Jewish History Research Articles

On the history of Jews in Sub-Saharan Africa: The case of South Africa, Nigeria, DR Congo and Ethiopia

On the history of Jews in Sub-Saharan Africa: The case of South Africa, Nigeria, DR Congo and Ethiopia

Bound and Burdened: How Contemporary Empalaos Rituals in Valverde Rewrite Crypto Muslim and Jewish History in Late Medieval Iberia

Abstract: Los Empalaos is a Semana Santa practice and living medievalism maintained today in the town of Valverde de la Vera in Extremadura, Spain. The town situates this practice in opposition to the luxurious daytime Holy Week festivities of major Spanish cities like Seville. A ghostly, endurance-based midnight performance enacted by lace-draped devotees, this spectacle draws pilgrims and tourists from across the world to the tiny town. Los Empalaos is traced by contemporary practitioners to fifteenth-century festivities that grew up around the expulsions of Jews. These recalled forced performances by converts intended to display their total transformation into "good Spanish Christians" through public bodily suffering and humiliation. This article argues that Los Empalaos uniquely incorporates a complex interplay of gender, rural and ethnoreligious identity, and traumatic historical memory while drawing on acts and events from late medieval Spain. This festive ritual encoded traces of Crypto-Jewish and Crypto-Muslim lamentations. The article reflects on the historicizing narrative of contemporary Semana Santa festivities as critical cultural spectacles whose repertoire recreates and transforms the medieval imaginary, obfuscating Jewish and Muslim histories.

The Racial Politics of the Alliance Israélite Universelle

Abstract: Despite the extensive literature on the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU), scholars have yet to apply race as an explicit analytic in examining its work across the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, and Iran. I argue that the AIU racialized the Beta Israel as subjects in need of aid through overtly physiognomic descriptions, notions of time, and ethnographic descriptions of cultural practices that rest on underlying racial logics. Further, I argue that the AIU was driven by racial notions, anxieties, and aspirations around whiteness. These racial politics come to the fore through a case study of the ethnographic expeditions that the AIU sponsored to the Beta Israel in Ethiopia. The Alliance first sent Joseph Halévy in 1867–1868, and forty years later, dispatched a second expedition led by Rabbi Haim Nahum in 1909. While accounts of the AIU tend towards a paradigm of Orientalism, thinking with race accounts for the role that racial theory played in the development of Alliance policy, emphasizes multidirectional constructions of Blackness and whiteness, reveals analytic connections linking groups within a global racial hierarchy, and highlights continuities with debates around white gatekeeping in the Jewish community that are still unfolding today. Applying race as an explicit analytic thus not only reframes the work of the Alliance, but enables us to rethink Jewish history and historiography more globally.

Actor in History: A Hasidic Tsadik's Journey from Uman to Brownsville

Abstract: Rabbi Yehoshua Heschel Rabinowitz (1860–1938) was one of the first Hasidic rebbes of stature to come to America. An Orthodox Jewish leader and author with uncommon historical consciousness, he strove to revitalize religion as an existentially vital facet of being. Keenly attuned to the complexities of moments of transition, he reflected on his own experience of migration. His response to modernity differs from that of most traditionalist communal leaders of his day—both those who stayed in Europe and those who came to America. In the New World, now in his sixties, his understanding of Jewish history and the ongoing transformation of modern Jewish society and self continued to evolve as contemporary challenges demanded new responses. His life and works—written in Hebrew in a strikingly modern idiom—add important dimensions to the story of Hasidic migration, resettlement, and spiritual revival during a volatile historical era. Retracing his long path from Ukraine to New York, from the "valley of slaughter" to the goldene medina , through close readings of ego-documents and other resources that have received little attention to date, this paper considers his importance as a Hasidic figure worthy of note.

From One Paradigm to Another: The Jewish History of Race and Religion in International Law

Rabiat Akande's article, “An Imperial History of Race-Religion in International Law,” draws attention to the gap in frameworks of protection from religious discrimination, on the compelling rationale that much contemporary discrimination continues to work through racialization. And she provides a genealogy to show that this gap is not there by accident—it presupposes a specific set of histories that excluded the racialization of religion from protection, because such protection was devised to respond to some kinds of wrongs (especially those of concern to white Christians) rather than others. In this essay, I would like to draw out much more explicitly than she does Akande's momentous point that Jews—racialized by white Christian Europeans—once experienced and fought this very same protection gap. This story is of great historical interest in its own right, but it also redoubles the familiar lesson that colonialism never just ends. Instead, it endures in complex ways and facilitates ongoing cycles of suffering and unfreedom.

