bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Maimonides’ Critique of the Jewish Culture of his Day
Authors: Kellner Menachem
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses how Moses Maimonides expressed a vision of Judaism as a remarkably naturalist religion of radical responsibility. His Judaism is a religion in which concrete behaviour serves the needs of abstract thought; that abstract thought is the deepest layer of the Torah and, at least in Maimonides' day, could be most clearly and accurately expressed in the vocabulary of the Neoplatonized Aristotelianism which Maimonides accepted as one of the highest expressions of the human spirit. This Judaism was simultaneously deeply elitist and profoundly universalist. Maimonides crystallized and expressed his vision of Judaism because the Jewish world in his day was, in his view, debased and paganized. Seeking to purify Judaism from ‘proto-kabbalah’, what he actually succeeded in doing was to force these currents of thought from the subterranean depths in which they had hitherto flowed up to the bright light of day. In that light they flourished, grew, and ultimately became dominant. Kabbalah has long since become the mainstream of Judaism, relegating Maimonideanism to the status of a largely ignored backwater.
The Institutional Character of Halakhah
Authors: Kellner Menachem
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines Maimonides' position on the nature of the commandments of the Torah. For him, the commandments of the Torah are not purely positivist — in the sense that in most cases God could just as easily have commanded something else — but they do not reflect anything about the metaphysical nature of the universe either. Rather, the commandments of the Torah are wise and beneficial, but in many cases reflect specific historical realities. The chapter then addresses the question about the nature of halakhah, which has profound implications for the understanding of what halakhah is meant to be, and important ramifications for the question of what Torah is, and how it is meant to relate to the world. It delineates two fundamentally opposed conceptions of what halakhah is; Maimonides holds one view, while his opponents hold a conflicting view. Maimonides's view is part and parcel of his opposition to the 'hyperrealism' of proto-kabbalah.
Holiness
Authors: Kellner Menachem
Published: February 2021

This chapter addresses the question of what holiness is. This question has very rarely been asked of Jewish texts, perhaps because the notion of holiness is so pervasive in Judaism that asking Jewish texts about the nature of holiness is like asking fish about the nature of water. Maimonides held a different view of holiness. Holiness is the name given to a certain class of people, objects, times, and places which the Torah marks off. According to this view, holiness is a status, not a quality of existence. This sort of holiness does not reflect objective reality; it helps constitute social reality. Holy places, persons, times, and objects are indubitably holy, and must be treated with all due respect, but they are, in and of themselves, like all other places, persons, times, and objects. What is different about them is the way in which the Torah commands that they be treated. Their sanctity derives from the uses to which they are put; in that sense, it is teleological.
Ritual Purity and Impurity
Authors: Kellner Menachem
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses ritual purity and impurity, beginning with a discussion of two competing views. The debate between the text from Heikhalot rabati and the story about Rabban Johanan ben Zakai is reflected in medieval Jewish thought. Judah Halevi seems close to the position reflected by the Heikhalot rabati text, while Maimonides adopts that expressed in the story of Rabban Johanan. The text from Heikhalot rabati sees the laws of ritual purity and impurity as reflecting an objective reality, while the story teaches that the laws of ritual purity and impurity do not reflect any objective reality, though they certainly create a halakhic reality. At the very beginning of his discussion of the laws of ritual purity and impurity, Maimonides indicates that the context of this discussion is the sacrificial cult.
Jews and Non-Jews
Authors: Kellner Menachem
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores the difference between Jews and non-Jews. One of the first Jewish thinkers to emphasize that the distinction resides in a property shared by Jews and lacking in non-Jews is Judah Halevi; he called this property the amr al-ilahi. Halevi was also the first to teach the doctrine that Jews by birth are innately superior to non-Jews. Maimonides rejected Halevi's position. In his eyes, human beings are human beings; there are not different species of human beings. He is, perhaps, the most consistent universalist in medieval Judaism. This universalism is, from a contemporary perspective, bought at a high price: profound intellectual elitism. In order to understand Maimonides' position on these matters, one must glance at his theory of the soul. According to Maimonides, human beings are born with differing capacities to learn and to know; to the extent that human beings actualize that capacity by learning abstract truths, they have actual intellects — they have thus actually acquired an intellect. The chapter then considers the question of who an Israelite is.
Contemporary Resistance to the Maimonidean Reform
Authors: Kellner Menachem
Published: February 2021

This afterword looks at the contemporary resistance to the Maimonidean reform. Anyone familiar with contemporary Jewish life, especially within Orthodoxy, will see immediately that the Maimonidean reform described in this book has failed to take hold. In addition to the seven specific issues addressed here — the nature of halakhah; distinctions between holy and profane and ritually pure and ritually impure; the character of the Hebrew language; the notion of kavod/shekhinah/created light; the distinction between Jew and non-Jew; and the existence of angels as popularly understood — Maimonides also sought to reform the curriculum of Jewish learning. In each of these areas, he sought to transform the Judaism of his day, and in each of these areas, Judaism continued to develop as if Maimonides had never existed and never written. However, in contrast to the items in this list, there are areas in which Maimonides' influence has been decisive. He succeeded in convincing almost all Jews that the God of Judaism is entirely incorporeal. He also convinced subsequent generations of Jews that the Jewish religion has a firm dogmatic base.
How Jewish is Jewish History?
Authors: Rosman Moshe
Published: February 2021

