Jews, Christians, and the endtime in early modern Germany

This paper examines some of the ways in which early modern German literary culture portrayed Jewish visions of the endtime. Christians employed notions of Jewish deceit to undermine the meaning of Jewish messianism, reshaping the signs of the endtime to carry a far more sinister meaning. Christian writers transformed Jewish messianic claimants into predictable precursors of the Antichrist and mocked Jewish beliefs as the delusions of a nation of deceived deceivers. Notions of Jewish deceitfulness complicated Christian expectations concerning Jewish conversion at the end of time. The Christian perception of Jews as inherently deceitful encompassed all components of the early modern views of Jews and the Jewish religion. Early modern German literary works devoted to the theme of vain Jewish messianic expectations combined with the literature of the Antichrist, turning the demonic Antichrist who would appear at the endtime into the person the Jews expected as their messiah. Failed Jewish messianic movements played right into Christian literary and theological discourse on the Jewish endtime and provided historical confirmation for what would have otherwise seemed like an absurd polemical exaggeration. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

THE JEWISH POLICEMEN OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LONDON

There were tens of thousands of Jewish Londoners in the eighteenth century. Contemporary magistrates Henry Fielding and Patrick Colquhoun blamed these Jews for increases in crime. They made no mention of the many Jewish peace officers who patrolled the city. Fielding and Colquhoun situated Jews as part of the crime problem and not the policing solution. Historians have likewise discussed Jewish criminality and ignored the role of Jews in combating crime in the eighteenth century. However, there was an entire group of Jewish men who both enforced the law and used the law to their own advantage: peace officers and thief-takers. In fact, throughout the eighteenth century Jewish men and women were involved in the policing of the city in official, quasi-official, and unofficial capacities. There were practical reasons for having Jewish constables. There was a select number of occupations that brought Jewish men and women into association with their gentile neighbours. Jewish peddlers, porters, and dealers naturally came in contact with a variety of people. Importantly, there was another vocation that similarly allowed Jewish men to participate in the wider London world: policing. Jewish and gentile peace officers co-operated and worked together in companionship not seen in other trades. This paper examines the activities of Jewish peace officers and thief-takers, to shed light on both the dynamics of eighteenth-century policing and on the nature of the Jewish community.     

JEWISH CINEMATIC SELF‐REPRESENTATIONS IN CONTEMPORARY ARGENTINE AND BRAZILIAN FILMS

In recent years, young Latin American‐Jewish film directors have produced films that portray the Jewish communities in both Argentina and Brazil. While Argentine‐Jewish filmmakers have been prominent since the beginning of the film industry in Argentina, it is the first time a group of contemporary directors share the depiction of Jewish life and culture. For his part, Brazilian‐Jewish director Cao Hamburger also chooses to present the Jewish community of São Paulo in his award‐nominated film, O ano em que meus pais saíram de férias [The year my parents went on vacation (2007)]. This article explores what this self‐representation entails for Argentine‐Jewish and Brazilian‐Jewish filmmakers, as well as on the commonalities of Jewish characters presented in the films of Daniel Burman, Gabriel Lichtmann, Ariel Winograd and Cao Hamburger.     

Replenishing the “Fountain of Judaism”: Traditionalist Jewish Education in Interwar Poland

The unexpected revitalization of Polish Jewish traditionalism—Hasidic and non-Hasidic—is particularly visible in the realm of education. During the interwar period, a combined influx of pious refugees from the Soviet Union and generous American Jewish philanthropy bolstered traditionalist Jewish elementary schools (hadarim) and yeshivot. At the same time, traditionalists reformed those hitherto sacrosanct institutions in hopes of competing with emergent secularist Jewish movements while preserving an ostensibly authentic cultural core. Polish Jewish traditionalism was subtly transformed in the process, presenting a striking contrast with its more rigid “ultra-Orthodox” counterpart in neighboring Hungary and offering a viable alternative to secularist Jewish subcultures within Poland. This article highlights the surprising durability and flexibility of Poland’s traditionalist Jewish communities during a period usually conceived as one of secularist Jewish growth and traditionalist decline.     

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.     

