@phdthesis{Jacob2022,
  author    = {Jacob, Karen},
  title     = {Who are the Bene Israel from India?},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-55450},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-554508},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {146},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {This study explores the identity of the Bene Israel caste from India and its assimilation into Israeli society. The large immigration from India to Israel started in the early 1950s and continued until the early 1970s. Initially, these immigrants struggled hard as they faced many problems such as the language barrier, cultural differences, a new climate, geographical isolation, and racial discrimination. This analysis focuses on the three major aspects of the integration process involving the Bene Israel: economic, socio-cultural and political. The study covers the period from the early fifties to the present. I will focus on the origin of the Bene Israel, which has evolved after their immigration to Israel; from a Hindu-Muslim lifestyle and customs they integrated into the Jewish life of Israel. Despite its ethnographic nature, this study has theological implications as it is an encounter between Jewish monotheism and Indian polytheism. All the western scholars who researched the Bene Israel community felt impelled to rely on information received by community members themselves. No written historical evidence recorded Bene Israel culture and origin. Only during the nineteenth century onwards, after the intrusion of western Jewish missionaries, were Jewish books translated into Marathi . Missionary activities among the Bene Israel served as a catalyst for the Bene Israel themselves to investigate their historical past . Haeem Samuel Kehimkar (1830-1908), a Bene Israel teacher, wrote notes on the history of the Bene Israel in India in Marathi in 1897. Brenda Ness wrote in her dissertation: The results [of the missionary activities] are several works about the community in English and Marathi by Bene-Israel authors which have appeared during the last century. These are, for the most part, not documented; they consist of much theorizing on accepted tradition and tend to be apologetic in nature. There can be no philosophical explanation or rational justification for an entire community to leave their motherland India, and enter into a process of annihilation of its own free will. I see this as a social and cultural suicide. In craving for a better future in Israel, the Indian Bene Israel community pays an enormously heavy price as a people that are today discarded by the East and disowned by the West: because they chose to become something that they never were and never could be. As it is written, "know where you came from, and where you are going." A community with an ancient history from a spiritual culture has completely lost its identity and self-esteem. In concluding this dissertation, I realize the dilemma with which I have confronted the members of the Bene Israel community which I have reviewed after strenuous and constant self-examination. I chose to evolve the diversifications of the younger generations urges towards acceptance, and wish to clarify my intricate analysis of this controversial community. The complexity of living in a Jewish State, where citizens cannot fulfill their basic desires, like matrimony, forced an entire community to conceal their true identity and perjure themselves to blend in, for the sake of national integration. Although scholars accepted their new claims, the skepticism of the rabbinate authorities prevails, and they refuse to marry them to this day, suspecting they are an Indian caste.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Hegener2024,
  author    = {Hegener, Wolfgang},
  title     = {In the beginning was the scripture},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-61882},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-618827},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {406},
  year      = {2024},
  abstract  = {Sigmund Freud, der Begr{\"u}nder der Psychoanalyse, hat sein intellektuelles Leben mit der J{\"u}dischen Bibel begonnen und es zugleich mit ihr auch beendet. Am Anfang stand die gemeinsame Lekt{\"u}re in der Philippson-Bibel vor allem mit seinem Vater Jacob Freud und am Ende seine Besch{\"a}ftigung mit der Figur des Mose. Die vorliegende Arbeit geht den Spuren dieser Besch{\"a}ftigung systematisch nach und zeigt, dass die J{\"u}dische Bibel f{\"u}r Freud ein konstanter Bezug war und seine j{\"u}dische Identit{\"a}t bestimmt hat. Dies wird anhand der Analyse von Familiendokumenten, des Religionsunterrichts sowie der Bezugnahme auf die Bibel in Freuds Schriften und Korrespondenzen gezeigt.},
  language  = {en}
}