Jewish Studies
JEWISH STUDIES
Jewish studies, or often Judaic studies, refers here to the academic teaching of aspects of Jewish religion, history, philosophy, and culture, and associated languages and literatures, at the undergraduate and graduate level in institutions of higher education. Jewish studies scholarship and teaching is non-doctrinal, non-parochial, and non-denominational. At its best, it represents a mode of intellectual exploration that is open to all interested students regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds. Jewish studies include scholars and students who make use of a broad range of disciplinary methodologies from the full range of academic fields in the humanities and social studies. What defines this diverse and interdisciplinary area of inquiry is the object of its study – Jewish experience in its widest sense – rather than any specific analytical approach.
Jewish Studies in American Universities
The significant expansion of Jewish studies in American universities is a recent phenomenon. Nevertheless there are antecedents to this development which should be noted. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Hebrew language was included in the curriculum of several of the earliest colleges to be established on the North American continent. The subject was taught as part of a theologically oriented curriculum designed to assist potential Christian clergymen in understanding their Christian heritage. The disappearance of the last vestiges of Hebrew from the curriculum in the early decades of the 19th century was the result of changing vogues in Protestant theology and in the dynamics of Christian denominationalism in the United States and was totally unrelated to any concern for Jews or Judaism.
More relevant was the growth of modern Jewish scholarship (as distinguished from traditional Jewish study of sacred texts) which emerged with the development of the *Wissenschaft des Judentums movement in Central Europe in the 1820s and thereafter. The researches of the Wissenschaft scholars created a body of knowledge, a literature and a method of research which made it possible to conceive of a Jewish cultural tradition which was the ongoing expression of a people and which was subject to the same methods of academically disciplined study as that of other peoples. While most early Jewish scholars viewed this tradition as essentially religious, it was nonetheless studied in its literary, philosophical and historical as well as its theological aspects.
This development of Jewish critical scholarship led to the hope that the study of Judaic culture would find a place in the developing world of the secular university. As early as 1838, Abraham *Geiger proposed the establishment of a "Jewish theological faculty" in a German university. For a variety of reasons, social and political as well as academic, this proposal and subsequent suggestions which were broached never came to fruition. Jewish scholarship remained a solitary and unremunerative occupation pursued by dedicated individuals. When such scholarship succeeded in finding a place in an academic setting, it was consigned to the modern theological seminaries which emerged in Central Europe in the last third of the 19th century. Some scholars, like Moritz *Steinschneider, denigrated the development of such seminaries as a "new ghetto of Jewish learning" which could not transcend "scholarly immaturity." However, nothing came of Steinschneider's hope that European governments could somehow be induced to "establish professorships," and the seminaries remained the only academic institutions in which at least some aspects of modern Jewish scholarship found a place.
In America the openness and diversity of the society and the participation of the Jews in the general culture generated more ambitious aspirations. The desirability of creating a faculty of Jewish studies was broached as early as 1818. Since higher education in 19th century America was almost exclusively sponsored by various religious denominations, Mordecai Manuel *Noah proposed that American Jewry emulate other sects and establish its own college in which Jewish studies would constitute a central element of the curriculum. The proposal was never implemented, not for lack of opportunity, but rather for lack of interest and intellectual resources on the part of the numerically small American Jewish community of that time.
In the 1840s and 50s suggestions for Jewish-sponsored colleges were revived by Isaac *Leeser and Isaac Mayer *Wise, both immigrants from Central Europe. A number of abortive efforts to organize such colleges were undertaken and in 1855 Wise actually announced the establishment of an institution known as Zion College in Cincinnati. This and subsequent efforts failed, again because of lack of support from the growing American Jewish community which was fragmented and was more concerned with integrating itself into the general culture than in fostering its own intellectual distinctiveness. When, in 1875, Wise finally succeeded in forming an academic institution, it was, like its European counterparts, a rabbinic seminary and not, as originally intended, a general college in which a Judaic faculty was a part of a larger academic enterprise. The original concept survived only in the name of the Reform movement rabbinical seminary which Wise called *Hebrew Union College.
Toward the end of the 19th century, chairs in "Semitics" were established in a handful of American universities: Columbia, Johns Hopkins, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Chicago. These positions reflected the contemporary interest in "scientific" biblical studies as well as the attainment of financial prominence by some Jews and of modest scholarly credentials by others. The chairs were initially held by Jews whose teaching was primarily related to Semitic philology rather than to the broader aspects of Jewish culture. There is little evidence of academic concern with the total Jewish experience, especially with the content of Jewish culture and history in the centuries following the separation of Christianity from its Jewish source.
In 1896 William Rosenau, a Baltimore Reform rabbi who taught "Semitics" at Johns Hopkins, wrote an article extolling the desirability of "Semitic studies in American Universities." None of the benefits which he mentioned related to Jewish literature or Judaism. It is therefore a matter of judgment whether or not the inception of Jewish studies in American universities can properly be dated from the establishment of these academic posts. At best, the number of positions remained small and the treatment of the totality of the Jewish tradition as an area of study of intrinsic worth without regard to its relationship to the predominant culture was negligible.
In the following decades, the development of Jewish scholarship in the United States was primarily centered in the theological seminaries and in institutions which were under Jewish sponsorship and were devoted solely to Jewish studies, such as Dropsie College in Philadelphia and a handful of communal Hebrew teachers colleges. The rise of Hitler and the destruction of Jewish institutions in Central and Eastern Europe led to an influx of distinguished Jewish scholars to the United States. These men assumed leading positions in Jewish institutions of higher learning and greatly enhanced the cultural resources of American Jewry. Despite their credentials, few found places in secular universities.
Prior to 1940 a few chairs of Judaica had been established in major universities, almost always due to the philanthropy of local Jewish communities. Some of these were occupied by outstanding scholars, most notably Salo W. *Baron in the department of history at Columbia and Harry A. *Wolfson in the department of Near Eastern languages at Harvard. In the late 1930s modest programs in the teaching of modern Hebrew had been established in universities in New York City, primarily as a result of the introduction of Hebrew language instruction into the curriculum of New York City public high schools and the need to certify teachers for positions. However, as late as 1945, no more than 12 full-time positions in Jewish studies existed in ten American universities. When, in 1943, Ismar Elbogen surveyed "American Jewish Scholarship," his review dealt with the work of individual scholars and made no mention of Judaic studies in universities. These circumstances led Alfred Jospe to conclude that "it was only after the end of World War ii that we find a growing awareness and recognition that Jews and Judaism are legitimate subjects of academic study and inquiry."
Since that time the development of Judaic studies in American universities has been striking. By 1966, when Arnold Band of the University of California at Los Angeles completed his survey of "Jewish Studies in American Colleges and Universities" (ajyb, 1966), the number of institutions offering one or more aspects of Jewish studies had grown sevenfold. Band listed 61 full-time positions in the area of Jewish studies and estimated that approximately 40 accredited colleges and universities offered "fairly adequate training in undergraduate Judaic studies" and at least 25 others offered a "variety of courses, but no undergraduate major."
