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The Politics of Assimilation

Nicholas Cook

in The Schenker Project: Culture, Race, and Music Theory in Fin-de-siècle Vienna

A Galician Jew who came to Vienna on a government scholarship, Schenker arrived just as a fully racial anti-semitism was developing; the binary pattern of thought discussed in Chapter 3 became most ... More

A Galician Jew who came to Vienna on a government scholarship, Schenker arrived just as a fully racial anti-semitism was developing; the binary pattern of thought discussed in Chapter 3 became most pernicious when linked to the binary opposition Jew/not Jew. True to the tradition of German cultural conservatism, Schenker constructed his identity through an extreme appropriation of high German culture, while at the same time maintaining his personal adherence to the Jewish tradition. Though attempts to explain Schenker's theory in terms of that tradition are ultimately unconvincing, his situation in an increasingly anti-semitic society explains much about the motivation of Schenker's project and the way it developed. These issues of culture and race are drawn out through comparisons with two of the principal Others of Schenker's cultural and intellectual universe: Richard Wagner, to whom Schenker's entire project can be understood as a response, and Arnold Schoenberg.Less

Hebrew Manuscripts in an Age of Print

Yaacob Dweck

in The Scandal of Kabbalah: Leon Modena, Jewish Mysticism, Early Modern Venice

This chapter posits Leon Modena's writing practices within the context of early modern Venice, capital of Hebrew printing and center of manuscript production. The circumstances of Modena's life as ... More

This chapter posits Leon Modena's writing practices within the context of early modern Venice, capital of Hebrew printing and center of manuscript production. The circumstances of Modena's life as well as the cultural world of early modern Venice offer some context for why Ari Nohem (The Roaring Lion, 1840) did not appear in print in the seventeenth century. As a work of criticism, Ari Nohem reflected upon the transmission of Jewish tradition, particularly the transmission of esoteric information and the principles of Jewish law. Modena argued that the printing of legal and kabbalistic books had effected a radical change in the transmission of Jewish tradition, a change that he decried in no uncertain terms at several points. Ari Nohem polemicized against one medium, print, in the form of another, manuscript.Less

‘Virgil in the Basket’: narrative as hermeneutics in Hebrew literature of the Middle Ages

Eli Yassif

in Scriptural Exegesis: The Shapes of Culture and the Religious Imagination: Essays in Honour of Michael Fishbane

This chapter emphasizes the continuity of central ideas over many centuries. Despite tremendous innovation and change within the literature, it persuasively connects folkloric motifs from a medieval ... More

This chapter emphasizes the continuity of central ideas over many centuries. Despite tremendous innovation and change within the literature, it persuasively connects folkloric motifs from a medieval Hebrew folktale with classical images from Jewish tradition. It addresses the question of the authority of narrative texts as historical documents as well as the question of narrative hermeneutics — in all its force and seriousness.Less

Spirituality, Suffering, and Prayerful Presence within Jewish Tradition

Christina M. Puchalski

in A Time for Listening and Caring: Spirituality and the Care of the Chronically Ill and Dying

This chapter examines spirituality, suffering, and prayerful presence in relation to end-of-life care in the Jewish tradition, describing the Jewish mourning practices and the stand of Judaism ... More

This chapter examines spirituality, suffering, and prayerful presence in relation to end-of-life care in the Jewish tradition, describing the Jewish mourning practices and the stand of Judaism concerning euthanasia, autopsies, and transplantation. It also provides a brief guide to prayerful presence, including pastoral visitation, and explains the Jewish belief that each person has a personal and direct relationship with God. However, Judaism does not place any special sacramental status upon Jewish clergy.Less

Tradition and its Demise: Gender and Class in Wengeroff

Shulamit S. Magnus

in A Woman's Life: Pauline Wengeroff and Memoirs of a Grandmother

This chapter examines gender and class in Pauline Wengeroff's Memoirs of a Grandmother. In Volume II of Memoirs, Wengeroff asserts a stark, globalized claim of gender disparity about tradition and ... More

