Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Identity, Jewish Revival, Antisemitism, Jewish Culture, Jewish Heritage, Rabbis, Kashrut, Shechita / Ritual Slaughter, Jewish Organisations, Care and Welfare
Abstract: This article has a twofold aim: historical and practical. First, it conducts a brief historical review of the Jewish community in Serbia, addressing the ways in which this community has contributed to country’s culture, history, sciences, politics, and social life. It focuses especially on Jewish life in Serbia after the Holocaust, and the various difficulties of assimilation and emigration. Second, the essay investigates the practical realities of interculturalism in Serbia, weighing these realities against concerns about preserving Jewish identity. The article stems from three interviews: Stefan Sablić, theater director, musician, and founder of Shira U’tfila; Sonja Viličić, activist and founder/director ofNGOHaver Serbia; Dragana Stojanović, anthropologist and scholar of cultural studies. Taken together, the responses of these speakers offer novel approaches to multiculturalism and intercultural dialogue in an area with a complex history and cultural makeup.
Abstract: This chapter situates France’s diverse Jewish community, the largest in Europe, in relation to Holocaust memory, exile from North Africa, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, anti-Semitism and cultural (co-)production. The chapter begins by historically contextualising contemporary anti-Semitism and goes on to explore cultural representations, including Jewish-Muslim artistic collaborations. Contemporary anti-Semitism in France is driven by three main motivations which sometimes overlap, namely radical Islam, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and old anti-Jewish stereotypes. Education and cultural production (particularly collaborative, that is, through Jewish–Muslim cooperation) are particularly important in combating the conflation between Jews and Zionists, and in expressing solidarity between Jews and Muslims, who are both victims of racism in France albeit in the differing forms of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Abstract: Очередной том фундаментальной серии «Народы и культуры» посвящен истории и культуре евреев на территории Российской империи, СССР и стран СНГ. В монографии рассматриваются общие вопросы происхождения и истории еврейского народа, особенности историкоантропологического облика и языков, а также проблемы изучения еврейского фольклора и этнографии. Основное внимание уделено этнополитической истории и своеобразию традиционной культуры российских евреев: их занятиям, костюму, обрядам жизненного цикла, религиозным праздникам, пище, народным знаниям, фольклору, декоративно-прикладному искусству, образованию. Специальные разделы освещают многообразные процессы, протекающие среди евреев в современном мире, взаимоотношения евреев с другими народами. В отдельных разделах даны историко-этнографические материалы по неашкеназским группам: грузинским и бухарским евреям и иудействующим. В создании тома приняли участие историки, филологи, этнографы, антропологи, социологи, фольклористы из России, Украины, Израиля и Франции.
Для историков, этнологов, культурологов, специалистов в разных областях иудаики, студентов профильных вузов и кафедр, широкого круга читателей
Abstract: Идущий в России очередной виток дискуссии о ликвидации ряда «дотационных» национальных автономий путем их слияния с более состоятельными в хозяйственном и бюджетном смысле соседними регионами страны, напрямую касается и возможного изменения статуса основанной в мае 1934 года Еврейской автономной области. Хотя мотивы данного шага преимущественно финансово-экономические, лишение ЕАО, единственного оставшегося в мире примера, пусть на декларативном уровне, реализации «территориалистской» модели национального самоопределения еврейского народа, нанесет немалый символический и содержательный ущерб российской еврейской общине и стране в целом. Особенно, если принять во внимание идущий в последние десятилетия в области процесс возрождения еврейской культурной жизни и то, что сама по себе ЕАО, как бренд, может в долгосрочной перспективе оказаться экономически эффективен.
Abstract: Introduction de Jean-Pierre Allai
Les événements tragiques qui ont traumatisé notre pays ces dernières années : Toulouse, Charlie Hebdo, Hyper Cacher, Bataclan et, plus récemment, le camion fou de la promenade des Anglais à Nice, nous amènent, légitimement, à nous poser la question : l’offensive islamique contre le monde occidental finira-t-elle par avoir raison d’une civilisation millénaire ou parviendra-t-on un jour à dominer et à terrasser ce fléau impitoyable ? En d’autre termes, et pour ce qui concerne la France : la culture en général et sa composante juive en particulier, pourront-elles survivre à cette offensive des tenants d’un obscurantisme dévoyé qu’on pensait à jamais disparu ?
