European Jewry

Gershom Scholem in Deutschland
Zwischen Seelenverwandtschaft und Sprachlosigkeit
Hrsg. v. Gerold Necker, Elke Morlok u. Matthias Morgenstern

Die Biographie des in Berlin geborenen und ab 1923 in Jerusalem lebenden Kabbala-Forschers Gershom Gerhard Scholem ist von den Katastrophen und Umbrüchen des 20. Jahrhunderts geprägt. Im Horizont des für Scholem ambivalenten deutsch-jüdischen Verhältnisses nehmen die Autoren des Bandes seinen Werdegang im Kaiserreich und in der Weimarer Republik in den Blick sowie die Bedeutung, die er als israelischer Gesprächspartner für die Zeitgeschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland hatte. Die Beziehungen zu Walter Benjamin und Hannah Arendt, zu dem Theologen Otto Michel und dem Verleger Siegfried Unseld dokumentieren auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen Scholems Verbindung zu Deutschland, die ihn auch bei persönlicher Lyrik und sogar bei seiner wissenschaftlichen Prosa zur jüdischen Mystik begleitete.

The article discusses the idea of Europe within a section of European Jewry. My aim is to investigate the relationship between the Jewish identity and the perception of Europe through two interpretative guideline: Edgar Morin’s cultural one, and Gustave d’Eichthal’s institutional one. As a matter of fact, continental Jewry claims a multiple and interstitial identification with Europe, which eventually seems to coincide with a cultural and elective supranational territory that exceeds asphyxiating nationalistic identifications.

Michael Levi Rodkinson (1845–1904) was a journalist, author, and publisher whose literary projects spanned numerous countries and continents. Hero to some and scoundrel to others, Rodkinson was a polemical figure whose beliefs underwent many transformations over the course of his life, most significantly from Hasidism to combative Haskalah to eventually anticipating the neo-Romantic trends of the early twentieth century. Throughout his career, Rodkinson’s writing challenged the familiar genres of the literature of Hasidism and the Haskalah, shaping the religious realities of his readers and articulating a spiritual and community life among Jews, who took his ideas to heart in surprising ways.Today, Rodkinson is frequently referred to as a minor Hasidic author and publisher, a characterization based on the criticism of his opponents rather than on his writings. In Literary Hasidism, Meir draws upon those writings and their reception to present a completely different picture of this colorful and influential writer. Examining Rodkinson’s lifelong role as a catalyzing agent of different cultural phenomena, his diverse publishing activities, and his writings in their respective stages, Meir grants readers a provocative new vantage point from which to consider this divisive, enigmatic figure.
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“A must read for anyone interested in the history of Hasidic literature. Jonatan Meir masterfully tells the story of late nineteenth-century eastern
European Jewish scholarship through the bruising battles, big ideas, and petty intrigues of Michael Levi Rodkinson.”
—Eliyahu Stern, Yale University
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Jonatan Meir portrays the career of one of the most ambivalent characters of the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment, Michael Levi Rodkinson, and his move from the propagation of popular Hasidism to his more grandiose attempts to reframe and restructure the entire Jewish canon. This look into the world of the late nineteenthcentury Jewish Enlightenment will be an eye-opener."—Pinchas Giller, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, American Jewish University
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"Meir has taken the relatively neglected figure of Rodkinson and created a detailed and fascinating portrait. He ably demonstrates that the boundaries between Hasidism and Haskalah were frequently crossed, and this markedly improves our understanding of the dynamics of Jewish intellectual history in the crucial period of the late nineteenth century."—Ira Robinson, Concordia University