In addition, by 1966, the number of universities offering graduate programs had grown from six to more than 20. Important new concentrations of Judaic teaching and scholarships had emerged in such disparate institutions as Brandeis University – a Jewish sponsored non-sectarian private university – and the state-sponsored University of California in both its Los Angeles and Berkeley branches. The Jewish cultural heritage was on the agenda of the American academic enterprise.
Band's survey also revealed the growing maturity of American Jewry in providing its own intellectual leadership. Over one half of the faculty members engaged in the Jewish programs were either born in the United States or arrived as children. Even more significant, over 80% had received their graduate training in American universities. In almost every case, a period of study at a university in Israel provided essential supplementation; frequently the early doctoral graduates in Judaica relied heavily on training outside the university framework, especially in seminaries and yeshivot. Whatever the obstacles and lacunae, it was clear that, by 1966, the dependence of American Jewry on scholars imported from abroad was waning. A generation of American-born and trained scholars and teachers was emerging; resources of American universities to provide Judaic training were growing.
This development cannot be described as a "movement" since it was neither anticipated nor actively fostered by the organized Jewish community or by any other group. Indeed, there are indications that American Jewry was hardly aware of the growth taking place in its midst. In The American Jew: A Reappraisal (1964), edited by Oscar Janowsky, only one brief paragraph in 568 pages is devoted to Jewish studies in universities. The initial expansion was generated by changing circumstances within both the Jewish and the academic communities and not by deliberate design.
Since 1966 proliferation of Jewish studies throughout the North American continent has accelerated and shows no signs of abating, despite the general retrenchment currently taking place in American universities. Growth has continued not only in the number of institutions offering courses, but in the number and variety of subjects taught and in the size of Judaic faculties within universities, in the quality of the programs and in the number of students enrolled and majoring on both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Important new concentrations have developed in such state universities as Ohio State and the State University of New York, in prestigious private institutions such as Brown University, and in a number of Canadian universities. More recently, the major rabbinical seminaries have placed new emphasis on Ph.D. programs designed to train scholars to teach in secular universities.
The growth of the field was rapid. A 1973 survey by the Institute for Jewish Policy Analysis estimated that "over 350 institutions now offer one or more courses in Judaica" and observed that "Jewish studies programs have opened new teaching and research opportunities to Jewish scholars, increased the prestige and influence of professors in these areas, and encouraged graduate students to enter this field of study." By 2005, over 70 institutions had Jewish studies degree-granting programs of one kind or another.
The establishment the *Association for Jewish Studies (ajs) in 1969 to provide for regular communication among scholars teaching in the field was another indication of the growth of Jewish studies in the last third of the 20th century. By 2005, this organization had over 1,500 members, most of whom were faculty teaching some area of Jewish studies in an institution of higher education. 20% of the membership consisted of graduate students, representing the future of Jewish studies in North America. In recent decades, several regional organizations, including the Midwestern Jewish Studies Association and the Western Jewish Studies Association have also been formed. These groups hold annual meetings. The Women's Caucus of the ajs, which was founded in 1986, meets in the context of the ajs annual conference.
Many factors contributed to the development of Jewish studies in North America. Perhaps the most basic was the recognition which emerged only after the creation of the State of Israel: that the Jewish people was a living and developing nation whose rich past was related to a vital present and whose historic and continuing experience was worthy of study. In addition, the dynamic development of Jewish culture within Israel society and of Jewish scholarship within Israel universities, provided a focal point for serious study, a body of literature, and a cadre of distinguished teachers who provided a significant impetus for the awakening of both the Jewish and the university worlds to the dimensions of Jewish culture and history and the quality of serious Jewish scholarship. Since American universities in the post-World War ii period were broadening their areas of study to accommodate a variety of cultures and experiences outside the framework of the classical humanistic curriculum, Jewish studies were readily accepted and frequently encouraged in departments of religion, of modern and ancient Near Eastern studies, of history, and of comparative literature. In a few instances – most notably Brandeis University, Rutgers, and the University of Wisconsin – separate departments of Jewish studies were established. In a variety of settings, the American university was open to the entry of the diverse elements of Jewish studies.
At the same time, the growing self-consciousness and self-confidence of American Jewry in recent decades created a demand for Jewish studies and a desire to take advantage of the opportunities for learning. American Jewry's awareness of itself was nourished by the reaction to the Holocaust and the rise of the State of Israel. The trauma of the Six Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973 provided added incentives for study of the Jewish past and present, which frequently accompanied a desire for renewal of identity and identification. The unprecedented number of Jewish "baby boomers" who descended on college campuses beginning in the mid-1960s obviously played a role as well, as did the growing number of Jews in the professoriate at this time.
Perhaps the final factor which contributed to the rapid growth of Jewish studies in the 1960s and 1970s was the assertiveness of other ethnic groups on the American campus, including African-Americans and Latinos, in advocating for academic courses that explored and analyzed their particular historical and cultural experiences. Another parallel was the growing interest in women's and gender studies. Large numbers of Jewish students and faculty rediscovered the richness of their own tradition. They requested, and occasionally even demanded, that universities provide them with the same opportunity to study this tradition with the high level of critical examination and seriousness of purpose as were applied to all other academic pursuits. For the first time in American Jewish history large numbers of mature Jewish students outside of the yeshivot and theological seminaries had the opportunity to devote themselves to serious Jewish study.
The actual framework for such studies varied from institution to institution. In a few instances Jewish studies were taught in a separate department (as at Brandeis). More often they were concentrated in departments of history (as at Columbia), religion (as at Brown), Near Eastern Languages (as at Harvard), Comparative Literature (as at ucla), Oriental Studies (as at University of Pennsylvania), or Philosophy (as at Washington University). Increasingly, interdepartmental concentrations in Jewish studies were organized, with various faculty members holding appointments in departments according to their scholarly disciplines (as in Ohio State University). In recent years, the free-standing Jewish or Judaic studies program that awards undergraduate degrees in Jewish/Judaic studies, and offers courses taught by faculty with appointments in regular academic departments, has become more common. Often donor endowments support the hiring of a faculty director and the operations of the program itself. This variety of organizational and structural approaches in the teaching of Jewish studies, depending on individual circumstance in any given institution, has remained a constant into the 21st century.
A significant number of Jewish studies programs requires Hebrew language and literature study for undergraduate majors and for graduate students. In some cases students must study Classical Hebrew language and texts; in others Modern Hebrew is required. The result has been a proliferation of Hebrew language study across North American institutions of higher education to a degree that would certainly not have occurred without the linkage of Hebrew to Jewish Studies. Several Jewish studies programs also offer instruction in Yiddish language and literature.
