Jonathan Judaken
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195134681
- eISBN:
- 9780199848652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195134681.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
A review of the book, Esau's Tears: Modern Antisemitism and the Rise of the Jews by Albert S. Lindemann is presented. Albert Lindemann's ambitious account of modern antisemitism aspires to be a ...
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A review of the book, Esau's Tears: Modern Antisemitism and the Rise of the Jews by Albert S. Lindemann is presented. Albert Lindemann's ambitious account of modern antisemitism aspires to be a significant revisionist analysis of a phenomenon that runs like a blood-red thread through the tapestry of modern European history. He incisively insists that antisemitism should not be understood in terms of an irreversible development that climaxes in the Nazi destruction of European Jewry, and that contemporary historians must work against the distorting lens of the Shoah in evaluating its history. Instead, he aspires toward a nuanced contextualization of antisemitism within a broad history of the role of Jews and Judaism in modern Europe and America, purporting “to offer a more penetrating and sophisticated analysis of the emergence of antisemitism in modern times”.Less
A review of the book, Esau's Tears: Modern Antisemitism and the Rise of the Jews by Albert S. Lindemann is presented. Albert Lindemann's ambitious account of modern antisemitism aspires to be a significant revisionist analysis of a phenomenon that runs like a blood-red thread through the tapestry of modern European history. He incisively insists that antisemitism should not be understood in terms of an irreversible development that climaxes in the Nazi destruction of European Jewry, and that contemporary historians must work against the distorting lens of the Shoah in evaluating its history. Instead, he aspires toward a nuanced contextualization of antisemitism within a broad history of the role of Jews and Judaism in modern Europe and America, purporting “to offer a more penetrating and sophisticated analysis of the emergence of antisemitism in modern times”.
Ezra Mendelsohn
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195112030
- eISBN:
- 9780199854608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112030.003.0017
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter reviews the literary works of Frederick C. Jaher's A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America and Leonard Dinnerstein's Antisemitism in America ...
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This chapter reviews the literary works of Frederick C. Jaher's A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America and Leonard Dinnerstein's Antisemitism in America which espouse the maximalist position on American antisemitism. It notes that the two men have written books fundamentally different in historical scope. Dinnerstein examines antisemitism from the colonial era to the 1990s while Jaher begins with an extensive two-chapter analysis of pagan and Christian antisemitism before taking up the story of American antisemitism from the colonial period to the end of the Civil War. This chapter also reviews the work of Murray Friedman's What WentWrong? The Creation and Collapse of the Black-Jewish Alliance, which provides a narrative of the entire history of American black/Jewish relations from the first recorded interaction in colonial times to the present day, and furnishes a running dialogue with the revisionists and Jewhaters.Less
This chapter reviews the literary works of Frederick C. Jaher's A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America and Leonard Dinnerstein's Antisemitism in America which espouse the maximalist position on American antisemitism. It notes that the two men have written books fundamentally different in historical scope. Dinnerstein examines antisemitism from the colonial era to the 1990s while Jaher begins with an extensive two-chapter analysis of pagan and Christian antisemitism before taking up the story of American antisemitism from the colonial period to the end of the Civil War. This chapter also reviews the work of Murray Friedman's What WentWrong? The Creation and Collapse of the Black-Jewish Alliance, which provides a narrative of the entire history of American black/Jewish relations from the first recorded interaction in colonial times to the present day, and furnishes a running dialogue with the revisionists and Jewhaters.
Marion A. Kaplan (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195171648
- eISBN:
- 9780199871346
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195171648.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This examination of the everyday lives of ordinary Jews in Germany focuses on emotions, perceptions, and mentalities. How did they construe changes brought about by industrialization? How did they ...