This chapter examines gender and class in Pauline Wengeroff's Memoirs of a Grandmother. In Volume II of Memoirs, Wengeroff asserts a stark, globalized claim of gender disparity about tradition and its loss among modernizing Russian Jews. The chapter then reflects on her life and experience in St. Petersburg. The organized Jewish community that formed in the capital in the 1860s was that of the moneyed elite; the city was the home of the elite that championed selective integration. In St. Petersburg, the Jewish leadership class was literally under the government's gaze, acutely aware of its self-appointed role as the official model for Russian Jewry and as representative of the community's interests before the authorities. The chapter also describes the struggle between Wengeroff and her husband, Chonon, over Jewish observance. It explores the notions of love and marriage in traditional Jewish culture. Whatever the divergence between Wengeroff's depictions and evidence from German Jewry, she echoes one crucial aspect of middle-class German Jewish experience: the domestication of women.Less

Prayer in the Vernacular

Jean Baumgarten

Jerold C. Frakes (ed.)

in Introduction to Old Yiddish Literature

Beginning in the sixteenth century, the problem of translating prayers into the vernacular was one of the important questions confronting Jewish society. The rabbinical authorities adopted an ... More

Beginning in the sixteenth century, the problem of translating prayers into the vernacular was one of the important questions confronting Jewish society. The rabbinical authorities adopted an ambivalent attitude that illustrates the tensions that this issue inevitably caused. As for the Yiddish authors, they decided in favour of a partial vernacularization of the prayers. Meanwhile, the history of bilingual holiday prayer books (makhzourim) followed a development similar to that of the other liturgical works Considered as a whole, these liturgical texts demonstrate the modest inroads made by the vernacular into Jewish religious life and testify to a transformation among the ordinary faithful of their religious experience. These texts were part of a vast religious offensive intended to organize the Jewish masses more effectively and to spread the teaching of Jewish traditions.Less

The Aftermath of Emigration

Tina Frühauf

in The Organ and its Music in German-Jewish Culture

The mass emigration of German Jews during National Socialism in 1933 had a profound impact on the identities of Jewish musicians. Because of their need for social and professional integration, they ... More

The mass emigration of German Jews during National Socialism in 1933 had a profound impact on the identities of Jewish musicians. Because of their need for social and professional integration, they needed to strike a balance between preserving an identity that had been shaped by the European musical tradition and adjusting to a new cultural situation. While the forced relocation and new living conditions affected the creative output of the émigré musicians, these also greatly influenced the musical life of their adopted countries. The US became a popular destination for German–Jewish artists, including musicians who found employment in synagogues to influence Jewish–American service with their organ playing and organ building. Unfortunately, the next generations of synagogue musicians apparently had no interest in further developing the organ in Jewish worship, as the German–Jewish culture seemed to have dissolved into American culture. The British Mandate of Palestine was a popular destination for Zionists from Russia and eastern European countries. Inspired by the new and different environment, German–Jewish musicians took interest in the music of Eastern Jewry and the Arabs. Many composers in the new Israel sought a musical synthesis of East and West either by combining the harmonic and compositional techniques of Western music with the rhythms, melodies, and instruments of Eastern music or by applying Eastern aesthetics without using the actual musical elements associated with Eastern music. Although organ music had not been a central part of the musical life of Palestine, many émigré musicians who were familiar with the organ from their youth in Europe revived their interest in the instrument, giving rise to an organ tradition. Unlike in the US, where organ music has almost disappeared, in Israel the music is still in a unique phase of development.Less

Introduction

Antony Polonsky

in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 15: Focusing on Jewish Religious Life, 1500-1900

This introductory chapter discusses the larger theme of the spiritual life of Polish–Lithuanian Jewry and its relation to the wider religious history of the Jews. There are a number of problems in ... More

This introductory chapter discusses the larger theme of the spiritual life of Polish–Lithuanian Jewry and its relation to the wider religious history of the Jews. There are a number of problems in describing that history. It is obvious that Jewish history in the period from the end of Jewish statehood and, in particular, from the end of a significant Jewish presence in Erets Yisrael has a highly significant religious component. Yet there has been a tendency to write this history statically — to see normative Jewish religious practice as unchanging from the period of the Mishnah and Talmud. In addition, historical investigation is complicated by the absence in the Jewish religious tradition of a clearly formulated creed. The attempts to formulate such a credal statement, such as that of Maimonides (1135–1204), who sets out thirteen basic principles of the Jewish faith, or those of the Spanish Jews Hasdai Crescas (d. ?1412) and Joseph Albo (1380–1445), can only be seen as deviations from this norm and are not regarded by normative believers as binding, although much of the religious establishment did accept them as such.Less

