I am German-trained, New York-based scholar of early modern and modern Central European and trans-regional Jewish history. My first book was on Wissenschaft des Judentums; my second book will be on Jewish court factors (Hofjuden).
In the aftermath of the Shoah and the ostensible triumph of nationalism, it became common in hist... more In the aftermath of the Shoah and the ostensible triumph of nationalism, it became common in historiography to relegate Jews to the position of the “eternal other” in a series of binaries: Christian/Jewish, Gentile/Jewish, European/Jewish, non-Jewish/Jewish, and so forth. For the longest time, these binaries remained characteristic of Jewish historiography, including in the Central European context. Assuming instead, as the more recent approaches in Habsburg studies do, that pluriculturalism was the basis of common experience in formerly Habsburg Central Europe, and accepting that no single “majority culture” existed, but rather hegemonies were imposed in certain contexts, then the often used binaries are misleading and conceal the complex and sometimes even paradoxical conditions that shaped Jewish life in the region before the Shoah.
The very complexity of Habsburg Central Europe both in synchronic and diachronic perspective precludes any singular historical narrative of “Habsburg Jewry,” and it is not the intention of this volume to offer an overview of “Habsburg Jewish history.” The selected articles in this volume illustrate instead how important it is to reevaluate categories, deconstruct historical narratives, and reconceptualize implemented approaches in specific geographic, temporal, and cultural contexts in order to gain a better understanding of the complex and pluricultural history of the Habsburg Empire and the region as a whole.
Eine Promotionsbehörde für Rabbinatsstudenten? Die Hallenser Orientalistik und ihre jüdischen Studierenden im 19. Jahrhundert,, 2023
Einst eine Hilfswissenschaft der Theologie etablierte sich die Orientalischen Studien im Laufe de... more Einst eine Hilfswissenschaft der Theologie etablierte sich die Orientalischen Studien im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts als eigenständige Universitätsdisziplin. Die Universität Halle wurde dank ihrer herausragenden Professoren bereits im ersten Dritten des 19. Jahrhunderts ein Zentrum der deutschsprachigen Orientalistik. Anders als die Theologie und die Geschichtswissenschaft distanzierte sich auch die Hallenser Orientalistik sowohl in der Forschung als auch in den Alltagsbeziehungen lange deutlich vom immer stärker artikulierten akademischen Antisemitismus und begegnete jüdischen Gelehrten weitgehend vorurteilsfrei. Die Orientalistik wurde darum für zahlreiche jüdische Gelehrte das Fach, in dem sie ihren Doktorgrad erwarben. Der Artikel skizziert die Begründung der Hallenser Orientalistik und ihre Bedeutung für die so genannte Wissenschaft des Judentums, die frühen Jüdischen Studien, und geht dabei gleichfalls auf die Gründung und Rolle der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft (DMG) ein.
Jewish networks are the far-reaching transterritorial and transcultural channels of communication... more Jewish networks are the far-reaching transterritorial and transcultural channels of communication between Jews and Jewries. They formed as a result of the dispersal of Jewish society over great distances starting in antiquity and ran along the lines of Jewish congregational organisations, specific religious and doctrinal practices, and the commercial networks of Jewish merchants. Life in the Jewish diaspora and the local juridical regulations regarding the Jews constantly influenced and shaped Jewish networks in the period from the middle of the 15th until the 20th century.
When the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau opened its doors in 1854, it established a novel ... more When the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau opened its doors in 1854, it established a novel form of rabbinical education: the systematic combination of Jewish studies at the seminary in parallel with university studies. The Breslau seminary became the model for most later institutions for rabbinical training in Europe and the United States. The seminaries were the new sites of modern Jewish scholarship, especially the academic study of Judaism (Wissenschaft des Judentums). Their function and goal were to preserve, (re)organize, and transmit Jewish knowledge in the modern age. As such, they became central nodes in Jewish scholarly networks. This case study highlights the multi-nodal connections between the Conservative seminaries in Breslau, Philadelphia, New York, Budapest, and Vienna. At the same time, it is intended to provide an example of the potential of transnational and transfer studies for the history of the Jewish religious learning in Europe and the United States.
