elsewhere, she makes reference to The Onion and The Daily Show; and throughout the book, she includes a variety of playful asides (e.g., “and with the reappearance of our trusty genre toolbox!” [202]; “It seems unfair to end this chapter without at least waving to the elephant in the room” [223]). This more personal tone also emerges in her expressions of modesty, as when she acknowledges that her prior treatment of the Temple Scroll was perhaps “too simplistic” (48), or notes (too humbly, in my opinion) that with her monograph, she seeks “to advance a conversation rather than to pretend to have the final word“ (227). These types of remarks are not simply refreshing; they also cumulatively work to make Zahn’s argument more compelling, as she emerges as a real person: always refining her own ideas; trying to propose better ways of explaining what we have; and eager to contribute to ongoing conversations, not dominate them. In this sense, Zahn’s book is exemplary not just for its readability and its persuasive efforts to reframe discussions of textuality in Second Temple Judaism and beyond, but also for the ways in which it exemplifies what a scholar can and should be.
{"title":"The Valediction of Moses: A Proto-Biblical Book by Idan Dershowitz (review)","authors":"M. Richey","doi":"10.1353/ajs.2022.0052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajs.2022.0052","url":null,"abstract":"elsewhere, she makes reference to The Onion and The Daily Show; and throughout the book, she includes a variety of playful asides (e.g., “and with the reappearance of our trusty genre toolbox!” [202]; “It seems unfair to end this chapter without at least waving to the elephant in the room” [223]). This more personal tone also emerges in her expressions of modesty, as when she acknowledges that her prior treatment of the Temple Scroll was perhaps “too simplistic” (48), or notes (too humbly, in my opinion) that with her monograph, she seeks “to advance a conversation rather than to pretend to have the final word“ (227). These types of remarks are not simply refreshing; they also cumulatively work to make Zahn’s argument more compelling, as she emerges as a real person: always refining her own ideas; trying to propose better ways of explaining what we have; and eager to contribute to ongoing conversations, not dominate them. In this sense, Zahn’s book is exemplary not just for its readability and its persuasive efforts to reframe discussions of textuality in Second Temple Judaism and beyond, but also for the ways in which it exemplifies what a scholar can and should be.","PeriodicalId":54106,"journal":{"name":"AJS Review-The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies","volume":"121 1 1","pages":"405 - 407"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88762160","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Genres of Rewriting in Second Temple Judaism: Scribal Composition and Transmission by Molly M. Zahn (review)","authors":"S. Milstein","doi":"10.1353/ajs.2022.0051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajs.2022.0051","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54106,"journal":{"name":"AJS Review-The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies","volume":"2 4 1","pages":"403 - 405"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89158051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On My Right Michael, On My Left Gabriel: Angels in Ancient Jewish Culture by Mika Ahuvia (review)","authors":"D. Waller","doi":"10.1353/ajs.2022.0054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajs.2022.0054","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54106,"journal":{"name":"AJS Review-The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies","volume":"11 1","pages":"410 - 412"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82847911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In his introduction to Kuntres hasefeikot, Yehudah Kahana (nineteenth century, L’viv) noted that the commentaries on the section of the Shulḥan ‘arukh dealing with monetary issues largely ignored matters of doubt. He writes, “They did not give their attention to gathering (these issues) to a specific place.“ And so, to fill this gap, Kahana went on to produce his staple of the yeshiva world—a work that is complex, intricate, and enriching. Moshe Halbertal’s newly translated work The Birth of Doubt: Confronting Uncertainty in Early Rabbinic Literature follows Kahana’s footsteps in both tenor and tone. To that end, reading The Birth of Doubt is both challenging and rewarding. The concept of doubt is inherently confusing, and Halbertal fills the volume with several rich and sophisticated case studies from across tannaitic (and occasionally amoraic) material. Given the content matter, it takes a notinsignificant amount of effort from the reader to appreciate the scholarship. Not to worry, however, as readers are in excellent hands. Combining his expertise in both legal theory and rabbinic material, Halbertal skillfully guides readers through the dense material. Moreover, he demonstrates his command of a wide range of secondary material as well—as medieval authorities, like R. Samson b. Raphael of Sens or twentiethcentury figures like R. Shimon Shkop are as likely to appear in the notes as contemporary academic scholars. The work is organized thematically, with each larger case study receiving its own chapter, but several overall themes stand out. The