Archives

Der Blick in die Quellen: Ländliches Judentum im Elsass mit Berücksichtigung der jiddischen Sprache (19.–20. Jahrhundert)

At the beginning of the 19th century, rural Jewry in Alsace was flourishing despite antisemitic riots. During the 19th century, Jewish rural communities began to dissolve through rural exodus or emigration, relocation to France after the Franco-Prussian War and the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by the German Reich. At the beginning of the 20th century, resettlement to larger cities continued this trend. The expulsion and murder by the National Socialists put an abrupt end to the rural Jewry that had remained. Using various sources in the centuries-old colloquial language Jeddisch-Daitsch, the article presents Alsatian rural Jewry in its transformation and struggle for identity.

Kommunalismus und jüdische Emanzipation. Bürgergemeindlicher Widerstand als politischer Faktor in der Schweiz

This article examines the course of Jewish emancipation in Switzerland, taking into account the influence of the political communes. How did the communes resist the naturalization of Jews and how could this resistance delay the political equality of the Jews? And how did the governments deal with this communal resistance? To answer these questions, this article will examine the political events surrounding the communal resistance to the naturalization of Jews in Oberendingen and Lengnau, the two village communities in which most of Switzerland’s Jews lived.

Was blieb von der Jüdischen Schule in Hohenems?

The history of the Jewish school in Hohenems dates back to the first writ of privilege issued by Count Kaspar in 1617. Starting with twelve families, the community increased to more than 120 families by the middle of the 19th century. Starting in 1828, they also had a suitable schoolhouse. The following decades were marked by a wide variety of developments, as the high quality of teaching was maintained while the number of pupils declined. After its closure in 1913, the schoolhouse was used as a residential building. Today, the renovated former Jewish school is classified as a historical monument and houses a restaurant.

Jüdisch-christliche Wahrnehmungen zum Zusammenleben in fränkischen Landgemeinden im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert

The article tries to describe how Christian and Jewish authors perceived and described the respective other community. The sources used mainly describe events and circumstances from around 1830 to 1920, ranging from parish descriptions through historiographical studies to memoirs. Although they primarily focus on the history of their own community, they also provide insights into interactions between Jews and Christians as well as perceptions and evaluations of the respective other group.

Editorial 17 (2023), 33

Dear readers and friends of Medaon,

As the editors of a magazine for Jewish life in research and education, we cannot publish this editorial without expressing our horror and sadness at the antisemitic massacres carried out by Hamas in Israel – and our deep concern about the massive increase in the threat to Jews in Germany since then. But even if October 7, 2023 marks the beginning of a darker time in which the destructive rage of the Islamist perpetrators meets sympathy, justification or imitation worldwide, this concern will not lead to resignation in the face of antisemitism. We mourn the victims, sympathize with their families and continue to stand in solidarity with Jews when they are attacked as such. In the Sources section, we document the declaration of the National Library of Israel on the establishment of an archive of the massacre of October 7 and the war, which is intended to collect and make available all media created in this context as comprehensively as possible.

Several articles in this issue deal with antisemitism, the Shoah and the reactions to them. Thomas Kestler examines Jewish reactions to the Jew hatred of the Protestant theologian Friedrich Wilhelm Ghillany in the pre-March period. Małgorzata Popiołek- Roßkamp looks at the situation of Polish-Jewish architects in the 1930s at the Warsaw University of Technology, in professional associations and on the Polish labor market. Norman Böttcher writes about the support of international Jewish organizations and, above all, the young state of Israel in the re-professionalization of Jewish social work in Germany after the Shoah. And Harry Friebel deals with the question of why the liberation of the Nazi “Volksgemeinschaft” by the Allies in 1945 was not followed by a community of responsibility in the Federal Republic. Tanja Kinzel’s presentation of an interview project on continuities and ruptures in Jewish perspectives on antisemitism also deals with learning from the past.

In this issue, Maja Hultmann and Susanne Korbel look at other aspects of Jewish life when they present the project of a digital thick map of Jewish cultures in Europe. And while Kristina Milz presents the life and work of the orientalist Karl Süßheim at the beginning of the 20th century, Lutz Fiedler takes an updated look at Hannah Arendt in our series on biographies of Jewish women. And of course, relevant new publications are also discussed in this issue.

It is with deep gratitude, but also regret, that we bid farewell to our long-standing editorial team member Melanie Eulitz with this issue. For many years, she has helped to shape the reviews department in a professional, friendly and committed manner. We would like to thank her very much for the long and good cooperation and wish her all the best.

Our sincere thanks also go to all the reviewers for their support in completing this issue. Steffen Schröter from text plus form, Cathleen Bürgelt, Casey Sutcliffe and Margaret Schellenberg undertook the corrections and translations with their usual thoroughness and reliability – we are also very grateful to them.

Medaon Team in November 2023.