Dear readers and friends of Medaon,
We are extraordinarily pleased to present the now 20th issue of Medaon – Journal for Jewish Life in Research and Education. As editors, we want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has accompanied and helped us into the eleventh year of the periodical: all those people, who, through external reviews and editing work as well as translations, have contributed to the high quality in content and style of the articles; the people of the technical and graphical support, which guarantees the flawless working of our website and its further development; all the cooperation partners with whom we were able to create outstanding focal topics; all donors who have supported us with small and large sums; and namely Simone Lässig, Monika Richarz and Hermann Simon who have helped us in word and action and through various mediations in the background (and hopefully will continue to help us for a long time); all former members of the editorial office who made all the issues before this one possible; all advisors of the Medaon Lectures; and of course you who have accompanied us as devoted readers, often with acknowledging words, but sometimes with critical comments, too.
Of course we thought about producing an anniversary issue with a special topic, but, in the end, we decided to emphasize our general aspirations with a ‘normal’ but varied issue: Medaon remains a podium for established colleagues, but also for representatives of the younger generation of scholars who in various formats raise exciting questions about Jewish history and Jewish life in the present. As a journal with our headquarters in Dresden the regional perspective with its continuous look upon Jewish life in Saxony remains a central aspect to us. And as a journal founded as the project of an educational institution, HATiKVA e.V., the pedagogical discussions around how to impart Jewish history also remain a central aspect for us. As usual, competent reviewers critically appraise recent publications.
But even without a special issue: We are very happy to host the workshop ‘Zeitschriften zur Geschichte der Juden: Trends, Herausforderungen und Perspektiven’, in Dresden on June 29. We will discuss the role and development of professional journals on German-language Judaism with colleagues from other editorial offices. We are interested in this exchange between editors and publishers against the background of the increasing importance of digital media and of the different models of how to implement a journal. We want to reflect the present impact and share these journals have in a professional public, discuss future challenges and develop strategies for a further development of the projects. In short: we want to provide impulses for the publication of future volumes and single editions. The workshop will be joined by experienced representatives of established journals and of younger projects. We thank the Ursula Lachnit-Fixson Foundation as well as the Wissenschaftliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft des Leo-Baeck-Instituts in Deutschland for their generous support of the workshop and are looking forward to the discussions!
Finally, we wish you an insightful reading!
The current issue could also not have been realized without the support of our reviewers. Proofreading and translation have been done by Cathleen Bürgelt, Patricia C. Sutcliffe, Marcus Schaub, Christian Kurmann, Rabbiner Alexander Nachama, and Phillip Roth as well as Gunther Gebhard and Steffen Schröter of text plus form – the editors thank them all!
The editors of Medaon, April 2017.