first has to do with the rabbis as agents of ethical worldmaking. For example, the first chapter deals with situations of statistical doubt and the cost of error. That is, examples where an individual cannot be completely sure as to the situation at hand, such as when one encounters meat of unknown kashrut status in a marketplace or rubble from a collapsed building that may or may not have an individual trapped underneath. Through these and other examples, Halbertal charts a program of ethical Halakhahmaking. This is to say, the rabbis were more apt to be permissive in their treatment of doubt in circumstances where inaction or nonaction could have dire consequences. Another example of the rabbis’ commitment to ethical worldmaking can be found in Halbertal’s discussion of doubt and purity. For Jews concerned about ritual purity, the world outside one’s doorstep would have been terrifying—there were simply too many sources of exposure lurking around every corner. Readers today, reading in the aftermath of a pandemic, surely have a greater appreciation for such considerations. If the rabbis were to be strict in declaring impurities in
{"title":"The Birth of Doubt: Confronting Uncertainty in Early Rabbinic Literature by Moshe Halbertal (review)","authors":"Joshua Barzel","doi":"10.1353/ajs.2022.0049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajs.2022.0049","url":null,"abstract":"In his introduction to Kuntres hasefeikot, Yehudah Kahana (nineteenth century, L’viv) noted that the commentaries on the section of the Shulḥan ‘arukh dealing with monetary issues largely ignored matters of doubt. He writes, “They did not give their attention to gathering (these issues) to a specific place.“ And so, to fill this gap, Kahana went on to produce his staple of the yeshiva world—a work that is complex, intricate, and enriching. Moshe Halbertal’s newly translated work The Birth of Doubt: Confronting Uncertainty in Early Rabbinic Literature follows Kahana’s footsteps in both tenor and tone. To that end, reading The Birth of Doubt is both challenging and rewarding. The concept of doubt is inherently confusing, and Halbertal fills the volume with several rich and sophisticated case studies from across tannaitic (and occasionally amoraic) material. Given the content matter, it takes a notinsignificant amount of effort from the reader to appreciate the scholarship. Not to worry, however, as readers are in excellent hands. Combining his expertise in both legal theory and rabbinic material, Halbertal skillfully guides readers through the dense material. Moreover, he demonstrates his command of a wide range of secondary material as well—as medieval authorities, like R. Samson b. Raphael of Sens or twentiethcentury figures like R. Shimon Shkop are as likely to appear in the notes as contemporary academic scholars. The work is organized thematically, with each larger case study receiving its own chapter, but several overall themes stand out. The first has to do with the rabbis as agents of ethical worldmaking. For example, the first chapter deals with situations of statistical doubt and the cost of error. That is, examples where an individual cannot be completely sure as to the situation at hand, such as when one encounters meat of unknown kashrut status in a marketplace or rubble from a collapsed building that may or may not have an individual trapped underneath. Through these and other examples, Halbertal charts a program of ethical Halakhahmaking. This is to say, the rabbis were more apt to be permissive in their treatment of doubt in circumstances where inaction or nonaction could have dire consequences. Another example of the rabbis’ commitment to ethical worldmaking can be found in Halbertal’s discussion of doubt and purity. For Jews concerned about ritual purity, the world outside one’s doorstep would have been terrifying—there were simply too many sources of exposure lurking around every corner. Readers today, reading in the aftermath of a pandemic, surely have a greater appreciation for such considerations. If the rabbis were to be strict in declaring impurities in","PeriodicalId":54106,"journal":{"name":"AJS Review-The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies","volume":"2009 1","pages":"399 - 401"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82523128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This article revisits two Latin antitalmudic texts penned by the converted bishop of Burgos, Pablo de Santa María (c. 1352–1435). It argues, in contrast to previous assessments, that far from being a failed replica of Christian scholastic formulas, they echo the conversionist or "apostatic" argumentation that proselytes to Christianity were making in Jewish quarters, a polemic that was not shaped by a scholastic-inquisitorial perspective but rather was still very much rabbinic in style and methods. The article traces echoes of this intra-Jewish polemic, using the extraordinary corpus of Abner of Burgos (d. 1347). It focuses on three themes: the antirabbinic allusions to Zechariah's prophecy; the historical-hermeneutical brawl over the identity of Edom; and the notion of talmudic-demonic alliance. Evaluating the potential agency that Pablo's peculiar texts could have had among Christian readership, I propose that his critique of talmudic literature undermined important aspects of the Christian antitalmudic tradition, reframing the Talmud according to rabbinic conventions.