PaRDeS, die Zeitschrift der Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien e. V., erforscht die fruchtbare kult... more PaRDeS, die Zeitschrift der Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien e. V., erforscht die fruchtbare kulturelle Vielfalt des Judentums sowie ihre Berührungspunkte zur nichtjüdischen Umwelt in unterschiedlichen Bereichen. Daneben dient die Zeitschrift als Forum zur Positionierung der Fächer Jüdische Studien und Judaistik innerhalb des wissenschaftlichen Diskurses sowie zur Diskussion ihrer historischen und gesellschaftlichen Verantwortung.
In 2018, we celebrate the bicentennial of Wissenschaft des Judentums, the early Jewish Studies th... more In 2018, we celebrate the bicentennial of Wissenschaft des Judentums, the early Jewish Studies that began in the nineteenth century and introduced critical historical research into Jewish sources, using all academic methods available, including non-Jewish sources or the comparison with them. Today, the academic study of Judaism exists in various national and cultural contexts. Its three centers – Israel, the United States, and Germany – have different labels and forms for it such as “Jewish Studies,” “Jewish Science” (Madat ha-Yahadut), “Judaic Studies,” or “Jewish Theology.” Their differences notwithstanding, they all refer to the year 1818 as the founding date of their disciplines. In that year, Leopold Zunz (1794–1886) published his essay Etwas über die rabbinische Literatur (“Something on Rabbinic Literature”), which unfolded the thematic field of modern Jewish Studies for the first time.2 As Michael A. Meyer and Ismar Schorsch emphasize in the double interview opening this issu...
In the aftermath of the Shoah and the ostensible triumph of nationalism, it became common in hist... more In the aftermath of the Shoah and the ostensible triumph of nationalism, it became common in historiography to relegate Jews to the position of the “eternal other” in a series of binaries: Christian/Jewish, Gentile/Jewish, European/Jewish, non-Jewish/Jewish, and so forth. For the longest time, these binaries remained characteristic of Jewish historiography, including in the Central European context. Assuming instead, as the more recent approaches in Habsburg studies do, that pluriculturalism was the basis of common experience in formerly Habsburg Central Europe, and accepting that no single “majority culture” existed, but rather hegemonies were imposed in certain contexts, then the often used binaries are misleading and conceal the complex and sometimes even paradoxical conditions that shaped Jewish life in the region before the Shoah.
The very complexity of Habsburg Central Europe both in synchronic and diachronic perspective precludes any singular historical narrative of “Habsburg Jewry,” and it is not the intention of this volume to offer an overview of “Habsburg Jewish history.” The selected articles in this volume illustrate instead how important it is to reevaluate categories, deconstruct historical narratives, and reconceptualize implemented approaches in specific geographic, temporal, and cultural contexts in order to gain a better understanding of the complex and pluricultural history of the Habsburg Empire and the region as a whole.
Eine Promotionsbehörde für Rabbinatsstudenten? Die Hallenser Orientalistik und ihre jüdischen Studierenden im 19. Jahrhundert,, 2023
Einst eine Hilfswissenschaft der Theologie etablierte sich die Orientalischen Studien im Laufe de... more Einst eine Hilfswissenschaft der Theologie etablierte sich die Orientalischen Studien im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts als eigenständige Universitätsdisziplin. Die Universität Halle wurde dank ihrer herausragenden Professoren bereits im ersten Dritten des 19. Jahrhunderts ein Zentrum der deutschsprachigen Orientalistik. Anders als die Theologie und die Geschichtswissenschaft distanzierte sich auch die Hallenser Orientalistik sowohl in der Forschung als auch in den Alltagsbeziehungen lange deutlich vom immer stärker artikulierten akademischen Antisemitismus und begegnete jüdischen Gelehrten weitgehend vorurteilsfrei. Die Orientalistik wurde darum für zahlreiche jüdische Gelehrte das Fach, in dem sie ihren Doktorgrad erwarben. Der Artikel skizziert die Begründung der Hallenser Orientalistik und ihre Bedeutung für die so genannte Wissenschaft des Judentums, die frühen Jüdischen Studien, und geht dabei gleichfalls auf die Gründung und Rolle der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft (DMG) ein.
