Christian Wiese

Andreas Gotzmann

Written by leading authors in their respective fields, this first comprehensive handbook on the relationship between modern Judaism and historical thinking contributes to a differentiated interpretation of Jewish historiography and its interaction with other academic disciplines since the Enlightenment.

Identities, Encounters, Perspectives

Modern Judaism and Historical Consciousness

Iris Idelson-Shein

This is the first study of monstrosity in Jewish history from the Middle Ages to modernity. Drawing on Jewish history, literary studies, folklore, art history and the history of science, it examines both the historical depiction of Jews as monsters and the creative use of monstrous beings in Jewish culture. Jews have occupied a liminal position within European society and culture, being deeply immersed yet outsiders to it. For this reason, they were perceived in terms of otherness and were often represented as monstrous beings. However, at the same time, European Jews invoked, with tantalizing ubiquity, images of magical, terrifying and hybrid beings in their texts, art and folktales. These images were used by Jewish authors and artists to push back against their own identification as monstrous or diabolical and to tackle concerns about religious persecution, assimilation and acculturation, gender and sexuality, science and technology and the rise of antisemitism. Bringing together an impressive cast of contributors from around the world, this fascinating volume is an invaluable resource for academics, postgraduates and advanced undergraduates interested in Jewish studies, as well as the history of monsters.

From the Middle Ages to Modernity

Monsters and Monstrosity in Jewish History

Irene Aue-Ben David

Aya Elyada

Moshe Sluhovsky

The book sheds light on various chapters in the long history of Protestant-Jewish relations, from the Reformation to the present. Going beyond questions of antisemitism and religious animosity, it aims to disentangle some of the intricate perceptions, interpretations, and emotions that have characterized contacts between Protestantism and Judaism, and between Jews and Protestants. While some papers in the book address Luther’s antisemitism and the NS-Zeit, most papers broaden the scope of the investigation: Protestant-Jewish theological encounters shaped not only antisemitism but also the Jewish Reform movement and Protestant philosemitic post-Holocaust theology; interactions between Jews and Protestants took place not only in the German lands but also in the wider Protestant universe; theology was crucial for the articulation of attitudes toward Jews, but music and philosophy were additional spheres of creativity that enabled the process of thinking through the relations between Judaism and Protestantism. By bringing together various contributions on these and other aspects, the book opens up directions for future research on this intricate topic, which bears both historical significance and evident relevance to our own time.

From the Reformation to the Present

Jews and Protestants

Hava Tirosh-Samuelson

An international, interdisciplinary, and interreligious retrospective examination of Hans Jonas (1903-1993) that engages his ideas in light of Existentialism, utopian thought, process philosophy and theology, Zionism, and environmentalism.

Judaism and the Phenomenon of Life

The Legacy of Hans Jonas

Stefan Vogt

Doron Kiesel

Gury Schneider-Ludorff

Ausgehend vom Gedenken an die Pogromnacht von 1938 untersucht der Band die Bedeutungswandlungen der Erinnerung an die Shoa und an die Geschichte jüdischen Lebens in Deutschland sowie die aktuellen Entwicklungen der erinnerungspolitischen Debatte, der Erinnerungsforschung und der Gedenkkultur. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei die Frage nach den zukünftigen Formen und Inhalten des Erinnerns und seiner institutionellen Manifestationen in politischen Diskursen, in der Wissenschaft und in den Gedenkorten. Wie kann die Erinnerung an die jüdische Geschichte in Deutschland und Europa, an die Diskriminierung und Verfolgung der jüdischen Minderheit und an den Völkermord auch mehr als 80 Jahre nach der Pogromnacht aufrecht erhalten werden und wirksam bleiben?

Perspektiven des Gedenkens an die Verbrechen des Nationalsozialismus und die Shoah

Die Zukunft der Erinnerung

Paul Betts

This volume provides an in-depth discussion of Saul Friedlander's landmark two-volume history of the Holocaust, Nazi Germany and the Jews. It brings together a range of internationally acclaimed historians to address the manifold conceptual and historiographical issues raised in Friedlander's monumental work. It includes a major essay by Friedlander himself on the challenges of producing an integrated history of the Holocaust. The aim of this book is not simply to evaluate Friedlander's work on its own merits, but rather to use his text as a means of exploring the contours and future of Holocaust historiography. The central concern is to situate his work within the broader terrain of Holocaust studies and European history, as well as to explore the ways in which his book opens up new directions in the knowledge, study and understanding of the Shoah in particular and twentieth century genocide in general.

Saul Friedlander and the Future of Holocaust Studies

Years of Persecution, Years of Extermination

This first comprehensive analysis of the relationship between Jewish Studies and Protestant theology in Wilhelmine Germany challenges accepted opinions and contributes to a differentiated image of Jewish intellectual history as well as Jewish-Christian relations before the Holocaust.

Jewish Studies and Protestant Theology in Wilhelmine Germany

Challenging Colonial Discourse

Giuseppe Veltri

Jüdische Bildung und Kultur in Sachsen-Anhalt von der Aufklärung bis zum Nationalsozialismus

Martina Urban

German-Jewish intellectuals have occupied center stage in the discourse on Judaism and modernity since the Enlightenment. Dedicated to Paul Mendes-Flohr, this volume explores the complex interaction between Jewish thought and the often competing claims of non-Jewish society and culture, thus creating a rich image of German Jewry’s intellectual world in the modern period. The outcome is a unique collection of essays that provides crucial new insights into the religious and political dimension characterizing the thought of those populating the pantheon of German-Jewish thinkers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Festschrift in Honor of Paul Mendes-Flohr on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday

German-Jewish Thought Between Religion and Politics

Walter Homolka

Thomas Brechenmacher

In this book, internationally renowned historians reconstruct the biography and intellectual development of the rabbi and historian Abraham Geiger (1810–1874). The focus is on Geiger’s intellectual defense of Judaism’s right to exist, his efforts for a modernizing reform of the Jewish communities as well as his interpretation of the relationship of Judaism to Christianity and Islam, which is also important for the current interreligious dialogue.

Christian Wiese

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