Troubled Waters: Jewish Heritage Flows and the Spectral Mikveh

Abstract: Mikva’ot, also known as Jewish “ritual baths”, feature prominently in State sponsored and grassroots archaeological heritage projects in locations including Israel/Palestine, Italy, Poland, and Spain. Whether flowing or desiccated, the historic pools are increasingly deployed by private and public actors, and their critics, across diverse geographical contexts for political, educational, and spiritual purposes. Nationalistic projects that center mikva’ot and their preservation betray the high stakes of heritage fabrication and its profound implications for local communities and the historical record. Drawing on my dissertation fieldwork (2019-2023), this study throws light on contradictions in place-based statecrafting and memory work rooted in polarizing constructions of Jewish history and rhetorics of (un)belonging. I examine relationships between and across these heritage circuits and the possibilities they present for rethinking reconciliatory and redemptive narratives surrounding Jewish heritage production across Europe and the Mediterranean.

Jaimie is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology.  She comes to Cornell with a B.A. in Art History and Museum Anthropology from Sarah Lawrence College, an M.A. in Decorative Arts, Design History and Material Culture from Bard College, and a graduate certificate in Heritage Conservation from the University of Arizona's College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. Jaimie’s research interests include historic landscape preservation, sacred material culture, cultural memory and identity in diaspora, and ritual practices related to water in Jewish contexts. She has worked as a curatorial associate and program coordinator for the Jewish History Museum in Tucson, a tribal repatriation consultant for Bernstein & Associates NAGPRA, and currently serves as a member of the board of the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation (US/CA). Her current research is centered on critical heritage studies and issues of documentation, conservation, and engagement with historical and contemporary ceremonial spaces in Iberia and Israel/Palestine.