- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804762007
- eISBN:
- 9780804775021
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804762007.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter discusses Shalom Ya'akov Abramovitsh's dedication to Hebrew–Yiddish bilingualism. From the publication in 1864 of his satirical novella, Dos kleyne mentshele until his death in 1917, ...
More
This chapter discusses Shalom Ya'akov Abramovitsh's dedication to Hebrew–Yiddish bilingualism. From the publication in 1864 of his satirical novella, Dos kleyne mentshele until his death in 1917, Hebrew–Yiddish bilingualism was the staple characteristic of his literary production. Moreover, he devoted more than twenty years, a third of his career, to a project that entailed two separate but mutually complementary activities: the rewriting of his major works in much enlarged and stylistically more polished versions, and, at the same time, the recasting of these works in Hebrew and Yiddish parallel versions.Less
This chapter discusses Shalom Ya'akov Abramovitsh's dedication to Hebrew–Yiddish bilingualism. From the publication in 1864 of his satirical novella, Dos kleyne mentshele until his death in 1917, Hebrew–Yiddish bilingualism was the staple characteristic of his literary production. Moreover, he devoted more than twenty years, a third of his career, to a project that entailed two separate but mutually complementary activities: the rewriting of his major works in much enlarged and stylistically more polished versions, and, at the same time, the recasting of these works in Hebrew and Yiddish parallel versions.
Paul Reitter
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226709703
- eISBN:
- 9780226709727
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226709727.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
In turn-of-the-century Vienna, Karl Kraus created a bold new style of media criticism, penning incisive satires that elicited both admiration and outrage. Kraus' spectacularly hostile critiques often ...
More
In turn-of-the-century Vienna, Karl Kraus created a bold new style of media criticism, penning incisive satires that elicited both admiration and outrage. Kraus' spectacularly hostile critiques often focused on his fellow Jewish journalists, which brought him a reputation as the quintessential self-hating Jew. This book overturns this view with unprecedented force and sophistication, showing how Kraus' criticisms form the center of a radical model of German-Jewish self-fashioning, and how that model developed in concert with Kraus' modernist journalistic style. It situates Kraus' writings in the context of fin-de-siècle German-Jewish intellectual society. The author argues that rather than stemming from anti-Semitism, Kraus' attacks constituted an innovative critique of mainstream German-Jewish strategies for assimilation. Marshalling three of the most daring German-Jewish authors—Kafka, Scholem, and Benjamin—he explains their admiration for Kraus' project and demonstrates his influence on their own notions of cultural authenticity.Less
In turn-of-the-century Vienna, Karl Kraus created a bold new style of media criticism, penning incisive satires that elicited both admiration and outrage. Kraus' spectacularly hostile critiques often focused on his fellow Jewish journalists, which brought him a reputation as the quintessential self-hating Jew. This book overturns this view with unprecedented force and sophistication, showing how Kraus' criticisms form the center of a radical model of German-Jewish self-fashioning, and how that model developed in concert with Kraus' modernist journalistic style. It situates Kraus' writings in the context of fin-de-siècle German-Jewish intellectual society. The author argues that rather than stemming from anti-Semitism, Kraus' attacks constituted an innovative critique of mainstream German-Jewish strategies for assimilation. Marshalling three of the most daring German-Jewish authors—Kafka, Scholem, and Benjamin—he explains their admiration for Kraus' project and demonstrates his influence on their own notions of cultural authenticity.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226709703
- eISBN:
- 9780226709727
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226709727.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This chapter traces the often unexpected, frequently paradoxical, and mostly dolorous ways in which German-Jewish authors framed journalistic writing as a privileged emblem of acculturated German ...
More
This chapter traces the often unexpected, frequently paradoxical, and mostly dolorous ways in which German-Jewish authors framed journalistic writing as a privileged emblem of acculturated German Jewry's spiritual plight. It examines a variety of fin-de-siècle couplings of journalism and Jewish identity, including some of the anti-Semitic texts to which Karl Kraus' “Heine and the Consequences” is frequently likened. This chapter analyzes the works of several German-Jewish authors including Adolf Jellinek, Moritz Goldstein, and Gerson Cohen.Less
This chapter traces the often unexpected, frequently paradoxical, and mostly dolorous ways in which German-Jewish authors framed journalistic writing as a privileged emblem of acculturated German Jewry's spiritual plight. It examines a variety of fin-de-siècle couplings of journalism and Jewish identity, including some of the anti-Semitic texts to which Karl Kraus' “Heine and the Consequences” is frequently likened. This chapter analyzes the works of several German-Jewish authors including Adolf Jellinek, Moritz Goldstein, and Gerson Cohen.
