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"Food for Peace": The Vegan Religion of the Hebrews of Jerusalem

Author(s): Shelley Elkayam / Language(s): English / Issue: XXVI/2014

A debate over the morality of Kosher slaughter [Shechita (Hebrew: שחיטה)] has raged in Poland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark, where the Jewish ritual slaughter was outlawed. The more the debate goes on, the more awareness arises to Shechita as a basic Jewish religious practice. Yet veganism is a Hebrew religious operation too. This article discusses Hebrew vegan belief in terms meaningful to Jews, yet considering its utopian nature, in terms applicable to others as well. Both Shechita and veganism have universal Hebrew claims. Yet both claims are to be studied. Within this vast theme, I will analyze here veganism only, with respect to its utopian role and as a theological structure of one, yet global, community: the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. They believe themselves to be the descendants of Judah, the fourth son of Jacob Israel. They are Jewish by their cultural nature: they observe Shabbat, Torah and a weekly fast. In 70 A.D. after the Romans destroyed the second temple they escaped and fled southward and westward to various nations in Africa two millennia ago where they were sold as slaves and were enslaved in America. They left America in 1967 led by their spiritual leader Ben Ammi, defined their departure as an exodus from America. Via Liberia – where they became vegans – they arrived in Israel in 1969, established an urban kibbutz, a collective communal living which is located in a desert region. Like most Jews, their diet has tremendous importance, but unlike most Jews they are vegan. The African Hebrews have very specific vegan dietary practices. Their tradition includes teaching and studying a special diet, which is vegetarian, organic and self-produced. They observe Shabbat strictly. On Shabbat, they fast and cleanse. This mirrors their spiritual outlook that eating is a hard labor of which they are obliged to rest from by the Ten Commandments. This article presents a breakthrough idea that fasting on Shabbat indeed reflects an ancient Israelite religious tradition. “Food for Peace” s a metaphor for the theology of the Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem unfolding their messianic utopia through which they believe people may achieve inner peace and even world peace, encompassing decades of powerful hopes, realities and nutritious lifestyle.

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A Case Study of Radical Assimilation in Poland. The Family Markusfeld

Author(s): Pawel Jasnowski / Language(s): English / Issue: 14/2016

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of radical assimilation in the late 19th century. The author focuses on the Markusfeld family, who had lived in Kraków since at least the mid-18th century. The study is an attempt to show the history of family against the background of the history of Galicia, in the second half of the 19th century, when the idea of integration was finally abandoned, and integration ceased to be seen as solution of “the Jewish question.” The paper is based on Bauman’s analysis of the general sociological mechanisms of modern assimilatory processes, and refers to the category of radical assimilation (T. Endelman). It seeks to answer the question of why most family members chose to convert at the end of the 19th century. The author shows that the choice of “default” religion, “universal” values, and “right” idiom was not tantamount to their affirmation – but it was a way to look for happiness and fulfillment, which was (unlike in France), according to some Jews not accessible while staying Jewish. Baptism was also a form of protection – the Second World War would prove it effective.

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A New Hebrew Literary Diaspora? Israeli Literature Abroad

Author(s): Yaron Peleg / Language(s): English / Issue: 2 (36)/2015

Although the modern stage in the development of Hebrew began in Europe about two hundred years ago, after 1948 the language and its literature became confined for the most part to the state of Israel. The tumultuous course of Jewish history in the past two centuries has by and large emptied the Jewish Diaspora of Hebrew. And yet in the past few decades we are witnessing a growing number of Hebrew writers who are no longer confined by geography. Although they still publish their works in Israel, they write them elsewhere, mainly in the United States and Europe. Increasingly, too, their works reflect their habitat as well as the peoples and cultures of their countries of residence. Are we witnessing the birth of what can perhaps be termed a “post-national Hebrew” era, an era in which Israel remains an inspiring cultural center, but no longer the only location for the creation of original works in Hebrew? This article looks at various Hebrew novels that were written outside of Israel in the last few decades and examines the contours of what may perhaps be a new chapter in the history of modern Hebrew.

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Abraham bar Jacob and His Copperplate Engravings in 17th and 18th Century Amsterdam Prints

Author(s): Magdalena Bendowska / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