Impact of Summer Trip to Israel on the Self-Esteem of Jewish Adolescents

Psychological research has identified many positive effects of adolescents being aware of their religious and cultural backgrounds (Fiese, 1992). Religious rituals and community support facilitate developmental transitions. They also instill a stronger sense of identity. Mainstream North American society's emphasis on autonomy and individuality has meant that people are less reliant on religious and cultural rituals as a source of community strength. The lack of defined traditions and spiritual goals has left many of today's American adolescents confused. Jewish American adolescents, in particular, may not achieve a full sense of their religious and cultural background due to the preponderance of Christian symbols and ideology as well as to a de-emphasis of religion due to America's scientific/secular world view. A trip to Israel, the Jewish homeland, gives Jewish adolescents the chance to meet other Jewish people and to spend time in an environment which promotes Jewish ideology, history, and culture. Although past research on Jewish adolescents has found that a trip to Israel enhances a sense of Jewish identity, personality, and leadership skills (Kafka, London, Bandler, & Frank, 1990), no recorded empirical research has looked at possible changes in self-esteem. The goal of this research project was to determine if learning about and experiencing Israeli religious practices and culture foster greater Jewish self-esteem, Jewish identity, and/or self-concept for Jewish adolescents. The compiled data reveal that Jewish identity and Jewish self-esteem have a direct and positive bearing on each other. Jewish adolescents with a strong sense of Jewish identity are more likely to develop a higher level of Jewish self-esteem. Likewise, enhanced Jewish self-esteem is connected to a greater sense of Jewish identity. Although scores on the Jewish Identity and Jewish Self-Esteem Scales did not significantly correlate with self-concept scores on the Piers-Harris Children’ Self Concept Scale (1984), and the Piers-Harris scores did not significantly change over time, these results may be due to the above average pre-test self-concept scores of the participants. Adolescents from both the Camp and Israel groups scored in the above average range on the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale prior to and following the summer excursion. Directed at parents, scholars, and communities, this study calls attention to the importance of religiosity and culture to adolescent development. This research project also confirms this study's hypothesis that sending all Jewish adolescents to Israel between Middle and Late Adolescence lessens developmental ambiguity and strengthens self-esteem. By gaining an understanding of roots, identity, and self-esteem, adolescents and adults may become more accepting of themselves, thus enhancing their ability to be open and accepting of others—much needed qualities.     

Gender Differences in American Jewish Identity: Testing the Power Control Theory Explanation

This paper addresses discrepancies in previous research about whether there are gender differences in Jewish identity. Four factors of Jewish identity are examined: multifaceted Jewish engagement, social Jewish identity, communal religious identity, and cultural Jewish identity. Using the 2011 New York Jewish Community Survey, gender differences in Jewish identity in seven denominational groups of American Jews are examined. The power control theory (PCT) is tested as an explanation for the gender differences, and found to be lacking. Measures of power imbalance in current family situations are used, in addition to measures related to socialization; the rationale for this variation is discussed. According to PCT, the Orthodox would exhibit greater gender differences in Jewish identity, but the opposite is true: significant gender differences are found for non-Orthodox denominations more than are found for the Orthodox. Being raised Orthodox does not contribute to the gender differences. Measures of power imbalance within families do not contribute to the explanation of variance in any of the Jewish identity factors. Possible generalization of the findings is discussed, as well as directions for further research.     

“A new and modern golden age of Jewish culture”: shaping the cultural politics of transnational Jewish antifascism

The Holocaust and a worldwide Jewish enthusiasm and support for the Red Army’s defeat of the German Army on the Eastern Front led to a greater sense of international Jewish consciousness and solidarity often tied to an antifascist politics. Utilizing a transnational lens, I explore how Jewish antifascists of the immediate post-war period proffered a novel cultural politics as a means of addressing ongoing international issues of post-Holocaust Jewish survival in a dangerous and politically uncertain modernity. I examine three Jewish left magazines of the late 1940s that were involved in a loose international antifascist progressive Jewish network and ideological framework. These magazines Jewish Life (USA), New Life (UK) and Unity (Australia) represented similar antifascist politics and cultural outlooks in the USA, Britain and Australia, respectively. They have received little sustained scholarly attention previously. I analyse their vision of diverse multilingual Jewish cultures which were to be promoted and developed in any country where Jews lived and in whatever language they spoke. Their cultural vision represented antifascist values against bourgeois or nationalist Jewish culture and broadly reflected a pro-Soviet, progressive and Jewish internationalist, Popular Front politics and worldview.     

