Howard Wettstein (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520228641
- eISBN:
- 9780520926899
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520228641.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Diaspora, considered as a context for insights into Jewish identity, brings together a lively, interdisciplinary group of scholars in this innovative volume. Readers needn't expect, however, to find ...
More
Diaspora, considered as a context for insights into Jewish identity, brings together a lively, interdisciplinary group of scholars in this innovative volume. Readers needn't expect, however, to find easy agreement on what those insights are. The concept “diaspora” itself has proved controversial; galut, the traditional Hebrew expression for the Jews' perennial condition, is better translated as “exile.” The very distinction between diaspora and exile, although difficult to analyze, is important enough to form the basis of several chapters in this collection. “Identity” is an even more elusive concept. The chapters to this volume explore Jewish identity—or, more accurately, Jewish identities—from the mutually illuminating perspectives of anthropology, art history, comparative literature, cultural studies, German history, philosophy, political theory, and sociology. The chapters bring new emphases to Jewish and cultural studies, as well as the emerging field of diaspora studies. The book mirrors the richness of experience and the attendant virtual impossibility of definition that constitute the challenge of understanding Jewish identity.Less
Diaspora, considered as a context for insights into Jewish identity, brings together a lively, interdisciplinary group of scholars in this innovative volume. Readers needn't expect, however, to find easy agreement on what those insights are. The concept “diaspora” itself has proved controversial; galut, the traditional Hebrew expression for the Jews' perennial condition, is better translated as “exile.” The very distinction between diaspora and exile, although difficult to analyze, is important enough to form the basis of several chapters in this collection. “Identity” is an even more elusive concept. The chapters to this volume explore Jewish identity—or, more accurately, Jewish identities—from the mutually illuminating perspectives of anthropology, art history, comparative literature, cultural studies, German history, philosophy, political theory, and sociology. The chapters bring new emphases to Jewish and cultural studies, as well as the emerging field of diaspora studies. The book mirrors the richness of experience and the attendant virtual impossibility of definition that constitute the challenge of understanding Jewish identity.
Erich S. Gruen
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520228641
- eISBN:
- 9780520926899
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520228641.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter challenges the presumption that a positive conception of diaspora comes into its own with modernity and Jewish Emancipation, that until modern times, Jews lived under the cloud of galut. ...
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This chapter challenges the presumption that a positive conception of diaspora comes into its own with modernity and Jewish Emancipation, that until modern times, Jews lived under the cloud of galut. It distinguishes a so-called gloomy approach to Jewish dispersion, which is more common, from a positive approach. The former resolves diaspora into galut and sees salvation exclusively in terms of homecoming, the reacquisition of a homeland. The latter sees Jews as “the people of the Book,” the text as a “portable temple,” and restoration to a homeland as superfluous. It suggests that both approaches are too simple, too stark. Jewish dispersion did not begin with the destruction of the Temple in 70 c.e. For a host of reasons, largely including voluntary migration, Jews lived outside the Center. Indeed, there was a vibrant diaspora of some three to five million Jews in the roughly four centuries from Alexander the Great to Titus. Jerusalem was no more a home for them than it is for many diaspora Jews today.Less
This chapter challenges the presumption that a positive conception of diaspora comes into its own with modernity and Jewish Emancipation, that until modern times, Jews lived under the cloud of galut. It distinguishes a so-called gloomy approach to Jewish dispersion, which is more common, from a positive approach. The former resolves diaspora into galut and sees salvation exclusively in terms of homecoming, the reacquisition of a homeland. The latter sees Jews as “the people of the Book,” the text as a “portable temple,” and restoration to a homeland as superfluous. It suggests that both approaches are too simple, too stark. Jewish dispersion did not begin with the destruction of the Temple in 70 c.e. For a host of reasons, largely including voluntary migration, Jews lived outside the Center. Indeed, there was a vibrant diaspora of some three to five million Jews in the roughly four centuries from Alexander the Great to Titus. Jerusalem was no more a home for them than it is for many diaspora Jews today.
Howard Wettstein
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520228641
- eISBN:
- 9780520926899
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520228641.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter explores a Jewish identity for which galut is one central pillar. It contends that even in modern times, galut cannot and should not be avoided. Rather than steering clear of the almost ...