This book treats the key questions that postmodernism raises for the writing of Jewish history. What is the relationship between Jewish culture and history and those of the non-Jews among whom Jews live? Can we — in the light of postmodernist thought — speak of a continuous, coherent Jewish People, with a distinct culture and history? What in fact is Jewish cultural history, and how can it be written? How does gender transform the Jewish historical narrative? How does Jewish history fit into the multicultural paradigm? Has Jewish history entered a postmodern phase? How can Jewish history utilize the methodologies of other disciplines to accomplish its task? All these are questions that Jewish historians need to think about. While engaging with the questions raised by postmodernists, the book adopts a critical stance towards their work. The book's basic claim is that it is possible to incorporate, judiciously, postmodern innovations into historical scholarship that is still based on documentary research and critical analysis. The resulting endeavour might be termed ‘a reformed positivism’. The book presents an argument as to what considerations must be brought to bear on the writing of Jewish history today. By highlighting the issues raised by postmodernism, the book provides those in the field with a foundation from which to discuss how it should be practiced in light of this generation's challenges.
Kabbalistic Culture of Eighteenth-century Prague
Authors: Flatto Sharon
Published: February 2021

Kabbalah played a surprisingly prominent and far-reaching role in eighteenth-century Prague. This book uncovers the centrality of this mystical tradition for Prague's influential Jewish community and its pre-eminent rabbinic authority, Ezekiel Landau, chief rabbi from 1754 to 1793. A rabbinic leader who is best known for his halakhic responsa collection the Noda biyehudah, Landau is generally considered a staunch opponent of esoteric practices and public kabbalistic discourse. This book challenges this portrayal, exposing the importance of Kabbalah in his work and thought and demonstrating his novel use of teachings from diverse kabbalistic schools. It also identifies the historical events and cultural forces underlying his reluctance to discuss Kabbalah publicly, including the rise of the hasidic movement and the acculturation spurred by the 1781 Habsburg Toleranzpatent. The book offers the first systematic overview of the eighteenth-century Jewish community of Prague, and the first critical account of Landau's life and writings, which continue to shape Jewish law and rabbinic thought to this day. Extensively examining Landau's rabbinic corpus, as well as a variety of archival and published German, Yiddish, and Hebrew sources, the book provides a unique glimpse into the spiritual and psychological world of eighteenth-century Prague Jewry. By unravelling and exploring the many diverse threads that were woven into the fabric of Prague's eighteenth-century Jewish life, the book offers a comprehensive portrayal of rabbinic culture at its height in one of the largest and most important centres of European Jewry.
Introduction
Authors: Flatto Sharon
Published: February 2021

PARADOXICALLY, while various modernizing and mystical movements threatened to undermine Prague’s traditional values at the end of the eighteenth century, kabbalah remained an integral aspect of the city’s thriving traditional rabbinic culture. Kabbalah influenced the thought, and, at times, the practices of Prague Jews, whose distinguished institutions, including their academies and court system, were administered according to the principles of halakhah and largely devoted to halakhic study. Notably, many of the illustrious scholars who headed these legal and educational institutions, such as Landau, Eybeschütz, and Fleckeles, were deeply immersed both in the intricacies of halakhah and the esoteric lore of kabbalah....
Historiography, Personal History, and Folk Tales
Authors: Flatto Sharon
Published: February 2021

This chapter talks about Gershom Scholem as the pioneer of the academic study of Kabbalah during the twentieth century. It explores Scholem's portrayal of the rabbinate that retains some of the Wissenschaft biases and dialectical schematization of Jewish history that emphasizes Kabbalah as the creative force which opposes the rigidity of normative rabbinic Judaism. It also investigates the hagiographic studies of Ezekiel Landau and the thematic works made for him and his thought that de-emphasize or misconstrue the significance of Kabbalah in his writings. The chapter mentions Jekuthiel Kamelhar's Mofet hador and Aryeh Leib Gelman's The Noda Biyehudah and his Teaching, which allotted lines that recognize Landau's possessed knowledge of Kabbalah from his youth. It refers to Solomon Wind, who alleges that Landau's knowledge was merely an ornament to his wisdom.
Demons, the Soul, and the Afterlife
Authors: Flatto Sharon
Published: February 2021