JEWISH FOREIGN POLICY: ISRAEL,WORLD JEWRY AND THE DEFENCE OF “JEWISH INTERESTS”

Is there such a thing as a “Jewish foreign policy”? This article argues that Jewish foreign policy does in fact exist. It is not Israeli foreign policy, nor is it an aggregation of American Jewish political power and interests. Jewish foreign policy is not controlled by the Israeli Prime Minister, nor is it led by the myriad of Jewish communal organizations in the United States or elsewhere. It defies the traditional ‘Israel-diaspora’ dichotomy that all too often defines Jewish political discourse. Jewish foreign policy, like other systems of foreign policy, has its own distinctive set of interests and actors. It is a complex, informal, and de-centralized system of ethno-nationalist foreign policy. This article maps out the Jewish foreign policy system. In doing so, the following questions are addressed: Who are the actors involved? What are its interests? What are the challenges and problems facing the system?     

Jewish Identity and the Secular Achievements of American Jewish Men and Women

Three questions are addressed concerning the relationship of Jewish identity to secular achievements. Are the secular achievements of American Jews related at all to the strength of their Jewish identity? Which has a stronger relationship to secular achievement, a religious or an ethnic Jewish identity? Do communal aspects or private, personal aspects of Jewish identity have the stronger relationship to secular achievements? Using the 2000–2001 National Jewish Population Survey, we find that educational attainment, labor force participation, and occupational achievements are related to several expressions of Jewish identity, even after controlling for the traditional sources of variation (age, gender, education, family status). Jewish identity, as expressed in terms of religion, ethnicity, communal commitment, and private attitudes and practices, is related to contemporary Jewish secular achievement, albeit differently for men and women.     

Denominational Variations Across American Jewish Communities

This article explores the Jewish identity of different Jewish denominational identification groups using the Decade 2000 Data Set with its 19,800 interviews of Jewish households in 22 American Jewish communities. We relate the Jewish identity of individuals in each denominational group (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform/Reconstructionist) to the denominational composition of the community. Communities are clustered via k‐means cluster analysis based on their denominational profiles. We examine the extent to which individual Jewish identification varies by the denominational composition of the community in which an individual resides, finding that considerable variation exists in Jewish identity measures depending on the type of denominational profile that exists in the individual's community. That is, Orthodox Jews, for example, behave differently in a community with a significant Orthodox population than in a community with few Orthodox, but many Reform Jews. Implications for Jewish communities, as well as for the broader interreligious community, are considered.     

Talking about Antisemitism in France Before and After <Emphasis Type="Italic">Charlie Hebdo</Emphasis> and Hyper Cacher

This article explores tensions in French Jewish discourses about antisemitism in the post-2000 period. Drawing on commentary from French Jewish intellectuals, national Jewish organizations, and the French Jewish press from the mid-2000s until after the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher attacks, I note a complex relationship between change and continuity in discursive characterizations of French antisemitism. While empirical manifestations of antisemitism were notably transformed by the Toulouse attacks of 2012, much French Jewish discourse insisted on continuity from the early 2000s onward. At the same time, Jewish narrative practices shifted rather dramatically. In a political context where Israel was often depicted as part of a history of violent settler colonialism, early 2000s Jewish discourse divorced French antisemitism from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and (post)colonial racism in France. After 2012, some Jewish commentators linked Israel to French antisemitism by likening terrorism in Israel with Islamic antisemitism in France. These disjunctures between narratives and empirical violence suggest that the “structures of feeling” behind Jewish reactions to contemporary antisemitism cannot be reduced to empirical questions about safety and security. Social scientists thus need to move beyond an empirical analysis of antisemitism itself and attend to the cultural and affective work Jewish discourses about antisemitism do in any particular moment.     

The (Dis)similarity of a Minority Religion to Its Broader Religious Context: The Case of American Jews

While much research shows the relationship between individual-level variables, such as Jewish background, education, age, and income and an individual’s Jewish identity, very little research has systematically addressed the question of community context, either general or Jewish, as a factor influencing Jewish religious or ethnic identity. This lack of research has been partially a result of the lack of an adequate data set to facilitate such analysis. Using the newly-aggregated Decade 2000 data set, with its 19,800 cases spread across 22 Jewish communities, we find that despite the anecdotal evidence and the logic that suggests that environment impacts behavior, the environmental impact on Jewish identity is clearly weak. Individual characteristics are much stronger than community context in explaining variations in the strength of Jewish identity.     

