The article discusses an unpublished early modern Hebrew manuscriptof miscellaneous content written by the Italian Jewish physician Avraham Joel Conegliano(1665-1745). After a brief introduction to the codex and its contents, thearticle focuses on the collection of practical and medico-magical recipes containedin the manuscript, which is considered an example of Hebrew books of secrets, aliterary genre that has been almost completely overlooked in the field of Jewishstudies. In the first part, the article presents an overview of the books of secrets thatflourished in Italy and Europe during the Renaissance, and proposes the hypothesisthat secreta literature in Hebrew developed, circulated and was actively used withinJewish culture during the medieval and early modern periods, albeit with significantdifferences. In the second part, the article offers a preliminary analysis of Coneglianosanthology of secrets, as well as a commented edition and English translation ofselected textual excerpts from it.

This article deals with the našim ḥakamot (Jewish wise women), in a wide sense, including those who have stood out on a global scale in recent times in different fields of knowledge and activity. M. Kayserling devoted them his book Die jüdischen Frauen in der Geschichte, Literatur und Kunst (Brockhaus ,1879), and although there are plenty of individual and collective references in different histories os Hebrew Literature, Jewish encyclopedias and internet sites such as Jewish Women’s Archive (www.jwa.org), it was convenient to write a short, comprehensive study on this topic, giving a privileged space to the scientsts.

Focusing on Lady Macbeth in Shakespeares tragedy Macbeth, this paper combines Northrop Fryes mythological archetypal criticism theory with a feminist perspective to explore the evolution and reconstruction of the mythological archetype of the "Furious Woman" in cross-cultural literary traditions. By tracing similar female figures in Hebrew literature of the Judges period and ancient Greek tragedies, this paper reveals the duality of the "Furious Woman" image in patriarchal societies: she is not only shaped as a "dangerous Other" who transgresses gender norms, but also becomes a symbol of subverting gender power through violence empowerment and the deconstruction of motherhood. Through her "de-gendered" verbal violence and symbolic regicide, Lady Macbeth inherits the narrative logic of violence empowerment and maternal critique in the classical archetype, while also breaking through the traditional gender binary through conspiratorial violence tactics and symbolic violence. In the 21st century, the invocation of the "Furious Woman" archetype not only reflects literatures complex reflections on gender power, but also provides a dual historical and textual reference for contemporary feminist criticism.

Abstract This study examines the reconfiguration of Greco-Roman mythology within eighteenth-century Central and Eastern European Jewish cultures. Through an analysis of rabbinic and kabbalistic writings, urban processions, and early Hasidic storytelling, it demonstrates how figures such as Apollo, Hercules, and the Amazons were woven into Jewish religious and intellectual life in innovative ways. The study traces the origins of this phenomenon to the sixteenth century, when Iberian and Italian Jewish scholars — under the influence of Renaissance humanism — incorporated classical mythology into Hebrew literature. It then explores the diverse eighteenth-century manifestations of this tradition in Central and Eastern Europe, where classical elements became embedded in Jewish religious thought and cultural expression, addressing various contemporary challenges. These included responses to Enlightenment scepticism, the desire to systematize rabbinic knowledge, messianic aspirations, and kabbalistic interpretations of Jewish and global history. By tracing the embeddedness of mythology within Jewish religious and mystical frameworks, this study reveals a complex and previously overlooked cross-cultural exchange in early modern European Jewish thought. It argues that, rather than fading in the Age of Reason, Greco-Roman mythological elements gained renewed religious significance in the eighteenth century, shaping Jewish esoteric, messianic, and intellectual traditions in unexpected ways.