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This examination of the everyday lives of ordinary Jews in Germany focuses on emotions, perceptions, and mentalities. How did they construe changes brought about by industrialization? How did they decide to enter new professions? How did they fit into newly flourishing organizational life? Could one both be a German and a Jew? How did Jews re-evaluate their multiple identities before and after emancipation, during the Weimar era, under Nazi persecution? Jews' attitudes toward and observances of their religion shifted not only over time, but also within a lifetime. Within frequently hostile political, social, and, cultural structures, Jews were not just victims, but also agents: they deciphered and re-framed events, and even when they adapted to German culture, often did so through a process of negotiation, retaining elements of Jewish culture. Nonetheless, a pervasive antisemitism affected self-reliance, self-respect and self-determination. Still, from the mid-19th century through the Weimar Republic, Jews achieved success amidst and despite antisemitism. In Imperial Germany, Protestants and Catholics, Prussians and Bavarians, and workers and employers were more hostile to each other than to the tiny Jewish minority — hovering at around 1 per cent of the population. A variety of German behaviors emerge in the everyday history of Jewish life that would rarely be apparent from other perspectives. This approach forces us to acknowledge diversity among Germans and inhibits the tendency to read the history of Jews and Germans backwards from the Holocaust.Less
This examination of the everyday lives of ordinary Jews in Germany focuses on emotions, perceptions, and mentalities. How did they construe changes brought about by industrialization? How did they decide to enter new professions? How did they fit into newly flourishing organizational life? Could one both be a German and a Jew? How did Jews re-evaluate their multiple identities before and after emancipation, during the Weimar era, under Nazi persecution? Jews' attitudes toward and observances of their religion shifted not only over time, but also within a lifetime. Within frequently hostile political, social, and, cultural structures, Jews were not just victims, but also agents: they deciphered and re-framed events, and even when they adapted to German culture, often did so through a process of negotiation, retaining elements of Jewish culture. Nonetheless, a pervasive antisemitism affected self-reliance, self-respect and self-determination. Still, from the mid-19th century through the Weimar Republic, Jews achieved success amidst and despite antisemitism. In Imperial Germany, Protestants and Catholics, Prussians and Bavarians, and workers and employers were more hostile to each other than to the tiny Jewish minority — hovering at around 1 per cent of the population. A variety of German behaviors emerge in the everyday history of Jewish life that would rarely be apparent from other perspectives. This approach forces us to acknowledge diversity among Germans and inhibits the tendency to read the history of Jews and Germans backwards from the Holocaust.
Ritchie Robertson
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199248889
- eISBN:
- 9780191697784
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199248889.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
Turning to antisemitism as an external obstacle to Jewish integration, this chapter investigates the diversity of antisemitism, and looks at the representation of Jews in selected texts by Gentile ...
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Turning to antisemitism as an external obstacle to Jewish integration, this chapter investigates the diversity of antisemitism, and looks at the representation of Jews in selected texts by Gentile writers. It seeks to distinguish an antisemitism based on the nationalistic concept of the ‘Volk’ from a subsequent antisemitism based on the quasi-scientific concept of ‘race’. It also sketches an ‘anti-modern mentality’ in which antisemitism was one component, and draws attention to a little-noticed variety of antisemitism, the ‘cultural antisemitism’ of the 1920s.Less
Turning to antisemitism as an external obstacle to Jewish integration, this chapter investigates the diversity of antisemitism, and looks at the representation of Jews in selected texts by Gentile writers. It seeks to distinguish an antisemitism based on the nationalistic concept of the ‘Volk’ from a subsequent antisemitism based on the quasi-scientific concept of ‘race’. It also sketches an ‘anti-modern mentality’ in which antisemitism was one component, and draws attention to a little-noticed variety of antisemitism, the ‘cultural antisemitism’ of the 1920s.
Marion A. Kaplan
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195171648
- eISBN:
- 9780199871346
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195171648.003.0019
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter shows that although relationships with other Jews took up the majority of Jewish social life, Jews found themselves more integrated than at any time in German history. Many of their ...
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This chapter shows that although relationships with other Jews took up the majority of Jewish social life, Jews found themselves more integrated than at any time in German history. Many of their relationships with non-Jews would fall into what Georg Simmel called “differentiated friendships” that connect individuals according to common intellectual interests, common experiences, and common careers or situations in life. These friendships maintained a degree of reserve, avoiding certain areas of interest and feeling. Still, some of these links led to great affection, and some even ended in marriage.Less
This chapter shows that although relationships with other Jews took up the majority of Jewish social life, Jews found themselves more integrated than at any time in German history. Many of their relationships with non-Jews would fall into what Georg Simmel called “differentiated friendships” that connect individuals according to common intellectual interests, common experiences, and common careers or situations in life. These friendships maintained a degree of reserve, avoiding certain areas of interest and feeling. Still, some of these links led to great affection, and some even ended in marriage.