Jewish networks are the far-reaching transterritorial and transcultural channels of communication... more Jewish networks are the far-reaching transterritorial and transcultural channels of communication between Jews and Jewries. They formed as a result of the dispersal of Jewish society over great distances starting in antiquity and ran along the lines of Jewish congregational organisations, specific religious and doctrinal practices, and the commercial networks of Jewish merchants. Life in the Jewish diaspora and the local juridical regulations regarding the Jews constantly influenced and shaped Jewish networks in the period from the middle of the 15th until the 20th century.
When the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau opened its doors in 1854, it established a novel ... more When the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau opened its doors in 1854, it established a novel form of rabbinical education: the systematic combination of Jewish studies at the seminary in parallel with university studies. The Breslau seminary became the model for most later institutions for rabbinical training in Europe and the United States. The seminaries were the new sites of modern Jewish scholarship, especially the academic study of Judaism (Wissenschaft des Judentums). Their function and goal were to preserve, (re)organize, and transmit Jewish knowledge in the modern age. As such, they became central nodes in Jewish scholarly networks. This case study highlights the multi-nodal connections between the Conservative seminaries in Breslau, Philadelphia, New York, Budapest, and Vienna. At the same time, it is intended to provide an example of the potential of transnational and transfer studies for the history of the Jewish religious learning in Europe and the United States.
PaRDeS, die Zeitschrift der Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien e. V., erforscht die fruchtbare kult... more PaRDeS, die Zeitschrift der Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien e. V., erforscht die fruchtbare kulturelle Vielfalt des Judentums sowie ihre Berührungspunkte zur nichtjüdischen Umwelt in unterschiedlichen Bereichen. Daneben dient die Zeitschrift als Forum zur Positionierung der Fächer Jüdische Studien und Judaistik innerhalb des wissenschaftlichen Diskurses sowie zur Diskussion ihrer historischen und gesellschaftlichen Verantwortung.
In 2018, we celebrate the bicentennial of Wissenschaft des Judentums, the early Jewish Studies th... more In 2018, we celebrate the bicentennial of Wissenschaft des Judentums, the early Jewish Studies that began in the nineteenth century and introduced critical historical research into Jewish sources, using all academic methods available, including non-Jewish sources or the comparison with them. Today, the academic study of Judaism exists in various national and cultural contexts. Its three centers – Israel, the United States, and Germany – have different labels and forms for it such as “Jewish Studies,” “Jewish Science” (Madat ha-Yahadut), “Judaic Studies,” or “Jewish Theology.” Their differences notwithstanding, they all refer to the year 1818 as the founding date of their disciplines. In that year, Leopold Zunz (1794–1886) published his essay Etwas über die rabbinische Literatur (“Something on Rabbinic Literature”), which unfolded the thematic field of modern Jewish Studies for the first time.2 As Michael A. Meyer and Ismar Schorsch emphasize in the double interview opening this issu...
Shtadlanut (intercession) is generally perceived as a Jewish political practice or as Jewish dipl... more Shtadlanut (intercession) is generally perceived as a Jewish political practice or as Jewish diplomacy. It was often closely connected with »righteous« and charitable activities (tzedakah) within the Jewish community. Both practices changed fundamentally during the 19th and early 20th centuries when the Jewish minority was offered emancipation, and as a result, faced issues of inclusion, acculturation, and assimilation. However, the shtadlanim (advocates) of the Jewish minority were confronted with the incomplete integration as well as increasing anti-Semitism, which appear to have reinforced the validity and necessity of Jewish intercession and solidarity.
