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Martin Buber’s Small Theological–Political Tractate The Question to the Single One as a Call for Intersubjective Action Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-09-14 Yael Cherniak
Martin Buber saw The Question to the Single One (his small theological–political tractate) as an addition that completed his dialogical work I and Thou by broadening dialogical thought to the theological–political–social level. This article presents new findings regarding the tractate’s composition. Furthermore, it delves into the concealed depth of meaning behind Buber’s argument with Søren Kierkegaard
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An Ambivalent Turn: The Changing Image of the Talmud Among Twentieth-Century German-Jewish Intellectuals Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-09-09 Zohar Maor
This essay explores the attitudes of five prominent German-speaking intellectuals, active in the early twentieth century, to the Talmud: Martin Buber, Max Brod, Shmuel Hugo Bergmann, Franz Rosenzweig, and Gershom Scholem. All were central and influential figures in the turn to irrationalism that characterized this period whose discovery of Kabbalah and Hasidism is well documented. However, this essay
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Piety, Purity, and Pain: The Head Shaving Ritual for Women In Ultra-Orthodox Communities and Its Underlying Concept of Halachah Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-22 Iris Brown
Within the Hungarian and Galician Hasidic communities, women customarily shave their heads shortly before their weddings. Henceforth, they meticulously adhere to this practice, preserving a shorn appearance throughout the duration of their married lives. This practice has long stood at the center of a halachic and quasi-halachic discourse. An analysis of the arguments presented reveals that the halachic
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Beyond Hasidism: Tracing the Cultural Legacies of Israel Ba’al Shem Tov Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-16 Elly Moseson
While Israel Ba’al Shem Tov (the Besht) is traditionally considered the founder of Hasidism, modern scholarship has shown that the Hasidic movement emerged only in the decades following his death. This image of the Besht as the founder of Hasidism poses significant challenges in assessing his impact both during his lifetime and independently of the movement. This study seeks to extricate him from the
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The Human Being as the Image of God Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-16 Irving (Yitz) Greenberg
This is a theological exposition of the biblical statement that the human being is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). The treatment concludes that this affirmation is the clal gadol, the foundational principle of the whole Torah (as Ben Azzai says, Talmud Yerushalmi, Nedarim, ch. 9, h. 4). There are four dimensions to the image of God: (1) Intrinsic dignities—that all human beings (no matter
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Religious-Zionist Right-Wing Israelis: Their Expectations of Archeological Research in Judea and Samaria and Their Ways of Contending with the Resulting Complicated Findings Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-19 Mordechay Lash
The encounter between West Bank settlers and the archeologists who came to survey and excavate in their midst at the beginning of the 1980s was a formative moment that led to the settlers’ embrace of the field of archeology. The findings of the surveys and excavations that were conducted in the region, however, raised new insights regarding the early years of the Jewish People and the historical reliability
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Between Safed and Vienna: Chajim Bloch’s The Memoires of the Kabbalist Vital Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-17 Boaz Huss
In 1927, a small book titled Lebenserinnerungen des Kabbalisten Vital (The Memoires of the Kabbalist Vital) was published in Vienna. Its author was Chajim Bloch (1881–1973), a Rabbi, independent scholar, translator, author, and erstwhile forger. The book includes a German rendition of Sefer ha-Hezyonot (The Book of Visions), the memoirs and dream diary of the famous 16th century Kabbalist Hayyim Vital
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The Holocaust as An (UN)Exceptional Phenomenon: Development and Change in the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Outlook Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-09 Daniel Reiser
This article examines the evolution and transformation in the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s perspective concerning the Holocaust. It traces the Rebbe’s viewpoint on the Holocaust by analyzing his various insights and observations in his sermons and writings over the years, and highlights a significant shift in his stance whereby he reached the conclusion that the Holocaust is exceptional and does not fall into
