bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Synthesis and study of new azo dyes based on functionally substituted derivatives of salicylic acid
Authors:   A.N. Kosygin Russian State University. (Technology. Design. Art), Kuzmina Nadezhda M. , Gusarov Dmitry S. ,   A.N. Kosygin Russian State University. (Technology. Design. Art), Vu Thi Ngok An ,   Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Kovalchukova Olga V. ,   Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
Published: February 2021

Three chromatographically pure azo dyes based on salicylic acid and para-nitroaniline were isolated in 60-64% yields. The structure of the synthesized compounds was proved by IR spectroscopy. The spectra of the compounds contain characteristic absorption bands associated with the vibrations of O–H, N–H, C=O, and N=N groups. The products precipitated as orange-brown powders, which corresponds to compounds with a short system of conjugated double bonds. The predominant tautomeric form of existence of the synthesized azo compounds was determined – 5,5'-(diazen-1,2-diyl)bis(2-hydroxybenzoic acid), 2-hydroxy-5-((4-nitrophenyl)-diazenyl)benzoic acid, 5-amino-2-hydroxy-4-((4-nitrophenyl) diazenyl) benzoic acid. It was shown that they all exist as azo-tautomers. To determine the dyeing power of potential dyes, a test cold dyeing was carried out on samples of a multichannel consisting of six main types of fabrics used in the textile industry, under conditions corresponding to dyeing with acid and reactive dyes. The ability of the compounds to act as acid dyes was established, coloring woolen, polyamide and acetate fibers in yellow-orange and beige-brown colors. The introduction of an amino group into the salicylic acid fragment weakens the color properties of the azo dye molecule. The calculation of the toxicity of compounds with intravenous and oral routes of administration, carried out according to the GUSAR program, shows their low toxicity (4-5 toxicity class). The introduction of an amino group into the azo dye molecule is accompanied by an increase in its toxicity. All isolated compounds comply with Lipinski's rule, which indicates their bioavailability. Prediction of the biological activity of the compounds, carried out using the PASS program, shows that with a probability of more than 90%, the synthesized compounds exhibit antiseptic properties without irritating the skin and mucous membranes. This allows the isolated compounds to be considered promising for use as dyes in cosmetics.
TD 2625 - Distribuição Territorial dos Desembolsos do BNDES para a Indústria e a Infraestrutura entre 2000 e 2018
Authors: Silva Raphael de Oliveira , Marques Mabel Diz
Published: February 2021

Este estudo tem como objetivo investigar a dinâmica e os padrões de distribuição dos desembolsos do Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES) para a indústria e a infraestrutura, com ênfase nos vetores setoriais e regionais de sua atuação no Brasil. A abordagem está fundamentada no uso do método analítico, descritivo e estatístico, e a base de dados é proveniente do BNDES e da Relação Anual de Informações Sociais (Rais) para o período 2000-2018. Os resultados sugerem que o BNDES, no período recente, ampliou o financiamento da indústria e infraestrutura brasileira em todas as macrorregiões, demonstrando, ainda que em escala modesta, um processo de desconcentração. As aglomerações industriais mais consolidadas ainda preservam grande relevância na absorção dos recursos (tanto para indústria quanto para a infraestrutura), e estão localizadas, principalmente, na proximidade das principais capitais e da faixa litorânea. Entretanto, os resultados deixam evidente uma atuação do BNDES em prol das aglomerações de menor tamanho, sobretudo aquelas pertencentes às regiões alvo da política regional (Norte, Nordeste e Centro-Oeste), processo este que pode refletir em edificação de novos arranjos produtivos locais.
TD 2626 - Implicações do Mecanismo da OCDE de Conduta Empresarial Responsável sobre a Governança e o Modo de Atuação das EMNs
Authors: Ribeiro Cássio Garcia , Júnior Edmundo Inácio
Published: February 2021

Este texto se propõe a apresentar e analisar os impactos do conjunto de normas e recomendações presentes nas Diretrizes para Empresas Multinacionais (OECD, 2011). Tal documento representa a principal iniciativa levada a cabo por um organismo multilateral, com o objetivo de nortear a atuação das empresas multinacionais (EMNs) nos países hospedeiros. Trata-se de um tema extremante relevante, visto que diversas pesquisas acadêmicas demonstram que, além dos efeitos positivos proporcionados pelas EMNs aos países hospedeiros, o investimento direto estrangeiro (IDE) também pode trazer resultados danosos a tais países. O governo brasileiro aderiu às diretrizes em 1997 e desde então tem realizado esforços para se adequar ao conteúdo desse instrumento da Organização para a Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Econômico (OCDE) voltado às EMNs. A metodologia adotada neste texto se apoiou: i) na revisão da literatura que abordava os temas dessas empresas; ii) na pesquisa documental assentada em relatórios e documentos da OCDE sobre as diretrizes; e iii) no mapeamento e tabulação dos resultados de todas as alegações de inobservância recebidas pelo Ponto de Contato Nacional (PCN) brasileiro, entre 2003 e 2018. As evidências deste estudo indicam que as diretrizes possuem um enorme potencial, funcionando como um instrumento que traz publicidade aos possíveis danos causados pelas EMNs. Contudo, há também pontos a serem aperfeiçoados. A partir deste estudo, identificou-se: i) que há dificuldades para uma efetiva responsabilização das EMNs em função dos danos causados aos países hospedeiros por má conduta corporativa; e ii) a importância da implementação de um sistema obrigatório de revisões por pares, que avaliaria os pareceres emitidos pelos PCNs.
The Teacher
Authors: Altmann Alexander
Published: February 2021

