Redefining Judaism in an Age of Emancipation

Redefining Judaism in an Age of Emancipation PDF Author: Christian Wiese
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047410394
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 461

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Book Description
Based on a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, this volume for the first time interprets the biography and philosophy of the German Jewish thinker Samuel Holdheim (1806-1860), shedding new light on a neglected phenomenon of nineteenth century Jewish intellectual history – the radical Reform Movement that started in Germany and culminated in the American Jewish Reform ideology. Leading scholars of modern Jewish history and thought from Germany, France, Belgium and the United States present a thorough reading of Holdheim’s influential writings in the broader context of the debates within German Jewry about the modernization of Jewish identity in an age of political emancipation and cultural integration, including such controversial issues as the authority of the rabbinical tradition or the re-interpretation of the ceremonial laws.

Redefining Judaism in an Age of Emancipation

Redefining Judaism in an Age of Emancipation PDF Author: Christian Wiese
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047410394
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 461

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Book Description
Based on a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, this volume for the first time interprets the biography and philosophy of the German Jewish thinker Samuel Holdheim (1806-1860), shedding new light on a neglected phenomenon of nineteenth century Jewish intellectual history – the radical Reform Movement that started in Germany and culminated in the American Jewish Reform ideology. Leading scholars of modern Jewish history and thought from Germany, France, Belgium and the United States present a thorough reading of Holdheim’s influential writings in the broader context of the debates within German Jewry about the modernization of Jewish identity in an age of political emancipation and cultural integration, including such controversial issues as the authority of the rabbinical tradition or the re-interpretation of the ceremonial laws.

The Cambridge Companion to Judaism and Law

The Cambridge Companion to Judaism and Law PDF Author: Christine Hayes
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107036151
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
The Cambridge Companion to Judaism and Law provides a conceptual and historical account of the Jewish understanding of law.

Jacob & Esau

Jacob & Esau PDF Author: Malachi Haim Hacohen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108245498
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 757

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Book Description
Jacob and Esau is a profound new account of two millennia of Jewish European history that, for the first time, integrates the cosmopolitan narrative of the Jewish diaspora with that of traditional Jews and Jewish culture. Malachi Haim Hacohen uses the biblical story of the rival twins, Jacob and Esau, and its subsequent retelling by Christians and Jews throughout the ages as a lens through which to illuminate changing Jewish-Christian relations and the opening and closing of opportunities for Jewish life in Europe. Jacob and Esau tells a new history of a people accustomed for over two-and-a-half millennia to forming relationships, real and imagined, with successive empires but eagerly adapting, in modernity, to the nation-state, and experimenting with both assimilation and Jewish nationalism. In rewriting this history via Jacob and Esau, the book charts two divergent but intersecting Jewish histories that together represent the plurality of Jewish European cultures.

Voltaire's Jews and Modern Jewish Identity

Voltaire's Jews and Modern Jewish Identity PDF Author: Harvey Mitchell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415776171
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
In this book Harvey Mitchell re-examines the nature of Voltaire's hostility by analyzing the Enlightenment, its role as a source of modern Anti-Semitism, and its shaping of modern Jewish identity.

Re-forming Judaism

Re-forming Judaism PDF Author: Stanley Davids
Publisher: CCAR Press
ISBN: 0881236101
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 427

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Book Description
Throughout Jewish history, revolutionary events and subversive ideas have burst forth, repeatedly transforming Jewish experience. Re-forming Judaism seeks to explore these ideas---and the individuals behind them---by delving into historical disruptions that led to lasting change in Jewish thought. A distinguished array of scholars take us on a journey from the disruptive prophets of ancient times, through rational, mystical, and extremist medievalists, to the impact of Haskalah and early Reform thought in modernity. Contemporary innovations such as changes in liturgy and music, feminism, and post-Holocaust theology are included, as are insights into Sephardic and North African experiences. By showing how Judaism forms---then re-forms, and re-forms again---the contributors demonstrate that tensions between continuity and change have always been part of Jewish life, helping us to both understand the past and contemplate the future. The excellent chapters in this exciting and provocative book provide an illuminating journey through the grand sweep of Jewish history, seen through the lens of crises that generated radical transformations. The volume is perfect for all who seek to explore the resilience that undergirds Jewish survival and to benefit from first-rate scholarship and engaging style. -- Rabbi Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, PhD, Effie Wise Ochs Professor of Biblical Literature and History, Hebrew Union College--Jewish Institute of Religion An accessible introduction to the long history of disruption in Jewish life from antiquity to the present. To paraphrase a famous slogan, "You don't need to be Reform to enjoy Re-Forming Judaism." You just need to be curious as to how change happens. -- Jonathan D. Sarna, PhD, University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University There is a piece of every Jew that relishes thinking of oneself as standing at Sinai and being part of a people and tradition that extends from then to now. The Jewish tradition, though, is ours now only because it had the wisdom to change over the centuries. This book graphically demonstrates how tradition and change together have kept Judaism instructive and relevant over time so that Jews now can enjoy and benefit from both its continuity and its ever-refreshing and challenging nature. -- Rabbi Elliot Dorff, PhD, Rector and Sol & Anne Dorff Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy, American Jewish University