The History of the Jewish communities in the Mamlūk Sultanate (1250–1517): approaches and discourses

The article discusses the main approaches and discourses that are used in writing the history of Jewish communities in the Mamlūk Sultanate (1250–1517). The review on the topic includes the classics of the Jewish history, studies of contemporary authors in English, Arabic and Hebrew. Two main approaches are distinguished. There are two approaches. The first is the “theory of decline,” which characterizes the reign of the Mamluks as a period of systematic decline of the entire Mamluk society, which subsequently influenced the state of the Jewish community itself. approach that describes the period as time of oppression and isolation of the community. The second approach defines the period as a time of oppression, discrimination and isolation of the community.The criticism of A. Mazor and N. Hofer on the “theory of decline” and oppression of the community is considered there. That historical approaches are placed in certain discourses. Among them, might be highlighted the Jewish national, Zionist, orientalist, Islamic discourses, M. Cohen's «neo-lacrimous concept», as well as the reaction on them among Arab historians. The conclusions identify problems associated with the historical period under study, and also discuss issues related to expanding the methodological base in historical research. The works of modern researchers who apply methods from other social sciences, for example, discourse analysis, narrative analysis and case study, are presented. The identification of typical approaches, theoretical and ideological frameworks will allow to reconsider the period under study in the history of Jewish communities.

A Unique People in a Unique Land: Essays on American Jewish History

A Unique People in a Unique Land: Essays on American Jewish History

History of the Republic of Venice The Serenissima From the Origins to the Fall

Riccardo Calimani, the author of the book that is being introduced and evaluated, is known especially with his writing on especially Jewish History after graduated from the department of Electronic Engineering at the Universita di Padua and the department of Philosoph of Science at the Universita Ca’Foscari. He has written to those books about Jewry: Storia del ghetto di Venezia (Mondadori 2000), Gesu ebreo (Mondadori 2001) and Storia dell’ebreo errante (Mondadori 2002). He was awarded the Ministry of Culture in 1986 and the European Award in 1997 as well as his numerous books and articles. Also, he has written three novels on Venice.

Historiography and Collective Memory

Zakhor is the commandment of remembrance often repeated in the Torah. It is also the title of an indispensable book for reflection on Jewish identity in relation to historiography. In this article, I will start with the thesis of the Jewish historian Yerushalmi to discuss the relationship between memory and historiography in the Jewish context and beyond. Yerushalmi pointed out a distance between collective memory and historiography that is an interesting starting point for reflection on the possibilities of a non-westernized historiography. The text is divided into an introduction, three topics that aim: to present Yerushalmi’s book; to present the main comments to the book; to reflect on the place or non-place of the national element in a Jewish history; and a conclusion. Thus, I will question the tension between memory and history and a possible approximation that goes beyond the modern notion of historiography. Thus, reading Yerushalmi’s thesis as a possibility of rethinking the instruments of historiography.

Competing for the Youth: Jewish Scout Identity, Religion, and Gender during the Holocaust in France

Abstract This article examines Jewish youth identity, gender, and ideology during the Holocaust in France in order to understand how young people responded to persecution. The author’s attempts to understand the youth perspective reveals that these adolescents’ experiences were distinct and varied, and each traversed complex and multifaceted paths through the war. Always in perpetual negotiation with other elements of their identities—such as their ideology, religion, and gender—for many, youth movements greatly impacted how they developed and matured into adulthood. Coming of age during the Holocaust meant not only enduring persecution, but also traditional discourses on the place of young people in society. Charting the trajectories of individual young people and Jewish youth groups within the context of the war, the Holocaust, and French Jewish history reveals their radicalized and accelerated wartime development. In researching this phenomenon, it becomes possible to decenter entrenched narratives of persecution and resistance and enhance our understanding of wartime gender roles, the impact of Judaism, and the various ideologies that informed these youths’ lives.

Commemoration as a form of representation of the Holocaust in the cultural space of Ukraine in the XXI century

