Contemporary Jewish Community Research Articles

Lilach Lev Ari: Contemporary Jewish Communities in Three European Cities: Challenges of Integration, Acculturation and Ethnic Identity

Lilach Lev Ari: Contemporary Jewish Communities in Three European Cities: Challenges of Integration, Acculturation and Ethnic Identity

Supersession and Conversion: The Adversus Judaeos Liturgical Dramas of Saint-Martial de Limoges

ABSTRACT The adversus Judaeos tropes deeply embedded in the Saint-Martial de Limoges liturgical dramas in BN lat.1139 recommend radical ways of rethinking the organizing concepts that might inform this collection of devotional performances. Early eleventh-century liturgical records from Saint-Martial de Limoges demonstrate profound tensions between apocalyptic and eschatological thinking. Millenarian anxieties combine with news of the 1009 CE Muslim destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to inspire unusual levels of antagonism toward the contemporary Jewish community in Limoges, including retrospective historical narratives by Christian clerics Rodulfus Glaber and Ademar of Chabannes of forced conversions, exile, and death as tools used to disperse Limoges's Jewish community after purported exegetical debates in 1010 CE. The Limoges liturgical dramas manifest these tensions between Christian apocalyptic and eschatological thinking, collectively reflecting a shared Christian cultural commitment to supersessionist representations of Jews and Judaism as end-of-time witnesses at the Christian Eschaton.

The last Talmudic demon? The role of ritual in cultural transmission.

Recent work on the evolution of religion has approached religions as adaptive complexes of traits consisting of cognitive, neurological, affective, behavioural and developmental features that are organized into a self-regulating feedback system. Religious systems, it has been argued, derive from ancestral ritual systems and continue to be fuelled by ritual performances. One key prediction that emerges from this systemic approach is that the success of religious beliefs will be related to how well they are connected to rituals and integrated with other elements of the religious system. Here, I examine this prediction by exploring the rich world of Jewish demonology. As a case study, I briefly survey the historical trajectory of demonic beliefs across Jewish communities and focus on one demon, a ruach ra'ah, that has survived the vicissitudes of Jewish history and maintained its relevance in contemporary Jewish communities. I argue that it has done so because of its linkage with a morning handwashing ritual and its effective integration into the core elements of Jewish religious systems. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ritual renaissance: new insights into the most human of behaviours'.

Jewish Communality in German Avant-Garde Magazines of the 1910s and 1920s

During the 1910s and 1920s the so-called ‘little magazines’ were vital intermediaries of the new art movements in Germany. At the time, the Jewish community's patronage of the avant-garde was essential due to the positions of many of its members as cultural mediators. The magazines established an alternative distribution channel for uncustomary topics, and particularly for the avant-gardists’ heterodox accounts of Judaism. This article investigates the community that these publications established, and the purpose of their community-making. The avant-gardist communities reflect the heterogeneous character of the Jewish community by questioning the principles of identity and sameness as their foundation. Arguably, the impulse to modernise the Jewish community led to a double de-territorialisation: German-Jewish artists involved in the avant-garde were revisionists within Jewry and yet ‘too Jewish’ for the mainstream population. The texts concerning Jews and Judaism published in the avant-garde magazines supported the creation of an alternative Jewish community. Accordingly, the little magazines functioned as mirrors of their contemporary Jewish community and its relations to avant-gardist communality.

On Performing the Indigenous Jewish Prophetic at the End of Jewish History: Further Notes on a Jewish Theology of Liberation

