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Zwischen Pflicht und Kür
(2018)
ProfiForum
(2018)
Spotlights Lehre
(2018)
Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) portrayed modern Zionist historical scholarship as both a rejection and a corrective fulfillment of earlier eras of Wissenschaft des Judentums. Through attacks on his scholarly predecessors, Scholem detailed his vision for the potential of this renaissance of Wissenschaft to entail both objective research and a commitment to treating Judaism as a “living organism,” an approach that would ultimately ensure the scholarship could deliver value to the Jewish community. This article will explore the tensions that arise from Scholem’s commitments, his occasional admissions of these tensions, and his attempts to overcome them.
Ismar Elbogen (1874–1943) and Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) were both pioneers in Jewish thought and culture. Elbogen authored the most comprehensive study on Jewish liturgy, while Rosenzweig’s magnum opus The Star of Redemption has emerged as one of the twentieth century’s most innovative and elusive works of Jewish thought. Even though Rosenzweig is not known for his work on or appreciation for the Wissenschaft des Judentums, this article will explore this overlooked aspect of his thought by exploring the influence of Ismar Elbogen. Commentaries to Rosenzweig’s views on prayer are numerous, yet none mention the work of Elbogen. This is a problem. By comparing Elbogen’s work on Jewish liturgy with Rosenzweig’s writings on prayer in the Star, we are able to demonstrate how methods seminal to the Wissenschaft des Judentums helped articulate several of Rosenzweig’s most innovative contributions to Jewish thought.
The St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy (PFA RAN) contains two manuscript biographies of Daniel Chwolson, the Russian-Jewish Orientalist, advocate of Jewish scholarship, and bridge builder to the Breslau Jewish Theological Seminary. They were written by his pupil and colleague, Pavel Kokovtsov, and his grandson Yevgeny Chwolson, respectively. These two texts are studied against the background of published texts and popular opinion of Chwolson in late Imperial Russia. Apart from some details, these manuscripts offer limited additional information as factual sources, most of their contents being mere variation of published texts. However, the biography of Chwolson written by his grandson is a valuable source on the reception of Chwolson and illustrates the potential of further mythological appreciation of his personality and works in the Soviet time as a defense strategy for Chwolson’s family. It also contains crucial information on the fate of Chwolson’s archive.
Due to the lack of acceptance of Wissenschaft des Judentums in academia, modern Jewish scholarship in the nineteenth century organized itself along networks of institutions such as rabbinical seminaries, contacts with related disciplines like Oriental Studies, and personal relationships. This last pathway of communication was essential for the cohesion of modern Jewish scholarship. Therefore, my essay portrays the correspondence between David Kaufmann and Leopold Zunz as an example of this channel of communication. By analyzing the exchange of letters and personal encounters between the two scholars, particular attention will be paid to the following questions: How were the letters transmitted until today? What were the main topics of the correspondence between these representatives of two generations of Wissenschaft des Judentums? Which were the positions of Kaufmann and Zunz towards the present and future of modern Jewish scholarship? How did Kaufmann become the first biographer of Zunz?
This article examines the works of Adolf Jellinek (1821–1893) on the history of mysticism and the Kabbalah, which were written during his fourteen-year residence in Leipzig. It argues that studying the Spanish Kabbalists allowed Jellinek to work through ideas concerning the development of Jewish theology and the interplay of Jewish and non-Jewish philosophical perspectives. The article briefly describes Jellinek’s early education and attraction to Leipzig; his first writings on Kabbalah; and concludes with an analysis of his larger philological and genealogical projects on the authorship and literary background of the Zohar. Though Jellinek’s later prominence as a rabbi and preacher in Vienna has had the tendency to obscure his years in Leipzig, it was Jellinek’s work in Saxony that laid the groundwork for most of his subsequent scholarship on Jewish mysticism. This article is a brief introduction to this research and one more step toward revealing the still too often forgotten Wissenschaft interest in the history of Jewish mysticism.
Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (1892–1953) is often portrayed as antagonistic to secular studies. However, his writings show more of an intellectual hierarchy that places Torah wisdom at the top and all other wisdom a distant second. R. Dessler expended great effort promoting Torah scholarship while generally refraining from disparaging secular studies. Looking at the writings of his predecessors in the Mussar (moralist) movement, one can see that there was no disapproval of worldly education there, either: In fact, R. Dessler and his predecessors were well-educated in many secular disciplines. This essay looks to places R. Dessler’s attitude toward Wissenschaft des Judentums within the context of his life’s mission to advance talmudic study and his consequent unwillingness to countenance anything that detracted from furthering the learning of Torah. I argue that, whereas his extreme opposition to Wissenschaft was the result of his aversion to its aims, methods and conclusions, his nuanced relationship to Orthodox Wissenschaft was the result of the hierarchy through which he viewed secular as opposed to talmudic study.
Enlisted History
(2018)
Zeev Jawitz (1847–1924) was active in all spheres of culture: history, language, literature and pedagogy, all the while striving for harmonization with the Orthodox outlook. He understood that a people returning to its homeland needed a national culture, one that was both broad and deep, and that the narrow world of the Halakhah would no longer suffice. His main work was the multi-volume Toldot Israel (History of Israel, published 1895–1924) which encompasses Jewish history from its beginning – Patriarchs – until the end of the 19th century. His historical writing, with its emphasis on internal religious Jewish sources, the unity and continuity of Jewish history, and respect of Orthodox principles, comes as an alternative to the historiography of the celebrated historian Heinrich Graetz. The alternative that Jawitz tried to substitute for Wissenschaft des Judentums, was influenced not only by Orthodox ideology, which he supported, but also by his nationalist ideology. He saw himself and his disciples as the “priests of memory,” presenting the true and immanent history and character of the Jewish nation as a platform to the Jewish future in the land of Israel.
The article examines the work of Rabbi Yitzhak Isaac Halevy, arguably the most significant Orthodox response to the Wissenschaft des Judentums school of historiography. Halevy himself exemplified the Orthodox struggle against Wissenschaft, yet his work expressed a commitment to modern historiographical discipline that suggested an internalization of some of the very same premises adopted by Wissenschaft. While criticizing the representatives of Wissenschaft, Halevy was, at the same time, fighting for the internalization of its innovative characteristics into Orthodox society. He saw himself as a leader of a movement working towards the development of Orthodox Jewish studies and his application of modern historiographic principles from an Orthodox worldview as creating critical Orthodox historiography. Halevy’s approach promotes an understanding of Orthodoxy as a complex phenomenon, of which the struggle against modern secularization is just one of many characteristics.
Jeder Jurist ein Ethiker
(2018)
Die Lehre von wissenschaftlichem Arbeiten stellt einen zentralen Aspekt in forschungsorientierten Studiengängen wie der Informatik dar. Trotz diverser Angebote werden mittel- und langfristig Mängel in der
Arbeitsqualität von Studierenden sichtbar. Dieses Paper analysiert daher das Profil der Studierenden, deren Anwendung des wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens, und das Angebot von Proseminaren zum Thema „Einführung in das wissenschaftliche Arbeiten“ einer deutschen Universität. Die Ergebnisse mehrerer Erhebungen zeigen dabei diverse Probleme bei Studierenden auf, u. a. bei dem Prozessverständnis, dem Zeitmanagement und der Kommunikation.
In diesem Artikel werden die Ergebnisse einer explorativen Datenanalyse über die Studierendenperformance in Klausur- und Hausaufgaben eines Einführungskurses der Theoretischen Informatik vorgestellt. Da bisher empirisch wenig untersucht ist, welche Probleme Studierenden in den Einführungskursen haben und die Durchfallquoten in diesen Kursen sehr hoch sind, soll auf diesem Weg ein Überblick gegeben werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass alle Studierenden unabhängig von ihrer Klausurnote die niedrigste Performance in den Klausur- und Hausaufgaben aufweisen, in denen formale Beweise gefordert sind. Dieses Ergebnis stärkt die Vermutung, dass didaktische
Ansätze und Maßnahmen sich insbesondere auf das Erlernen formaler Beweismethoden fokussieren sollten, um Informatik-Studierende nachhaltiger dabei zu unterstützen, in Theoretischer Informatik erfolgreich zu sein.