Prior to the 1970s most scholars and teachers of Jewish studies in North America were men, many of whom had moved into the academic world after completing rabbinic training. A noteworthy change in Jewish studies in North America in the decades between 1975 and 2005 is the number of women who have entered the field and climbed the academic ladder from graduate students to professors in every area of Jewish studies scholarship. Women have also assumed leadership roles in Jewish studies professional organizations, including the Association for Jewish Studies. This phenomenon reflects a larger sea change in the academic world in general as a result of the feminist movement of the last third of the 20th century and the changes it has wrought in expanding women's personal and professional opportunities. Concurrently, Jewish Studies teaching and scholarship has become more aware of gender as an intellectual category of analysis and of the necessity to consider the constructions and consequences of gender in explicating the Jewish experience. While some Jewish studies courses integrate female experience into a general curriculum, other courses have been created that focus entirely on women in specific historical eras, bodies of literature, or from particular disciplinary perspectives.
The teaching of Jewish subject matter in secular universities cannot be considered as "Jewish education" in the sense of religious education. As Alfred Jospe commented, "the purpose of Jewish studies in the university is the study of Judaism and the Jewish people and not the Judaization of young Jews, the stimulation of their Jewish commitment, or the strengthening of their Jewish identification." At the same time, Jewish studies programs have provided significant new "Jewish presences" on college campuses, as well as new resources for the entire university community that offer familiarity with Jewish culture and history and a new respect for the quality of Jewish creativity in the past and in the present.
[Leon A. Jick /
Judith R. Baskin (2nd ed.)]
jewish studies in north american higher education: the vantage point from 2006. From the 1970s, Jewish/Judaic studies continued to thrive and expand in a variety of North American institutions of higher learning, in significant part though the philanthropy of individual donors. The growth of personal wealth in this era, together with increasing communal concern about strengthening of Jewish identity at a formative period in young people's lives, have led to a proliferation of endowed faculty positions, programs, and Jewish/Judaic studies centers, both at public and private research universities offering graduate degrees and at institutions with a primary focus on undergraduate education. Information from Jewish population surveys which shows that as many as 40% of Jewish students in North America take at least one course in Jewish Studies during their undergraduate careers has added further impetus to such initiatives. Although, definitive data as to the number of such positions, programs, and departments were not available in 2006, an unofficial directory of directors and chairs of Jewish studies entities of one kind or another listed over 70 individuals. Although not all positions in Jewish Studies in North America are dependent on this kind of outside funding, the investment of philanthropic resources to fund Jewish Studies has been a wonderful boon for colleges and universities and for the field itself. However, such dependence on donor generosity has also raised challenging issues of academic objectivity versus parochial communal agendas; questions of undue dependence on donors' particular interests and propensities; and concern over the increasing amounts of faculty time and effort devoted to fundraising activities. Moreover, additional donor-driven funding for lecture series, visiting scholars, student scholarships, etc., has often placed Jewish studies programs in a privileged position in relation to other older and larger academic departments as well as to newer, struggling academic entities. In the best circumstances, Jewish studies directors have found ways to create intellectual and interdisciplinary partnerships with less well-endowed academic departments and programs in endeavors of mutual interest.
While many donors to Jewish studies programs at colleges and universities with significant Jewish student bodies have expressed particularistic concerns about educating Jewish students as a way to strengthen Jewish identity formation, others have chosen to endow Jewish Studies positions and programs at institutions, both public and private, that do not have a critical mass of Jewish students, including colleges and universities in parts of North America with small Jewish populations and at institutions linked to the Roman Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations. These donors, some of whom were also interested in supporting local institutions, argued that Jewish studies should be integrated into the academic curriculum of all institutions of higher education; they hoped, as well, that exposing diverse groups of students to academic study of aspects of the Jewish experience would increase understanding and tolerance in the larger North American society.
Changing demographics in the early 21st century make clear that the absolute numbers of Jews in the larger population, including student populations, is in steady decline. The future of Jewish Studies in North American universities will depend on the field's appeal to a larger constituency. Most Jewish Studies programs design their curriculum and courses to appeal to the broadest possible student audiences, in part by ensuring that their courses fulfill university "general education" and "diversity" requirements. Already in 2006, more and more students who take courses and choose undergraduate majors and graduate training in Jewish Studies are non-Jews who come to the field out of intellectual curiosity, not out of interest in their own religious or ethnic heritage. Similarly, increasing numbers of scholars and faculty members who work in Jewish Studies are not themselves Jews. This phenomenon is indicative of the increasing integration of Jewish Studies as the field has moved beyond being an academic venture "about Jews, by Jews, and for Jews." While this "normalization" of Jewish studies within the university is desirable from a scholarly point of view, it also points to potential future conflict between academic Jewish studies programs and the concerns of the Jewish communities and donors who have thus far been absolutely essential to the presence and success of Jewish Studies at many North American institutions. Communal funding of positions in Israel studies is one area which has proved particularly contentious when scholars who are supported by endowment funds voice views that do not accord with some local opinions about Israeli history, society, and politics.
Jewish studies programs and departments in North America have consistently encouraged their students, undergraduate and graduate, to study in Israel. Many programs have also welcomed academic colleagues from Israel into their midst as speakers and visiting scholars. These ties have been strengthened for many by participation in the World Union of Jewish Studies (centered at The Hebrew University), which holds conferences every four years in Jerusalem. Recent decades have also seen the growth of Jewish studies organizations in Western Europe and in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Among these are the European Association for Jewish Studies (eajs), founded in 1981, with offices in Oxford, uk, which encourages and supports the teaching of Jewish studies at the university level in Europe and furthers an understanding of the importance of Jewish culture and civilization and of the impact it has had on European cultures over many centuries. In Russia, sefer, housed at the Moscow Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization, is an umbrella organization for university Jewish Studies in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and the Baltic States. It seems likely that, in the future, Jewish studies professionals from North America will play a growing role in an increasingly vibrant and active international community of students and scholars. [Judith R. Baskin (2nd ed.)]
In the U.S.S.R., 1950–1990
In the year 1950 Jewish studies in the Soviet Union reached a low point. Research under independent Jewish auspices had ended by fiat in 1930. Jewish departments at Soviet academic institutions, which published their studies in Yiddish – the official Jewish language – had been in decline even before World War ii; the Office for the Study of Soviet Jewish Literature, Language, and Folklore at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences was the only such body which still existed after the war, but it was closed early in 1949 as part of the secret Stalin purge of Jewish culture. Its head, the Yiddish linguist Elijah Spivak, perished in prison in 1950. It has been surmised that the closing at the time of the Chair of Assyriology-Hebrew Studies at Leningrad University was politically motivated. The low esteem in which the Jews and their culture were then held by the Soviet establishment can be seen in the short and prejudiced entry "Evrei" ("Jews") in the second edition of the Bol'shaia sovetskaia entsiklopediia ("Large Soviet Encyclopedia"), which went to press in 1952.