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From the American Jewish Conference to the Establishment of Israel: The First Jewish Zionist Grassroots Movement and President Truman Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-08 Kobby Barda
During the period from 1943 to 1948, the American Jewish grassroots movement organized to pressure Congress and President Truman in support of the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This effort was led by Jewish leaders such as Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, who worked to promote the Zionist vision of a Jewish state as proclaimed in the Balfour Declaration and endorsed by the San Remo Conference
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A FORTY-YEAR-OLD CAMPAIGN: ANNE FRANK’S DIARY AND THE HOLOCAUST DENIERS, 1958–1998 Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-10-26 Dina Porat
On December 9, 1998, the Dutch court in Amsterdam ruled Anne Frank’s diary to be authentic, and that anyone who cast doubt on its authenticity was breaking the law and would be fined. This article examines the ongoing battle between those who view themselves as charged with the legacy of the diary and the Holocaust deniers; it also examines the methods used by the latter and their possible influence
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Are You My Rabbi? Yitz Greenberg’s Intellectual Biography in Kuhnian Terms Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-10-17 Netta Schramm
This article considers Rabbi Yitz Greenberg’s version of open orthodoxy and its development. Greenberg initially framed his theological journey as a “paradigm shift.” Archival materials from “before” and “during” this theological breakdown are discussed, and a fine-tuning of Greenberg’s narrative is suggested. The article demonstrates how overemphasizing what changed in Greenberg’s views misses the
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Elie Wiesel and A Legacy of (Post-)Witnessing Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-06-19 Christin Zühlke
This article explores how the relationship between a victim/survivor in a Shoah testimony and the audience (e.g., the listener, reader, or scholar) is shaped by the account, and inquires how the relationships may evolve when there are no survivors left. I argue that survivor testimonies pass the role of witness to the audience, thus intertwining the processes of witnessing (i.e., experienced by a victim
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Cooperation, Integration, and Assimilation: Abba Hillel Silver, Emanuel Neumann, The Lowdermilk Plan, and The Arab Question in the Forties Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-06-16 Zohar Segev
The growing power of the U.S., of U.S. Jewry, and of the U.S. Zionist movement was a major factor that impacted Zionist policy during the 1940s. During this period, U.S. Zionists sought to bring their influence to bear on the fundamental problems that the Zionist movement confronted during the war and thereafter. The Arab issue featured prominently in these efforts. While engaging with the questions
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Virtuality: A Theory of Digital Judaism(s) Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-06-12 Peter Margolis
Digital media enable new possibilities in Jewish life and lived religion. This “digital Judaism” combines elements of Jewish tradition with the capabilities to create, modify, and transform digital objects in novel ways. It builds on American media history and has been greatly accelerated in response to the exigencies of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–2021. The Internet as a form of media functions
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Meyer Schapiro, The Jewish Museum, and Living Artists: A Scholar’s Overlooked Activism Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-06-10 Jeffrey Abt
Meyer Schapiro was among a handful of New York’s most prominent Jewish thinkers writing about modern art during the post-Second World War period, just as the international center of new art had shifted there from Paris. Unlike his contemporaries Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg, however, Schapiro is thought to have “seldom” or only “subliminally” addressed questions of Jewish identity, suggesting
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Hasbara revisited: israel, the new left, and diaspora jewry, 1967–1973 Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-06-10 Tal Elmaliach
In the years between 1967 and 1973, the younger generation of Diaspora Jewry in the West was torn between its sympathy for the State of Israel and its identification with New Left politics and ideology. In response, Israel conducted a wide-ranging campaign of Hasbara—the Hebrew word for explaining the justice of the Israeli and Zionist cause—to this cohort in order to gain its support. Until now, scholarship
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To Hell and Back: The 1968 Asian cup finals as a test case for Iran–Israel relations Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-03-18 Or Hareuveny, Yehuda U Blanga
