Author: Anca Parvulescu File Type: pdf Welcome to the European family! When East European countries joined the European Union under this banner after 1989, they agreed to the free movement of goods, services, capital, and persons. In this book, Anca Parvulescu analyzes an important niche in this imagined European kinship the traffic in women, or the circulation of East European women in West Europe in marriage and as domestic servants, nannies, personal attendants, and entertainers. Analyzing film, national policies, and an impressive range of work by theorists from Giorgio Agamben to Judith Butler, she develops a critical lens through which to think about the transnational continuum of womens work. Parvulescu revisits Claude Levi-Strausss concept of kinship and its rearticulation by second-wave feminists, particularly Gayle Rubin, to show that kinship has traditionally been anchored in the traffic in women. Reading recent cinematic texts that help frame this, she reveals that in contemporary Europe, East European migrant women are exchanged to engage in labor customarily performed by wives within the institution of marriage. Tracing a pattern of what she calls Americanization, Parvulescu argues that these women thereby become responsible for the labor of reproduction. A fascinating cultural study as much about the consequences of the enlargement of the European Union as womens mobility,The Traffic in Womens Workquestions the foundations of the notion of Europe today.

Author: Burton L. Visotzky File Type: epub Hard to believe but trueul lThe Passover Seder is a Greco-Roman symposium banquet l lThe Talmud rabbis presented themselves as Stoic philosophers l lSynagogue buildings were Roman basilicas l lHellenistic rhetoric professors educated sons of well-to-do Jews l lZeus-Helios is depicted in synagogue mosaics across ancient Israel l lThe Jewish courts were named after the Roman political institution, the Sanhedrin l lIn Israel there were synagogues where the prayers were recited in Greek.l ulHistorians have long debated the (re)birth of Judaism in the wake of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple cult by the Romans in 70 CE. What replaced that sacrificial cult was at once something newindebted to the very culture of the Roman overlordseven as it also sought to preserve what little it could of the old Israelite religion. The Greco-Roman culture in which rabbinic Judaism grew in the first five centuries of the Common Era nurtured the development of Judaism as we still know and celebrate it today. Arguing that its transformation from a Jerusalem-centered cult to a world religion was made possible by the Roman Empire, Rabbi Burton Visotzky presents Judaism as a distinctly Roman religion. Full of fascinating detail from the daily life and culture of Jewish communities across the Hellenistic world, Aphrodite and the Rabbis will appeal to anyone interested in the development of Judaism, religion, history, art and architecture.**ReviewEnables the general reader to understand the meaning of many passages of law and of legend, of archeological finds and of ancient culture, of newly discovered art and of long misunderstood texts by locating them within the larger cultural context within which they first came into being. South Florida Jewish Journal[Visotskys] warm and personal style makes Aphrodite and the Rabbis feel like an intimate guided tour of ancient Judaism. For anyone interested in the birth of Judeo-Christian culture, this history is worth a look. Shelf AwarenessWitty and insightful. Publishers WeeklyAn erudite, pertinently illustrated, and accessible work of religious history. BooklistAPHRODITE AND THE RABBIS is a masterpiece of Jewish thought. Rabbi Burt Visotzky shows us how Roman culture flows through Judaism in ways most of us never imagined. Your Passover Seder will never be the same! This stunning work will bless you and inspire you. Rabbi Naomi Levy, author of To Begin Again and Hope Will Find YouRight from the start of Aphrodite and the Rabbis, the lively writing hooked me. I was fascinated with the mix of history, archaeology, and sociological interpretation. Zeus depicted in a synagogue mosaic? The conflict sure but the accommodation between the old Judaism and Greco-Roman culture? Who knew? Well, Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky! His combination of scholarship and charm makes Aphrodite and the Rabbis How the Jews Adapted Roman Culture to Create Judaism as We Know It a pleasure to read. Susan IsaacsUnderstanding how Rome shaped the Rabbis, with Burt Visotzky as tour guide, is a fascinating, funny and enlightening journey. Here is a history that teaches not only about who we were, but has deep lessons about who we are and who we might become. Rabbi David Wolpe, Max Webb Senior Rabbi of Sinai Temple and author, David The Divided HeartAn intriguing [...] look at two worlds colliding and coexisiting. Kirkus ReviewsFrom the opening pages of Aphrodite and the Rabbis, you know youre in the hands of the rarest kind of guidecharming, self-effacing, and deeply knowledgeable. Burt Visotzky brings to life one of the least known eras of Jewish life and make the compelling case that it continues to shape our lives today. A must-read for any student of Judaism. Bruce Feiler, bestselling author of Walking the Bible and Abraham A super-smart, comprehensive, wittily-written admixture of history, legend, archaeology, art, stories, and text analysis. In graceful, colloquial prose, Visotzky leads modern readers through the ancient world to illuminate the debt that rabbinic Judaism owes to Greco-Roman culture. Rarely has a book by a towering Jewish scholar been this much fun to read. Letty Cottin Pogrebin, author of Deborah, Golda, and Me Being Female and Jewish in AmericaBurt Visotzky has written a marvelous new book full of insight and humor, yet resting on a lifetime of scholarship and faithfulness. Dont miss it. Thomas Cahill, author of The Gifts of the JewsAbout the Author BURTON L. VISOTZKY is Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He worked with Bill Moyers and more recently with Christiane Amanpour on Back to the Beginning, aired annually at Christmas time. The author of many books, including Sage Tales Wisdom and Wonder from the Rabbis of the Talmud, he has been named to The Forward 50 and repeatedly to the NewsweekDaily Beast list of the The 50 Most Influential Jews in America. He lives in Manhattan.