Galit Noga-Banai | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (original) (raw)
Books by Galit Noga-Banai
This study offers an unconventional reading of modern and postmodern German memorials from a medi... more This study offers an unconventional reading of modern and postmodern German memorials from a medievalist perspective. Beginning with a memorial for German soldiers in El Alamein and continuing with memorials for victims of the Nazis in Germany, Galit Noga-Banai challenges the visual differences between modern and medieval art and transforms the interactions between the two into six productive conversations. The examples discussed move from Christian themes and/or visual practice directly connected to medieval art in the surrounding local urban landscape to secular and/or abstract projects that seem disconnected from premodern forms and formats. The wide variety of techniques, materials, iconography, layouts, and styles demonstrates that medievalism is a method of observation, one that can underscore the links between several works of art, offer a broader context, add layers of meaning, and explore relationships with nearby visual and social environments, physical and mental landscapes, conflicts and memories. The medieval association may also contribute to a project’s potential to arouse empathy, and to stand the test of time and distance from the events it is meant to recall. The medieval prism will afford the reader greater insight into these works of art and a better understanding of their contribution to modern and contemporary memory culture in Germany.
Books Edited by Galit Noga-Banai
Walking in Someone Else’s Shoes Empathy in History, Society, and Culture Edited by Galit Noga-Ban... more Walking in Someone Else’s Shoes
Empathy in History, Society, and Culture
Edited by
Galit Noga-Banai, Amos Goldberg,
Ariel Knafo-Noam, Lilach Sagiv
Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2019
The collection of essays presented in “Devotional Cross-Roads: Practicing Love of God in Medieval... more The collection of essays presented in “Devotional Cross-Roads: Practicing Love of God in Medieval Gaul, Jerusalem, and Saxony” investigates test case witnesses of Christian devotion and patronage from Late Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages, set in and between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, as well as Gaul and the regions north of the Alps. Devotional practice and love of God refer to people – mostly from the lay and religious elite –, ideas, copies of texts, images, and material objects, such as relics and reliquaries. The wide geographic borders and time span are used here to illustrate a broad picture composed around questions of worship, identity, religious affiliation and gender. Among the diversity of cases, the studies presented in this volume exemplify recurring themes, which occupied the Christian believer, such as the veneration of the Cross, translation of architecture, pilgrimage and patronage, emergence of iconography and devotional patterns. These essays are representing the research results of the project “Practicing Love of God: Comparing Women’s and Men’s Practice in Medieval Saxony” guided by the art historian Galit Noga-Banai, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the historian Hedwig Röckelein, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. This project was running from 2013 to 2018 within the Niedersachsen-Israeli Program and financed by the State of Lower Saxony.
Papers by Galit Noga-Banai
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 15.8.2024 https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/kunst-und-architektur/friedensdenkmal-in-kassel-die-frage-ist-wofuer-sie-starben-19919574.html, 2024
Im Freien. Architekturhistorische Horizonte der Moderne und Nachmoderne Festschrift für Matthias Schirren, 2023
, 28.4 הארץ, מוסף תרבות וספרות, 2023
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 17.4.2023
Die Mauern sprechen, und das Pflaster antwortet Warum das „Judensau"-Relief an der Wittenberger ... more Die Mauern sprechen, und das Pflaster antwortet
Warum das „Judensau"-Relief an der Wittenberger Stadtkirche nicht verschwinden darf: Bemerkungen zu einer aktuellen Debatte um Antisemitismus und deutsche Erinnerungskultur
Von Galit Noga-Banai
Studies in Medievalism XXXII: Medievalism in Play, 2023
Noga-Banai, Galit. “From Holy Lance to Covid-19 Syringe: Benjamin Netanyahu as Curator and Saint.... more Noga-Banai, Galit. “From Holy Lance to Covid-19 Syringe: Benjamin Netanyahu as Curator and Saint.” In Studies in Medievalism XXXII: Medievalism in Play, edited by Karl Fugelso, 195–216. Boydell & Brewer, 2023.