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This chapter explores a Jewish identity for which galut is one central pillar. It contends that even in modern times, galut cannot and should not be avoided. Rather than steering clear of the almost inbred Jewish sense of dislocation—one that we cannot quite lose even in our own Western diasporic setting—galut must be reckoned with. But such a reckoning does not necessarily issue in a bleak outlook. An ultimately positive take on the human and Jewish conditions requires that we give substantial weight to unpleasant, stubborn facts about human and Jewish dislocation. The chapter distinguishes two galut phenomena. First there is in the human condition called “normal dislocation.” Being the sorts of all-too-human creatures that we are, living in the sort of world we find ourselves in, has always meant big trouble. The second and specifically Jewish galut phenomenon is not normal; it is extraordinary. It relates to the following cataclysmic sequence of events: the churban, the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 c.e., the defeat of Bar Kochba in 135, and the attendant dispersion. The chapter sketches aspects of the Rabbinic response to the cosmic jolt and explores how a tradition smitten by and obsessed with galut develops practices and an outlook to cope. It focuses on a crucial theological aspect of the rabbinic response, specifically the super-anthropomorphizing tendency one sees so clearly in the commentary, Midrash Rabbah, on the Book of Lamentations.Less
This chapter explores a Jewish identity for which galut is one central pillar. It contends that even in modern times, galut cannot and should not be avoided. Rather than steering clear of the almost inbred Jewish sense of dislocation—one that we cannot quite lose even in our own Western diasporic setting—galut must be reckoned with. But such a reckoning does not necessarily issue in a bleak outlook. An ultimately positive take on the human and Jewish conditions requires that we give substantial weight to unpleasant, stubborn facts about human and Jewish dislocation. The chapter distinguishes two galut phenomena. First there is in the human condition called “normal dislocation.” Being the sorts of all-too-human creatures that we are, living in the sort of world we find ourselves in, has always meant big trouble. The second and specifically Jewish galut phenomenon is not normal; it is extraordinary. It relates to the following cataclysmic sequence of events: the churban, the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 c.e., the defeat of Bar Kochba in 135, and the attendant dispersion. The chapter sketches aspects of the Rabbinic response to the cosmic jolt and explores how a tradition smitten by and obsessed with galut develops practices and an outlook to cope. It focuses on a crucial theological aspect of the rabbinic response, specifically the super-anthropomorphizing tendency one sees so clearly in the commentary, Midrash Rabbah, on the Book of Lamentations.
Bluma Goldstein
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520228641
- eISBN:
- 9780520926899
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520228641.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
During the first half of the nineteenth century, Central European Jews struggled both to free themselves from the constrictions of the halakha and to become fully integrated citizens. The golden age ...
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During the first half of the nineteenth century, Central European Jews struggled both to free themselves from the constrictions of the halakha and to become fully integrated citizens. The golden age of Spain—perhaps somewhat idealized in the nineteenth century—served Jewish critics of the oppressive exilic life as the basis of a much more palatable model of Jewish identity. In this context, the chapter sees in Heine's work an inviting positive conception of diaspora as well as a critique of “the devastating consequences of an oppressive exilic life.” Negative images of galut, of exilic life, inhabit the three poems that constitute “Hebräische Melodien.” In the first poem, “Prinzessin Sabbat,” Heine portrays the miserable situation of the “weekday Jew” imprisoned by traditional ritual. In the second, “Jehuda ben Halevy,” the narrator-poet feels the stirrings of the ancient Babylonian exile. The final poem, “Disputation,” dramatizes a kind of exilic “intellectual and cultural immobility.” The specter of galut in these poems serves to highlight Heine's suggestion of a different model, that of “an integrative diaspora that promotes interactive dialogue across borders.” Heine thus makes available to us the prospect of “integrating substantive aspects of Jewish tradition and secular culture.” The result is a picture of diasporic life in which the modern Jew might thrive as a Jew and as a European.Less
During the first half of the nineteenth century, Central European Jews struggled both to free themselves from the constrictions of the halakha and to become fully integrated citizens. The golden age of Spain—perhaps somewhat idealized in the nineteenth century—served Jewish critics of the oppressive exilic life as the basis of a much more palatable model of Jewish identity. In this context, the chapter sees in Heine's work an inviting positive conception of diaspora as well as a critique of “the devastating consequences of an oppressive exilic life.” Negative images of galut, of exilic life, inhabit the three poems that constitute “Hebräische Melodien.” In the first poem, “Prinzessin Sabbat,” Heine portrays the miserable situation of the “weekday Jew” imprisoned by traditional ritual. In the second, “Jehuda ben Halevy,” the narrator-poet feels the stirrings of the ancient Babylonian exile. The final poem, “Disputation,” dramatizes a kind of exilic “intellectual and cultural immobility.” The specter of galut in these poems serves to highlight Heine's suggestion of a different model, that of “an integrative diaspora that promotes interactive dialogue across borders.” Heine thus makes available to us the prospect of “integrating substantive aspects of Jewish tradition and secular culture.” The result is a picture of diasporic life in which the modern Jew might thrive as a Jew and as a European.