This chapter traces Ezekiel Landau's Prague works that incorporate kabbalistic teachings related to the soul, such as gilgul neshamot and ibur. It reviews Landau's Prague homilies and commentaries that are replete with kabbalistic concepts concerning demonic spirits and the afterlife. It also investigates writings, other Prague sources, and recent research on popular Jewish and non-Jewish culture in pre-modern Europe, which reveal that the Jews of Prague were obsessed with notions concerning the satanic realm, the soul, and the idea that invisible demons cause suffering. The chapter recounts how the themes on demons and the afterlife played a prominent role in the spiritual life and outlook of Prague Jews in numerous eighteenth-century eastern and central European communities. It discusses Landau's mythic and daring remarks concerning the soul and the demonic that predicated his mystical understanding of these entities.
The Banished Consort: Theurgy and the Exiled Shekhinah
Authors: Flatto Sharon
Published: February 2021

This chapter deals with key kabbalistic motifs of the Shekhinah's exile and the theurgical role of the commandments that permeate Ezekiel Landau's writing. It looks at Landau's kabbalistic beliefs that led him to advance various theurgical and mystical forms of devotion. It also explains how Landau adopts elements of the ecstatic conception of kavanah, such as the intention of attaining devekut, which states that this mode of worship leads to this mystical ideal. The chapter reviews assertions made in Landau's studies in debates concerning the use of kavanot during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It explores several primary sources that attest to Landau's respect for general kabbalistic kavanot and the more esoteric Lurianic kavanot.
Conclusion
Authors: Flatto Sharon
Published: February 2021

This chapter depicts the efflorescence of Prague's rabbinic culture and the mystical character that animated it during the latter half of the eighteenth century. It demonstrates how traditional society flourished during Ezekiel Landau's tenure despite the dramatic political changes imposed on Prague Jews, beginning with Joseph II's Toleranzpatent of 1781. It also recounts how the Jewish community maintained its independent judiciary system, housed several academies of higher Jewish learning, and was home to over fifty prominent rabbinic figures. The chapter talks about Prague's rabbinic scholars who produced a wide range of writings, focusing primarily on talmudic, halakhic, and kabbalistic matters. It reviews Landau's several talmudic commentaries, numerous sermons, glosses on kabbalistic treatises, and a two-volume collection of responsa that immediately gained authoritative status.
Introduction
Authors: Malinovich Nadia
Published: February 2021

This chapter reviews the Jewish cultural innovation and self-definition in early twentieth-century France that highlights the complex and ambivalent nature of Jewish grappling with the issue of identity in the modern world. It cites French Jews that began to question how they should define Jewishness in a society where Jews enjoyed full political equality. It also talks about writers with Jewish identity who explore biblical themes, traditional Jewish folklore, and issues of identity and assimilation. The chapter looks at journals focusing on Jewish religion, history, and culture that came into being in France between 1900 and 1932. It explores the complex ways in which both 'Jewishness' and 'Frenchness' were renegotiated in the early twentieth century.
Setting the Stage: Jewish Identity in the Nineteenth Century and the Impact of the Dreyfus Affair
Authors: Malinovich Nadia
Published: February 2021

This chapter provides a background on Jewish social and cultural history in the nineteenth century and describes the complex impact of the Dreyfus affair on French Jewry. It looks at the first generations of post-revolutionary Jewish intellectuals and communal leaders that had been primarily concerned with promoting Jewish integration and acculturation. It also recounts how the emergence of ethnic nationalism and the modern antisemitic movement forced French Jews to negotiate between a commitment to universalist Enlightenment principles and the racialized discourses of identity. The chapter investigates the explosion of the Dreyfus affair that openly questioned Franco-Judaism and confronted the complexity of Jewish identity in the modern world head-on. It looks at the antisemitism in France, the affair prompted more sympathetic attitude towards Jews in French leftist circles.
Between Religion and Ethnicity: Zionism and Reform Judaism before the First World War
Authors: Malinovich Nadia
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on the beginnings of the Zionist movement and Reform Judaism in France. It provides a close study of the activities and publications of the Fédération Sioniste de France, which was created at the turn of the century that reveals French and east European cultural and political sensibilities. It suggests how Zionism may have had a broader influence on the outlook of French Jews even before the First World War. The chapter discusses the 1905 separation of church and state that paved the way for the founding of the first Reform congregation in France in 1907. It describes the modernization of Jewish liturgy and Jewish religious practice along the lines of the German and English Reform movements.
The First World War and the Shifting Landscape of French Jewry
Authors: Malinovich Nadia
Published: February 2021

This chapter highlights the impact of the First World War and the changes in French Jewish society that paved the way for the expansion of Jewish associational and cultural life in the 1920s. It discusses how the war marked an important moment at which antisemitism subsided and Jewish belonging to the French nation was confirmed. It also talks about how Jewish participation in the war helped to popularize the notion that Jews were no less French for proudly affirming their unique spiritual and cultural heritage. The chapter outlines the link between issues of Jewish identity and national minority rights at the 1919 Peace Conference, the growth of the Zionist movement, and increase in Jewish immigration from eastern Europe. It describes the diversity within French-speaking natives and impoverished, Yiddish-speaking immigrants.
Conclusion
Authors: Malinovich Nadia
Published: February 2021