摘要:本文回顾了布尔戈斯主教Pablo de Santa María(约1352-1435)撰写的两篇拉丁反犹太法典文本。它认为，与之前的评估相反，它们远不是基督教经院公式的失败复制品，它们呼应了皈依基督教的人或“叛教者”在犹太人居住区的论点，这种辩论不是由经院调查的观点形成的，而是在风格和方法上仍然非常拉比。这篇文章追溯了这种犹太内部争论的回声，使用了布尔戈斯的阿布纳(公元1347年)的非凡语料库。它集中于三个主题:对撒迦利亚预言的反拉比暗示;关于以东身份的历史诠释学争论;还有犹太法典和恶魔联盟的概念。在评估巴勃罗的独特文本可能对基督教读者产生的潜在影响时，我认为他对塔木德文学的批评破坏了基督教反塔木德传统的重要方面，根据拉比惯例重新构建了塔木德。
{"title":"Jewish Echoes of Anti-Talmudic Literature: Revisiting \"The Talmud in the Additiones of Paul of Burgos\"","authors":"Yosi Yisraeli","doi":"10.1353/ajs.2022.0046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajs.2022.0046","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article revisits two Latin antitalmudic texts penned by the converted bishop of Burgos, Pablo de Santa María (c. 1352–1435). It argues, in contrast to previous assessments, that far from being a failed replica of Christian scholastic formulas, they echo the conversionist or \"apostatic\" argumentation that proselytes to Christianity were making in Jewish quarters, a polemic that was not shaped by a scholastic-inquisitorial perspective but rather was still very much rabbinic in style and methods. The article traces echoes of this intra-Jewish polemic, using the extraordinary corpus of Abner of Burgos (d. 1347). It focuses on three themes: the antirabbinic allusions to Zechariah's prophecy; the historical-hermeneutical brawl over the identity of Edom; and the notion of talmudic-demonic alliance. Evaluating the potential agency that Pablo's peculiar texts could have had among Christian readership, I propose that his critique of talmudic literature undermined important aspects of the Christian antitalmudic tradition, reframing the Talmud according to rabbinic conventions.","PeriodicalId":54106,"journal":{"name":"AJS Review-The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies","volume":"56 1","pages":"347 - 373"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72481082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. B. Yehoshua, who passed away recently, was one of the pillars of Israeli literature, and his death marks the end of a generation of authors, among them Amos Oz, who, each in his own way, took the role of “the watchman over the house of Israel,” by contemplating and often criticizing, in their works and in their political and cultural activity, the “Israeli condition.” This integrative volume presents a finegrained analysis of Yehoshua’s stance as a writer who targets historical and cultural dilemmas in Jewish and Israeli existence. It shows that although Yehoshua’s work as a whole is heterogenic—it ranges from short stories to novellas and novels, from nonrealistic to realistic, from first person to third person to polyphonic strategies, and from historical novels to contemporary settings—there is a deepseated unity as though all of Yehoshua’s narratives had been coded in the same way.
