{"title":"»Wie ich in meinem Lande bin, so ist mein Land in mir«. Constantin Brunner im holländischen Exil 1933-1937","authors":"Bettina Baltschev","doi":"10.1515/asch-2019-0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/asch-2019-0024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Even before, in May 1933, the new Nazi regime in Germany began to ostracize, and burn the books of, so-called »un-German« authors, Constantin Brunner went into exile in The Hague. That he decided to go to the Netherlands is not surprising. The Netherlands were the homeland of Baruch de Spinoza, whose thinking is the most important influence on Brunner’s philosophical work. In The Hague he continued his philosophical studies and exchanged opinions and countless letters with friends, companions and followers in all corners of the world. But although Constantin Brunner was out of harm’s way and was, even in exile and far from home, able to dedicate himself wholly to his work, his health declined rapidly. He died on August 27, 1937. But his work has survived in The Hague where, in 1947, Magdalena Kasch founded the »Internationaal Brunner Instituut«.","PeriodicalId":40863,"journal":{"name":"Aschkenas-Zeitschrift fuer Geschichte und Kultur der Juden","volume":"29 1","pages":"475 - 489"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/asch-2019-0024","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42271354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bibliographie","authors":"","doi":"10.1515/asch-2019-0026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/asch-2019-0026","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40863,"journal":{"name":"Aschkenas-Zeitschrift fuer Geschichte und Kultur der Juden","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/asch-2019-0026","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42248376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gottesbegriff und Gotteserkenntnis bei Constantin Brunner und Martin Buber","authors":"H. Werner","doi":"10.1515/asch-2019-0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/asch-2019-0020","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The concept of God plays a prominent role in both Constantin Brunner’s and Martin Buber’s writings. In the way they treated this subject there are similarities, but also some striking differences. Both thinkers saw their philosophy as an attempt to explain the Absolute (Brunner) or God (Buber). Both were influenced by the philosophy of Spinoza and the tradition of mysticism. The crucial difference between Brunner and Buber is that Buber thinks of God as a person with whom a personal relationship is possible. Brunner, on his part, rejects any form of anthropomorphism and thinks of God as the Absolute, as an impersonal, unifying principle. Both interpretations point to a different understanding of religion and Judaism. For Brunner, Buber’s concept of God was an example of »superstition«, whereas Buber would have argued that Brunner does not understand the role of the Jewish God as a partner in dialogue.","PeriodicalId":40863,"journal":{"name":"Aschkenas-Zeitschrift fuer Geschichte und Kultur der Juden","volume":"29 1","pages":"369 - 384"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/asch-2019-0020","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48447546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Emanzipation von der jüdischen Orthodoxie. Die Jugend- und Lehrjahre 1862-1890 des Leo Wertheimer alias Constantin Brunner","authors":"M. Springborn","doi":"10.1515/asch-2019-0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/asch-2019-0018","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This biographical essay is designed to give a survey of Constantin Brunnerʼs early years, from his childhood and youth until the end of his student days, based on the available letters, manuscripts and published writings. A major focus is on Brunnerʼs intellectual development from protected child, spiritually shaped by Jewish orthodoxy, to aspiring religious scholar and finally to the secular philosopher known today. The article is therefore a contribution to a range of research topics: to the field of German-Jewish biography during the period of the German Empire; but also to the history of ideas, particularly in relation to the secularization of religious minorities. It also touches upon developments inside the Jewish community: the way different intellectual and religious currents are related to each other, the informal networks between Jewish intellectuals and how national (German or Jewish) identity is related to the Jewish self-image.","PeriodicalId":40863,"journal":{"name":"Aschkenas-Zeitschrift fuer Geschichte und Kultur der Juden","volume":"29 1","pages":"313 - 349"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/asch-2019-0018","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42371491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Constantin Brunners Auffassung des Jüdischen","authors":"J. Stenzel","doi":"10.1515/asch-2019-0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/asch-2019-0017","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract »Jewishness« and »Jewish identity«, two of the most controversial concepts inside and outside the Jewish community, are center stage in Constantin Brunner’s thinking. Although he regarded religion as »superstition«, he himself was deeply rooted in religious traditions and the issue of Jewishness plays an important part in all of his works. Brunner is concerned with all questions traditionally related to Jewishness: the question of race and ethnicity, of religion and the question of Jewishness as historical heritage. In contrast to some of his prominent contemporaries, Martin Buber for instance, Brunner does not link »Jewishness« to race or ethnic heritage, but to cultural tradition. In the »spirit of Judaism« he finds the roots of his own mystical and spiritual thinking. On the political and social level, Brunner rejects the concept of a Jewish nation. A fervent advocate of assimilation, he saw himself not as a »Jewish« but as a »German« citizen of Jewish descent.","PeriodicalId":40863,"journal":{"name":"Aschkenas-Zeitschrift fuer Geschichte und Kultur der Juden","volume":"29 1","pages":"267 - 309"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/asch-2019-0017","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43610313","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Medizin zwischen Mythos und Magie","authors":"A. Kilcher","doi":"10.1515/asch-2019-0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/asch-2019-0009","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The tzaddik, a central figure in Hasidism, is revered as a »mysterious Rabbi« and acts as an adviser and particularly also as a healer. While both worldly medicine and its state agencies are rejected, he works with methods rooted in Practical Kabbalah. They focus on the use of magical words such as the names of God or of angels to which the Baal Shem, the Master of the Name, has access. Under the influence of their power he not only inscribes amulets and speaks prayers, but also tells, or becomes the protagonist of, stories with which he also mobilizes the