indicates the problems in the networking of overseas Koreans and suggests the policy implications for Korean Global Network. Above all, there should be changes in the government's policy towards overseas Koreans in the direction of organizing networks of overseas Koreans to coexist with the mother country. The government should adopt a policy to restore trust in overseas Koreans. It should take a pragmatic approach to the mutual interests in the socioeconomic relations instead of taking a political approach to overseas Koreans.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.98-114
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• 2017

This study analyzed the commemorative landscapes of eight Holocaust concentration camp memorials(HCCM) of Germany and Poland from a landscape architecture point of view including historical landscape, places and remains, and monuments. A site survey was conducted at Dahau concentration camp memorial(CCM) and Bergen-Belsen CCM of Germany in September of 2015 and the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp memorial(ECM), Majdanek ECM, Belzec ECM, Sobibor ECM, Treblinka ECM, Chelmno ECM of Poland in April of 2016. The results are as follows. First, the landscape of the concentration camp at Dahau CCM, Auschwitz ECM, and Majdanek ECM liberated by the Allied Forces was well conserved with the maintenance of camp facilities and the spatial structure of camps while monuments and memorials seized by sociopolitical argument were built with restriction. But Belzec ECM, Sobibor ECM, Treblinka ECM, and Chelmno ECM devastated and planted artificially to forest were overwhelmingly surrounded with natural landscape, and also, excavated relics and remains were preserved and the monuments were built at the place of memory. Second, gas chambers, crematoriums, guard posts, electric wire fences, railroads and ramps, barracks, and drainage ditches were considered to be typical facilities present in the camp structure and the gas chambers, crematoriums, human ashes, and mass graves demonstrated the horrible history of these camps and the railroad and ramp where Jewish prisoners arrived also had the strong sense of place. These remains were regarded as symbolic elements to create a memory of the tragedy and place. Third, commemoration of victims was applied as the basic concept and recalling the memory of the Holocaust was also considered very important content. Religious reconciliation and peace was represented at Dahau CCM and the Jewish identity was strongly expressed at Treblinka ECM and Belzec ECM representing the Jewish community and Judaism. Fourth, the monuments with semi-abstract styles and abstract sculptures represented the Holocaust symbolically and narratively and came into the conflict caused by the abstractness to the memorial landscape at Auschwitz-Birkenau ECM and Bergen-Belsen CCM. Fifth, remains for recalling the memory of tragedy and place and symbolic monuments to stand for public memory were juxtaposed at the same place and preserving on the authenticity of camp site had been conflicted with monumentalizing intentionally. Further study will required a concrete investigation of the monuments in the HCCM and an attempt to comparatively study the commemoration characteristics of memorials in Korea.