The modern country house as a Jewish form: a proposition

ABSTRACT

Although the vast majority of modern country houses built or refurbished in the long nineteenth century were owned by non-Jews, Jews owned some of the most magnificent. Thus, these dwellings pose the same question that historians have raised about other aspects of diasporic Jewish practices: Was there anything particularly “Jewish,” about country houses owned by Jews? In this essay I propose a hypothesis – that Jewish country houses were the ideal-type of the modern country house. On the one hand, super-elite Jews took their capital, both cultural and real, their family networks, and their long experience interpreting and navigating the often-hostile worlds in which they found themselves and created country houses that were the model of the genre. On the other hand, I argue that Judaism itself mattered as much as the social and economic positioning of Jews produced by discrimination. Uniquely Jewish conceptualizations, and practices, of home, of time, and of space rendered Jews particularly comfortable with the complex interweaving of public and private intrinsic to the country house.     

From pastoral to georgic: the Dutch Jewish country house as a rhizome

ABSTRACT

Scholars often analyze houses’ “Jewishness” vis-à-vis Jewish law and rituals. For Dutch Sephardic Jews during the long eighteenth century, however, identity is better understood using a model of rhizome in which “Jewishness” consists of the deliberate interbraiding of multiple traditions. Jewish identity was inextricable from the cultures in which Jews lived. Jewish homes along the Vecht River near Amsterdam exemplify the rhizome model. They embody the same braided pastoral ideal found in eighteenth-century Dutch Sephardic literature and material culture. As Sephardic Jews relocated to Netherlands Antilles, the rhizome present in country houses shifted, taking into account Jews’ new role as slave owners. Thus while buitenplaatsen along the Vecht embraced the Jewish pastoral ideal of a retreat from mercantile life, landhuizen in Curaçao evoked a georgic ideal that channelled the residents’ gaze not on rivers, gardens, and grottos, but on guard stations, slave huts, and enslaved workers. Leisure became redefined as an ability to watch rather than retreat from labour. Taken together, Dutch Jewish country houses along the Vecht and in Curaçao challenge the notion that Jewish material culture has a “single root system.”     

Jewish women in intercommunal political movements in colonial Morocco

ABSTRACT

The goal of this paper is to study Jewish participation in intercommunal – Muslim, Jewish, Christian – Moroccan women’s organizations that promoted national Moroccan socio-political aims, and to analyze their origins, effects, demise and memory. The paper focuses on a unique organization - Union des Femmes marocaines (Union of Moroccan Women) – which, for almost ten years during the colonial period, had carried out intercommunal work for shared Moroccan causes. The study reveals that during the period that intercommunal women’s associations operated (1943–1952), they were first French-oriented and dealt with issues considered, from a gendered perspective, to be within women’s domain (i.e. helping the poor and needy, doing charity, fighting for women’s education), but from 1947, they “Moroccanized” and worked towards general political Moroccan aims. The paper refers to a relatively unknown chapter in Moroccan history, and opens a new perspective of the Moroccan identity of Jews before their massive emigration from the country.     

Fleeing from one place,searching for another

The history of psychoanalysis also tells the story of how individuals were uprooted. Oppression and persecution forced Jewish psychoanalysts into exile during the interwar period and the Second World War. An account of the history of psychoanalysis in a particular country is also bound to mirror international conditions. This article tells the life story of a psychoanalyst of Jewish descent. However, it also tells another story, namely the painful history of psychoanalysis. The life of the Jewish psychoanalyst, Lajos Székely (1904-1995), who found his way to Sweden in May 1944, summarises and distils the destiny of other Jewish psychoanalysts. The article describes the life of a psychoanalyst, but is at the same time about what he represents in a more general sense. It is about the many Jewish psychoanalysts who were forced to flee and who, although the flight was finally over, still uprooted, were compelled to seek a place and a purpose in a new social environment.     

