The Annual Report 2006 - 2007 of the

Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies

Table of Contents

1. Short biographical sketch of Prof. Amnon Yariv Report by Dr. Jacob Scheuer Summary of article: "Coherent Combination of Semiconductor MOPA Lasers Using Optical Phase Lock Loops"

1 2 3

2. Short biographical sketch of Prof. Asher Wolinsky Report by Prof. Yoram Weiss 3. Short biographical sketch of Prof. Dirk Obbink Report by Prof. Benjamin Isaac Receives Honoray Doctorate from Katholieke University, Leuven, Belgium 4. Challenges and New Horizons in Physics Report of Prof. Stephen Hawking's visit

5 6

7 8

9 12

5. Short biographical sketch of Prof. Marc Shell Report by Prof. Hana Wirth-Nesher Stutter, book review by Harvard University Press Polio and its Aftermath, book review by Harvard University Press Polio and its Aftermath The Paralysis of Culture, book review by Christopher J. Rutty

13 16 17 18 19

6. Short biographical sketch of Prof. Bernard Lewis Report by Prof. Asher Susser Summary of articles: "Orthodoxy and Heresy in Middle East Religions" and "Islam, the West and the Jews" 7. Short biographical sketch of Prof. David Ruderman Two Reports by Prof. David Ruderman, Part I and Part II Review of article: "The Impact of Early Modern Jewish Thought on the Eighteenth Century: A challenge to the Notion of the Sephardi Mystique"

21 22 23

24 26 28

8. Short biographical sketch of Prof. Dov Jaron Report by Prof. Ofer Barnea 9. Short biographical sketch of Prof. David Harbater Report by Prof. Moshe Jarden Section of the Citation, 1995 Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Algebra

29 30

31 32 33

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Professor AMNON YARIV is a Sackler Institute Member at the Mortimer and Raymond

Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies. Prof. Yariv is the Thomas G. Myers Professor of Electrical

Engineering and Applied Physics at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.

He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, U.S. National Academy of Sciences,

American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Prof. Yariv is a recipient of the Ives Medal (American

Optical Society), Quantum Electronics Award (IEEE), Harvey Prize (Technion), and Pender Prize

(University of Pennsylvania). He was the Chairman of the Board and founder of ORTEL Corporation

and is the co-founder of a number of existing companies. Prof. Yariv is one of the worlds leading

experts in Quantum Electronics. His various texts on this subject are standard basic sources for the

theory and applications of linear and nonlinear optics, lasers, quantum optics, and optical

communication.

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Professor Amnon Yariv

Report by Dr. Jacob Scheuer

School of Electrical Engineering Fleischman Faculty of Engineering

We would like to thank the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies for

the opportunity to host Prof. Amnon Yariv in the School of Electrical Engineering during the period

from October 19 November 19, 2006.

During his visit, Prof. Yariv delivered a colloquium (November 2) in the department of

Physical Electronics, entitled: "Master and Slaves Towards Phase Locking of Semiconductor

Lasers." The colloquium was well attended by Faculty and students from Tel Aviv University and

other academic institutes as well as by people from the High-Tech industry. The presentation raised

much interest and stimulated many discussions.

As in previous years, Prof. Yariv met with many faculty members and students and granted

them with his very helpful guidance and scientific advice.

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Summary of talk delivered by Amnon Yariv Coherent Combination of Semiconductor MOPA Lasers Using Optical Phase Lock Loops

Abstract: Two 1W semiconductor MOPA lasers are phase-locked to a -3dBm master laser using Optical Phase Lock Loops. Coherent power combination and individual phase control of the MOPAs with a RF phase shifter are demonstrated. @2006 Optical Society of America

OCIS codes: (140.2010) Diode laser arrays; (030.1640) Coherence

Coherent power combination of a large number of light emitters will lead to high power, high brightness and steerable laser systems [1, 2]. Coherent diode laser systems are promising candidates for many applications since diode lasers are extremely small and efficient compared to fiber lasers and solid state lasers. However, diode lasers are generally very noisy and require a high bandwidth feedback loop to be phase-locked with low residual phase noise [3]. Recently we have reported the coherent power addition of two commercial DFB lasers using heterodyne optical phase-locked loops [4]. In this paper we report the coherent power addition of two high power (1W) semiconductor Master Oscillator Power Amplifier (MOPA) lasers by phase locking them to a low power (-3dBm) master laser. Individual phase control of the MOPAs is also demonstrated using a RF phase shifter.

Fig. 1. Experimental setup for coherent power addition of two QPC MOPA lasers phase locked to the same reference laser signal.

The experimental setup is depicted in Fig. 1. Two 1W QPC MOPAs (QPC ES-102) are phase-locked to the Agilent 81640A tunable laser (-3dBm) at an offset of 1.48GHz. An Aided Acquisition Circuit (AAC) is implemented to increase the tracking range from +/- 9MHz to +/- 1GHz. The PD2 is used to monitor the lock status of the two MOPAs. The two MOPAs outputs are also mixed and detected using PD1, from which the mutual coherence between the two MOPAs is obtained and measured. Fig. 2(a) shows the power spectrum of the locked beat signal of a single OPLL. Fig. 2(b) shows the temporal dependence of the combined signal. When both MOPAs are locked, the power is coherently added and PD1 gives a DC output signal which varies slowly with time due to the variation of optical length in the fiber. The measured RMS phase error between the two lasers is about 22 degrees.

3

Fig. 2. (a) Measured power spectrum for a 1.48GHz locked beat signal. (b). Variation of the combined power signal as a function of

time. One of the advantages of the heterodyne OPLL scheme is the ability to control the optical phases of the individual slave lasers by controlling the offset RF signal phase using a RF phase shifter. Figure 3(a) is the schematic diagram of the phase control of each individual MOPA. Fig. 3(b) compares the output waveforms of the two independent OPLLs when both loops are in lock. We use the RF phase shifter to control the relative phase between the two OPLLs output signals as seen in the Lissajou curves shown in Fig. 3(c)-(e). The extension of this phase programmability to phase-locked diode laser arrays may, in the future, enable high speed beam scanning and adaptive focusing/wavefront correction.

Signal generator

OPLL 1

OPLL 2

~

LPF

LPF

Channel 1

Channel 2

1.48 GHz1.48 GHz + 100 MHz

(a) (b)

(c) (d) (e)

Signal generator

OPLL 1

OPLL 2

~

LPFChannel 1

Channel 2LPF

1.48 GHz1.48 GHz + 100 MHz

(a) (b)

(c) (d) (e)

Fig. 3. (a) Schematic diagram of the phase control of the individual MOPA. (b). Comparison of the output waveforms of the two independent OPLLs. (c)-(d). Lissajou curves reflecting the control of the relative phase between the two OPLLs output signals. References [1] A. Yariv, Dynamic analysis of the semiconductor laser as a current-controlled oscillator in the optical phased-lock loop: applications, Opt. Lett. 30, 2191-2193 (2005). [2] S.J. Augst, et al., Coherent beam combining and phase noise measurements of ytterbium fiber amplifiers, Opt. Lett 29, 474-476 (2004). [3] L.N. Langley, et al, Packaged Semiconductor Laser Optical Phase-Locked Loop (OPLL) for Photonic Generation, Processing and Transmission of Microwave Signals, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., 47, 1257-1264 (1999) [4] W. Liang, et al, Coherent Combining of Two Semiconductor Lasers Using Optical Phase-Lock Loops (OPLLs), Opt. Lett. 32, 370-372 (2007)

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Professor ASHER WOLINSKY, Sackler Scholar 2005/2006. Professor of Economics,

Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois since 1988. He has been the Alfred W. Chase

Professor from 1998-2002 and the Gordon Fulcher Professor since 2002. Prof. Wolinsky received

his B.S. in Mathematics and Economics in 1975 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his

M.A in Economics, M.S. in Operations Research in 1979, and his Ph.D in Economics (with a minor

in O.R.) in 1980 from Stanford University.

