An Intertextual Internal Alterity:
Piyyut Revival and Modern Mizrahi Hebrew Poetry
Dr. Oren Yirmiya, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Tuesday, February 25, 2025 | 5:30pm
Humanities Gateway 1010
At the turn of the 20th century, with the rise of Zionism and the establishment of "Modern Hebrew Literature" as a distinct and novel corpus, the longstanding tradition of piyyut, that is, liturgical Hebrew poems, was dismissed as archaic and overly "oriental," relegated out of the emerging
hegemonic Hebrew culture.
This lecture explores the discursive origins of piyyut's exclusion and charts its unexpected resurgence within contemporary Hebrew culture, particularly among Mizrahi writers descended from Jewish communities in Middle Eastern North Africa.
The presentation examines how these writers reclaim the intertextual polyphony intrinsic to pre-modern piyyut, using it both as a vehicle for self-expression and as a means of challenging their own marginalization.
Oren Yirmiya is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He recently graduated from UC Berkeley upon completing the dissertation "The Other('s) Lyric: Piyyut, Identity, and Alterity in Modern Hebrew Mizrahi Poetry." Currently, he is working on a new project exploring nonbinary, third-sex, and gender-fluid articulations in Hebrew scripture and poetry, thinking about the queer international from a Mizrahi literary perspective.
Presented by
The Teller Family Chair in Jewish History
Co-sponsored by:
Department of History
Center for Jewish Studies
Department of Comparative Literature
International Center for Writing and Translation