Trude Maurer
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195171648
- eISBN:
- 9780199871346
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195171648.003.0022
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter shows that toward the end of the Weimar Republic the Jewish school system became an institution of protection against antisemitism and of strengthening Jewish consciousness. As the Nazis ...
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This chapter shows that toward the end of the Weimar Republic the Jewish school system became an institution of protection against antisemitism and of strengthening Jewish consciousness. As the Nazis blocked this advancement by limiting access to secondary schools and higher education and strove to lower the Jewish level of education, Jews turned more toward their own history and culture, while preparing for emigration and also attempting not to lose sight of “general” history and culture.Less
This chapter shows that toward the end of the Weimar Republic the Jewish school system became an institution of protection against antisemitism and of strengthening Jewish consciousness. As the Nazis blocked this advancement by limiting access to secondary schools and higher education and strove to lower the Jewish level of education, Jews turned more toward their own history and culture, while preparing for emigration and also attempting not to lose sight of “general” history and culture.
Andrew Altman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199236282
- eISBN:
- 9780191741357
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236282.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
This chapter critically examines the jurisprudence of free expression under human rights law and American constitutional doctrine, focusing on the issue of Holocaust denial. It is argued that legal ...
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This chapter critically examines the jurisprudence of free expression under human rights law and American constitutional doctrine, focusing on the issue of Holocaust denial. It is argued that legal prohibitions aimed at Holocaust denial are unjustifiable in any existing liberal state. The argument hinges on a revised form of a doctrine at the heart of a key American free speech case, Brandenburg v. Ohio. The revised Brandenburg doctrine holds that speech ought not to be prohibited, regardless of the viewpoint it advocates, unless the speech is a) intended and likely to bring about immediate lawless conduct, or b) reasonably expected to contribute substantially to widespread violence. This doctrine is defended, and it is shown to tell against prohibitions on Holocaust denial in existing liberal states.Less
This chapter critically examines the jurisprudence of free expression under human rights law and American constitutional doctrine, focusing on the issue of Holocaust denial. It is argued that legal prohibitions aimed at Holocaust denial are unjustifiable in any existing liberal state. The argument hinges on a revised form of a doctrine at the heart of a key American free speech case, Brandenburg v. Ohio. The revised Brandenburg doctrine holds that speech ought not to be prohibited, regardless of the viewpoint it advocates, unless the speech is a) intended and likely to bring about immediate lawless conduct, or b) reasonably expected to contribute substantially to widespread violence. This doctrine is defended, and it is shown to tell against prohibitions on Holocaust denial in existing liberal states.
Oded Ben-Hur
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823228058
- eISBN:
- 9780823237111
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823228058.003.0015
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The history of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel can be analysed on three levels: the relations between the Holy See as the center of the world's Catholicism and Israel as the ...
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The history of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel can be analysed on three levels: the relations between the Holy See as the center of the world's Catholicism and Israel as the center of the Jewish world; the relations between the Vatican as the center of Catholicism and Israel as a political entity; and the relations between the two states. Thus far, between the Jewish world — Israel included — and the Christian one, there has been a lack of mutual knowledge. This is mainly due to the gap created by hatred, antisemitism, persecutions, crusades, and inquisitions that have left suspicion and fear in the Jewish world. The signing of the Fundamental Agreement between Israel and the Holy See in 1993 established and laid the framework for cultural exchanges, education, the fight against antisemitism, freedom of religion, and pilgrimage. However, it was the vision and courage of Pope John Paul II which helped formalize the relations between Christians and Jews in 1994.Less
The history of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel can be analysed on three levels: the relations between the Holy See as the center of the world's Catholicism and Israel as the center of the Jewish world; the relations between the Vatican as the center of Catholicism and Israel as a political entity; and the relations between the two states. Thus far, between the Jewish world — Israel included — and the Christian one, there has been a lack of mutual knowledge. This is mainly due to the gap created by hatred, antisemitism, persecutions, crusades, and inquisitions that have left suspicion and fear in the Jewish world. The signing of the Fundamental Agreement between Israel and the Holy See in 1993 established and laid the framework for cultural exchanges, education, the fight against antisemitism, freedom of religion, and pilgrimage. However, it was the vision and courage of Pope John Paul II which helped formalize the relations between Christians and Jews in 1994.