This chapter reviews the process of Jewish self-questioning and cultural activity in France that began with the Dreyfus affair and reached its peak in the late 1920s. It recounts important changes in France and on the international stage that changed the priorities, concerns, and activities of French Jews in the mid-1930s. It also discusses the problem of antisemitism, which remained a relatively minor issue for French Jews in the 1920s and became a central concern in the 1930s. The chapter cites the advent of a virulently antisemitic dictatorship that enacted discriminatory legislation against Jews in western Europe, which sent shock waves through the French Jewish population. It talks about Action Française, which by the mid-1930s regularly sent hooligans and other right-wing political leagues, who had taken a decided turn towards antisemitism, into immigrant neighbourhoods.
Introduction: Life and Works
Authors: Feldman Seymour
Published: February 2021

This chapter ranges over a lot of philosophical and theological territory, such as Gersonides' treatment of divine cognition that takes up Maimonides' theory of divine attributes. It provides an introduction to the immortality of the soul, dreams, divination, and prophecy, divine cognition and divine providence, the heavenly domain, and the creation of the world. The chapter also discusses two subsidiary theological issues: miracles, which is connected with the creation of the world, and “testing the prophet.” It talks about Gersonides' philosophical project, which he shared with several medieval philosophers. The project emphasized that human happiness is the perfection of what it is to be human, namely, the perfection of the intellect.
Divine Providence
Authors: Feldman Seymour
Published: February 2021

This chapter analyzes questions about divine providence that have puzzled and perplexed not only philosophers and theologians but also the ordinary religious person throughout the ages. It gives insight as to whether God's care is universal or limited to certain kinds of creatures and to why divine providence seems to be arbitrarily distributed such that the righteous or the innocent suffer, whereas the wicked prosper. The general topic of providence is one of those questions where Greek philosophy and biblical religion come into contact, and in some cases confront each other with divergent points of view. In fact, it is an issue that is explicitly discussed in detail in one specific biblical book, the Book of Job, which may be considered to be the most philosophical book of the Bible. This chapter also mentions Plato who confronted an anonymous denier of divine providence by appealing to the perfection of the universe and the benevolence and omniscience of the gods.
Prophecy
Authors: Feldman Seymour
Published: February 2021

This chapter explains how prophets play an important role in Gersonides' theories of providence and miracles. As the recipient of the highest level of individual providence, the prophet receives information that is not only of benefit to himself but is also providential for the community to which he is sent. And as a crucial factor in the occurrence of miracles, the prophet appears to have a special role in those moments in human history when the normal routine seems to be annulled and something strange but providential occurs. This chapter describes how prophecy was an essential element in biblical religion and the very medium through which the Bible itself is revealed. It explains how prophetic utterances and messages in the Bible are not just forecasts, but prophets transmit an entire legal and religious system. This chapter mentions that in Maimonides' theological creed prophecy is listed as one of the Thirteen Principles of Faith.
Conclusion
Authors: Feldman Seymour
Published: February 2021

This chapter mentions German philosopher Immanuel Kant who wrote a treatise entitled Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone where he defended the thesis of the autonomy of philosophical ethics and the inherent rationality of the laws of morality. On the basis of this principle, Kant concluded that if religion is to be admitted as a legitimate mode of thought and practice it would have to be measured by reason. It explains Kant's further conclusions that among the three historical faiths: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, only Christianity in its Protestant form came close to satisfying the rational and moral conditions that reason and morality prescribe. The chapter also talks about the Jewish neo-Kantian philosopher Hermann Cohen who accepted for the most part Kant's general conception of a religion of reason but rejected his judgement concerning Judaism. In Cohen's last important work, The Religion of Reason out of the Sources of Judaism, he attempted to show the essential rationality of Judaism and its foundation in the moral law.
Yiddish in the Aftermath: Speech Community and Cultural Continuity in Displaced Persons Camps
Authors: Isaacs Miriam
Published: February 2021

This chapter looks at the experience of survivors in displaced persons (DP) camps as a cultural anomaly, when Yiddish language and literature formed the basis for cultural continuity in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Jews in the DP camps produced a number of Yiddish publications whose aim was to renew Jewish cultural life. But even as the camp setting fostered the use of Yiddish as a lingua franca, survivors recognized that the role of the language and its culture was changing. Despite the efforts of Yiddishist writers and cultural activists to sustain it, Yiddish stood at a critical juncture: the debate over the adoption of a common language to unify Jewish civilization was not new, but in the DP camps it set the stage for the future development of Jewish culture. The chapter then explores the Yiddish DP camp publications to interpret the choices and loyalties that shaped the language practices of the time and the policies the intelligentsia of the camps articulated. It looks, first, at factors internal to the DP camps and, second, at external factors influencing language use, especially political and Zionist organizations and agencies.
‘National Dignity’ and ‘Spiritual Reintegration’: The Discovery and Presentation of Jewish Folk Music in Germany
Authors: Nemtsov Jascha
Published: February 2021

