Workshop on Toledot Yeshu at the University of Cologne (27.06.23) (original) (raw)
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On the occasion of Peter Schäfer's 70th birthday, the present volume brings together an international array of scholars -his students, colleagues, and friends -to honor him for his unparalleled contribution to the study of Judaism, and to express gratitude for his tireless mentorship, intellectual generosity, and inspiring model of what a scholar and teacher should be. Created by a trans-Atlantic editorial team -spanning the United States, Israel, and Germany -this Festschrift includes contributions from many of his numerous students from the Universität zu Köln, the Freie Universität Berlin, and Princeton University, but also contributions from colleagues from all over the world. It is with gratitude and affection that we are here united in the aim of honoring him with these imre shefer, "words of beauty."
Archive, Bibliotheken, Forschungseinrichtungen, Museen etc
Das Kulturerbe deutschsprachiger Juden, 2014
Landeshauptarchiv ist das zentrale staatliche Archiv des Landes Brandenburg und zuständig für das Archivgut aller Stellen des Landes sowie ihrer Rechts-und Funktionsvorgänger. Als Brücke zwischen Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft, zwischen Verwaltung, Forschung und allen Interessierten macht es Urkunden, Amtsbücher, Akten, Karten, Pläne, Plakate u.a. für die Erforschung der brandenburgischen Landes-, Regional-, Lokal-und Familiengeschichte sowie zur Wahrung rechtlicher Belange zugänglich. Zu seinen vorrangigen Aufgaben gehört es, die Unterlagen, die sich in seiner Obhut befinden, sicher zu verwahren und zu erhalten, sie durch Findmittel allgemein nutzbar zu machen und auszuwerten. Zugleich übernimmt es laufend archivwürdige Unterlagen, die in der Verwaltung des Landes entbehrlich geworden sind.
Harvard Theological Review, 2017
This article attempts to advance a number of claims concerning the Zohar’s exegetical presentation of the biblical story of the blasphemer (Lev. 24: 10-23). The major thesis of the article is that the Zoharic interpretation contains a hidden anti-Christian polemic—one aimed directly at the figures of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. To prove this, the article shows that the Zohar’s language concerning the blasphemer recalls tropes and structures from the popular medieval polemical work, Toledot Yeshu. The article provides a significant understanding of the ambivalent Zoharic attitude towards Jesus as the Son of God – and of the Virgin Mary as linked to the Shekhinah. This article was previously published in my Ph.D. dissertation in 2012 (Hebrew).
The Aerial Battle in the Toledot Yeshu and Sodomy in the Late Middle Ages
Thomas Ebendorfer's fifteenth-century Latin translation of a Hebrew Toledot Yeshu text is the earliest extant Latin version to include a full narrative from the birth of Jesus to the events following the crucifixion, and predates existing Hebrew versions. After reviewing the place of Ebendorfer's work in the textual tradition of the Toledot, the article examines carefully the work's account of the aerial battle between Jesus and Judas, in comparison to other versions. Ebendorfer includes the detail of sexual intercourse between the two, which is absent in many later versions. In the context of a discussion of Christian and Jewish attitudes toward male-male sexual activity in the Middle Ages, the article concludes that while this detail was in Ebendorfer's exemplar, he could have elaborated on it in a way that indicates this was a particularly Christian concern.
Journal for Religion, Film, and Media, 2019
Toledot Yeshu (The Jewish Life of Jesus) is perhaps one of the most infamous retellings of the Gospel narrative of the pre-modern era. The present essay explores its reception and circulation among both Jews and Christians in the period before and after the first editions of the work, by J. C. Wagenseil in 1681 and J. J. Huldreich in 1705. The work was an object of fascination for early modern scholars of Judaism and was regularly invoked in discussions concerned with the Talmud and other Jewish books alleged to be blasphemous. For Jewish scholars, it was a source of embarrassment, although both the manuscript and the documentary evidence demonstrate that many Jews did view Toledot Yeshu as a culturally significant narrative, worthy of being transmitted. It is here suggested that Toledot Yeshu, with its direct and emotional cogency, combining history, humour and polemics, was indeed recognized by early modern Jews and crypto-Jews as a powerful story, through which they could articulate their identity.