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Institut
- Institut für Jüdische Studien und Religionswissenschaft (583) (entfernen)
Die islamische Speiseordnung
(2024)
In many churches nowadays, there has been a standardized approach to premarital counseling for couples involving social, pastoral, and psychological perspectives. In contrast, many rabbis and other Jewish officials still concentrate on legal aspects alone. The need for resolving important issues on the verge of wedlock is too often left to secular experts in law, psychology, or counseling. However, in recent years, this lack of formal training for marriage preparation has also been acknowledged by the Jewish clergy in order to incorporate it in the preparatory period before the bond is tied. This case study focuses on Jewish and Roman Catholic conceptions of marriage, past and present. We intend to do a comparative analysis of the prerequisites of religious marriage based on the assumption that both Judaism and the Roman Catholic Church have a distinct legal framework to assess marriage preparation.
The abrahamic religions
(2023)
New Relations in the Making?
(2023)
Leo Baeck
(2023)
Leo Baeck gilt als bedeutendster Repräsentant des deutschen Judentums in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts und als Spiritus rector von dessen liberaler Richtung. Er entwickelte seinen Ansatz zu einer jüdischen Theologie in kritischer Auseinandersetzung mit dem zeitgenössischen Protestantismus. Als jüdischer Religionsphilosoph steht Baeck in einer Reihe mit Hermann Cohen (1842–1918), Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929) und Martin Buber (1878–1965).
In postsocialist Potsdam, religious diversity has risen surprisingly in public life since 1990 although more than 80% of the residents have no religious affiliation. City and state authorities have actively embraced issues around immigration and integration as well as the promotion of religious diversity and interreligious dialogue and have linked this to the agenda of rejuvenating the city’s religious heritage. For years, negotiations have been going on about the need of a mosque, the reconstructions of a synagogue and the so-called “Garrison Church,” a landmark military church building. These initiatives have been dominating the public space for different reasons. They implied, beyond religion, questions of memory, identity, immigration, and culture. This article puts these three cases into perspective to offer a nuanced understanding of the importance of religious spaces in secular contexts considering city politics.
Am Anfang war...
(2022)
Orte im Fernsehfilm
(2022)
Ein Fotoalbum
(2022)
Einleitung
(2022)
Kampf um die "Brit Mila"
(2022)
This study offers a view into Buber's conception of the social role of the “person of spirit” – the individual who, in other contexts, would be called philosopher, thinker, or intellectual.A key element of the person of spirit's role, according to Buber, is the evaluation of social reality – judging the public's ability to be guided by the realm of the spirit at any given hour while responding to the challenges that this particular hour may present. The person of spirit is required to constantly mediate between “heaven” and “earth” – between the ideal and reality – even if in a particular situation the moral action which has to be taken can only be partial, and will fall short of the absolute demand of the spirit.Buber emphasizes that the influence of the spirit on reality always begins with an effort of the “person of spirit” to transform him or herself from a monological to a dialogical person. Without a dialogical affinity between the person of spirit and their community, there can be no real effect of the spirit on reality.The person of spirit is, therefore, according to Buber, fully involved in the social life of the community. Our study shows that Buber shaped this figure of the “person of spirit” by combining the model of the biblical prophet, who is sent to the people, with the model of the Hasidic leader who acts according to the principle of the “Descent of the Zaddik.” The person of spirit is required to live their life in a “Thou” relationship with their community, and is therefore frequently descending from an elevated spiritual level to the level of the people, in order to empathetically share their mundane worries, fears, and afflictions.By comparing the models of the biblical prophet and the Hassidic Zaddik to the model of the Greek prophetes and Plato's philosopher-king, we can, according to Buber, reflect on the role of the person of spirit in society in our time as well.
Gilgul of Meaning
(2021)
The valediction of Moses
(2021)
Wilhelm Moses Shapira's infamous Deuteronomy fragments have long been deemed forgeries, with Shapira himself serving as the obvious suspect. I provide new evidence that Shapira did not forge the fragments and was himself convinced of their authenticity. Indeed, the evidence for forgery is illusory. In a companion monograph, I show that the Shapira fragments are not only authentic ancient artifacts but are unprecedented in their significance: They preserve a pre-canonical antecedent of the Book of Deuteronomy.
Apokalypse
(2021)
Ist Christus ein Engel?
(2021)
Freundliche Distanz
(2021)
Was wusste Jesus?