This chapter details how Jewish folk music was presented as high art to concert audiences in early twentieth-century Germany and how that strategy was criticized. In January of 1901, the first issue of the journal Ost und West (East and West) appeared in Berlin. It served as the most important organ of cultural Zionism for the next two decades, and, as its title suggests, it attempted to bridge the cultural divide between east and west European Jews with the aim of creating an ethnic nationalist goal. The first issue contained, among other things, an article by the renowned Jewish philosopher Martin Buber entitled ‘Jewish Renaissance’ — a term that was to characterize this movement. Critical to this renaissance was the establishment of a common spirit binding a modern nation. Although based in Germany, the leaders of the movement envisioned that this spirit would be found in the ‘authentic folk’ of eastern Europe and the ethno-poetry of the folk song. The chapter then uncovers the often overlooked story of these leaders, particularly Leo Winz and Fritz Mordechai Kaufmann, and the significance of their renaissance movement for modern Jewish thought and culture.
Every Wise Woman Shoppeth for her House: The Sisterhood Gift Shop and the American Jewish Home in the Mid-Twentieth Century
Authors: Zollman Joellyn Wallen
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the synagogue sisterhood gift shops that arose during the 1950s in the United States. It focuses on these gift shops as retailers of the ‘Jewish Home Beautiful’ — official, synagogue-endorsed emporiums of American Jewish domestic life. From their founding in 1948 through their heyday in the 1950s and early 1960s, synagogue gift shops served as the main outlets — and in many smaller cities and towns, the only local outlet — for the purchase of Jewish home goods. They also sold the reigning sisterhood philosophy of home observance, which espoused the creation of a modern American Jewish style. Tracing the history of the shops, paying particular attention to the sisterhood staff and strategy, the shoppers, and the stock, this chapter demonstrates the key role that gift shops played in defining and supporting American Jewish home observance. Furthermore, the location of these gift shops in the synagogue and their concerns about what to have and do at home signalled a discourse about the relation of home to synagogue and the redefinition of Jewish heritage in the wake of the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel.
Samuel Rawet’s Wandering Jew: Jewish-Brazilian Monologues of Home and Displacement
Authors: Bines Rosana Kohl
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the wandering Jew motif outside its usual European centre in an analysis of Samuel Rawet's fiction of home and displacement in Brazil. In the tales written by this Brazilian Jewish writer, one can distinctly hear the struggle between incompatible ideas of ‘home’ and ‘away’, of ‘mother tongue’ and ‘foreign tongue’, of ‘Brazilianness’ and ‘Jewishness’. The diaspora experience is never a happy celebration of deracination or an exercise in the freedom of unattachment. There is little room for mystification here. Hence, this chapter seeks to argue that his literature is a restless testimony to the risks of imagining home in a language not one's own.
At Home in the World
Authors: Kraemer David
Published: February 2021

This chapter is a response to the previous chapter's assumption that the development of Jews at home as an emotional concept is new by mining rabbinical sources to find precedent in Jewish tradition. Though it does not dismiss the arguments already made, the chapter asserts that the previous might be built upon too short-term a view of Jewish history. For most of the examples called upon to illustrate or bolster the previous chapter's arguments, here there are analogous historical examples that work to strengthen Judaism and the community of adherents. In fact, the lesson of Jewish history, and particularly of the rabbinic age, is that Jews should not inhibit themselves because of the fear of ultimate failure, because stasis itself could lead to stagnation and even death. It is today recognized by most historians of the period that the rabbis were originally a very small group. This means that, early on, their practices took centuries to become ‘traditional’. The chapter contends that it is arguably the rabbis' combining of the inherited with the boldly innovative that enabled Jews living in an age of challenge and frequent discomfort to survive as Jews into the coming era.
The Last Word: A Response
Authors: Joselit Jenna Weissman
Published: February 2021

This concluding chapter challenges the reader to think analytically about ‘postmodern Jewish life’ as it unfolds globally. It is also a response to chapters 11 to 14 even as it explores the patterns of Jewish culture as they occur across multiple continents. Here, the chapter asserts that the history of Judaism or, for that matter, that of Yiddishkeit more generally, is one of constant change. Furthermore, it considers that it might be worthwhile to entertain the smallest possibility that some changes represent a difference of degree while others represent a difference of kind. Further musings on what it means to be Jewish in different contexts (especially outside of America) are also contemplated, as the chapter considers what the futures of these non-American Jewries might be.
The Sources
Authors: Lasker Daniel J.
Published: February 2021

