The authors examine the conflicted relationship between Orthodox Judaism and psychoanalysis. Orthodox Jewish thinkers about psychology have responded to psychoanalysis as incompatible with the practice of Orthodox Judaism. On the other hand, those psychoanalytic writers who have examined the beliefs and practices of Orthodox Jews have tended to treat these issues in a reductionistic fashion. However, the authors find possibilities for reconciliation and dialogue in the work of Aaron Rabinowitz and Moshe Halevi Spero.

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This chapter examines the life and art of Polish-born Jewish actor and dancer Felix Fibich as a rich example of the intersection of discourses about the Jewish body, movement, the emotions, and dance in the twentieth century. Fibich devoted his life to performing, analyzing, and preserving “Jewish movement,” which he believed was the direct reflection of a unique Jewish character. The chapter demonstrates how the specific image and enactment of the torqued, angular body, defined by twists and oppositional pulls in space, provides a powerful modernist mapping of Jewish male subjectivity that migrated from Eastern Europe to the United States, and also of the struggle for transcendence in the face of adversity. Frequently represented in popular culture in a simplistic and stereotyped manner, this richly conceived perspective of the dancing Jewish body provides important insights into shifting ideas about the relationship between Jewish souls, bodies, and emotions.

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