(2021)
Blut
(2021)
Heimweh
(2021)
The concept of Heimweh conveys a set of emotions and images that have been described in different ways in different languages. This article intends to analyze the Heimweh experienced by Galician intellectual Jewry during the process of linguistic and cultural change that took place from 1867 until the mid.-1880s. This will be discussed while focusing on the urban intelligentsia circles in Lemberg (Lviv), which had a tremendous influence on some Galician Jewish intellectuals during that period. I will analyze the nature of a clash of identities that eventually brought some of the urban intelligentsia in Lemberg to consider themselves as living a "Spiritual" or "linguistic exile"(Sprachexil), regardless of whether they had migrated or not. Longing for the homeland as a nostalgic destination, whether they referred to it as Heimat or Ojczyzna, and whether they called it Lemberg or Lwow, was longing to be part of a group holding a distinct Kultur or Kultura, a set of values, culture and language, which coexisted with their Jewish identity.
The return of the tribe
(2021)
As a part of “Xenophilia: A Symposium on Xenophobia’s Contrary” in Common Knowledge, this essay examines the interest in, affection for, friendship with, and romanticization of Native Americans by Jews in the United States since the 1960s. The affinity is frequent among Jews with “progressive” or “countercultural” inclinations, especially those with strong environmental concerns and those interested in new forms of community and spirituality. For such Jews, Native Americans serve as mirror, prod, role model, projection, and fictive kin. They are regarded as having a holistic and integrated culture and religiosity, an unbroken connection to premodern attitudes and practices, an intimate relationship with the earth and with nonhuman creatures, along with positive feelings toward their own traditions and a simple, honest, and direct way of living. All of these presumed characteristics offer to progressive Jews parallels and contrasts to contemporary Jewishness and Judaism. For some, Native America has become a path back to a reconstructed Jewishness and Judaism; for others, a path away. Each path is assessed in this article with respect to questions of authenticity, psychobiography, family history, theology, and theopolitics.
Tolerante Hohenzollern?
(2021)
Deuteronomy 14.3-21
(2021)
The almost verbatim parallels of the dietary laws in Lev. 11 and Deut. 14 have baffled scholars for a long time. We reexamine the evidence, offer a novel approach to determining the direction of dependency, and point out the notable similarities the borrowing bears to Second Temple editorial and redactional practices, drawing on recent Qumran scholarship. We conclude that Deut. 14.3-21 may be one of the earliest specimens of Rewritten Scripture.
Die Geburt der Religion?
(2021)
In diesem Artikel geht es darum, die Genealogie im Anschluss an Michel Foucault für die Religionswissenschaft fruchtbar zu machen und ihr Programm zu schärfen. Dazu hebe ich zuerst einige wesentliche Aspekte hervor, welche die Genealogie ausmachen. Im Folgenden untersuche ich den Artikel „Umkämpfte Historisierung“ von Michael Bergunder als ein aktuelles Beispiel für die Anwendung der Genealogie in der Religionswissenschaft. Diesem stelle ich im letzten Teil des Artikels meine eigene Genealogie von Religion gegenüber. Ich zeige, wie sich die Konstitution eines spezifisch religiösen Bereichs und die nominalistische Auffassung seiner Zeichen innerhalb des Ritenstreits im Kontext von Mission in Asien seit dem 16. Jh. vollzogen hat. Wie Religion verstanden wurde, hing dabei unmittelbar davon ab, welche kolonialen Interessen durchgesetzt werden sollten. Die Verstrickung von Religion in den Zusammenhang von Macht-Subjekt-Wissen muss deshalb zukünftig konsequenter auch durch die Religionswissenschaft untersucht werden. Religion ist keine unschuldige Kategorie der Beobachtung, sondern über sie wurden und werden Kämpfe um Macht und gesellschaftlichen Einfluss ausgetragen.
Dieser Artikel zeichnet anhand der religionswissenschaftlichen Professuren die Entwicklung des Fachs in Deutschland innerhalb der letzten zehn Jahre nach und wagt davon ausgehend eine Prognose für die nächsten zehn. Der Wissenschaftsrat hatte sich 2010 ausgehend von einer sog. Rückkehr der Religion und der damit verbundenen hohen gesellschaftlichen Relevanz des Fachs dafür ausgesprochen, die Religionswissenschaft durch mehr Professuren zu stärken. Dieser Empfehlung wurde an vielen Orten gefolgt. Das Wachstum an Professuren korrespondiert allerdings nicht mit einer in gleicher Weise gesteigerten Präsenz der Religionswissenschaft in außeruniversitären Diskursen. Hier werden andere Fächer wie die Theologien, Geschichte und Soziologie stärker gehört. Angesichts tendenziell sinkender Studierendenzahlen und der Schließung anderer Kleiner Fächer stellt sich deshalb die dringende Frage, wie sich die Religionswissenschaft strategisch positionieren sollte.