A copy of the article may be sent upon request via email
Holocaust Studies, 2021
In recent months, debate has been swirling in Hamburg over the rebuilding of the Bornplatz synago... more In recent months, debate has been swirling in Hamburg over the rebuilding of the Bornplatz synagogue. My concern is a work of art, ‘Synagogue Monument,’ a memorial created by local artist Margrit Kahl (1942–2009) to mark the fiftieth jubilee of the November pogrom. Kahl traced the synagogue’s outline with cobblestones, on its original scale, as well as its complex domed ceiling and vaulted spaces. At present, the inclination is to integrate the mosaic into the new synagogue. If this plan is carried out, the decisive features of this work of art would be destroyed, and with it the memory of the old local Jewish community. Moreover, it would come at the expense of the significant place Hamburg holds in German postwar memorial culture.
Studies in Medievalism XXX. Politics and medievalism (studies). II, 2021
Three cemeteries in El Alamein, placed along the coastal road, hold the memory of one of the long... more Three cemeteries in El Alamein, placed along the coastal road, hold the memory of one of the longest and most important conflicts of World War II: the Battle of El Alamein (July 1-27 and October 23-November 4, 1942). In 1951, 111 kilometers west of Alexandria, on the southern side of the road (actually, the parallel old coast road), a memorial for British and Commonwealth soldiers was established. In 1959, 119 kilometers from the same city, on the northern side of the new coastal road, a German memorial was built (Fig. 1), and in 1958, five kilometers farther, on the same side of the road, an Italian memorial was constructed. The diverse locations of these war cemeteries along the same route reflects the balance of power during the battle, where British and Commonwealth forces fought against the Axis powers and ended the long fight for the Western Desert. In fact, the Battle of El Alamein stopped Germany from overrunning Egypt and seizing the Suez Canal. 2 The diversity of powers is reflected beyond the topography. It is expressed conceptually by the architectural choices and type of graves. Sir Hubert Worthington (1886-1963) designed a cemetery for the Commonwealth memorial that takes the form of a cloister, with thousands of individual gravestones set in rows as well as stone name-panels on the walls. 3 The 1 This essay was written with the support of the Mandel Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Humanities and Jewish Studies, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I am grateful to Peter Päßler of the Archive des Volksbundes Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge Kassel, who kindly and patiently assisted me in locating information about the project in El Alamein. Special thanks to Andreas Fliedner for correcting my translations from German to English. The article is dedicated to my dear Egyptian friend, Dr. Mary Thabet, with whom I visited El Alamein, and to the memory of my mentor, Josef Engemann.
A Vision of the Days: Studies in Early Jewish History and Historiography In Honor of Daniel R. Schwartz, 2024
Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana , 2021
La Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana è un periodico annuale destinato ad accogliere la pubblicazio... more La Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana è un periodico annuale destinato ad accogliere la pubblicazione scientifica di studi e ricerche attorno alle testimonianze monumentali del cristianesimo durante la tarda antichità e l'alto medioevo. Ogni volume è suddiviso in tre sezioni: la prima, riservata alla Pontificia Commis sione di Archeologia Sacra, accoglie i resoconti ufficiali dei lavori e delle scoperte fatte negli anti chi cimiteri cristiani di Roma e d'Italia. La seconda presenta studi e notizie di ricerche e scoperte su tutte le regioni dell'Orbis christianus antiquus. Una terza parte è destinata alle recensioni di libri pervenuti in Redazione. Le lingue accettate dalla Rivista, oltre al greco antico e al latino, sono il francese, l'inglese, l'italiano, lo spagnolo e il tedesco. I manoscritti inviati alla Redazione devono essere adeguati, dagli autori, alle Norme di Reda zione della Rivista (pdf scaricabile al sito www.piac.it). I contributi sono esaminati dal Comitato di Redazione e sottoposti a duplice Blind Peer Review. L'elenco dei Referees è disponibile al sito www.piac.it * The article was written with the support of the Mandel Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Humanities and Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I am grateful to Benjamin Arubas, Alix Barbet, Chaim Ben David, Dudi Mevorach, Talila Michaeli, and Zeev Weiss for their advice and help with the illustrations. Special thanks are due to Sarit Shalev-Eyni and Yair Zako vitch, who kindly discussed the representations of Daniel with me.
