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- Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien e. V. (395) (remove)
The concept of three journeys as a way to denote spiritual development was introduced
by Dhu al-Nun, one of the founding fathers of Islamic mysticism. The use of this
concept was later refined by combining it with the Sufi technique of adding different
prepositions to a certain term, in order to differentiate between spiritual stages. By
using the words journey (Safar) and God (Allah) and inserting a preposition before the
word God, Sufi writers could map the different roads to God or the stations (Maqamat) on this road. Ibn al-'Arabi, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, speaks of three
different ways: from God, toward God and in God. Tanchum ha-Yerushalmi, the Judeo
Arabic biblical commentator from the end of this century, speaks of the three journeys
as three stations of one continuous way. A nearly identical description we can find in
the writing of the Muslim scholar Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, a generation later. Later in
the fourteenth century, in the writing of the Sufi writer al-Qashani, the three travels
become four, although the scheme of three prepositions is preserved. Near the end of
the fourteenth century, in the writings of R. David ha-Nagid, we find only two journeys:
to God and in God. All this tells us that Judeo Arabic literature can help us map
with greater precision the historical development of Sufi ideas.
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.
This article considers one of the major weaknesses in the existing historiography of Irish Jewry, the failure to consider the true extent and impact of antisemitism on Ireland’s Jewish community. This is illustrated through a brief survey of one small area of the Irish-Jewish narrative, the Jewish relationship with Irish nationalist politics. Throughout, the focus remains on the need for a fresh approach to the sources and the issues at hand, in order to create a more holistic, objective and inclusive history of the Jewish experience in Ireland.
rezensiertes Werk: Diana Matut: Dichtung und Musik im frühneuzeitlichen Aschkenas : Ms. opp. add. 4o 136 der Bodleian Library, Oxford (das so genannte Wallich-Manuskript) und Ms. hebr. oct. 219 der Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek, Frankfurt a. M. (2 Bände). - (Studies in Jewish History and Culture ; 29). Leiden [u.a.]: Brill, 2011. - 461 S. ISBN (Set) 978-90-04-18194-6 ISBN (Band I) 978-90-04-20598-7 ISBN (Band II) 978-90-04-20599-4
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.
Mothers of Seafaring
(2023)
The article aims to trace the contribution of Jewish women in the Yishuv’s maritime history. Taking the example of Henrietta Diamond, a founding member and chairperson of the Zebulun Seafaring Society, the article seeks to explore the representation and role of women in a growing Jewish maritime domain from the 1930s to the 1950s. It examines Zionist narratives on the ‘New Jew’ and the Jewish body and studies their relevance for the emerging field of maritime activities in the Yishuv. By contextualizing the work and depiction of Henrietta Diamond, the article sheds new light on the gendered notions that underlay the emergence of the Jewish maritime domain and illustrates the patterns of inclusion and exclusion in it.
Hilfe für Erez Israel
(2020)
Zionistische Debatten im Kontext des Ersten Weltkriegs am Beispiel der Herzl-Bund-Blätter 1914–1918
(2019)
Die Bedeutung des Ersten Weltkriegs als zentraler Kontext für die Aushandlung, Anpassung und Verwerfung unterschiedlicher Konzepte jüdischer Identität im Deutschen Kaiserreich, aber auch über dessen Grenzen hinaus, wurde in der jüngsten Forschung in verschiedenen Aspekten erörtert. Die Kriegserfahrung gab insbesondere nationaljüdischen bzw. zionistischen Gruppierungen wichtige Denkanstöße und beförderte die Konkretisierung ihrer Handlungsstrategien für den Aufbau eines jüdischen Nationalwesens in Palästina. Die vorliegende Studie möchte den Fokus historisch-soziologischer Forschung auf der akademischen zionistischen Jugendbewegung erweitern, indem sie eine zionistische Jugendorganisation in den Mittelpunkt rückt, die in wissenschaftlichen Betrachtungen bisher kaum Beachtung fand: den 1912 in Halberstadt gegründeten Herzl-Bund, einen Zusammenschluss junger zionistisch gesinnter Kaufleute. Die Autorin unternimmt eine Auseinandersetzung mit dem publizistischen Schaffen seiner Mitglieder im Kontext des Ersten Weltkriegs, anhand derer es nachzuvollziehen gilt, wie die „großen Themen“, die die Arbeit und Debatten der zionistischen Bewegung im Deutschen Kaiserreich zu dieser Zeit bestimmten, auf der Ebene des Herzl-Bundes und der in ihm vereinigten Herzl-Clubs verhandelt wurden. Hierbei wird unter Rückgriff auf die interne Informationsschrift, die Herzl-Bund-Blätter, untersucht, welche inhaltlichen Aspekte Eingang in die Debatten der zionistischen Jugend gefunden haben. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Besprechung dreier Themenkomplexe: 1) deutsch-jüdischer Nationalismus versus jüdische Nationalbewegung, 2) Antisemitismus und 3) die Begegnung mit osteuropäischen Jüdinnen und Juden. Ziel ist es, diskursive Selbstverständigungsprozesse entlang dieser Themen offenzulegen, die auch der Beantwortung der Frage dienen, ob die Erfahrungen des Ersten Weltkriegs als Schablonen zur Neubewertung des Selbstverständnisses und der eigenen Arbeit des Herzl-Bundes verstanden werden können.