This chapter presents the sources of the arguments which are the components of the Jewish philosophical critique of Christianity in the Middle Ages. The one genre of literature in which most of these contentions are located is the polemic. The Jewish polemical works exhibit great diversity both in method of argumentation and in style. According to Joseph ben Shem Tov, there are six types of polemical treatises. The first, and by far the largest, category contains works which dealt primarily with the exegesis of the Hebrew Bible. The other categories include the exegesis of rabbinic literature; attacks on Christianity; comparisons of Christian doctrines with the New Testament; attacks on the articles of Christianity; and comparisons of Christianity with the Principles of Philosophy. Jewish polemicists also employed a variety of forms in which to place their polemics. The most common forms were the dialogue or disputation; the expository treatise, following either the biblical or a topical arrangement; the poem; the letter; and the parody. The chapter then looks at other sources of Jewish philosophical arguments, such as biblical commentaries, mysticism, and legal works. It also considers the sources of Christian polemics.
Introduction
Authors: Cohen Jeremy
Published: February 2021

This chapter investigates the idea of the 'Jewish contribution' that was borne on Jews, non-Jews, and the interaction between them in modern times, from the seventeenth century to the present. It determines what role 'Jewish contribution' has played in 'Jewish self-definition' and how it has influenced the political, social, and cultural history of the Jews. It also discusses the biblical heritage that Jews, Christians, and Muslims share that highlights the people of the book and the impact of biblical monotheism on the history of religions. The chapter looks at the survival of the Jews as a distinct ethnic group and a multinational religious community that wrestles with the phenomenon to understand the reasons for their survival. It mentions the tragedy of the Nazi Holocaust and the re-establishment of the Jewish state in its wake that piqued the curiosity of the world.
Discourses of Civilization: The Shifting Course of a Modern Jewish Motif
Authors: Myers David N.
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on 'Jewish civilization', in which the term served the interests of Jewish intellectuals far better when counterpoised against the German Romantic notion of a distinct national culture. It probes the significance of 'civilization' at several key rhetorical moments during the last two hundred years. It also recounts the event when German Jews endeavoured to reach a high standard of civilization through concerted self-cultivation and social integration in the early nineteenth century. The chapter talks about European Jews who applied their own standards of 'civilization' to other 'oriental' Jews. It describes the years between the Great Depression and the outbreak of the Second World War, when Mordecai Kaplan equated Jewish peoplehood and civilization.
From Counterculture to Subculture to Multiculture: The ‘Jewish Contribution’ Then and Now
Authors: Rosman Moshe
Published: February 2021

This chapter analyses the survey of the 'Jewish contribution' discourse that extends to the twenty-first century. It discusses the academic disparagement of the study of the Jewish contribution and the regnant values of multiculturalism that have offered the idea of new life and possibilities. It also considers how Jews are constructed as an allegory, metaphor, or trope that represents all the people who sinned against modern Western civilization. The chapter explains the subject of the 'Jewish contribution to civilization', which refers to a certain variety of Jewish apologetic rejoinder to the modern antisemitism's denial of the reality of the full integration of Jews into European and American societies. It talks about the 'contribution discourse', which appeared after the formal success of the Jewish political emancipation project and the incubation of a high degree of Jewish acculturation to general European values and lifestyle.
Day of Gladness or Day of Madness? Modern Discussions of the Ancient Sabbath
Authors: Horowitz Elliott
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the sabbath, which serves as an illuminating test case for the dynamic and complexity of the 'Jewish contribution' debate. It reviews the works of Jewish apologists and religious reformers, the ideologically grounded investigations of a biblical precept, and the initiatives for ecumenical dialogue and cooperation between Christians and Jews. It also mentions the Galician-born and Vienna-educated historian named Salo Baron, who acknowledged that the obvious origin of the Jewish sabbath had been in ancient Babylonian astronomy. The chapter recounts how the sabbath was to be considered a Judaeo-Christian contribution to civilization despite its Babylonian origins. It refers to Cecil Roth, who published The Jewish Contribution to Civilisation and stated that the sabbath was included among the various gifts imparted by Baron to the civilized world.
From Sephardi to Oriental: The ‘Decline’ Theory of Jewish Civilization in the Middle East and North Africa
Authors: Schroeter Daniel
Published: February 2021

This chapter reveals that the 'orientalism' of European Jewish scholars was more than one dimensional. It discusses Western Jewish historians from Heinrich Graetz to Shlomo Dov Goitein who typically cast Islam as more tolerant and more enlightened than Christianity, facilitating the unique Judaeo-Arabic cultural symbiosis that nourished the 'golden age' of Spanish Jewry. It also recounts the wake of the Spanish Jewish expulsion in 1492, when oriental Jewry embarked upon a cultural decline. The chapter investigates this 'rise and decline' model of Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewry while revealing questions about the Eurocentric character of the 'contribution discourse'. It reviews the biological argument on the ideal Sephardi type that was adopted to counter antisemitic charges of Jewish degeneracy.
From Admission Ticket to Contribution: Remarks on the History of an Apologetic Argument
Authors: Shavit Yaacov
Published: February 2021