最近去世的a·b·约书亚(a . B. Yehoshua)是以色列文学的支柱之一，他的去世标志着一代作家的终结，其中包括阿莫斯·奥兹(Amos Oz)，他们各自以自己的方式扮演了“以色列家的守望者”的角色，在他们的作品以及政治和文化活动中，思考并经常批评“以色列的状况”。这综合卷提出了一个细致的分析约书亚的立场作为一个作家谁的目标历史和文化困境，在犹太人和以色列的存在。这表明，虽然约书亚的作品整体上是异质的——从短篇小说到中篇小说和长篇小说，从非现实主义到现实主义，从第一人称到第三人称到复调策略，从历史小说到当代背景——但有一个根深蒂固的统一，似乎约书亚的所有叙事都以同样的方式编码。
{"title":"Resettlers and Survivors: Bukovina and the Politics of Belonging in West Germany and Israel, 1945–1989 by Gaëlle Fisher (review)","authors":"Jannis Panagiotidis","doi":"10.1353/ajs.2022.0072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajs.2022.0072","url":null,"abstract":"A. B. Yehoshua, who passed away recently, was one of the pillars of Israeli literature, and his death marks the end of a generation of authors, among them Amos Oz, who, each in his own way, took the role of “the watchman over the house of Israel,” by contemplating and often criticizing, in their works and in their political and cultural activity, the “Israeli condition.” This integrative volume presents a finegrained analysis of Yehoshua’s stance as a writer who targets historical and cultural dilemmas in Jewish and Israeli existence. It shows that although Yehoshua’s work as a whole is heterogenic—it ranges from short stories to novellas and novels, from nonrealistic to realistic, from first person to third person to polyphonic strategies, and from historical novels to contemporary settings—there is a deepseated unity as though all of Yehoshua’s narratives had been coded in the same way.","PeriodicalId":54106,"journal":{"name":"AJS Review-The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies","volume":"5 1","pages":"452 - 454"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82121080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
chapter of the volume, Newfield considers the strategies that exiters invoke to manage their liminality in maintaining relationships with family members who remain in the ultraOrthodox community. Two of the most complex strategies involve “a conspiracy of silence,” in which exiters, and often their families, deliberately avoid any discussion of changes in practice or belief systems; and “drawing lines in the sand,” moments when there are explicit negotiations about issues that either side determines to be nonnegotiable, such as marrying a nonJew. In these two chapters, the project’s originality, impact, and sense of purpose solidifies. Some areas need more attention in the volume. The most significant of them is the role of gender—how it informs responses to the questions posed by Newfield to his subjects and, indeed, more broadly, how gender plays in the exiting experience overall. Despite this lacuna, the book offers a persuasive and significant interpretation of an increasingly visible phenomenon. Newfield’s overall argument is elegant, powerful, and persuasive: no linear model of religious exiting exists. His research uncovers patterns, gestures, and habits that define and mark shifts away from ultraOrthodoxy even as they illuminate forms of recovering and maintaining earlier practices.
{"title":"Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age by Ayala Fader (review)","authors":"A. Lieber","doi":"10.1353/ajs.2022.0069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajs.2022.0069","url":null,"abstract":"chapter of the volume, Newfield considers the strategies that exiters invoke to manage their liminality in maintaining relationships with family members who remain in the ultraOrthodox community. Two of the most complex strategies involve “a conspiracy of silence,” in which exiters, and often their families, deliberately avoid any discussion of changes in practice or belief systems; and “drawing lines in the sand,” moments when there are explicit negotiations about issues that either side determines to be nonnegotiable, such as marrying a nonJew. In these two chapters, the project’s originality, impact, and sense of purpose solidifies. Some areas need more attention in the volume. The most significant of them is the role of gender—how it informs responses to the questions posed by Newfield to his subjects and, indeed, more broadly, how gender plays in the exiting experience overall. Despite this lacuna, the book offers a persuasive and significant interpretation of an increasingly visible phenomenon. Newfield’s overall argument is elegant, powerful, and persuasive: no linear model of religious exiting exists. His research uncovers patterns, gestures, and habits that define and mark shifts away from ultraOrthodoxy even as they illuminate forms of recovering and maintaining earlier practices.","PeriodicalId":54106,"journal":{"name":"AJS Review-The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies","volume":"88 1","pages":"445 - 447"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83831395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This article explores Theodor Herzl's understanding of social elites and their role in society, especially with regard to creating (or resisting) social and political change. The article follows Herzl's different perceptions of elites and their relation to society, tracing the path that led him from an ideal of an aristocratic republic to his later democratic model. For Herzl, creating a utopia, that is, an ideal polity, effectively meant shaping a new understanding of the elite's position in society. Even though in his imagined future polity elites still govern—and even still, govern with an aristocratic ethos—their relationship with society is changed, shifting from an external authority to a socially and morally engaged position, which forms their public legitimacy and source of power.