Samuel Hirsch

Samuel Hirsch PDF Author: Judith Frishman
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110476398
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Rabbi Samuel Hirsch (Thalfang 1815 – Chicago 1889) was instrumental in the development of Reform Judaism in Europe and the USA. This volume is the first lengthy publication devoted to this striking personality whose significance was no less than that of his contemporaries Abraham Geiger and David Einhorn. En route from Thalfang via Dessau and Luxembourg to Philadelphia, Hirsch left his mark on societal, religious, and philosophical developments in manifold ways. By the time he was appointed Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community in Luxembourg in 1843, he had already written many of his most important works on the philosophy of religion. In them he engaged in debate with the Young Hegelians on the importance of Judaism, the religion that, more than any other, enabled the human actualization of freedom so central to Hegel’s philosophy. Over time Hirsch took an increasingly radical stance on issues such as Jewish rituals and mixed marriage. The goal of his reforms was not assimilation. He strove to strengthen Judaism to meet the demands of modernity and enable its survival in the modern era. Hirsch’s story is key to understanding the transnational history of Reform Judaism and the struggle of Jews to secure a place in history and society.

Samson Raphael Hirsch's Religious Universalism and the German-Jewish Quest for Emancipation

Samson Raphael Hirsch's Religious Universalism and the German-Jewish Quest for Emancipation PDF Author: Moshe Y. Miller
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817361294
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
"In Samson Raphael Hirsch's Religious Universalism and the German-Jewish Quest for Emancipation Moshe Miller argues that nineteenth-century German Jews of all persuasions actively sought acceptance within German society and aspired to achieve full emancipation from the many legal strictures on their status as citizens and residents. But, where non-Orthodox Jews sought a large measure of cultural assimilation, Orthodox Jews were content with more delimited acculturation. However, they were no less enthusiastic about achieving emancipation and acceptance in German society. There was one issue, though, which was seen by non-Jewish critics of emancipation as a barrier to granting civic rights to Jews: namely, the alleged tribalism of the Jewish ethic and the supposedly Orthodox notion of Jews as "the Chosen People." These charges could not go unanswered, and in the writings of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), a leading thinker of the Orthodox camp, they did not. Hirsch stressed the universalism of the Jewish ethic and the humanistic concern for the welfare of all mankind, which he believed was one of the core teachings of Judaism. His colleagues in the German Orthodox rabbinate largely concurred with Hirsch's assessment. This account places Hirsch's views in their historical context and provides a detailed account of his attitude toward non-Jews and the Christianity practiced by the vast majority of nineteenth-century Europeans"--

Shatterzone of Empires

Shatterzone of Empires PDF Author: Larry Wolfe
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253006392
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1125

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Book Description
“Anyone who studies nationalism, genocide, mass violence, or war in these regions, from the Enlightenment through the mid-20th century, needs to read [this].”—Central European History Shatterzone of Empires is a comprehensive analysis of interethnic relations, coexistence, and violence in Europe’s eastern borderlands over the past two centuries. In this vast territory, extending from the Baltic to the Black Sea, four major empires with ethnically and religiously diverse populations encountered each other along often changing and contested borders. Examining this geographically widespread, multicultural region at several levels—local, national, transnational, and empire—and through multiple approaches—social, cultural, political, and economic—this volume offers informed and dispassionate analyses of how the many populations of these borderlands managed to coexist in a previous era and how and why the areas eventually descended into violence. An understanding of this specific region will help readers grasp the preconditions of interethnic coexistence and the causes of ethnic violence and war in many of the world's other borderlands, both past and present.

A History of Judaism

A History of Judaism PDF Author: Martin Goodman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691197105
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 656

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Book Description
"Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and it has preserved its distinctive identity despite the extraordinarily diverse forms and beliefs it has embodied over the course of more than three millennia. A History of Judaism provides the first truly comprehensive look in one volume at how this great religion came to be, how it has evolved from one age to the next, and how its various strains, sects, and traditions have related to each other. In this magisterial and elegantly written book, Martin Goodman takes readers from Judaism's origins in the polytheistic world of the second and first millennia BCE to the temple cult at the time of Jesus. He tells the stories of the rabbis, mystics, and messiahs of the medieval and early modern periods and guides us through the many varieties of Judaism today. Goodman's compelling narrative spans the globe, from the Middle East, Europe, and America to North Africa, China, and India. He explains the institutions and ideas on which all forms of Judaism are based, and masterfully weaves together the different threads of doctrinal and philosophical debate that run throughout its history."--

Bibliographia Karaitica

Bibliographia Karaitica PDF Author: Barry Dov Walfish
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004214720
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 892

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Book Description
Winner of the Association for Jewish Libraries 2012 Judaica Bibliography Award! This is the first comprehensive bibliography on the Karaites and Karaism. Including over 8,000 items in twenty languages, this bibliography, with its extensive annotations, thoroughly documents the present state of Karaite Studies and provides a solid foundation for future research. Special attention has been given to the organizational structure of the bibliography. A detailed table of contents and a complete set of indices enable the reader to easily navigate through the material. Translations of items from non-Western languages increase the bibliography’s utility for the English-speaking reader. Especially noteworthy are the listings of obscure eastern European publications and the analysis of many periodical publications which enable unprecedented access to this material. It is an essential reference tool for Karaite and Jewish Studies. ̋This is an essential guide to any serious study of Karaism or of medieval (and to a large extent, also modern) Jewry. ̋ Shaul Stampfer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem "Bibliographia Karaitica is a major reference work that will remain of great use for Jewish studies scholars working in many areas of specialization long into the future." Fred Astren, San Francisco State University