This chapter concerns the decade transpiring between the summer of 1779 until the autumn of 1780 in Moses Mendelssohn's life. Much of this chronicle is based on his lengthy correspondence with August Hennings and on the letters written to Hennings by his sister-in-law, Elise Reimarus. During this period, Mendelssohn took on a greater role within the West European Jewish Enlightenment movement. He was now the acknowledged head of a group, and he was well aware of it. Moreover, the influx of men of great talent enabled him to embark upon a bold project of cultural reform. The chapter thus looks into his German Pentateuch translation and the new Hebrew commentary, both of which became a feasible proposition because his circle provided him with the necessary scholarly and administrative manpower. His decision to devote his energy to the advancement of his people thus came at the right moment.
Hasidism
Authors: Jacobs Louis
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the meaning of Hasidism and the history of the movement. The Hasidic movement was born in the Jewish communities of Volhynia and Podolia during the eighteenth century. The chapter shows that despite the fiercest opposition on the part of the Jewish establishment, Hasidism spread quickly. Fifty years after the death of its founder, R. Israel b. Eliezer (d. 1760), known as the Baal Shem Tov (‘Master of the Good Name [of God] ’), the movement had succeeded in winning over half the Jewish population of Russia and Poland — the great centres of Jewish life in the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. Indicative of its hold over the masses is the fact that the upholders of the status quo were very soon referred to as Mitnaggedim (‘opponents’), implying that they, and not the Hasidim (singular, Hasid), were obliged to be on the defensive.
Prayer as Inspiration
Authors: Jacobs Louis
Published: February 2021

This chapter considers if there is evidence of divine inspiration in Hasidic prayer. To that end, this chapter explores a handful of Hasidic literature which point to the phenomenon in which words proceed automatically from the mouths of men who are unconscious, or appear to be unconscious, of what they are saying, and the acceptance by believers of such words as being inspired. There are a few accounts of spontaneous inspired prayer, as this chapter shows. However, most of these examples allude to words uttered in prayer as belonging to God, rather than conducted spontaneously. Indeed, the only instance of divinely inspired new prayers discussed in this chapter is revealed through a passage from the works of the great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, R. Nahman of Bratzlav.
The Prayers of the Zaddik
Authors: Jacobs Louis
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the doctrine of the Zaddik with respect to Hasidic prayer. The Zaddik is the spiritual superman whose holy living not only provides his followers with inspiration for their lives but who raises them aloft with him through his spiritual powers. The central idea of the Zaddik’s connection to Hasidism is that the Zaddik’s prayers on behalf of his followers can achieve results far beyond the scope of their own puny efforts at prayer. Among many Hasidim, the Zaddik acted as the prayer leader, so that his prayers could assist the prayers of the whole congregation to speed their way to God. The whole doctrine is based on the idea that in the Kabbalah, the term Zaddik refers to the Sefirah Yesod (‘Foundation’) which, in the anthropomorphic symbolism favoured by the Kabbalah, is represented in the human body by the organ of generation.
Judah Loew and Modern Jewish Scholarship
Authors: Sherwin Byron L.
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines Judah Loew in modern Jewish scholarship. The personal and intellectual prejudices of many nineteenth-century German Jewish scholars toward Central and Eastern European Jewry affected the shape modern Jewish scholarship was to take in subsequent years. It was only as a result of the monumental scholarly efforts of Gershom Scholem, beginning in the 1920s, that the field of Jewish mysticism began to attain a respectable place within Jewish scholarly circles. Ultimately, the sparse attention given Judah Loew in nineteenth-century Jewish scholarship yielded two reactions. Those who considered him an Eastern European by birth and a mystic by inclination abhorred him. Those who considered him German by birth and an enlightened, scientifically and philosophically minded Renaissance figure by inclination distorted his views and offered a portrait of what they had hoped he was rather than of what he actually was. An example of the first approach was Heinrich Graetz, while an example of the second was Solomon Judah Rapoport. Meanwhile, in Jewish and Bohemian legend, Rabbi Loew is venerated as a master of what Jewish mystics call kabbalah ma'asit or “practical mysticism.”
Judah Loew: Writings and Sources
Authors: Sherwin Byron L.
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores the nature and the scope of Judah Loew's literary work. Rabbi Loew's first published work was the Gur Aryeh (The Lion's Whelp, 1578), a supercommentary on Solomon ben Isaac's (Rashi) eleventh-century commentary to the Pentateuch. In 1582, Loew's second published work appeared, entitled Gevurot Ha-Shem. At the end of the introduction to this work, Loew outlines the titles and contents of six projected works, which would discuss theological and, to a lesser extent, halakhic problems relating to the religious holidays of the Jewish yearly cycle. However, of the six projected works, only three survived, albeit with slightly changed titles. Loew also wrote two works on the moral and religious values of Judaism: Derekh Ha-Ḥayyim (1589) and Netivot Olam (1595). In 1600, Loew published a polemical defense of rabbinic literature, entitled Be'er Ha-Golah (Well of the Exile). In addition, five of Loew's sermons were also published. From what must have been extensive writings on Jewish religious law, only scanty documents have survived. From what must have been many responsa, only one has been preserved and published during Loew's lifetime, namely, the Responsum on the Deserted Wife. The chapter then considers the nature of the sources from which Rabbi Loew drew to compose his works and to help formulate his ideas.
Judah Loew and the Jewish Mystical Tradition: Introductory Remarks
Authors: Sherwin Byron L.
Published: February 2021