In May 1968, Iran and Israel’s national football teams met in the final match of that year’s Asian Cup. While for the Israelis it was a confrontation in the sports arena, the Iranians saw the game differently: “The general public treats the event as a [national] confrontation, and in its mind are blended elements of a test of force between a Muslim country and Israel,” reported the Israeli delegation
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Chastening Germany: Graetz’s Lusty Jew And Asexual Jewess As Semitic Saviors Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-03-18 Alexandra Zirkle
Heinrich Graetz (1817–1891), the famous historian and biblical exegete, penned his commentary to the Song of Songs in 1871 to counter rising antisemitism fueled by racialized fantasies of Jewish gender and sexuality. Graetz contested antisemitic tropes of Jewish masculinity and femininity by reconfiguring the Song of Songs, this most blatantly erotic book of scripture, as a testament to and celebration
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“Judea Declares War on Britain”: The Impact of American Jewish Anti-Nazi Protests on the Struggle for a Jewish State, 1945–1948 Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-03-18 Stephen H Norwood
American Jews’ mass protests against Nazi antisemitism, begun soon after Hitler assumed power, provided a major impetus to, and model for, the post–World War II drive to establish a Jewish state. This postwar agitation had a considerable impact because, after the Holocaust, the Jewish population in the United States far exceeded that of any other country. The mass demonstrations of 1945–1948 were as
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Jewish Ethics of Shaming in the Age of Corona Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-03-18 Tsuriel Rashi
By early 2020, COVID-19 was spreading around the world. In many countries, efforts to stop the proliferation included quarantining sufferers and those around them, and in some cases even locking down entire civilian populations. A pandemic calls for personal responsibility with regard to obeying authorities’ instructions concerning social distancing, the wearing of masks, and self-isolation after exposure
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Satmar and Neturei Karta: Jews Against Zionism Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2023-03-18 Menachem Keren-Kratz
Throughout history, many Jewish laymen and rabbis have objected to the collective return of the Jews to the Land of Israel, particularly if it was motivated by nationalistic rather than religious reasons. They did so for many reasons, the most persistent of which relied on a religious rationale. Anti-Zionist stands were voiced by both ends of the religious spectrum: the radical Reform on the one hand
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Rabbi Shlomo Mashiah and His “Shirah”: Modern Immigration and Mystic Redemption Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-09-06 Hilda Nissimi
This article considers the ways traditional love of Zion was expressed through immigration in the Mashhadi community due to encounters with new phenomena like the Bukharan Jews’ immigration to the land of Israel, Russian and British imperialism, and early stirrings of Iranian nationalism and constitutionalism, as well as early Zionist activity in Palestine. It is viewed through the prism of a piyyut
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A Synagogue Center Grows in Tel Aviv: On Glocalization, Consumerism and Religion Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-09-05 Einat Libel-Hass, Adam S Ferziger
Alongside the ongoing dominance of Orthodox Judaism in Israel, novel liberal religious frameworks have emerged that seek to address the needs of various constituencies through innovative approaches to synagogue life. One of the most active and successful is the Reform “Beit-Daniel” in Tel- Aviv, Israel's urban epicenter. In this article, the institutional structure that emerged in Beit-Daniel is compared
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Books Received Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-02-08
Brady, Tim. Three Ordinary Girls: The Remarkable Story of Three Dutch Teenagers Who Became Spies, Saboteurs, Nazi Assassins—and WWII Heroes (Citadel/Kensington Books: New York, 2021).
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Contributors Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-02-08
YEHUDA BITTY is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Herzog Academic College, Israel. Previously, he acted as Coordinator of the School of Advanced Studies and head of the Jewish Education Philosophy Department. He teaches courses in the theoretical aspects of education (philosophy of education, education and postmodernism) and the history of Jewish education. His research combines the history of Jewish
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Victoria Aarons (ed.), The New Jewish American Literary Studies Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-02-08 Urdiales-Shaw M.
AaronsVictoria (ed.), The New Jewish American Literary Studies (Cambridge University Press, 2019). pp. xiii + 298. £75 hardback; ebook (Adobe Reader) $80.