Jay Geller
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282005
- eISBN:
- 9780823284795
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282005.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter addresses the famous joke on “the elephant and the Jewish question,” whose prominence is attested by its many iterations not only in collections of Jewish jokes but also in works of ...
More
This chapter addresses the famous joke on “the elephant and the Jewish question,” whose prominence is attested by its many iterations not only in collections of Jewish jokes but also in works of philosophy and theory. Drawing together two seemingly unrelated terms such as Jews and elephants and pointing at their close proximity, jokes do not merely comment on the preposterous character of the “rumor about the Jews” that there is an inherent relationship between Jews and nonhuman animals. The joke also points to what escapes theory and calls out its limitations, for theory takes the Jew as well as the animal as categories, singular as they might be, that can be comprehended only vis-à-vis universals. The chapter then looks at how Jewish authors have called into question the human-nonhuman animal divide in their struggle to think through European modernity.Less
This chapter addresses the famous joke on “the elephant and the Jewish question,” whose prominence is attested by its many iterations not only in collections of Jewish jokes but also in works of philosophy and theory. Drawing together two seemingly unrelated terms such as Jews and elephants and pointing at their close proximity, jokes do not merely comment on the preposterous character of the “rumor about the Jews” that there is an inherent relationship between Jews and nonhuman animals. The joke also points to what escapes theory and calls out its limitations, for theory takes the Jew as well as the animal as categories, singular as they might be, that can be comprehended only vis-à-vis universals. The chapter then looks at how Jewish authors have called into question the human-nonhuman animal divide in their struggle to think through European modernity.
Karl Kraus
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780300236002
- eISBN:
- 9780300252804
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300236002.003.0017
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
This chapter discusses the author's various encounters with language. It introduces Emanuel bin Gorion. The official commentary explains that the criticism which Bin Gorion, as a Zionist, ...
More
This chapter discusses the author's various encounters with language. It introduces Emanuel bin Gorion. The official commentary explains that the criticism which Bin Gorion, as a Zionist, “consistently directed at assimilated Jewish authors, exemplifies the Jewish-racial principle.” The chapter, however, presents criticisms against Bin Gorion, arguing against his reputation as a standard-bearer in the struggle against the anti-German spirit. It also offered the author's services, however indirectly, to the authority now entrusted with policing the German language. In doing so, the chapter chronicles the author's engagements with Cologne Radio, as a means for Kraus to push through with his own linguistic agendas.Less
This chapter discusses the author's various encounters with language. It introduces Emanuel bin Gorion. The official commentary explains that the criticism which Bin Gorion, as a Zionist, “consistently directed at assimilated Jewish authors, exemplifies the Jewish-racial principle.” The chapter, however, presents criticisms against Bin Gorion, arguing against his reputation as a standard-bearer in the struggle against the anti-German spirit. It also offered the author's services, however indirectly, to the authority now entrusted with policing the German language. In doing so, the chapter chronicles the author's engagements with Cologne Radio, as a means for Kraus to push through with his own linguistic agendas.
Mohamed A. H Ahmed
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474444439
- eISBN:
- 9781474476713
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474444439.003.0004
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This chapter analyses the diachronic development of Arabic use. The novels are categorised into three main corpora to trace Arabic use from early to late Hebrew novels. In this chapter, the style of ...
More
This chapter analyses the diachronic development of Arabic use. The novels are categorised into three main corpora to trace Arabic use from early to late Hebrew novels. In this chapter, the style of each of the three authors is also analysed independently. This means that the style of each of the three authors is investigated according to the model developed in Chapter 2, and other linguistic and literary features of each author associated with Arabic/Hebrew are also discussed.Less
This chapter analyses the diachronic development of Arabic use. The novels are categorised into three main corpora to trace Arabic use from early to late Hebrew novels. In this chapter, the style of each of the three authors is also analysed independently. This means that the style of each of the three authors is investigated according to the model developed in Chapter 2, and other linguistic and literary features of each author associated with Arabic/Hebrew are also discussed.
