Archives

Online-Sein oder Nicht-Sein – das ist nicht die Frage. Anregungen zur Reflexion über digitale Vermittlungsangebote zur jüdischen Geschichte und Kultur

Many memorials, museums and institutions for Jewish history and culture offer digital educational programs. A survey of 15 German institutions aims to clarify three questions concerning the use of the 21 digital programmes they offer: for whom are they designed, who actually uses them and are there any particular considerations in the teaching and presentation of Jewish history online? This small survey reveals some problem areas and fields of action: There has been little previous reflection about people’s behaviour in digital spaces and about the specifics of imparting knowledge about Jewish history and culture via the internet. There is also a lack of research, particularly empirical studies, able to could shed light on digital learning and on teaching Jewish history and culture in the digital world.

Lizenzierung von digitalen Editionen am Beispiel von Projekten zur jüdischen Geschichte

The project corpus of sources for medieval Jewish history within the late medieval Empire confines relevant sources about the history of the Jews in the Holy Roman Empire to the period from 1273 to 1519. In addition to the printed edition, certain results are also available online, which raises questions of the modality of availability and of further use and consequently also issues related to licensing. This article begins by providing a little background on the open-access movement in German research environments and examines the current situation using the above case as an example. The article examines the legal foundations and decision-making processes as well as the practical implementation in projects on Jewish history.

Editorial 9 (2015), 17

The editors of Medaon are happy that with the current issue a special intention has been realized, which has been in the planning process for a long time. Because, after a number of single contributions, we in the current issue now direct our attention in an encompassing core theme: to the academic examination of the relationship between the research and mediation of Jewish history and culture to digitization; thus to the chances, challenges and limits of the use of specific technical innovations, to their effects on the (academic) public and on resulting new questions. We are just as happy about another successful cooperation, which has been very pleasant and collegial, this time with the Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden and the network “Digital Historiography” of the Verband der Historiker and Historikerinnen in Germany. Only a few other institutions and colleagues have in recent years tried to structure the academic discourse on the topic as continuously as they have, as well as drafting and successfully implementing own digital projects and offerings. For the editors of Medaon it was obvious to propose working together and so we can announce – without exaggeration – that this cooperation has in the end only made the variety and quality of the individual contributions on the main topic “Between Promises and Challenges. Perspectives on the Relation between Digitization and Jewish History” possible. We therefore want to thank Miriam Rürup and especially Anna Menny at this point, who as associate of the institute has coordinated the project on online-source-editing “Key Documents in the German-Jewish History from the early Modern Age to the Present” and as their speaker represents the network “Jewish History Digital”, thank you! And we wish the colleagues good luck with all current and future projects!
Just like our partners, the editors hope that with the present issue impulses will be given for a further engagement with the topic and gladly offer Medaon as a central platform for displaying the continued academic discourse – we look forward to suggestions, proposals, replies and submissions of the according manuscripts for the next issue!

A number of (not on topic) reviews as well as the mandatory contribution to the series “Biographies of Jewish Women”, in which Astrid Schmetterling presents to you Charlotte Salomon (1917–1943), complete the issue.

We wish you an insightful and entertaining reading!

The current issues could also not have been achieved without the support of our reviewers. Cathleen Bürgelt, Nicola Watson, Maja-Sophie Götting and Phillip Roth as well as Gunther Gebhard and Steffen Schröter of text plus form did corrections and translations – the editors thank them!

Sadly, in summer of 2015 our author of early hours, then years-long colleague Michaela Christ hat to retreat from work in the editorial office. We regret this very much and thank her for all the years of collective organization of this periodical and her valuable contributions to its continuous development. We wish you, Michaela, all the best for your own projects!

The editors of Medaon October 2015.