Prof. Wolinsky previously worked at the Economic Research Center, Bell Laboratories

from 1980-1981; Economics Department of Hebrew University of Jerusalem as a Lecturer from

1981-1986 and Senior Lecturer from 1986-1988; and Visiting Faculty in the Economics

Department of the University of Pennsylvania from 1986-1988. His professional activities include

Fellow of the Econometric Society since 1991; member of the following Editorial Boards:

Econometrica since 1992, Games and Economic Behavior since 1992, Economic Theory from

1992-1997, and the Journal of Economic Theory since 1993. He has published over 40

professional articles.

5

Professor Asher Wolinsky

Report by Prof. Yoram Weiss

School of Economics

Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences

Professor Asher Wolinsky visited our department twice during the academic year 2006-2007

for about three weeks each time. In both visits, he taught classes in our PhD program on the

economics of information. Students and members of our school have also interacted with him

personally. Overall, we found his visit very valuable and I would like to thank the Mortimer and

Raymond Sackler Institute for its help in arranging this visit.

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Professor DIRK OBBINK was a Sackler Lecturer in December 2006. He has been a Professor

of Classical Studies and the Ludwig Koenan Collegiate Professor of Papyrology at the University of

Michigan in Ann Arbor since 2003, and simultaneously a University Lecturer in Papyrology and

Greek Literature at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom since 1995, and fellow and tutor

in Greek at the Christ Church in Oxford since 1995. His inventing the original method for

reconstructing the carbonized scrolls from Herculaneum in 1987 is an outstanding achievement. Prof.

Obbink's areas of specialization are Greek and Latin Literature, Ancient Religion and Philosophy, and

Papyrology.

Prof. Obbink was born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1957. He received his B.A. in 1978 from the

University of Nebraska, his Ph.D. in 1987 from Stanford University and his M.A.(by resolution) in

1995 from the University of Oxford. He was also an Admiral in the Navy of the State of Nebraska in

2002. Some of his outstanding academic achievements include: recipient of the MacArthur Fellow in

2001, Fellow of the Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford University

from 2006-07, Co-founder and Trustee of The Herculaneum Society (with R. L. Fowler and N. G.

Wilson) in 2004, Founder and Curator of the Archivum Societatis Herculanensis (ASH) in 2004, and

ITC Officer for creation of 'Papyrus Editor', 'Fragment Retreival System', and 'Virtual Library for Lost

Books' by the ZAGREUS Project, University of Michigan/University of Oxford.

Prof. Obbink's editorial appointments include: General Editor, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri

(Egypt Exploration Society, London, Greco-Roman Memoirs) since 2002 with N. Gonis and P.J.

Parsons; Member of the Editorial Board, Studi Italiani di Filologia Classica (Florence-based Pasquali-

Vitelli-Gigante Classics journal and Beihefte) since 2003 with A. Barchiesi, G. Guidorizzi, S.

Stephens, D. Feeney, S. Hinds, and Ph. Hardie; and Editor with A.R. Dyck of Studies in Classics

(Routledge).

7

Professor Dirk Obbink

Report by Prof. Benjamin Isaac

Fred and Helen Lessing Professor of Ancient History Chair, Department of Classics Entin Faculty of Humanities

Professor Obbink is a highly distinguished classicist, papyrologist and ancient historian who

has achieved the rare distinction of a dual appointment as an American University Professor

(Collegiate Professor of Papyrology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) and Fellow and Tutor in the

University of Oxford (Christ Church College). Among these must be mentioned, first of all, his work

on the library in the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, a huge library containing lost works of the

Greek classics that was totally carbonized at the time of the destruction of Herculaneum by the

Vesuvius in the year 79. Prof. Obbink invented an original method for reconstructing these carbonized

scrolls from Herculaneum and then organized an international project aimed at treating the scrolls and

deciphering them. He has received a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship because for this major

contribution. He is, however, far more than a technical innovator; he is known as a magisterial

interpreter of the texts he thus deciphers.

Professor Obbink came to Tel Aviv for a two-week visit as a lecturer supported by the Sackler

Institute. In those days he delivered a public lecture: Vanishing Conjecture: the Recovery of Lost

Books from Aristotle to Eco. He conducted a seminar: The Lost Library from Herculaneum and

met with our advanced students who profited a good deal from this opportunity -- and, I may add,

impressed Obbink with their lively intelligence, which clearly means something for someone used to

students trained at the best institutions in the US and the UK.

This visit was an important event because it gave Tel Aviv University an opportunity to meet a

major scholar of international fame and formed the beginning of what clearly is going to be a fertile

contact in future.

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Honorary Doctorate for Prof. Dirk Obbink Katholieke University, Leuven, Belgium, May 16, 2007; Prof. Dr. Marc Huys, Promotor

Rector, Colleagues, Ladies and gentlemen,

Although Professor Dirk Obbink is an American citizen and was born in Nebraska, his name

unmistakably betrays his European roots. Today, Dirk Obbink is still combining his diverse activities

at Oxford with his Professorship in Classical Studies and Papyrology at the University of Michigan.

Somehow the combination of the best of American and European culture is characteristic of the whole

of Obbink's remarkable career. I am fully aware that it is hazardous to connect personal qualities with

the particular character of a nation or culture, but if we think of positive qualities uniquely combined

in the personality of a cosmopolitan scholar, it is perhaps legitimate to do so.

Dirk Obbink studied classics and papyrology at the University of Nebraska and the University

of Stanford where he obtained his PhD with a work on the treatise On Piety by the Greek philosopher

Philodemus, which has survived only in a carbonized papyrus roll discovered in a Roman villa at

Herculaneum. The subject no doubt has a European flavor but the choice of a usually neglected

philosophical text, which was heavily damaged and had to be reconstructed with patient philological

labour, also required a more 'American' pioneering spirit. A brief and simplifying account of the

evidence with which he had to work for his admirable edition of this text, will give some indication of

the challenges implied by his own rigorous methodology and of the reason why his work deserves to

be counted among the greatest philological achievements of our generation.

The papyrus roll containing this Epicurean treatise was one of those covered by the eruption of

Vesuvius in the year 79. These carbonized scrolls were so distorted that the original excavators at the

end of the 18th century initially mistook them for lumps of charcoal. According to the best practice of

the time the charred outer layers of the roll were cut through until the uncarbonized inner layers came

to light. So the outer halves had to be destroyed in order to be read but this was only done after having

made faithful copies of each layer before peeling it away. Usually the act of revealing one layer

destroyed its predecessor but when our scroll with the treatise On Piety was cut open, the two halves

were for some reason given different catalogue numbers and transcribed separately. In the beginning

of the 19th century, after a research stay by the reverend John Hayter, several fragments and some

apographs of the inner half of the papyrus mysteriously disappeared: they are now kept in the Bodleian

Library at Oxford. Since then the other half of the original roll was believed to be a separate document.

Several editions of On Piety appeared during the 19th and 20th century, but because the editors were

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not able to reconstruct the connection between the two separated halves of the original roll, their

editions contributed very little to the understanding of Philodemus' reflections on this subject.

Obbink's edition, then, was the first to give incontrovertible proof of a physical join between

two halves of the same text column that was divided between the Oxford apograph and its Italian

counterpart. Thanks to Obbink's brilliant and meticulous detective work nearly every column can now

be matched with its successor and predecessor in the other half of the roll.

However, such philological-technical acrobatics did not completely satisfy Obbink's searching

spirit: Probably because it did not answer the key question why the library of this wealthy Roman villa

owner consisted largely of the writings of a relatively obscure Greek philosopher. Therefore, Obbink

embarked on the interpretation of his reconstructed but still mutilated text, which appears to be so

densely argued and esoteric that it would be difficult to translate even if it had come down from

antiquity in perfect condition. Thanks to this second phase of his meticulous philological decoding we

now have a better understanding of Hellenistic philosophy, in particular in the great schools of

Stoicism and Epicureanism, at the moment of its reception by the Roman intellectual elite.