Dagmar C. G. Lorenz (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781874774730
- eISBN:
- 9781800340732
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781874774730.003.0044
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter examines Contemporary Jewish Writing in Austria: An Anthology, which was edited by Dagmar C. G. Lorenz. Contemporary Jewish Writing in Austria is an anthology of the writings of Jewish ...
More
This chapter examines Contemporary Jewish Writing in Austria: An Anthology, which was edited by Dagmar C. G. Lorenz. Contemporary Jewish Writing in Austria is an anthology of the writings of Jewish authors from five generations whose works have been published in recent decades. Lorenz provides a very interesting introduction to her book, sharing with the reader her profound understanding of the complexities of Austrian Jewish literary history. She introduces the problems that faced Austrian Jews after the Holocaust: that they were not invited to return from exile, and if they decided to return to their home country, they were expected to assimilate to the dominant culture. Fascinating and tragic is the fact that still, despite all adversities, some Jews do not mind living in Vienna and identify themselves with this city as the only beloved home they have ever had. The author of the anthology also broaches the subject of the dual emotional loyalties of Austrian Jews and European Jews in general: loyalty to their home country and emotional ties to Israel.Less
This chapter examines Contemporary Jewish Writing in Austria: An Anthology, which was edited by Dagmar C. G. Lorenz. Contemporary Jewish Writing in Austria is an anthology of the writings of Jewish authors from five generations whose works have been published in recent decades. Lorenz provides a very interesting introduction to her book, sharing with the reader her profound understanding of the complexities of Austrian Jewish literary history. She introduces the problems that faced Austrian Jews after the Holocaust: that they were not invited to return from exile, and if they decided to return to their home country, they were expected to assimilate to the dominant culture. Fascinating and tragic is the fact that still, despite all adversities, some Jews do not mind living in Vienna and identify themselves with this city as the only beloved home they have ever had. The author of the anthology also broaches the subject of the dual emotional loyalties of Austrian Jews and European Jews in general: loyalty to their home country and emotional ties to Israel.
Scott Spector
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520219090
- eISBN:
- 9780520929777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520219090.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter talks about the surveyed landscape of culture produced by German-speaking Prague Jews and the keen interest in translations from Czech to German that stands out. There is no ...
More
This chapter talks about the surveyed landscape of culture produced by German-speaking Prague Jews and the keen interest in translations from Czech to German that stands out. There is no correspondence, in the sense of perfect resonance or unison, among the varied encounters with the question of translation of Prague Jewish authors in the early twentieth century. It does not even seem as though Otto Pick, Rudolf Fuchs, Max Brod, and Franz Kafka set out anything like a common goal or interest as they engaged with the figure of translation, and yet, in striking contrast to the Czechs and the Bohemian Germans, they were irresistibly drawn to such an engagement. The translation project was certainly significant in European cultural history for its effects, but its impetus was never an ideology of “pluralism.” Pluralism, it has been noted, has a liberal face but remains a hegemonic device to absorb and control difference.Less
This chapter talks about the surveyed landscape of culture produced by German-speaking Prague Jews and the keen interest in translations from Czech to German that stands out. There is no correspondence, in the sense of perfect resonance or unison, among the varied encounters with the question of translation of Prague Jewish authors in the early twentieth century. It does not even seem as though Otto Pick, Rudolf Fuchs, Max Brod, and Franz Kafka set out anything like a common goal or interest as they engaged with the figure of translation, and yet, in striking contrast to the Czechs and the Bohemian Germans, they were irresistibly drawn to such an engagement. The translation project was certainly significant in European cultural history for its effects, but its impetus was never an ideology of “pluralism.” Pluralism, it has been noted, has a liberal face but remains a hegemonic device to absorb and control difference.
Ruth Nisse
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501703072
- eISBN:
- 9781501708329
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501703072.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Jewish and Christian authors of the High Middle Ages not infrequently came into dialogue or conflict with each other over traditions drawn from ancient writings outside of the bible. Circulating in ...
