Department Newsletter 8 (2019) [English] (original) (raw)

Miscellanea, Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History, n. 7 (2014)

2014

The ‘Focus’ section of this edition of ‘Quest’ is composed of very diverse contributions, authored by both junior and senior scholars. The articles cover a wide range of topics, time periods and geographical areas. We open with the Greek Islands, considered from very different points of view: Cristina Pallini and Annalisa Scaccabarozzi offer us a study of urban history, analyzing Salonika’s lost synagogues, while Varvaritis presents the ‘Cronaca Israelitica’ – the first Jewish newspaper in the Ionian Islands – and the discussions of Jewish emancipation in the late XIXth century. Then we move on to Finland, with a contribution by Tarja Liisa Luukkanen that presents the 1897 discussion concerning the legal condition of the Jews that took place within the Finnish Diet, and in particular within the clergy, illustrating the role of antisemitism and the reception of Adolf Stoecker’s ideology. From the Baltic Sea we move back to Southern Europe, with an essay by Bojan Mitrović dedicated to the forms of social integration and of nationalization of Serbian Jewry as seen through a peculiar case study. Udi Manor’s article makes us leap to the North American continent, and to Jewish New York in particular, discussing Jewish 'identity politics' through the prism of the “Jewish Daily Forward” in the early XXth century. The last three articles concentrate on the second half of the XXth century. Rolf Steininger presents the figure of Karl Hartl, the first Austrian diplomat in Israel, and his perception of the country. Michele Sarfatti carefully reconstructs how foreign (non-Italian) historiography interpreted Fascist antisemitism between 1946 and 1986. Finally, the ‘Focus’ section is closed by Anna Baldini’s attentive depiction of Primo Levi’s role in shaping Italy’s memory of the Shoah.

Natalie Zemon Davis, “Jewish History in a New Key,” Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 108, no. 3 (Summer 2018): 353-358

2018

ELLIOTT HOROWITZ FIRST ENTERED my life with his characteristic brilliance and brio at the 1980 meeting of the Association of Jewish Studies. Mark Cohen, Theodore Rabb, and I were presenting our Princeton course on the Jews in Early Modern Europe, into which we had introduced topics from the new social history within a comparative European perspective. A distinguished elder scholar from Jerusalem rose from the audience to state that the course disfigured Jewish history and, eyeing me, that the field did not need contributions from outsiders. Whereupon a student from the Yale doctoral program came forward and defended our course as the wave of the future. Elliott Horowitz saved the day for us, as many of the younger listeners took copies of our syllabus.

The Cambridge Guide to Jewish History, Religion, and Culture

Cambridge University Press eBooks, 2015

The Cambridge Guide to Jewish History, Religion, and Culture is a comprehensive and engaging overview of Jewish life, from its origins in the ancient Near East to its impact on contemporary popular culture. The twenty-one essays, arranged historically and thematically and written specially for this volume by leading scholars, examine the development of Judaism and the evolution of Jewish history and culture over many centuries and in a range of locales. They emphasize the ongoing diversity and creativity of the Jewish experience. Unlike previous anthologies, which concentrate on elite groups and expressions of a male-oriented rabbinic culture, this volume also includes the range of experiences of ordinary people and looks at the lives and achievements of women in every place and era. The many illustrations and maps, the timeline, and the glossary of important terms enhance this book's accessibility to students and general readers.

Early Modern Jewish History: Ongoing Trends, Global Directions

Church History and Religious Culture , 2017

By contrast to many fields subsumed under the umbrella of minority or ethnic studies that have defined the subjects of their inquiries in opposition to the ethnic/race/gender normative of society, Jewish studies has, since its inception in the 19th century, been driven by an intense aspiration to fashion itself along the norms of the European/west-ern humanistic tradition. In this essay I suggest that the early modern era may offer a unique opportunity to revise this paradigm and offer two directions for the future of the field: the synthesis of the Jews' histories of persecution and integration in Europe; and the exploration of the Jews' role in global history.

The Jewish question in the 21st century : an unanswered question? Exploring the Jewish question in literature and politics

The Jewish Journal of Sociology, 2014

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