On Performing the Indigenous Jewish Prophetic at the End of Jewish History: Further Notes on a Jewish Theology of Liberation Marc H. Ellis The Jewish prophetic, exploding in our time, stretches back to the biblical era. Though the law, rabbinic interpretations and life cycle events form the core of Judaism, at times highlighting but most often disciplining the prophetic, drawing close to and embodying (the fact that?) the prophetic is the essence of and only reason to be Jewish. Rather than the land or prayer, the prophetic is the indigenous of Jewish. Though having gone global through the spread of Christianity and Islam, viewing the prophetic in its Jewish roots and more universal sensibility offers a series of images that surround the primal Jewish prophetic. Here is my summation of the Jewish prophetic: Ancient Israel gave the prophetic to the world; it is the greatest gift in world history; without the prophetic, there is no meaning in history; there may be no meaning in history; the prophet embodies the possibility of meaning in history. The possibility of meaning in history, and thus in our communal and individual lives, is crucial here, as is embodiment. By embodying the prophetic, the prophet is a witness to the possibility of meaning. By embodying the possibility of meaning, the prophet also embodies the possibility of God. The possibility of meaning and God are connected in an intimate way in the prophetic, while religion's assertions about purpose and divinity are just that, assertions. Rather than definitive answers to the daunting questions of meaning and God, however, embodying the prophetic, individually and in community, witnesses to the possibility that these assertions may be true. At the same time, the treatment accorded the prophets and, indeed, the prophetic community that gathers around the prophets, is the ultimate test for the assertions of meaning and God. Judged by the various civil wars in faith communities around the world, embodying the prophetic is a trial by fire. At stake is everything worth fighting for, especially the possibility of justice, love, and compassion over against the forces of chaos and empire. In the contemporary Jewish community, there is an explosion of the indigenous prophetic that was unexpected and is being fought against by the Jewish establishments in Israel and America. Neither movement is surprising. Since biblical times, in every generation, the soul of Jewish is contested. Additionally, since the beginning, Jews have existed on both sides of the Empire Divide. The Empire Divide has two sides: Jews who embrace the indigenous Jewish prophetic as the essence of Jewish life and Jews who embrace empire as the only way to survive the prophetic demands, which are judged unrealistic. Today, the Jewish civil war revolves around the Holocaust and Israel or, better, what Jews should be about after the Holocaust and after Israel. Empire Jews assert that Jews come after the Holocaust, with Israel being the counterpoint, in many ways a salvific one. Prophetic Jews, or Jews of Conscience, believe that Jews come after the Holocaust and after Israel. “After Israel” means an understanding of Israel as the state that ethnically cleansed Palestinians in 1948 and beyond, with the intent and capability of permanently oppressing and occupying what is left of Palestine in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. In particular, after Israel's 2014 invasion of Gaza, the struggle between empire Jews, or in religious terminology, Constantinian Jews, and prophetic Jews of Conscience reached new levels. The explosion of the prophetic during and after the Gaza war may signal the final battle of the perennial Jewish civil war. Constantinian Judaism, with its overwhelming collective power, holds forth as the exemplar of (that which is?) Jewish in the world. Jews of Conscience, with only the prophetic as their guide, move deeper and deeper into exile. This exile appears to be without end. It may be the final exile in Jewish history. With the return to Israel fulfilling the biblical and modern dream of Jewish history, the exile, along with the prophetic and the Promised Land—together, the three basic themes of Jewish history—has taken on new forms. Instead of being forced from the land by God for Israel's transgressions...

Portuguese crypto-Jews: the genetic heritage of a complex history.

The first documents mentioning Jewish people in Iberia are from the Visigothic period. It was also in this period that the first documented anti-Judaic persecution took place. Other episodes of persecution would happen again and again during the long troubled history of the Jewish people in Iberia and culminated with the Decrees of Expulsion and the establishment of the Inquisition: some Jews converted to Catholicism while others resisted and were forcedly baptized, becoming the first Iberian Crypto-Jews. In the 18th century the official discrimination and persecution carried out by the Inquisition ended and several Jewish communities emerged in Portugal. From a populational genetics point of view, the worldwide Diaspora of contemporary Jewish communities has been intensely studied. Nevertheless, very little information is available concerning Sephardic and Iberian Crypto-Jewish descendants. Data from the Iberian Peninsula, the original geographic source of Sephardic Jews, is limited to two populations in Portugal, Belmonte, and Bragança district, and the Chueta community from Mallorca. Belmonte was the first Jewish community studied for uniparental markers. The construction of a reference model for the history of the Portuguese Jewish communities, in which the genetic and classical historical data interplay dynamically, is still ongoing. Recently an enlarged sample covering a wide region in the Northeast Portugal was undertaken, allowing the genetic profiling of male and female lineages. A Jewish specific shared female lineage (HV0b) was detected between the community of Belmonte and Bragança. In contrast to what was previously described as a hallmark of the Portuguese Jews, an unexpectedly high polymorphism of lineages was found in Bragança, showing a surprising resistance to the erosion of genetic diversity typical of small-sized isolate populations, as well as signs of admixture with the Portuguese host population.

Do American Jews Speak a "Jewish Language"?: A Model of Jewish Linguistic Distinctiveness

This paper is a comparative analysis of Jewish languages that began in medieval times and the language used in one post-Emancipation Jewish community: the English-speaking Jews of the United States. Using the notion of a distinctively Jewish linguistic repertoire, this paper presents a broad understanding of the scope of Jewish linguistic studies. A comparative analysis shows that American Jewish language includes most of eleven features common among diaspora Jewish languages. And an overview of sociolinguistic variation shows that American Jews differ linguistically not only from non-Jews but also among themselves, especially according to levels of religiosity and textual knowledge. Finally, this paper demonstrates that studying a contemporary Jewish community can enhance our understanding of the past.