More
Jewish and Christian authors of the High Middle Ages not infrequently came into dialogue or conflict with each other over traditions drawn from ancient writings outside of the bible. Circulating in Hebrew and Latin translations, these included the two independent versions of the Testament of Naphtali in which the patriarch has a vision of the Diaspora, a shipwreck that scatters the twelve tribes. The Christian narrative is linear and ends in salvation; the Jewish narrative is circular and pessimistic. This book regards this as an emblematic text that illuminates relationships between interpretation, translation, and survival. Such noncanonical texts and their afterlives provided Jews and Christians alike with resources of fiction that they used to reconsider boundaries of doctrine and interpretation. Among the works that the book takes as exemplary of this medieval moment are the Book of Yosippon, a tenth-century Hebrew adaptation of Josephus with a wide circulation and influence in the later middle ages, and the second-century romance of Aseneth about the religious conversion of Joseph's Egyptian wife. Yosippon gave Jews a new discourse of martyrdom in its narrative of the fall of Jerusalem, and at the same time it offered access to the classical historical models being used by their Christian contemporaries. Aseneth provided its new audience of medieval monks with a way to reimagine the troubling consequences of unwilling Jewish converts.Less
Jewish and Christian authors of the High Middle Ages not infrequently came into dialogue or conflict with each other over traditions drawn from ancient writings outside of the bible. Circulating in Hebrew and Latin translations, these included the two independent versions of the Testament of Naphtali in which the patriarch has a vision of the Diaspora, a shipwreck that scatters the twelve tribes. The Christian narrative is linear and ends in salvation; the Jewish narrative is circular and pessimistic. This book regards this as an emblematic text that illuminates relationships between interpretation, translation, and survival. Such noncanonical texts and their afterlives provided Jews and Christians alike with resources of fiction that they used to reconsider boundaries of doctrine and interpretation. Among the works that the book takes as exemplary of this medieval moment are the Book of Yosippon, a tenth-century Hebrew adaptation of Josephus with a wide circulation and influence in the later middle ages, and the second-century romance of Aseneth about the religious conversion of Joseph's Egyptian wife. Yosippon gave Jews a new discourse of martyrdom in its narrative of the fall of Jerusalem, and at the same time it offered access to the classical historical models being used by their Christian contemporaries. Aseneth provided its new audience of medieval monks with a way to reimagine the troubling consequences of unwilling Jewish converts.
Dana Hollander
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804755214
- eISBN:
- 9780804769976
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804755214.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This is a combined study of the philosophies of Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) and Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929) that explores the question: How may we account for the possibility of philosophy, of ...
More
This is a combined study of the philosophies of Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) and Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929) that explores the question: How may we account for the possibility of philosophy, of universalism in thinking, without denying that all thinking is also idiomatic and particular? The book traces Derrida's interest in this topic, particularly emphasizing his work on “philosophical nationality” and his insight that philosophy is challenged in a special way by its particular “national” instantiations and that, conversely, discourses invoking a nationality comprise a philosophical ambition, a claim to being “exemplary.” Taking as its cue Derrida's readings of German-Jewish authors and his ongoing interest in questions of Jewishness, it pairs his philosophy with that of Franz Rosenzweig, who developed a theory of Judaism for which election is essential and who understood chosenness in an “exemplarist” sense as constitutive of human individuality as well as of the Jews' role in universal human history.Less
This is a combined study of the philosophies of Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) and Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929) that explores the question: How may we account for the possibility of philosophy, of universalism in thinking, without denying that all thinking is also idiomatic and particular? The book traces Derrida's interest in this topic, particularly emphasizing his work on “philosophical nationality” and his insight that philosophy is challenged in a special way by its particular “national” instantiations and that, conversely, discourses invoking a nationality comprise a philosophical ambition, a claim to being “exemplary.” Taking as its cue Derrida's readings of German-Jewish authors and his ongoing interest in questions of Jewishness, it pairs his philosophy with that of Franz Rosenzweig, who developed a theory of Judaism for which election is essential and who understood chosenness in an “exemplarist” sense as constitutive of human individuality as well as of the Jews' role in universal human history.
Joanna B. Michlic
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781904113058
- eISBN:
- 9781800342613
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781904113058.003.0014
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter concentrates on the author Henryk Grynberg, who belongs to a group of contemporary Jewish authors who were children during the war and resumed life in Poland after it. It recounts ...
