Hasil untuk "Judaism"

M. U. Chapra

Ilshat A. Mukhametzaripov

Religious institutions for conflict resolution are values, norms, rules and methods of resolving contradictions, which are enshrined in the religious tradition and implemented within the framework of religious associations. The main practices include negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and judging. Believers in Judaism turn to rabbinical courts for help; in Christianity, people turn to parish leaders and church institutions. The Islamic system knows reconciliation (sulh), arbitration (tahkim), and judging (qada). Distinctive features of religious methods are their flexibility, a less degree of formalisation and cost. Although in the conditions of modernisation and secularisation religion is deprived of a dominant position in the sphere of regulating social relations, with the revival of interest in religion, traditions gain newfound relevance, albeit partially, with new content. The decisions of religious mediators, arbitrators and judges have no legal force, forceful coercion is impossible, so the appeal to the faith, consciousness and universal values of the parties, theological argumentation, and the search for a mutually beneficial way out of the situation come to the fore. In Tatarstan, examples of such activities include the work of the Muslim Religious Board imams and qadis, informal intermediaries from the business community, and experts in Sharia. Not all Muslims turn to the mentioned intermediaries; the value-normative and institutional preferences of believers in the field of marriage and family relations, division of inheritance, and the choice of alternative methods of resolving disputes depend on personal preferences, gender differences and the circumstances of the situation. Nevertheless, the revival of traditions in this area can serve as a good help in preventing violations in society and establishing communication at the family, religious and other communities level.

Carl Henrik Carlsson

Artikeln är en översikt av den tysk-judiska invandringen till Sverige från 1770-talet och framåt. Till en början skedde invandringen till stor del i form av kedjemigration från Mecklenburg. Många i pionjären Aaron Isaacs släktkrets invandrade, likaså i släktkretsen kring hans kompanjon Abraham Aaron. Under 1800-talet fortsatte frivilliginvandringen men nu i mindre form av kedjemigration och med mer differentierad geografisk bakgrund än tidigare. Så småningom kom invandringen från Tyskland numerärt att överflygas av den så kallade östjudiska invandringen; av de judar som bodde i Sverige 1880 var bara åtta procent födda i Tyskland och 1920 mindre än fem procent. Många tysk-judiska invandrare vid denna tid, såsom bankmannen Louis Frænckel, gjorde betydelsefulla insatser i det svenska industriundret. Trots den restriktiva invandringspolitiken på 1930-talet kom ett antal tysk-judiska flyktingar till Sverige, såväl individuellt som genom särskilda kvoter. Många blev betydande aktörer i olika sektorer av samhället, och några blev internationellt kända namn som författaren och Nobelpristagaren Nelly Sachs och kärnfysikern Lise Meitner. Många flyktingar fick dock inte arbete som motsvarade deras utbildningar. Bland ”1945 års räddade” fanns tämligen få från Tyskland.

Lena Roos, Olaf Glöckner

Editorial for the Volume 34, Issue 1

Marcin Grodzki

The Oral and Written Traditions of the Qur’an and Its Place in Early Islam The paper considers the form, status, and importance of the Qur’anic message in the first two centuries of Islam. The argument is that the term “Qur’an” could not have originally referred to the final body of revelation in a text form. Rather, the concept of the Qur’an must have functioned among the faithful as a term for oral transmission before the scripturalization of the revelation, and it is this oral function of the Qur’an that is primal to its literate function. It seems that just as in Judaism and Christianity, in Islam the process of remembering, passing on, collecting, and codifying the textus receptus, along with its stabilization and sacralization, was a centuries-long self-propelled operation shaped primarily by the oral tradition (especially in the presumed culture of illiterate people).

Marek Matějek

The aim of this case study is to verify the arguments that were applied by Greek theologians against the practice of using unfermented bread for Eucharist celebrations in the West at the beginning of the schism. The research has shown that each argument is to be considered in the context of integrating trends in the 11th century. Therefore, they were not solely directed against the representatives of the Western part of the Church, but also against the Armenians. Among the critics the archbishop Leon from Ohrid, the monk Niketas Stethatos, but also the patriarch Michael Kerullarios from Constantinople and Peter III from Antiochia were the most prominent ones. The most cogent argument against the usage of unfermented bread was the accusation of Judaism and the allegation that unfermented bread is not the real bread and cannot be thus used as a consecrating substance. Nevertheless, on the Byzantine side there were also moderate theologians who acknowledged equality of both manners.