On Jews and property in provincial Central Europe: Leopold Kompert’s 1848 publications

ABSTRACT

Bohemian-born Jewish author Leopold Kompert (1822–1886) is best known for Aus dem Ghetto (1848), his popular tales of provincial Jewish life featuring pious men and women who eke out a living and try to maintain religious traditions amid the temptations of modernity. However, at the same time he also wrote a number of newspaper articles, among them a biography of Jewish tobacco and wax merchant and financier Israel Hönig von Hönigsberg (1724–1808). Considered together, Kompert’s fiction and non-fiction suggest that owning property played a significant – if at times conflicted – role for Jews in the decades preceding emancipation. Analyzing these texts helps show how property, both literal and symbolic, could be used to clarify and critique Jews’ experiences of acculturation, migration, and secularization in the middle of the nineteenth century.     

Between acculturation and self-assertion: individualisation in the German-Jewish context of the German Empire and the Weimar Republic and its contribution to the development of modern sociology

Abstract

Using the example of four German-Jewish scholars of the 19^th and 20^th centuries – Moritz Lazarus (1824–1903), Hermann Cohen (1842–1918), Georg Simmel (1858–1918) and Alfred Schütz (1899–1959), who all maintained intense connections to their Jewish backgrounds – this article aims to illustrate that Jewish traditions held favourable conditions for processes of religious and social individualisation. The focus of the analysis is placed on the figure of the stranger, a theme all four authors dealt with in their work. On the one hand they investigated the stranger as a biblical figure with social-ethical implications (Lazarus and Cohen); on the other, they developed a sociological approach by analysing the role of the stranger in the construction of society (Schütz and Simmel). This article strives to illustrate how a particular religious ideal – the commandment of love for one's neighbour and the recognition of the stranger as a fellowman – has been transformed into a sociological concept for the promotion of individuality. Reconstructing this context also means exploring the history of sociology as a scientific discipline in Germany and to look into the attempts of sociologists to understand otherness in the multicultural societies of the 21st century.     

From Self-Culture to College Lecture

Abstract

The Jewish Chautauqua Society (JCS), founded in Philadelphia in 1893 by Reform Rabbi Henry Berkowitz, evolved from an organization dedicated to popularizing Jewish knowledge among Jews to one devoted to teaching non-Jews about Judaism. Emulating the forms of Chautauqua Institution, the Society created reading circles, published textbooks for the study of Judaism, and held annual assemblies for forty years. In 1939, the Society came under the sponsorship of the North American Federation of Temple Brotherhoods, a lay Reform Jewish organization. It expanded the most ambitious of its programs, rabbinically-taught college courses on Jewish studies. Since its inception, the Jewish Chautauqua Society has sought to combat anti-Semitism, dispel prejudice and create “understanding through education” about a minority religious and ethnic component of American society.     

Belonging without believing: religion and attitudes towards gay marriage and abortion rights in Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT

Same-sex marriage has become a divisive issue in established western democracies. As in earlier research on abortion, there is now a growing body of studies which suggests that religious factors, such as identity, belief and practice, are the most frequent predictors of opposition towards gay marriage. Yet, what we know about the combined influence of these religious factors remains unexamined. Mindful of this omission, this study examines the relationship between regular church attendance and a belief in God on attitudes towards same-sex marriage and abortion rights. Using the recent survey data from Northern Ireland, the results suggest that not only are those who belong but do not believe distinctive in terms of their demographic makeup, but they are also significantly more likely to adopt a liberal stance in relation to both these issues – gay marriage and abortion rights – than the most religiously devout, or those who both belong and believe.     

Interreligious contact and media: introduction

ABSTRACT

Religious pluralisation entails interreligious contacts of different kinds and at various levels. At the same time, an increasing mediatisation affects the perception of and encounter with other religious traditions and their adherents. These relations between interreligious contact and media have not yet been subject to extended research from the study of religion perspective. This issue wants to fill this gap by presenting different case studies and systematising considerations on constellations of interreligious contact/dialogue/encounter and media: specifically (a) the influence of mediated discourses on interreligious contact, (b) media extensions of local and global interreligious dialogue, and (c) the digital – and especially social – media as a platform for interreligious dialogue or encounter. This introduction gives an overview on concepts, questions and topics of this field of research, drawing on the case studies within this special issue.     