Bulgaria and linguistic matters of Bulgarian Jews

This article aims to trace the presence of Jews on Bulgarian territory since ancient times without subscribing to preconceived theses. Naturally, the issue of Jewish migration cannot be discussed without due consideration for the relations with the respective states and their peoples: Byzantium, the mediaeval Bulgarian empires, the Ottoman Empire, the post-Liberation Kingdom of Bulgaria and contemporary Bulgaria. It focuses on the historical periods which have had a direct bearing on the present state of the small Jewish community in Bulgaria today. This community has several distinctive features that are immediately obvious. In Bulgaria there are no adherents of various Israelite religious sects, even though the false messiah Sabbatai Zwi, whose followers ultimately adopted Islam, lived on Bulgarian territory. A Chabad rabbi from the US recently went to Bulgaria, but Chasidism has never had followers in Bulgaria. Despite the very high level of integration of Jews into Bulgarian society and the comparatively strong goodwill and tolerance of Bulgarians for Jews, Zionism became popular very early on and has undoubtedly been one of the factors for the emigration of around 90% of the Jews to Israel; the contemporary Jewish community in Bulgaria is increasingly bonding with the State of Israel and departing from the traditions brought from Spain.

Vor dem ,,Judenspiegel". Wilhelm Marr und die Juden in Hamburg

AbstractThe article examines the historical and cultural background for the blatantly anti-Jewish argumentation of the political agitator and writer William Marr in his programmatic pamphlet ,,Der Judenspiegel" (,,The Jewish Mirror", Hamburg 1862). Attention will be paid in particular to the events and procedures within the contemporary Jewish community in Hamburg. The ,,Judenspiegel" clearly exhibits the close relationship between the struggle for the equal civil rights of the German Jews and the development of the modern anti-Semitic ideology.

MESSIANIC JEWS AND JEWISH IDENTITY

In recent years Messianic Judaism has grown considerably worldwide and has caused much concern within the contemporary Jewish community. Messianic Jews claim they are completely Jewish, but they are considered by the majority of the Jewish community to be Christian apostates. This paper considers the practices and beliefs of the Messianic community, explores the issue of their identity and reflects on this in relation to Jewish identity throughout the universal Jewish community. It explores the question of placing Messianic Jews outside the Jewish fold, given that the various branches of contemporary Judaism are deeply divided over central tenets of faith and practice. It considers the Messianic belief in Jesus as the Messiah in the light of normative Jewish approaches to aspects of Halakhic teaching.

From Milah (Circumcision) to Milah (Word): Male Identity and Rituals of Childhood in the Jewish Ultraorthodox Community

In contemporary Jewish ultraorthodox communities, most three‐year‐old male children undergo a twofold ritual sequence in which the first haircut is associated with entering the world of study. Focusing on the paramount value of holy Torah study and its prerequisites, I seek to decode the psychocultural meanings of the haircutting and school initiation ceremonies and their ceremonial antecedent, circumcision, as markers on the male trajectory from milah (circumcision) to milah (word). The ritual sequence is evaluated comparatively against the widespread conception of manhood as a special‐status category of achievement that requires indoctrination and testing. In order to account for the recent proliferation of the rituals, an attempt is made to situate them historically in the current context of contemporary ultraorthodox and Israeli society.

Adoption

ABSTRACT Reviews the Jewish concept of adoption as reflected in Biblical and Talmudic sources. An historic view of adoption in Jewish law, custom and practice is presented, up through the contemporary American Jewish community. The author concludes that while Jewish tradition recognizes adoption as the spiritual equivalent of procreation, it also teaches that a child never completely loses his or her birth identity.

Restitution of Jewish Cultural Property Looted in World War II: To Whom?

The Hague Convention on Cultural property of 1954 prohibits the transfer by the occupier of cultural property from territory occupied by him. Under the Protocol annexed to the said Convention, the parties to it undertake to return cultural property transferred in contravention of the Convention to their countries of origin. These provisions arc clearly inadequate when dealing with Jewish cultural property looted by Nazi-Germany and its collaborators in the course of World War II. Jewish cultural heritage was usually considered as endangering the cultural heritage of the host nations and, consequently, subject to harassment and destruction. It would therefore seem inequitable to return looted Jewish cultural property (representing the cultural heritage of the Jewish people) to (those countries from which it was looted; the proper recipient of this heritage (also by virtue of the principle of self-determination) is the Jewish people represented by the State of Israel and the major contemporary Jewish communities around the world.