In 1695, the printing shop of Asher Anshel ben Eliezer Kutner and Issachar Ber ben Eliezer of Minden issued a new edition of the Passover Haggadah, for the first time illustrated with copperplate engravings. The name of the engraver, Abraham bar Jacob, was present both on the title page and on the foldable Palestine map with a legend in Hebrew attached to the book. This book drew its inspiration from Christian sources. The artist already had collaborated earlier with Amsterdam printing offices. He produced the frontispiece of the Yiddish Bible published by Uri Phoebus (1679) and later copied in successive books printed by Uri Phoebus in Amsterdam, by Johannes Wust in Frankfort on the Main and by Shabbatai Bass in Dyhernfurth. Another frontispiece by Abraham bar Jacob was inserted by Immanuel Athias in the books Shnei Luhot ha-berit (1698) and Yad Yosef (1700), also by Shlomo Proops in Eshlei ravrevei (1711) and Maginei eretz (1732). Later, this template was used by printers Hertz Levi Rofe and his son-in-law Kosman. Both Haggadah title pages were copied by other printing offices. At first, the inclusion of Abraham bar Jacob’s illustrations in Jewish books and the author’s name did not provoke any reaction. However, as time passed by, the authorship was increasingly concealed. Athias obliterated the artist’s signature on the copperplate used in Yad Yosef, and Proops removed Abraham bar Jacob’s name from the title page of the second edition of the Haggadah. The reason for this probably was that the engraver was a convert, a pastor originating from the Rhine region who converted to Judaism in Amsterdam. This fact was mentioned for the first time by the Christian Hebraist Johann Christoph Wolf in the Bibliotheca Hebraea bibliography. Notwithstanding the artist’s origins, his illustration achieved popularity and gained numerous followers.

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Abraham Firkowicz: introduction to Sep̄er Massa u-Mriḇa

Author(s): Veronika Klimova / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2017

The article is a contribution to studies of Karaite literature in Eastern Europe. It presents an introduction to Massa u-Mriḇa written by the best known Karaite scholar Abraham Firkowicz (1786–1874). The author is engaged in a prolonged polemic against the Rabbanites who claimed Talmud to be an oral explanation of the laws God gave to Moses. He refers to the history of the Karaites and emphasizes a frequent misunderstanding of their origin as they are incorrectly identified with Sadducees. Firkowicz does not hesitate to level harsh criticism and utilizes his Biblical lexicon in defending the purity of Karaite faith.

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Admiration and Fear: New Perspectives on the Personality of the Maharal

Author(s): Pavel Sládek / Language(s): English,Hebrew / Issue: 2/2017

Rabbi Judah Leva ben Betzalel – the Maharal (ca. 1525–1609) is regarded as one of the key figures of the sixteenth-century rabbinic culture. Yet, given the fragmentary nature of the existing sources, his biography and intellectual profile manifest several unfortunate lacunae. Based on unknown or neglected manuscript and printed sources, this study formulates tentative hypotheses about some of the gaps in our understanding of the Maharal’s attitudes and the reception of his person by his contemporaries. It shows that the Maharal felt very close to his brother Hayyim and suggests that he spent his formative years in the Lublin yeshivah of rabbi Shalom Shakhnah. The renown and respect that the Maharal enjoyed from contemporary scholars does not seem to be the result of the reception of his voluminous writings but rather of his radical views of rabbinic authority and the ruthlessness with which he was ready to carry his ideas through.Aban that the Maharal intended to impose on the rabbinic ordination of candidates of Moravian origin indicates that his move to Prague was perhaps involuntary and explains the reluctance of the lay leaders to elect him as a communal rabbi. Other sources discussed for the first time with regard to the Maharal document that he was both respected and feared even outside the region, for example in Italy. The Hebrew originals of the most important unpublished sources discussed in this study are appended.

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Adversus Iudaeos in the Sermon Written by Theodore Syncellus on the Avar Siege of AD 626

Author(s): Martin Hurbanic / Language(s): English / Issue: 6/2016

A sermon attributed to Theodore Syncellus (Theodoros Synkellos) is considered as one of the basic sources for the study of the Avar siege of Constantinople in AD 626. Therefore, the most historians paid more attention to the analysis of its historical background than to its ideological content. From the ideological point of view, the document serves as an evidence that a fear for the future of the Empire and its capital Constantinople began to rise within emerging Byzantine society. The Avar siege served its author mainly as a model for developing his polemics with imaginary Jewish opponents and their religion. It deserves to be included in a long succession of similar polemical treatises, which have existed in Christianity from its earliest times.

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Alexandra Gorlina kabalistyczne refleksje nad sztuką i literaturą

Author(s): Artur Kamczycki / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 06/2014

This article is an attempt to critically analyze Alexander Gorlin’s book "Kabbalah in Art and Architecture" in the context of contemporary research on Jewish mysticism, magic and the Kabbalah. These issues have become a subject of interest for many researchers, which has given rise to numerous international conferences, professional and academic publications, and substantive debates in academic circles. However, Gorlin’s book faces questions in terms of whether the author’s suggestive and subjective pairing of works of art and architecture with passages from Kabbalistic texts represents an attempt to inscribe them within this academic context, or whether it merely represents a casual nod to a non-reflective reader.

