Abstract: Religious minorities have always been at the centre of the German nation-state’s self-understanding, as it came to define itself vis a vis, and often against, them. Historically, this can be seen specifically in the Jewish experience, and today reverberates in the experience of Muslims grappling with a position of alterity in German society. We will move beyond the scholarship on these two religious minority groups to that of these two religious minority groups—that is the intellectual milieu of German Jews and German Muslims. Both have confronted the insider-outsider status of religious minorities in Germany, while themselves occupying—and thinking from—this position of alterity. As Jewish intellectuals a century prior, Muslim intellectuals are confronting the (im)possibility of fully belonging to the society at hand. In so doing, they are, at times inadvertently, coming into conversation with Jewish intellectuals past on ideas surrounding the practice of religion, pluralism, minority-state relations, and social ethics.
Abstract: Wladimir Kaminer has become something of a poster-boy for the 'Kontingentflüchtlinge [Quota Refugees]', the term applied to Jews from the former Soviet Union who immigrated to Germany between 1990 and 2006, as a result of a decision made first by the GDR and then adopted by the reunified Federal Republic. Kaminer writes little about his Jewishness in his work, but, in his first book, Russendisko (2000), he discusses the Jewish identity of Russian-speaking Jews living in Germany, viewed through the lens of Multikulti [multicultural] Berlin. Kaminer depicts them as just another of Germany's ethnic minority groups and, as such, nothing special. Given both Germany's past and the reasons offered by the German government for allowing these Jews to emigrate in the first place, Kaminer's opinion is undoubtedly controversial. This article investigates how and why Kaminer adopts this position. It examines the pre-migration experiences of Jews from the former Soviet Union, which include: antisemitism, attitudes towards religion and discourse about the Holocaust in the Soviet Union, as well as the experiences (more unique to Kaminer) of Berlin in the 1990s, the heyday of multicultural optimism. Although Kaminer is an unusual case study who deliberately subverts the reader's expectations of his identity politics, this article aims to show that his writings on Russian-speaking Jews, while highly subjective, have a wider application than might first appear.
Abstract: In this article, Jansen attempts to demonstrate that addressing the religious practices of Jews and Muslims from the perspective of a religio-secular framework in today’s European context underestimates the complexity of semiotic relations between Muslims, Jews and other Europeans. She discusses this complexity in terms of ‘intercultural semiotics’ between the three groups. In particular, she focuses on what she calls ‘mirroring relations’, drawing on an expression from Yirmiyahu Yovel about a ‘crooked, passion-laden mirror’ characterizing the ways in which modern Europeans imagined their Jewish neighbours in early twentieth-century Europe. In order to further explain this, Jansen analyses a passage from Marcel Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time, which concerns a group of people in late nineteenth-century France, following the Dreyfus Affair, who are perceived by the narrator as Jewish. Thereafter, drawing on Gil Hochberg’s notion of the ‘re-membering’ of the Semite, Jansen analyses semiotic mirroring in the work Projet Deburkanisation (2017) by the Belgian author Rachida Lamrabet, which she reads as a contemporary meta-reflection, involving Muslims, on the mirroring relations between Jews and other Europeans first discussed via her reading of Proust.
Abstract: Artykuł prezentuje działania edukacyjne i społeczno-kulturalne o cha-rakterze inkluzywnym prowadzone w Polsce dla społeczności żydowskiej przez jej członków i członkinie zrzeszonych w Stowarzyszeniu Żydowskim Cukunft. Jako świecka organizacja Cukunft w swoich działaniach bazuje na żydowskich wartościach religijnych i kulturowych, z którymi zwraca się zarówno do spo-łeczności żydowskiej, jak i nieżydowskiej (świeckiej, katolickiej, protestanckiej i muzułmańskiej). Dzięki takiemu nowatorskiemu podejściu Cukunft stara się poruszać ważne kwestie społeczne, jak stereotypy, uprzedzenia, dyskryminację i wykluczenie ze względu na wyznanie, afiliację religijną, pochodzenie narodowe i etniczne, wiek, płeć, orientację seksualną i status społeczny. Celem tych działań jest wspieranie polskiego społeczeństwa obywatelskiego otwartego na różnorod-ność i bogactwo kulturowe Polaków należących do różnych grup mniejszościo-wych oraz aktywne przeciwdziałanie wszelkim formom rasizmu, antysemity-zmu, ksenofobii i wykluczenia społecznego. Tego typu podejście w żydowskiej edukacji religijnej pozwala podtrzymać pamięć o żydowskich wartościach kultu-rowo-religijnych i nadać im nową, uniwersalną jakość. Dzięki temu są one nadal obecne w przestrzeni społecznej. Słowa kluczowe: dialog religijny, dyskryminacja krzyżowa, inkluzywność reli-gijna, judaizm, wykluczenie, Żydzi W opracowaniach naukowych dotyczących współczesnego życia żydow-skiego w Polsce przyjęło się uważać, że wraz z upadkiem komunizmu po 1989 roku nastąpił dynamiczny rozwój polskiej społeczności żydowskiej, określany mianem żydowskiego odrodzenia (Jewish Revival) 1. Dowodem tego 1 Tematyką odrodzenia żydowskiego w Polsce po 1989 roku od wielu lat naukowo zajmują się m.in.