Was ist Data Science?
(2018)
In Zusammenhang mit den Entwicklungen der vergangenen Jahre, insbesondere in den Bereichen Big Data, Datenmanagement und Maschinenlernen, hat sich der Umgang mit Daten und deren Analyse wesentlich weiterentwickelt. Mittlerweile wird die Datenwissenschaft als eigene Disziplin angesehen, die auch immer stärker durch entsprechende Studiengänge an Hochschulen repräsentiert wird. Trotz dieser zunehmenden Bedeutung ist jedoch oft unklar, welche konkreten Inhalte mit ihr in Verbindung stehen, da sie in verschiedensten Ausprägungen auftritt. In diesem Beitrag werden daher die hinter der Data Science stehenden informatischen Inhalte durch eine qualitative Analyse der Modulhandbücher etablierter Studiengänge aus diesem Bereich ermittelt und so ein Beitrag zur Charakterisierung dieser Disziplin geleistet. Am Beispiel der Entwicklung eines Data-Literacy-Kompetenzmodells, die als Ausblick skizziert wird, wird die Bedeutung dieser Charakterisierung für die weitere Forschung expliziert.
Empirische Untersuchungen von Lückentext-Items zur Beherrschung der Syntax einer Programmiersprache
(2018)
Lückentext-Items auf der Basis von Programmcode können eingesetzt werden, um Kenntnisse in der Syntax einer Programmiersprache zu prüfen, ohne dazu komplexe Programmieraufgaben zu stellen, deren Bearbeitung weitere Kompetenzen erfordert. Der vorliegende Beitrag dokumentiert den Einsatz von insgesamt zehn derartigen Items in einer universitären Erstsemestervorlesung zur Programmierung mit Java. Es werden sowohl Erfahrungen mit der Konstruktion der Items als auch empirische Daten aus dem Einsatz diskutiert. Der Beitrag zeigt dadurch insbesondere die Herausforderungen bei der Konstruktion valider Instrumente zur Kompetenzmessung in der Programmierausbildung auf. Die begrenzten und teilweise vorläufigen Ergebnisse zur Qualität der erzeugten Items legen trotzdem nahe, dass Erstellung und Einsatz entsprechender Items möglich ist und einen Beitrag zur Kompetenzmessung leisten kann.
In der dualen IT-Ausbildung als Verbindung von beruflicher und akademischer Qualifikation werden die berufstypischen Werkzeuge, wie z. B. Laptops, ebenso in den Lehr-Lern-Prozessen der akademischen Unterrichtseinheiten eingesetzt. Im Prüfungswesen wird oft auf klassische Papierklausuren zurückgegriffen. Unterrichtseinheiten mit hohem Blended-Learning-Anteil ohne E-Prüfung werden dabei als „nicht konsistent“ wahrgenommen. In diesem Artikel wird eine empirische Studie dargelegt, die untersucht, welche Einflüsse aus der persönlichen Lernbiografie bei den Lehrenden in einer dualen IT-Ausbildung dazu führen können, die Möglichkeiten eines E-Assessments als summative Modulprüfung anzunehmen oder abzulehnen. Beispielhaft wurden in der dargelegten Studie Interviews mit Dozenten geführt und diese hinsichtlich der Verbindung zwischen Lernbiografie, Gestaltung der Didaktik der Lehr-Lern-Prozesse, Zufriedenheit und Veränderungsbereitschaft untersucht.
Im Rahmen eines Informatikstudiums wird neben theoretischen Grundlagen und Programmierfähigkeiten auch gezielt vermittelt, wie moderne Software in der Praxis entwickelt wird. Dabei wird oftmals eine Form der Projektarbeit gewählt, um Studierenden möglichst realitätsnahe Erfahrungen zu ermöglichen. Die Studierenden entwickeln einzeln oder in kleineren Teams Softwareprodukte für ausgewählte Problemstellungen. Neben fachlichen Inhalte stehen durch gruppendynamische Prozesse auch überfachliche Kompetenzen im Fokus. Dieser Beitrag präsentiert eine Interviewstudie mit Dozierenden von Softwareprojektpraktika an der RWTH Aachen und konzentriert sich auf die Ausgestaltung der Veranstaltungen sowie Förderung von überfachlichen Kompetenzen nach einem Kompetenzprofil für Softwareingenieure.