Lisa Silverman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199794843
- eISBN:
- 9780199950072
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794843.003.0000
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, History of Religion
This chapter introduces the overlapping, imagined notions of Jews, Vienna, and the Austrian provinces between the World Wars by examining how the national and urban representations functioned in ...
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This chapter introduces the overlapping, imagined notions of Jews, Vienna, and the Austrian provinces between the World Wars by examining how the national and urban representations functioned in shaping the culture of the First Republic, and explores the various reactions of Austria’s Jews to the collapse of the Dual Monarchy. This chapter also introduces “Jewishness” as a category of critical analysis. It outlines how perceived differences between the “Jewish” and the “non-Jewish” formed a broad, binary system for ordering the world, much like gender’s universal (and hierarchical) codings of the “feminine” and “masculine.” The results of this analysis indicate that a deeply engrained, hierarchical framework of “Jewishness” was played an important role in how Jews and non-Jews alike made sense of a new and often chaotic world in the interwar period.Less
This chapter introduces the overlapping, imagined notions of Jews, Vienna, and the Austrian provinces between the World Wars by examining how the national and urban representations functioned in shaping the culture of the First Republic, and explores the various reactions of Austria’s Jews to the collapse of the Dual Monarchy. This chapter also introduces “Jewishness” as a category of critical analysis. It outlines how perceived differences between the “Jewish” and the “non-Jewish” formed a broad, binary system for ordering the world, much like gender’s universal (and hierarchical) codings of the “feminine” and “masculine.” The results of this analysis indicate that a deeply engrained, hierarchical framework of “Jewishness” was played an important role in how Jews and non-Jews alike made sense of a new and often chaotic world in the interwar period.
Lisa Silverman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199794843
- eISBN:
- 9780199950072
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794843.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, History of Religion
This chapter examines four murder trials that became stages upon which tensions between city and province intertwined with Jewishness, revealing its function as a deeply engrained system used to ...
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This chapter examines four murder trials that became stages upon which tensions between city and province intertwined with Jewishness, revealing its function as a deeply engrained system used to shape contemporary interpretations of unexpected events in unstable times. Philipp Halsmann was tried and convicted twice for the murder of his father Max, a dentist from Riga, who was bludgeoned to death while the two were climbing in the Alps. The dramatic rhetoric used during the trial, along with the lack of evidence or viable motive, evoked centuries-old accusations against Jews for blood libel. These trials mirrored two other interwar murder trials in Vienna that are now interpreted as two egregious examples of antisemitic violence: the public assassinations of author Hugo Bettauer and philosophy professor Moritz Schlick. However, their non-Jewish assassins avoided heavy punishment by engaging more modern forms of antisemitism to legitimate their violent acts.Less
This chapter examines four murder trials that became stages upon which tensions between city and province intertwined with Jewishness, revealing its function as a deeply engrained system used to shape contemporary interpretations of unexpected events in unstable times. Philipp Halsmann was tried and convicted twice for the murder of his father Max, a dentist from Riga, who was bludgeoned to death while the two were climbing in the Alps. The dramatic rhetoric used during the trial, along with the lack of evidence or viable motive, evoked centuries-old accusations against Jews for blood libel. These trials mirrored two other interwar murder trials in Vienna that are now interpreted as two egregious examples of antisemitic violence: the public assassinations of author Hugo Bettauer and philosophy professor Moritz Schlick. However, their non-Jewish assassins avoided heavy punishment by engaging more modern forms of antisemitism to legitimate their violent acts.
Ritchie Robertson
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199248889
- eISBN:
- 9780191697784
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199248889.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This book is a literary study of the uneasy position of the Jews in Germany and Austria from the first pleas for Jewish emancipation during the Enlightenment to the eve of the Holocaust. Trying to ...