María M. Carrión

Mystical literature and spirituality from 16th-century Spain engage religious images from the three most prominent religions of al-Andalus—Christianity, Islam, and Judaism: among others, the dark night, the seven concentric castles, the gazelle, the bird, the <i>sefirot</i>‘s encircled <i>iggulim</i> or towering <i>yosher</i>, the sacred fountain, ruins, and gardens. Until the 20th-century, however, scholarship read these works mostly as “Spanish” mysticism, alienated from its Andalusī roots. This comparative study deploys theological, historical, and textual analysis to dwell in one of these roots: the figure of the garden’s vital element, water, as represented in the works of Teresa de Jesús and Ibn ‘Arabi. The well-irrigated life written by these mystics underscores the significance of this element as a path to life, knowledge, and love of and by God. Bringing together scholarship on Christian and Sufi mysticism, and underscoring the centrality of movement, flow, and circulation, this article pieces together otherwise disparate readings of both the individual work of these two figures and their belonging in a canon of Andalusī/Spanish mysticism. The weaving of these threads will offer readers a different understanding of early modern religion, alongside traditional readings of Spain’s mystical literature and its place in the global context.

Ruth Illman, Svante Lundgren

Editorial for Vol. 31/2 of Nordisk judaistik/Scandinavian Jewish Studies

Mira Niculescu

Since the late 1990s, the expression &#8220;Jewish Mindfulness&#8221; has become ubiquitous in Jewish community centers (JCCs) and synagogues in America, in Israel, and in the Western diaspora. &#8220;Mindfulness&#8221;, a secular meditation technique originating from Buddhism which has been popularized in Western culture through its recontextualization within the Western therapeutic culture, has been increasingly used in Jewish Religious settings, including Modern Orthodox. How do Modern Orthodox rabbis describe their use of &#8220;Mindfulness&#8221; in their religious teachings? Why do they refer to Mindfulness Meditation rather than to Jewish Meditation? In this article, I comparatively analyze the discourses spoken&#8212;online, and in print&#8212;of American rabbis from various Modern Orthodox trends as a case to study strategies of adaptation in the current context of globalization. By identifying three types of use of Mindfulness&#8212;<i>through,</i> <i>and</i> or <i>as</i> Judaism&#8212;I seek to highlight the various ways in which today&#8217;s Orthodox educators use &#8220;Mindfulness&#8221;, both as a meditation technique and as a spiritual mindset, and how this is reshaping the way they teach Jewish religion. Observing contemporary Orthodox discourses on Mindfulness within Jewish religious pedagogy can help us better understand the processes of cultural appropriation and translation as well as religious change in the making, as part of a boundary maintenance work within today&#8217;s cosmopolitan cultures.

Pulkin Maxim Viktorovich

The article considers the main regularities of formation and activity of Jewish communities in provincial cities of Russia. It was revealed that servicemen became the basis for the formation of religious communities of Jews. Subsequently, the number of Jewish communities has increased significantly due to a significant influx of exiles and the arrival of Jewish merchants. The existence of Jewish religious communities was the subject to detailed legislative regulation. At the same time, a number of significant problems could not be solved. In particular, training of rabbis was extremely difficult. The difficulties were also in preserving the traditional way of life, the native language.

