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Themes and Trends of Historical Enquiry

Natalia Aleksiun

in Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians before the Holocaust

This chapter explores the broad topics and genres of Polish Jewish historiography addressed by historians in the 1920s and 1930s. It presents the most important topics repeated in academic and ... More

This chapter explores the broad topics and genres of Polish Jewish historiography addressed by historians in the 1920s and 1930s. It presents the most important topics repeated in academic and popular contexts: Polish–Jewish relations in the past, with particular attention to the Jewish contribution to the country's economic prosperity and to Poland's struggle for independence, and the internal life of individual Jewish communities, their leaders, and their institutions. When writing about Polish–Jewish relations in previous centuries, and particularly in their accounts of conflict and coexistence, Jewish historians in interwar Poland paid close attention to mutual cultural influences between Jews and non-Jews, attempting to account for instances of friction and anti-Jewish violence. The chapter focuses on the ways in which Jewish historians presented Polish Jewry as a social, cultural, and political entity closely linked with the history of Poland. It assesses how Polish Jewish historical writing took on a direct political meaning as a response to the treatment of these subjects by contemporaneous Polish historiography.Less

Settlement and migration from the 1850s to 1914

Tony Kushner

in Anglo-Jewry Since 1066: Place, Locality and Memory

From the mid-nineteenth century through to the First World War, the Jewish world was re-shaped by mass migration resulting from a combination of factors—demographic and economic as well as the impact ... More

From the mid-nineteenth century through to the First World War, the Jewish world was re-shaped by mass migration resulting from a combination of factors—demographic and economic as well as the impact of persecution and discrimination. It was a part of a wider global shift in population from south to north and east to west that reflected the (uneven) impact of a new economic age and the forces of modernity that accompanied it. Britain, in spite of the large numbers settling there, has not featured prominently in Jewish historiography. Within the capital itself the focus has been largely on the East End at the expense of communities that developed in the West End and south of the river. This chapter provides alternative and critical narratives, thereby challenging those who limit Jewish migration to particular times and places. The dynamics of Jews on the move between and within countries and continents are far too multi-layered and intensive to be encapsulated in one story, even if as epic as the Lower East Side. It is only by incorporating the impact of Jewish migration where and when it is, perhaps, least expected that its full complexity and scope can be appreciated.Less

Wessex tales/Yiddisher spiels

Tony Kushner

in Anglo-Jewry Since 1066: Place, Locality and Memory

This chapter begins with a discussion of the concept of Hampshire studies. It considers the tradition of defining the essence and integrity of Hampshire, which is seen most clearly through various ... More

This chapter begins with a discussion of the concept of Hampshire studies. It considers the tradition of defining the essence and integrity of Hampshire, which is seen most clearly through various county magazines in Hampshire, especially after the Second World War. The chapter then discusses how those who have written and presented the Jewish past have perceived the local context and place identity within it. Local Jewish studies, especially in Britain, face a triple marginality. First, there is the antipathy, patronisation, or indifference of those working within ‘mainstream’ British or English history against minority studies. Second, within global Jewish studies similar attitudes towards the ‘local’ can be detected as within British historiography. Third, within British Jewish historiography and memory work more generally, reflecting power politics within the community as a whole, the provinces have been especially sidelined.Less

Introduction

in Nathan Birnbaum and Jewish Modernity: Architect of Zionism, Yiddishism, and Orthodoxy

Nathan Birnbaum, the German-speaking cultural Zionist who coined the term “Zionism”, is known for his commitment to Jewish nationalism. One of the first Zionists, Birnbaum organized the 1908 Yiddish ... More

Nathan Birnbaum, the German-speaking cultural Zionist who coined the term “Zionism”, is known for his commitment to Jewish nationalism. One of the first Zionists, Birnbaum organized the 1908 Yiddish Language Conference in Czernowitz and founded the Agudath Israel, the first viable international Orthodox political organization. Midway through his life, he embraced Yiddish as the foundation for a national renaissance. In his last decades, Birnbaum turned to politicized, conservative religious Orthodoxy—a shocking decision at the time. Once he embraced Orthodoxy, he became a symbol of religious renaissance among secular Jews. Birnbaum's turn to Orthodoxy was more than just a religious awakening; it was a fundamental change in his intellectual life. In his lifetime, Birnbaum produced a huge collection of articles, essays, and manifestos. After his death in 1937, however, Birnbaum faded from historical memory in general and from Jewish historiography in particular.Less