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The Experience Of Prophecy in the Mystical Diaries of Rabbi David Kohen Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-12-21 Yehuda Bitty
This article seeks to direct attention to one unusual figure who provided his own interpretation of the renewal of prophecy during the generation of redemption (i.e., the success of Zionism and the creation of the State of Israel). Rabbi David Kohen (1887–1972), known as Ha-Nazir, the Nazirite, was the author of a book entitled Kol ha-Nevu’ah [The Voice of Prophecy]. His original thought combines philosophy
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What do we Mean by “Orthodox” Judaism? Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-12-20 Ezra A Margulies
Who qualifies as an “orthodox” Jew and what do we mean by “orthodox” Judaism? These are vexing questions, which rabbis, polemicists, academics, and laypeople alike have persistently confronted for the past 200 years. This article reexamines key historical episodes in this long-standing debate and unpacks the definitions of “orthodoxy” which emerge from them, but not with the view of establishing the
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Braided Challah Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-12-03 Zvi Ron
Braided bread for Shabbat, commonly referred to as challah (plural: challot), is the familiar and traditional form known to Ashkenazic Jews. While the challah itself takes on various shapes, and the number of strands varies, the braided appearance remains an essential and distinctive component of this bread. This defining characteristic of challah was adopted from the baking styles of the communities
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The Return of Biblical Theology: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and the Theological-Literary Movement Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-12-01 Alan Jotkowitz
Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, is probably the most important and well-known Jewish theologian of the twenty-first century. He believed passionately that Jewish values have relevance for all of mankind. What is somewhat surprising is the source of R. Sacks's theology. Orthodox Jewish theology has traditionally been anchored in either the perspective of Talmudic
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Contributors Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-09-25
SUZANNE BROOKS is Senior Doctoral Fellow and Initiatives Coordinator at the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University. She is a Ph.D. candidate, completing her dissertation on the fostering and assessment of educator dispositions in students enrolled in face-to-face and asynchronous online courses. Suzanne has over twenty-five years of teaching experience in
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Erratum Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-09-14
Erratum to: Bnei Noah: History, Theory and Practice and The Nation as Imperative: Cooperative Nationalism and the Idea of the State in Martin Buber and Hermann Cohen
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“The Secret of that Herb”: Mystical Smoking from Italian Sabbateanism to Hasidism Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-09-08 Tzvi Luboshitz
This article is dedicated to the notion of “mystical smoking” in Kabbalah and Hasidism. In spite of the fact that many researchers have dealt with the smoking habits of the Hasidim, the sources and meanings of this behavior have not yet been fully clarified. This paper will reexamine “mystical smoking” by reading some of the writings of R. Moshe David Valle, an eighteenth-century Italian kabbalist
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After Eighty Years of Slumber: The Rediscovery of Erich Neumann’s Jewish Corpus Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-08-19 Reuven Kruger
While Erich Neumann’s contributions to depth psychology and his celebrated Eranos lectures are well known, his Jewish writings from the 1930s have been hidden from public view for eighty years until their recent publication. This paper introduces three works that have sparked a renaissance of interest in Neumann as a Jewish thinker. These include a monograph, Jacob and Esau: On the Collective Symbolism
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Jewish Orthodoxy’s First Rabbinical Conference Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-08-10 Menachem Keren-Kratz
The early stages in the formation of the movement that would subsequently become known as Jewish Orthodoxy have been well researched. This article, however, reviews the circumstances around a specific episode, a rabbinical conference held in Paks, Hungary, in 1844. The review of this failed conference opens the door for a discussion on three key questions related to the understanding of Jewish Orthodoxy:
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The Role of Israel in American Haredi Life Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-08-01 Moshe Krakowski, Elana Riback Rand, Suzanne Brooks
This article examines the role of Israel in the daily lives of American haredim in both Yeshivish and Hasidic communities. Evidence drawn from over 25 interviews with yeshivish and hasidic lay leaders, school administrators, magazine publishers, and community members presents a nuanced portrait of attitudes toward, and ideologies regarding, the State of Israel. Although historically and sociologically
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Whatever Happened to Henri Bergson? Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-07-30 Stephen J Whitfield
In the early decades of the twentieth century, Henri Bergson (1859–1941) ranked among the world’s most eminent philosophers. His distinction between clock-time and time as subjectively experienced, as well as his invocation of the élan vital as driving humanity to higher planes of creativity and freedom, enabled him to enjoy unparalleled influence among French students as well as international writers
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Contributors Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-06-05
GOLDA AKHIEZER is an Associate Professor in the Department of Jewish History at Ariel University. Her research interests include: currents and movements in Judaism, Jewish intellectual history and historical thought, and the Haskalah movement. Her most recent book is Historical Consciousness, Haskalah, and Nationalism among the Karaites of Eastern Europe (2018).
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Stephen J. Whitfield, Learning on the Left: Political Profiles of Brandeis University Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-04-12 Dalin D.