The relevance of the article. Commemoration1 of the Holocaust2 is a practice that is the quintessence of the memory of the Jewish past and a promising approach for comprehension of collective experience. Successful realization of forms of remembrance is actively implemented in the main historical centers associated with Jewish history: Poland, Hungary, Germany, and others. It is there that commemorative practices have become an integral part of the multicultural dimension. For a long time, the national focus of Holocaust remembrance was regulated by political mechanisms post-Soviet space, depriving society of the opportunity to expand the functionality of commemoration. This influenced the presentation of the perpetuation of the tragedy and the formation of self-identity among Ukrainian Jews.
 The purpose of the research. The article presents an examination of individual examples of modern Holocaust commemorative practices and their impact on the cultural space of Ukraine. The dynamics of urban, visual and memorial aspects of commemoration are identified and analyzed, and their specifics are outlined.
 The methodology is based on the use of the following methods: historical and cultural methods, which were used to characterize the peculiarities of Jewish cultural memory within the framework of the Holocaust representation; sociological method of visual analysis, which was used to study the specifics of commemoration practices using examples of commemoration; structural and semiotic methods, which were used to determine the relationship between individual and collective reflection within the memorial space, and to outline the specific symbolism of the tragedy. It is determined that the rethinking of the tragedy of the Jewish people is the result of rethinking the Holocaust in society. This became possible due to the intensification of research into the meaning of the tragedy.
 The results. It is proven that by reconstructing the image of the past in the sociocultural dimension, it becomes possible to deprive the Jews of local perception and focus on building intercultural communication through the prism of a positive trend in preserving and restoring memory.
 The scientific novelty of the research. Іs presented in the analysis of examples of Holocaust commemoration in Ukraine and the identification of the constituent elements of the cultural space of remembrance.
 The practical significance. The prospect of a further vector of research is the practical implementation of the theoretical material for creating projects dedicated to the tragedy and Jewry in the national territory.
 Conclusions. Having carried out a cultural analysis of illustrative examples of Holocaust remembrance, we can draw the following conclusions. Firstly, in the course of the study, we determined that the urban perspective of the Holocaust commemoration, together with the elaboration of the trauma of witnesses, aims to create a tendency to perceive the «other». We believe that this is a mentally necessary strategy for Ukrainian realities. Secondly, we have generalized that commemoration focuses on creating an individual experience of perceiving the tragedy of the Holocaust, making it unique. We argue that a complex conglomerate of feelings, which concentrate visual forms, will allow everyone to find their place in this event, discover its leitmotifs, and construct the context of the future with a clear understanding of the cyclical nature of history. Thirdly, memorial commemoration is the most accessible for reflection. However, the places of memory executions are not without variability in interpretation and are an example of a primary source that makes it possible to study of the Holocaust.

Citizenship, Civil Rights, and Jewish Emancipation in Revolutionary France

The emancipation of France's Jewish communities at the National Assembly marked an unprecedented development in civil rights for religious minorities. This project focuses on the intersection of French and Jewish history in an effort to expand our understanding of the French Revolution's long-lasting effects on Europe. It also provides context for the political and social framework of Revolutionary France as it pertains to civil rights and religious outlier groups, seeking to contrast the differing paths to citizenship taken by French Protestants and French Jews, identify the ideological influence of the Enlightenment on proponents of Jewish emancipation, and compare the lives of French Jews after emancipation to that of other concurrent Jewish enclaves in Europe.

Scholem’s Kafka: Not a Nihilistic, but Rather a Secular, Kabbalist

Abstract Gershom Scholem devised the ironic formulation that Kafka’s literature depicts the Kabbalah from a secular perspective. This declaration, when unraveled, offers an indispensable key to understanding Scholem’s views on Kafka. Scholem’s formulation stems from his dialectical perspective of Jewish history and his reliance on the notion of Zimzum therewith. For Scholem, Kafka’s literature manifests the tenor of the Kabbalah without the Kabbalah’s content. The kabbalistic tenor of his literature reflects Kafka’s actual world in which God’s commandments have dissipated but the faintest whisperings of God can still be sensed. This state of the world is that of the Zimzum at its nadir. Scholem describes Kafka as caught on the border between religion and nihilism; he cannot be religious because when the Zimzum is at its nadir all religious content has disappeared. Yet, Kafka is also not a nihilist because he holds on to the possibility of God’s return in a future epoch. In fact, ironically, it is Kafka’s depiction of God’s hiddenness which causes Scholem to write so adoringly of him despite his bordering on nihilism. That is because for Scholem, one who depicts God’s hiddenness, while seeming to embrace nihilism, is actually prophesizing, albeit unconsciously, Judaism’s glorious return.

Im Zwiespalt der Erinnerungen – Die Vereine ehemaliger Hamburger in Israel

Abstract In Hamburg, as elsewhere, debates about aspects of remembering the Shoah have been and are being conducted not only locally, but across national and other borders. People with a personal history of persecution and a connection to the city have a special position in these debates. The same applies to the discussions in the 1980s and 1990s in which the associations of former Hamburg residents in Israel spoke out – and were usually heard. Initially, two groups existed, one in Jerusalem, one in Tel Aviv, which merged in 1992 and had close contact with Hamburg. They are described here both as organisations in Israel and as actors in remembrance politics of the city. This essay elaborates on their commitment at the example of exhibition projects on Hamburg’s Jewish history.