After Stalin's death in 1953 there were slow but perceptible changes. Translations from the Yiddish began to appear, followed in 1959 by the resumption of Yiddish publishing and from 1961 by the appearance of the still existing Yiddish journal Sovetish Heymland. But these concessions did not include a revival of the scholarship under academic auspices which had been a part of Soviet minority policy between the wars. For a considerable time the only outlet was the traditional one of Jewish studies under the broader aegis of Near Eastern studies. These themselves were then being reorganized, with the "Institut vostokovedeniia" (Institute of Oriental Studies) temporarily renamed "Institut narodov Azii" (Institute of the Peoples of Asia). The Institute of Oriental Studies, being attached to the Soviet Academy of Sciences, was in Moscow but maintained a Leningrad (St. Petersburg) branch, at which Semitics were more actively cultivated. At the same time Leningrad University remained the instructional center for this branch of learning, continuing a tradition dating back to czarist times.
Around 1951 the "Russian Palestine Society," moribund since 1930, was revived as an affiliate of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. In czarist days this organization, known then as the "Pravoslavic Palestine Society," had been more missionary than scholarly. Its reappearance, and the revival in 1954 of its publication Palestinskii sbornik ("Palestine collection"), raised eyebrows and was seen by some as directed against the new State of Israel. It seems more likely that it was part of the wave of Russian patriotism then encouraged by Stalin and was intended to point out the continuing Russian interest in the Near East and its emerging states – while for political reasons avoiding all mention of the State of Israel and indeed the modern Jewish settlement in Palestine. However, this taboo was not extended to ancient Israel or medieval Jewry, so that, beginning with volume 2 (1956), Jewish studies have a modest place in Palestinskii sbornik alongside a plethora of articles on Arabic studies, Persian studies, Egyptology, and related fields. Circumspection demanded that studies on biblical and talmudic themes avoid the words "Bible" and "Talmud" in the title of the article; thus, in an article comparing the Samaritan Pentateuch with biblical citations in the Jerusalem Talmud, the latter is called a "Palestinian oral tradition" (v. 15, 1966). The author, Isaac Vinnikov (1897–1973), a veteran Arabist, Aramist, and talmudist, had been the last incumbent of the Chair of Assyriology-Hebrew Studies at Leningrad University, and contributed regularly to Palestinskii sbornik until his death. His major contribution was a dictionary of Aramaic inscriptions extending over a number of issues. Vinnikov called on the Judaic scholars of the world to produce dictionaries and concordances of talmudic and targumic literature which would take into account recent research; and as a sample published his material on the letter g (v. 5, 1960).
Another talmudist who wrote in this period but did his most important work earlier was Judah Solodukho (1877–1963), whose studies of the social history of "Iraq" in the first centuries of the Christian era were actually studies of the Babylonian Talmud.
A contributor to Palestinskii sbornik was Joel Weinberg, or Veinberg in his Russian-language articles. Weinberg, born in 1922 in what was then independent Latvia, was a professor of ancient history at the University of Daugavpils (Dvinsk), and his interests included the biblical period. In the 1960s he published two books in Latvian on the Bible and its setting. Like many other scholars in this era of more open communication, he wrote frequently for academic journals in the West. Contributors to Palestinskii sbornik also included the Hebrew linguist Anatolii Gazov-Ginzberg, the Qumran (Dead Sea community) scholar Klavdiia Starkova, and the versatile Semitist Elijah Shifman. Gazov-Ginzberg (b. 1929) changed his name to Amnon Ginzay and was a translator and editor in Israel. Starkova (b. 1915) had a book on the Qumran scrolls accepted in the journal's monograph series (v. 24, 1973). She was also one of Russia's few experts on medieval Hebrew literature and had written on the poetry of Judah Halevi. Among the many writings of Shifman (1930–1990), a specialist on Phoenician civilization, was Vetkhii Zavet i ego mira ("The Old Testament and its World," 1987) – published at a time when the Bible had again become a legitimate part of world literature for the Soviet reader.
Palestinskii sbornik, which over the years had become more hospitable to Jewish studies, began to include reviews of recent Judaica in its book review section in the 1970s. In the 1980s, however, the journal became more overtly political and published articles on the Palestine problem which depicted Israel as the main obstacle to peace in the area.
The Soviet reorganization of Semitic and Near Eastern studies at the beginning of the 1950s left the journal Vestnik drevnei istorii ("Bulletin of Ancient History") untouched. Among its regular contributors was Joseph *Amusin (1910–1984), a Bible scholar whom Soviet writers and intellectuals used to consult on the subject. Amusin became the Soviet Union's leading expert on the Dead Sea scrolls after these were discovered and wrote both popular and scholarly books on the topic, including shortly before his death, Kumranskaia obshchina ("The Qumran Community," 1983). In 1971 a translation of the scrolls into Russian under his editorship produced its first volume.
In general, however, book-length studies on Judaic topics in the period covered by this survey were few. Some relatively early examples are: Nikita Meshcherskii's edition of the Slavonic Josephus (1958): and Mikhail Artamonov, Istoriia khazar ("The History of the Khazars," 1962). The latter book, by a non-specialist, was considered antisemitic by the Israeli historian Shemuel Ettinger, since Artamonov not only rejected the idea of a Khazar heritage in Russian history – an idea generally accepted – but even considered the conversion of the Khazar royal court to Judaism as a negative factor in and of itself (see Ettinger's review in Kiryat Sefer, v. 39, pp. 501–504).
Starkova and Meshcherskii (b. 1906, an expert on translations of old Hebrew classics into Slavic) belonged to the small group of Russians with an interest in classical Hebrew. So did Igor Diakonov (b. 1915), the elder of Soviet Near Eastern studies, whose works on the languages of the ancient East include Hebrew and who has translated biblical poetry into Russian. In this connection we also take note of an outstanding Russian Semitist from an earlier generation, Pavel Kokovtsov (1861–1942), who taught Meshcherskii, Vinnikov, and many others in the interwar period; in Hebraic studies ("gebraistika" in Russian) he is best known for his edition of the correspondence between the Spanish Jewish courtier Hasdai ibn Shaprut and the king of the Khazars (Evereisko-khazarskaia perepiska v X veke, 1932).
In the "First Conference on Semitic Languages" held in Tbilisi (Tiflis), Georgia, in 1964, Hebrew had a prominent place, and even modern Hebrew entered the discussions. The editor of the conference proceedings – published in 1965 as volume 2 of Semitskie iazyki ("Semitic Languages") – noted in the introduction that "Hebraistics were one of the most important and oldest areas of Semitology," and singled out the then new Hebrew-Russian dictionary (Ivrit-russkii slovar') by Feliks (Faitl) Shapiro (1876–1961), edited by Benzion Grande (1891–1974) and published in 1963. The Iranist Michael Zand (b. 1927), subsequently a professor at The Hebrew University, dealt with Yiddish as a substratum of Hebrew, and the Semitist Meir Zislin (b. 1916) wrote on some medieval Hebrew grammars. The participants also included the leading Georgian Aramaist Konstantin Tsereteli (b. 1921), who helped make the University of Tbilisi a center of Semitic studies alongside the better known institutions in Leningrad and Moscow.