Stephen J.Whitfield, Learning on the Left: Political Profiles of Brandeis University (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2020). pp. 582, Index. $40.00
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The Nation as Imperative: Cooperative Nationalism and the Idea of the State in Martin Buber and Hermann Cohen Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-03-19 Asher D Biemann
Imperatives, as Immanuel Kant observed, differ from laws. Laws set limits through coercion, whereas imperatives imagine infinity through freedom. What does it mean for the nation to be an imperative? Starting with the famous 1916 controversy on Zionism between the neo-Kantian philosopher Hermann Cohen and the philosopher of dialogue Martin Buber, this essay explores how Buber developed Cohen’s dialectic
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Expansion of Torah Study, Halachic Renewal, and the Religious Zionist Compendium Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-03-16 Asaf Yedidya
As part of the cultural revival that accompanied the Zionist revolution, important literary projects were created, providing ideological support for the Zionist project, enriching the newly revived Hebrew culture and redefining the Jewish bookshelf. Within this diverse cultural work, the project of the anthologies was formed. These projects were led at the beginning by disciples of Ahad Ha'am—the founder
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Books Received Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-01-17
Amar, Tarik Cyril, The Paradox of Ukrainian Lviv: A Borderland City between Stalinists, Nazis, and Nationalists (Cornell University Press: Ithaca, New York, 2019).
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Contributors Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-01-17
NATHAN COHEN is an Associate Professor at the Center for Yiddish Studies at Bar Ilan University, Israel. His research focuses on East European Jewish cultural history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and on modern Yiddish literature. His most recent book, Yiddish – the Linguistic Leap: from a Common Dialect to a Cultural and Literary Language (2020) [Hebrew], deals with the changing reading
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No More “Little Jews without Beards”: Insights into Yiddish Children’s Literature in Eastern Europe Prior to World War I1 Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-01-17 Cohen N.
AbstractThe first modern publications in Yiddish which were intended for young readers in Eastern Europe—either original works or translations from foreign languages—appeared at the turn of the twentieth century as the sporadic initiatives of a few writers. A more systematic literature for children in Yiddish started relatively late, and was linked to the developing Yiddish school system. A growing
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Placing the Blame for Covid-19 in and on Ultra-Orthodox Communities Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-01-17 Gilman S.
AbstractThe new coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, has resurrected a number of historical and sociological problems associated with blaming collectives for the origin or transmission of infectious disease. The default example of the false accusation has been the case of the fourteenth century charge of well poisoning against the Jews of Western Europe causing the pandemic of the Black Death. Yet querying
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Between Ancestry and Belief: “Judaism” and “Hinduism” in the Nineteenth Century Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-03-15 Leora Batnitzky
This article argues that thinking about disputed conceptions of religious conversion helps us understand the emergence of both Jewish and Indian nationalism in the nineteenth century. In today’s world, Hindu nationalism and Zionism are most often understood to be in conflict with various forms of Islamism, yet the ideological formations of both developed in the context of Christian colonialism and
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The Moment of Worldwide Renewal: Hillel Zeitlin and the Theosophical Activity in Warsaw 1917–1924 Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-03-11 Oz Bluman
This article examines the idiosyncratic conduct of the philosopher, journalist and mystic, Hillel Zeitlin (1871–1942). Both Zeitlin's writings and activities are unique or even strange when viewed against the backdrop of the Jewish streets of Warsaw during those years, even when considering other “neo-Hasidic” projects. He published poem-prayers and a personal-mystical diary, founded journals, called
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Bnei Noah: History, Theory, and Practice Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-03-04 Pinchas Polonsky, Golda Akhiezer
The concept of Bnei Noah originated in ancient times. Throughout history it has remained purely theoretical, however, in recent times, we are witnessing tentative steps towards its practical implementation. The Bnei Noah is an emerging movement in a variety of countries. As such, Noahism now has practical halakhic and social implications. Our research focuses on changes in perception of Bnei Noah in
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The Nuremberg Trial in Megillat Esther Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-01-20 Ron Z.
AbstractThere is a very popular teaching in Orthodox circles11 that the small letters found in the writing of the names of the sons of Haman in Megillat Esther are a reference to the year of the Nuremberg trials and the ten Nazis hanged at that time. In this article we will explore where this teaching originated, what it is based on, and what its message is understood to be.
