From Rebel to Rabbi

From Rebel to Rabbi

Author: Matthew B. Hoffman

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9780804753715

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This book examines the ways modern Jewish thinkers, writers, and artists appropriated the figure of Jesus as part of the process of creating modern Jewish culture.


From Rebel to Rabbi

From Rebel to Rabbi

Author: Matthew Hoffman

Publisher:

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9781503625846

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From Rebel to Rabbi establishes how the changes that occurred in Jewish culture during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries stimulated a widespread fascination with the figure of Jesus and with Christian motifs among numerous Jewish theologians, historians, intellectuals, writers, and artists. It illustrates how and why the process of modernization for these Jews involved a radical reevaluation of Jesus of Nazareth. This book analyzes works of Jewish history, theology, Yiddish literature, Jewish visual art, and intellectual debates, in an attempt to situate this phenomenon within the broader context of a cultural history of how Jews have related to and depicted the figure of Jesus in the modern period. It suggests that for writers and artists, such as Sholem Asch and Marc Chagall, refiguring Jesus as intrinsically Jewish and using Christian themes to express aspects of the modern Jewish experience were an integral part of creating a new and distinctive modern Jewish culture.


Jewish Primitivism

Jewish Primitivism

Author: Samuel J. Spinner

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2021-07-27

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1503628280

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Around the beginning of the twentieth century, Jewish writers and artists across Europe began depicting fellow Jews as savages or "primitive" tribesmen. Primitivism—the European appreciation of and fascination with so-called "primitive," non-Western peoples who were also subjugated and denigrated—was a powerful artistic critique of the modern world and was adopted by Jewish writers and artists to explore the urgent questions surrounding their own identity and status in Europe as insiders and outsiders. Jewish primitivism found expression in a variety of forms in Yiddish, Hebrew, and German literature, photography, and graphic art, including in the work of figures such as Franz Kafka, Y.L. Peretz, S. An-sky, Uri Zvi Greenberg, Else Lasker-Schüler, and Moï Ver. In Jewish Primitivism, Samuel J. Spinner argues that these and other Jewish modernists developed a distinct primitivist aesthetic that, by locating the savage present within Europe, challenged the idea of the threatening savage other from outside Europe on which much primitivism relied: in Jewish primitivism, the savage is already there. This book offers a new assessment of modern Jewish art and literature and shows how Jewish primitivism troubles the boundary between observer and observed, cultured and "primitive," colonizer and colonized.


The Jewish Jesus

The Jewish Jesus

Author: Zev Garber

Publisher: Purdue University Press

Published: 2011-04-12

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 161249188X

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There is a general understanding within religious and academic circles that the incarnate Christ of Christian belief lived and died a faithful Jew. This volume addresses Jesus in the context of Judaism. By emphasizing his Jewishness, the authors challenge today’s Jews to reclaim the Nazarene as a proto-rebel rabbi and invite Christians to discover or rediscover the Church’s Jewish heritage. The essays in this volume cover historical, literary, liturgical, philosophical, religious, theological, and contemporary issues related to the Jewish Jesus. Several of them were originally presented at a three-day symposium on “Jesus in the Context of Judaism and the Challenge to the Church,” hosted by the Samuel Rosenthal Center for Judaic Studies at Case Western Reserve University in 2009. In the context of pluralism, in the temper of growing interreligious dialogue, and in the spirit of reconciliation, encountering Jesus as living history for Christians and Jews is both necessary and proper. This book will be of particular interest to scholars of the New Testament and Early Church who are seeking new ways of understanding Jesus in his religious and cultural milieu, as well Jewish and Christian theologians and thinkers who are concerned with contemporary Jewish and Christian relationships.


Another Modernity

Another Modernity

Author: Clémence Boulouque

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2020-09-01

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 1503613119

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Another Modernity is a rich study of the life and thought of Elia Benamozegh, a nineteenth-century rabbi and philosopher whose work profoundly influenced Christian-Jewish dialogue in twentieth-century Europe. Benamozegh, a Livornese rabbi of Moroccan descent, was a prolific writer and transnational thinker who corresponded widely with religious and intellectual figures in France, the Maghreb, and the Middle East. This idiosyncratic figure, who argued for the universalism of Judaism and for interreligious engagement, came to influence a spectrum of religious thinkers so varied that it includes proponents of the ecumenical Second Vatican Council, American evangelists, and right-wing Zionists in Israel. What Benamozegh proposed was unprecedented: that the Jewish tradition presented a solution to the religious crisis of modernity. According to Benamozegh, the defining features of Judaism were universalism, a capacity to foster interreligious engagement, and the political power and mythical allure of its theosophical tradition, Kabbalah—all of which made the Jewish tradition uniquely equipped to assuage the post-Enlightenment tensions between religion and reason. In this book, Clémence Boulouque presents a wide-ranging and nuanced investigation of Benamozegh's published and unpublished work and his continuing legacy, considering his impact on Christian-Jewish dialogue as well as on far-right Christians and right-wing religious Zionists.