Pour répondre à cette question essentielle, Sandrine Szwarc, historienne, enseignante à l’Institut Universitaire d’Etudes Juives Elie Wiesel et membre du Comité de Rédaction d’ Actualité Juive, commence par brosser un tableau de la situation culturelle de la communauté juive de France au lendemain de la Shoah. Cette communauté, qui a perdu 76 000 de ses membres, se resserre autour de la « yiddishkeit française ». Les titres de la presse yiddish, d’Unzer Wort à Die Naïe Presse en passant par Unzer Kiyoum et bien d’autres, traduisent le besoin impératif de maintenir une culture qui était le quotidien d’un monde englouti par la folie meurtrière du nazisme. C’est le temps du Cabaret Yiddish et du Centre Medem. C’est le temps aussi des controverses infinies entre sionistes, communistes et bundistes. L’arrivée massive, dans les années soixante, de Juifs d’Afrique du Nord et du Moyen-Orient, renforcera numériquement la communauté tout en apportant une touche de jasmin et de piment que porteront haut les Albert Memmi, Marco Koskas, Chochana Boukhobza et tant d’autres.
Abstract: Many readers may be taken aback by the eponymous question. The “reconstruction”, “renaissance”, or “revitalization” of Jewish life has usually been referred to in the affirmative, not necessarily denoting one and the same notion of that phenomenon in each case. It may be worthwhile setting out to explore this issue by establishing in the first place what “Jewish life” consists of, where “the Jewish” and “the non -Jewish” have their dividing line, and what criteria should be assumed if the choice were between the objective and the subjective ones. More questions arise from such deliberations, pertaining to the definition of Jewish culture, Judaism, Jewish space, and Jewish identity; should these concepts be looked at from the perspective of essentialism or constructivism? or may be a new perspective is to be sought, one that sits somewhere at the junction of these two extremes? Every community obviously faces problems caused by the designata of collective categories; however, the contemporary Jewish community seems to be particularly affected by these in Poland. It is beyond doubt that the principal reason for that situation stems from the Holocaust – the experience and aftermath of that tragic event.
Abstract: With contributions from a dozen American and European scholars, this volume presents an overview of Jewish writing in post–World War II Europe. Striking a balance between close readings of individual texts and general surveys of larger movements and underlying themes, the essays portray Jewish authors across Europe as writers and intellectuals of multiple affiliations and hybrid identities. Aimed at a general readership and guided by the idea of constructing bridges across national cultures, this book maps for English-speaking readers the productivity and diversity of Jewish writers and writing that has marked a revitalization of Jewish culture in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, and Russia.
Introduction Thomas Nolden and Vivian Liska
1. Secret Affinities: Contemporary Jewish Writing in Austria Vivian Liska
2. Writing against Reconciliation: Contemporary Jewish Writing in Germany Stephan Braese
3. Remembering or Inventing the Past: Second-Generation Jewish Writers in the Netherlands Elrud Ibsch
4. Bonds with a Vanished Past: Contemporary Jewish Writing in Scandinavia Eva Ekselius
5. Imagined Communities: Contemporary Jewish Writing in Great Britain Bryan Cheyette
6. A la recherche du Judaïsme perdu: Contemporary Jewish Writing in France Thomas Nolden
7. Ital'Yah Letteraria: Contemporary Jewish Writing in Italy Christoph Miething
8. Writing along Borders: Contemporary Jewish Writing in Hungary Péter Varga with Thomas Nolden
9. Making Up for Lost Time: Contemporary Jewish Writing in Poland Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska
10. De-Centered Writing: Aspects of Contemporary Jewish Writing in Russia Rainer Grübel and Vladimir Novikov
Abstract: The dissertation explores the work of Tanya Ury and Esther Dischereit as political interventional, contemporary, Jewish art in Germany. Ury and Dischereit analyze the power relationships surrounding the body, femininity, and expressions of Jewishness in contemporary Germany. The dissertation focuses on the nature of their artistic work - such as video art performances, sound installations, and radio plays- in its relation to, and impact on the public discourse about history, memory, and a culturally diverse society in contemporary Germany. Performance and Body Art comment in the strategies of `re-embodiment' and `re-enactment', illustrate the historical facts from a contemporary perspective, and urge us to reconsider the transmissions of memory. Ury and Dischereit offer experimental spaces of experience, and succeed in preserving Jewish knowledge and art. The work by Ury and Dischereit unfolds a vital political function, as it creates and fosters a creative critical resistance.