{"title":"Politics as Invention: On Theodor Herzl's Ideal Elites","authors":"Rhona Burns","doi":"10.1353/ajs.2022.0041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajs.2022.0041","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article explores Theodor Herzl's understanding of social elites and their role in society, especially with regard to creating (or resisting) social and political change. The article follows Herzl's different perceptions of elites and their relation to society, tracing the path that led him from an ideal of an aristocratic republic to his later democratic model. For Herzl, creating a utopia, that is, an ideal polity, effectively meant shaping a new understanding of the elite's position in society. Even though in his imagined future polity elites still govern—and even still, govern with an aristocratic ethos—their relationship with society is changed, shifting from an external authority to a socially and morally engaged position, which forms their public legitimacy and source of power.","PeriodicalId":54106,"journal":{"name":"AJS Review-The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies","volume":"9 1","pages":"223 - 242"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86197684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
the slackness of their submission to the will of God” (88). In the Sephardifocused fourth chapter, Brann revisits Ibn Ḥazm’s public debate with Samuel the Nagid to add further nuance to the matter. Such comparative moments culminate in the fifth chapter’s combined evaluation of Sephardic and Andalusi travel narratives, whose reflections on physical and intellectual displacement encapsulate the potency of the trope at hand. In the chapter, “Out of Place with Exceptionalism on the Mind: Sefardi and Andalusi Travelers Abroad (Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries),” Brann parses travelogues with respect to both the ageold trope of the journey as one of metaphorical “literary imagination” (141) and as the intrepid protosociological endeavors of medieval adventurers. The conclusion, a masterful converging of two centuries of scrutinizing alAndalus and Sepharad, is a compendium that shows the breadth (and potential pitfalls) of ideological possibility in these terms alongside their capacity to embrace evolving methodological approaches amid shifting disciplinary boundaries. The key rests naturally in the book’s figuration concerning tropes: as is the case with any particular place, alAndalus and Sepharad take on the valences of whatever the searcher is seeking; objectivity is not anyone’s reality, certainly not the scholar’s, and Brann’s consistent awareness of this is as steadying as it is inspiring. Iberian Moorings is much broader than the sum of its interwoven studies, and by innovating even while acknowledging the dangerous allure contained within the ideas of alAndalus and Sepharad, Brann honors the rigorous and thoughtful approach to the study of these ideas.