Abstract: In the context of the Dutch immigration debate, tributes to the Holocaust and the memory of Europe’s dead Jews increasingly serve to dismantle multiculturalism as a failed paradigm and to drive a wedge between a revitalized, redeemed, color-blind, post-racial Europe and disenfranchized immigrant, minority and Muslim populations. Embedded in these invocations of the Holocaust and its moral imperatives is a ‘spectropolitics’ of tolerance, in which tolerance, staged as an essential touchstone of Dutch identity, supplies a differential norm that measures the civilizational and racial disjuncture between Europeans, minorities, and Muslims, and validates the new dual paradigm of Dutch citizenship and immigration policy: securitization and disciplinary integration. The centrality of the Holocaust as paradigmatic of Dutch and European racial history meanwhile sidelines the colonial past as constitutive of European identity; displaces an alternative understanding of race as (bio- and necro-political) instruments of colonial rule; and disavows the continued application of these instruments of racial rule in Dutch and European post-colonial societies.
Abstract: In what ways do Jewish and Muslim faith schools in Britain play a role in promoting and contributing to community cohesion? What 21st-century skills around intercultural understanding do they foster?
This book examines the nuances of faith in school settings and draws on a case study of Jewish and Muslim faith schools. The authors show how these institutions play a role in sustaining their own religious heritage while also engaging with, and providing a place of safety from, the wider community. It sets this case study approach within an historical perspective on faith schools and their relationship with the state in the UK and Europe, and gives an overview of key debates on faith schools. Finally, it examines practical curricula suggestions that all schools can adopt to develop skills around tolerance and engagement to prepare students to live and lead in a diverse 21st century. The book conveys:
• the experiences of some Jewish and Muslim schools within England gathered from one-to-one interviews with teachers, parents, and community representatives, and from focus groups with children;
• a more detailed understanding of Jewish and Muslim concepts of community;
• perceptions of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia;
• alternatives for preparing children with the skills and knowledge needed in the 21st century; and
• the implications for policy and practice in faith schools and those not characterized by a religious ethos or affiliation.
This publication is for school leaders, teachers, teacher trainers, students, and parents. It will also interest government and non-government bodies relating to race relations and education
- See more at: https://www.ucl-ioe-press.com/books/faith-in-education/reaching-in-reaching-out/#sthash.l7da6c8n.dpuf
Abstract: In the last few years, multicultural citizenship, once hailed as a solution to national cohesion, has faced increasing political and academic accusations of inciting
segregation and group divisions. This has prompted a re-evaluation of different institutional and discursive arrangements of national citizenship and their impact on
the integration of minority ethnic groups. This research into the history of Jewish integration into British society analyses the relationship between changing forms of
British citizenship and the evolution of British Jewish identities. In so doing, it enhances our understanding of how citizenship policies affect minority selfrepresentation
and alter trajectories of integration into mainstream society.
The research draws on an historical and sociological analysis of the Jewish community in Leeds to reveal how the assimilationist and ethnically defined citizenship of Imperial Britain conditioned the successful Jewish integration into a particular formula of Jewish identity, `private Jewishness and public Englishness', which, in the second part of the 20th century, was challenged by multicultural citizenship. The policies of multiculturalism, aimed at the political recognition and
even encouragement of ethnic, racial and religious diversity, prompted debates about private-public expressions of ethnic/religious and other minority identities, legitimating alternative visions of Jewish identity and supporting calls for the democratisation of community institutions. The thesis argues that the national policies of multiculturalism were crucial in validating multiple `readings' of national and minority identity that characterise the present day Leeds Jewish community.