For example, one fragment of the reconstructed papyrus text allowed him to explain the ancient

tradition that Epicurus was an atheist, which is definitely untrue, although he rejected any divine

providence or teleology. Moreover, Obbink demonstrated how Philodemus' texts shed new light on the

doctrine of the Stoic philosopher Diogenes of Babylon, who determined the orientation of Stoicism in

the late Hellenistic period, as well as Cicero's dependence on Philodemus when he criticized Stoic

theology in his "On the Nature of the Gods". This brings us to the unique contribution of Obbink's

innovative research to our knowledge of the great Latin literature of the first century BC. For students

of Latin poets such as Lucretius, Horace and Virgil, and of Roman intellectual culture of this Golden

Age, it has now become impossible to neglect Philodemus as a source of inspiration.

Obbink's broad vision and interdisciplinary approach led him to take up the role of editor and

co-editor of several outstanding collections of essays by different scholars. His well known collected

volumes on ancient Greek magic and religion, on the treatment of genre in Hellenistic poetry, on

Philodemus' connections with Latin poetry and with the intellectual and religious climate of the New

Testament world, opened new horizons for the history of Western thought by focusing on the critical

juncture between Hellenistic religion and philosophy and Roman culture.

Needless to say, Obbink's groundbreaking work has drawn international acclaim. The

prestigious John and Catherine MacArthur Foundation honoured him with a well-funded fellowship to

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continue his work and he was offered several academic posts by the best universities. After an assistant

professorship in Columbia University he was appointed in 1995 at the University of Oxford as a

Lecturer in Papyrology and Greek literature. In addition, since 2003 he holds an appointment as

Ludwig Koenen Collegiate Professor in Papyrology at the University of Michigan. On the other side

he declined professorships with tenure at Duke University and New York University. Is his apparent

preference for Oxford as his main working place again to be explained by his attachment to Europe

and to its centuries-old tradition of in-depth learning? At any rate he could develop his talents there as

the curator of one of the world's most important papyrus collections and he did so by infusing the

Oxyrhynchus papyri project with a rather American dynamism and audacity.

First of all he set up several projects for the application of innovative technology to the old

treasurers. This implied the digitalization of the complete collection as well as the invitation of a

specialized team of Brigham Young University to do exploratory work on the papyri with their multi-

spectral imaging technique. The promising initial results are demonstrated by Obbink's re-edition,

among others, of a fragment of the Greek poet Archilochus, which offers a much more complete

restored text and translation thanks to the new multi-spectral images of the papyrus. In the years to

come similar successes are to be expected for other papyrus fragments of famous Greek poets. Another

aspect of rather American open-mindedness may be illustrated by the following anecdote: when we

tried to fix the date of the present ceremony, he was anxious not to let it interfere with an interview he

had promised to Der Spiegel. This keenness towards the popularization of the results of his research,

often but unjustifiably called vulgarization, is devoid of any sensationalism but springs from a

profound awareness that the study of ancient culture has an important message for the world of today

and that it is our task to bring this to light. Every student who has had the privilege to enjoy his

teaching and guidance during a stay in Oxford, has experienced what Dirk Obbink is really looking for

through hours of painstaking philological research and through his penetrating study of ancient

religion and philosophy: humanity and wisdom.

Ladies and gentlemen, Prof. Dirk Obbink has given us a recipe for keeping classics alive in an

era of globalization, i.e. to approach the ancient texts with a combination of unconditional respect for

philological tradition with the experimental application of modern technology, and to communicate to

a wide audience this philological exploration journey towards the roots of our humanity. Therefore it is

more than appropriate that he is being proposed today for an honorary doctorate at our university.

Reference: http://www.arts.kuleuven.be/onderzoek/laudatios/LaudatioObbink.pdf

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http://www.arts.kuleuven.be/onderzoek/laudatios/LaudatioObbink.pdf

Challenges and New Horizon in Physics

Prof. Stephen Hawking Cambridge University

Theoretical physicist and best-selling author Prof. Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University

was guest of honor at an event on "Challenges and New Horizons in Physics" hosted by the Raymond

and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of

Advanced Studies and the School of Physics and Astronomy. The December 12th visit was part of an

eight-day tour of Israel organized by the British Council that included a meeting with Prime Minister

Ehud Olmert. Prof. Hawking said he came to Israel because "it has always been a center of excellence

in science."

Along with a briefing on Tel Aviv University's physics research, Prof. Hawking also heard

about the university's dedicated chair for the research of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease,

which has paralyzed him since age 21. TAU also has Israel's leading research group in

neurodegenerative diseases.

HE Mr. Tom Phillips, British Ambassador presented greetings. The following distinguished

faculty members spoke: Prof. Itamar Rabinovich, President about the Academy in Israel; Prof. Yaron

Oz, Head, School of Physics and Astronomy about challenges and new horizons in physics; Prof.

Hagai Netzer about new horizons in astronomy, and Prof. Michael Kozlov about new horizons in

biophysics.

Source: TAU, Tel Aviv University Review, Spring 2007, p. 22

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Professor MARC SHELL, Sackler Scholar 2006/2007 and 2007/2008. Prof. Shell, a John D.

and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow, is the Irving Babbitt Professor of Comparative Literature and

Professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University in Cambridge,

Massachusetts. His administrative duties at Harvard have included chairing the Literature

Concentration and the Department of Comparative Literature. He is Chairman elect of the Ethnic

Studies Program and Co-Director and Founder (with Prof. Werner Sollers), The Longfellow Institute

for the comparative study of non-English languages and literatures of what is now in the United States

since 1995. He is also Professor in the university's graduate program in History of American

Civilization. His other academic activities include: Co-Directs the Grand Manan Field School in

Canada; Co-Director and Founder (with Prof. Joo Carlos Espada, University of Lisbon), Program in

Literature and Politics in Cascais, Portugal since 2003; Co-Director (with Prof. Gregory Nagy) and

Founder, The Harvard Study Program in Olympia, Greece (new summer program in Comparative

Cultural Studies) since 2001; Member Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital General Committee since

2000; Chair, Harvard's Interfaculty Initiative for Disabilities Studies; and Co-Director and Founder

(with Dr. Jean-Marie Thiveaud), Programme Finance, Ethique, Confiance, a division of Association

d'conomie financire in Paris from 1993-1998.

Marc Shell was born in Qubec in 1947. As an undergraduate, Professor Shell studied English

at McGill University, Montral and History at Trinity College, Cambridge. He received his BA in

English Language & Literature and also in Social Thought & Institutions from Stanford University in

1968. He received his MA in 1972 and his PhD in 1975 in Comparative Literature from Yale

University. Before going to Harvard, he taught in the Department of English at The State University

of New York in Buffalo from 1974-1986 and headed the Department of Comparative Literature at the

University of Massachusetts in Amherst from 1986-1991.

Professor Shell's particular theoretical and thematic interests include five interconnected

research areas: (1) money & language, (2) nationhood, politics & language difference, (3) kinship,

(4) non-English literatures of America, and (5) medical & disability studies. Descriptions follow.

Money & Language: Prof. Shell is one of the forerunners, along with Jean-Jospeh Goux and others,

of the literary-critical movement that has been dubbed 'New Economic Criticism.' His contributions to

the study of relations between linguistic and literary economics are encompassed in several influential

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http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Elitconc/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Elitconc/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ecomplit/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ecesh/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ecesh/http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/%7Emshell/Grand%20Manan%20Field%20School%202007.htmhttp://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~mshell/#1EconAesth#1EconAesthhttp://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~mshell/#2NationhoodLanguage#2NationhoodLanguagehttp://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~mshell/#KinshipStudies#KinshipStudieshttp://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~mshell/#4LOWINUS#4LOWINUShttp://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~mshell/#5Disability#5Disability

books, including: Art & Money (Chicago UP 1995); Money, Language, and Thought: Literary and

Philosophical Economics from the Medieval to the Modern Era (UC Berkeley 1982); and The

Economy of Literature (Johns Hopkins UP 1978); and forthcoming works in this area include the

following: Wampum and the Origin of North American Money (Illinois UP 2007) and The Painting

in the Trash Bin: Otis Kaye and the Perplexities of Art (Chicago UP 2008).