This chapter evaluates Judah Loew's influence upon the Jewish mystical tradition which succeeded him. Rabbi Loew's writings made a significant impact upon the two major trends in the history of Jewish mysticism which flourished after his death: Sabbateanism and Hasidism. One may discover Loew's influences in the writings of Nathan of Gaza, the principal Sabbatean theologian. Indeed, Nathan's idea of salvation by faith rather than by deeds, an atypical notion in the history of Jewish messianism, may be traced directly to Loew's treatise on messianism. More profound and direct than his influence on Sabbateanism, however, was Judah Loew's impact upon Hasidism. Not only his literary style, but also many of Rabbi Loew's attitudes and views echo throughout Hasidic literature. Hasidic interest in Judah Loew reached its acme in the Przysucha-Kotsk school. One may also discern some influence of Judah Loew upon at least two additional Hasidic figures: Shneur Zalman of Liady and Gershon Hanokh Leiner of Radzyn.
The Nature of God
Authors: Sherwin Byron L.
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses Judah Loew's views on the nature of God. Rabbi Loew's position on this question derives from and is expressive of the idea of God as it had been developed in Jewish mystical literature until his time. What is of importance here is the question of Judah Loew's attitude toward the Jewish mystical and the Jewish philosophical traditions, as they relate to the predication of divine attributes. For Rabbi Loew, Jewish tradition is Jewish mystical tradition; that Jewish medieval philosophy, culminating for Loew in the writings of Eliezer Ashkenazi, is an unnecessary and inauthentic threat to what Loew perceived Judaism to be. He emerges as one who felt obliged to articulate the kabbalistic idea of God in the face of what he perceived as a vital threat to tradition from the philosophers. For Judah Loew, the attempt to submit religious truth to rational analysis is doomed to failure. Jewish tradition, specifically Jewish mystical tradition, is the gateway to supernal, ultimate truth. Jewish philosophy, at its best, can only hope to provide penultimate truth; at its worst, Jewish philosophy is a gateway to heresy.
Beyond Human Perfection: ‘Cleaving’ to God
Authors: Sherwin Byron L.
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines Judah Loew's understanding of devekut (“cleaving to God”). It traces the development of major aspects of the idea of devekut in sources which most probably influenced him. These sources include Maimonides' reflections on the nature of devekut; the two views of devekut developed by the Spanish mystics; and the Hasidic understanding of devekut. Judah Loew claimed that devekut may be attained on two levels. On one level, devekut may be considered a variety of “normal mysticism” acquired by means of simple faith in God and observance of the commandments of the Torah. On another level, devekut may be obtained only by means of strenuous effort, going above and beyond the “letter of the law.” On this second level, devekut is considered an intense mystical experience. The first kind of devekut might be attained by all; however, the second level, “complete devekut,” is restricted to very few. Those few are individuals who embody the rare combination of mystic, saint, and scholar.
Messianic Redemption
Authors: Sherwin Byron L.
Published: February 2021

This chapter evaluates Judah Loew's understanding of the nature of the Messianic Era. For Judah Loew, the advent of the Messiah does not represent the abrogation or superseding of the commandments of the Torah of Moses. The commandments, Loew insists, will be in force in the Messianic Age. The messianic advent signifies the actualization of the observance of the commandments, not their abolition. The role of the Messiah is not so much to bring about this conclusion of the historical age but to symbolize that it has been attained. Just as the actualization of the natural world in the Messianic Era is but a prelude to the supernatural world, so the actualization of the Torah in this world is but a prelude to its ultimate return to its completely supernatural form. For Loew, the intrusion of the supernatural entities into “this world”—i.e., Moses, Messiah, Torah, Temple, soul, and intellect—is for the purpose of guiding creation back to its source, back to the totally spiritual realm, back to the World to Come, back to God.
The Dreyfus Affair, Public Opinion and Antisemitism: I
Authors: Wilson Stephen
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the Dreyfus Affair, the main public “event” around which antisemitic opinion crystallized in the 1890s. Indeed, it gave antisemitism a dramatic scenario and provided its proponents with a powerful and lasting myth of Jewish inassimilability and treason. There is little doubt that Alfred Dreyfus's arrest and condemnation stemmed from the anti-Jewish prejudice of the officer corps, and its attachment to “the legend of the Jew as Judas, of the Jews as the race of Iscariot, the race of traitors.” It is also clear that the explosion of the Dreyfus Case into the Dreyfus Affair, provoked in part by those convinced of his innocence or of the illegality of his trial, was largely the responsibility of an organized antisemitic movement and newspaper press. The chapter then looks at the police reports to establish a chronological account of the evolution of opinion during the Dreyfus Affair.
Antisemitism as an Ideology and Its General Function
Authors: Wilson Stephen
Published: February 2021