As usual the atmosphere in Georgia was freer than the one found in the north, and Hebrew was not neglected in the work being carried on in Tbilisi. In 1975, Tbilisi University published a Karaite Hebrew grammar, Ma'or Ayin, edited by Zislin, while under the patronage of the Georgian Academy of Sciences Nisan Babalikashvili edited a collection of local Hebrew inscriptions, largely from tombstones: Evreiskie nadpisi v Gruzii, xviii–xix vv. ("Hebrew Inscriptions in Georgia, 18th to 19th Centuries," 1971). Babalikashvili (1938–1986), the son of the rabbi of Tbilisi, unfortunately died at a young age. So did the talented young Georgian Jewish Hebraist Boris (Dov) Gaponov (1934–1972), whose translation of the Georgian national epic, Shota Rostaveli's "The Man in the Panther's Skin," was published in Israel with the collaboration of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (Oteh or hanamer, 1969). Gaponov's first-rate translation, which made a strong impression, became the subject of a dissertation submitted in 1985 to the University of Tbilisi by a young Hebraist Manana Gotsiridze. Earlier, in 1982, Yurii Kornienko had defended his dissertation at the same university on the morphology of word formation and word change in contemporary Hebrew.
At the 1964 conference we see the use of the word "Ivrit" in Russian to designate Hebrew in place of the earlier "drevneevreiskii iazyk" ("Old Jewish language"). By the time the third edition of the Large Soviet Encyclopedia appeared in the 1970s, "Ivrit" had become the standard term for the language; the entry "Ivrit" was written by the Soviet Semitist-Hamitist Aaron Dolgoposkii (b. 1930), subsequently teaching at the University of Haifa. In this connection we note that the abovementioned Hebrew-Russian dictionary, the life work of the educational specialist Feliks Shapiro, was scheduled for publication in the 1950s but was withdrawn – whereupon the author turned to the highest party circles in an attempt to prove the work's importance for Soviet Semitology (see the Russian commemorative volume Feliks L'vovich Shapiro, edited in Israel by his daughter Leah Prestin, 1983). The dictionary, which finally appeared after its author's death, served Soviet academic institutions as well as the young Jews studying their ancestral tongue more or less surreptitiously.
However, the official language of Soviet Jewry remained Yiddish, and the veteran Yiddish grammarian Emanuel Falkovich (1898?–1982?), who also wrote the entry "Yiddish" for the above-mentioned encyclopedia, contributed a chapter on the language to the linguistic collection Iazyki narodov sssr, v. 1 ("Languages of the People of the U.S.S.R.," 1966). Dolgopolskii and Falkovich together produced the article on Hebrew scripts ("Evreiskoe pis'mo") for the encyclopedia. Falkovich also took an active part in the efforts of the journal Sovetish Heymland to teach Yiddish to Soviet Jews, although his silence on the future prospects of the language in the 1966 article makes it seem likely that he was pessimistic on the subject.
This brings us to Jewish studies in Yiddish. As noted, the Soviet authorities did not revive the interwar institutional structure to which we owe a number of studies in Yiddish on Jewish history, demography, Yiddish linguistics, Yiddish literary research, and bibliography. The older generation of scholars who had carried on this work was passing on in any case, and the absence of Yiddish schools made the problem of succession insoluble. In addition, the rapid linguistic assimilation of Soviet Jewry made the audience for what was left of Yiddish-language scholarship very small.
Yet even now some work was done. A number of scholars who had been associated with the Jewish subdivisions of the Ukrainian Academy during the 1928–1949 period were released from prisons and camps in the mid-1950s. Among them was the outstanding music folklorist Moses Beregovskii (1892–1961), who was, exceptionally, able to put together a book, posthumously published as Evreiskii narodnye pesni ("Yiddish Folk Songs," 1962). Many of Beregovskii's writings are now available in Mark Slobin's English edition (Old Jewish Folk Music, 1982).
The main outlet for Yiddish-language studies was naturally the standard-bearing monthly Sovetish Heymland. Because of its nature as a literary journal it tended to restrict research to the history of Yiddish literature and related topics. Among the more important literary scholars was Hersh Remenik (1905–1981). Two surviving Soviet Jewish historians, Hillel Aleksandrov (1891?–1972) and Asher Margolis (1891–1976) – the former after 20 years of imprisonment for "Trotskyism" – contributed occasional articles on the borderline of history and literature. Oldtime linguists writing in the journal included Reuben Lerner (1902?–1972), Khaim Loytsker (1898–1970), Moses Maydanski (1900?–1973), and Moses Shapiro (d. 1974). Shapiro, together with the Stalin victim Elijah Spivak (mentioned above), had been working for many years on a Russian-Yiddish dictionary, which finally appeared long after their deaths (Russko-evreiskii (idish) slovar', 1984).
Two other veteran scholars, the historian Israel Sosis (1878–1967?) and the demographer Jacob Kantor (1886–1964) found no outlet in Russia during this period and published occasionally in the Warsaw Yiddish newspaper Folksshtime, where Kantor took on the then taboo topic of Jewish participation in the Red Army. Kantor also published his last demographic study, in which he analyzed Jewish data from the 1959 census, in the Warsaw Jewish historical journal Bleter far geshikhte (v. 15, 1962/63, translated and annotated by the present writer in Studies… in Honor of 1. Edward Kiev, 1971). Sosis' unpublished "History of the Jews in Russia" was said to be in the possession of Sovetish Heymland.
As time went on Sovetish Heymland became more hospitable to studies not connected with Yiddish literature. Especially noteworthy among these are the articles by Leyb Vilsker (1919–1988), for a number of years head of the Jewish Department of the Leningrad Public Library. Vilsker was inter alia an expert on the Samaritan language and literature, and published Samaritianskii iazyk ("The Samaritan Language") in 1974. His most important contributions to the Yiddish monthly were previously unpublished Hebrew texts, such as poems of the famous medieval poet Judah Halevi (Sovetish Heymland, 1982, no. 2). Vilsker and his wife, Gita Gluskina (b. 1922) – a Hebraist in her own right – also contributed to Palestinskii sbornik. Gluskina, daughter of the Leningrad rabbi Mendel Gluskin, worked on medieval Hebrew texts and is best known for her edition of the mathematical treatise Meyasher Akov ("Straightening the Crooked," 1983) by Abner of Burgos. Later she moved to Jerusalem.
In the period we are dealing with, the absence of formal Jewish institutions other than synagogues did not stop young Jews from searching for their roots, and this became especially marked after the Six-Day War in 1967. The growing Soviet phenomenon of "samizdat" (private, unauthorized publishing) had a Jewish counterpart, where attempts were made to provide anthologies of Jewish literature in Russian. In 1976 the physicist Benjamin Fain (b. 1930), who later emigrated to Israel, decided to conduct a sociological survey of Jewish self-identification under "samizdat" conditions. About 1,500 Soviet Jews served as his sample, and the results are now available in English in an Israeli publication (Jewishness in the Soviet Union, 1984). Fain also organized a cultural symposium in Moscow at the end of 1976, to which the police put a quick end.