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This book is a literary study of the uneasy position of the Jews in Germany and Austria from the first pleas for Jewish emancipation during the Enlightenment to the eve of the Holocaust. Trying to avoid hindsight and drawing on a wide range of literary texts, this book offers a close examination of attempts to construct a Jewish identity suitable for an increasingly secular world. It examines both literary portrayals of Jews by Gentile writers — whether antisemitic, friendly, or ambivalent — and efforts to reinvent Jewish identities by the Jews themselves, in response to antisemitism culminating in Zionism. The author deals with German-Jewish relations comprehensively and over a long period of literary history.Less
This book is a literary study of the uneasy position of the Jews in Germany and Austria from the first pleas for Jewish emancipation during the Enlightenment to the eve of the Holocaust. Trying to avoid hindsight and drawing on a wide range of literary texts, this book offers a close examination of attempts to construct a Jewish identity suitable for an increasingly secular world. It examines both literary portrayals of Jews by Gentile writers — whether antisemitic, friendly, or ambivalent — and efforts to reinvent Jewish identities by the Jews themselves, in response to antisemitism culminating in Zionism. The author deals with German-Jewish relations comprehensively and over a long period of literary history.
Jay Geller
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780823275595
- eISBN:
- 9780823277148
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823275595.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
Given the vast inventory of verbal and visual images of nonhuman animals (pigs, dogs, vermin, rodents, apes, etc.) disseminated for millennia to debase and bestialize Jews (the Bestiarium Judaicum), ...
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Given the vast inventory of verbal and visual images of nonhuman animals (pigs, dogs, vermin, rodents, apes, etc.) disseminated for millennia to debase and bestialize Jews (the Bestiarium Judaicum), this work asks: What is at play when Jewish-identified writers employ such figures in their narratives and poems? Bringing together Jewish cultural studies (examining how Jews have negotiated Jew-Gentile difference) and critical animal studies (analyzing the functions served by asserting human-animal difference), this monograph focuses on the writings of primarily Germanophone authors, including Sigmund Freud, Heinrich Heine, Franz Kafka, Gertrud Kolmar, H. Leivick, Felix Salten, and Curt Siodmak. It ferrets out of their nonhuman-animal constructions their responses to the bestial answers upon which the Jewish and animal questions converged and by which varieties of the species “Jew” were depicted. Along with close textual analysis, it examines both personal and social contexts of each work. It explores how several writers attempted to subvert the identification of the Jew-animal by rendering indeterminable the human-animal “Great Divide” being played out on actual Jewish bodies and in Jewish-Gentile relations as well as how others endeavored to work-through identifications with those bestial figures differently: e.g., Salten’s Bambi novels posed the question of “whether a doe is sometimes just a female deer,” while Freud, in his case studies, manifestly disaggregated Jews and animals even as he, perhaps, animalized the human. This work also critically engages new-historical (M. Schmidt), postcolonial (J. Butler and J. Hanssen), and continental philosophic (G. Agamben) appropriations of the conjunction of Jew and animal.Less
Given the vast inventory of verbal and visual images of nonhuman animals (pigs, dogs, vermin, rodents, apes, etc.) disseminated for millennia to debase and bestialize Jews (the Bestiarium Judaicum), this work asks: What is at play when Jewish-identified writers employ such figures in their narratives and poems? Bringing together Jewish cultural studies (examining how Jews have negotiated Jew-Gentile difference) and critical animal studies (analyzing the functions served by asserting human-animal difference), this monograph focuses on the writings of primarily Germanophone authors, including Sigmund Freud, Heinrich Heine, Franz Kafka, Gertrud Kolmar, H. Leivick, Felix Salten, and Curt Siodmak. It ferrets out of their nonhuman-animal constructions their responses to the bestial answers upon which the Jewish and animal questions converged and by which varieties of the species “Jew” were depicted. Along with close textual analysis, it examines both personal and social contexts of each work. It explores how several writers attempted to subvert the identification of the Jew-animal by rendering indeterminable the human-animal “Great Divide” being played out on actual Jewish bodies and in Jewish-Gentile relations as well as how others endeavored to work-through identifications with those bestial figures differently: e.g., Salten’s Bambi novels posed the question of “whether a doe is sometimes just a female deer,” while Freud, in his case studies, manifestly disaggregated Jews and animals even as he, perhaps, animalized the human. This work also critically engages new-historical (M. Schmidt), postcolonial (J. Butler and J. Hanssen), and continental philosophic (G. Agamben) appropriations of the conjunction of Jew and animal.
Michael Clark
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199562343
- eISBN:
- 9780191721441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199562343.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter investigates the actions and attitudes of the first Jewish MPs. It begins by analysing the nature of Jewish MPs as a group and their equivocal connection to the community, before ...