Employing a multi-method approach, the study demonstrates how the social and geographical contexts of social actors, in particular their positions within the minority
group and the mainstream population, enable multiple `readings' of sameness and differences. In particular, the research explores how a wealth of interpretations of
personal and collective Jewish identities manifests itself through a selective and contextualised usage of different narratives of citizenship.
Abstract: Over the course of several round table seminars across Europe, JPR's "Res Publica" Project brought together a diverse groups of thinkers, activists and social commentators from across the continent to explore how to build a greater sense of the common good.
Each round table discussion - in the UK, Poland, Sweden, France, Germany, Holland, plus a final pan-European one - was written up in full by the projector director, Dr Diana Pinto. At the end of the process, JPR's Executive Director, Dr Jonathan Boyd, summarised the major themes and ideas that were raised during the round table discussions, as well as in a series of twenty-six article written by participants on some of the key issues discussed. This paper is the result. It explores five major themes: (1) National identity; (2) Law; (3) Status of minorities; (4) Religion; and (5) State and civil society.
Abstract: After each of the round table discussions that took place as part of JPR's "Res Publica" project - in UK, Poland, Sweden, France, Germany and Holland, followed by a pan-European one - participants were invited to write short articles in which they could use their expertise and experience to reflect on an issue of their choice.
During the project, the articles were used to help promote further discussion and debate, but in this report, we have pulled them all together into a single document to showcase the range of ideas discussed, and to encourage further dialogue and debate. Together, the twenty-seven articles, written by a wide range of insightful thinkers from different national, ethnic and religious backgrounds, provide a thought-provoking analysis of contemporary European life, and encourage us to look more thoughtfully at how we might work towards a greater sense of commonality across the differences that exist.
Abstract: The Res Publica (Latin for “public good”) project, funded by the Ford Foundation, was designed to bring together a diverse groups of thinkers, activists and commentators in Europe to consider some of Europe’s most pressing issues: notably, the loss of a sense of the common good in our pluralist democracies, a consequent erosion of feelings of shared belonging and the emergence of new types of tribalism.
The project involved independent voices from different religious, cultural, ethnic and secular backgrounds - each speaking in his or her personal capacity - in a series of small, closed and off the record national round tables – and each lasting for two and a half days in a rural residential setting. The national round tables were intended to open the way for a more pan-European shared reflection on the res publica.
Each round table explored the conflicts, underlying fears and defensive reflexes that exist in each country and within each minority or majority group; in other words, those factors which have led to a weakened common public space. The project intentionally sought to broach difficult questions in a context of mutual trust - questions linked to national identity, the role of the law, citizenship, the role and rights of (often silent) majorities and (often vocal) minorities, secular responses to collective religious demands, and the link between civil society and the state. The round tables were also intended to address the tensions between national cohesion and a ‘Europe without borders’, especially their impact in two areas: integration and the struggle against racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism. To facilitate the discussions, round table participants received a carefully planned set of questions and issues that they were free to address, challenge, or revise in the round table discussions.
The project comprised six national round tables in total (in the UK, Poland, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands), followed by a seventh pan-European one. In keeping with the ‘off the record’ policy of the round tables, the reports of the meetings do not identify those who spoke, and specific attributes (such as a ‘Muslim voice’, a ‘Catholic view’ or a ‘Jewish position’, a ‘judge’, or a ‘civil society activist’) were only mentioned when the person specifically chose to speak in that capacity. Prior to the pan-European one, we commissioned a set of five papers from each country which addressed the five key themes which emerged from the round tables: national identity, the status of minorities, the law, religion, and the state and civil society.
Abstract: The Jewish Museum Berlin (JMB) is a dynamic, performative space that negotiates between representing the Jew as an integral part of German history and as ultimate Other. While this tension has been documented through the political history of the museum (Lackmann 2000; Pieper 2006; Young 2000), we focus on the dynamics of guided tours and special events. We claim that guiding and festival events at JMB marginalise Holocaust memory and present an image of Jews of the past that promotes a multicultural vision of present-day Germany. In guiding performances, the identity of the guide as German/Jewish/Muslim is part of the guiding performance, even when not made explicit. By comparing tour performances for various publics, and the 'storytelling rights' granted by the group, we witness how visitors' scripts and expectations interact with the museum's mission that it serve as a place of encounter (Ort der Begegnung). As German-Jewish history at JMB serves primarily as a cosmopolitan template for intercultural relations, strongly affiliated local Jews may not feel a need for the museum. Organised groups of Jews from abroad, however, visit it as part of the Holocaust memorial landscape of Berlin, while many local Jews with weaker affiliations to the Jewish community may find it an attractive venue for performing their more fluid Jewish identities – for themselves and for others.