Shell is co-curator and co-editor, with Jrgen Harten, of Das fnfte ElementGeld oder Kunst

(Dsseldorf 2000), with its large, interpretative dictionary-style catalog. He is also co-editor, with

Jean-Marie Thiveaud, of Collection conomie de la littrature (Paris); the collection's first volume

presents the poet Paul Claudel's writings from the time that he was French Ambassador to the United

StatesLa Crise: Correspondence diplomatique Amrique, 1927-1932, pref. Erik Izralewicz (Paris:

Mtaili-Transition 1993).

Nationhood, Politics & Language Difference: Work in the area includes Children of the Earth:

Literature, Politics, and Nationhood (Oxford UP 1994) as well as several studies of bilingualism and

language rights in Qubec, New Brunswick, and elsewhere; and his book Language Wars

(forthcoming); Grand Manan; or, A Short History of North America is in press (McGill-Queens UP

forthcoming 2007). Together with the political philosopher Professor Susan Meld Shell, he is

completing a relevant book on Alexis de Tocqueville and the prison systems of the United States.

Kinship Studies: Professor Shells writings about kinship and the European Renaissance include

Elizabeth's Glass; With "The Glass of the Sinful Soul" (1544) by Elizabeth I; and "Epistle

Dedicatory" & "Conclusion" (1548) by John Bale (Nebraska UP 1994); and The End of

Kinship:"Measure for Measure," Incest, and the Ideal of Universal Siblinghood (Stanford UP 1988).

Professor Shell, who has authored many essays about the social institution of family pet-hood,

sometimes co-teaches in this area with members of the faculty of the Tufts School of Veterinary

Medicine.

Non-English Languages and Literatures of the United States: Marc Shell, who is also Professor

of American Civilization at Harvard, is editor of American Babel: American Literatures from Abnaki

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http://www.amazon.com/Children-Earth-Literature-Politics-Nationhood/dp/0195068645/sr=1-7/qid=1172447120/ref=sr_1_7/103-0823637-7724633?ie=UTF8&s=bookshttp://www.amazon.com/Elizabeths-Glass-Elizabeth-Dedicatory-Conclusion/dp/0803242166/sr=1-11/qid=1172447208/ref=sr_1_11/103-0823637-7724633?ie=UTF8&s=bookshttp://www.amazon.com/End-Kinship-Measure-Universal-Siblinghood/dp/0801852420http://www.amazon.com/End-Kinship-Measure-Universal-Siblinghood/dp/0801852420http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/SHEAME.html

to Zuni (Harvard UP 2002). He co-edits The Longfellow Series, which publishes books at four

presses. He is also co-editor (with Werner Sollors) of The Multilingual Anthology of the United

States (New York UP 2000), with its facing-page format and eighteen languages; editor of Mark

Twain's Multilingual "Jumping Frog" (Johns Hopkins UP forthcoming). His earliest publication in

this area was French-Canadian/American Literary Relations (French Canada Studies Institute,

McGill University 1967), and more recently is Grand Manan: or, A Short History of North America

(McGill-Queens 2008 forthcoming).

Medical & Disability studies: Professor Shell is the author of two books in this area. Both books

include literary study and film work: Stutter (Harvard UP 2005) and Polio and Its Aftermath: The

Paralysis of Culture (Harvard UP 2006). Professor Shells teaching in this area often includes

faculty members from other schools. Paralysis and Aesthetics is taught with Prof. Judith Palfrey of

the Harvard Medical School and Childrens Hospital Boston. Language Disorders and the Literary

Tradition was taught with Prof. Evangeline Stefanakis of the Harvard Graduate School of Education

and the Laboratory in Child Development at Tufts University.

Professor Shell was Chair of Harvards Interfaculty Initiative for Disabilities Studies from 2000 to

2003. For the last seven years, he has served on the General Committee of Spaulding Rehabilitation

Hospital, Boston. His work includes raising funds, consulting with architecture firms about a new

hydrotherapeutic faculty with six pools, and participation, with Dr. Julie Silver of the Harvard

Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, at the International Polio Center of Excellence,

Framingham, MA.

Prof. Shell works in a wide variety of languages and literatures including: English, French,

German, Latin, Hebrew (Biblical), Greek (Classical), Spanish and Portuguese. He has published

articles in scholarly journals and magazines and as well as chapters in books. His work has appeared

in translation in some dozen languages.

Source: Prof. Marc Shell's Home page: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~mshell/ and Harvard Magazine

Jan-Feb. 2006, John Harvard's journal section: http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/010692.html

15

http://www.amazon.com/Multilingual-Anthology-American-Literature-Translations/dp/0814797539http://www.amazon.com/Multilingual-Anthology-American-Literature-Translations/dp/0814797539http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/SHESTU.htmlhttp://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/SHEPOL.htmlhttp://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/%7Emshell/http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/010692.html

Professor Marc Shell

Report by Prof. Hana Wirth-Nesher

Samuel L. and Perry Haber Chair on the Study of the Jewish Experience in the United States Director, Goldreich Family Institute for Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture

Department of English and American Studies Entin Faculty of Humanities

Professor Marc Shell of the Departments of Comparative Literature, English and American

Literature (and most recently also on the faculty of the School of Medicine) at Harvard University,

delivered a lecture on January 4, 2007, on the topic "The Polio Folio: Medicine, Literature, and

Paralysis." His lecture was based on his extensive research on polio that found its expression most

recently in a book published by Harvard University Press entitled, Polio and Its Aftermath: The

Paralysis of Culture. His lecture provided a sweeping and original overview of the link between

paralysis and stuttering from ancient civilizations to our own in relation to medical theories,

philosophy, literature, and the arts (including Freudian models and other psychoanalytic paradigms).

His cultural analyses of paralysis resulting from polio (in historical, medical, sociological and artistic

terms) formed the basis of a major exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. shortly

before his visit. This lecture, and the meetings that he held with faculty members and students,

provided the department with an outstanding resource person for the duration of his visit. Prof. Shell

was scheduled to return in June, but due to illness in his family, he has postponed the second part of

his visit to Tel Aviv University for the spring of 2008. His visit came during the first year of the

English Department's new track in American Studies, and his exploration of the historical and cultural

frame for understanding polio and its aftermath in the United States was particularly relevant.

16

Stutter

Marc Shell Reviewed by Harvard University Press

One person can't help stuttering. The other can't help laughing. And in the way one bodily

betrayal of better intentions mirrors the other, we find ourselves in the gray area where mind and body

connect--and, at the damnedest moments, disconnect. In a book that explores the phenomenon of

stuttering from its practical and physical aspects to its historical profile to its existential implications,

Marc Shell plumbs the depths of this murky region between will and flesh, intention and expression,

idea and word. Looking into the difficulties encountered by people who stutter--as do fifty million

worldwide--Shell shows that, however solitary stutterers may be in their quest for normalcy, they share

a kinship with many other speakers, both impeded and fluent.

Stutter takes us back to a time when stuttering was believed to be "diagnosis-induced," then on

to the complex mix of physical and psychological causes that were later discovered. Ranging from

cartoon characters like Porky Pig to cultural icons like Marilyn Monroe, from Moses to Hamlet, Shell

reveals how stuttering in literature plays a role in the formation of tone, narrative progression, and

character. He considers such questions as: Why does stuttering disappear when the speaker chants?

How does singing ease the verbal tics of Tourette's Syndrome? How do stutterers cope with the

inexpressible, the unspeakable?

Written by someone who has himself struggled with stuttering all his life, this provocative and

wide-ranging book shows that stuttering has implications for myriad types of expression and helps to

define what it means to be human.

Source: Harvard University Press, Website: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/SHESTU.html

17

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/SHESTU.html

Polio and Its Aftermath The Paralysis of Culture

Marc Shell Reviewed by Harvard University Press

It was not long ago that scientists proclaimed victory over polio, the dread disease of the 1950s.