Bioethics and the Contemporary Jewish Community

David Novak takes up the methodological issue of how substantive religious perspectives can be communicated in a pluralistic society. Novak notes that while "secularism" was historically welcomed by the Jewish community, Jewish thinkers now likewise face the challenge of speaking out of a tradition to a secular audience. Novak holds up Jewish-Christian dialogue as a model for constructing a public philosophy.

Anthropology and the Study of Traditional Jewish Societies

The analytic tools of anthropology originally were fashioned on smallscale tribal groups that possessed no written traditions. After World War II, as anthropologists became involved in the study of complex societies in different “developing areas,” the discipline began to relate its findings to the concerns of other fields. Simultaneously, scholars from other social and humanist disciplines, who previously had assumed that anthropologists focused only on “primitives,” began to incorporate anthropological methods and concepts into their tool kits. As part of these general trends, there were anthropologists who turned to the study of Jewish society and culture. One natural expression of this trend has been the study of contemporary Jewish communities. There are now dozens of studies of Jewish life from one or another anthropological perspective, most of them dealing mainly with Jews in the United States of Ashkenazi background or with communities in Israel whose origins were in the Middle East. A very different trend is found in the analysis of classic texts, notably the Bible but with some attention being given to rabbinic literature, using structuralism and related methodologies. At first initiated by anthropologists who were not themselves specialists in the biblical period, these approaches have now been adopted by some students of ancient Judaism, who combine them with the more standard methods used in research on biblical and rabbinic texts.

Shaare Tefila Congregation v.Cobb: A new departure in American Jewish defense?

In May 1987 the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case of Shaare Tefila Congregation v. Cobb. The case can be studied in several ways: it sheds light on the relationship of Jews to the American government, on the condition of the contemporary American Jewish community, and on the patterns of American Jewish defense. Although all its elements are interconnected, the most significant aspect of the case lies in the new defense posture it reveals. From this perspective, it stands as a case that could not have arisen one hundred or even twenty years ago. Much can be extrapolated from an analysis of the Shaare Tefila case. How Jews, ever an accommodationist group, invoked the protection of the government, demonstrates the customary legalistic approach of American Jewish defense. Modern Jews, as commentators have noted, retain a reverence for the law, even though their primary concern may now be the law of the land rather than halaeha. Through legislation and litigation American Jews have consistently sought to broaden the legal freedoms they enjoy and thus shore up their security. Seeking new interpretations from the courts, they have heeded the Talmudic injunction to build a fence around the Law. Like pre-modern Jews they have shown a preference for the protection of the central government over and above that of local authorities.

THE RELEVANCE OF ROSENZWEIG IN THE EYES OF HIS ISRAELI CRITICS

The centennial of the birth of Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929), the GermanJewish philosopher and educator, provides an obvious occasion for an examination of his relevance to Jewish life today. However, there are a number of factors that would seem to frustrate the meaningful encounter with Rosenzweig's thought by the two largest contemporary Jewish communities, Israel and North America. The particular Jewish community for which he wrote was destroyed less than two decades after his death. There has been a continual controversy surrounding his thought as to whether it is authentically Jewish, or too influenced and distorted by either Christianity or Idealist philosophy to be considered as a legitimate statement of Jewish thought. Finally, Rosenzweig, at first glance, seems to have paid scant attention to the central foci of the present-day selfunderstanding of the Jewish communities in Israel and America, Zionism and the dangers from anti-semitism and assimilation. In Rosenzweig's magnum opus, The Star of Redemption, he implicitly rejected Zionism as a betrayal of the eternal purpose of Judaism and he did not view either anti-semitism or assimilation as a major problem for even modern Jews. The former was simply evidence of the metaphysical envy or hatred of Judaism by Christianity and the latter was said to threaten only the borders, but not the center of the community. In light of these preliminary statements, we might question whether it is possible for Rosenzweig to be regarded as truly relevant to the Jewish communities in Israel and America. Yet, a survey of the writings of some of the most important thinkers within these communities during the last few decades indicates that the thought of Rosenzweig is often being plumbed for insight and guidance. Such a survey is important not only because it tells us about the continuing influence of this philosopher, but also because it allows us to learn much about Jewish life in Israel and America. For in investigating the ways that contemporary writers describe Rosenzweig's contributions to us, utilize some of his analyses of challenges that face Jewish life, and cite and extend some of the solutions that he proposed, we are engaging in a study of these communities themselves. This wrestling with the thought of Rosenzweig has many dimensions, among them the probing of the nature of Jewish history and the place of

Migration and the structure of the contemporary jewish community

Migration and the structure of the contemporary jewish community