Gründungsdokument
(2021)
This article raises the question why is it that, despite Jewish tradition devoting much thought to the status and treatment of animals and showing strict adherence to the notion of preventing their pain and suffering, ethical attitudes to animals are not dealt with systematically in the writings of Jewish philosophers and have not received sufficient attention in the context of moral monotheism. What has prevented the expansion of the golden rule: »Love your fellow as yourself: I am the LORD« (Lev 19,18) and »That which is hateful to you do not do to another« (BT Shabbat 31a:6; JT Nedarim 30b:1) to animals? Why is it that the moral responsibility for the fellow-man, the neighbor, or the other, has been understood as referring only to a human companion? Does the demand for absolute moral responsibility spoken from the face of the other, which Emmanuel Levinas emphasized in his ethics, not radiate from the face of the non-human other as well? Levinas’s ethics explicitly negates the principle of reciprocity and moral symmetry: The ›I‹ is committed to the other, regardless of the other’s attitude towards him. Does the affinity to the eternal Thou which Martin Buber also discovers in plants and animals not require a paradigmatic change in the attitude towards animals?
What is the nature of interactions between Jews and Muslims in contemporary Dubai, Berlin, and Warsaw? The purpose of the three presented case studies is to evaluate the state of affairs and identify newly emerging trends and patterns in the given trans-urban context. The methodology is based on qualitative anthropological research, emphasising an emic perspective that centralises respondents' own lived experiences and worldviews. The main research's findings made evident that interactions between Muslims and Jews in each examined location are, to various extents, acknowledged, and in some cases, also embody a formative part of public discourses. Perhaps the most visible manifestations of these relations are represented by the ambitious interfaith projects that were recently established in each geographical area in focus. The Abrahamic Family House (UEA), The House of One (GE), and The Community of Conscience (PL) reveal the aspirations of multi-faith religious leaders to overcome polarising dichotomies and search for common ground. One of the conclusive outcomes of the study is a somewhat diminishing impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the Jewish-Muslim relations; however, the extent differs in each destination in focus. Finally, an unpredicted observation can be made. A surfacing inclination towards embracing a joint Muslim-Jewish Middle Eastern identity was perceived.
Studies in the Jewish reception of Christian theological discussions beyond the proper field of polemics are rare and only in their beginnings. Until now, scholars have often argued that Portuguese Jews discussed Christian concepts of divine foreknowledge and human free will because they were either struggling with their own Christian past or sought to help their 'New Jewish' coreligionists to turn into reliable members of the Amsterdam Sephardic community. This article uses the example of the Catholic Controversia de auxiliis, and the Protestant fight over Predestination before and after the Synod of Dordt (1618-1619) to argue that Portuguese Jews such as Menasseh ben Israel and Daniel Levi de Barrios recognised the cross-confessional dimension of the Christian debates on divine grace; they used their Iberian background and knowledge to order and explain what they observed; and they displayed their position as outsiders to deconstruct religious boundaries, imagine alternative religious landscapes, and finally re-insert themselves into their newly created religious maps and orders. The argument is based on a close reading of one chapter of the last volume of Menasseh ben Israel's Conciliador (1651) as well as Daniel Levi de Barrios's poem Libre Alvedrio y Harmonia del Cuerpo, por disposicion del alma (1680).
Sephardim and Ashkenazim
(2021)
Kommentar zu: Allan Arkush, Mendelssohn's Slippery Efforts to Disentangle Judaism from Theocracy
(2021)
Messianismus ohne Messias
(2021)
Tsimtsum
(2021)
Rabbinische Leitfigur
(2021)
When he founded Schocken Books in 1945, department store magnate, philanthropist, and publisher Salman Schocken (1877–1959) called his new American publishing business an imitation of its German predecessor, which had functioned from 1931 until 1938. He intended it to replicate the success of the Berlin Schocken Verlag by spiritually fortifying a Jewish community uncertain in its identity. The new company reflected the transnational transfer of people, ideas, and texts between Germany, Palestine/Israel, and the United States. Its success and near-failure raise questions about transnationalism and American Jewish culture: Can a culture be imposed on a population which has its own organs and agencies of cultural production? Had American Jewish culture developed organically to the specific place where several million Jews found themselves and according to uniquely American cultural patterns? The answers suggest that the concepts of transnationalism and cultural transfer complement each other as tools to analyze American Jewry in its American and Jewish contexts.