THE TURNING TO HISTORY OF VIENNESE JEWS

In the early years of its existence, for around ten years, the Viennese Jewish museum served the purpose of heightening the Jews’ opportunity for integration into the society at large. According to this view, the stated goal of the Jewish museum differed from the nationalist aim of non‐Jewish museums established in the nineteenth century. Although the Jewish museum undeniably enhanced the sense of solidarity among Viennese Jewry, its ultimate goal, rather, was to gain acceptance by the non‐Jewish society. However, this aim was soon to change, giving way to a strengthening of a particularistic Jewish identity. The Viennese Jewish museum also provides a telling example of the fictitiousness of historical narratives. It shows the high degree to which the past was employed in order to accomplish social goals. Against this background, the Jewish museum tells a great deal about the identity of the Jews who were affiliated to or felt sympathetic towards it. The history of the Viennese Jewish museum was thus the history of the social hopes and expectations of the acculturated part of Viennese Jewry.     

JEWISH WOMEN'S PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING: THE ROLE OF ATTACHMENT, SEPARATION, AND JEWISH IDENTITY

The purpose of this study was to examine the contributions of attachment, separation, and Jewish identity to psychological well-being in a sample of 115 late adolescent Jewish women. Results from multiple regression analyses demonstrated that attachment to parents, separation from parents, and Jewish identity collectively accounted for variance in psychological distress, as measured by anxiety, depression, self-esteem problems, and interpersonal problems. Thus, late adolescent Jewish women's psychological functioning may be fostered by therapeutic interventions addressing their relationships with parents and Jewish identity.     

Counseling Jewish Women: A Phenomenological Study

The field of counseling has paid little attention to religion in general and Jewish women's realities in particular. This article presents the findings of a qualitative phenomenological study examining 12 Ashkenazi, non‐Orthodox, Jewish American women's self‐reported understanding of their Jewish identity, revealing the themes of Jewishness and being Jewish in a broader societal context, as well as 7 related subthemes. Recommendations are offered for counselors, educators, and researchers who work with Jewish women.     

Between the Diaspora and Zion: Cecil Roth and his American friends

Near the start of his career (1925–1930) Cecil Roth developed a vision of the significance of the Diaspora to Jewish life, which he articulated during his tenure at the Intercollegiate Menorah Society Summer School of 1930. For Roth, Jewish creativity could be expressed only by possessing a firm grasp of Jewish history and its essentials. In his summer school lectures Roth sought to integrate Jewish history into the broader sweep of European history, while at the same time he introduced students to historical sources beyond traditional Jewish texts. In the aftermath of World War II Roth entered into a prolonged correspondence with the American Jewish historian Jacob Rader Marcus, who had recently founded the American Jewish Archives, whose purpose was to forward the study of Jewish history by collecting the documents that would enable future research. In their correspondence, Roth and Marcus enunciated an approach to Jewish history that would influence the field for a generation.     

THE POLITICS OF INTERTEXTUALITY IN ANTON SHMAMAS'S ARABESQUES

New directions have been found in the study of Jewish topographies. This article attempts to relocalise Jewish space and move it beyond European and American cityscapes to encompass a wider Jewish geographical horizon. The article explores the summer resort of Alwaye (or Aluva), the holiday home to the Cochin (or Kochi) Jews of south India, as an example of a hitherto unexplored Jewish location. In this holiday space, social divisions influenced by hierarchical perceptions of society in India between Paradesi (“White”), Malabar (“Black”) and “Meshuchrarim”, manumitted slaves, were replicated. It was in Alwaye in the year 1909 that the death of the two‐year old Rivka, nicknamed Dolly, occurred. An elegy in Hebrew written by Dolly’s father, community leader Isaac Elias (I.E.) Hallegua, is mentioned for the first time in Cochin Jewish history. It is hoped that the awareness of the space in which the death occurred and the interconnectedness between Jewish holiday space and Jewish quotidian space will contribute to the ever‐growing field of the study of Jewish landscapes.     

Swaying in Three Directions: Ilya Galant in Russian/Ukrainian-Jewish Historiography

This article explores the life and work of an important but little-known Jewish-Russian-Ukrainian historian and political liberal, Ilya Galant, and examines his vision of Jewish history in Ukraine. Galant wanted to legitimize the rights of Jews in Russia and “normalize” their presence in Ukraine. To accomplish this goal he interpreted history creatively, demonstrating Jewish-Ukrainian friendship as well as Jewish contributions to Ukraine. He also appealed to the Russian intelligentsia to foster a liberal coalition of forces in favor of Jewish rights. This essay illuminates contexts that have not received proper scholarly attention: Jewish historiography on Ukraine, Jewish liberals in Russia, the development of Russian-Jewish historiography, the image of Jews in Polish-Ukrainian history, and Jewish scholarship in Soviet Ukraine.