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The Rise and Fall of Torah U’Madda* Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-12-22 Grossman L.
AbstractRabbi Norman Lamm, who assumed the presidency of Yeshiva University in 1976, sought to clarify the mission of the institution by using as its tagline the phrase Torah U'’Madda–denoting the dual aim of providing traditional Jewish study (Torah) along with a standard college curriculum (Madda, meaning knowledge). It would replace the word “Synthesis,” which generations of students, including
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“For the Letter Kills, but the Spirit Gives Life”: Halakha Versus Kabbalah in the Study of Jewish Mysticim1 Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-12-21 Huss B.
AbstractIn the 19th century, some Jewish scholars of the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement presented Kabbalah as the vital, spiritual and mystical aspect of Judaism, and juxtaposed it to legalistic, conservative, and petrified Halakha. Jewish neo-romantic and Zionist thinkers adopted this perception, which Christian Kabbalists and Hebraists first formulated in the Renaissance period. The assumption
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From Translation to Transmission: A Chapter in the Odyssey of Maurice Samuel Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-09-12 Alan T Levenson
Abstract A reassessment of Maurice Samuel (1895–1972), author, translator, polemicist, and Zionist is long overdue. One of the most productive and durable of the group dubbed by historian Carole Kessner as The “Other” New York Jewish Intellectuals, Samuel may be characterized as a public intellectual who was content with making his marks in primarily Jewish contexts and without the anxieties of alienation
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Halakhic Flexibility and Communal Unity: R. Marcus Horovitz and the Schächtfrage Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-09-12 Joseph A Skloot
Abstract Unlike his mentor, R. Esriel Hildesheimer, and his chief antagonist, R. Samson Raphael Hirsch, R. Marcus Horovitz, the “communal Orthodox rabbi” (orthodoxer Gemeinderabbiner) of Frankfurt am Main at the end of the nineteenth century, has received relatively little scholarly attention. Horovitz was both a creative halakhic mind and a passionate communal leader devoted to Jewish unity at a time
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Neolog: Reforming Judaism in a Hungarian Milieu Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-09-12 Howard Lupovitch
Abstract This article explores the mentality of Neolog Judaism and how its early proponents fashioned a centrist, non-ideological alternative to both Orthodoxy and German-Jewish style Reform Judaism, an alternative that emphasized Judaism’s inherent compatibility with and adaptability to the demands of citizenship. Early proponents of this Neolog mentality, such as Aron Chorin and Leopold Löw, argued
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A Late Nineteenth-Century Rabbinic Critique of the Status of Women in Judaism Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-09-12 Julia Schwartzmann
Abstract This article aims to show that long before the famous debate over women’s suffrage (1918–25), women’s alienation from significant parts of Judaism was a fact that was obvious to those in the Orthodox community who were ready to admit it. To prove this, I discuss the late nineteenth-century essay Netiv Moshe: Maamar Mehkari 'al Mishpat haNashim baEmunah (A Scholarly Enquiry into the Case of
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Irene Eber (ed.), Jewish Refugees in Shanghai 1933-1947: A Selection of Documents, Archive of Jewish History and Culture, v. 3 Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-08-28 Steve Hochstadt
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Four Paradigms of Legal Change: American Conservative Halachic Rulings on Women’s Roles in Synagogue Practice Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-05-01 Iddo Haklai
Abstract Conservative Judaism in North America has undergone significant changes over the last seventy years regarding the issue of women’s roles within the synagogue. A review of different halachic responsa addressing women’s participation in three central functions of public prayer—receiving aliyot to the Torah, leading public prayer, and being counted in the prayer quorum, the minyan—reveals four
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White Devils, Satanic Jews: The Nation of Islam From Fard to Farrakhan Modern Judaism (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-05-01 Stephen H Norwood,Eunice G Pollack
Abstract This article explores how the American white far right—including the Christian Front, Christian Mobilizers, and Gerald L. K. Smith—helped shape the Nation of Islam’s (NOI) antisemitism during the 1930s and 1940s. It also examines the strong influence of Harlem’s pro-Axis Black Fuehrers on the NOI during World War II. Nation of Islam and white far-right propaganda were remarkably similar. Both