Die Pionierinnen der Pionierin. Zu Gerda Lerners »The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina. Pioneers for Women’s Rights and Abolition« (1967/2004)

Abstract This article traces the history of the double biography »The Grimké Sisters« (1967/2004) by Gerda Lerner, an American Jewish historian who, as a Viennese Jew, escaped Nazi Europe for the United States in 1939. Focusing on the history of the making of »The Grimké Sisters«, the essay analyzes Lerner’s book as ›life writing‹. It demonstrates Gerda Lerner‘s (1920–2013) becoming scholarly persona in the context of her self-interpretation of the Grimké Sisters as her own figures of identification and role model. By showing the nexus of African Americans’ rights and women’s rights in the Grimké sisters’ engagement, Gerda Lerner processed the own in the foreign. In doing so, Lerner’s interest in white abolitionism and the women’s rights movement in the 19th century U.S. echoes her multiple outsider and persecution experiences as a Jewish emigrant, left-wing feminist, and pioneer in Women’s history in the 20th century.

István Deák and Hungarian Jewish History

István Deák and Hungarian Jewish History

The Holiness of Riẓba: A Study of a Rabbinic Historiography

Abstract This study deals with the public declaration by the Tosaphist R. Yitzhak ben Abraham (Riẓba) about his inability to consummate his marriage during its first few years. Ephraim Urbach, the great mid-twentieth century Jewish historian, considered this confession to be an expression of holiness and purity and to the ability to dissociate sexuality from feelings of guilt and shame. This assessment reflects the pretensions of Judaic studies of the era to understand the characters and predilections of rabbinic figures at a remove of hundreds of years. This paper rejects Urbach’s conclusions, maintaining that the compunctions associated with nudity and sexuality are modern phenomena. In medieval Europe, men and women bathed together, and this practice was considered perfectly acceptable in both Jewish and non-Jewish circles. Likewise, the intimate lives of married couples were not private. Consequently, Riẓba’s disclosure does not attest to his being holy or pure to an unusual degree.

“Mr Hitler,” Greta Garbo and the Jew Hidden in the Grass. The Literary Representation of the Holocaust in Ruth Tannenbaum by Miljenko Jergović

This article is an attempt to provide an insight into the fate of the Jewish diaspora in Zagreb, a city marked by the spectre of the Second World War. The events in the diegetic world are based on the fictionalised, tragic life of a young Jewish actress Lea Deutsch (1927-1943), who was acclaimed a prodigy of the Zagreb theatre scene and was killed in Auschwitz. Miljenko Jergović undertook the difficult task of addressing Croatian antisemitism, the circumstances surrounding the creation of the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945), of which the darkest outcome was the Jasenovac concentration camp. The analysis of the work is part of a wide-ranging discussion on the acceptable ways to depict the Holocaust (language and form). The Croatian writer's novel highlights the topos of the eternally wandering Jew; he also dispels the myth about small promised lands in the history of Jews, who were scattered across Europe and had to face local exclusion, antisemitism and ghettoisation.

Give me Łódź: Jewish communal life in a Polish manufacturing city

ABSTRACT This article explores the development of the Jewish community of Łódź, Poland alongside changes in the city as a whole. From a small town at the start of the 19th century, it became a major hub for textile factories, urban labor, and intercultural encounters by the end of the century. Jews experienced and contributed to the changes as workers, factory owners, and chroniclers. The article will examine how aspects related to Łódź’s character and evolution contributed to the wartime and postwar experiences of Jews there, arguing that the city provides a unique and important perspective on modern Jewish history.

"Like Salt in Water": Toward a History of Jewish Immigrants' Suicide in Urban America, 1890–1910

Abstract: During the early twentieth century, suicide among Jewish immigrants in the United States was hardly uncommon. The American Yiddish press regularly reported on suicide cases, and Jewish public figures acknowledged the phenomenon's frequency. Uncovering this forgotten chapter in American Jewish history and drawing on immigrants' letters, reports from the Yiddish press, burial records, and autobiographies, this article explores patterns of despair and self-violence among eastern European Jewish immigrants and their reflections in the American Jewish press, specifically in Yiddish. It traces expressions of immigrant suffering and identifies patterns of cultural failure to revisit the emotional and cultural dynamics of east European Jewish immigration to the United States in the age of mass migration. By focusing on marginal cases in American Jewish history, this article highlights a broad cultural spectrum of immigrant experiences.