More recently polio resurfaced, not conquered at all, spreading across the countries of Africa. As we

once again face the specter of this disease, along with other killers like AIDS and SARS, this powerful

book reminds us of the personal cost, the cultural implications, and the historical significance of one of

modern humanity's deadliest biological enemies. In Polio and Its Aftermath Marc Shell, himself a

victim of polio, offers an inspired analysis of the disease. Part memoir, part cultural criticism and

history, part meditation on the meaning of disease, Shell's work combines the understanding of a

medical researcher with the sensitivity of a literary critic. He deftly draws a detailed yet broad picture

of the lived experience of a crippling disease as it makes it way into every facet of human existence.

Polio and Its Aftermath conveys the widespread panic that struck as the disease swept the

world in the mid-fifties. It captures an atmosphere in which polio vied with the Cold War as the

greatest cause of unrest in North America--and in which a strange and often debilitating uncertainty

was one of the disease's salient but least treatable symptoms. Polio particularly afflicted the young, and

Shell explores what this meant to families and communities. And he reveals why, in spite of the

worldwide relief that greeted Jonas Salk's vaccine as a miracle of modern science, we have much more

to fear from polio now than we know.

Source: Harvard University Press, Website: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/SHEPOL.html

18

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/SHEPOL.html

Marc Shell. Polio and Its Aftermath: The Paralysis of Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2005. 336 pp., illus. Christopher J. Rutty, Ph.D.Health Heritage Research Services, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6S 3E9.

Marc Shell, a professor of English and of comparative literature at Harvard, has assembled one

of the most original histories of a disease, and especially of polio, that I have read. It is based not only

on his personal experience as a "polio," but more significantly upon a massive collection of published

and unpublished polio narratives collected from across North America and beyond. Moreover, he has

utilized a vast array of literary, artistic, and cinematic sources to illuminate the deep infiltration the

polio experience made into the broader culture during the preSalk vaccine era.

This thirty-year period, from the mid-1920s through the mid-1950s, when polio epidemics

became increasingly widespread across the industrialized world, was also a period when the electronic

mediamotion pictures, radio, and televisioncame into their own. Shell argues that polio influenced

"the formation of these media as much as they influenced the perception of polio on the part of terrified

people and nation-states" (p. 1). After the uncertainties of worsening epidemics and then the "total

victory" declared with the arrival of the Salk vaccine on 12 April 1955, polio quickly became a

forgotten disease.

The dramatic success of the Salk vaccine not only represented the iconic "conquest of polio,"

but also heralded "a brave new world of universal health and safety" (p. 1), not only from polio but

perhaps from all diseases. However, this "purely prophylactic approach to polio" (p. 2), as Shell

stresses, deferred important studies into the science of what caused and still causes diseases like polio,

as well as investigations into the broader social sciences of such diseases. Indeed, the long search to

understand the nature of polio and the effects it had on the bodies of individual "polios" and on bodies

politic abruptly ended in 1955. At the same time, the dramatic success of polio vaccines created a

general assumption that similar victories were likely against other plagues. Such assumptions, as Shell

notes, ignored the "historically idiosyncratic combination of public and private philanthropy that had

supported American polio research and treatment" (p. 2).

19

Fundamentally, this "total victory" against polio left the many thousands of "polios" it affected

all but forgotten, to struggle, often alone, with not only the original paralytic effects of the poliovirus,

but also the increasingly debilitating physical and psychological challenges of post-polio syndrome.

Shells use of the term "polios" reflects the fact that, unlike almost any other disease, those affected by

polio can never really put it in the past; polio stays with them, long after the original period of

infection, consciously or subconsciously shaping the rest of their lives.

Given this uniquely dichotomous historical situation, Shells primary goal is to unearth the

highly variable personal narratives of a large number of polios, including his own, and analyze them

within the context of the literary and visual arts produced during the polio epidemic era, highlighting

the many direct and indirect references to polio and its effects. Shell next shifts to a detailed

examination of how polio and the particular problems of paralysis were integrated into motion

pictures. Cinematography was the most significant cultural development of the twentieth century, with

its initial concern for "defining the problem of stasis (paralysis) in still photography and then making it

kinetic in some way" (p. 11). Shell identifies some 150 movies with some reference to polio or

paralysis, the major example of which is Alfred Hitchcocks 1954 classic, Rear Window. For Shell, this

movie carefully balances between being about polio and not about polio, which was "an avoidance that

was also central to its time" (p. 12).

Shells book covers a lot of fertile ground in a unique and interesting way. His enthusiasm for

his subject is infectious, although his enormous breadth of knowledge of the literary, visual, and

cinematic culture of the period can be a bit overwhelming to the general reader. However, as a fellow

polio historian, I certainly appreciated his original approach to the subject, particularly when much of

the recent historiography of polio has been limited to retelling the familiar Salk vaccine story, with

minimal attention given to the polios for whom the vaccine came too late.

Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 2006 61(2):232-234; doi:10.1093/jhmas/jrj030

The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. Website: http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/61/2/232

20

http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/61/2/232

Professor BERNARD LEWIS, Sackler Scholar 2005/2006. Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near

Eastern Studies, Emeritus, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey is a Sackler Institute Member

at the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies from 1980/1981.

Born in London, Professor Lewis received the B.A. degree in 1936 from the University of London

and the Ph.D. degree from the same university in 1939. In 1940-41, he served in the British Army

(RAC and IC) and from 1941 to 1945 was attached to a department of the Foreign Office. He was

Professor of History of the Near and Middle East at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the

University of London (1949-1974) He was appointed to the Cleveland E. Dodge Chair of Near

Eastern Studies at Princeton University in September 1974 and was named a long-term member of the

Institute for Advanced Study in the same year. Professor Lewis retired from Princeton and the IAS in

1986.

His publications include: The Political Language of Islam (1988), Race and Slavery in the Middle

East: an Historical Enquiry (1990), Islam and the West (1993), The Shaping of the Modern Middle

East (1994), Cultures in Conflict (1994), The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2000 Years

(1995), The Multiple Identities of the Middle East (1998), A Middle East Mosaic: Fragments of life,

letters and history (2000), and Music of a Distant Drum: Classical Arabic, Persian, Turkish and

Hebrew Poems. His works have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. His most recent

books, What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response (2002), The Crisis of Islam:

Holy War and Unholy Terror (2003), From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East (2004)

was published by Oxford University Press, New York.

Professor Lewis has lectured in numerous countries including Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand,

Japan, Canada, Mexico, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan,

Israel, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Oman, Morocco and several European countries.

Professor Lewis holds fifteen honorary doctorates and is a Fellow of the British Academy, a

member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Philosophical Society, a

corresponding member of the Institut de France, etc.

21

Professor Bernard Lewis

Report by Prof. Assaf Susser

Fred and Helen Lessing Professor of Ancient History Chair, Department of Classics Entin Faculty of Humanities

Under the sponsorship of the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies,

Professor Bernard Lewis, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, returned once again to the

Moshe Dayan Center to meet with faculty, advised students and lecture to the public. Professor Lewis

held seminars for outstanding students in the Department of Middle Eastern History, for graduate

students in the School of History and for overseas students in the special masters program in Middle

Eastern Studies.

Professor Lewis delivered two public lectures. The first, entitled "Orthodoxy and Heresy in

Middle East Religions" was delivered on January 8, 2007. Professor Lewis spoke about Judaism,

Islam, Christianity and the influence of religion in Iran. The encounter between the Jews and Iran in

the Babylonian exile changed Judaism and gave it a messianism that it lacked before the exile. It was

from post-exilic Judaism that Christianity and later Islam developed. The concept of heresy had its

origins in Manichaeism, named after the Iranian Zoroastrian heretic Mani. He then used the concepts

of orthodoxy and heresy to examine the splits in Christianity and Islam and to compare them.