Jacob Brandon Maduro’s Memoirs and Related Observations (Havana, 1953) speak to the lasting yet malleable legacy of Jewish Caribbean/Atlantic mercantile communities that defined early modern settlement in the Americas. A close reading of the Memoirs, alongside relevant archival records and community narratives, lends new perspectives to scholarship on Port Jewries and the Atlantic Diaspora. Specifically concerned with Jacob’s adoption of such leading intellectual and political tropes as the Monroe doctrine, José Martí’s Nuestra America, and a Zionism that evolved from an ideology to a reality, the Memoirs reveal a narrative at once defined by the tremendous upheavals of the first half of the 20th century, and an enduring sense of Jewish diasporic peoplehood defined through a Port Jew paradigm whereby the preservation of Jewish ethnicity is understood as synonymous with the championing of modernity.
rezensiertes Werk: Gartner, Isabella: Menorah : Jüdisches Familienblatt für Wissenschaft, Kunst und Literatur (1923–1932) ; Materialien zur Geschichte einer Wiener zionistischen Zeitschrift. - Würzburg : Königshausen & Neumann, 2009. - 356 S. ISBN 978-3-8260-3864-8
Dieser Text geht der Frage nach, wie die wissenschaftliche Auseinandersetzung mit den nationalsozialistischen Ghettos in der Zeit von 1945 bis 1960 im englischen Sprachraum betrieben wurde. Werke, die jüdisches Erleben und Handeln mitsamt der gesellschaftlichen Organisation in den Mittelpunkt rücken, sind in diesem Zeitraum deutlich stärker vertreten, als dies nach einer Lektüre der Sekundärliteratur zu erwarten wäre. Ein wissenschaftlicher Ansatz, der die Juden nicht nur als namenlose Masse von Opfern wahrnimmt, tritt also durchaus schon früh auf. Ebenso wird die Politik der jüdischen Führungsschichten, der so genannten ‚Judenräte‘, deutlich differenzierter verhandelt als vermutet; neben vernichtenden Urteilen finden sich Kontextualisierungen, die ihr Agieren aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln beleuchten und einordnen. Auch wenn diese Forschungsanliegen zunächst nur bedingt rezipiert wurden und vor allem universitär marginal blieben, lassen sich doch von dieser Seite Traditionslinien besonders in die entstehende israelische Holocaustforschung beobachten.
Rezensiertes Werk: Takebayashi, Tazuko: Zwischen den Kulturen : Deutsches, Tschechisches und Jüdisches in der deutschsprachigen Literatur aus Prag ; ein Beitrag zur xenologischen Literaturforschung interkultureller Germanistik / Tazuko Takebayashi. - Hildesheim [u.a.]: Olms, 2005. - 274 S. : Ill., Kt.- (Echo ; Bd. 8) Zugl.: Bayreuth, Univ., Diss., 2005 ISBN 3-487-12945-0
Halakha and Microhistory
(2010)
Shifra was a Jewish businesswoman in Moravia in the fifteenth-century. In 1452 due to financial fraud she was arrested in Brno. Her life was saved by some members of the local Jewish community, who renounced their financial claims against their Christian neighbours in the exchange of Shifra’s life. However, one member of the community consented to the agreement only on condition that the other members would pay his losses. The case was extensively discussed in the correspondence of contemporary rabbis, among them Israel Bruna and Israel Isserlein. Their letters about the Shifra-affair reveal some important characteristics of the rabbinic authority in the late medieval Ashkenaz.
Jiddischforschung in Japan
(2008)
Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden einige zentrale Berichte und Motive aus den frühen Quellen des Islam über die militärischen Konflikte des Propheten Muhammad mit den
Juden von Medina beleuchtet. Als Grundlage der Untersuchung dient die Prophetenbiografie des Gelehrten Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (gest. 150 nach der Hedschra), die auch heute noch maßgeblich ist. Im Beitrag wird unter anderem aufgezeigt, dass es sowohl innerhalb der Gattung der Sīra-Literatur, der Ibn Isḥāqs Werk angehört, als auch in den frühen Traditionen der islamischen Rechtswissenschaft, der Koranexegese sowie im Korantext selbst zahlreiche Hinweise auf alternative Darstellungen dieser Konflikte gibt. Diese gerieten in den ersten Jahrhunderten des Islam infolge des Siegeszuges von Ibn Isḥāqs Werk zunehmend aus dem Blickfeld, sind aber für zeitgenössische Diskurse um das Verhältnis des Islam zu Nichtmuslimen durchaus von Interesse. Ziel der Untersuchung ist es die normative Aussagekraft der unterschiedlichen Szenarien für Grundsatzfragen insbesondere für das Verhältnis zwischen Muslimen und Juden herauszuarbeiten. Einen inhaltlichen Schwerpunkt im Beitrag bilden dabei unterschiedliche Zugänge zum berühmten Bericht über die Vernichtung des jüdischen Stammes der Banū Qurayza im Anschluss an die Grabenschlacht.