Queer Muslims: between orthodoxy,secularism and the struggle for acceptance

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to concentrate on responses by Muslim scholars to both the Orlando incident and the United States Supreme Court Judgment on same-sex marriage. I first provide some comments on the Orlando incident in relation to the issue of Muslims, violence and homophobia. More importantly and central to my argument, I consider what the import of these responses are for Muslims – especially Muslims who identify as LGBTIQ or at least experience same-sex sexual attraction or participate in same-sex sexual conduct – and also what do such responses suggest about the prospect of same-sex sexuality being seriously considered, understood and accepted within the contemporary Islamic tradition and the possible consequences thereof. I make the case that the Islamic tradition, by way of its self-identified and proclaimed scholarly interpreters and representatives, urgently need to engage with the issue of same-sex sexuality in a more robust, dynamic and imaginative manner or risk a deepening epistemological crisis.     

Approaches to Jewish Studies: Teaching a Methods Class

Abstract. Like religious studies, Jewish studies is an academic exploration of literature, ritual, history, philosophy, and experience across disciplinary boundaries. As with all area studies, Jewish studies balances itself – often precariously – as a bridge across that range of methodological options. The breadth of theories employed by each has complicated the teaching of an upper level seminar in Jewish studies. Conceived as a cross between a parade of scholars course and a senior capstone experience, the class employed the broad thematic principle of “identity.” In doing so, it exposed the biases of the students, the subject, and the instructor. (The appendix – abbreviated syllabus mentioned in this essay can be found on the Wabash Center Web site < http://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/journal/hochman.html >.)     

A rite of social passage: Gunnersbury Park, 1835–1925, a Rothschild family villa

ABSTRACT

In 1835 Nathan Rothschild purchased Gunnersbury Park. Set in only 75 acres, this Regency villa in Ealing, just outside London, was the antithesis of a landed estate. The house remained in the family until 1925. This article argues that the architecture, interior decoration, garden and social use of Gunnersbury Park, although consonant with villa tradition, were shaped by the choices of this Jewish mercantile family, instrumental in Rothschild self-fashioning and their pursuit of acceptance by the social elite. As Gunnersbury evolved to serve the changing needs of successive generations, it invited the outside world in, redefining the family through new interests in sport, the garden and collecting, all nurtured there. Remarkably this acculturation took place within, not outside the Jewish context, the ties of family and religion remaining vital influences. In tracing this social rite of passage, it emerges that by the twentieth century the Rothschilds, now enmeshed in upper-class society, defined themselves not simply as Jews but as British Jews. Gunnersbury Park, neglected in Rothschild historiography, facilitated this transformation while remaining a family home of lasting resonance for all who had known it.     

New perspectives on childhood memory: introduction to the special issue

ABSTRACT

This special issue brings together the scholarship that contributes diverse new perspectives on childhood amnesia – the scarcity of memories for very early life events. The topics of the studies reported in the special issue range from memories of infants and young children for recent and distant life events, to mother–child conversations about memories for extended lifetime periods, and to retrospective recollections of early childhood in adolescents and adults. The methodological approaches are diverse and theoretical insights rich. The findings together show that childhood amnesia is a complex and malleable phenomenon and that the waning of childhood amnesia and the development of autobiographical memory are shaped by a variety of interactive social and cognitive factors. This collective body of work will facilitate discussion and deepen our understanding of the dynamics that influence the accessibility, content, accuracy, and phenomenological qualities of memories from early childhood.     

The beginning of modern Jewish historiography: Prague – A center on the periphery

This paper questions the well-established view that modern Jewish historical writing began in Germany about 1820, with the Wissenschaft des Judentums. Following a summary of various scholarly discussions of this issue, attention shifts to Prague. Prague was a center of Jewish historical writing before the birth of Wissenschaft, and the historical narratives of three distinct Bohemian maskilim, Peter Beer (1758–1838), Salomo Löwisohn (1789–1821), and Marcus Fischer (1788–1858) are shown to illustrate the options available to Jewish historians before institutionalized German historicism came to dominate the field. No less important, it becomes clear that scholars should treat Prague as a center of Jewish historical production, which they have not done in the past.     