F.A.Z, 2021
Zur Diskussion um den Wiederaufbau der Hamburger Bornplatzsynagoge F.A.Z 26.1.2021
Devotional ‘Cross-Roads’: Practicing Love of God in Medieval Jerusalem, Gaul and Saxony, Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2019
This study offers an unconventional reading of modern and postmodern German memorials from a medi... more This study offers an unconventional reading of modern and postmodern German memorials from a medievalist perspective. Beginning with a memorial for German soldiers in El Alamein and continuing with memorials for victims of the Nazis in Germany, Galit Noga-Banai challenges the visual differences between modern and medieval art and transforms the interactions between the two into six productive conversations. The examples discussed move from Christian themes and/or visual practice directly connected to medieval art in the surrounding local urban landscape to secular and/or abstract projects that seem disconnected from premodern forms and formats. The wide variety of techniques, materials, iconography, layouts, and styles demonstrates that medievalism is a method of observation, one that can underscore the links between several works of art, offer a broader context, add layers of meaning, and explore relationships with nearby visual and social environments, physical and mental landscapes, conflicts and memories. The medieval association may also contribute to a project’s potential to arouse empathy, and to stand the test of time and distance from the events it is meant to recall. The medieval prism will afford the reader greater insight into these works of art and a better understanding of their contribution to modern and contemporary memory culture in Germany.
Walking in Someone Else’s Shoes Empathy in History, Society, and Culture Edited by Galit Noga-Ban... more Walking in Someone Else’s Shoes
Empathy in History, Society, and Culture
Edited by
Galit Noga-Banai, Amos Goldberg,
Ariel Knafo-Noam, Lilach Sagiv
Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2019
The collection of essays presented in “Devotional Cross-Roads: Practicing Love of God in Medieval... more The collection of essays presented in “Devotional Cross-Roads: Practicing Love of God in Medieval Gaul, Jerusalem, and Saxony” investigates test case witnesses of Christian devotion and patronage from Late Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages, set in and between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, as well as Gaul and the regions north of the Alps. Devotional practice and love of God refer to people – mostly from the lay and religious elite –, ideas, copies of texts, images, and material objects, such as relics and reliquaries. The wide geographic borders and time span are used here to illustrate a broad picture composed around questions of worship, identity, religious affiliation and gender. Among the diversity of cases, the studies presented in this volume exemplify recurring themes, which occupied the Christian believer, such as the veneration of the Cross, translation of architecture, pilgrimage and patronage, emergence of iconography and devotional patterns. These essays are representing the research results of the project “Practicing Love of God: Comparing Women’s and Men’s Practice in Medieval Saxony” guided by the art historian Galit Noga-Banai, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the historian Hedwig Röckelein, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. This project was running from 2013 to 2018 within the Niedersachsen-Israeli Program and financed by the State of Lower Saxony.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 15.8.2024 https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/kunst-und-architektur/friedensdenkmal-in-kassel-die-frage-ist-wofuer-sie-starben-19919574.html, 2024
Im Freien. Architekturhistorische Horizonte der Moderne und Nachmoderne Festschrift für Matthias Schirren, 2023
, 28.4 הארץ, מוסף תרבות וספרות, 2023
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 17.4.2023
Die Mauern sprechen, und das Pflaster antwortet Warum das „Judensau"-Relief an der Wittenberger ... more Die Mauern sprechen, und das Pflaster antwortet
Warum das „Judensau"-Relief an der Wittenberger Stadtkirche nicht verschwinden darf: Bemerkungen zu einer aktuellen Debatte um Antisemitismus und deutsche Erinnerungskultur
Von Galit Noga-Banai
Studies in Medievalism XXXII: Medievalism in Play, 2023
Noga-Banai, Galit. “From Holy Lance to Covid-19 Syringe: Benjamin Netanyahu as Curator and Saint.... more Noga-Banai, Galit. “From Holy Lance to Covid-19 Syringe: Benjamin Netanyahu as Curator and Saint.” In Studies in Medievalism XXXII: Medievalism in Play, edited by Karl Fugelso, 195–216. Boydell & Brewer, 2023.