Foreign Entanglements
(2021)
Glauberndes Verstehen. Ein hermeneutischer Ansatz zu Integration von Religion und Natuwissenschaft
(2020)
In Berlin two rabbinical seminaries, a Reform and a Conservative, have recently been established. The historical and intellectual roots of these institutions in the nineteenth century is sketched, and then contrasted with the present curriculum and the religious profile of the students. Some theological questions for the future of these projects conclude the article.
From 1933, the inner Protestant 'German Christians Church Movement' from Thuringia took control over some Protestant regional churches in Germany. For the German Christians the main motives of their agitation were the creation of a 'volkisch' belief system based on race, Christianity and 'dejudaization' (of Christianity). <br /> Based on the theoretical considerations of spaces, boundaries and exclusion, the article uses the example of the German Christians to show under which conditions individuals are denied entry into an imaginary religious space. 'Exclusivist border crossings,' as this phenomena is named here on the theoretical perspective, can explain how religious arguments exclude people from entering a religious space such as salvation when the access criteria are linked to birth-related conditions.
Mit den Göttern zocken
(2020)
Der vorliegende Beitrag setzt sich mit der Simulation und Rezeption religiöser Themen in Videospielen auseinander und möchte verschiedene Einstiegsmöglichkeiten für die Vermittlung im Unterricht bieten. Die Annäherung an das Thema erfolgt über knapp gehaltene Hinführungen, in denen wesentliche Rahmenbedingungen der Spieleindustrie skizziert werden, da diese die Einbindung religiöser Aspekte in Videospiele entscheidend beeinflussen. Der Beitrag wird mit kritischen Überlegungen über die Einführung der „Game Studies“ als Unterrichtsfach abgeschlossen und die Forderungen erörtern, Videospiele als Kulturgut zu betrachten.
Verhältnis zum Judentum
(2020)
Anna Seghers: Deutsche, Jüdin, Kommunistin, Schriftstellerin, Frau, Mutter. Jedem dieser Worte denke man nach. So viele einander widersprechende, scheinbar einander ausschließende Identitäten, so viele tiefe, schmerzliche Bindungen, so viele Angriffsflächen, so viele Herausforderungen und Bewährungszwänge, so viele Möglichkeiten, verletzt zu werden, ausgesetzt zu sein, bedroht bis zur Todesgefahr.
Obituary
(2020)
BioShock Infinite
(2020)
NieR: Automata
(2020)
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
(2020)
Call of Duty: WWII
(2020)
BioShock 1 und BioShock 2
(2020)
Fable III
(2020)
The Last of Us
(2020)
Three Strange Spaces: An Ethnographic Study in the Construction of Contemporary Jewish Sacred Spaces
(2019)
Rabbi Jacob ben Isaac of Yanova (d. 1623) is best known as the author of the Ze’enah U-Re’enah; the Melits Yosher (“Intercessor before God”) is one of his lesser known works. It was first published in Lublin in 1622 and reprinted once in Amsterdam in 1688. Like the Ze’enah U-Re’enah, it was a Torah commentary, but composed for men who had some yeshivah education, but who could not continue their studies. The commentary on the Song of Songs by Isaac Sulkes is another Yiddish work that addresses the same audience as the Melits Yosher. The purpose of this article is to bring to scholarly attention an audience that has not been noticed or studied in the previous scholarship on early modern Yiddish literature.
This article explores an instructive case of translation critique against the background of the rise of Zionism in Europe at the turn of the previous century. It seeks to answer the question: Why did David Frishman, one of the most prolific Hebrew writers and translators of the late 1890s and early 1900s, criticize Vladimir Jabotinsky’s Russian translation of Hayim Nahman Bialik’s Hebrew poems? Both Bialik and Jabotinsky were major figures in the field of Hebrew culture and Zionist politics in the early 1900s, while Frishman generally shunned partisan activism and consistently presented himself as devoted solely to literature. Frishman perceived literature, nevertheless, as a political arena, viewing translation, in particular, as a locus of ideological debate. Writing from the viewpoint of a political minority at a time in which the Hebrew translation industry in Europe gained momentum, Frishman deemed translation a tool for cementing cultural hierarchies. He anticipated later analyses of the act and products of translation as reflective of intercultural tensions. The article suggests, more specifically, that it was Frishman’s view of the Hebrew Bible that informed his “avant-garde” stance on translation.