Murray Baumgarten
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520228641
- eISBN:
- 9780520926899
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520228641.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter focuses on Rebecca Goldstein's 1995 novel, Mazel. Galut is characterized by powerlessness, halachic constriction, dislocation, and anguish, in contrast with the diaspora's possibility of ...
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This chapter focuses on Rebecca Goldstein's 1995 novel, Mazel. Galut is characterized by powerlessness, halachic constriction, dislocation, and anguish, in contrast with the diaspora's possibility of empowerment and integration. Mazel is read as identifying the movement from galut to diaspora with the Emancipation movement from the shtetl to the city. Mazel is the story of four generations of Jewish women, beginning in the shtetl (Shluftchev), proceeding to the city (Warsaw), winding its way through Israel to New York, and ending in the suburbs (Lipton, New Jersey). This suburb, largely populated by the traditionally religious, is no more than “Shluftchev with a designer label,” as Sasha, the central character, puts it. This movement to the suburbs—which involves both Jews and a new direction in Jewish writing—is seen as subtle and complicated.Less
This chapter focuses on Rebecca Goldstein's 1995 novel, Mazel. Galut is characterized by powerlessness, halachic constriction, dislocation, and anguish, in contrast with the diaspora's possibility of empowerment and integration. Mazel is read as identifying the movement from galut to diaspora with the Emancipation movement from the shtetl to the city. Mazel is the story of four generations of Jewish women, beginning in the shtetl (Shluftchev), proceeding to the city (Warsaw), winding its way through Israel to New York, and ending in the suburbs (Lipton, New Jersey). This suburb, largely populated by the traditionally religious, is no more than “Shluftchev with a designer label,” as Sasha, the central character, puts it. This movement to the suburbs—which involves both Jews and a new direction in Jewish writing—is seen as subtle and complicated.
Diane L. Wolf
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520228641
- eISBN:
- 9780520926899
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520228641.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter presents a case study of a survivor for whom the Shoah is indeed central. The subject is Jake, a Polish Hasid, for whom a bitter taste of galut, rather than an empowering diaspora, is ...
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This chapter presents a case study of a survivor for whom the Shoah is indeed central. The subject is Jake, a Polish Hasid, for whom a bitter taste of galut, rather than an empowering diaspora, is pivotal to his sense of himself as a Jew. It argues that collective memory—the product of the transmission of a group's history and culture from one generation to the next—is crucial to individuals' identities as members of the group and products of its culture and history. Since the Shoah figures centrally in recent Jewish history, it has become a crucial component in the transmitted collective memory. The chapter draws on Jake's postwar life to accomplish two goals. First, to illustrate the difficulties that characterize the lives of many survivors. For Jake the end of the war marked the beginning of injustices created by family members. Second, to demonstrate that the methods used in Spielberg's Shoah Visual History Foundation can undermine the richness of survivors' stories, while perhaps encouraging a Jewish identity based on victimization. A more nuanced oral history, one that examines the reactions of Jewish kin and the Jewish community, might yield a richer set of images.Less
This chapter presents a case study of a survivor for whom the Shoah is indeed central. The subject is Jake, a Polish Hasid, for whom a bitter taste of galut, rather than an empowering diaspora, is pivotal to his sense of himself as a Jew. It argues that collective memory—the product of the transmission of a group's history and culture from one generation to the next—is crucial to individuals' identities as members of the group and products of its culture and history. Since the Shoah figures centrally in recent Jewish history, it has become a crucial component in the transmitted collective memory. The chapter draws on Jake's postwar life to accomplish two goals. First, to illustrate the difficulties that characterize the lives of many survivors. For Jake the end of the war marked the beginning of injustices created by family members. Second, to demonstrate that the methods used in Spielberg's Shoah Visual History Foundation can undermine the richness of survivors' stories, while perhaps encouraging a Jewish identity based on victimization. A more nuanced oral history, one that examines the reactions of Jewish kin and the Jewish community, might yield a richer set of images.