Complicity, Victimization, Guilt: Wengeroff as Agent of Acculturation and Assimilation

Shulamit S. Magnus

in A Woman's Life: Pauline Wengeroff and Memoirs of a Grandmother

This chapter explains that the central point of the second volume of Pauline Wengeroff's Memoirs of a Grandmother is the consequences of the loss of tradition in Russian Jewish families, exemplified ... More

This chapter explains that the central point of the second volume of Pauline Wengeroff's Memoirs of a Grandmother is the consequences of the loss of tradition in Russian Jewish families, exemplified by what transpired in her marital home. Her main narrative line is dramatic, accessible, and seductive. In it, she and her fellow Jewish women are victims — of Chonon/Jewish husbands, and of the overwhelming forces of modernity. Well before all this, however, Wengeroff was a prime agent of subverting tradition. She thus felt culpable and guilty not only for the sins of her youth but for those of her married adulthood that resulted in the failure to transmit tradition to her children. The chapter then considers the complexity of Wengeroff's and Chonon's Jewishness and of their relationship. It also looks at how Wengeroff found outlets for her Judaism as well as her need for meaningful activity outside the home as a bourgeoise before she wrote Memoirs. Both Chonon and Wengeroff participated in the trend of Russian Jewish philanthropy by supporting trade schools for poor children.Less

Exploiting Tradition: Religious Iconography in Cartoons of the Polish Yiddish Press

Edward Portnoy

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

This chapter explores religious iconography in cartoons of the Polish Yiddish press. Alongside the mainstream press, a Jewish satirical press began to flourish in the Yiddish language in both eastern ... More

This chapter explores religious iconography in cartoons of the Polish Yiddish press. Alongside the mainstream press, a Jewish satirical press began to flourish in the Yiddish language in both eastern Europe and America. In addition to jokes, humorous stories, poems, and many parodies, Yiddish satirical journals would come to include numerous cartoons and caricatures. Never having been seen previously in Jewish life, such visual parody was an unprecedented innovation among Yiddish-speaking Jews in Poland, partly because of its sheer novelty and partly because art without a religious connection was discouraged among Jews. Moreover, the vast majority of Jewish texts, particularly those used on a daily basis, did not contain illustrations of any kind. The cartoonists of the Yiddish press were therefore engaged not only in a radical subversion of Jewish tradition but also in a reassessment of what Jewish caricature should be, as opposed to the antisemitic caricature of the non-Jewish satirical press. In addition, Jewish cartoonists frequently applied traditional Jewish themes to critical commentary on current cultural and political events.Less

In Praise of Jewish Ritual: Modern Medicine and the Defense of Ancient Traditions

John M. Efron

in Medicine and the German Jews: A History

This chapter describes the complementary relationship enjoyed by science and Judaism. The Jewish scientist was not swayed by the nineteenth-century French philosopher Auguste Comte, who proclaimed ... More

This chapter describes the complementary relationship enjoyed by science and Judaism. The Jewish scientist was not swayed by the nineteenth-century French philosopher Auguste Comte, who proclaimed that in the coming positivist order, scientists, rather than priests, would be canonized. Few Jewish scientists have ever suggested that a man in a lab coat would or should replace the rabbi in his long, black coat. On the contrary, among Central European Jews in the nineteenth century, there were many who sought to make use of science in order to help them bolster their links to Jewish tradition. What this means is that for Jews in the modern period, science and religion have proven to be perfectly compatible, which raises a number of other questions. All of these questions are addressed here.Less

Jewish Philosophers and the Enlightenment

Willi Goetschel

in The Discipline of Philosophy and the Invention of Modern Jewish Thought

This chapter examines the works of some of the most notable Jewish philosophers during the Enlightenment Period. It traces themes that unite and divide the projects of Baruch Spinoza, Moses ... More

This chapter examines the works of some of the most notable Jewish philosophers during the Enlightenment Period. It traces themes that unite and divide the projects of Baruch Spinoza, Moses Mendelssohn, and Salomon Maimon in the context of the Enlightenment trajectories in modern philosophy beginning with Michel de Montaigne and Etienne de La Boëtie. It analyzes Spinoza's controversial place in the history of Jewish philosophy and the legacy of the Jewish Enlightenment philosophers. This chapter suggests the Jewish philosophers saw themselves as developing projects that would embrace Jewish tradition as an emancipatory and progressive force and contribute to the project of critically rethinking the problem of the universal claim of philosophy in the face of the particularity that defines the universal terms of the project of modernity.Less