A copy of the article may be sent upon request via email
Holocaust Studies, 2021
In recent months, debate has been swirling in Hamburg over the rebuilding of the Bornplatz synago... more In recent months, debate has been swirling in Hamburg over the rebuilding of the Bornplatz synagogue. My concern is a work of art, ‘Synagogue Monument,’ a memorial created by local artist Margrit Kahl (1942–2009) to mark the fiftieth jubilee of the November pogrom. Kahl traced the synagogue’s outline with cobblestones, on its original scale, as well as its complex domed ceiling and vaulted spaces. At present, the inclination is to integrate the mosaic into the new synagogue. If this plan is carried out, the decisive features of this work of art would be destroyed, and with it the memory of the old local Jewish community. Moreover, it would come at the expense of the significant place Hamburg holds in German postwar memorial culture.
Studies in Medievalism XXX. Politics and medievalism (studies). II, 2021
Three cemeteries in El Alamein, placed along the coastal road, hold the memory of one of the long... more Three cemeteries in El Alamein, placed along the coastal road, hold the memory of one of the longest and most important conflicts of World War II: the Battle of El Alamein (July 1-27 and October 23-November 4, 1942). In 1951, 111 kilometers west of Alexandria, on the southern side of the road (actually, the parallel old coast road), a memorial for British and Commonwealth soldiers was established. In 1959, 119 kilometers from the same city, on the northern side of the new coastal road, a German memorial was built (Fig. 1), and in 1958, five kilometers farther, on the same side of the road, an Italian memorial was constructed. The diverse locations of these war cemeteries along the same route reflects the balance of power during the battle, where British and Commonwealth forces fought against the Axis powers and ended the long fight for the Western Desert. In fact, the Battle of El Alamein stopped Germany from overrunning Egypt and seizing the Suez Canal. 2 The diversity of powers is reflected beyond the topography. It is expressed conceptually by the architectural choices and type of graves. Sir Hubert Worthington (1886-1963) designed a cemetery for the Commonwealth memorial that takes the form of a cloister, with thousands of individual gravestones set in rows as well as stone name-panels on the walls. 3 The 1 This essay was written with the support of the Mandel Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Humanities and Jewish Studies, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I am grateful to Peter Päßler of the Archive des Volksbundes Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge Kassel, who kindly and patiently assisted me in locating information about the project in El Alamein. Special thanks to Andreas Fliedner for correcting my translations from German to English. The article is dedicated to my dear Egyptian friend, Dr. Mary Thabet, with whom I visited El Alamein, and to the memory of my mentor, Josef Engemann.
A Vision of the Days: Studies in Early Jewish History and Historiography In Honor of Daniel R. Schwartz, 2024
Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana , 2021
La Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana è un periodico annuale destinato ad accogliere la pubblicazio... more La Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana è un periodico annuale destinato ad accogliere la pubblicazione scientifica di studi e ricerche attorno alle testimonianze monumentali del cristianesimo durante la tarda antichità e l'alto medioevo. Ogni volume è suddiviso in tre sezioni: la prima, riservata alla Pontificia Commis sione di Archeologia Sacra, accoglie i resoconti ufficiali dei lavori e delle scoperte fatte negli anti chi cimiteri cristiani di Roma e d'Italia. La seconda presenta studi e notizie di ricerche e scoperte su tutte le regioni dell'Orbis christianus antiquus. Una terza parte è destinata alle recensioni di libri pervenuti in Redazione. Le lingue accettate dalla Rivista, oltre al greco antico e al latino, sono il francese, l'inglese, l'italiano, lo spagnolo e il tedesco. I manoscritti inviati alla Redazione devono essere adeguati, dagli autori, alle Norme di Reda zione della Rivista (pdf scaricabile al sito www.piac.it). I contributi sono esaminati dal Comitato di Redazione e sottoposti a duplice Blind Peer Review. L'elenco dei Referees è disponibile al sito www.piac.it * The article was written with the support of the Mandel Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Humanities and Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I am grateful to Benjamin Arubas, Alix Barbet, Chaim Ben David, Dudi Mevorach, Talila Michaeli, and Zeev Weiss for their advice and help with the illustrations. Special thanks are due to Sarit Shalev-Eyni and Yair Zako vitch, who kindly discussed the representations of Daniel with me.