In the second lecture, given on January 25, Professor Lewis discussed "Islam, the West and

the Jews," examining the relationship between Christianity and Islam since the latter's founding. He

noted that there were conflicts in the Arab phase of Islam and later in the Ottoman phase. The third

phase is now taking place and the battleground is both in the Middle East and in Europe, where

millions of Muslims now live. He expressed doubt about the willingness of Europe to stand up to

Islamic fundamentalism. Jews traditionally fared better under Islam than under Christianity, but the

introduction of modern anti-Semitism into the Middle East, combined with anti-Zionism, has

worsened relations significantly. Both lectures, as always, were attended by capacity audiences of

over 600 people.

22

IAS 997-07 BERNARD LEWIS Orthodoxy and Heresy in Middle East Religions

IAS 998-07 Islam, the West and the Jews

Princeton Prof. (Emeritus) Bernard Lewis gave two lectures during the first semester. His visit

was co-sponsored with the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies. In his first

lecture, entitled: "Orthodoxy and Heresy in Middle East Religions" and delivered on January 8, 2007,

Lewis spoke about Judaism, Islam, Christianity and the influence of religion in Iran. The encounter

between the Jews and Iran in the Babylonian exile changed Judaism and gave it a messianism that it

lacked before the exile. It was from the post-exilic Judaism that Christianity and later Islam

developed. The concept of heresy had its origins in Manichaeism, named after the Iranian Zoroastrian

heretic Mani. He then used the concepts of orthodoxy and heresy to examine the spilts in Christianity

and Islam and to compare them.

In the second lecture, given on January 25, Lewis discussed "Islam, the West and the Jews,"

examining the relationship between Christianity and Islam since the latter's founding. He noted that

there were conflicts in the Arab phase of Islam and later in the Ottoman phase. The third phase is now

taking place and the battleground is both in the Middle East and in Europe, where millions of Mulisms

now live. He expressed doubt about the willingness of Europe to stand up to Islamic fundamentalism.

Jews traditionally fared better under Islam than under Christianity, but the introduction of modern anti-

Semitism into Middle East, combined with anti-Zionism, has worsened relations significantly.

Source: Bulletin, The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, No. 45, Spring 2007, p. 5.

23

Professor DAVID B. RUDERMAN, Sackler Scholar 2006/20067, 2008. Joseph Meyerhoff

Professor of Modern Jewish History and the Ella Darivoff Director of the Center for Advanced Judaic

Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

He is the author of The World of a Renaissance Jew: The Life and Thought of Abraham b.

Mordecai Farissol (Cincinnati, Ohio, Hebrew Union College Press, 1981), for which he received the

JWB National Book Award in Jewish History in l982; Kabbalah, Magic, and Science: The Cultural

Universe of a Sixteenth-Century Jewish Physician (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press,

1988); and A Valley of Vision: The Heavenly Journey of Abraham Ben Hananiah Yagel (Philadelphia,

Pa., University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990 and also published in Hebrew in 1997). He is co-author,

with William W. Hallo and Michael Stanislawski, of the two volume Heritage: Civilization and the

Jews Study Guide and Source Reader (New York, Praeger, 1984), prepared in conjunction with the

showing of the Public Television series of the same name. He has edited Essential Papers on Jewish

Culture in Renaissance and Baroque Italy (New York, New York University Press, 1992), Preachers

of the Italian Ghetto (Los Angeles and Berkeley, University of California Press, 1992), [with David

Myers] The Jewish Past Revisited: Reflections on Modern Jewish Historians (New Haven and

London, Yale University Press, 1998), and Cultural Intermediaries: Jewish Intellectuals in Early

Modern Italy [with Giuseppe Veltri] (Philadelphia, PA., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004). He

has also published Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe (New Haven and

London, Yale University Press, 1995; revised paperback, Detroit, 2001) which has also appeared in

Italian and Hebrew versions. His book Jewish Enlightenment in an English Key: Anglo-Jewry's

Construction of Modern Jewish Thought published by Princeton University Press in 2000 won the

Koret Award for the best book in Jewish History in 2001. His forthcoming book is called Connecting

the Covenant: Judaism and the Search for Christian Identity in Eighteenth-Century England, to be

published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2007. He has also produced two courses on

Jewish history for the Teaching Company on both medieval and modern Jewish history.

Professor Ruderman was educated at the City College of New York, the Teacher's Institute of

the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Columbia University. He received his rabbinical

degree from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1971, and his

24

Ph.D in Jewish History from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem in 1975. Prior to coming to Penn, he

held the Frederick P. Rose Chair of Jewish History at Yale University (1983-94) and the Louis L.

Kaplan Chair of Jewish Historical Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park (1974-83),

where he was instrumental in establishing both institutions' Judaic studies programs. At the University

of Maryland he also won the Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award in l982-83.

Professor Ruderman is the author of numerous articles and reviews. He has served on the board

and as vice-president of the Association of Jewish Studies, and on the boards of the Central

Conference of American Rabbis, the Journal of Reform Judaism, the Renaissance Society of America,

and the World Union of Jewish Studies. He also chaired the task force on continuing rabbinic

education for the Central Conference of American Rabbis and HUC-JIR (1989-92) and the

Publications Committee of the Yale Judaic Series, published by Yale University Press (1984-94). He

served for five years as director of the Victor Rothschild Memorial Symposium in Jewish studies, a

seminar for doctoral and post-doctoral students held each summer by the Institute for Advanced

Studies, Hebrew University, in Jerusalem. He presently serves as a member of the academic advisory

board of the Mandel Center for Advanced Judaic Studies of the Hebrew University. He was also the

president of the American Academy for Jewish Research between 2000-2004. He is the editor of the

Center's series in Judaic studies called Jewish culture and contexts. He has taught in the Graduate

School of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, the Hebrew University in

Jerusalem, and was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at the Hebrew University. He was

born in New York in 1944 and is married with two children. In June, 2001, the National Foundation

for Jewish Culture honored him with its lifetime achievement award for his work in Jewish history.

Source: University of Pennsylvania Faculty Website http://www.history.upenn.edu/faculty/ruderman.htm

25

http://www.history.upenn.edu/faculty/ruderman.htm

PART I

Prof. David Ruderman

Department of Modern Jewish History

Director, Center for Advanced Judaic Studies University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

I gave a formal lecture on my new book on Christian Hebraism in 18th century England and it

seemed to be well received, with several key colleagues in my field attending and asking some great

questions.

I also met with about 20 graduate students, mostly in history, who listened to me in Hebrew for

over an hour and a half on my own intellectual trajectory and my sense of writing history in the early

modern period. Professors Yossi Mali and Yosie Schwartz sat in on this session which I found to be

quite successful.

Besides my pleasant meeting with Prof. Nitzan, my hosts Elhanan Reiner and Miri Eliav-

Feldon were most helpful in arranging my schedule and making me feel at home. I also met Dean

Biderman on two occasions, including a special meeting with Raanan Rein, the vice-rector, to offer my

advice in strengthening Jewish studies at Tel Aviv. I would be happy to continue to help in this way on

my return in May and with Abraham's help, would be happy to meet the new president.

Jeremy Cohen is working on a public program, a dialogue between me and Reiner on early

modern Jewish history for my return in May. I hope to continue to meet with the graduate students as

well. I will also respond to other colleagues who have asked to see me, visit their classes, and do

anything else that might be useful.

I was most happy with the Alexander hotel, especially the new management, which cancelled

the cost of my internet service. I love the setting of the beach and found it most conducive to write and

think. I am most grateful to the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies, to Prof.

Nitzan and to you for hosting me under such wonderful conditions. I look forward to my return in

May.

