Critical Jewish Studies Now The Relational Politics of Memory

This book focuses on the connection between Brazil and Antarctica, two regions that can be seen as distant and contrasting, but are physically, culturally and politically associated. Relying on archival material and previous literature, the book offers a thorough account of Brazil’s involvement with one of the most significant regions in the global environment. The author explores the place of Antarctica in geopolitical works and in the first initiatives involving Brazil and the continent, from the rise of geopolitical thought in Brazil in the 1930s up to the present day. He argues that the connection between Brazil and Antarctica is not without its difficulties, but it has been structured in many enduring ways. The book covers causes for the delay and eventual adoption of a now active foreign policy regarding the region, the policy’s early performance in Antarctica, its evolution as a consequence of domestic and international changes, the increasing interest in the environment, and further recent developments.

With remarkably original formulations, Naomi Seidman examines the ways that Hebrew, the Holy Tongue, and Yiddish, the vernacular language of Ashkenazic Jews, came to represent the masculine and feminine faces, respectively, of Ashkenazic Jewish culture. Her sophisticated history is the first book-length exploration of the sexual politics underlying the "marriage" of Hebrew and Yiddish, and it has profound implications for understanding the centrality of language choices and ideologies in the construction of modern Jewish identity.