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?
When the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau opened its doors in 1854, it established a novel form of rabbinical education: the systematic combination of Jewish studies at the seminary in parallel with university studies. The Breslau seminary became the model for most later institutions for rabbinical training in Europe and the United States. The seminaries were the new sites of modern Jewish scholarship, especially the academic study of Judaism (Wissenschaft des Judentums). Their function and goal were to preserve, (re)organize, and transmit Jewish knowledge in the modern age. As such, they became central nodes in Jewish scholarly networks. This case study highlights the multi-nodal connections between the Conservative seminaries in Breslau, Philadelphia, New York, Budapest, and Vienna. At the same time, it is intended to provide an example of the potential of transnational and transfer studies for the history of the Jewish religious learning in Europe and the United States.
In this article we will present a few examples of the theme of “calling for help and redemption” in Arabic and Hebrew poetry, with particular focus on eleventh and twelfth century Muslim Spain. More particularly, we will offer a glimpse into the life and oeuvre of two medieval poets (one Muslim, one Jewish); both were active in Muslim Spain in the same period and shared a similar fate of exile and wandering: on the one hand, the Sicilian Arabic poet Ibn Ḥamdīs (c. 1056–c. 1133) and on the other hand, the Spanish Jewish poet Moses ibn Ezra (1055–1138). We will take into account the impact of exile and wandering on the profusion of the theme of “calling for help and redemption” as well as the related theme of “yearning for one’s homeland” through an analysis and comparison of poetic fragments by the two aforementioned poets as well as additional Andalusian Jewish (Judah ha-Levi) and Muslim (Ibn Khafāja, al-Rundī and Ibn al-Abbār) poets.
In 1810, Moses Lackenbacher, together with two of his children, Israel and Heinrich, and Moses Löwenstein created the company “Moses Lackenbacher & Compagnie” with headquarters in Nagykanizsa and a branch in Vienna. The main profile of the company was army purveyance. The business activity resulted in a high spatial mobility which led to socio-cultural acculturation and conversions to Christianity within the kinship. This paper explores the connection between kinship and the operation of the company on the basis of the prominent yet little-researched Lackenbachers in the early 19th-century Habsburg Monarchy. Central questions are how the relatives organized a company during the Napoleonic wars, as well as the impact of operating a business; how familial bonds and kinship links were affected, and, in this context, how relatives together evolved into a multi-religious network of kinship.
Desperados at Sea
(2023)
Pirates are fortune-seeking fighters at sea. Their exploits fire the imaginations of their victims and admirers, drawing a veil over individuals who rarely bear a real name and pursue their adventurous occupations as buccaneers, filibusters, freebooters, privateers, pirates, or corsairs. Piracy, corsairing, and contraband trade were epidemic among the Egyptians and the Phoenicians, the Greeks and the Vikings, the Spaniards and the Ottomans, the Muslims, and the Christians. And the Jews.
Von Budapest nach Straßburg
(2014)
Der ungarische Kantor Marcel (Martón) Lorand trat 1964, von der neologen Großen Synagoge Budapest kommend, die Kantorenstelle an der orthodoxen Synagogue de la Paix in Straßburg an. Dieser Beitrag nähert sich seinem Leben und Wirken über seine Schallplatten-Aufnahmen sowie über Erinnerungen von Zeitgenossen. Am Beispiel Lorands soll betrachtet werden, mit welchen Herausforderungen ein Kantor beim Wechsel von einer Gemeinde in eine andere konfrontiert sein kann. In einer der wichtigsten Gemeindefunktionen, als Leiter des Synagogengottesdienstes, muss ein Kantor flexibel sein und sich an ortsgebundene liturgische Bräuche anpassen können.
Abgelegte Musik
(2023)
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.
Der Beitrag widmet sich dem Genre der „galizischen“ Ghettogeschichte und bezieht sich auf Nathan Samuelys zweibändige Cultur-Bilder aus dem jüdischen Leben in Galizien (1885 und 1892) und auf Karl Emil Franzos’ Novellenzyklus Die Juden von Barnow (1877) sowie stellenweise auf ausgewählte Texte aus Franzos’ Band Aus Halb-Asien. Culturbilder aus Galizien, der Bukowina, Südrußland und Rumänien (1876). Durchgeführt wird eine punktuelle Analyse der literarischen Typologie und der Handlungsräume in den genannten Texten, wobei die Ghettogeschichten in ihrer Gesamtheit als ein komplexes soziokulturelles Konstrukt einer Mikrogesellschaft problematisiert werden.
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.