Department to celebrate golden anniversary with new scholarship

The genesis of this anniversary began with another one: Rabbi Joseph L. Baron suggested in 1954 that the 300th anniversary of the arrival of Jews in the American colonies might best be recognized with a special chair in Hebrew language and literature at the University of Wisconsin. Baron backed his commitment to that idea, and $75,000 in private donations funded a faculty position occupied initially by the late Menachem Mansoor.

In 1954 Mansoor was a young scholar interested in the recently discovered Dead Sea Scrolls. His first course, Modern Hebrew Literature, enrolled 37 students. Hebrew and Semitic studies became an official department in 1956.

Hebrew and Semitic studies at UW–Madison today enrolls more than 950 students. The number taking Modern Hebrew Literature in 2004-05 set a national record. In the department’s last half-century, almost 300 undergraduates have completed majors. In addition, more than 70 masters and 35 doctorates have been awarded.

Ron Troxel, senior lecturer in Hebrew and Semitic studies, compiled those figures as the department’s unofficial historian and the chair of the committee planning to fete this golden anniversary. Troxel says that the burgeoning popularity of his department’s courses doesn’t surprise him at all.

“Studying literature written in Hebrew gives us a picture of ways in which people belonging to a specific ethnic group have coped with the world,” he says. “Given the national myth of a ‘melting pot,’ in which cultural distinctions are blended into an amalgam, it’s important to remember the value of distinct cultural traditions and the continuing effect that they have on the lives and world view of the people who cherish them.”

One of those is Parthy Schachter, a senior majoring in anthropology, enrolled in Hebrew language classes in the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies.

“It is through language that a society expresses its values, nuances and ways of relating. The process of learning Hebrew has allowed me to connect with Israeli culture and also to understand a wider range of human interaction,” she says.

Indeed, Troxel notes that the Hebrew language occupies a unique position in the annals of language. “It’s one of only a very few languages that was revived to be a spoken language only following a long period of disuse,” he says. “Eighteenth century Germany witnessed the start of revival of Hebrew as a vernacular, following centuries of its use following centuries of its solely in the study of the Torah and the Talmud. Today Hebrew has become a lingua franca within a new, modern culture. Our department has the exquisite opportunity to study all stages of the language, from exploring the earliest Semitic languages into the language of the Bible to the transformation of biblical Hebrew into Talmudic and medieval forms of the language to its revival as the language of modern theater, newspapers, political debate, literature and everyday conversation.”

For Schachter, it also has proved an invaluable learning tool.

“Studying Hebrew also has widened my understanding of sociolinguistics and language-based ways that people relate to each other. It also has been extremely helpful in my study of Arabic — not only because both are Semitic languages, but also because the understanding of language acquisition that I gained studying Hebrew has provided me with confidence and facility in the study of additional languages,” says Schachter, who will pursue graduate studies next year at Tel Aviv University.

Accordingly, Troxel says that the 21st century department truly is a multicultural endeavor, embracing linguistics and literature, but also history, anthropology and archaeology, sociology, political science, feminist theory and more. Faculty in the department have research agendas that include the analysis of ancient Hebrew syntax (Cynthia Miller), Arab-Israeli relationships (department chair Rachel Brenner) to modern Hebrew (Gilead Morahg) and its biblical (Michael Fox) and medieval (Norman Roth) incarnations.

To honor the department, three days of scholarship will take place Sunday-Tuesday, April 2-4, at the Pyle Center.

Visit the web for the complete schedule of events. All lectures are free and open to the public. For reservations to the banquet ($35), contact Ann Lippincott, 263-3604 or ann.lippincott@uwfoundation.wisc.edu.