Przemyslaw Tacik

The paper attempts to reassess the fundamentally paradoxical position of Ernst Bloch in 20th century philosophy in the light of the Marranic condition. Indebted, among others, to Jewish heritage and Christian tradition, Bloch considered himself primarily a Marxist. Bloch&#8217;s uniqueness consists in the stunning equiponderance of the currents he drew from. Contrary to a classic model of modern Jewish philosophy, inaugurated by Hermann Cohen, Bloch&#8217;s thinking does not allow of easy juxtaposition of &#8220;sources&#8222; with languages into which they were translated. In this sense, Bloch cannot be easily compared to Franz Rosenzweig, Emmanuel Levinas or even Walter Benjamin (although he bore some striking similarities with the latter). His position at least partly stems from a specific form of directness with which he often used these languages, composing his philosophy in quite an anachronist manner. For this reason his thinking&#8212;in itself &#8220;<i>die Gleichzeitigkeit des Ungleichzeitigen</i>&#8222;, as one of his key concepts theorises&#8212;is a very modern, internally incoherent space of cross-fertilising inspirations. The paper demonstrates two levels on which Bloch&#8217;s indebtedness to Judaism might be analysed and then re-assesses his Marxist affiliations as a kind of modern faith which, in a specifically Marranic manner, seals the simultaneity of the non-simultaneous.

Marta Ciesielska

Men’s circumcision is in many countries considered as a hygienic-cosmetic or aesthetic treatment. However, it still remains in close connection with religious rites (Judaism, Islam) and is still practiced all over the world. During the Second World War the visible effects of circumcision became an indisputable evidence of being a Jew and were often used especially by the so-called szmalcownicy (blackmailers). Fear of the possibility of discovering as non-Aryan prompted many Jews hiding on the so-called Aryan side of Warsaw to seek medical practitioners who would restore the condition as it was before the circumcision. The reconstruction surgery was called in surgical jargon “knife baptizing”. Almost all of the procedures were performed by Aryan doctors although four cases of hiding Jewish doctors participating in such procedures are known. Surgical technique consisted of the surgical formation of a new foreskin after tissue preparation and stretching it by manual treatment. The success of the repair operation depended on the patient’s cooperation with the doctor, the worst result was in children. The physicians described in the article and the operating technique are probably only a fragment of a broader activity, described meticulously by only one of the doctors – Dr. Janusz Skórski. This work is an attempt to describe the phenomenon based on the very scanty source material, but it seems to be the first such attempt for several decades.

Simon Levis Sullam

In this article I examine the presence and influence among Italian Jews of Max Nordau’s image of the “muscle Jew” and more broadly of a virile imaginary, intertwined with Zionist and Italian nationalist ideas. I first document the relevance of an early phase of Italian muscular Judaism at the beginning of the twentieth century, at the time of the rise of Zionism in Italy. I then study the development, in the 1920s and 1930s, of a virile imagery among the two trends of Italian revisionist Zionism and of what we may call Italian Jewish Fascism. I end by asking whether there were not inherent contradictions, or at least relevant tensions, in the ideal of the muscle Jew, between radical nationalism and Jewish forms of virility, as developed after the First world war and in connection with the rise and stabilization of Fascism.

Monda Halpern

In June 1952, wife and mother Mary Rosenblatt was shot and killed in Sheffield, Ontario – allegedly by her lover Harry Lee. Lee, a mixed-race man, was hanged for the crime nine months later. In the six decades following his death, Rosenblatt has been consistently described as Jewish, yet Rosenblatt was, in fact, not Jewish. What factors contributed to this ethnic/religious misrecognition, and what can be gained by “remembering” Mary in this way? The case and the flawed collective memory suggest complex perceptions of Judaism, evident in the racialized way that Rosenblatt’s imagined Jewishness can be used to mitigate both Lee’s racial and sexual transgressions. En juin 1952, l’épouse et mère Mary Rosenblatt est assassinée à Sheffield en Ontario – prétendument par son amant Harry Lee. Lee, un homme « métis », est pendu neuf mois plus tard. Jusqu’à aujourd’hui, Rosenblatt a régulièrement été décrite comme juive. Pourtant, elle ne l’est pas. Qu’est-ce qui a contribué à cette erreur ethnique/religieuse et comment comprendre que l’on se « souvienne » de Mary de cette manière? Ce cas et la mémoire collective erronée qui en a découlé font ressortir des perceptions complexes du judaïsme, qui sont mises en évidence dans la manière dont la judéité inventée de Rosenblatt a pu être utilisée pour nuancer la transgression raciale et sexuelle de Lee.

J. Oort

D. Ruttenberg

M. Kaplan

W. Harrelson, George W. E. Nickelsburg join

Sanaz Alasti