Conflict, Hegemony and Ideology in the Mutual Translation of Modern Arabic and Hebrew Literatures, written by Mahmoud Kayyal

Literary works can be insightful historical sources for investigating the emergence of the Zionist movement because they play a principal role in conveying the historical narrative during the time of historical events. This study highlights the harmonious relationship between the Zionist movement and modern Hebrew literature, which historians and writers consider as a historical source for its establishment. The analysis shows that the Zionist movement succeeded in implementing its ideological plans in Palestine through strong support from Jewish writers and poets who promoted its formation by writing stories, novels, and poetry in the process of convincing the Jews in the diaspora to immigrate to Palestine. The study also reveals that literary Zionism used both Hebrew literary and historical writings to achieve its ideological goals. It used literature as a real means of persuasion for the Jewish people in different parts of the world to promote its political ideas of achieving the Zionist dream of establishing a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine. The importance of this study lies in its reliance on modern Hebrew literary writings and sources in drawing this historical harmonious relationship between national Zionist thought and literary Zionism. The study concludes that Hebrew literary works and writings have played an important role in revealing the Zionist ideology in its various directions.

Abstract Despite winning the Israeli Prime Minister’s Prize for Hebrew Literature in 1999, German-language survivor-writer, translator, painter, and sculptor Manfred Winkler (1922–2014) has only recently received sustained scholarly attention. One of the reasons for this is that Winkler has spent much of his lifetime and his long published writing career crossing geographical, national, ideological, and linguistic borders, and the cultural and general historical significance of his poetry was only recognized in the context of a growing interest in the life histories of German-language refugees and immigrants to Israel, and their transcultural literary production. This article discusses Winkler’s literary oeuvre and its genesis, reflecting current knowledge of the sources and the research findings that emerged during the editorial work conducted by the author since 2014. It outlines the central themes, writing practices, and tendencies in the work of a multilingual writer and (self-)translator, who represents the darkness of war by orchestrating the memory of the Shoah and the events of the Jewish-Arab conflict with a sense of grief rather than from a position of judgment and in doing this delineates the fault lines and turning points of almost the entire 20th century.

Abstract: In this article I argue that the transformation of the ḥeder (the traditional Jewish study room) in modern Hebrew literature from the late-nineteenth to the late-twentieth century reflects a profound shift in Jewish identity, encapsulating the tensions between tradition and modernity. I explore how the ḥeder , once a site of rigorous religious education, evolves into a potent symbol of individual creativity and self-expression in the works of Micha Josef Berdyczewski, Yosef Haim Brenner, Dvora Baron, Hayim Nahman Bialik, and Shmuel Yosef Agnon. By situating this literary transformation within the broader currents of secularization and European modernism, I illuminate how these authors grapple with the dual forces of cultural continuity and change. I conclude with a discussion of Youval Shimoni’s 1999 novel Ḥeder , which suggests that while the ḥeder ’s function has changed, the room continues to serve as a space for introspection and artistic creation in a world that is increasingly uncertain.

Abstract The article presents a section of an 18th-century Hybrid Samaritan Hebrew poem from the Day of Atonement liturgy that contains a name riddle. The text is translated, explained, and then compared to Jewish Hebrew name riddle poems from medieval Andalusia. Since the genre of Hebrew name riddle poems is generally thought to be unique to Andalusian poetry, the discovery of the Samaritan specimen is surprising. It is argued that the Jewish and Samaritan Hebrew name riddle poems developed independently from the Arabic muʿammā genre. The discovery testifies to the importance of the corpus of Samaritan Hebrew texts for the study of Hebrew literature.

Abstract: This article examines the short story “Sister.” Drawing on Agnon’s nuanced portrayal of love and desire, it argues that “Sister” uniquely engages with the tension between secular and religious narratives of sin. While many works of early twentieth-century Hebrew literature associate sin with vitality and transgression, “Sister” challenges this paradigm, offering a meditation on the melancholy of sin and the sorrow that accompanies forbidden desire. The article also explores the term religyoziyut (“religiosity”) in Hebrew texts since the late nineteenth century, arguing that it paradoxically describes a secular concept that often opposes traditional religion. Religiosity, as understood in this context, involves a rejection of Jewish law, while being associated with spontaneity, emotional authenticity, and sin. It highlights Agnon’s distinct understanding of love, compared to Pinchas Sadeh. Unlike Sabbatean theological conceptions that celebrate the antinomic and the transgressive, “Sister” generates a melancholy and sorrow that are tied to the understanding that one cannot escape sin. The story engages in a reflection on endings—of peoples and of stories—with a hint toward the story’s own ending. Finally, drawing on a wider theological and literary context, including the ideas of sin, freedom, and guilt in modern Hebrew literature, this article suggests that “Sister” should be read not as a celebration of forbidden passion but as an exploration of the grief that accompanies the failure to reconcile desire with moral restraint. In that manner, it challenges prevailing secular assumptions about the authenticity of transgression in modern literature.