Rome: Images and Influence

Ram Ben-Shalom

in Medieval Jews and the Christian Past: Jewish Historical Consciousness in Spain and Southern France

This chapter examines the presence of Rome in medieval Jewish life. Both the Jews and the Christians at the time were familiar with—if not deeply interested in—the Roman empire. In fact, there is ... More

This chapter examines the presence of Rome in medieval Jewish life. Both the Jews and the Christians at the time were familiar with—if not deeply interested in—the Roman empire. In fact, there is evidence of Jews' everyday contact with ancient Rome. Considerable segments of Roman history were included in books about the Second Temple period. There were also books dedicated to Rome, as well as additional historical information found in chronicles. Rome was also mentioned in works outside the genres of historiography and travel literature—in ethical books and biblical commentaries, for instance. Before discussing the images of Rome in these books, the chapter first considers Rome's image in the talmudic and midrashic literature. Here, the images, symbolism, and vocabulary of the Talmud determined the content of the collective memory of medieval Jews.Less

Introduction

Robert Levy

in Ana Pauker: The Rise and Fall of a Jewish Communist

This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about the life and career of Ana Pauker, Romania's foreign minister from 1947 to 1952. It explains that while Pauker has become ... More

This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about the life and career of Ana Pauker, Romania's foreign minister from 1947 to 1952. It explains that while Pauker has become a mythic figure symbolizing the perceived predominance of Jews in Romanian Communism, she is largely absent from Jewish historiography. This study is based on the premise that Pauker's story and that of Jewish Communists is an important part not only of Communist and Romanian history but of contemporary Jewish history.Less

The Historiography of the Hasidic Immigration to Erets Yisrael

Jacob Barnai

in Hasidism Reappraised

This chapter explores the historiography of the hasidic immigration to Erets Yisrael. The first waves of hasidic immigration to Erets Yisrael have attracted the attention both of scholars of hasidism ... More

This chapter explores the historiography of the hasidic immigration to Erets Yisrael. The first waves of hasidic immigration to Erets Yisrael have attracted the attention both of scholars of hasidism and of historians of the Jewish yishuv in Erets Yisrael. Hasidic scholarship has viewed the subject as an interesting and somewhat obscure chapter in the history of hasidism, while the historians of the yishuv, most of whom were associated with either the Zionist or the Orthodox currents in Jewish historiography, have perceived the hasidic immigration as an important element of the ‘proto-Zionist’ trend which proved the centrality of Erets Yisrael to Diaspora Jews even before Zionism. While the scholars of hasidism have set the issue in the context of the overall history of the hasidic movement, historians of the yishuv, under the impact of various trends within the Zionist movement and orthodox Jewry, have treated it primarily as an ideological issue. The chapter then surveys and evaluates these two distinct traditions in the historiography of the subject.Less

World History of the Jewish People

Hermann Levin Goldschmidt

in The Legacy of German Jewry

This chapter discusses the life and works of Jewish historian and writer Simon Dubnow. He left Germany in 1933 and relocated to Riga with the autonomist perspective that the preservation of Judaism ... More

This chapter discusses the life and works of Jewish historian and writer Simon Dubnow. He left Germany in 1933 and relocated to Riga with the autonomist perspective that the preservation of Judaism could be accomplished by acquiring a form of self-government within Europe. When the Bolsheviks had gained control of his Russian homeland, he went back to Germany and completed the translation and publication of World History of the Jewish People. With this work, Dubnow has not only sustained the continuity of Jewish historiography, he has also given Jewish self-awareness a new degree of historical anchorage.Less

Introduction

Jeremy Cohen

in Rethinking European Jewish History

This chapter discusses the field of Jewish history that has developed in relation to the experiences of the Jews, including the matter and manner that historians study it. It explains the history of ... More

This chapter discusses the field of Jewish history that has developed in relation to the experiences of the Jews, including the matter and manner that historians study it. It explains the history of the Jews that originated in the political, social, and cultural agenda of enlightened, nineteenth-century Jewish intellectuals. It also mentions Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi who concluded in his ground-breaking study of Jewish history and Jewish memory, Zakhor, that modern Jewish historiography originated as an ideology to the crisis of Jewish emancipation and the struggle. The chapter covers the Jews, Jewish culture and, and the cultural and historical scholarship of the Jews as they entered an age called 'postmodern'. It talks about postmodernism, which has ushered the study of the Jewish past into a new world of discourse filled with challenges that shaped the conversations of Jewish historians in prior generations.Less