Um beim Berufseinstieg erfolgreich als Informatiker wirken zu können, reicht es oft nicht aus nur separierte Kenntnisse über technische und theoretische Grundlagen, Programmiersprachen, Werkzeuge und Selbst- und Zeitmanagement zu besitzen. Vielmehr sollten Absolventen diese Kenntnisse praktisch miteinander verzahnt einsetzen können. An der Universität wird Studierenden leider selten die Möglichkeit geboten, diese verschiedenen Bereiche der Informatik miteinander integriert auszuüben. Dafür entwickeln wir seit über zwei Dekaden ein Lehr- und Lernkonzept zur Unterstützung praktischer Softwareentwicklungsveranstaltungen und setzen dieses um. Dadurch bieten wir angehenden SoftwareentwicklerInnen und ProjektmanagerInnen eine Umgebung, in der sie neues, praktisch relevantes Wissen erwerben können, sich selbst praktisch erproben und ihr Wissen konkret einsetzen können. Hier legen wir einen Schwerpunkt auf das Arbeiten im Team. Das hier vorgestellte Konzept kann auf ähnliche Lehrveranstaltungen übertragen und aufgrund seiner Modularisierung verändert und erweitert werden.
Vorlesungs-Pflege
(2018)
Ähnlich zu Alterungsprozessen bei Software degenerieren auch Vorlesungen, wenn sie nicht hinreichend gepflegt werden. Die Gründe hierfür werden ebenso beleuchtet wie mögliche Indikatoren und Maßnahmen – der Blick ist dabei immer der eines Informatikers. An drei Vorlesungen wird erläutert, wie der Degeneration von Lehrveranstaltungen
gegengewirkt werden kann. Mangels hinreichend großer empirischer Daten liefert das Paper keine unumstößlichen Wahrheiten. Ein Ziel ist es vielmehr Kollegen, die ähnliche Phänomene beobachten, einen ersten Anker für einen
inneren Diskurs zu bieten. Ein langfristiges Ziel ist die Sammlung eines Katalogs an Maßnahmen zur Pflege von Informatikvorlesungen.
Students of computer science studies enter university education with very different competencies, experience and knowledge. 145 datasets collected of freshmen computer science students by learning management systems in relation to exam outcomes and learning dispositions data (e. g. student dispositions, previous experiences and attitudes measured through self-reported surveys) has been exploited to identify indicators as predictors of academic success and hence make effective interventions to deal with an extremely heterogeneous group of students.
Um für ein Leben in der digitalen Gesellschaft vorbereitet zu sein, braucht jeder heute in verschiedenen Situationen umfangreiche informatische Grundlagen. Die Bedeutung von Informatik nimmt nicht nur in immer mehr
Bereichen unseres täglichen Lebens zu, sondern auch in immer mehr Ausbildungsrichtungen. Um junge Menschen auf ihr zukünftiges Leben und/oder ihre zukünftige berufliche Tätigkeit vorzubereiten, bieten verschiedene Hochschulen Informatikmodule für Studierende anderer Fachrichtungen an. Die Materialien jener Kurse bilden einen umfangreichen Datenpool, um die für Studierende anderer Fächer bedeutenden Aspekte der Informatik mithilfe eines empirischen Ansatzes zu identifizieren. Im Folgenden werden 70 Module zu informatischer Bildung für Studierende anderer Fachrichtungen analysiert. Die Materialien – Publikationen, Syllabi und Stundentafeln – werden zunächst mit einer qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse nach Mayring untersucht und anschließend quantitativ ausgewertet. Basierend auf der Analyse werden Ziele, zentrale Themen und Typen eingesetzter Werkzeuge identifiziert.