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Analogie i genealogie modlitwy w trzech religiach monoteistycznych

Author(s): Barbara Marcinkowska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2016

Prayer is one of the most essential expression of the cult existing in every religion. On account of differences taking place in individual religions, and also historical, geografical and cultural conditionings, the prayer donned different forms and means of expression. In this article there have been featured the analogies between prayer in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Israel’s prayer resulted from the fact of affiliation with jewish nation with which the God transacted the covenant. Perpetuating the conditions of this covenant constituted the guarantee for the believing human being that his prayer will be listened. The Christian prayer’s property is it’s giving direction to a person and Christ’s saving work; His mediation constitutes the guarantee of effectiveness therefore. Prayer in Islam constitutes one of the five pillars, meaning elementary obligations, which abiding is the condition of the salvation. In spite of the differences taking place in above-mentioned religions their common feature is taking a dialogue between man and the God and also the belief that requests directed to Him will be listened.

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Anan ben Dawid jako archetyp religijnego wichrzyciela: jak raw Natronaj Gaon przyczynił się do wykreowania przywódcy ananitów na ojca założyciela karaizmu

Author(s): Marzena Zawanowska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2017

The paper analyzes in detail the oldest known gaonic report on the alleged founder of the Karaite movement, Anan ben David (VIII c.). It is ascribed to rav Natronai (bar Hilai) Gaon (d. 865) and has been preserved in a prayer book authored by Rav Amram ben Sheshna (d. 875), Sidur rav Amram ha-ssalem. The ensuing conclusions is that if not for this and other Babylonian geonim (such as Rav Saadia Gaon), who made use of Anan’s name as a convenient label for religious instigators and heretics (that is any opponents of Babylonian tradition, including supporters of the Palestinian one), it is not unlikely that he would not have been recognized by the Karaites as the founding father of their movement. By employing his name as an emblem of rebellious freethinker, they made this – otherwise marginal for the development of Karaism – figure more important than it really was. Thanks to that, he could later on be appropriated by the Karaite movement – which at the time of its emergence and coalescence (9th-10th century) was in desperate need of unifying myths – and become its symbolic originator. In this sense, it can be said that the Babylonian representatives of medieval Judaism wishing to define the limits of their own religious authority through the unification of Jewish doctrines and practices, as well as centralization and concentration of the (political) power in their own hands, created the founding myth of Karaism.

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Aramejskie przekłady Tory jako świadectwo interpretacji tekstu biblijnego w tradycji żydowskiej

Author(s): Anna Kusmirek / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 29/2014

The Targums are early Jewish translations of books of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. According to the definition, but also in practice, Aramaic translations operate at two levels: translation of the Hebrew text and its interpretation. The Pentateuch is at the centre of Jewish life, therefore more than one Aramaic versions of the Torah have been created: Targum Onqelos, Palestinian Targum (Targum Neofiti, fragments from Cairo Geniza, Fragment Targums, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan). The character of these versions depends on the date, place and dialect of at the original targumic tradition. The targumists read the Torah as the Scripture transmitted to them and their contemporaries. Their reflection on the text led to the contribution of new elements to it. The material was added to the Aramaic translations of the biblical text not for linguistic reasons, but because of current theological exegesis, formed inside Jewish religious communities. The Aramaic translators used a variety of methods and techniques of translation. Significantly, they resorted to contemporarization of the Sacred texts, which occurred at three levels: historical, cultural, and religious. The targumists tried not only to convey the text of the Pentateuch, which included the law of Moses, but also to solve problems associated with the interpretation of the meaning of the Torah. Thus the Targums can be seen as an attempt to adapt the Scripture to the official Jewish law (halakah). With regard to the liturgical context, the Aramaic translations became midrashic and exgegetical commentaries. The targumists aimed at reconciling the ancient text books of the Hebrew Bible with its later theological vision. This phenomenon is defined as the targumization or ideologization of the Biblical Hebrew text. The aim of this article is to describe the characteristics of targumic literature and present selected examples of different Aramaic “actualizations” of the Torah.

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Archiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne Archiwum Getta Warszawy, tom 06, Generalne Gubernatorstwo. Relacje i dokumenty

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish / Publication Year: 2012

The volume concerns the fate of the Jewish population in the General Government four districts: Cracow, Lublin, Radom, and Warsaw. It includes testimonies, memoirs, personal documents and official records, such as German ordinances, reports and transcripts of the proceedings of the Jewish Councils, Jewish Social Aid and the American Joint Distribution Committee. The documents cover the period from September and October 1939 to some time after November 1942; there are also memoirs that touch upon the pre-war period.

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Archiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne Archiwum Getta Warszawy, tom 07. Spuścizny

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish / Publication Year: 2012

The volume consists of materials deposited in the ARG by Emmanuel Ringelblum’s closest collaborators: writer and journalist Rachela Auerbach, lawyer and economist Hersz Wasser, teacher Eliasz Gutkowski, and the Archive’s treasurer, entrepreneur Menachem Mendel Kon. Letters, certificates and fragments of notes are testimony to the work of the Archive, the everyday life of its collaborators and through this – to the experience of Jewish intellectuals in the ghetto. The last chapter contains patents of inventors Henryk Piórnik and Wacław Kączkowski issued by the Polish and foreign patent offices.