Contemplative Nation

Contemplative Nation

Author: Cass Fisher

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2012-04-11

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 0804781001

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Contemplative Nation challenges the long-standing view that theology is not a vital part of the Jewish tradition. For political and philosophical reasons, both scholars of Judaism and Jewish thinkers have sought to minimize the role of theology in Judaism. This book constructs a new model for understanding Jewish theological language that emphasizes the central role of theological reflection in Judaism and the close relationship between theological reflection and religious practice in the Jewish tradition. Drawing on diverse philosophical resources, Fisher's model of Jewish theology embraces the multiple forms and functions of Jewish theological language. Fisher demonstrates the utility of this model by undertaking close readings of an early rabbinic commentary on the book of Exodus (Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael ) and a work of modern philosophical theology (Franz Rosenzweig's The Star of Redemption). These readings advance the discussion of theology in rabbinics and modern Jewish thought and provide resources for constructive Jewish theology.


First the Jews

First the Jews

Author: Rabbi Evan Moffic

Publisher: Abingdon Press

Published: 2019-01-15

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 150187084X

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For a basic introduction to anti-Semitism past and present, the first place to turn is now Rabbi Evan Moffic's First the Jews." --Dr. Jonathan D. Sarna, Celebrated Author and Chief Historian of National Museum of American Jewish History “Rabbi Moffic has written a book every Christian should read. An essential guide to making sense of the painful history and present reality of anti-Semitism. This is a truly important book.” —Adam Hamilton, Senior Pastor, The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection “How far the institutional church has strayed from following the rebel-rabbi Jesus! Evan shines light on the need for Christian and Jewish brothers and sisters to come together against this rising tide of hate.” —Michael Slaughter, author, speaker, pastor emeritus of Ginghamsburg Church Are we in danger of experiencing another Holocaust? News reports of and statistics about defaced synagogues and death threats against community centers are on the rise around the world. A rise in anti-Semitism from the right side of the political spectrum has been accompanied by a different kind of anti-Semitism from parts of the left revolving around the state of Israel. Rabbi Evan Moffic provides a compelling discussion to help Christians understand this dangerous rise by working to address tough questions including: Why have Jews been the object of the most enduring and universal hatred in history? What is different between anti-Semitism in the past versus today’s culture? How, and in what forms, may it be carried out in the future? Focusing on the events since September 11, 2001, Rabbi Evan Moffic considers the twenty-first century anti-Semitism and the historical pattern of discrimination to other groups that often follows new waves of discrimination against Jewish communities. With a hopeful and collaborative tone, he suggests actions for all people of faith to combat words and actions of hate while lifting up practical ways Christians and Jews can work together. First the Jews offers new insights and unparalleled perspectives on some of the most recent, pressing developments in the contemporary world. Includes chapter responses from Amy-Jill Levine, Mike Slaughter, Justine Coleman, and Imam Hassan Selim. Visit www.AbingdonPress.com/Moffic to download the Study Guide for First the Jews. Product Features: Encouragement and calls to action from leading Christian voices close out each chapter. Helps Christians to recognize and react to anti-Semitism. Offers a look back at the recent surge of anti-Semitic incidents. Outlines the role Christians can play in encouraging positive change in interfaith relations. Provides examples of positive change to encourage future efforts. Shares insights from a Jewish perspective written for Christians.


Marc Chagall on Art and Culture

Marc Chagall on Art and Culture

Author: Marc Chagall

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780804748315

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Marc Chagall (1887-1985) traversed a long route from a boy in the Jewish Pale of Settlement, to a commissar of art in revolutionary Russia, to the position of a world-famous French artist. This book presents for the first time a comprehensive collection of Chagall's public statements on art and culture. The documents and interviews shed light on his rich, versatile, and enigmatic art from within his own mental world. The book raises the problems of a multi-cultural artist with several intersecting identities and the tensions between modernist form and cultural representation in twentieth-century art. It reveals the travails and achievements of his life as a Jew in the twentieth century and his perennial concerns with Jewish identity and destiny, Yiddish literature, and the state of Israel. This collection includes annotations and introductions of the Chagall texts by the renowned scholar Benjamin Harshav that elucidate the texts and convey the changing cultural contexts of Chagall's life. Also featured is the translation by Benjamin and Barbara Harshav of the first book about Chagall's work, the 1918 Russian The Art of Marc Chagall.


Hope Will Find You

Hope Will Find You

Author: Naomi Levy

Publisher: Harmony

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0385531702

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In this moving, personal work, Levy tells of the painful circumstances she endured with her young daughter's illness, how they grew together, and ultimately how much Levy learned from her daughter's example.


A Vanished Ideology

A Vanished Ideology

Author: Matthew B. Hoffman

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2016-06-16

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1438462204

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While a number of books and articles have been written about Jewish Communist organizations and their supporters in particular countries, an academic treatment of the overall movement per se has yet to be published. A Vanished Ideology examines the politics of the Jewish Communist movement in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, South Africa, and the United States. Though officially part of the larger world Communist movement, it developed its own specific ideology, which was infused as much by Jewish sources as it was inspired by the Bolshevik revolution. The Yiddish language groups, especially, were interconnected through international movements such as the World Jewish Cultural Union. Jewish Communists were able to communicate, disseminate information, and debate issues such as Jewish nationality and statehood independently of other Communists, and Jewish Communism remained a significant force in Jewish life until the mid-1950s.