Age, Emotion, Representation: Revisiting Jewish Migration History

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

Jewish history and the history of migration are intrinsically linked. Much scholarly work has been dedicated to the historical study of Jewish migration, especially in the historiography of Mandatory Palestine and Israel as well as in the history of (Eastern) European Jewish migration to the USA. Often, though, these studies focus on questions of periodization, contribution and integration, and push-and-pull factors. Based on current research in the field, this panel incorporates new questions, sources, and approaches to explore Jewish migration history from a fresh perspective.
The three papers probe Jewish migration in different cultural, social, and historical contexts. They use different concepts such as age, emotion, and representation of migration in museum contexts) in various settings of Jewish history in the 20th and 21th century (Mandatory Palestine, Israel, the Americas). The papers utilize a broad variety of sources: personal letters and social worker reports, songs and verses, as well as museum exhibitions. In doing this, the panel probes the experience of the migrants themselves, their perception through receiving societies, and the narration and representation of their stories as an important arena for historiographical debates. Galia Hasharoni’s paper focuses on the arrival of elderly immigrants to Palestine during the 1920s and 1930s while examining the principle of ‘Linked Life’ that led to changes in family structure, family living patterns, and various forms of support necessitated. Viola Alianov-Rautenberg analyses the meaning of amateur songs and singing in Jewish emigration from Nazi Germany after 1933, arguing that this grassroots musical practice served the migrants as a communicative, social, and psychological resource. Singing enabled these migrants to jointly experience, debate, and evoke emotions in the context of their involuntary migration. Amy Kerner explores the representation of migration stories in Jewish museums. Given the particular typologies (Holocaust, art museum, local/regional history museum) in the US museums landscape, the paper asks what object-driven and narrative possibilities exist for narrating migration history in a West-coast Jewish museum, and the reasons for doing so.
In bringing these papers together, our panel aims to bring together scholars of different forms of Jewish migration, between different countries of origin and different countries of migration, and the analysis of different source groups and modes of representation. Ultimately, this panel aims to provide new impulses in current academic debates in the historical study of Jewish migration.

Sub Unit

• Modern Jewish History in Europe, Asia, Israel, and Other Communities

Chair

• Stefanie Fischer, Technical University Berlin, Center for Research on Anti-Semitism

Individual Presentations

• Old Life, New Land: Older Persons Immigration to Mandatory Palestine - Galia Hasharoni, The University of Haifa

• An Archive of Emotions. Amateur Songs and Singing in German-Jewish Migration - Viola Alianov- Rautenberg, German Historical Institute/ UC Berkeley

• Narrating Migration History in a West-Coast Jewish Museum - Amy Kerner, Contemporary Jewish Museum

Respondent

• Stefanie Mahrer, Institute for History, University of Bern

Zoom Host

• Zoom Host 14