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Asimetrija lica

Author(s): Emmanuel Levinas,France Guwy / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 22/2017

France Guwy's interview of Emmanuel Levinas

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Au-delà des mères perdues ou comment nommer la mère après la Shoah

Author(s): Amelia Peral / Language(s): French / Issue: 1/2012

This article focuses on the relationship between mothers and daughters in the French literature, taking as its starting point the Holocaust as it was experienced by these two authors, Sarah Kofman and Esther Orner. For most Holocaust survivors, this is, at first, to find the words to break the silence, find the words to describe the indescribable and, therefore, with writing, these two writers try to recover the time spent, the one where as children they had had a mother to love. Mothers lost in the pain of separation that would give them a new life, another mother. So what to call these mothers lost when another mother had cradled in her womb? Through the writing of Sarah Kofman and Esther Orner, we make this journey against time.

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Autor Księgi Mądrości i czas jej powstania (1)

Author(s): Bogdan PONIZY / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2010

This article is the first part of a longer essay, which is divided into two parts. The Book of Wisdom is a special book in the Bible. It is the youngest book of the Old Testament, but Canon Muratori enlists it among the New Testament books. Many manuscripts and old translations call this book the Wisdom of Salomonos, because Salomon seemed to be the author of this work (cf. Wis 7–9). Strong arguments exclude his authorship, but it is sure, that an Israelite must have been the author. Although there are many hypotheses about the date of its birth, Sitz im Leben and the wording defend the view that the text must have been written while the Romans ruled in Egypt.

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Benjamin Schwarzfeld’s Polemics on the Cultural Situation of the Jews of Romania : a Chapter in the History of the Haskala Movement in the Jewish Community of Romania

Author(s): Lucian Zeev Herscovici / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2014

How influential was the Haskala movement in the Romanian Jewish community in the 60s-70s of the 19 th century? To answer to this question, we must note that in the Jewish community of Romania (and previously in the Jewish communities of the Romanian Principalities Moldavia and Wallachia) the movement began and developed later than in the Jewish communities of the neighbouring empires: if in the first half of the 19 th century, in the Romanian Principalities there were maskils only, an organized Haskala movement emerged at the end of the 40s-beginning of the 50s of the 19 th century. The Haskala movement in the Jewish community of Romania was strongly influenced by the Haskala movement of the Jewish communities of Galicia and Bucovina, which were Austrian provinces in the 19 th century. Many “maskils” of Romania came from Galicia and immigrated to Romania. One of them was Benjamin Schwarzfeld. His polemics on the cultural situation of the Jews of Romania from 1873, as well as his activity as a maskil active in the founding of modern Jewish schools in Jassy are an interesting chapter of the history of the Haskala movement of Romania. In a polemical article, published as a Hebrew language leaflet in that year as a response to the claim by the Committee for Romanian Israelites of Vienna, that the low level of modern education of the Jews of Romania does not justify their emancipation, Benjamin Schwarzfeld argued that the level of modern Jewish education in Romania is not so far behind that existent in Galicia and Russia. Benjamin Schwarzfeld opposed the idea of so-called “merited emancipation” held by the Committee of Vienna, and affirmed that emancipation would advance modern education among Romanian Jews, who would be more interested in modern education if they were integrated into Romanian society. In his leaflet, Benjamin Schwarzfeld deals with the state of modern education among the Jews of Jassy, where he lived. Benjamin Schwarzfeld’s leaflet, printed in Jassy, remained unknown by historians of Romanian Jewry for a long time: they used a Romanian translation, published by his son, Moses, in the journal “Egalitatea”, but this was only a partial translation, oriented toward Romanization. In our article, we shall present the original Hebrew leaflet and analyze Benjamin Schwarzfeld’s point of view.

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Between Chortkiv and Paris. Sasza Blonder / André Blondel 1909-1949

Author(s): Natasza Styrna / Language(s): English / Issue: 13/2015

The painter Sasza Blonder (1909-1949) was born into a tradition-observing Jewish family in Chortkiv in Podolia. In the 1930s he belonged to the avant-garde Grupa Krakowska, whose members were Poles and Jews of radical left views. His works of that period included both abstract and figurative compositions. He was the only artist in the group interested in subjects taken from Jewish life, examples of which can be found in his sketchbooks. In 1937 Blonder moved to Paris. During the war he hid in the south of France under the false name André Blondel. His memoirs written at this time testify to Blonder’s strong links with the Jewish milieu. His death at the early age of 40 interrupted the career of this interesting and talented artist.

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