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In recent years, “transnationalism” has become a key concept for historians and other scholars in the humanities and social sciences. However, its overuse threatens to dilute what would otherwise be a distinct approach with promising heuristic potential. This danger seems especially pronounced when the notion of transnationalism is applied to Jewish history, which, paradoxically, most scholars would agree, is at its core transnational. Many studies have analyzed how Jewries in different times and places, from the biblical era to the present, have been shaped by people, ideas, texts, and institutions that migrated across state lines and between cultures. So what is new about transnationalism in Jewish Studies? What new insights does it offer?
American Jewry offers an obvious arena to test transnationalism’s significance as an approach to historical research within Jewish studies. As a “nation of nations,” the United States is made up of a distinct and unique society, built on ideas of diversity and pluralism, and transcending old European concepts of nation and state. The transformative incorporation in American life of cultural, political, and social traditions brought from abroad is one feature of this distinctiveness. American Jewish history and culture, in particular, are best understood in the context of interaction with Jews in other places, both because of American Jews’ roots in and continued entanglement with Europe, and because of their differences from other Jews.
These considerations guided the participants in a roundtable that formed a prologue to an international conference held July 20–22, 2016, at the School of Jewish Theology at the University of Potsdam and the Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany. The conference title, “Re-Framing American Jewish History and Thought: New Transnational Perspectives,” indicated the organizers’ conviction that the transnational approach does have the potential to shed fresh light on the American Jewish experience. The participants were asked to bring their experiences to the table, in an effort to clarify what transnationalism might mean for American Jewish Studies, and where it might yield new approaches and insights.
The conference brought together some thirty scholars of various disciplines from Europe, Israel, and the United States. In addition to exploring a relatively new approach (at least, in the field of American Jewish Studies), the conference also served a second purpose: to further the interest in American Jewry as a subject of scholarly attention in countries outside the U.S., where the topic has been curiously neglected. The assumption underlying the conference was that a transnational perspective on American Jewry would bring to bear the particular interests and skills of scholars working outside the American academy, and thereby complement, rather than replicate, the ways American Jewish Studies have been pursued in North America itself.
Narratives of Belonging
(2017)
Die Darstellungen genealogischer Netzwerke waren in der Antike Ausdruck der Weltsicht ihrer Erzähler, mit deren Hilfe Nähe und Distanz zwischen verschiedenen Gruppen und Völkern ausgedrückt und hergestellt werden konnte. Auch Paulus bedient sich genealogischer Argumente, um die Beziehung nicht-jüdischer Christus-Gläubiger zu Israel und ihrem Gott zu verdeutlichen. Es handelt sich um eine ethnozentrische Argumentation, deren Fokus aber gleichzeitig eindeutig theozentrisch ist.
The narrative in BT Kiddushin 81b about R. Hiyya bar Ashi tells of a sage who waged a battle with his Urge after he refrained from engaging in sexual relations with his wife. He, however, did not reveal to her the battle being waged within him, but rather pretended to be an ‘angel’. When his wife incidentally found it, she disguised herself as a harlot and set out to seduce him. After they had engaged in sexual relations, the rabbi wanted to commit suicide. The traditional readings view R. Hiyya as the hero of the tale. This article claims that the aim of the narrative is to present the rabbi as being carried away by dualistic-Christian conceptions. The article further argues that the topic of the narrative is not sexual relations, but dialogue.
William S. Campbell’s research on the apostle Paul has been at the forefront of overcoming anti-Jewish interpretations. His career has been characterised by academic rigour and social and interfaith engagement. His interpretive approach is committed to formulating Christian identity in positive relation to others and thus contributes to provide a vital basis for Jewish-Christian and Interfaith relations in general for the future.
In this article, I deal with the concept of truth and lie in Jewish traditional literature, examining its development in the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature. An essential aspect in understanding this concept is the dualism of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ impulses and the free will of human beings, who were created in the image of God and have the choice to decide between right and wrong.