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This chapter investigates the actions and attitudes of the first Jewish MPs. It begins by analysing the nature of Jewish MPs as a group and their equivocal connection to the community, before proceeding to examine their activity and experience as politicians at party, constituency, national, and international levels — at each stage assessing the influence of their hyphenated identity. The chapter highlights the emergence of a specific Jewish agenda within British politics and details the community's attempts to protect politically aspects of their minority subculture, whilst integrating closely with general British interests and becoming involved in party politics. It also assesses the level of antisemitism the MPs encountered and discusses the contentious nature of Jewishness in the British political context.Less
This chapter investigates the actions and attitudes of the first Jewish MPs. It begins by analysing the nature of Jewish MPs as a group and their equivocal connection to the community, before proceeding to examine their activity and experience as politicians at party, constituency, national, and international levels — at each stage assessing the influence of their hyphenated identity. The chapter highlights the emergence of a specific Jewish agenda within British politics and details the community's attempts to protect politically aspects of their minority subculture, whilst integrating closely with general British interests and becoming involved in party politics. It also assesses the level of antisemitism the MPs encountered and discusses the contentious nature of Jewishness in the British political context.
Geoffrey Alderman
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195103311
- eISBN:
- 9780199854585
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195103311.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter examines the phenomenon of political conservatism among British Jews since 1945. The study of Jewish political preferences is now long established, and can of course be justified on its ...
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This chapter examines the phenomenon of political conservatism among British Jews since 1945. The study of Jewish political preferences is now long established, and can of course be justified on its own terms. However, the political conservatism of modern British Jewry needs to be set as well in two complementary historical contexts. The first is that in the diaspora communities of Western Europe, Australia, and North America, Jews—particularly immigrant Jews—gravitated toward the politics of the center or the left rather than those of the right. The second is to be found in the continuing propensity of Britain's Conservative Party to fall victim to a populist xenophobic or antisemitic discourse, which often translates into policies that, superficially at least, hardly seem capable of attracting Jewish support. Put another way, whereas the judgment of history should have ensured a reaction against conservatism by the Jews of modern Britain, an opposite development occurred; and this calls for explanation.Less
This chapter examines the phenomenon of political conservatism among British Jews since 1945. The study of Jewish political preferences is now long established, and can of course be justified on its own terms. However, the political conservatism of modern British Jewry needs to be set as well in two complementary historical contexts. The first is that in the diaspora communities of Western Europe, Australia, and North America, Jews—particularly immigrant Jews—gravitated toward the politics of the center or the left rather than those of the right. The second is to be found in the continuing propensity of Britain's Conservative Party to fall victim to a populist xenophobic or antisemitic discourse, which often translates into policies that, superficially at least, hardly seem capable of attracting Jewish support. Put another way, whereas the judgment of history should have ensured a reaction against conservatism by the Jews of modern Britain, an opposite development occurred; and this calls for explanation.
Haim Avni
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195103311
- eISBN:
- 9780199854585
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195103311.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
Two basic questions arise whenever security and political crises occur: on the one hand, how much authority does a voluntary leadership command within its own community; and, on the other hand, how ...
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Two basic questions arise whenever security and political crises occur: on the one hand, how much authority does a voluntary leadership command within its own community; and, on the other hand, how much influence on the national political powers can such a leadership expect to have. These general issues are examined here via a case study of one of the most protracted crises in the relations between Argentines and the Jews: the kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann in 1960 and his subsequent trial and execution in Israel in June 1962. This process unfolded against the backdrop of growing political instability in Argentina, in which antisemitism became a growing threat to the community's well-being.Less
Two basic questions arise whenever security and political crises occur: on the one hand, how much authority does a voluntary leadership command within its own community; and, on the other hand, how much influence on the national political powers can such a leadership expect to have. These general issues are examined here via a case study of one of the most protracted crises in the relations between Argentines and the Jews: the kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann in 1960 and his subsequent trial and execution in Israel in June 1962. This process unfolded against the backdrop of growing political instability in Argentina, in which antisemitism became a growing threat to the community's well-being.
Zvi Gitelman
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195103311
- eISBN:
- 9780199854585
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195103311.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
The fall of communism in 1991 radically changed the political dimension of Jewish life in the former Soviet Union. The most obvious transformation, of course, was that which resulted from the ...