This chapter addresses antisemitism as an ideology. If it is compared not with modern political ideologies of which socialism is the model, but with belief-systems that are more “popular,” more common, and more diffuse, with popular religion and mythology, antisemitism can be seen to have a certain unity and structural coherence. It can be seen, too, to have its own “rationality,” its own power of explanation, different from but as compelling as “scientific rationality.” Two further factors lend force to this interpretation. First, antisemitism was not a private opinion, formulated by individuals for themselves; it was a social, cultural phenomenon, an already existing ideological system, to which they adhered with more or less conviction, or which they ignored or rejected. Second, in the last decades of the nineteenth century in France precisely, this system achieved a new degree of coherence; a set of old beliefs and ideas about Jews was articulated and systematized by writers and journalists to serve new functions. Antisemitism was by origin and mode a “popular” ideology, but, in its modern shape, it was formulated by intellectuals.
The Aims of Antisemitism
Authors: Wilson Stephen
Published: February 2021

This chapter studies the aims of antisemitism as far as Jews were concerned. The French antisemites at the end of the nineteenth century proposed a wide range of solutions to the “Jewish question.” These ranged from full assimilation through various legal controls to expulsion and extermination. Both the first and the last would, by very different means, have destroyed the Jews as a social entity, while legal controls would have maintained them as a distinct but inferior group. Generally speaking, one could identify the former as characteristic of “modern” antisemitism, antagonistic towards or oblivious of Jewish social reality and actual distinctiveness, and the latter as characteristic of “traditional” antisemitism, which was conscious of both and prepared to recognize them on its own terms. The chapter then considers how far these solutions are to be seen as serious practical proposals, how far as ritual or rhetoric.
Maimonides’ Quest beyond Philosophy and Prophecy
Authors: Gruenwald Ithamar
Published: February 2021

This chapter details Maimonides’ quest beyond philosophy and prophecy. It has occasionally been noticed that certain elements in the writings of Maimonides may be interpreted as testifying to the presence of a mystical thread artfully woven into the philosophical texture of his writings. It is particularly in Maimonides’ version of the (Alfarabian) theory of the elevation of the human, passive intellect to a state of utmost closeness to, or even unification with, the celestial Active Intellect that some resemblance to a mystical experience can be discerned. Some scholars have gone so far as to seriously consider the possibility that Maimonides actually had a prophetic experience of mystical quality. The chapter then assesses whether Maimonides considered the issue of the relationship between philosophy and prophecy to be a trap best avoided, and that he consequently attempted to find a way beyond these two modes of cognition.
Holy War in Maimonidean Law
Authors: Blidstein Gerald J.
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores Maimonides’ discussion of the justification and function of war. Maimonides provides for universal holy war and constructs its ideological basis. Holy war, moreover, is the only justified war. In addition, Maimonides makes the ideological element a crucial component of war. The chapter then explains the concepts of the ‘commanded war’ and the ‘permitted war’. Commanded war does not include wars fought to spread Noahide law. The commanded wars of the normative structure are firmly defined, rather, by the history of the people and the goals of national territorial existence. Permitted war especially compromises the characteristics at the heart of holy war doctrine; wars may be fought that are not imperative divine commands, with material goals rather than religious or ethical aims as their purpose.
Commentary
Authors: Carey Christopher
Published: February 2021

1-16 Theomnestos' speech. This section is both a speech in its own right, containing all the expected elements (introduction §1, narrative §§2-10, argument §§11-13, and epilogue §§14-15) and the introduction to Apollodoros' speech, which has little in the way of formal introduction. Its primary purpose is to remove various sources of jury prejudice against the prosecution and to create prejudice against Stephanos. In this type of case the law allowed for substantial rewards for successful prosecutors (cf. §16); in view of the Athenian hostility against the use of the lawcourts for personal gain it is necessary for Theomnestos to disclaim any desire for profit (cl. esp. 53.1ff.). Secondly, Apollodoros' extensive involvement in litigation may well have made him unpopular with Athenian juries, which disapproved of hasty recourse to the law. Theomnestos redirects this prejudice against Stephanos; he represents Stephanos as the aggressor, and stresses that there was no honourable alternative to litigation. Thirdly, given his youth, the political background and the seriousness of the case, Theomnestos inevitably faces the suspicion that he is merely a tool of Apollodoros; to dispel this suspicion he exaggerates his own role as victim and avenger. This section also establishes to the moral character of prosecution and defence ...
Introduction
Authors: Halliwell S. , Halliwell S.
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on the fifth book of Plato's Republic as a philosophical enquiry into the nature of justice and analyses its theme into a peculiarly complex development of arguments, ideas and images. It explains how justice is given the status of the master-virtue in both individual souls and of human communities. It also looks at large parts of the fifth book that are framed as an attempt to explore the relationship between the two levels of ethical analysis: psychological and political. The chapter begins with some typically Platonic touches of dramatic detail, such as a tug at the shoulder of Adeimantus's cloak and some whispered words between him and Polemarchus. It also mentions Socrates speaking of the realms of 'pure', immutable, and transcendent reality.
Xenophon, Hellenlka II.3.11-IV.2.8
Authors: Krentz Peter
Published: February 2021