26

PART II From: David B. Ruderman [mailto:ruderman@sas.upenn.edu] Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 11:51 PM To: Ronit Nevo Dear Ronit, It is a pleasure for me to report on my activities as a Sackler Fellow during my second of four visits (May 27-June 16, 2007). My primary public lecture was part of a symposium on early modern Jewry organized by Professor Jeremy Cohen. My dialogue partner in this conversation was Professor Elhanan Reiner of Tel Aviv University. This public event was well attended and attracted an interesting audience. I continued to meet with Reiner several times to discuss our mutual academic interests along with several other faculty from Tel Aviv. During this visit I met separately with Professors Eliezer Gutworth, Yaron Tsur, Nurit Gurtz, Anita Shapira, Jeremy Cohen, Aron Oppenheimer, and Miri Eliav Feldon. I also met with several graduate students in history and Jewish history who contacted me after my lecture and asked for help. I was asked by the graduate students of the Hebrew University to offer them the same seminar I had given those at Tel Aviv in January and I did. I also lectured at the University of Haifa and met with its president. I enjoyed the wonderful accommodations offered me during my stay and the collegiality of Tel Aviv University's faculty. I was able to do much reading and writing on a new book on early modern Jewish culture during these three weeks. I return for my third visit to Tel Aviv next December-January. I hope to speak to the graduate forum organized by Professor Shapira then; to meet the new president if possible; and to contribute directly to your students by offering some guest lectures in Jewish history courses at Tel Aviv. I am grateful for the honor of holding this fellowship and being a part of Tel Aviv University. I am sending a recent article of mine which has just appeared. Best wishes, David B. Ruderman Joseph Meyerhoff Professor of Modern Jewish History Ella Darivoff Director, Center for Advanced Judaic Studies University of Pennsylvania 420 Walnut St. Philadelphia, PA. 19106 Tel: (215) 238-1290

27

mailto:ruderman@sas.upenn.edu

IAS 999-07 DAVID B. RUDERMAN The Impact of Early Modern Jewish Thought on the Eighteenth Century: A Challenge to the Notion of the Sephardi Mystique

During my two first stays in Tel Aviv, I began serious work on a book I have been thinking

about for many years. In the last several decades, scholars have given increasing attention to the study

of Jewish cultural formation in early modern Europe, focusing on such questions as the impact of the

Renaissance and the Baroque on Jewish civilization, on Jews and scientific discoveries, on Jewish

messianism and mysticism, on the University and the printing press as agents of Jewish cultural

change, on new Christian approaches to Jews and Judaism, and more. Many of the contributions

have focused on specific regions of Jewish cultural development such as Italy, the Ottoman Empire,

Poland-Lithuania, or the Netherlands. There is now a need to bring the new insights of this research

together and to reflect more broadly on the entire geographical and chronological scope of early

modern Jewish civilization

Only one historian, Jonathan Israel, primarily an historian of general European history,

has attempted to define what early modern might mean for Jewish history. As a Jewish historian,

I hope in a book which is slowly taking shape to expand and revise his formulations and to offer my

own tentative definition of early modern Jewish culture. Fully cognizant of the pitfalls of any rigid

scheme of periodization that attempts to link together disparate communities and cultures within a

cultural matrix rather muddled even for general European historians, I still believe such an effort is

worthwhile in seeking a deeper understanding of the meaning of this seminal epoch for both Jews

and non-Jews alike.

I have made great progress on this project during the last few months. I hope to have a first

draft of this new book completed by next summer.

28

Professor DOV JARON, Sackler Lecturer in May 2007. He is the Calhoun Distinguished

Professor of Engineering in Medicine at the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health

Systems of Drexel University in Philadelphia since 1998. His wide range of research activities

encompass: Development, physiologic evaluation, and optimization of mechanical cardiac assist

devices; Modeling of cardiovascular dynamics and assessment of cardiovascular function; and

Mechanisms of nitric oxide in the microcirculation.

Prof. Jaron studied Electrical Engineering at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology

from 1957-1958, received his B.S. in 1961 from the University of Denver, attended the University

of Colorado's Graduate School of Medical Sciences from 1961-1962; and received his Ph.D. in

Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967.

Prof. Jaron has held numerous Directorships as follows: The Biomedical Engineering and

Science Institute at Drexel University from 1980 to 1996; The Biomedical Technology and Associate

Director of the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institute of Health from 1996-

1998; Director, Division of Biological and Critical Systems, National Science Foundation from 1991

to 1993. In addition Prof. Jaron also served as President of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and

Biology Society from 1986-1987 and President of the International Federation for Medical and

Biological Engineering from 2000-2003. Some of his honors are listed: Fellow of the Institute of

Electrical and Electronic Engineers, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering,

American Association for the Advancement of Science, International Academy for Medical and

Biological Engineering, Academy of Surgical Research. Prof. Jaron is a recipient of the NIH

Director's Award 1998; IEEE Third Millennium Medal 2000; and the Merit Award, International

Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine 2006. He has published over 150 scientific

journal articles in addition to abstracts, conference presentations and chapters in books.

From email, June 20, 2007:

I also wanted to let you know that I enjoyed very much interacting with the faculty of the college and

the department and in particular, with the many bright students attending the program. It was a very

productive time for me and I hope that my visit would result in future collaborations with the faculty.

29

Professor Dov Jaron

Report by Prof. Ofer Barnea

Department of Biomedical Engineering Fleischman Faculty of Engineering

Prof Dov Jaron from the School of Biomedical Engineering at Drexel University, spent two

weeks with us at the department of Biomedical Engineering at Tel Aviv University. During these two

weeks he gave two talks. One talk was a research summary on the role of NO in oxygen supply to the

myocardium. This talk created much interest and led to research collaboration. The second talk was

dedicated to the future of Biomedical Engineering. It was an extremely important talk that addressed

both students and faculty with a couple of hundred attendants. During this visit subjects regarding

undergraduate and graduate curricula in Biomedical Engineering were discussed resulting in the co-

authoring of Ofer Barnea and Dov Jaron of a new textbook in Biomedical Engineering.

30

Professor DAVID HARBATER, Sackler Lecturer from May 19 30, 2007. Prof. Harbater

is the Christopher H. Browne Professor in the Department of Mathematics from the University of

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Prof. Harbater received his A.B., summa cum laude from Harvard

University, Cambridge in 1974; his M.S. from Brandeis University, Waltham in 1975; his Ph.D.

from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge in 1978; and an honorary M.A. from

the University of Pennsylvania in 1984. He is the recipient of two outstanding prizes: the Frank

Nelson Cole Prize in Algebra in1995 and the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1995.

Prof. Harbater's general research interests are Galois theory with connections to arithmetic

algebraic geometry.

31

Professor David Harbater

Report by Prof. Moshe Jarden

The Cissie & Aaron Beare Chair in Algebra and Number Theory School of Mathematics, Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences

David Harbater published a pioneering work on the inverse problem of Galois theory in

1987 where he proved that every finite group occurs as a Galois group over Qp(x) as well as over

K0((t))(x) for an arbitrary field K0. The method he used in the proof is now known as formal

patching. He used it once more in 1994 to reduce the generalized Abhyankars conjecture to the

special case which Michel Raynaud settled. For that achievement, Harbater won (together with

Raynaud) the prestigious Cole Prize in mathematics.

Professor Dan Haran and I developed an alternative simplified method to realize finite groups

and solve finite split embedding problems, called algebraic patching. The mutual interest that has

been raised between Harbater and his co-workers on the one hand and our group on the other hand

resulted in mutual reviewing of works, meeting and discussions in workshops over the years, and two

visits of the undersigned at the University of Pennsylvania. It was only natural to invite Harbater to

Tel Aviv University and we are obliged to the Sackler Institute for Advanced Studies that gave us the

means to finance the visit.

The visit turned out to be a big success. Harbater gave two talks. The first one was for a general

audience in the framework of the weekly colloquium of the School of Mathematics on Patching and

Galois Theory and was well received by the faculty. The second one was more directed to specialists

and was given in our weekly seminar on Field Arithmetic. In addition to our small group of graduate

students several more graduate people showed up and attended the talk on Local Galois Theory in

Dimension 2.

More important than the talks were the discussions we had with Harbater. Professor Haran and

his Ph.D students, Lior Bary-Soroker and Elad Paran kept Harbater busy with mathematics literally

every minute of his stay in the School of Mathematics. These discussions have resulted in a joint work

of Harbater, Haran, and Bary-Soroker.

The undersigned did not want to interrupt those discussions. Nevertheless, he found an

opportunity to get an important information from Harbater for the book he is currently writing.