F.A.Z, 2021
Zur Diskussion um den Wiederaufbau der Hamburger Bornplatzsynagoge F.A.Z 26.1.2021
Devotional ‘Cross-Roads’: Practicing Love of God in Medieval Jerusalem, Gaul and Saxony, Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2019
אני-הוא האמפתיה בהיסטוריה, בחברה ובתרבות, 2023
המאמר מתמקד בזיכרון חזותי של ליל הבדולח במזרקה בהילדסהיים. הוא מתאר כיצד המדייבליזם משמש כלי ויזו... more המאמר מתמקד בזיכרון חזותי של ליל הבדולח במזרקה בהילדסהיים. הוא מתאר כיצד המדייבליזם משמש כלי ויזואלי מתוחכם להפעלת אמפתיה בהקשר של אמנות, טראומה מקומית וזיכרון היסטורי. הטענה המרכזית היא שהבחירה במדיום, בטכניקה, בחומרים בתוכנית ובמערך העיטור לגלעד זה, נעשתה תוך זיקה ליצירה הנוצרית שנוצרה בעיר בימי הביניים. מתוך כך עולה השאלה האם זיקה זו הייתה הכרחית כדי לעורר אמפתיה לנספים בקרב תושבי העיר שבזיכרונם התרבותי נמצאות יצירות אֹמנות אלו, כמו גם בנוף העירוני העכשווי שלהם.
Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 2019
East and West in the Early Middle Ages, the Merovingian Kingdoms in Mediterranean Perspective, Cambridge, 2019
Radegund (Radegundis, c. 525-87), a Thuringian princess and wife of King Chlothar I , was a woman... more Radegund (Radegundis, c. 525-87), a Thuringian princess and wife of King Chlothar I , was a woman who maintained social contacts with leading fi gures in the church and with the secular reigning classes. 1 In what was perhaps her most signifi cant achievement, she was the recipient of the relic of the True Cross for the monastery she founded in Poitiers. The relic of the Cross was given to her by none other than the imperial couple of the Byzantine Empire, Justin II (565-74) and his wife Sophia , after Radegund sent an envoy to Constantinople in 568. 2 Radegund received the relic in 569 in one of the earliest recorded translations of the relic of the True Cross to the western end of the world. 3 It was most 1 Radegund's biography and deeds were recorded by Venantius Fortunatus, an Italian poet who later became bishop of Poitiers, and by the nun Baudonivia. Venantius Fortunatus,
The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology Edited by William R. Caraher, Thomas W. Davis, and David K. Pettegrew, 2019
This chapter focuses on the visual language of early Christian reliquaries produced to contain fr... more This chapter focuses on the visual language of early Christian reliquaries produced to contain fragments of sacred saints, sites, and events. It aims to describe and contextualize the representative as well as exceptional cases produced in various places, made of assorted materials, and decorated with diverse and elaborated decorative
programs. The chapter illustrates nuances and approaches that were in use throughout the period. Moreover, it shows that the visual rhetoric—that is, the frame, composition, and selection of motifs and scenes—is capable of implying something about the dynamics of the inanimate object and the type of memory it contains. This allows us to discover
clues about the visual preferences of the faithful, whether they were exalted bishops or simple pilgrims seeking heaven on earth.
Rahmen und frames: Dispositionen des Visuellen in der Kunst der Vormoderne, ed. by Daniela Wagner, Fridericke Conrad (Hamburg, 2018), 2018
Sammelwerk Heilige: Bücher - Leiber - Orte: Festschrift für Bruno Reudenbach Wagner, Daniela • Wimmer, Hanna [Bearb.]. - Berlin (2018)
Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies, vol. 1 no. 1, 2018, pp. 79-102.