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The fall of communism in 1991 radically changed the political dimension of Jewish life in the former Soviet Union. The most obvious transformation, of course, was that which resulted from the shattering of the Soviet Union into fifteen or sixteen independent states. No longer is there a single policy toward Jews on the territory of the former Soviet Union. In the Ukraine, the Baltic, and other states, prominent political leaders have explicitly renounced antisemitism and have pledged that the new states will not discriminate against Jews and will guarantee their civil and cultural rights. This has brought about a major change in the Jewish situation and the one on which this chapter will concentrate: the opportunity to rebuild Jewish institutions and communities, which, except for some synagogues, had been destroyed by the Soviet regime back in the 1920s.Less
The fall of communism in 1991 radically changed the political dimension of Jewish life in the former Soviet Union. The most obvious transformation, of course, was that which resulted from the shattering of the Soviet Union into fifteen or sixteen independent states. No longer is there a single policy toward Jews on the territory of the former Soviet Union. In the Ukraine, the Baltic, and other states, prominent political leaders have explicitly renounced antisemitism and have pledged that the new states will not discriminate against Jews and will guarantee their civil and cultural rights. This has brought about a major change in the Jewish situation and the one on which this chapter will concentrate: the opportunity to rebuild Jewish institutions and communities, which, except for some synagogues, had been destroyed by the Soviet regime back in the 1920s.
Ezra Mendelsohn
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195112030
- eISBN:
- 9780199854608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112030.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter focuses on the discussion of the efforts of Austrian Jewry, during the First World War, to form a united front—initially by establishing a central representative body and subsequently ...
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This chapter focuses on the discussion of the efforts of Austrian Jewry, during the First World War, to form a united front—initially by establishing a central representative body and subsequently convening a Congress. These were the primary Jewish political responses to the new situation brought about by the war; on the one hand, to the uncertainties about Jewish status should the monarchy undergo structural reform and, on the other, to an increasingly threatening antisemitism. Underlying the seemingly interminable squabbles over the program of the Congress were important and related issues: the nature and definition of Jewish political interests and the contours of Jewish autonomy in a restructured monarchy.Less
This chapter focuses on the discussion of the efforts of Austrian Jewry, during the First World War, to form a united front—initially by establishing a central representative body and subsequently convening a Congress. These were the primary Jewish political responses to the new situation brought about by the war; on the one hand, to the uncertainties about Jewish status should the monarchy undergo structural reform and, on the other, to an increasingly threatening antisemitism. Underlying the seemingly interminable squabbles over the program of the Congress were important and related issues: the nature and definition of Jewish political interests and the contours of Jewish autonomy in a restructured monarchy.
Ezra Mendelsohn
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195112030
- eISBN:
- 9780199854608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112030.003.0015
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter reviews Albert S. Lindermann's recent study of the Dreyfus, Beilis, and Leo Frank affairs (1894 to 1915). It points out that the definition of the topic appears at times to be as elusive ...
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This chapter reviews Albert S. Lindermann's recent study of the Dreyfus, Beilis, and Leo Frank affairs (1894 to 1915). It points out that the definition of the topic appears at times to be as elusive as the quest to ground it in the conditions of “reality.” The trials and the controversies that were engendered clearly occupy the book's central narrative concerns, but lurking in the background—and periodically made explicit—is a set of arguments about modern antisemitism: what accounts for it, how it is best to be studied, and its impact on political events. The chapter focuses on the terminological gloss that Lindermann provided in the book which defines antisemtism simply as “hostility to” or “hatred of” Jews.Less
This chapter reviews Albert S. Lindermann's recent study of the Dreyfus, Beilis, and Leo Frank affairs (1894 to 1915). It points out that the definition of the topic appears at times to be as elusive as the quest to ground it in the conditions of “reality.” The trials and the controversies that were engendered clearly occupy the book's central narrative concerns, but lurking in the background—and periodically made explicit—is a set of arguments about modern antisemitism: what accounts for it, how it is best to be studied, and its impact on political events. The chapter focuses on the terminological gloss that Lindermann provided in the book which defines antisemtism simply as “hostility to” or “hatred of” Jews.
Hillel J. Kieval
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195134681
- eISBN:
- 9780199848652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195134681.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter begins by offering a counterpoint to the view, often found in studies of modern antisemitism, that Jews have occupied a central role in the evolution of the modern city, that their ...