Utwory nieznane. Ze zbiorów Tomasza Niewodniczańskiego w Bitburgu: Wiersze, Kabaret, Artykuły, Listy

Julian Tuwim

in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 16: Focusing on Jewish Popular Culture and Its Afterlife

This chapter assesses Julian Tuwim's Utwory nieznane (Unknown Works), the title of which is somewhat misleading. The book is largely made up of cabaret pieces that were performed and known to the ... More

This chapter assesses Julian Tuwim's Utwory nieznane (Unknown Works), the title of which is somewhat misleading. The book is largely made up of cabaret pieces that were performed and known to the public; they simply were never published in written form. Still, the book's publication in 1999 was an important event, not only for poetry lovers and historians of literature, but also from a Jewish perspective. Jewish topics appear prominently and in many forms in this collection of poems, facsimiles, juvenilia, cabaret skits and songs, and private letters from various periods of the poet's life. This is in clear contradiction to the stereotype, predominant in Jewish historiography, of the pre-war Polish Jewish intelligentsia as thoroughly assimilated and uprooted. Tuwim's example demonstrates that the opposite was the case. Like many other writers, he was in constant dialogue with his Jewishness, defending it when attacked, but also critical of Jewish obscurantism.Less

Introduction

Ada Rapoport-Albert and Marcin Wodziński

in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 33: Jewish Religious Life in Poland since 1750

This chapter describes Hasidism’s former reputation as a singular exception to the scarcity of scholarship on the religious dimension of Jewish life in eastern Europe. It cites the nineteenth-century ... More

This chapter describes Hasidism’s former reputation as a singular exception to the scarcity of scholarship on the religious dimension of Jewish life in eastern Europe. It cites the nineteenth-century liberal critique of the movement, which contributed to the disproportionate prominence of Hasidism in the scholarly literature about the religious life of east European Jews. It also explains liberal critique that originated in the militantly anti-Hasidic posture adopted by the early nineteenth-century maskilim, which left a deep imprint on the modern school of Jewish historiography. The chapter talks about the Jewish communities of eastern Europe that were divided into the opposing camps: Hasidic and anti-Hasidic. It analyzes the dichotomy that placed the movement at the very heart of an embattled arena and had the subsequent effect of harnessing Hasidism to a wide range of ideologically driven historiographical constructs.Less

Materialisms

Eliyahu Stern

in Jewish Materialism: The Intellectual Revolution of the 1870s

It provides an overview of modern Jewish history in relation to the question of Jews’ and Judaism’s relationship to materialism. It explores the way in which Russian Jews in the late nineteenth ... More

It provides an overview of modern Jewish history in relation to the question of Jews’ and Judaism’s relationship to materialism. It explores the way in which Russian Jews in the late nineteenth century mobilized an imagined concept of land, labor, and body for various national and religious projects. Abstract conceptions of God, dogma, or ritual were not the primary elements that connected modern Jews to one another. Instead, it was a new conception of the physical world.Less

History and the Social Sciences

Ewa Morawska

in Ethnicity and Beyond: Theories and Dilemmas of Jewish Group Demarcation

This chapter presents a number of reviews of books in the fields of history and social science. Topics covered in the first few books reviewed include the emigration of Jews from the Russian Empire; ... More

This chapter presents a number of reviews of books in the fields of history and social science. Topics covered in the first few books reviewed include the emigration of Jews from the Russian Empire; the history, identity, and experiences of different Jewish groups in Africa; and the postwar experiences of Holocaust survivors and their postwar immigration and integration into American society. The next selection of books reviewed consider Jewish power in America, modern Jewish politics, the experiences of American and British Jews during the Great Migration, and the history of the emergence of an influential Jewish group in France during the early 20th century. Finally, the last few books analyzed here examine Jewish historiography, the political views of German art historian Aby Warburg, Jewish organizations, and Soviet Jews.Less

‘Jewish Contribution to Civilization’ and its Implications for Notions of ‘Jewish Superiority’ in the Modern Period

Richard I. Cohen

in Jewish Contribution to Civilization

This chapter reviews the landmarks of Jewish historiography from Simone Luzzatto to Jacob Katz, while giving special attention to the nexus between notions of 'Jewish contribution' and 'Jewish ... More