This chapter provides the original text and translation of the second part of the Hellenika, which is considered both the best and worst of Xenophon. It covers events after the end of the Peloponnesian War, from the late summer of 404 until the Spring of 394 when Agesilaos was recalled. It also recounts the story of subsequent Lakedaimonian activities that Xenophon was faulted for, such as the one-sided and inaccurate view of Athenian oligarchs. The chapter mentions the installation of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens, the battles of Thibron and Derkylidas in Asia Minor, the rise to power of King Agesilaos, the Spartan War against Elis, the treachery of Kinadon, the battles of Agesilaos in Asia Minor, and the war against Sparta in Greece. The chapter also explores Xenophon's best speeches, cleverest dialogues, and selected manners of expression.
Social Realism continued: some key re-inventions
Authors: Sohn-Rethel Martin
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses a range of highly diverse examples of 'social realism' — each offers new ways of expressing 'how things really are'. It considers social realism in the films of Shane Meadows, Clio Barnard, Andrea Arnold, and Steve McQueen. The chapter then explores the social realism in Larry Clark's Kids (1995). An altogether more iconoclastic, youth-centric social realism emerged in the mid-1990s in America with the work of Clark, a new wave asserting itself against the calcified norms of mainstream Hollywood. Kids charted its own distinctive realist territory when it exposed the precocious amoral sexual habits of urban American youth towards the end of the century. The chapter also looks at social realism in La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995), City of God (Fernando Mereilles, 2002), and Elephant (Gus Van Sant, 2003). Common to all three is a spirit of stylistic innovation intended to roll back accreted convention and reveal a heightened, rediscovered realism.
The Narrative Code of Realism: the case of the ‘multi-strand epic’
Authors: Sohn-Rethel Martin
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes the narrative code of realism. It discusses four films which can be labelled as 'multi-strand epics': Crash (Paul Haggis, 2004), Babel (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2006), Short Cuts (Robert Altman, 1993), and Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999). What unites all these films is their rejection of a unified narrative structure in favour of an organisation closer aligned to the segmented narrative of TV drama. What these movies share, along with the iconoclasm of their narrative code, is a developing, indeed an enveloping empowerment of the discursive code of realism. The chapter asks what happens to the workings of realism when the narrative code, in drawing attention to itself and uncoupling itself from any obvious genre, becomes as it were a player in its own right? And what happens when the code of discursive or ideological truth becomes its compensatory, centralising force?
The Code of Psychology and Character Motivation
Authors: Sohn-Rethel Martin
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores films for which individual psychology — seen in terms of how the past influences characters' mental states and thus how they behave in the present — is a clear and predominant force. Character motivation is often taken for granted in many films, especially genre ones; only when it is made problematic in ways that 'rock the genre boat', does the code of psychology become a key and overriding factor in how spectators understand realism and truth. The chapter focuses on the work firstly of Mike Leigh: in Life is Sweet (1990), Naked, Secrets & Lies (1996), Happy-Go-Lucky (2007), and Another Year (2010) then on Steve McQueen's Shame and finally on Lynne Ramsay: in her short Gasman (1998) and her features Ratcatcher (1999) and Morvern Callar (2002) as well as a brief reference to her latest film We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011). Leigh and Ramsay are very different, but nevertheless both make films that seem to work through complex, often inscrutable, psychological characterisations. However, in the case of Ramsay, the chapter argues for a 'subset' of the psychological code: one of existential realism.
‘You don’t know what Hugo’s capable of’
Authors: Conolly Jez , Bates David Owain
Published: February 2021