This article focuses on religion and change in relation to music. Its starting point is the argument that music plays a central role as a driving force for religious change, as has recently been suggested by several researchers of religion. Music is seen to comprise elements that are central to contemporary religiosity in general: participation , embodiment, experience, emotions, and creativity. This article approaches the discussion from a Jewish point of view, connecting the theoretical perspective to an ethnographic case study conducted among progressive Jews in London with special focus on music, religious practice, and change. The article outlines the ongoing discussion on religion and change by focusing on features of individualism, personal choice, and processes of bricolage, critically assessing them from an inclusive point of view, focusing on individuals as simultaneously both personal and socially as well as culturally embedded agents. The analysis highlights a visible trend among the interviewees of wanting to combine a radically liberal theology with an increasingly traditional practice. In these accounts musical practices play a pivotal yet ambiguous role as instigators and insignia of religious change. As a conclusion, insights into more 'sonically aware religious studies' are suggested. We need a kind of … something that retains the tradition; that holds on to these precious traditions and rituals, the music and all the rest – but with an open mind and a much more questioning and open approach to Jewish law. In these words Rebecca 1 expresses what she strives to achieve in her work as an innovative yet historically perceptive and liturgically informed can-1 The names of the persons interviewed have been anonymised, and common Jewish names are used as aliases. See the reference list for or more detailed information about the ethnographic research material and research method.

The paper outlines the collecting efforts undertaken by the Jewish Community in Prague and its Museum during the period of 1942–45 as a form of systematic rescue, analyzes the collection’s postwar role, and examines its importance for the preservation of the collective memory and identity of Czech Jewry. Special emphasis is put on the fate of the Prague Jewish Museum’s collection within the context of the turbulent political events of 1948 and 1968, which produced two major waves of emigration that resulted in significant material loss and eroded the integrity of the country’s Jewish cultural, intellectual, and spiritual wealth. Using as case studies a few select objects that went missing from the collection during the war and postwar years, only to resurface recently in public or private sales, the paper elaborates the problems of murky provenance, which have engendered the widespread contamination of today’s globalized art market, and examines the fragile boundary between rescue and misappropriation, and ransom and settlement, two basic dichotomies posing fundamental ethical problems. The process of restitution and repatriation is featured not only in the context of seeking justice but as a means of healing and preserving the memory of a community nearly decimated by the Nazi genocide and the Communist totalitarian regime that followed.

http://iijg.org/maps-of-jewish-communities/

"These maps have been created for the International Institute for Jewish Genealogy by Sandra Crystall based on the research of Laurence Leitenberg (La population juive des villes d’Europe. Croissance et répartition, 1750 – 1930, Peter Lang, Bern 2008), augmented by Leitenberg’s further research to add post- Holocaust (circa 1950) population data.

Four maps of Jewish populations in Europe are presented. With the four maps, population data for a total of 827 communities (ranging from 184 to 770 on a single map) are depicted in one or more time frames of 1750, 1800, 1850, 1900, 1930 and 1950.

Two maps (“1800 and 1850” and “1900 and 1930”) each display two sets of graduated circles representing the Jewish populations of localities in two time frames, and two maps (1750 and 1950) each use graduated circles to represent the populations in a single time frame.

Each map displays the country boundaries for the same or close time frame.  For Map 1750, country boundaries are for 1700; for Map 1800 and 1850, country boundaries are for 1800; for Map 1900 and 1930, country boundaries are for 1900; for Map 1950, country boundaries represent those as of 1951.

A user guide has been developed to assist in viewing the maps and searching for information (such as alternate names of communities).

The maps cover a central period of Jewish history in Europe. As a consequence of a migratory movement initiated in the Middle Ages and fostered by population growth from the eighteenth century to World War II, Europe was predominant in the geographic distribution of world Jewry.

At the dawn of the eighteenth century, it is estimated that 65.1% of world Jewry were living in Europe. This proportion increased further and reached more than 80% in the nineteenth century. After the nineteenth century the Jewish population continued to grow in absolute numbers. However, as a result of the overseas emigration stream, Europe’s share of world Jewry declined. Even so, on the eve of World War II, 57.2% of the Jewish population lived in Europe. After the Holocaust, this proportion fell to 32.2% in 1948.

The report contains information about the research, selection of communities, trends discussed, and creation of the maps."