This chapter reviews the landmarks of Jewish historiography from Simone Luzzatto to Jacob Katz, while giving special attention to the nexus between notions of 'Jewish contribution' and 'Jewish superiority'. It discusses the value system that proves the worthiness of Jews according to the criteria of a non-Jewish or Christian worldview. It also claims how Jewish apologists still asserted their cultural 'superiority' in their title to the Bible, their prophetic mission, or the virtuosity and pristine singularity of their Judaism. The chapter cites Joseph Jacobs and Cecil Roth, who have often been mocked for their studies on 'Jewish contribution to civilization'. It looks at Jacobs's and Roth's apologetic, naive works that respond to antisemitic claims about Jews in a caricaturistic manner.Less

Methodological Hybridity: The Art of Jewish Historiography and the Methods of Folklore

Moshe Rosman

in How Jewish is Jewish History?

This chapter explores the methodology of history and the potential for cooperation between the fields of history and folklore by examining the arguments of folklorist Eli Yassif. In so doing, the ... More

This chapter explores the methodology of history and the potential for cooperation between the fields of history and folklore by examining the arguments of folklorist Eli Yassif. In so doing, the chapter raises the question of how the methods of folklore can be used in the historiographical enterprise. The historian's work begins before methodology enters the picture: identifying sources, gathering data or information, formulating questions, and then choosing the appropriate methodology. It continues after methodology has done its work with interpretation in light of the assumptions, questions, knowledge, and methodological analysis that have been proffered. Yassif demands that historians become better folklorists; that does not mean that they need to stop being historians.Less

The Vilna Gaon and Haskalah

Immanuel Etkes

in The Gaon of Vilna: The Man and His Image

This chapter deals with the myth of the Vilna Gaon as a maskil among both proponents and opponents of Haskalah. It traces this myth as reflected in the historiography of the Haskalah movement and ... More

This chapter deals with the myth of the Vilna Gaon as a maskil among both proponents and opponents of Haskalah. It traces this myth as reflected in the historiography of the Haskalah movement and shows that the matter of the Gaon and Haskalah is an instructive example of the continuity between Haskalah literature of the nineteenth century and Jewish historiography of the end of that century and the first half of the next. It discusses the image of the Vilna Gaon as a maskil as a weapon in the hands of Orthodox Judaism and evaluates the influence of the Vilna Gaon on the growth of the Haskalah movement in Lithuania.Less

Randolph L. Braham, editor. Perspectives on the Holocaust. The Hungarian Jewish Catastrophe. A Selected and Annotated Bibliography. (Holocaust Studies Series.) New York: City University of New York. 1984. Pp. 501.

Stephen Roth

in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 1: Poles and Jews: Renewing the Dialogue

This chapter describes Perspectives on the Holocaust (1984), which was edited by Randolph L. Braham. Probably the most unknown and unexplored part of Jewish history is the story of Hungarian Jewry. ... More

This chapter describes Perspectives on the Holocaust (1984), which was edited by Randolph L. Braham. Probably the most unknown and unexplored part of Jewish history is the story of Hungarian Jewry. Its language, bearing no similarity to any other living language, is an impenetrable mystery for the foreigner. Hungarian Jews themselves have not been very assiduous in recording the history of their tribe – a quite surprising fact considering the notable achievements of Hungarian Jews in so many branches of science, scholarship and literature. Moreover, the little that exists of Hungarian Jewish historiography is sadly antiquated. There are, of course, numerous monographic works on specific periods or issues but the general history of Hungarian Jewry remains still to be written. In these circumstances, any book that could facilitate the filling of the historiographical gap is particularly welcome, and Braham's bibliography, which is the second edition of a small version of 1962, falls into this category. Unfortunately, it is limited to the period of the Holocaust, its immediate background and the aftermath.Less

Conclusion

Gur Alroey

in An Unpromising Land: Jewish Migration to Palestine in the Early Twentieth Century

Immigration to Palestine and the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century led to the emergence of two Jewish entities of importance in the Jewish world: the State of Israel and the ... More

Immigration to Palestine and the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century led to the emergence of two Jewish entities of importance in the Jewish world: the State of Israel and the Jewish community of the United States. Despite the differences that can be found today between these two great Jewish communities, the historical circumstances that led to their formation were similar. It also falsifies our understanding of the great Jewish migration from Eastern Europe at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth. The book arrives at a number of conclusions on the following topics: the place of Zionist ideology in the decision to immigrate to Palestine; the sociodemographic profile of immigrants; emigration from Palestine; the regional distribution of immigrants in Palestine; formation of Zionist immigration policy; and encounters with the majority society.Less