divine forces. This contribution concentrates on the therapeutic function of story-telling, using examples both from the traditional Hasidic literature, the Shivhei ha-Besht for instance, and modern Jewish stories that draw on Hasidic literature, such as the work of Georg Langer and Joseph Roth.","PeriodicalId":40863,"journal":{"name":"Aschkenas-Zeitschrift fuer Geschichte und Kultur der Juden","volume":"29 1","pages":"147 - 160"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/asch-2019-0009","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47154898","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Jüdisch-christliche Volksmedizin in einer Idylle Saul Tschernichowskys","authors":"A. Feinberg, R. Jütte","doi":"10.1515/asch-2019-0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/asch-2019-0010","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract When working as a country doctor in Czarist Russia, the Jewish author and poet Saul Tschernichowsky (1875-1943) had close contact with the rural population and with the Jews living there. Meeting the village folk and peasants brought back memories of his own childhood spent in the country that made him realize the discrepancy between »yesterday’s world« and modern times. Academic medicine did not count for much in the country. The peasants wanted »proper« drugs, by which they meant drugs whose strong smell and conspicuous colour suggested effectiveness. Some of Tschernichowsky’s medical experiences from that time have found their way into his literary oeuvre, for instance into the stories »be-inyan ha-mumchim« (Concerning experts) and »ze’adim rishonim« (First steps), and particularly also into his idyll »Berele chole« (Berele is sick), composed in 1907, which is an attempt at making this literary genre also fruitful for Modern Hebrew Literature. Analysis of its content reveals that the historiographic inference that Jewish and non-Jewish religious-magic medicine overlap and influence each other is congruent with Tschernichowsky’s poetically alienated description.","PeriodicalId":40863,"journal":{"name":"Aschkenas-Zeitschrift fuer Geschichte und Kultur der Juden","volume":"29 1","pages":"161 - 173"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/asch-2019-0010","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41983803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Homosexualität, Krankheit und Judentum","authors":"F. Mildenberger","doi":"10.1515/asch-2019-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/asch-2019-0008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Twenty years ago, »homosexuality« was only disputed by Rabbis and their scholars, but today LGBT-people are part of daily Jewish life, even in some orthodox communities. Despite the fact that modern Zionism and the sexual reform movement were founded at almost the same time, the two parties were, for many decades, never in accordance. Apparently neither male nor female »sexual in-betweens« fitted into a modern Zionistic culture or orthodox communities. This changed in 1980s due to HIV/AIDS and the success of sexual reform movements in the Western world. Today, the difference between rich and poor seems to be much more important than the question of hetero- or homosexuality.","PeriodicalId":40863,"journal":{"name":"Aschkenas-Zeitschrift fuer Geschichte und Kultur der Juden","volume":"29 1","pages":"113 - 145"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/asch-2019-0008","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44155824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Die Pest und die Juden - Mythen, Fakten, Topoi","authors":"K. Bergdolt","doi":"10.1515/asch-2019-0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/asch-2019-0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper explores the relation between the »Black Death« and the persecutions of Jews in the mid-14th century. At first glance, it may come as a surprise that pogroms never took place during an outbreak (as some black legends claim). They were a phenomenon which occurred, typically, before or (seldom) after a plague. When everyone had to reckon with the deadly danger, the charge of well-poisoning, which had a long and fatal tradition, moved to the centre again, accompanied by other incriminations of Jews. Having been of more theoretical (or magic) importance before then, the terrible accusation now seemed to be justified more than ever by the medical theory that poisoned water could cause »miasmata«. The general anxiety, described excellently by Petrarch and other contemporaries, provided an ideal playground for fanatics and zealots who tried to convince people of the validity of such assumptions. It is therefore no wonder that the number of pogroms increased dramatically in 1348/49. They were promoted by the tactics of the emperor who sold his profitable role as a »protector of the Jews« increasingly to the »Imperial Free Cities«. In many towns the Black Death was preceded (or sometimes followed) by anti-Jewish massacres that were instigated by anti-Jewish writings and pamphlets. Only a general crisis of mentality and widespread moral decadence made this possible. The solid financial interests of certain groups of society seem also to have played an important role. Nevertheless, we have to admit that these medieval persecutions have left many questions open - to this day.","PeriodicalId":40863,"journal":{"name":"Aschkenas-Zeitschrift fuer Geschichte und Kultur der Juden","volume":"29 1","pages":"43 - 62"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/asch-2019-0004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48159995","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lepra Hebraeorum. Ein antisemitisches Krankheitskonstrukt des 19. Jahrhunderts und seine Entwicklung","authors":"K. P. Jankrift","doi":"10.1515/asch-2019-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/asch-2019-0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the first half of the 19th century, based on a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of biblical texts, several German physicians transformed the phenomenon named »Zara’at« in Hebrew into a specific disease called »Lepra Hebraeorum«, »Lepra Judeorum« or »Lepra Mosaica«. The authors applied traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes in order to explain the origins of this fictitious hereditary illness, which was said to befall Jews especially and to be transmitted by them to Non-Jewish populations. The genesis of »Lepra Hebraeorum« was completed by Christian ideas of the disease, linking leprosy to a sinful lifestyle and lust. However, in Jewish conceptions »Zara’at« never has been connected to sin or even to disease. It was rather regarded as a warning or punishment for derogatory speech. Soon after the discovery of »Mycobacterium leprae« in 1873 any reference to »Lepra Hebraeorum« disappeared from German medical writings.","PeriodicalId":40863,"journal":{"name":"Aschkenas-Zeitschrift fuer Geschichte und Kultur der Juden","volume":"29 1","pages":"27 - 41"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/asch-2019-0003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48205061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}