Rita M. Gross
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520255852
- eISBN:
- 9780520943667
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520255852.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
The most profound, intriguing, and inviting of all Jewish theologies, the Kabbalah, teaches us that galut, i.e. exile, is the fundamental reality and pain of present existence. It teaches that one of ...
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The most profound, intriguing, and inviting of all Jewish theologies, the Kabbalah, teaches us that galut, i.e. exile, is the fundamental reality and pain of present existence. It teaches that one of the causes of galut is the alienation of the masculine from the feminine in God, the alienation of God and the Shekhinah. But it also teaches, especially in its Lurianic phases, that everyone can effect the turning of galut by dedicating all their efforts to the reunification of God and the Shekhinah. As the linguistic forms and the sound of the words become less exotic, it no longer seems daring or unconventional to speak of God in such a manner. Instead, it seems appropriate, natural, what one would expect, the way things would be except for a massive skewing and programming of religious consciousness. It also frees us from alienation, anger, pain, and sorrow over the exclusion of women from the religious and spiritual dimensions of being Jewish in a way that is unsurpassed.Less
The most profound, intriguing, and inviting of all Jewish theologies, the Kabbalah, teaches us that galut, i.e. exile, is the fundamental reality and pain of present existence. It teaches that one of the causes of galut is the alienation of the masculine from the feminine in God, the alienation of God and the Shekhinah. But it also teaches, especially in its Lurianic phases, that everyone can effect the turning of galut by dedicating all their efforts to the reunification of God and the Shekhinah. As the linguistic forms and the sound of the words become less exotic, it no longer seems daring or unconventional to speak of God in such a manner. Instead, it seems appropriate, natural, what one would expect, the way things would be except for a massive skewing and programming of religious consciousness. It also frees us from alienation, anger, pain, and sorrow over the exclusion of women from the religious and spiritual dimensions of being Jewish in a way that is unsurpassed.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226776361
- eISBN:
- 9780226776385
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226776385.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This chapter presents a discussion on Jewish diaspora nationalism in the Bukovina. Czernowitz became a significant center of Jewish diaspora nationalism. Nathan Birnbaum was the principal organizer ...
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This chapter presents a discussion on Jewish diaspora nationalism in the Bukovina. Czernowitz became a significant center of Jewish diaspora nationalism. Nathan Birnbaum was the principal organizer of the first Yiddish Language Conference in Czernowitz. Max Diamant, originally a Zionist, became increasingly attracted by galut nationalism and the cause of the Yiddish language. He authored a legal treatise on municipal law and municipal electoral regulations in the Bukovina. He decided to submit the by-laws of the proposed Jewish theater association not in German or another of the languages officially recognized in the Bukovina, but in Yiddish and in Yiddish orthography. In addition, he emphasized religion as the central unifying cultural characteristic of the Jews of the East. The arguments put forward by Diamant, particularly his speech before the Imperial Court in Vienna, deserve wider recognition as an outstanding document of galut nationalism and a resounding defense of the Yiddish language.Less
This chapter presents a discussion on Jewish diaspora nationalism in the Bukovina. Czernowitz became a significant center of Jewish diaspora nationalism. Nathan Birnbaum was the principal organizer of the first Yiddish Language Conference in Czernowitz. Max Diamant, originally a Zionist, became increasingly attracted by galut nationalism and the cause of the Yiddish language. He authored a legal treatise on municipal law and municipal electoral regulations in the Bukovina. He decided to submit the by-laws of the proposed Jewish theater association not in German or another of the languages officially recognized in the Bukovina, but in Yiddish and in Yiddish orthography. In addition, he emphasized religion as the central unifying cultural characteristic of the Jews of the East. The arguments put forward by Diamant, particularly his speech before the Imperial Court in Vienna, deserve wider recognition as an outstanding document of galut nationalism and a resounding defense of the Yiddish language.