This chapter studies Dead of Night's most potent and well-remembered story, ‘Ventriloquist's Dummy’ directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. The peculiar three-way relationship between the ventriloquist Maxwell Frere (Michael Redgrave), his dummy ‘Hugo’, and rival ventriloquist Sylvester Kee (Hartley Power) raises many fascinating issues concerning masculinity. Indeed, this relationship has come to be regarded as a metaphorical homosexual love triangle. If one reads the ‘courtship’ of Frere by Kee as being indirectly enacted through his interest in Hugo, it is straightforward enough. What makes the theme more compelling is Frere's tortured jealousy of his Hugo persona. The chapter then traces the origins of bestowing animacy upon inanimate objects and the relationship this has to the concept of the Uncanny. It also considers the ‘fourth man’ in this story, the ‘doubting Thomas’ psychiatrist Doctor Van Straaten (Frederick Valk), responsible for the telling of the tale and the rational foil to Walter Craig and the other guests throughout the film as they share their respective supernatural experiences.
Glimpses of the Jewish Culture That Once Was
Authors: Webber Jonathan , Schwarz Chris , Francisco Jason
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses Jewish culture as it once was, which stands in sharp and powerful contrast to the ruins of Poland. It illustrates towns and villages of Polish Galicia in the present-day that still has vivid traces of the strength and splendour of Jewish culture before its destruction during the Holocaust. It also mentions synagogues and Jewish cemeteries that escaped being substantially damaged by the Germans or have been meticulously restored. The chapter looks at remarkable buildings and monuments that are far from being desolate, abandoned, and in ruins, which existed in Galicia before the genocide. It describes the art and architecture of Galician synagogues that were influenced by mystical ideas and encouraged with a richness of decorative features that cannot be found in other countries where Jews of Polish origin live.
Tobacco and the Hasidim
Authors: Jacobs Louis
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the use of tobacco by hasidic Jews. There do not seem to be any references to tobacco in the classical hasidic works of doctrine, the hasidic Torah. Their absence from these sources may be because aids to contemplation (such as tobacco) were considered irrelevant to the ideal itself, although contemplation was clearly important in hasidic thought. Although tobacco was brought to Europe from the New World, where it had been used as part of the American Indian religious ceremonies, the hasidim did not use it in this sense. Rather, the early hasidim smoked tobacco as an aid to concentration. It was only much later that the incense motif and the idea of raising holy sparks were introduced. Some tsadikim were heavy smokers, while others either gave up smoking or had never smoked at all.
The Tarler rebbe of Łódź and his Medical Practice: Towards a History of Hasidic Life in Pre-First World War Poland
Authors: Robinson Ira
Published: February 2021

This chapter looks at the medical works and practice of Rabbi Judah Yudel Rosenberg. In the 1880s, he was for a short time rabbi of the town of Tarlów and he adopted the word as a surname, becoming known as Reb Yudel Tarler. Later, during a stay in Łódź from 1909 to 1913, he called himself the Tarler rebbe. The best explanation for his move from Warsaw to Łódź seems to be that he saw possibilities of self-advancement there that would have been next to impossible in Warsaw. Łódź, which possessed a rapidly growing Jewish population, attracted Jews from all over the Russian Empire. It was a city with no home-grown intelligentsia and hence tended to look to the outside for its intellectual and religious leadership. Rosenberg, his reputation enhanced by his publications, thought that he would be able to set himself up in the town as a hasidic rebbe.
Ala from the Primer
Authors: Margolis-Edelman Alina
Published: February 2021

This chapter recounts the author's first introduction to religion. She was raised by her religious nanny who took her to church, not only on Sundays, but whenever the nanny had a bit of time. However, when the author started attending school at the City School of Work, which was created by the socialist municipality, she experienced discrimination for being a Jew. The chapter then describes the author's father, who was a doctor and worked in a hospital but had a private practice at home as well. Though he did not know a word of Yiddish, he was active in the Jewish socialist organization, the Bund. That was how he became an alderman in the socialist city council of Łódź in the last years before the war. He was charged with matters related to public health, which took up an enormous amount of his time. The chapter also describes the author's brother and mother, and looks at the author's experiences during the German occupation of Łódź and at the School of Nursing.
The Concerns of an Immigrant Rabbi: The Life and Sermons of Rabbi Moshe Shimon Sivitz
Authors: Caplan Kimmy
Published: February 2021

This chapter highlights the life of Rabbi Moshe Shimon Sivitz, analyses the main issues discussed in his sermons, and offers a number of observations regarding the continuity and change in the content of his sermons. This discussion sheds additional light on the problems and concerns of Orthodox rabbis who emigrated to America at the turn of the century. Several factors motivated rabbis to leave eastern Europe for America. Economic difficulties, decreases in population of the Orthodox communities, and the consequent lack of opportunity for rabbis to advance to high rabbinical positions in Europe were key. As early as the mid-nineteenth century it was difficult to find a more substantial job in the rabbinate on either continent. Many Orthodox rabbis who went west during the mass migration were connected to the ethics-based musar movement in some way. The main themes and ideology of the musar movement greatly influenced Rabbi Sivitz, even though they are not widely expressed in his sermons.
The Jewish Question in Poland: Views Expressed in the Catholic Press between the Two World Wars
Authors: Landau-Czajka Anna
Published: February 2021

This chapter analyses the views expressed in the Catholic press between the two world wars regarding the Jewish question in Poland. Catholic periodicals of the inter-war period expressed a range of attitudes towards the Jewish minority, ranging from strong hostility to moderate approval. All Catholic journalists agreed, however, that there was indeed a ‘Jewish question’ and that the Jewish minority in Poland posed a threat to the identity of the Polish nation and the independence of the Polish state. The general tenor of the articles published in the Catholic press was that all attempts to ease the conflict between Poles and Jews were unrealistic; without a fundamental reform of Polish policy towards minorities, there was little hope for peaceful coexistence between the two communities. There were even proposals to abandon the existing policy that acknowledged Jews as having the same rights as Poles and recognized them as equal citizens. The Catholic press warned against treating the situation lightly: there could not be two masters (gospodarze) on Polish soil, especially since the Jewish community contributed to the demoralization of the Poles, took jobs and income away from Poles, and was destroying the national culture.
Mojżesz Schorr i jego listy do Ludwika Gumplowicza
Authors: Kozińska-Witt Hanna
Published: February 2021