More
This chapter concentrates on the author Henryk Grynberg, who belongs to a group of contemporary Jewish authors who were children during the war and resumed life in Poland after it. It recounts Grynberg's childhood and how he survived the war by hiding with his mother in the Polish countryside. It also mentions Grynberg's training in journalism and experience as an actor in the post-war Yiddish theatre, where he began to write. The chapter talks about how Grynberg found refuge in the United States in 1947 after he went under official censorship of his work. It demonstrates how Grynberg established his literary reputation with lightly fictionalized autobiography, written in Polish in the 1960s and 1970s, first of the perils of life in hiding under the German occupation and then of coming of age in the complex environment of post-war Poland.Less
This chapter concentrates on the author Henryk Grynberg, who belongs to a group of contemporary Jewish authors who were children during the war and resumed life in Poland after it. It recounts Grynberg's childhood and how he survived the war by hiding with his mother in the Polish countryside. It also mentions Grynberg's training in journalism and experience as an actor in the post-war Yiddish theatre, where he began to write. The chapter talks about how Grynberg found refuge in the United States in 1947 after he went under official censorship of his work. It demonstrates how Grynberg established his literary reputation with lightly fictionalized autobiography, written in Polish in the 1960s and 1970s, first of the perils of life in hiding under the German occupation and then of coming of age in the complex environment of post-war Poland.
Moshe Idel
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300126266
- eISBN:
- 9780300155877
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300126266.003.0014
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter focuses on the emergence of Christian Kabbalah, with its missionary goals, and how it prompted a more negative attitude toward Jewish Kabbalah among several Jewish authors. One topic ...
More
This chapter focuses on the emergence of Christian Kabbalah, with its missionary goals, and how it prompted a more negative attitude toward Jewish Kabbalah among several Jewish authors. One topic central to the understanding of Kabbalah in this period, which preoccupied many Renaissance scholars, was the concept of prisca theologia, the belief in the existence of an “ancient theology” whose basic tenets manifested themselves in various religious and philosophical doctrines under different nomenclatures. This chapter analyzes several statements that reveal a concordance between Jewish and other forms of traditions, and discusses the significance of that concordance. This discussion establishes the likelihood that Jews were acquainted with Christian discussions stemming from Renaissance sources, integrated them, and adapted them to their own purposes.Less
This chapter focuses on the emergence of Christian Kabbalah, with its missionary goals, and how it prompted a more negative attitude toward Jewish Kabbalah among several Jewish authors. One topic central to the understanding of Kabbalah in this period, which preoccupied many Renaissance scholars, was the concept of prisca theologia, the belief in the existence of an “ancient theology” whose basic tenets manifested themselves in various religious and philosophical doctrines under different nomenclatures. This chapter analyzes several statements that reveal a concordance between Jewish and other forms of traditions, and discusses the significance of that concordance. This discussion establishes the likelihood that Jews were acquainted with Christian discussions stemming from Renaissance sources, integrated them, and adapted them to their own purposes.
Peter M. R. Stirk
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748622900
- eISBN:
- 9780748652730
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748622900.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Twentieth-century German political thought was marked by the persistence, or the recurrence, of certain concepts and by the polemical dispute about what those concepts meant. This political thought ...
More
Twentieth-century German political thought was marked by the persistence, or the recurrence, of certain concepts and by the polemical dispute about what those concepts meant. This political thought took on even more vicious form in the attempt to eradicate the names of Jewish authors from the literature and discourse of the Third Reich. One of the greatest difficulties presented by German political thought in the twentieth century, apart from the obvious one of its sheer range and complexity, is the combination of tradition and modernity, continuity and discontinuity. Intellectual continuity was ensured by the enduring presence of prominent figures at the beginning of the twentieth century, such as Max Weber and Georg Jellinek, as well as by the fact that the biographies of many theorists stretched across the political fractures in German political history.Less
Twentieth-century German political thought was marked by the persistence, or the recurrence, of certain concepts and by the polemical dispute about what those concepts meant. This political thought took on even more vicious form in the attempt to eradicate the names of Jewish authors from the literature and discourse of the Third Reich. One of the greatest difficulties presented by German political thought in the twentieth century, apart from the obvious one of its sheer range and complexity, is the combination of tradition and modernity, continuity and discontinuity. Intellectual continuity was ensured by the enduring presence of prominent figures at the beginning of the twentieth century, such as Max Weber and Georg Jellinek, as well as by the fact that the biographies of many theorists stretched across the political fractures in German political history.