Building a New Zion: Jewish Rabbinical Schools and American Modernity

Larry Abbott Golemon

in Clergy Education in America: Religious Leadership and American Public Life

The fourth chapter describes the rise of Jewish seminaries in America and their reconstruction of the tradition in the light of modern scholarship. Two traditions of schooling—one Reformed the other ... More

The fourth chapter describes the rise of Jewish seminaries in America and their reconstruction of the tradition in the light of modern scholarship. Two traditions of schooling—one Reformed the other Conservative—are explored. The founder of Hebrew Union College (HUC), Isaac Wise, developed a curriculum for a “progressive and enlightened” Judaism that could engage with American education and culture. Moses Mielziner prepared a widely used introduction to the Talmud that argued for the reasoned development of halakah (law) from a more historical reading of the Torah. HUC included reforms of the Siddur or prayer book, egalitarian synagogue life for men and women, and a view of an “American Zion” as the best hope for Jewry. Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) was founded by the Orthodox rabbi Sabato Morais to advance a unified, developmental understanding of Judaism according to the Breslau school in Germany. Under Solomon Schechter, JTS became one of the world centers of Wissenschaft des Judentums (or modern study of) as it mobilized rigorous text-critical scholarship, historical studies, and the Hebrew language to advance the Jewish tradition.Less

‘Greek Wisdom’ as Secular Knowledge and Science

Yaacov Shavit

in Athens in Jerusalem: Classical Antiquity and Hellenism in the Making of the Modern Secular Jew

This chapter focuses on how ‘Greek wisdom’ is treated in Jewish culture. It shows that the term ‘Greek wisdom’ had a long history, and the maskilim (men of letters and thinkers) turned to it to seek ... More

This chapter focuses on how ‘Greek wisdom’ is treated in Jewish culture. It shows that the term ‘Greek wisdom’ had a long history, and the maskilim (men of letters and thinkers) turned to it to seek support and legitimization for their views in the Jewish intellectual tradition. The term ‘wisdom’ was the main — perhaps even the only positive signal with which the Jews marked part of the Greek-Hellenistic culture, and the one with the longest and most consecutive history; it was generally identified with Greek wisdom. It meant the heritage and legacy of classical antiquity and Hellenism in philosophy, sciences, and the arts; it also symbolized a lost Jewish heritage and the proper relationship between the Jewish world and the world of the Gentiles. Moreover, wisdom became a multipurpose and multivalent concept that in the intellectual utopia of the maskilim was intended to serve as a bridge and intermediary between the Jewish intellectual tradition and the outside world.Less

Sharing the Console: The Synagogue Organist

Tina Frühauf

in The Organ and its Music in German-Jewish Culture

While the issue concerning the introduction of organs into Jewish worship services eventually faded, debates over whether organs could be played during Sabbath and holy days and whether Jewish or ... More

While the issue concerning the introduction of organs into Jewish worship services eventually faded, debates over whether organs could be played during Sabbath and holy days and whether Jewish or non-Jewish musicians should be allowed to play them on these days continued well into the twentieth century. Prior to the Second Rabbinical Conference of Frankfurt in 1845, Christian musicians were allowed to play the organ during Jewish liturgy. However, even after rabbis at the conference explicitly recommended that a Jewish musician play the organ, a consistent and enforceable solution remained an issue. Each congregation independently decided whether it wanted to hire an organist of Jewish or Christian faith. The lack of Jewish musicians trained in organ music left many Jewish congregations with no choice but to hire church musicians. In the early nineteenth century, state-supervised training of synagogue organists of Jewish origin started in Germany and other parts of Western Europe and, by the turn of the century, various synagogues had trained organists in place. Synagogue organists, however, continued to perform non-Jewish repertoire as a result of the early practice of hiring church musicians and the lack of Jewish-inspired organ works until the early twentieth century, when composers began writing music based on Jewish liturgical, paraliturgical, and folkloristic–traditional melodies that are distinct from Christian models.Less