Making sense of surveys and censuses: Issues in religious self-identification

Abstract

Censuses and surveys shape decisions, discourse and debates about people and their lived environments. The outcomes, in the case of a census, inform governments about resource distribution but also shape people's self-understanding about who they are and where they may be going. How people self-identify on censuses and surveys produces certain types of knowledge. This introduction emphasises the impact of those instruments on knowledge production and how numbers can be employed, often anecdotally, to further interests and claims. The way academics use and interpret such instruments has ethical and normative dimensions: numbers are not neutral but shape and are shaped by perceptions and identities. This introduction to a thematic issue of Religion introduces the contributing authors' diverse – historical, qualitative and quantitative – approaches that work together to produce their own kind of multi-disciplinary, academically located knowledge.     

Exposure to intergroup conspiracy theories promotes prejudice which spreads across groups

This research experimentally examined the effects of exposure to intergroup conspiracy theories on prejudice and discrimination. Study 1 (N = 166) demonstrated that exposure to conspiracy theories concerning immigrants to Britain from the European Union (vs. anti-conspiracy material or a control) exacerbated prejudice towards this group. Study 2 (N = 173) found the same effect in a different intergroup context – exposure to conspiracy theories about Jewish people (vs. anti-conspiracy material or a control) increased prejudice towards this group and reduced participants’ willingness to vote for a Jewish political candidate. Finally, Study 3 (N = 114) demonstrated that exposure to conspiracy theories about Jewish people not only increased prejudice towards this group but was indirectly associated with increased prejudice towards a number of secondary outgroups (e.g., Asians, Arabs, Americans, Irish, Australians). The current research suggests that conspiracy theories may have potentially damaging and widespread consequences for intergroup relations.     

The construction of gender in halakhic Responsa by the Reform movement: transgender people as a case study

ABSTRACT

This article contributes to the expanding field of trans-Jewish-feminist studies in general, and to the scholarship about Jewish law in particular, by analyzing the ways in which the Reform movement has gradually legitimized transgender people and accepted them fully. Applying Judith Butler's ideas about the heterosexual matrix as an analytical tool, the article demonstrates how the Reform movement, in a slow and gradual process, has left the entire heterosexual matrix behind, although it can be claimed that the process (of leaving behind the heterosexual matrix) has not run all the way to a complete dissolution.     

Virtually Jewish

SUMMARY

The authors created a Web-based tutorial for novice-to-intermediate users of the World Wide Web using primarily Jewish content in order to encourage potential Jewish users of the World Wide Web. The lessons contain information on Jewish-themed Web sites and progressively complex information about how to use the Web. Tips and practice exercises are included.     

The Influence of Ethnicity,Social Class,and Context on Judgments About U.S. Women

Abstract

In 2 studies, the authors investigated impression formation as influenced by category-based stereotypes associated with ethnicity and social class. The participants in Study 1 made judgments about 1 target woman, described as interested in running for office in the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) of her children's school. The hypothetical woman was presented to the respondents along with her photograph and information about her ethnic background (Anglo-Saxon, Latina, or Jewish) and occupation (middle class or working class). In Study 2, the authors changed the context and presented a younger target woman (also varied by ethnicity and social class) to the respondents as the new girlfriend of their older brother or cousin. In both studies, judgments were assessed by the participants' responses to 45 bipolar adjectives that, in each case, yielded 8 component factors. In both hypothetical contexts, social class was a powerful trigger for a variety of negative expectations: With respect to ethnicity, the Latina women were judged to be more unsuitable for the job of PTO vice president than were the Anglo-Saxon or Jewish women. The authors discussed potential psychological and social consequences of such category-based judgments.     

Participant Reactive Attitudes and Collective Responsibility

Abstract

The debate surrounding the issue of collective moral responsibility is often steeped in metaphysical issues of agency and personhood. I suggest that we can approach the metaphysical problems surrounding the issue of collective responsibility in a roundabout manner. My approach is reminiscent of that taken by P.F. Strawson in “Freedom and Resentment” (1968). Strawson argues that the participant reactive attitudes – attitudes like resentment, gratitude, forgiveness and so on – provide the justification for holding individuals morally responsible. I argue that the framework of the reactive attitudes extends to collectives and provides the justification for holding collectives morally responsible.