This chapter looks at Mojżesz Schorr i jego listy do Ludwika Gumplowicza (Moses Schorr and his Letters to Ludwik Gumplowicz), which was edited by Rafał Żebrowski. This is the third volume in a series on two of the major figures in the intellectual history of Polish Jewry, Ludwig Gumplowicz and Reform rabbi Moses Schorr. The first volume is a biography of Schorr. The second is devoted to Gumplowicz and his sons, and the third contains Schorr's correspondence with Gumplowicz in the period 1897 to 1909. All the letters in this volume come from an unpublished legacy of Ludwig Gumplowicz, donated to the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków by his younger son, the socialist Władysław Gumplowicz. All the letters are from Schorr to Gumplowicz, whose answers from Graz were lost in the turmoil of the Second World War.
Regina Renz Społeczeństwo małomiasteczkowe w województwie kieleckim 1918–1939
Authors: Kassow Samuel D.
Published: February 2021

This chapter studies Regina Renz's Small-Town Society in the Kielce Province and Krzysztof Urbański's The Jews of Kielce. Renz begins her study of small-town society in the Kielce region with a very useful introductory discussion of the sociological and historical literature devoted to the problems of defining a miasteczko and formulating a proper conceptual framework for their study. She ignores, however, the small body of literature devoted to the issue of the shtetl. Urbański's monograph on the Jews of Kielce suffers from the same problem: the author apparently does not read Yiddish or Hebrew and could not avail himself of such useful sources at the Kieltser tsaytung or the two memorial books that have appeared on Kielce. In many places, the author's unfamiliarity with east European Jewish history undercuts the authority of his assertions.
Christopher Clark The Politics of Conversion: Missionary Protestantism and the Jews in Prussia 1728–1941
Authors: Levenson Alan
Published: February 2021

This chapter highlights Christopher Clark's The Politics of Conversion: Missionary Protestantism and the Jews in Prussia 1728–1941. This meticulously researched, clearly written history provides the first objective and properly contextualized account of the attempts of one fringe group to bring another fringe group into the bosom of the Church. Anyone desiring a reliable institutional history of the missionary Protestant campaign to convert Prussian Jewry will not need to look beyond this work. The author demonstrates the effect of changing imperial policies, the agenda of the Church at large, and the general economic conditions of Prussia on the fate of the mission to the Jews. Clark examines missionary schools and missionary journals and the distribution of Christian texts and reports on the conversions of nominal Christians to true believers—tales that were directed at the Jews as well as at a Germany that was becoming rapidly secular. Moreover, he subtly places the missionary movement on a continuum from antisemitism to philosemitism.
Norman Salsitz, as told to Richard Skolnik
Authors: Tomaszewski Jerzy
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines how Richard Skolnik spent many hours taping the recollections of Norman Salsitz, who was born in the small Polish town of Kolbuszowa in 1920. These tapes are the basis of a book on the life and death of the shtetl until 1942. It is one of the most important sources concerning the internal life, social structure, economic conditions, traditions, and slow changes going on between the two world wars in a typical rural Jewish community. Salsitz was born into a traditional, hasidic, relatively rich family. He began early to participate in business life, and his descriptions of economic conditions, including social stratification, are vivid. Significant also are Salsitz's recollections of the political attitudes of both Jews and Poles. The Salsitz family was equally committed to Polish patriotic traditions and the Jewish way of life, but Polish attitudes towards Jews differed substantially from Jewish attitudes towards Poland and Polish identity. Jews felt patriotic towards Poland, but still suffered from some of the antisemitism of their fellow townsfolk.
Julian Stryjkowski
Authors: Adamczyk-Garbowska Monika
Published: February 2021

This chapter presents an obituary for Julian Stryjkowski. Julian Stryjkowski is often referred to as a man who became a writer because of the tragic events of the war. He was the indirect chronicler of the Shoah, and the last guardian of the vast Jewish cemetery Poland was turned into during the war. Undoubtedly, the Holocaust gave him a strong and final impetus to record the vanished community in all its richness, but he had already started writing before the war. It is hard to say, however, what turns his career would have taken if not for the Holocaust. The main themes in Stryjkowski's writing are human suffering and tragic existence, troublesome friendships, frustrated loves, the influence of history upon the human condition, and most of all the problem of identity.
The Hasidic Managing Editor as an Agent of Culture
Authors: Gries Zeev
Published: February 2021