Правовое регулирование финансового контроля в сфере денежного обращения в Российской Федерации
(2018)
Vorwort der russischen Seite
(2018)
Rezensiertes Werk:
Tania Fabricius, Die Aufarbeitung von in Kolonialkriegen begangenem Unrecht: Anwendbarkeit
und Anwendung internationaler Regeln des bewaffneten Konflikts und nationalen
Militärrechts auf Geschehnisse in europäischen Kolonialgebieten in Afrika. Schriften zum
Völkerrecht 223, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2017, 405 Seiten, ISBN 978-3-428-15011-3
Causes for slow weathering and erosion in the steep, warm, monsoon-subjected Highlands of Sri Lanka
(2018)
In the Highlands of Sri Lanka, erosion and chemical weathering rates are among the lowest for global mountain denudation. In this tropical humid setting, highly weathered deep saprolite profiles have developed from high-grade metamorphic charnockite during spheroidal weathering of the bedrock. The spheroidal weathering produces rounded corestones and spalled rindlets at the rock-saprolite interface. I used detailed textural, mineralogical, chemical, and electron-microscopic (SEM, FIB, TEM) analyses to identify the factors limiting the rate of weathering front advance in the profile, the sequence of weathering reactions, and the underlying mechanisms. The first mineral attacked by weathering was found to be pyroxene initiated by in situ Fe oxidation, followed by in situ biotite oxidation. Bulk dissolution of the primary minerals is best described with a dissolution – re-precipitation process, as no chemical gradients towards the mineral surface and sharp structural boundaries are observed at the nm scale. Only the local oxidation in pyroxene and biotite is better described with an ion by ion process. The first secondary phases are oxides and amorphous precipitates from which secondary minerals (mainly smectite and kaolinite) form. Only for biotite direct solid state transformation to kaolinite is likely. The initial oxidation of pyroxene and biotite takes place in locally restricted areas and is relatively fast: log J = -11 molmin/(m2 s). However, calculated corestone-scale mineral oxidation rates are comparable to corestone-scale mineral dissolution rates: log R = -13 molpx/(m2 s) and log R = -15 molbt/(m2 s). The oxidation reaction results in a volume increase. Volumetric calculations suggest that this observed oxidation leads to the generation of porosity due to the formation of micro-fractures in the minerals and the bedrock allowing for fluid transport and subsequent dissolution of plagioclase. At the scale of the corestone, this fracture reaction is responsible for the larger fractures that lead to spheroidal weathering and to the formation of rindlets. Since these fractures have their origin from the initial oxidational induced volume increase, oxidation is the rate limiting parameter for weathering to take place. The ensuing plagioclase weathering leads to formation of high secondary porosity in the corestone over a distance of only a few cm and eventually to the final disaggregation of bedrock to saprolite. As oxidation is the first weathering reaction, the supply of O2 is a rate-limiting factor for chemical weathering. Hence, the supply of O2 and its consumption at depth connects processes at the weathering front with erosion at the surface in a feedback mechanism. The strength of the feedback depends on the relative weight of advective versus diffusive transport of O2 through the weathering profile. The feedback will be stronger with dominating diffusive transport. The low weathering rate ultimately depends on the transport of O2 through the whole regolith, and on lithological factors such as low bedrock porosity and the amount of Fe-bearing primary minerals. In this regard the low-porosity charnockite with its low content of Fe(II) bearing minerals impedes fast weathering reactions. Fresh weatherable surfaces are a pre-requisite for chemical weathering. However, in the case of the charnockite found in the Sri Lankan Highlands, the only process that generates these surfaces is the fracturing induced by oxidation. Tectonic quiescence in this region and low pre-anthropogenic erosion rate (attributed to a dense vegetation cover) minimize the rejuvenation of the thick and cohesive regolith column, and lowers weathering through the feedback with erosion.
Rezensiertes Werk:
Carsten Schapkow: Role Model and Countermodel. The Golden Age of Iberian Jewry and German Jewish Culture During the Era of Emancipation, übers. von Corey Twitchell, Lanham / Boulder / New York / London: Lexington Books 2016, 305 S.
Alon Goshen-Gottstein: The Jewish Encounter with Hinduism: Wisdom, Spirituality, Identity (Interreligious Studies in Theory and Practice series), New York: Palgrave, Macmillan 2016, IX, 275 S.