The international workshop takes a new look at the concepts of Jewish intercession/diplomacy (shtadlanut) and righteousness/charity (tzedakah), in order to identify ways in which they are interrelated and how did these interrelations change over time. Key questions of the workshop are: How did Jews represent and negotiate their interests and »otherness« in different societies? Why and how could they receive exclusive rights in cultural, economic, and legal systems from the early modern period up to the 20th century? How influential were the concept of tzedakah and other charitable practices on Jewish political traditions? Finally, how were intercession and welfare adapted in the course of the modern era?
This volume investigates the development of the concepts and practices of “humanity” from the six... more This volume investigates the development of the concepts and practices of “humanity” from the sixteenth century up to the present. By taking a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, the contributers focus on Europe as well as Europe’s relations to other world regions in the process that shaped “humanity”. They show how this emerging concept led to the overcoming of fundamental divisions in many spheres on the one hand and the formation of new hierarchies on the other.
PaRDeS, the journal of the German Association for Jewish Studies, devotes its upcoming is-sue to ... more PaRDeS, the journal of the German Association for Jewish Studies, devotes its upcoming is-sue to the topic Jewish Families and Kinship in the Early Modern and Modern Eras.
PaRDeS, the journal of the German Association for Jewish Studies, devotes its upcoming issue to t... more PaRDeS, the journal of the German Association for Jewish Studies, devotes its upcoming issue to the topic "Jewish Families and Kinship in the Early Modern and Modern Eras."
PaRDeS: Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies in Germany, 2020
The issue offers new insights in the growing field of Jewish family studies. A special section tr... more The issue offers new insights in the growing field of Jewish family studies. A special section traces the intellectual and institutional origins of the field over the past 100 years and points to the intertwined practices of amateur and scholarly researchers. Articles on literary and autobiographical representations of Jewish family and marriage, on family ties in business endeavors and religious education illustrate the breadth and current questions of the field, as they range from the 12th to the 21st centuries, address Yiddish romances and German letters of recommendation, businesses in Habsburg, teachers in Frankfurt, and Maskilim in the Russian Empire. Book reviews point to important new publications in Jewish studies.
PaRDeS: Journal of the German Association for Jewish Studies, 2019
This issue of PaRDeS, the journal of the German Association for Jewish Studies, looks at various ... more This issue of PaRDeS, the journal of the German Association for Jewish Studies, looks at various aspects of the transformative impact of translations in Jewish history and culture. Sacred texts as the Bible and the Zohar, Yiddish versions of medieval romance literature, the Zionist politics of translations, and the translation of Jewish cemeteries in Morocco are some topics of the articles.
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Papers by Mirjam Thulin
The very complexity of Habsburg Central Europe both in synchronic and diachronic perspective precludes any singular historical narrative of “Habsburg Jewry,” and it is not the intention of this volume to offer an overview of “Habsburg Jewish history.” The selected articles in this volume illustrate instead how important it is to reevaluate categories, deconstruct historical narratives, and reconceptualize implemented approaches in specific geographic, temporal, and cultural contexts in order to gain a better understanding of the complex and pluricultural history of the Habsburg Empire and the region as a whole.
The very complexity of Habsburg Central Europe both in synchronic and diachronic perspective precludes any singular historical narrative of “Habsburg Jewry,” and it is not the intention of this volume to offer an overview of “Habsburg Jewish history.” The selected articles in this volume illustrate instead how important it is to reevaluate categories, deconstruct historical narratives, and reconceptualize implemented approaches in specific geographic, temporal, and cultural contexts in order to gain a better understanding of the complex and pluricultural history of the Habsburg Empire and the region as a whole.
The international workshop takes a new look at the concepts of Jewish intercession/diplomacy (shtadlanut) and righteousness/charity (tzedakah), in order to identify ways in which they are interrelated and how did these interrelations change over time. Key questions of the workshop are: How did Jews represent and negotiate their interests and »otherness« in different societies? Why and how could they receive exclusive rights in cultural, economic, and legal systems from the early modern period up to the 20th century? How influential were the concept of tzedakah and other charitable practices on Jewish political traditions? Finally, how were intercession and welfare adapted in the course of the modern era?