On the recreational side, Bary-Soroker and myself took Harbater to Masada. He enjoyed the

visit very much. For all that we thank the Sackler Institute for Advanced Studies.

32

454 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 42, NUMBER 4

1995 Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Algebra The Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Algebra is awarded every five years for a notable research memoir

in algebra which has appeared in the previous five years. This prize and the Frank Nelson Cole Prize

in Number Theory were established in honor of Professor Frank Nelson Cole, who served as secretary

of the AMS from 1896 to 1920 and also served as editor-in-chief of the Bulletin for twenty-one years.

The original fund was donated by Professor Cole out of monies presented to him on his retirement.

The fund has been augmented by contributions from members of the Society, including a gift made

in 1929 by Charles A. Cole, Professor Coles son, which more than doubled the size of the fund. In

recent years, the Cole Prizes have been augmented by awards from the Leroy P. Steele Fund;

currently they amount to $4,000.

The Twenty-fifth Cole Prize is shared by David Harbater of the University of Pennsylvania

and Michel Raynaud of Universit de Paris-Sud, Orsay. The prize was presented at the Societys

101st Annual Meeting in San Francisco in January 1995. The prize is awarded by the AMS Council,

acting through a selection committee consisting of Barry Mazur, Shigefumi Mori, and Jean-Pierre

Serre (chair).

The text below includes the citations from the selection committee, the recipients responses

upon receiving the prize, and a brief biographical sketch of each recipient.

Citation

The Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Algebra for 1995 is awarded to Michel Raynaud and David Harbater

for their solution of Abhyankars conjecture. This work appeared in the papers Revtements de la

droite affine en caractristique p > 0, Invent. Math. 116 (1994), 425462 (Raynaud), and

Abhyankars conjecture on Galois groups over curves, Invent. Math. 117 (1994), 125 (Harbater).

As a first application of his reworking of algebraic geometry, A. Grothendieck constructed a

theory of the fundamental group of an algebraic curve over a field of arbitrary characteristic. He

could prove that when the curve had a usual fundamental group, the algebraic one was the profinite

completion of the topological one (case of characteristic 0). In characteristic p > 0, the same

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statement is true if one lifts the curve to characteristic 0 and restricts attention to the prime-to-p part of

the group. However, the theory is powerless for the p part of the fundamental group in characteristic

p. Already in 1957, S. Abhyankar had seen that the situation was bound to be more complicated for

the p part than for the usual (prime-to-p) part (Amer. J. Math. 79, 825856). For example, the affine

line in characteristic p is not simply connected, because the Artin-Schreier coverings preclude this.

Abhyankar made the following conjecture in his cited paper: For a finite group G, write p(G) for the

subgroup generated by all the p-Sylow subgroups of G. If X is a projective curve in characteristic p >

0, and if x0; : : : ; xt, are points of X(t > 0), then a necessary and sufficient condition that G occur as

the Galois group of a finite covering, Y, of Xbranched only at the points x0; : : : ; xt is that G =

p(G) have 2g + t generators. (Of course, g is the genus of X, and the generator condition is merely the

statement that

G = p(G) appear as a quotient of the usual fundamental group of the open curve Xfx0; : : : ; xtg.)

Michel Raynaud is among the best active specialists in algebraic geometry and its applications

to number theory. A thread common to most of his work is its great generality that still provides the

means to attack concrete problems very effectively. Thus, several of his results, notably those

concerning finite group schemes of type (p;p; : : : ; p), rigid analytic geometry, Neron models, and

Picard functors, have become the tools of choice in algebraic geometry and arithmetic.

David Harbater has made pioneering contributions to formal algebraic geometry. A thread

common to most of his work is the use of power series methods. He has made significant advances in

such areas as approximation theory and formal geometric methods, which include his theory of mock

coverings and patching methods. In the prize winning works, Raynaud solved the Abhyankar problem

in the crucial case of the affine line (the projective line with a point deleted) by using rigid analytic

methods ( la Tate), combined with a very interesting study of the action of the Galois group on the

graph of components, in the case of bad reduction. Harbater then proves the full Abhyankar conjecture

by building upon the solution of the conjecture for the case of the affine line and by using the powerful

methods mentioned above that he has developed.

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David Harbater's Response

I am very happy to accept this award and would like to thank the AMS and the selection committee.

I also would like to express my thanks to my thesis advisor, Michael Artin, for having initially

suggested to me the problem of studying fundamental groups in characteristic p. In addition, I would

like to take this occasion to express my appreciation for the continuing support over the years that have

received at the Penn Mathematics Department from Steve Shatz and that I have received at home from

Judy Axler.

The papers that have been cited prove a conjecture that was posed in 1957 by S. S. Abhyankar

as an outgrowth of his work on resolution of singularities. In that work he considered varieties over

fields of characteristic p as well as arithmetic varieties. By taking linear slices of surfaces that he

wished to resolve, he found interesting examples of covers of curves in characteristic p and especially

unramified covers of the affine line. Based on these examples, he conjectured which finite groups can

arise as the Galois groups (i.e., deck transformation groups) of covers of a curve of genus g with r

points removed over an algebraically closed field k of characteristic p. A few years later,

Grothendieck showed that the conjecture was correct in the case of groups of order prime to p.

Grothendiecks method did not generalize to arbitrary groups, however, because it involved

comparison between coverings of curves over k and of curves over C (i.e., Riemann surfaces).

Little further progress was made until the 1980s, when Nori and Abhyankar each found

examples of infinite classes of finite groups that, as conjectured, do occur over the affine line over k.

In 1990, Serre proved the conjecture for solvable groups over the affine line, using a cohomological

approach. The following year, I was able to obtain partial results toward Abhyankars conjecture over

general affine curves, using formal patching. Upon sending a copy of this manuscript to Serre, I

learned from him that Raynaud had just obtained related results over the affine line using rigid

patching and that Raynaud was hopeful that he could prove the full conjecture over the affine line by

combining these results with an argument using semistable reduction. In 1992, Raynaud succeeded in

doing just that. The year after, I was able to combine Raynauds result with my formal patching

methods in order to prove the conjecture over arbitrary affine curves. The key step involved going

from the affine line to the once-punctured affine line, using a formal patching construction with a

ramified closed fibre. From there, another formal patching construction yielded the general case

35

Both patching methodsformal and rigidallow for the possibility of treating curves in

characteristic p much as though they were Riemann surfaces. In particular, these approaches permit

cut-andpaste constructions, which would not make sense if one worked only within the Zariski

topology. In my case, the formal approach was one that I had previously used in the 1980s to realize

all finite groups as Galois groups of branched covers of the line over p-adic and algebraically closed

fields. Raynaud had previously shown that the formal and rigid approaches are in many situations

essentially equivalent, in the sense of almost having a dictionary between them. Intuitively, however,

they are quite different, and the intuition behind the rigid approach is probably more accessible. On the

other hand, the formal approach enables one to draw on the edifice constructed by Grothendieck in

EGA. I am convinced that patching methods, in whichever guise, will permit much further progress to

be made toward many of the open problems concerning Galois groups and fundamental groups in

characteristic p and in arithmetic situations. And I am very pleased to be sharing this award with

Michel Raynaud.

Source: NOTICES OF THE AMS, April 1995, 42, No. 4, p. 454-456. Website: http://www.ams.org/notices/199504/prize-cole.pdf

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http://www.ams.org/notices/199504/prize-cole.pdf

The Annual Report 2006 - 2007 of theMortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced StudiesTable of ContentsSamuel L. and Perry Haber Chair on the Study of the Jewish Experience in the United States Director, Goldreich Family Institute for Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture

StutterMarc ShellSource: Harvard University Press, Website: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/SHESTU.html

17 Polio and Its AftermathThe Paralysis of Culture Marc Shell

Source: Harvard University Press, Website: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/SHEPOL.html18Marc Shell. Polio and Its Aftermath: The Paralysis of Culture.Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2005. 336 pp., illus.Website: http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/61/2/232