Alon Goshen-Gottstein: Same God, Other God: Judaism, Hinduism and the Problem of Idolatry (Interreligious Studies in Theory and Practice series), New York: Palgrave, Macmillan 2016. X, 265 S.
An academic project of translating the Babylonian Talmud into Japanese was initiated by a president of private jewelry company in 1986 and sixteen volumes of it were published with the collaboration of more than ten Japanese scholars of the Bible and Judaism until 2016. In order to make an assessment for possible impacts of this translation on Japanese cultural revitalization, the author tried to perceive the collision and struggles the Talmud has faced in transmitting itself to later generations even to the present days as it has still claimed its universal validity. It will be helpful to envisage Jewish intellectuals of the subsequent generations wondering what it was to live according to the Torah and the Talmud and how they coped with difficulties in facing the collision of foreign cultural impacts especially in the modern era. As the Japanese people had been profoundly influenced by Buddhism before the modern era, the assumption of the similarity between the Buddhist notion of enlightenment through transmission of the ineffable truth and the similar notion of Rabbinic Judaism will help prospect the possible influence of the Jewish scripture. This Buddhist notion had been most successfully developed in the tradition of Zen Buddhism in Japan. Furthermore this notion was fully and more influentially developed in the sphere of education of Japanese military ruling class and their cultural achievements before the modern era. So we suppose that Jewish endeavors in the Talmudic studies facing collisions and struggles against western impacts will give some insights in considering Japanese struggles against, and responses to, the forceful impacts of the modern West upon our traditional value system.
Indian Sufism in Israel
(2018)
This paper explores Indian Sufi influences in Shye Ben Tzur’s music. Ben Tzur is a Jewish Israeli musician who composes Sufi poetry in Hebrew and plays it to qawwālī music, the traditional North Indian Sufi music. Ben Tzur’s songs are devotional and there are many Sufi references that invoke Islamic terminology. His music has been reviewed in numerous newspapers and his Jewish identity, coupled with Sufi themes, evokes questions regarding religious belonging. Even though Ben Tzur openly discusses Sufi influences, his music has remained uncontroversial. This article interprets this as a sign that the symbolic repertoire of Ben Tzur’s music evokes associations with India and not with Islam and more specifically with India as a spiritual rather than religious space. The image of India as a spiritual land manages to subsume references to Islam and render them part of the “mystical East” allowing Ben Tzur’s audience to consume Muslim themes outside Middle Eastern politics.
The success of Buddhism in the West, and in America in particular, since the middle of the twentieth century, gave birth to a new hyphenated religious phenomenon: the Jewish-Buddhists. While a growing number of scholars have been addressing this phenomenon, all of the studies published so far speak of “Jewish-Buddhists” as if they could be described in the same way it was in the seventies. In this paper, I take issue with the monolithic, reified approach towards the phenomenon of the “Jewish-Buddhists”, and will try to show their evolution from their early days at the dawn of the emerging Counter Culture until today. Following findings derived from diachronic and ethnographic fieldworks, conducted since 2009, I will suggest that this evolution has undergone three main phases, which I call the three “ages”: the age of challenging, the age of claiming, and the age of re-claiming.
A New Kind of Jew
(2018)
The article examines Allen Ginsberg’s spiritual path, and places his interest in Asian religions within larger cultural agendas and life choices. While identifying as a Jew, Ginsberg wished to transcend beyond his parents’ orbit and actively sought to create an inclusive, tolerant, and permissive society where persons such as himself could live and create at ease. He chose elements from the Christian, Jewish, Native-American, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions, weaving them together into an ever-growing cultural and spiritual quilt. The poet never underwent a conversion experience or restricted his choices and freedoms. In Ginsberg’s understanding, Buddhism was a universal, non-theistic religion that meshed well with an individualist outlook, and worked toward personal solace and mindfulness. He and other Jews saw no contradiction between enchantment with Buddhism and their Jewish identity.