This chapter traces the history of hasidic books and the individuals who saw them into print. In their humble way, they played a crucial part in the process of converting oral traditions to literary documents and thus of constructing not only the collective memory of the hasidic movement but also people's critical perception of its history. Much of the vast literature of hasidism was derived from the verbal addresses delivered by the leaders of the movement to the gatherings of their followers at their ‘court’, usually for the third sabbath meal or on festival days. The address of the hasidic leader would be committed to memory first and only later, once the holy day was over, would the ‘court’ scribe record it in writing. The outcome was rarely scrutinized, edited, or even approved by the ‘author’. Since the oral traditions of early hasidism are no longer retrievable in their original form, and since the only access to them is through the literary adaptations and translations in which they have been preserved, it is important to shed some light on the often obscure processes of their recension, publication, and dissemination by apparently minor figures whose agency was nevertheless indispensable: the hasidic managing editors.
The Paradigms of Yesh and Ayin in Hasidic Thought
Authors: Elior Rachel
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes the paradigms of yesh and ayin in hasidic thought. At the core of hasidic thought lies the idea of the dual nature of reality. The two contradictory aspects of all existence are bound to one another dialectically. This duality applies to all dimensions of reality and mirrors the perception of the deity as a dialectic unity of oppositions. The deity is perceived as a dialectic process of reversible and variable opposites. This unity of opposites is expressed in pairs of contradictory concepts. All these concepts clearly derive from the kabbalistic heritage of hasidism. But while the kabbalistic interest in dialectic opposites relates only to the heavenly realm, the new hasidic concern encompasses all aspects of reality. The principles of yesh and ayin are thus projected in hasidism from the domain of the Godhead onto the domain of religious awareness and divine service.
Walking as a Sacred Duty: Theological Transformation of Social Reality in Early Hasidism
Authors: Wolfson Elliot R.
Published: February 2021

This chapter presents some crucial aspects of the itinerant motif as it is developed in early hasidism. At the outset, two distinct typologies can be distinguished, although only the latter is rooted in teachings ascribed to the Besht. The first involves the use of the walking motif as a symbol for the spiritual progression through various grades, culminating ultimately in a state of devekut, cleaving or attachment to God. This usage is found in a wide range of authors including two of the most prominent followers of the Besht. One can distinguish between at least two models of cleaving to God in hasidic sources: (a) a vertical one, which entails the metaphor of ascent and descent, and (b) a horizontal one, which entails the metaphor of traversing from place to place. Hasidic writers used both models to delineate the individual's intimate relationship with God. The second typology, which is traceable to the Besht himself, or so one may gather from the hasidic sources, is decidedly soteriological in its orientation: it emphasizes two acts whose redemptive nature, from the kabbalistic perspective, is beyond question, namely the liberation of the sparks of light trapped in the demonic shells and the unification of the masculine and feminine aspects of the divine.
New Light on the Hasidic Tale and its Sources
Authors: Nigal Gedaliah
Published: February 2021

This chapter evaluates the hasidic tale. Hasidic literature can be classified in two main categories: homiletic-speculative, usually originating in the sermons delivered by the hasidic teachers to the gatherings of the hasidim at the courts and containing ethical, kabbalistic, and hasidic teachings; and narrative, comprising numerous collections of tales. Although research has addressed itself to both categories, it seems that the tales, the more popular of the two genres, have not been given the scholarly attention they deserve. The figure of the Baal Shem Tov (the Besht), the founder of hasidism, is crucial to the discussion of the hasidic tale. His personality is inseparably connected with the emergence of the hasidic tale and its subsequent development. One important fact that must be borne in mind is that the printed hasidic tale was preceded by an earlier stage of oral dissemination. This is attested to by allusions to and even the appearance of complete tales in other genres long before the emergence of the narrative literature of hasidism in print.
The Imprint of Haskalah Literature on the Historiography of Hasidism
Authors: Bartal Israel
Published: February 2021

This chapter addresses the imprint of Haskalah literature on the historiography of hasidism. Haskalah literature and the historiography of hasidism have always been interrelated. The maskilim and their writings had an enormous effect on the evolution of modern hasidic scholarship, while the depiction of hasidism in Haskalah literature bears the imprint of certain modern historiographical sensibilities and conventions. The early historians of hasidism clearly drew most if not all of their information about the movement from maskilic texts. Thus, practically all the early attempts to explain hasidism historically had gestated in the minds of scholars who were strongly imbued with Haskalah ideas and who wrote under its direct impact. Alongside this ideological impact, both direct and indirect, of the maskilim and their writings on the early historians of hasidism, the decline of the Haskalah as a viable intellectual and social movement signalled the beginning of another relationship between modern hasidic historiography and the literary legacy of the maskilim: hasidic historians began to utilize Haskalah literature as historical source material.
Have Jews Imagination? Jews and the Creative Arts
Authors: Shavit Yaacov
Published: February 2021

This chapter is devoted to the question as to whether Jews have imagination — namely, whether they have the creativity to produce works of art. In short, the chapter argues that there is a corpus of literary and artistic work created by Jews, which encompasses works of art and literature of all types and reveals a vast and copious creative imagination. However, during the nineteenth century, a different image prevailed, as a popular notion emerged which painted Jews as being without imagination. The chapter stresses that these anti-Jewish notions were even accepted by some Jewish writers. These notions become even clearer when the Jewish mind is contrasted with the Greek mind.