This chapter probes the delicate balance forged by nineteenth-century German-Jewish intellectuals between an array of desiderata. It analyses Jewish acculturation, Jewish participation and partnership in the culture of the enlightened Christian majority, as well as the retention of an essential Judaic character that is deemed superior and unique. The chapter identifies the heroes of Shavit's story that envisioned neither Nazism nor the Final Solution, in which Shavit wonders if their endeavour proved a vain waste of the Jews' cultural vitality and productivity and a disastrous self-delusion. It talks about the renewal of German-Jewish culture and the birth of German-Jewish Studies as an academic discipline in post-war Germany.
Conclusion
Authors: Naimark-Goldberg Natalie
Published: February 2021

This concluding chapter explains that by listening to female voices rather than focusing exclusively on male historical sources, it has been possible to show that the enlightened Jewish women discussed in this book were neither simple bystanders in the enlightened world of their time nor mere mediators who facilitated the cultural activity of men. The ample evidence presented clearly positions these women as both agents of culture and creators of culture: as intellectuals in their own right. These Jewish women turned their own critical eyes on the social, cultural, and at times political reality around them, and drew on basic principles of the Enlightenment to support their claim to the right to participate, as women, in the advancement of public reason. In this spirit, they applied gender criticism to the dominant discourse, calling into question the social and cultural norms that constrained women's lives, scrutinizing even the patriarchal institution of marriage, in extreme cases to the point of undermining its foundations. Ultimately, the Enlightenment was not only an influence on the cultural world of these women, it is revealed as a vital element in understanding their thought and actions. The chapter then presents a comparison between this group of women and the maskilim, and also with nineteenth-century maskilot and Jewish female intellectuals.
Transnationalism and Mutual Influence
Authors: Soyer Daniel
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores the interdependence of American and east European Jewish communities during the inter-war years of the twentieth century. It talks about social historians and historians of immigration who have allowed the Americanization of the east European Jewish immigrant to the United States. It also tackles the impact on the culture and self-consciousness of immigrant communities in the New World. The chapter provides a transnational perspective on the ways in which migrants negotiate complex interactions across borders and develop an identity that transcends those of both host and home society. It looks at categories of emigrant and immigrant that need to be replaced or counterbalanced by transnational migrants, who 'participate in two societies in two places at once'.
Poverty and Welfare Among the Portuguese Jews in Early Modern Amsterdam
Authors: Levie-Bernfeld Tirtsah
Published: February 2021

Early modern Amsterdam was a prosperous city renowned for its relative tolerance, and many people hoping for a better future, away from persecution, wars, and economic malaise, chose to make a new life there. Conversos and Jews from many countries were among them, attracted by the reputed wealth and benevolence of the Portuguese Jews who had settled there. Behind the facade of prosperity, however, poverty was a serious problem. It preoccupied the leadership of the Portuguese Jewish community and influenced its policy on admitting newcomers. This book looks at poverty and welfare from the perspective of both benefactors and recipients. The book analyses benefactors' motives for philanthropy and charts its dimensions; it also examines the decision-making processes of communal bodies and private philanthropists, identifying the cultural influences that shaped their commitment to welfare. At the same time the book succeeds in bringing the poor to life: it examines what brought them to Amsterdam, aspects of their daily life in the petitions they sent to the different welfare institutions, and the survival strategies offered by work, education, and charity. The book also considers the related questions of social mobility and the motivation of the poor for joining the Amsterdam Portuguese community, and finally, to the small but active groups of Sephardi bandits who formed their own clandestine networks. Special attention is paid to poor women, who were often singled out for relief. In this way the book makes a much-needed contribution to the study of gender, in Jewish society and more generally.
The Daily Life of the Poor
Authors: Bernfeld Tirtsah Levie
Published: February 2021

This chapter highlights the various aspects of the daily lives of the poor. In Amsterdam, the poor among the Portuguese Jewish community ranged from the highly educated to the illiterate. On the one hand there were those whose sense of honour debarred them from asking for poor relief, and on the other there were those described as inveterate beggars. There were men and women; large, complete families and fragmented units; and there were people left completely on their own. Some were healthy or young or both, others old or sick or both, with all sorts of variations between them. Many applied for poor relief no more than occasionally; others relied permanently on outside help. The poor relief provided by the Portuguese community constituted no more than a supplement to income from work, private funds, and legacies, and help from friends, relatives, private charity, and other sources. Sephardi Jews who had no access to these sources, or who missed out in other ways, found themselves forced to seek their fortune elsewhere sooner or later.
Epilogue
Authors: Bernfeld Tirtsah Levie
Published: February 2021

This chapter identifies the most important characteristics of poverty and welfare among the Portuguese community of early modern Amsterdam. One remarkable feature of the poor in the Amsterdam Portuguese milieu is the prominence of women, until recently hardly considered. The reasons for this were manifold: as a key group in the effort to perpetuate Jewish tradition in the peninsula, women were consistently persecuted by the Inquisition and many fled in fear of it, as well as out of the desire to live openly as Jews. Also, economic opportunities for men outside the Dutch Republic led to many women being left on their own in the city, dependent on welfare. The poor relief provided by the Portuguese community was not exceptionally generous, at least when judged by Amsterdam standards, nor was it granted permanently to all poor people. The system was hierarchical and elitist, presided over by a closed, wealthy caste who ran a strict regime. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the Amsterdam Portuguese community had lost its international attraction as a place of refuge.
The First Two Positive Divine Commandments
Authors: Davidson Herbert A.
Published: February 2021