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This chapter begins by offering a counterpoint to the view, often found in studies of modern antisemitism, that Jews have occupied a central role in the evolution of the modern city, that their presence and stake in urban culture has been so high as to render them the symbolic equivalent of the city itself. It rejects the view that modern anti-Semitism is best understood as a discursive critique of the “modernity” and “urbanity” of the Jew. It suggests that the predicament of “traditional” urban interests in the face of the overwhelming reality of Jewish emancipation bore a phenomenological resemblance to earlier urban challenges and predicaments. The equality of legal status for Jews, their freedom of movement and of settlement, equal access to education and (in theory, at least) occupations constituted an apparently irreversible defeat for one significant model of urban development. It is this sense of finality that accounts for the hyperbolic imagery of much of the anti-Jewish writing of the post emancipation years, in which the emancipation itself is portrayed as an “endgame” of history: not the beginning of a process, but its final point.Less
This chapter begins by offering a counterpoint to the view, often found in studies of modern antisemitism, that Jews have occupied a central role in the evolution of the modern city, that their presence and stake in urban culture has been so high as to render them the symbolic equivalent of the city itself. It rejects the view that modern anti-Semitism is best understood as a discursive critique of the “modernity” and “urbanity” of the Jew. It suggests that the predicament of “traditional” urban interests in the face of the overwhelming reality of Jewish emancipation bore a phenomenological resemblance to earlier urban challenges and predicaments. The equality of legal status for Jews, their freedom of movement and of settlement, equal access to education and (in theory, at least) occupations constituted an apparently irreversible defeat for one significant model of urban development. It is this sense of finality that accounts for the hyperbolic imagery of much of the anti-Jewish writing of the post emancipation years, in which the emancipation itself is portrayed as an “endgame” of history: not the beginning of a process, but its final point.
Kathy Lavezzo
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501703157
- eISBN:
- 9781501706158
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501703157.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
England during the Middle Ages was at the forefront of European antisemitism. It was in medieval Norwich that the notorious “blood libel” was first introduced when a resident accused the city's ...
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England during the Middle Ages was at the forefront of European antisemitism. It was in medieval Norwich that the notorious “blood libel” was first introduced when a resident accused the city's Jewish leaders of abducting and ritually murdering a local boy. This book rethinks the complex and contradictory relation between England's rejection of “the Jew” and the centrality of Jews to classic English literature. Drawing on literary, historical, and cartographic texts, the book charts an entangled Jewish imaginative presence in English culture. It tracks how English writers from Bede to John Milton imagine Jews via buildings—tombs, latrines and especially houses—that support fantasies of exile. Epitomizing this trope is the blood libel and its implication that Jews cannot be accommodated in England because of the anti-Christian violence they allegedly perform in their homes. In the Croxton Play of the Sacrament, Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, the Jewish house not only serves as a lethal trap but also as the site of an emerging bourgeoisie incompatible with Christian pieties. In the book's epilogue, the chapters advance the inquiry into Victorian England and the relationship between Charles Dickens (whose Fagin is the second most infamous Jew in English literature after Shylock) and the Jewish couple that purchased his London home, Tavistock House, showing how far relations between gentiles and Jews in England had (and had not) evolved.Less
England during the Middle Ages was at the forefront of European antisemitism. It was in medieval Norwich that the notorious “blood libel” was first introduced when a resident accused the city's Jewish leaders of abducting and ritually murdering a local boy. This book rethinks the complex and contradictory relation between England's rejection of “the Jew” and the centrality of Jews to classic English literature. Drawing on literary, historical, and cartographic texts, the book charts an entangled Jewish imaginative presence in English culture. It tracks how English writers from Bede to John Milton imagine Jews via buildings—tombs, latrines and especially houses—that support fantasies of exile. Epitomizing this trope is the blood libel and its implication that Jews cannot be accommodated in England because of the anti-Christian violence they allegedly perform in their homes. In the Croxton Play of the Sacrament, Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, the Jewish house not only serves as a lethal trap but also as the site of an emerging bourgeoisie incompatible with Christian pieties. In the book's epilogue, the chapters advance the inquiry into Victorian England and the relationship between Charles Dickens (whose Fagin is the second most infamous Jew in English literature after Shylock) and the Jewish couple that purchased his London home, Tavistock House, showing how far relations between gentiles and Jews in England had (and had not) evolved.