Tewje in Deutschland
(2019)
Drawing on the example of Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye the Dairyman, this article covers the history of Yiddish translation and publication in Germany in the 20th century.Following the paradigm of translation as a cultural practice, I demonstrate how the translation reflects aspects of Jewish-German cultural history, focussing on a mainly inner-Jewish identity discourse before the Shoah and a remembrance context after it. Whereas decisive differences and changes characterize 20th-century history in diachronic as well as synchronic respect, the article reflects also on continuities and parallels.
The Ram Bible (Tanakh Ram) is a recently-published Bible edition printed in two columns: the right-hand column features the original biblical Hebrew text and the lefthand column features the translation of the Bible into a high-register literary Israeli (Reclaimed Hebrew). The Ram Bible edition has gained impressive academic and popular attention. This paper looks at differences between academics, teachers, students, media personalities and senior officials in the education system, regarding their attitude to the Ram Bible. Our study reveals that Bible teachers and students who make frequent use of this edition understand its contribution to comprehending the biblical language, stories, and ideas. Opponents of Ram Bible are typically administrators and theoretician scholars who advocate the importance of teaching the Bible but do not actually teach it themselves. We argue that the fundamental difference between biblical Hebrew and Israeli makes the Hebrew Bible incomprehensible to native Israeli speakers. We explain the advantages of employing tools such as the Ram Bible.
Tewje in Deutschland
(2019)
Drawing on the example of Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye the Dairyman, this article covers the history of Yiddish translation and publication in Germany in the 20th century.Following the paradigm of translation as a cultural practice, I demonstrate how the translation reflects aspects of Jewish-German cultural history, focussing on a mainly inner-Jewish identity discourse before the Shoah and a remembrance context after it. Whereas decisive differences and changes characterize 20th-century history in diachronic as well as synchronic respect, the article reflects also on continuities and parallels.
Scholars of modern Jewish thought explore the hermeneutics of “translation” to describe the transference of concepts between discourses. I suggest a more radical approach – translation as transvaluation – is required. Eschewing modern tests of truth such as “the author would have accepted it” and “the author should have accepted it,” this radical form of translation is intentionally unfaithful to original meanings. However, it is not a reductionist reading or a liberating text. Instead, it is a persistent squabble depending on both source and translation for sustenance. Exploring this paradigm entails a review of three expositions of the Korah biblical narrative; three readings dedicated to keeping an eye on current events: (1) Tsene-rene (Prague, 1622), biblical prose; (2) Yaldei Yisrael Kodesh, (Tel Aviv, 1973), a secular Zionist reworking of Tsene-rene; and (3) The Jews are Coming (Israel, 2014–2017) a satirical television show.
Hasidic Myth-Activism
(2019)
Since the 1970s, Buber has often been suspected of being a Volkish thinker. This essay reconsiders the affinity of Buber’s late writings with Volkish ideology. It examines the allegations against Buber’s Volkish thought in light of his later biblical and Hasidic writings. By illuminating the ideological affinity between these two modes of thought, the essay explains how Buber aims to depart from the dangers of myth without rejecting myth as such. I argue that Buber’s relationship to myth can help us to explain his critique of nationalism. My basic argument is that in his struggle with hyper-nationalism, Buber follows the Baal Shem Tov and his struggle against Sabbateanism. Like the Besht, Buber does not reject myth, but seeks instead to repair it from within. Whereas hyper-nationalism uses myth to advance its political goals, Buber seeks to reposition ethics within a mythic framework. I view Buber’s exegesis and commentaries on biblical and Hasidic myths as myth-activism.
With its exhortation “You shall also love the stranger (gēr), for you were strangers (gērîm) in the land of Egypt” (Deut 10:19), the book of Deuteronomy helps cultivate a healthy and appreciative sense of past hardship, current prosperity, progress, and relative privilege. In contemporary culture, where the term “privilege” has become an unfortunate source of contention, Deuteronomy might point a way for recognition of one’s relative privilege in regard to an Other as a basis for gratitude and responsibility. This essay argues that we have gained “privilege” after having been immigrants and strangers in a strange land. Privilege could become an empowering and challenging exercise of counting one’s blessings and considering how these could be used for the benefit of others, including strangers in our land.