In the 1980s growing interest in Russian Jewish history made itself felt both inside and outside "samizdat" circles. In one of the major publications of Jewish "samizdat," Leningradskii evreiskii al'manakh ("Leningrad Jewish almanac," 1982–1989) Michael Beizer (b. 1950) published articles on the Jews of St. Petersburg, as the old capital used to be called. These resulted in 1986 in the "samizdat" book Evrei v Peterburge (published in 1990 in English translation as The Jews of St. Petersburg after Beizer emigrated to Israel). In the 1980s the official Sovetish Heymland became more receptive to articles on Jewish historical topics; the editors made a concerted effort in 1986 to print young writers and rejuvenate the journal, even if it meant translating from Russian writers who knew no Yiddish. One such, and probably the most talented of the younger historians, was Mark Kupovetskii (b. 1955), who was engaged in what in the Soviet Union was called "ethnography." Kupovetskii published in Sovetish Heymland short but up-to-date demographic studies on the Jews of Moscow, the Ukraine, and the Baltic republics; a longer version of his article on the Jews of Moscow appeared in Etnodispersnye gruppy v gorodakh evropeiskoi chasti sssr, 1987. Kupovetskii's colleague and fellow Muscovite, Igor Krupnik (b. 1951), contributed a survey of recent accomplishments in Jewish studies to the journal (1986, no. 11 – for an annotated English translation see the bibliography). The author emphasized the youth of many scholars, and the fact that they had no "firm academic tradition" to rely upon and had to prepare themselves through their own efforts. Krupnik devotes much attention to the work being done in Georgia; in the Russian Republic he notes among others the Moscow linguist Aleksandra Eikhenvald (b. 1957), who herself published an article on the formation of modern Hebrew in Sovetish Heymland (1986, no. 7 – strongly criticized by Vilsker in issue no. 11 of that year). A Leningrad scholar and bibliographer mentioned by Krupnik was Simon Yakerson (b. 1956), who also contributed to the journal on occasion. Yakerson made a name for himself by his descriptive catalogues of Hebrew incunabula found in Leningrad and Moscow libraries; these catalogues appeared in 1985 and 1988 after Soviet bibliography had neglected Hebraica for almost 50 years.
In 1987, and even more in 1988, the effects of "perestroika" made themselves felt in the field of Jewish culture and scholarship. The very conservative Yiddish monthly now turned course and began to explore a long taboo topic: the fate of Jewish writers and cultural activities in the "black years" of 1948–1952. For the first time survivors of Stalin camps published memoirs of those days in Sovetish Heymland. "Samizdat" now became private rather than underground publishing, but tolerance did not mean support, and the contrast between official and unofficial publications remained striking. Scholarship played a relatively minor part in the plethora of Jewish cultural associations which sprang up in the Soviet Union, but efforts were made, often imitating earlier models. In Moscow a Jewish Historical Society now existed; it was instrumental in convening there an unprecedented international conference on Jewish studies (December, 1989) and planned to publish the proceedings. In Leningrad there was a "Jewish People's University" in apparent imitation of the one which existed in the early Soviet regime. This institution organized expeditions to places of Jewish interest and tried to document the Jewish pastin Russia while there was still time. The chairman of the Historical Society was Valerii Engel, while the People's University was led by Elijah Dvorkin – both men in their thirties.
Yet it must be said that the massive emigration of Jews from the country, which assumed the proportions of flight, worked against the cultural and scholarly revival. Thus, the continued existence of Moscow's Evreiskii istoricheskii al'manakh ("Jewish Historical Almanac," 1987–1988), a "samizdat" publication, became questionable because both of its editors, Aleksandr Razgon (b. 1949) and Vladimir (Velvl) Chernin (b. 1958), left for Israel. Chernin, a Yiddish poet and folklorist, also wrote for official publications and tried to bridge the gap between the two spheres.
On the more hopeful side we see that modern Jewish topics, spurned for such a long time by Soviet academic editors and university administrators, were now acceptable for articles and dissertations. This was particularly true in the field of ethnography, for example, a joint article by Kupovetskii and Krupnik on the Kurdish Jews of the U.S.S.R. appeared in Sovetskaia etnografiia (1988, no. 2) after being reportedly rejected some years previously. Michael Chlenov (b. 1940), who had emerged as the leader of the Vaad (Board of Deputies) of the organized Jewish communities, was himself an ethnographer. Much help was given to younger scholars by the veteran Leningrad ethnographer Natalia Yukhneva, who, although not Jewish, supported Jewish ethnographic work and was actively engaged in the battle against Soviet antisemitism. Yukhneva and others mentioned here were able to visit Israel and were in contact with Israeli academic institutions.
With the breakup of the Soviet Union, Jewish Studies at the institutional level, like Jewish communal life in general, has burgeoned, largely through the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Former Soviet Union, which operates five Jewish universities, and various foreign Jewish organizations and agencies.
[Avraham Greenbaum]
Jewish Studies in France
The academic field of Jewish studies was founded in France at the end of the 19th century with the creation of the *Société des études juives, which then began to publish – and still does – a learned periodical, *Revue des Etudes Juives, and directed the publication of the classic works of Henrich *Gross (Gallia Judaica, 1897) and Theodore *Reinach.
During the 20th century the pioneering works of Bernhard *Blumenkranz on medieval Jewish History, Léon *Poliakov on antisemitism, and Georges *Vajda, Charles *Touati, and Haim *Zafrani on Jewish mysticism were the most notable achievements in the field of Jewish studies in post-World War ii France and provided the basis for further development. With their guidance, a process began which allowed Jewish history and Jewish studies eventually to acquire a more respected place in the French academic world, illustrated by the enrollment of researchers on Jewish themes at the National Center for Scientific Research (cnrs) and the running of programs on Jewish themes – like the New Gallia Judaica, headed by Danièle Iancu-Agou in 2005 – and their introduction into the curriculum of the universities. Despite the upheaval of World War ii and the discontinuity of organized Jewish life, some scholars managed to preserve the spirit of the past and to transmit the skills of Jewish scholarship to the younger generation. But the goals changed and new horizons were sought by the new researchers.