The 1920s witnessed a growing appearance of individual American Jews–
largely from wealthy and prominent families – who received training by Asian teachers and pursued Buddhist practices in Asian-founded Buddhist groups. Some of these American Jews gained prominence and leadership status in Buddhist communities and also ran their own semi-established Buddhist groups, with limited success. The social position and material success of these Jewish Buddhists allowed them the time and means to study and practice Buddhism. This paper illustrates these developments through the story of Julius Goldwater, a member of the prominent German Jewish family that included Senator Barry Goldwater. After encountering Buddhism in Hawaii and being ordained in Kyoto, Goldwater moved to Los Angeles to become one of the first European-American Jodo Shinshu ministers in America. This paper demonstrates how he was an early convert, teacher, and wartime proponent of American Buddhism.
This article deals with contact between East Asian thought and modern Hebrew Literature from the late nineteenth century through the twentieth century, until today. In the first part, the article suggests that from a historiographical perspective, one may outline three waves of contact between these two cultural phenomena, at opposite ends of Asia. In the first wave, which began in the early twentieth century, Asian influence on Hebrew literature written in Europe was mediated mainly through the philosophers Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. The second wave, which emerged in the 1950s, relates to the influence of the leaders of the Beat Generation, who, in turn, were influenced by modernist poetry in English, which was colored by contact with Asian poetry. The third wave is part of the glocal New Age phenomenon and its appropriation of certain Buddhist traits.
The second part of the article presents several theoretical possibilities of symbioses between cultures, as they appear within language.
The third part presents the symptomatic example of the work of contemporary Hebrew writer Yoel Hoffmann, who appears to be a representative of the second wave; however, his work maintains dialogue with the first wave, and its current popularity is part of the third wave. Hoffmann’s work serves as an example of how to apply the theoretical possibilities presented in the second part of the article, as an instance of literary contact between two cultures and their respective languages.
This paper describes an almost forgotten chapter in the relatively short history of Jewish- Buddhist interactions. The popularization of Buddhism in Germany in the second half of 19th century, effected mainly by its positive appraisal in the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, made it a common referent for both critics of Judaism and Christianity as well as their defenders. At the same time, Judaism was viewed by many as a historically antiquated religion and Jewish elements in Christianity were regarded as impediments to the progress of European religiosity and culture. Schopenhauerian conception of “pessimistic” Buddhism and “optimistic” Judaism as the two most distant religious ideas was proudly appropriated by many Jewish thinkers. These Jews portrayed Buddhism as an anti-worldly and anti-social religion of egoistic individuals who seek their own salvation (i. e. annihilation into Nothingness), the most extreme form of pessimism and asceticism which negates every being, will, work, social structures and transcendence. Judaism, in contrast, represented direct opposites of all the aforementioned characteristics. In comparisons to Buddhism, Judaism stood out as a religion which carried the most needed social and psychological values for a healthy modern society: decisive affirmation of the world, optimism, social activity, co-operation with others, social egalitarianism, true charitability, and religious purity free from all remnants of polytheism, asceticism, and the inefficiently excessive moral demands ascribed to both Buddhism and Christianity. Through the analysis of texts by Ludwig Philippson, Ludwig Stein, Leo Baeck, Max Eschelbacher, Juda Bergmann, Fritz-Leopold Steinthal, Elieser David and others, this paper tries to show how the image of Buddhism as an antithesis to Judaism helped the German Jewish reform thinkers in defining the “essence of Judaism” and in proving to both Jewish and Christian audiences its enduring meaningfulness and superiority for the modern society.
This article explores the little-known author Friedrich Korn (1803–1850). Korn developed a theory of universal revelation which, among other things, claimed that the Jewish people descended from India. His theory is an amalgamation of the Romantic ideas about India, the historical criticisms as expounded by David Friedrich Strauß, and the desire to see his own conversion from Judaism to Protestantism as congruent with the historical progress of religion. Situating Korn in the intellectual context and theological debates of his time allows us to take a closer look at how he tried to reconcile many opposing stances, namely arguing for a genealogical lineage between India and the Jewish people, while calling for the conversion of the Jewish people to Christianity, and steadfastly believing in universal revelation, while holding on to the tools of historical criticism. These different positions made Korn an untimely author, out of sync with his peers and the scholarly attitude towards Judaism, India, and religion in general.