Review of:] Lapidus, Rina. Birch in a Desert Wind: Russian Influences on Hebrew Literature. Jerusalem: Carmel, 1-2 vols., 2009-2023, vol.1: 320 pp., vol. 2: 536 pp.; vol.1: ISBN 978-965-407-949-5, vol. 2: ISBN 978-965-7791-12-4

Threads of Gold: Reclaiming the Textile in the Metaphors for Biblical Citations in Medieval Hebrew Literature

Around 1800, when Hebrew existed primarily as the language of Jewish prayer and commentary, innovative authors charted a route to colloquial Hebrew speech. European literature was also shifting, in the Romantic period, away from “poetic diction” and toward oral-style language. In the spirit of the times, Nathan Sternharz and Mendel Lefin embodied a new trend in Hebrew writing : in translation from Yiddish and German. Drawing from the author’s book Travels in Translation, the article shows that narratives of sea travelers contributed to the rise of modern Hebrew.

Beginning at the end of the 18 th century, thousands of jews began settling in the Russian Empire, and even before that, several jewish communities lived within its territories which were annexed from Belarus, Ukraine and Poland.These Russian jewish communities were more conservative than their counterparts in Central Europe, well-versed in the jewish literature, but also familiar to some extent with the surrounding Russian culture.Russian literature of the 18 th century, and onward, was among the richest and prominent in the world.jews living in the Russian territories were enthusiastic about it, translated it to Hebrew and Yiddish, and were influenced by it.as a result, Hebrew and Yiddish literature, written in Russia, bore the stamp of Russian literature.In other words, thus was born Hebrew and Yiddish literature, which discussed jewish topics, but the content of which was shaped using narrative techniques found in Russian literature.It is this topic that Professor Rina lapidus of Bar Ilan University in Israel addresses in her work.The research on the influences between the different literatures and cultures constitutes an important pillar in humanities research.In over two hundred years of studying inter-literary influence, many studies have been written in this field.

This article reviews Birch in a Desert Wind: Russian Influences on Hebrew Literature, a book written by Professor Rina Lapidus of Bar-Ilan University, Israel. Two volumes of the book were published in 2009 and 2023 respectively by Carmel Publishing House, Jerusalem, Israel. In her research, Lapidus identifies the profound and extensive influences of Russian literature, language, and culture on oeuvres of different genres and branches of Hebrew literature. The discussion encompasses works created between the second half of the nineteenth century and the entire twentieth century by the most prominent Hebrew writers and poets of the time. The review provides a concise overview of the contents of the two volumes, emphasizing the principal insights and innovative findings presented in the book. Lapidus’s work is evaluated as exemplary and innovative research that makes a distinctive contribution to the comparative study of literature and establishes its author as a preeminent scholar in the field.

Abstract: Morten Hørning Jensen’s higher doctoral dissertation (habilitation) The ‘Gospel’ Between Emperor and Temple in the Gospel of Mark is a meticulous investigation of the Greek root εὐαγγελ- and the Hebrew equivalent בשׂר in Greek and Hebrew literature before the Gospel of Mark and Mark’s use of the term in his text. Hørning Jensen concludes that the story of Jesus is the gospel to Mark “since Jesus, through his life, death, and resurrection, re-establishes covenantal community with and proximity to the God through kingly victory and temple-cultic renewal” (462). This way of understanding εὐαγγέλιον places it in direct continuity with Deutero-Isaiah, who uses the word to designate the return of Yahweh to Zion.The review article summarizes the argument at length, then poses some critical questions and finally offers a more substantial criticism of the fact that Paul is left out of the interpretation and only figures as a “test case” for the meaning of εὐαγγέλιον in Second Temple Judaism. If the relation to Paul is taken into account, the Gospel of Mark should be conceived of as a narrative unfolding of Paul’s gospel and not as the story of Jesus on the basis of the visions of Isaiah. One wonders why the author does not see a relation between Paul and Mark. The reason may be that he has sympathy for Papias’ idea that Mark was interpreter of Peter, which might make it virtually impossible for him to be influenced by Paul.