{"title":"Figuring Racism in Medieval Christianity by M. Lindsay Kaplan (review)","authors":"S. Lipton","doi":"10.1353/ajs.2022.0057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajs.2022.0057","url":null,"abstract":"the slackness of their submission to the will of God” (88). In the Sephardifocused fourth chapter, Brann revisits Ibn Ḥazm’s public debate with Samuel the Nagid to add further nuance to the matter. Such comparative moments culminate in the fifth chapter’s combined evaluation of Sephardic and Andalusi travel narratives, whose reflections on physical and intellectual displacement encapsulate the potency of the trope at hand. In the chapter, “Out of Place with Exceptionalism on the Mind: Sefardi and Andalusi Travelers Abroad (Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries),” Brann parses travelogues with respect to both the ageold trope of the journey as one of metaphorical “literary imagination” (141) and as the intrepid protosociological endeavors of medieval adventurers. The conclusion, a masterful converging of two centuries of scrutinizing alAndalus and Sepharad, is a compendium that shows the breadth (and potential pitfalls) of ideological possibility in these terms alongside their capacity to embrace evolving methodological approaches amid shifting disciplinary boundaries. The key rests naturally in the book’s figuration concerning tropes: as is the case with any particular place, alAndalus and Sepharad take on the valences of whatever the searcher is seeking; objectivity is not anyone’s reality, certainly not the scholar’s, and Brann’s consistent awareness of this is as steadying as it is inspiring. Iberian Moorings is much broader than the sum of its interwoven studies, and by innovating even while acknowledging the dangerous allure contained within the ideas of alAndalus and Sepharad, Brann honors the rigorous and thoughtful approach to the study of these ideas.","PeriodicalId":54106,"journal":{"name":"AJS Review-The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies","volume":"24 1","pages":"417 - 420"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83241222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Finally, chapter 5 shows how Bukovina was reimagined in literature as a “sunken cultural landscape,” thus replacing earlier notions of “lost Heimat” (203), posing a significant challenge to exclusivist narratives of Bukovinian history and prompting the (re)emergence of ideas of “an exceptional GermanJewish symbiosis in a wider and now lost multicultural Central European world” (204). The author places these developments in the broader context of “coming to terms with the past” (Vergangenheitsbewältigung), a process that acquired particular importance during the 1970s and 1980s and opened up new spaces for imagining a shared past. However, her final assessment is quite skeptical, as ”the politicization of these issues prevented the experiences—let alone the suffering—of Bukovinians from being realistically evaluated and acknowledged” (234). All in all, this book makes a significant contribution to the field of German Jewish history after the Shoah. Fisher’s focus on Germans and Jews from a particular Central European region proves fruitful for studying the negotiation of postwar belonging in both a comparative and an entangled perspective. While clearly showing that these postwar histories were entangled, she is very much aware of the limits of this reinvention of Bukovina “as the ultimate European and multicultural space” (249). This book gives an important impulse to think further about the continuous entanglement of German and Jewish histories from a historical Central European vantage point, without endorsing alltoojubilant rediscoveries of “GermanJewish symbiosis.”
{"title":"The Philosophy of Emil Fackenheim: From Revelation to the Holocaust by Kenneth Hart Green (review)","authors":"S. Portnoff","doi":"10.1353/ajs.2022.0073","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajs.2022.0073","url":null,"abstract":"Finally, chapter 5 shows how Bukovina was reimagined in literature as a “sunken cultural landscape,” thus replacing earlier notions of “lost Heimat” (203), posing a significant challenge to exclusivist narratives of Bukovinian history and prompting the (re)emergence of ideas of “an exceptional GermanJewish symbiosis in a wider and now lost multicultural Central European world” (204). The author places these developments in the broader context of “coming to terms with the past” (Vergangenheitsbewältigung), a process that acquired particular importance during the 1970s and 1980s and opened up new spaces for imagining a shared past. However, her final assessment is quite skeptical, as ”the politicization of these issues prevented the experiences—let alone the suffering—of Bukovinians from being realistically evaluated and acknowledged” (234). All in all, this book makes a significant contribution to the field of German Jewish history after the Shoah. Fisher’s focus on Germans and Jews from a particular Central European region proves fruitful for studying the negotiation of postwar belonging in both a comparative and an entangled perspective. While clearly showing that these postwar histories were entangled, she is very much aware of the limits of this reinvention of Bukovina “as the ultimate European and multicultural space” (249). This book gives an important impulse to think further about the continuous entanglement of German and Jewish histories from a historical Central European vantage point, without endorsing alltoojubilant rediscoveries of “GermanJewish symbiosis.”","PeriodicalId":54106,"journal":{"name":"AJS Review-The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies","volume":"47 1","pages":"454 - 456"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76007542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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