Abstract: This book offers an ethnographic inquiry into the notion of ‘living together’ [samenleven], investigating its historical emergence and role in ‘culturalist’ and secularist politics in Flanders, as well as how it shapes everyday life in diverse urban neighborhoods. The term culturalism was coined to denote the exclusionary discourses that have emerged in postcolonial Europe positing migrants as cultural ‘strangers’ from which the nation and the perceived original, ‘autochthonous’ population need to be safeguarded. This book reveals how culturalism resulted in a new political project to ‘heal’ an assumed deficit of fellow feeling in multi-ethnic urban neighborhoods and a new political-ethical injunction for denizens to ‘live together’ with their ‘strange’ neighbors.
The book focuses on two Antwerpean neighborhoods - Oud-Borgerhout and the ‘Jewish Neighborhood’ – and follows the neighborhood engagements of white Belgian, Moroccan-Belgian, and Jewish Belgian denizens. Due to the politics of ‘living together’, everyday neighborhood life has become a stage, on which denizens are confronted with ethical and philosophical questions to which secure or comfortable answers are never found: about the nature and ethics of ‘objective’ perception; the diagnostics of strangeness; and the nature of fulfilled subject-hood and ‘true’ sociability. Denizens try to position themselves in relation to these questions through largely internal performative contestations - between so-called ‘old’ and ‘new Belgians’, ‘modern’ and ‘pious Jews’, ‘decent’ and ‘bad Moroccans’. Tracing these negotiations, this book pushes for an understanding of lived culturalism in contemporary Europe that attends to the complexities and ambivalences in, and beyond, the imbrication of the allochthon-autochthon divide in denizens’ (self)understandings.
Abstract:
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Judarna i Sverige – en minoritets historia
Fyra föreläsningar
Ur inledningen:
Judarna i Sverige – en minoritets historia var rubriken på en föreläsningsserie som arrangerades höstterminen 2009 vid Uppsala universitet. Ansvarig för serien var det nuvarande Hugo-Valentin-centrum, en sammanslagning av det tidigare självständiga Programmet för studier kring Förintelsen och folkmord med Centrum för multietnisk forskning. Serien genomfördes i samarbete med Forum för Advanced Studies in Arts, Languages and Theology. Föreläsningarna var öppna för allmänheten och inträdet fritt. Ordförande för serien var professor emeritus Helmut Müssener.
Vid sidan av Hugo Valentins monografi Judarnas historia i Sverige från 1924 har det länge varit tunnsått med akademiska studier kring gruppens historia. På senare år har dock en rad vetenskapliga arbeten publicerats och forskningsprojekt påbörjats. 2008 bildades även ett tvärvetenskapligt nationellt nätverk med samma namn som föreläsningsserien: Judarna i Sverige – en minoritets historia.
I sammanlagt fem föreläsningar belyste serien olika aspekter av de svenska judarnas historia under drygt 200 år fram till våra dagar och deras strategier för anpassning och integration samt deras ansträngningar för att bevara den egna kulturen. Föreläsningarna baserades till stor del på ny forskning, och föreläsarna – medlemmar i nätverket – är knutna till olika universitet och högskolor i landet och är specialister på sitt område. Fyra av dessa föreläsningar publiceras nu i denna volym. Den femte föreläsningen med rubriken Ett försök till en svensk-judisk historiografi, som hölls av Lars M Andersson, universitetslektor vid Uppsala universitet, har tyvärr fått utgå på grund av föreläsarens alltför stora arbetsbörda. I denna föreläsning redogjorde Andersson mycket ingående och detaljerat för den tämligen omfattande svensk-judiska historiografin.
Den svensk-judiska befolkningsgruppens historia kan räknas tillbaka till 1770-talet, då de första judarna fick lov att permanent bosätta sig i Sverige utan att behöva överge sin religion. Gruppen utgör av många skäl ett idealiskt objekt för studier om exempelvis minoriteter, integration och diskriminering.