Reflecting the revival of Jewish cultural life in France, the field of Jewish Studies grew constantly in France during the second part of the 20th century and, more specifically, in its last decades. The traditional chairs at the Ecole Pratique des hautes études (ephe) were challenged by the development of many courses and research centers located in universities, at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (ehess), and also in community institutions. With courses on Jewish civilization (history, philosophy, Jewish thought, and Jewish languages, the last mainly at Paris viii and the Institut des Langues orientales inalco, etc.,), Jewish Studies grew out of almost nothing to become an active area of learning in almost all the main French universities (Aix-en-Provence, Lille, Lyon, Montpellier, Strasbourg, Toulouse, etc). This evolution toward recognition of the particularity of Jewish existence during the past centuries is linked to a cultural phenomenon that brought forth on the one hand a general trend toward a quest for singular roots, and on the other hand a renewed dialogue between religions in the aftermath of World War ii. It also owes much to the transformations that occurred within French Jewry: the transformation of attitudes and outlooks in the aftermath of the Six-Day War of 1967 between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and last, to the mass immigration of North African Jews to France. Simultaneously there was a significant expansion in the treatment of Jewish subjects in the press, and from the late 1980s new Jewish periodicals providing information and articles on traditional, modern, or contemporary Jewish issues (Traces, Pardes, Cahiers du Judaïsme, La Revue d'histoire de la Shoah, Le Monde juif) or scholarly research. In 1989 the *Alliance Israélite Universelle opened a renewed library which is now the largest Jewish library in Europe, and recently, the three major Jewish libraries (Medem, Séminaire rabbinique, and aiu) joined hands to create a common network. It also has created a College of Jewish Studies focusing its activities on the in-depth study of Jewish thought in its various manifestations, headed by Shmuel *Trigano. Deserving of mention is also the significant push given to the renewal of studies on World War ii by the Institut d'histoire du temps présent (ihtp), which also administers a library, founded in 1980 and directed (1994–2005) by Henry Rousso, where a new generation of researchers is at work. The *Centre de la documentation juive contemporaine (cdjc) was initially founded in 1943 by Isaac *Schneersohn to gather all the documents related to the fate of the French Jews during the war, to bear witness, and to prosecute war criminals. In the early 1950s the tomb of the unknown Jewish martyr was dedicated at the cdjc, and it became the central memorial and symbol of Jewish memory and serves as the venue for Holocaust commemorations. In January 2005 the cdjc opened a new site under the auspices of the Memorial of the Shoah, which offers to the public a large research library and an active publication program. The cdjc organizes permanent and traveling exhibitions, conducts wide-ranging educational programs, and provides pedagogic courses for teachers and children. Community organizations, like Centre Rachi, and recently the Institut Elie Wiesel, also began to supply courses and diplomas to promote these studies and give students the opportunity to learn something about Judaism during their studies. A new generation of scholars born or educated in France has emerged who devote themselves to particular areas of Jewish scholarship. Generally speaking, they range from the translation and interpretation of the traditional texts of Jewish thought to the study of contemporary Jewish issues. Their work falls into a number of broad areas. The first is concerned with the Jewish world as seen from within: Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Sciences, Jewish History. A second area is Textual and Classical Studies and Archaeology. A third deals with the relations of Jews with Israel and France as well as to the Holocaust. Onecan also distinguish between scholars born before and after World War ii. The former were obviously more involved in classical and textual studies, while the latter tended to scrutinize the past to better understand the present. This change signals the passage from learned and scholarly academic work to the much more public sphere of the media. The tendency to secularize traditional teaching and endow it with the flavor of the sciences, inherited from the *Wissenschaft des Judentums, is also less and less felt, since there is an increasing demand for purely religious studies outside rabbinical and consistory circles. It is thus difficult to determine the direction of future Jewish studies.
Among the many active Jewish scholars, we shall only mention those who have published extensively. In the field of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Charles *Mopsik (1956–2003) was one of the outstanding figures. He worked mainly on the editing and publication of original Kabbalah manuscripts in French, which were subsequently translated into other languages, such as Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and English: Les grands textes de la cabale: les rites qui font Dieu (1993); Cabale et cabalistes (1997); R. Moses de Leon's Sefer Shekel ha-Kodesh, (Heb., 1996), Sex of the Soul: the Vicissitudes of Sexual Difference in Kabbalah (2005).
Paul B. Fenton (1951– ), a disciple of the late Georges Vajda, was the head of Jewish Studies at Paris iv (Sorbonne). He focused on Judeo-Arabic philosophy and thought: The Treatise of the Pool of Obadyah Ben Abraham Ben Moses Maimonides (1981); Philosophie et exégèse dans le Jardin de la métaphore de Moïse Ibn Ezra, philosophe et poète andalou du xiii siècle (1997); Joseph b. Abraham Ibn Waqar: Principles of the Qabbalah (2004); he also edited Georges Vajda's Le commentaire sur le "Livre de la création de Dunas ben Tamim de Kairouan (Xe siecle) (2002). He succeeded emeritus Roland Goestchel (1930– ), who worked mainly on Kabbalah and medieval philosophy: La Kabbale (1985); Isaac Abarbanel: conseiller des princes et philosophe (1996).
Dominique Bourel (1951– ), a researcher at the cnrs, was the director of the Centre de la recherche française à Jérusalem (crfj) between 1994 and 2004. Working on German Jewish philosophers, he published Moses Mendelssohn, la naissance du judaïsme moderne (2004) and edited many books, such Max Nordau: critique de la dégénérescence, médiateur franco-allemand, père fondateur du sionisme (1996), with Delphine Bechtel (1958– ), an associate professor at Paris iv, who focused on German Jewish literature and published La renaissance culturelle juive en Europe centrale et orientale, 1897–1930 (2002). Bourel translated Martin *Buber's letters in Lettres choisies de Martin Buber, 1899–1965 (2004) with Florence Heymann (1948– ), a researcher at the cfrj who wrote Le crépuscule des lieux, identités juives de Czernowitz (2003) and had previously published L'historiographie israélienne aujourd'hui (1998) with Michel Abitbol.
Shmuel Trigano, born in Algeria (1948– ), a sociologist and philosopher, is a professor at Paris x. A prolific writer, he published, among many other books, Le récit de la disparue: essai sur l'identité juive (1977); the five-volume La Société juive à travers l'histoire (1992); and Les frontières d'Auschwitz: les ravages du devoir de mémoire (2005).
On the history of science and philosophy, Gad Freudenthal (1944– ), also from the cnrs, published Science in the Medieval Hebrew and Arabic Traditions (2005). He edited Studies on Gersonides: A Fourteenth-Century Jewish Philosopher-Scientist (1992); and with Samuel Kottek and P.B. Fenton, published Mélanges d'histoire de la médecine hébraïque (2003).
In the field of Jewish history, Gérard *Nahon (1931– ), emeritus professor at the ephe, wrote both on medieval France and Sephardi history. He headed the Nouvelle Gallia Judaica from 1981 to 1992, directed the Revue des Études Juives (1972–96), and was president of the Société des Études juives. Among his books are Inscriptions hébraïques et juives de France médiévale (1986); Menasseh Ben Israël, The Hope of Israel, published with Henry Mechoulan (1987; Fr. 1979); Métropoles et périphéries séfarades d'Occident (1994); Juifs et judaïsme à Bordeaux (2003).
Gilbert Dahan (1943– ) a researcher at the cnrs and professor at the ephe, continued and deepened the work of Blumenkranz on medieval France: Les intellectuels chrétiens et les juifs au Moyen Age, (1990); The Christian Polemic against the Jews in the Middle Ages (1998, Fr. 1991), and edited Les Juifs au regard de l'histoire: mélanges en l'honneur de Bernhard Blumenkranz (1985).
Danièle Iancu-Agou (1945– ), a researcher at the cnrs in Montpellier, also published on France: Les Juifs en Provence (1475–1501), De l'insertion à l'expulsion (1981); Les juifs du Midi: une histoire millénaire (1995); Juifs et néophytes en Provence: l'exemple d'Aix à travers le destin de Régine Abram de Draguignan (2000).