During the first decade following the establishment of “Israel”, Petra (‘The Red Rock’) was perceived in the Israeli consciousness as the most remote, daring, and dangerous place that could be reached. Armed with this perception, fifteen Israeli young men and women crossed the Jordanian border with Petra as their desired destination, but only three returned alive. In its first section, this article outlines the birth and formation of the ‘Red Rock’ myth among the Palmach generation and its adaption by the next generation. The second part is devoted to examining the reasons that prompted those Israelis to undergo the hike to Petra, and how modern Hebrew Literature reflected the episode of hiking to Petra, starting from the first decade following the establishment of “Israel” until the 1990s. The researchers appended their study with a conclusion comprised of the most important results that have been reached.

Referring to three topics – (1) the place of Arabic in the Israeli public academic sphere, (2) the pedagogy of the teaching of Arabic in Israeli universities and (3) the use of Arabic as an academic language (discussion and research, academic writing, academic sources) – this paper will study the field of Arabic in Israeli universities as a direct outcome of the power relations in the country, crystallized over the years between the indigenous Palestinian population and the mostly European-oriented Jewish-Zionist decision-makers, thinkers and scholars. Following we will relate to settlercolonial elements in the Zionist project in order to explain the process of inferiorization of Arabic in the Israeli academic sphere, and the way its study was created through prioritizing Western methods that by and large exclude the Arab-Palestinian society and that have made members of this society uninfluential even in the study and research of its own language and culture. These ways included the preference of Western philology (‘grammar translation’) on direct methods (such as ‘immersion’ or ‘direct teaching’), the decision to teach Arabic in Hebrew, the pattern of discussing Arabic literature in Hebrew, the preference Hebrew-led linguistic landscape, and more.

From the creation of the State of Israel, given the variety of the Jewish population that settled there, and in compliance with the precept of “gathering of exiles”, an institutionalization of a single identity that should overlap with the multiplicity of cultures of the different branches and ethnicities that began to coexist, prevailed in the country. This condition did not fully triumph and, as an object of study to this day, can be appreciated in prominent works of Hebrew literature. Oxana (2013), a novel by Merav Nakar-Sadi, author whose family is originally from Iraq, by bringing the inglorious experience of a foreign worker who lives and works illegally in the country, opens up the possibility of a review of aspects of Israeli-Jewish identity when faced with this category of population.

This article explores the question of whether the past of a place can reveal itself through the literary text, by analyzing Hebrew literary representations of the renowned Wadi Salib neighborhood in Haifa. It presents an analysis of five literary works that are set in Wadi Salib and depict its streets and houses, with the objective of investigating the visibility (or absence thereof) of the Palestinian past of this space. Drawing on the theoretical writings of Michel de Certeau on space and memory, the article’s central question revolves around the capacity to see, decipher and interpret: Do the ruins of Wadi Salib, which present their past as a “present absence”, necessarily lead to the unveiling of this past for present-day observers and to those who encounter it through the words of a written text? This examination illuminates the various obstacles that the space of the past must traverse in order to become visible to present-day readers through the language of literature. The various instances of non-revelation, partial revelation, and momentary flickers of the Palestinian past of Wadi Salib within the analyzed works raise significant questions, not only about the ability to discern the traces of the past imprinted in this space but also concerning the role of literature in facilitating possibilities of seeing. Thus, the representations of Wadi Salib in Hebrew literature, beyond their significance within the Israeli cultural field, offer a means to investigate the intricate interplay between space, representation, visibility, and interpretation.