Abstract: Throughout Europe products of Jewish culture – or what is perceived as such – have become viable components of the popular public domain. Jewish-themed tourism has emerged since the 1990s in a number of European cities after decades of “collective amnesia”, and some of the Jewish areas have recently undergone a ‘Jewish-thematisation’.
The focal point of this article is the usage of heritage in former Jewish areas. The aim is to understand in which ways and to what extent Jewish heritage is used for tourism purposes. A comparison between Krakow and Vilnius underlines what this difference in usage depends on, in the context of increasingly popular cultural and heritage tourism. In order to understand how Jewish-themed tourism has developed an inventory of Jewish heritage and Jewish-themed events in the two cities is made, showing that Jewish heritage is mainly used for economic development through tourism as well as commemoration in Krakow, whereas in Vilnius, it is used for commemoration and for the needs of the local (Jewish) community. The complexity of the topic and the importance of various local factors in the usage of Jewish heritage are shown. There does not exist, neither in Krakow nor in Vilnius, any specific public policies regarding Jewish heritage that can explain the ’degree’ of touristification and ’heritagisation’ of the areas.
Furthermore, a range of connected theoretical issues, such as authenticity, commodification of culture, or ownership of heritage, is raised.
Abstract: In Israeli director Yael Bartana’s 2007 film Mary Koszmary—meaning “Bad Dreams” or “Nightmares”—a young Polish politician delivers a resounding speech to an empty, crumbling, communist-era Stadion Dziesięciolecia in Warsaw. The speech, he says, is an appeal: “This is a call. . . . It is an appeal for life. We want three million Jews to return to Poland, to live with us again. We need you! Please come back!” This article considers the powerful and perhaps disturbing premise of these lines and explores their possible meanings in a contemporary Polish context. What can it mean for Poles and Polish culture to need Jews—and in particular, to need those Jews who can never return? The complex phenomenon of Jewish memory in Poland and Eastern Europe cannot be contained within specific, present-day borders—whether of geography or of academic discipline: similar dynamics to those Bartana has identified in Poland exist throughout the region. Thus, against the background of Bartana’s film, the article considers the growing phenomenon and importance of local Jewish festivals in Poland and present-day Ukraine, focusing in detail on two specific festivals: the annual festival “Encounters with Jewish Culture,” held in Chmielnik, Poland, and the biannual Bruno Schulz Festival in Drohobych, Ukraine. The analysis explores ways that the memory of Polish Jews—and more specifically the figure of the absent Polish Jew—can function as a central element in the construction of new, communal Polish and Ukrainian narratives since the fall of Communism.
Abstract: This article seeks to trace how visions of a “Jewish return to Europe” inform contemporary cultural production. I am particularly interested in asking how the presence of Israeli émigrés in Germany, a dramatic instance of such a “return,” challenges the country’s memorial culture due to the “exportation” of dispositions relating to the Holocaust construed in Israel. I view this dislocation of memo-rial practices, a new instance of Hebrew-German exchange, as embedded in a broader discourse on migration, integration and xenophobic violence. At the core of my argument is the 2007–2011 film trilogy
And Europe Will Be Stunned,
directed by Israeli artist Yael Bartana, who is based in Berlin and Amsterdam. The trilogy presents a fictional national movement that advocates the return of 3,300,000 Jews to Poland, with the claim that Poland’s ethnic and religious homogeneity is a deficiency that could be corrected with the renewal of Jewish life in the country. Wearing the form of an enthusiastic political manifesto, the trilogy mirrors early Zionist images and motifs in articulating the vision of the return to the homeland. The trilogy’s end reveals this endeavor as a failure, to which the assassination of the movement’s leader, Slawek, attests.