Simon Schwarzfuchs (1927– ), professor emeritus at Bar-Ilan University, who settled in Israel, published among other works Napoleon, the Jews and the Sanhedrin (1979); A Concise History of the Rabbinate (1993); and A History of the Jews in Medieval France (2001).
On other themes, Jean Baumgarten (1950– ) a researcher at the cnrs, participated in the creation and publication of the main Jewish French periodicals and engaged in the study of Yiddish literature: Introduction to Old Yiddish Literature, (2005; Fr. 1993); Récits hagiographiques juifs (2001); La Naissance du Hassidisme. Mystique, rituel et société (2006).
Sylvie Anne Goldberg (1953– ), at the ehess, works on the cultural history of traditional Judaism. She published Crossing the Jabbok, Illness and Death in Ashkenazi Judaism in Sixteenth through Nineteenth Century Prague (1996; Fr. 1989) and two volumes on the Jewish uses of time: La Clepsydre. Essai sur la pluralité des temps dans le Judaïsme (2000); La Clepsydre ii, Temps de Jérusalem, temps de Babylone (2004).
Maurice Kriegel (1949– ) headed the Centre d'études juives at the ehess and was editor of a series on Judaism. He published Les Juifs à la fin du Moyen âge, dans l'Europe méditerranéenne (1979).
Daniel Tollet (1945– ), at the Paris iv Sorbonne, focused on the history of the Jews in Poland, and edited a series on Jewish Studies. He published Histoire des juifs en Pologne: du xvie siecle à nos jours (1992); Accuser pour convertir: du bon usage de l'accusation de crime rituel dans la Pologne catholique (2000); and Marchands et hommes d'affaires juifs dans la Pologne des Was a (1588–1668) (2001).
In the field of textual studies, Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (1967– ), born in Poland and trained in England, was a professor of codicology and paleography at the ephe. She published Karaite Marriage Documents from the Cairo Geniza. Legal Tradition and Community Life in Mediaeval Egypt and Palestine (1998); Les manuscrits hébreux dans l'Angleterre médievale: étude historique et paléographique (2003); and with Geoffrey Khan and María Ángeles Gallego, Abu al-Faraj Harun ibn al-Faraj, The Karaite Tradition of Hebrew Grammatical Thought in its Classical Form, a Critical Edition and Translation (2003). She succeeded professor emeritus Colette Sirat (1934– ), who moved to Israel after pioneering the field in France. Sirat published, among other books, Les papyrus en caractères Hébraïques trouvés en Égypte (1985); Hebrew Manuscripts of the Middle Ages (2002; Fr. 1994); and A History of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages, 1993 (French 1983).
Classical studies are represented by Mireille Hadas-Lebel (1940– ), former professor at inalco, now at Paris iv Sorbonne. She published several books on Hebrew language and later focused on Jewish Greek and Latin authors: Philon d'Alexandrie: un penseur en diaspora (2003); Flavius Josephus: Eyewitness to Rome's First-Century Conquest of Judea (1993; Fr. 1989); and Jerusalem against Rome (2005; Fr. 1990).
Archaeology and Qumran studies are also well represented by André *Caquot (1923–2004), who taught at the Collège de France: Ugarit-Forschungen, 35 (2003–4): Festschrift André Caquot, edited by Manfried Dietrich and Oswald Loretz. Caquot published with René Labat Les Religions du Proche-Orient asiatique: textes babyloniens, ougaritiques, hittites (1970) and, with Maurice Sznycer, Ugaritic Religion (1980; Fr. 1974).
André Lemaire, (1942– ), archaeologist and a professor at the ephe, whose works deals with Aramean and Hebrew epigraphy, published Les écoles et la formation de la Bible dans l'ancien Israël (1981) and Naissance du monothéisme: point de vue d'un historien (2003)
Joseph Mélèze-Modrzejewski (1930– ), born in Poland, was a professor at Paris i and a scholar in Greek and Egyptian papyri, focusing his research on ancient legal history:
The Jews of Egypt: from Rameses ii to Emperor Hadrian (1995; Fr. 1991); Droit impérial et traditions locales dans l'Égypte romaine (1990).
On contemporary France, Pierre Birnbaum (1940– ), professor of political science and sociology at the University of Paris i (Sorbonne), director of Les cahiers du judaïsme, opened a new vista on the relationship between Jews and the French Republic. He is the author of numerous books, several of which have been translated into English: Anti-Semitism in France: a Political History from Leon Blum to the Present (1992; Fr. 1988); The Jews of the Republic: A Political History of State Jews in France from Gambetta to Vichy (1996; Fr. 1992); and The Anti-Semitic Moment: A Tour of France in 1898 (2003; Fr. 1998).
On the history of World War ii France, Anne Grynberg (1951– ), who was active in the aiu and editor of Les cahiers du judaisme, wrote Les camps de la honte: les internés juifs des camps français, 1939–1944 (1991). And, although living in Israel, Renée Poznanski (1948– ) contributed as well with her Jews in France during World War ii (2001; Fr. 1994).
The field of Holocaust studies developed relatively late in France, initiated with a literary approach by Rachel *Ertel (1939– ), professor at Paris vii, who wrote Le shtetl, la bourgade juive de Pologne (1982); Dans la langue de personne (1993); and Brasier de mots (2003).
Annette *Wieviorka (1948– ), a researcher at the cnrs, began with the problematics of remembrance, publishing with Itzhok Niborski (b. 1947 in Buenos Aires and a scholar in Yiddish) Les Livres du souvenir: mémoriaux juifs de Pologne (1983). Later she wrote Déportation et génocide, Entre la mémoire et l'oubli (1992), The Era of the Witness (2006; Fr. 1998), and Auschwitz, 60 ans après, (2005).
On Israel, Alain Dieckhoff (1958– ) published Les espaces d'Israël: essai sur la stratégie territoriale israélienne (1987) and The Invention of a Nation: Zionist Thought and the Making of Modern Israel (2003; Fr. 1993).
Esther Benbassa (1950– ) and Jean-Christophe Attias (1958– ), professors at the ephe; both moved from history to more polemical essays on Jewishness and the State of Israel, writing together: Israel, the Impossible Land (2003; Fr. 1998) and Jews and Their Future: A Conversation on Judaism and Jewish Identities (2004; Fr. 2001). Previously Benbassa had published, among other books, The Jews of the Balkans: The Judeo-Spanish community, 15th to 20th centuries, with Aron Rodrigue (1995; Fr. 1993); and The Jews of France. A History from Antiquity to the Present (1999; Fr. 1997). Attias published works on Karaism: Abraham Aboulafia, L'Épître des sept voies (1985); Le Commentaire biblique. Mordekhai Komtino ou l'herméneutique du dialogue (1991); and Isaac Abravanel, la mémoire et l'espérance (1992).
[Sylvie Anne Goldberg (2nd ed.)]
bibliography:
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