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In this study, the various aspects of the way the Jews regarded themselves in the context of the lapse into another religion will be researched fully for the first time. We will attempt to understand whether they regarded the issue of conversion with self-confidence or with suspicion, whether their attitude was based on a clear theological position or on doubt and the coping with the problem as part of the process of socialization will be fully analysed. In this way, we will better understand how the Jews saw their own identity whilst living as a minority among the Christian majority, whose own self-confidence was constantly becoming stronger from the 10th to the 14th century until they eventually ousted the Jews completely from the places they lived in, England, France and large parts of Germany. This aspect of Jewish self-identification, written by a person who converted to Christianity, can help clarify a number of
propaganda. As a state institution, the IDF has an officially Jewish identity. 2 Stuart Cohen has described the IDF as drawing upon ‘traditional Jewish themes and motifs [which] form integral parts of its texture’, citing the conformity of IDF kitchens to halakhic precepts; that training and vacations are shaped according to the Jewish religious calendar; burials are carried out by the IDF Rabbinate ( rabbanut tzeva’it ); all new conscripts are given a copy of the Old Testament; and, particularly in recent years, passing-out parades have been held at religio
is palpable. Above all, claiming worthiness, groups engaged in Nakba co-memoration are relationally also engaged in constructing the meaning of Israeli Jewish identities. Linking memory and identity, Gillis argues that on the one hand, ‘the core meaning of any individual or group identity, namely, the sense of sameness over time and space, is sustained by remembering’, and on the other, ‘we are constantly revising our memories to suit our current identities’ (Gillis 1994: 3). What changes over time is the nature of that ‘we’, from a ‘politics of recognition
unanimity that Israel was justified in attacking Egypt, to bring to an end years of terrorist incursions across the Gaza strip. Similarly, the Leeds Jewish community was supportive of Israel in the Six Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Zionism acted as a unifying force because it allowed people to express their Jewish identity without reference to their religious observance, and support for the Jewish National Fund (JNF) or the Joint Israel Appeal (JIA) was almost a religion-free statement of Jewish commitment. Today there are strong and active Zionist
] derived from the fact that they were Jewish, so they had had a Jewish identity strongly forced upon them by the majority – and this identity was largely expressed in terms of religion. When they came to England and found themselves no longer living in Jewish enclaves … and their Jewishness was no longer of prime relevance to every social contact, so the ‘Jewishness’ of their way of life dropped markedly. 13 The question facing the community of Leeds was how best to move forward, in public or in the shadows? Erich
connections to the past.22 Of course that Broszat had been in the Hitler Youth, and Friedländer had lived the war in hiding in France is important in 11 Lawson 00_Lawson 08/09/2010 14:00 Page 12 DEBATES ON THE HOLOCAUST understanding their work. And their history-writing was a contribution to discourses about German and Jewish identities in the present as well as the past. However, it is important that we get beyond the idea that national and ethnic origins are all important, because taken to its logical conclusion such a view suggests (as Friedländer and Broszat implied
This book revisits the end of the First World War to ask how that moment of silence was to echo into the following decades. It looks at the history from a different angle, asking how British and German creative artists addressed, questioned and remembered the Armistice and its silence. The book offers a genuinely interdisciplinary study, bringing together contributions from scholars in art history, music, literature and military history. It is unique in its comparison of the creative arts of both sides; assessing responses to the war in Britain, Germany and Austria. Together, the different chapters offer a rich diversity of methodological approaches, including archival research, historical analysis, literary and art criticism, musical analysis and memory studies. The chapters reconsider some well-known writers and artists to offer fresh readings of their works. These sit alongside a wealth of lesser-known material, such as the popular fiction of Philip Gibbs and Warwick Deeping and the music of classical composer Arthur Bliss. The wide-ranging discussions encompass such diverse subjects as infant care, sculpture, returned nurses, war cemeteries, Jewish identity, literary journals, soldiers' diaries and many other topics. Together they provide a new depth to our understanding of the cultural effects of the war and the Armistice. Finally, the book has a recuperative impulse, bringing to light rare and neglected materials, such as the letters of ordinary German and British soldiers, and Alfred Doblin's Armistice novel.
This chapter offers an alternative conceptual framework for looking at the diversity of individual experiences of Jewish identity in the Leeds Jewish community, at present and in the past. Borrowing from the field of citizenship studies and identity politics, it argues that to understand local expressions of Jewish belonging, they need to be framed in the wider context of the national discourse on Britishness and citizenship. This means that changing notions of national identity inevitably trigger changes in how people express and
This chapter discusses the nexus of Tolstoyan anarcho-pacifism and Jewish tradition in the life and thought of R. Yehuda-Leyb Don-Yahiya. Beginning with a discussion of his biography and role in the foundation of Mizrahi, the religious branch of the Zionist movement, it proceeds to discuss his belief that the value of non-violence constitutes the core and essence of Judaism and of Jewish identity. The centrality of faith both as a mode for articulating human fraternity, and also for supplying it with firm existential foundations, is then examined. Don-Yahiya’s sympathy with the revolutionary cause and his insistence that this much came about via a revolution of the heart is then addressed. The chapter closes with analysis of Don-Yahiya’s efforts to ground the Tolstoyan prescription for social and political change through passive resistance in Jewish sources.
3 Theological confrontation with Christianity’s success Apostasy and Jewish identity Theological confrontation with Christianity T he success of the Christians in defeating the Muslims in the Holy Land, conquering it and establishing a Christian colony there, particularly in the Holy City of Jerusalem, was a harsh blow to the Jews from a theological viewpoint. The theological difficulty, which emerged during the course of the twelfth century, became a central issue, one which also affected the status of voluntary converts to Christianity. The Jewish sources