Abstract: The status and sustainability of minority/dominated languages in the 21st century are
very much influenced by general and language ideologies of times gone by. Namely,
Eurocentric modernity-driven language policy and planning, which result in the
formation of standard language culture ideologies, are at the core of the cultural,
political and historical frameworks which, since the 19th century, have influenced the
relationship between majority (standardized) languages and minority/dominated
languages spoken in political entities recognized as nation-states in Europe. It is within
this framework of standard language cultures (Milroy, 2001) that the history, the loss,
and the possible revitalization of Judeo-Spanish can and should be understood.
Na status i održivost manjinskih jezika/jezika kojima se dominira u 21. veku
umnogome utiču opšte i jezičke ideologije prošlih vremena. Naime, evrocentrična
modernost koju pokreće jezička politika i jezičko planiranje, koja ima za posledicu
oblikovanje standardnih jezičkih kulturnih ideologija, predstavlja srž kulturnih,
političkih i istorijskih okvira koja je od 19. veka uticala na odnos između većinskih
(standardizovanih) jezika i manjinskih jezika/jezika kojima se dominira kao političke
entitete koji su priznati kao nacionalne države u Evropi. Upravo se u ovom okviru
standardnih jezičkih kultura (Milroy, 2001) mogu i treba razumeti istorija i gubitak, kao
i moguća revitalizacija jevrejsko- španskog.
En relación a las lenguas minoritarias dominadas en el siglo xxi, su estado y subsistencia
están muy influidas por las ideologías generales y también lingüísticas del tiempo que
vivimos. Concretamente, la modernidad eurocéntrica de la política y de la planificación
lingüística que conducen a la formación de ideologías culturales lingüísticas estandarizadas,
están en el núcleo de los marcos históricos, políticos y culturales que, desde el siglo xix,
han influido en la relación entre la mayoría de las lenguas (estandarizadas) y las lenguas
minoritarias dominadas habladas en las entidades políticas reconocidas como son los
Estados nación en Europa. Es dentro de este marco de culturas lingüísticas estándar (Milroy,
2001) que puede y debe ser entendida su historia y su pérdida, así como la revitalización
del judeoespañol.
Abstract: This article analyses how Europe’s ‘Yiddish past’ is presented, commemorated and engaged with in contemporary Europe from a Public History perspective. It investigates the ways in which Yiddish, its culture and its speakers, are inscribed in representations of Jewish history in museums, websites, and other settings. In doing so a distinction is made between Western Europe, where Yiddish-speaking immigrants and their culture formed but a part of local Jewish populations, and Central/Eastern Europe, where Jewish life was to a large extent Yiddish life. The article shows how a growing attention for migration in Western Europe, and the demand for Jewish heritage from abroad in Central and Eastern Europe, drive new and revised versions of Jewish, as well as national, historical narratives. It also contrasts such larger developments and contexts with local, ‘bottom-up’, activities. At the same it moves beyond national contexts and considers the role that European institutions play in preserving Yiddish heritage. The article argues that definitions of Public History, which predominantly focus on how professional historians take history to a broader non-academic public, are insufficient. The case of Yiddish in Europe also highlights the important role of the state in driving public history activities. Key words: Jewish history; Yiddish; Europe; Public History; Representation; Museums.
Abstract: Pour ceux qui définissent le judaïsme, à l'instar du modèle chrétien, comme une religion, parler de « Juifs laïcs » relève du non-sens, voire de la provocation. Pourtant l'histoire religieuse est coutumière de tels franchissements de frontières : ne parle-t-on pas de « christianisme profane » ? de « religion laïque » ? Preuves, s'il en est encore besoin, que toute définition univoque est incapable de décrire une réalité humaine. Une autre contestation vient, elle, des milieux juifs défenseurs de la Halakha : les Juifs laïcs seraient des hors-la-loi, au mieux des brebis égarées.