This chapter takes the 613 commandments believed to have been given to Moses at Sinai as a starting point. It introduces four writers who have engaged with the commandments prior to Maimonides: Samuel ben Hofni, Hefets ben Yatsliah, Bahya ibn Pakuda, and Abraham Ibn Ezra. The chapter goes on to analyse Maimonides' accounts of the 613 commandments. Indeed, of all the attempts that have been made to identify the 613 commandments of the Law, his is by far the most widely studied and copied. Commentaries on it and adaptations of it are still being written. More to the point for this chapter, lists of the commandments subsequent to Maimonides, and there are well over a hundred, consistently list affirmation of the existence and the unity of God as positive commandments and identify ‘I am the Lord thy God’ and ‘Hear O Israel’ as the verses in which they are embodied. Although Maimonides was not the first to take the position, it was he who propagated it.
A Problematic Sentence in Moreh nevukhim, ii. 24
Authors: Davidson Herbert A.
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines a certain passage in Maimonides' Moreh nevukhim. This sentence could, if read in a certain way, serve to support the thesis that Maimonides rejected the possibility of man's acquiring metaphysical knowledge. The sentence comes at the culmination of a series of carefully reasoned arguments that are the backbone of the philosophical strand in the Moreh nevukhim. After describing the sentence in question, the chapter presents some solutions to the problem it presents. It offers an explanation made by Samuel Ibn Tibbon, who conjectures that a few words have fallen out of the Arabic text but he merely suggests what the sense of the words would have been and not necessarily what they were. The chapter also offers some other proposed solutions.
Samuel Ha-Nagid
Authors: Goldstein David
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses the poetry of Samuel ha-Nagid. Samuel ha-Levi hen Joseph ibn Nagrela was born in Cordoba in 993. After the invasion of the North African Berbers in 1013, he was forced to leave Cordoba, which was sacked, and he settled in Malaga, which was, at this time, part of the Berber province of Granada. The story goes that, while in Malaga, his skill as an Arabic calligraphist came to the attention of the vizier Abu al-Kasim ibn al-Arif, and he was appointed the latter’s private secretary. Before the vizier died, he recommended Samuel to Habbus, king of Granada, who made him vizier in 1027. The Jews henceforth called him Nagid (Prince) as a mark of his eminence within the Jewish community. Samuel was, at one and the same time, poet, rabbi, statesman, and general, and distinguished in each one of these fields. His poems are some of the finest in the whole range of Hebrew literature, and his expertise in the elucidation of Biblical and rabbinic literature was acknowledged by all. His poems are noteworthy for the way in which he was able to inform the artificiality and occasional preciosity of construction with deep and obviously sincere content. Ultimately, his long martial poems are unique in the poetic output of the Spanish Jews.
Bibliography
Authors: Goldstein David
Published: February 2021

Salaman, Nina, Selected Poems of Jehuda Halevi, 1924.

Solis-Cohen, Selected Poems of Moses ibn Ezra, 1923.

Zangwill, Israel, Selected Religious Poems of Solomon ibn Gabirol, 1923. (These three form part of the Schiff Library of Jewish Classics, Philadelphia).

Lucas, Alice, The Jewish Year, Routledge, 1926....
Storytelling as Midrashic Discourse in the Middle Ages
Authors: Yassif Eli
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes the phenomenon of storytelling as midrashic discourse in the Middle Ages. It connects Midrash to biblical exegesis, expositions of verses, and public study that are well known and accepted in one version or other since the beginning of the scholarly study of Midrash. Midrash is virtually unique in Jewish culture for its unbroken continuity from antiquity to the Middle Ages. In the Midrash's transition from the rabbinic period to later times, the genre was reinvigorated and developed in new and fascinating directions. The chapter also highlights Isaac Heinemann's book, ‘Darkhei ha'agadah’. In his book, Heinemann borrows the anthropological model of ‘organic thinking’, which in his view characterizes rabbinic interpretative mentality.
Compassionate Conservatism
Authors: Meier Deborah
Published: February 2021

This chapter reflects on teaching democracy. The twin capacities of open-minded intelligence and empathy in human beings make the idea of democracy fragile but not utopian; feasible for the long haul if we do not depend too much on luck but rely instead on nourishing both minds and emotions. As long as education remains a topic rarely discussed jointly by practitioners and ‘intellectuals’, much less ordinary citizens, it seems unlikely that schools will be used to pass on the democratic idea. And, as this chapter asserts, schools are not quite effective at passing on plain practical smarts, either. During a time when children are bursting with energy, intelligence, and capacity for learning, the chapter asserts that much of it is spent on boring the majority of them to death and systematically disengaging them from their native intelligence and compassion.