“This volume celebrates a half century of the fulfillment of Touro University founder Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander’s vision for an institution of higher education that would be dedicated to academic excellence, social responsibility and the community at large, accompanied by a major commitment to the needs of the Jewish community. In its first fifty years, Touro University has done much to make Rabbi Dr. Lander’s vision a reality. It is thus most appropriate that this book presents the proceedings of two Touro University conferences, one held in New York on the subject of ‘Jewish leadership,’ which Rabbi Dr. Lander exemplified, and the other, on an important aspect of Holocaust studies, held at Touro University’s Berlin campus, which symbolizes Rabbi Dr. Lander’s worldwide aspirations for the institution he founded.”

— Ira Robinson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus/ Department of Religions and Cultures/ Concordia University.

“Ha-Tov v’ha Meitiv: Contemporary Scholarship in Jewish Studies. Essays in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of Touro University, edited by Simcha Fishbane and Eric M. Levine, is a collection of outstanding essays by noted scholars, professors, rabbis, and writers, eminent experts on their subjects who are devoted to preserving and maintaining Jewish history and culture. Students of all ages will find a wealth of interesting material here on such topics as Holocaust studies, Jewish, Polish, Ukrainian history, the expulsion from Spain, the Dreyfus Affair, leadership, rabbinical authority, and finding meaning in work. Touro University has done a true mitzvah by publishing this excellent anthology, dedicated to the memory of Dr. Bernard Lander, Touro’s Founding President. This volume deserves a place of honor in university, public, and private libraries throughout the English-speaking world. 

A reading knowledge of Hebrew is not essential for persons interested in the subject, as most quotations have been translated. A comprehensive introduction by Dr. Alan Kadish prepares readers for the wide variety of articles included here, and the material has been arranged both chronologically and by subject, beautifully edited to assist the reader in going through this volume.”

— Dr. Lynn Visson, United Nations, Retired

Simcha Fishbane is a professor at the Touro University Graduate School of Jewish Studies. He has been a rabbi, scholar, and educator for many years. Fishbane is the author of numerous books and articles, is co-editor of Touro University Press, co-editor of Studies in Judaism, Humanities and the Social Sciences, and serves as the executive assistant to the president of Touro College.

Dr. Eric M. Levine is a faculty member and Director, Social Work Alumni Engagement, Continuing Education, Licensing & Financial Resource Development for the Touro Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) in New York City.  He has held senior management positions in the Jewish and general not-for-profit sectors, and displayed significant leadership and expertise in leadership development, program planning and management, policy analysis, grants writing, resource development, organizational management, strategy and change.  He has co-edited four books and his article, "Toward a Critical Social Work Ethics of Immigration, Migration, and Human Rights," will appear in 2024. He has served as the Managing Editor of the journal Studies in Judaism, Humanities and the Social Sciences and is a member of Board of Copy Editors for the International Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics. His recent research interests have focused on immigration, racism, inequality, civil rights, and democracy. 

Yosef Robinson is an independent scholar living in Montreal, Quebec. His most recent scholarly project is translating Chaim Kruger’s Der Rambam: Zayn leben un shafn from Yiddish to English.

Contents

Editors’ Preface

Simcha Fishbane and Eric M. Levine

Introduction

Alan Kadish

Part 1: Holocaust Studies

The Holocaust of the Polish Jews: Political History, Contested Memory

Stephan Lehnstaedt

“I was a Jew, I was a Pole, I was a Ukrainian Woman…”: The Genealogy of Passing on the Lwów-Dnipropetróvsk Rescue Trail

Ayelet Eva Herbst

Szmul Zygielbojm and Polish London: A History of Disillusionment

Michał Trębacz  

Rural Areas, Polish Partisans, Nazi Violence

Daniel Brewing

“Thank You So Much for Bringing Us Closer to the Story of Poles Rescuing Jews”: Reception of Polish “Righteous” Museums in the Light of Visitor Book Entries—Eagle Pharmacy, Żabiński Villa, Ulma Museum

Zofia Wóycicka

“We Listened with Bated Breath”: Polish-Jewish Relations during the Holocaust in Poland’s Independent Culture of Memory of the 1980s

Florian Peters

Part 2: Jewish Leadership

Toward a Typology of Leadership

Mervin F. Verbit

Print Power: Rabbinical Authority Established through the Printed Word

Simcha Fishbane

Revisiting the Portuguese Jewish Response to the Influx of Refugees from the Spanish Expulsion

Michael A. Shmidman

Ish u-Pekudato: The Mission-Driven Leadership of Dr. Bernard Lander

Stanley L. Boylan

Stealing the Opponent’s Thunder: Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and Reform

Judith Bleich

Silent or Outspoken? Jewish Leadership and the Dreyfus Affair

Zvi Jonathan Kaplan and Lauren Gottlieb Lockshin

The Methodologies of Rabbi Moshe Tendler as a Posek 

John D. Loike

Six Days shall You Labor: Jewish Perspectives on Finding Meaning in Work

Sydney Engelberg