Weil ich hier leben will ...
(2018)
Gibt es im 21. Jahrhundert so etwas wie ein „deutsches Judentum“? Wie sinnvoll ist das Reden von einer jüdischen Renaissance, wenn sich Jüdinnen und Juden heute ganz neu und in Abgrenzung zu alten Bildern und Vorstellungen definieren? Was bedeutet es für Deutschland, wenn sich Jüdinnen und Juden mit anderen religiösen, ethnischen und kulturellen Minderheiten solidarisieren und sich nicht gegen sie ausspielen lassen möchten? Und wie ist dem neu erwachenden Antisemitismus zu begegnen? Junge Jüdinnen und Juden in Deutschland schreiben an gegen altbewährte Klischees und Voreingenommenheiten. Und sie zeigen wie anders und lebendig jüdisches Leben heute ist.
From the 1940s well into the 1960s, a new sociocultural constellation let American Jews redefine their relationship to the religious tradition. This article analyzes the response of a religious elite of rabbis and intellectuals to this process, which was driven by various factors. Many American Jews were at least one generation away from traditional Judaism, which seemed out of place in postwar America. Liberal Judaism, with its narrow concept of religion, on the other hand, while fitting a larger social consensus, did not satiate many Jews' spiritual and identity needs. Sensing this deficit, rabbis and other religious thinkers explored broader concepts of Judaism. Religious journals that sprang up in the postwar decades served as vehicles for the attempt to understand Judaism in broader, cultural terms, while preserving a religious core. The article shows how in this search religious thinkers turned to the Eastern European past as a resource. As other groups similarly tried to mine this past for the sake of their present agendas, its reconstruction became a key process in the transformation of postwar American Judaism and its relationship to the tradition.
Hans Heinrich Schaeder is considered an important Iranist and historian of religion. For reasons of opportunism, careerism, and anti-Semitic resentment, he used the chance afforded him after the National Socialists seized power in Germany: he combined his historical and philological knowledge with National-Socialist racial ideology. Drawing on the superiority of “Aryanism” he derived from this merger, Schaeder tried to redefine the “Eastern Borders” of “European Culture”. In his concept, Armenians and Persians became integral elements of European culture and history, while Jews and “Semites” were excluded. In academia, publishing, and politics, he put himself at the service of the National-Socialist regime. In his own view, this served the struggle against Communism and the West’s social system. After the war, a de-Nazification commission concluded that there existed no reservations concerning his employment at Göttingen University.
El centenario de la publicación del Curso de lingüística general (1916) de Saussure nos ha invitado a reexaminar la importancia de esta obra para instaurar una lingüística integrada en la semiología. Indudablemente la simplificación de las ideas de Saussure y la exageración de su concepto sistémico del lenguaje llevadas a cabo por los editores Bally y Sechehaye han contribuido a la acogida exitosa de la obra. En esta contribución, se propone, primero, introducir el concepto de ‘series de textos’, antes de analizar una serie “olvidada” y una nueva serie de obras por medio de las cuales se introdujeron conceptos semióticos en la época dominante de la lingüística histórica. En el análisis de estas dos series se pondrá el foco en el concepto de la arbitrariedad del signo.
פירוש המשניות לרמב"ם
(2017)
From the 1940s well into the 1960s, a new sociocultural constellation let American Jews redefine their relationship to the religious tradition. This article analyzes the response of a religious elite of rabbis and intellectuals to this process, which was driven by various factors. Many American Jews were at least one generation away from traditional Judaism, which seemed out of place in postwar America. Liberal Judaism, with its narrow concept of religion, on the other hand, while fitting a larger social consensus, did not satiate many Jews' spiritual and identity needs. Sensing this deficit, rabbis and other religious thinkers explored broader concepts of Judaism. Religious journals that sprang up in the postwar decades served as vehicles for the attempt to understand Judaism in broader, cultural terms, while preserving a religious core. The article shows how in this search religious thinkers turned to the Eastern European past as a resource. As other groups similarly tried to mine this past for the sake of their present agendas, its reconstruction became a key process in the transformation of postwar American Judaism and its relationship to the tradition.
„Teuerste Altern“
(2015)