Taking a minor detour from his work as an intellectual historian with an interest in early modern skepticism, philosophy, and medicine, Ahuvia Goren unearths a rather astounding woman from the archives: Rica Clava (Rivkah Katzigin), a whip-smart and outspoken advocate for her own marital property, who not only wrote in Hebrew, but was conversant in Jewish law. 

Natalie Dohrmann (NBD): Ahuvia, tell us a bit about your broad scholarly interests, and what especially excites you about them personally and/or intellectually.

Women are real. At least so women think, most of the time, but more than other human people women are also imaginary creatures—figments—constructed by cultural and linguistic fantasy, myth and literature. All this we know, as women, as readers of texts, and viewers of art, and consumers of culture in nearly all its forms, and it is no less of a factor in scholarship. It is not always easy to tell the dancer from the dance.

Natalie Dohrmann (NBD): Magdalena, tell us a bit about your scholarly interests. What drew you to them originally? What especially excites you about them personally and/or intellectually?

We are thrilled to learn that scholarship supported by the Katz Center has been recognized by the National Jewish Book Awards.

Natalie Dohrmann (NBD): Carla, tell us a bit about your scholarly interests. What drew you to them originally? What especially excites you about them personally or intellectually?

We are proud to celebrate a year of new books in the Jewish Culture and Contexts series published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. 

How do you remember things? Memories are stored in the mind, of course: we make “mental notes,” set long lists to song, use practice drills, and more. But how does it work, exactly? Where do memories reside; how are they created and retrieved when needed; and what relationship do they have to body and soul? These are questions that ancient and medieval thinkers pondered for both theoretical and practical reasons, in a tradition of ars memorativa.

JQR 114.1 is now available, online* and in print. 

In this issue:

JQR debuts a new look! The journal has been redesigned inside and out, reflecting our legacy of producing the best in Jewish studies past and present.