Mais les faits sont là, qui résistent à toute prescription normative. Ceux que j'ai contactés pour réaliser cette étude m'ont souvent répondu être « l'homme (ou la femme) de la situation ! ». Ces termes parlent. S'y reconnaissent ou acceptent volontiers d'être définis comme tels, ceux pour lesquels être juif ne passe pas – ou plus, ou pas uniquement – par une expérience ou une pratique religieuse, au sens étroit. « Juifs non pratiquants » alors, comme l'on parle de « catholiques non pratiquants », gardant mémoire de leur éducation chrétienne et demeurant fidèles à certaines valeurs morales qui lui seraient attachées ? Cette synonymie, qui conserve un lien avec le seul domaine religieux, est trop restrictive. Se définir « juif laïc » connote un attachement actif ou nostalgique à des langues (le yiddish, le judéo-espagnol, l'hébreu...), à des cuisines, à des terres d'origine (l'Alsace, la Pologne, l'Egypte...), à des littératures, à des histoires nationales ou intimes : bref, à des pans différents selon chacun, de ce qui est constitutif des cultures juives. Sans aucun doute faut-il, dès l'abord, ajouter à cette définition plurielle son ombre portée : les recherches personnelles, les questions, les tâtonnements les efforts de mémoire et d'invention qu'elle suscite.
Abstract: Much research recognises the clinical value of considering clients' cultural context. 'Cultural competence' may be considered the balance between sensitive practice and an awareness about particular cultural groups. 'Jewishness' is a powerful influence on the majority of Jewish people, regardless of religiosity. Jewishness incorporates more than Judaism, for example, it includes Jewish history, ethnicity and culture. This research aims to help therapists work with Jewish families by familiarising them with aspects of Jewishness, in order to gain insight to the 'lived experience' of contemporary, British, Jewish families, so as to consider the potential clinical implications of Jewishness and develop cultural competence. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight British-born, culturally, rather than religiously, Jewish mothers aged between 30 and 39. The interview transcripts were analysed using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis methodology. Ten themes (^entity', Tradition and Culture', 'Characteristics', 'Family', 'Community', 'Continuity', 'Difference and Similarity', 'Fear', 'Feelings' and 'Services') were derived from the analysis and considered in terms of clinical implications. For example, the women spoke about a (sometimes) inexplicable 'bicultural' identity and the significant impact of Jewish history. These issues may inhibit Jewish clients from speaking about the relevance of their Jewishness with non-Jewish therapists. Suggestions were made for developing a Jewish cultural, historical and political perspective, so that beliefs, behaviours and characteristics are not misinterpreted and 'therapeutic safety' for Jewish clients is maximised. Other recommendations included using cultural consultants and adopting a systemic framework. Issues that may be particularly difficult for Jewish families were discussed and recommendations for future research made.
Abstract: Kosher food is not necessarily the same as 'Jewish' food. The thesis explores ideas of Jewish identity in Britain in relation to food, examining the period from the end of austerity in the mid-1950s until the beginning of the twenty-first century. The period starts with Britain's emergence from the strictures of rationing and the development of an era of abundance and choice that has led, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, to a complex and ambivalent relationship between food and society. The thesis explores food in relation to the histories of diverse British Jewish communities and individuals deploying a range of evidence including oral histories, memoirs, journalism and cookery books. It studies the practice of Jewish identity and food, looking at Jewish communities ranging from the strictly Orthodox to progressive Jews. Theories of place, displacement and circuitry in the context of a global food economy are central to the thesis as are ideas of memory, myth and ritual. The first two chapters study the religious, political and social context of kosher food practice in Britain, analysing relations between the ecclesiastical authorities, the kosher food industry and consumers in which issues of class and gender are pivotal. Non-Jewish responses to kosher food are also examined. The third chapter interrogates the culinary origins of Ashkenazi and Sephardi food in Britain in the context of the globalization of the food industry, questioning how this affects the 'Jewishness' of specific culinary practices. The final chapter investigates the meaning and development of Jewish food rituals with respect to Sabbath and festival observance. The thesis suggests that despite the particularity of Jewish practice in relation to food, and the specific circumstances of the Diaspora, the Jewish practice of identity through food should not be treated as exceptional. The concept of 'Jewish' food is as problematic and as valid as the identification of any other group with a specific cuisine.
