Wissenschaft des Judentums

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"Wissenschaft des Judentums" (literally in

Jewish literature and culture, including rabbinic literature
, to analyze the origins of Jewish traditions.

The Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden

The first organized attempt at developing and disseminating Wissenschaft des Judentums was the Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden (Society for Jewish Culture and Jewish Studies), founded around 1819 by

German people. Immanuel Wolf’s influential essay Über den Begriff einer Wissenschaft des Judentums (On the Concept of Jewish Studies) of 1822, has such ideas in mind. Its principal objective, as it was then defined in the Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (1822), was the study of Judaism by subjecting it to criticism and modern methods of research.[1]

The failure of the Verein, attributable largely to the far greater attraction, amongst German Jews, of identification with German culture, was followed, significantly, by the conversion to Christianity of many of its leading figures, including Gans and Heine.[2]

The Wissenschaft des Judentums movement

Kultur and at the same time reinforce their Jewish identity by bridging the gulf between secular and religious education"; the movement sought to explore Judaism as "both secular civilization and religion", and thereby "help young Jews to remain Jews", even as they moved to a more secular view.[3] According to Dr. Henry Abramson, the primary aim of the proponents of the movement was to articulate a modality of Jewish identity that was consonant with nineteenth century values, and where Jews had to demonstrate that they were patriotic members of their own societies, and at the same time express their Judaism proudly.[4] It is important to remember that the movement took on slightly differing characteristics in different national contexts so that, for example, the nature of the Anglo-Jewish movement was affected by the more ambivalent, less overtly hostile, state of Jewish-Christian relations in England; historical critical approaches to Bible were unpopular; a strong interest in rabbinic theology, liturgy, and prayer; an emphasis upon eccentricity, marginality, and challenges to normative rabbinic Judaism; and a widening of the scholarly franchise in England to women and non-established scholars.[5]

Goals

Proponents of Wissenschaft des Judentums attempted to place Jewish culture on par with

Jewish Studies" introduced into the university curriculum as a respectable area of study, freeing the field from the prevailing bias that regarded Judaism as an inferior precursor to Christianity and studied it as such. They also developed and advocated a style of scholarship which allowed complete freedom in the interpretation of traditional texts, and which might be pursued without concerns about the practical ramifications such interpretations might have for religious observance and religious life (Glatzer 1964
).

Leopold Zunz (1794–1886), one of the movement's leading figures, devoted much of his work to rabbinic literature. At the time, Christian thinkers maintained that the Jews' contribution ended with the Bible, and Zunz began to publish in the area of post-biblical rabbinic literature. His essays "Etwas über die rabbinische Literatur" and "Zur Geschichte und Literatur" addressed this issue. His biography of Rashi of Troyes was pivotal. When the Prussian government forbade preaching sermons in German synagogues, on the grounds that the sermon was an exclusively Christian institution, Zunz wrote History of the Jewish Sermon in 1832. This work has been described as "the most important Jewish book published in the 19th century." It lays down principles for the investigation of the Rabbinic exegesis (Midrash) and of the siddur (prayer-book of the synagogue).

Attitude toward religion

Despite the outstanding scholarship of Wissenschaft personalities such as Zunz and Heinrich Graetz (most of whom pursued their scholarly labors on their own time as Privatgelehrte), the Wissenschaft movement as a whole had a tendency to present Judaism as an historical relic [6] with frequently apologetic overtones,[7] and often ignored matters of contemporary relevance:

Zunz felt obliged to assume that Judaism had come to an end, and that it was the task of Wissenschaft des Judentums to provide a judicious accounting of the varied and rich contributions which Judaism had made to civilization. In a similar spirit, Steinschneider is said to have once quipped that Wissenschaft des Judentums seeks to ensure that Judaism will receive a proper burial, in which scholarship amounts to an extended obituary properly eulogizing the deceased.[8]

Nevertheless, throughout most of its existence and despite certain of its most prominent practitioners, such as

Israel Hildesheimer founded the neo-orthodox modern Rabbinerseminar in Berlin. One of its most prominent scholars, David Hoffmann, defended a literal reading of the Biblical word which he understood to be the exact product of divine revelation.[citation needed] It was this essentially religious nature of Wissenschaft des Judentums that made it even more dangerous in the eyes of its opponents.[12] Christians even thought that a more liberal form of Judaism would attract converts, or would keep Jews from converting to Christianity, and so the government forced Zunz's synagogue to close.[13]

Attitude toward earlier scholarship

Indeed, one detects in the writings of many Wissenschaft scholars not only an intense love of scholarship "for its own sake", but also a genuine affinity for the rabbis and scholars of old, whose works they find themselves documenting, editing, publishing, analyzing, and critiquing. Indeed, far from disparaging or despising the Jewish religion and its many generations of rabbinical scholars, the majority of Wissenschaft practitioners are very keen to take ownership of the Jewish scholarly tradition. They see themselves as the rightful heirs and successors to Saadia Gaon and Rashi and Hillel the Elder and Abraham ibn Ezra, and in those prior generations of scholars they see their own Wissenschaft spirit and likeness.

In the Wissenschaft approach to scholarship, then, the earlier generations of scholars become "de-sanctified" and "re-humanized". Wissenschaft scholars feel completely free to pass judgment on the intellectual and scholarly capacities of earlier scholars, evaluating their originality, competence, and credibility, and pointing out their failures and limitations. The Wissenschaft scholars, while respectful of their predecessors, have no patience for a concept such as

Steinschneider
may be presented in the same sentence without any sense of impropriety, and either one may then be debunked with the same forwardness. No doubt this de-sanctification of the Jewish luminaries provided further grist for the opponents of the movement.

Legacy

Although the Wissenschaft movement produced a vast number of scholarly publications of lasting value, and its influence still reverberates through

Harvard (e.g., Harry Austryn Wolfson
).

Opposition

The Wissenschaft movement drew criticism from traditional elements in the Jewish community, who regarded it as sterile at best, and at worst damaging to the religious community. A key opposition leader was Samson Raphael Hirsch. He and other traditional religious scholars representing urban and sophisticated Orthodox constituencies regarded the Wissenschaft movement as failing to meet the needs of the living Jewish community; Mendes-Flohr observes in this context that historians, by virtue of their craft, necessarily "transform traditional knowledge, draining it of its sacral power."[14] The Orthodox orientation of Wissenschaft figures such as David Zvi Hoffmann did not spare them from Hirsch's condemnation.

Guttmann and his Philosophie des Judentums

Hebrew, Spanish, English, Japanese
, etc. The English title is The Philosophy of Judaism: The History of Jewish Philosophy from Biblical Times to Franz Rosenzweig (New York, 1964).

Roth sees in this publication "the last product in the direct line of the authentic Judaeo-German 'Science of Judaism'" (more commonly known as Wissenschaft des Judentums).

H.A. Wolfson among many others—it is certainly the case that the Wissenschaft movement in Germany had by the 1930s already ceased to thrive.[16]

The original German edition of Philosophie des Judentums ends with

Kabbalistic school, which reflects his own attitude toward Jewish philosophy.[17]

List of Wissenschaft des Judentums personalities

Leopold Zunz (1794–1886), a founder of the Verein für Wissenschaft des Judentums
Heinrich Graetz, (1817–1891): his magnum opus History of the Jews was written in the spirit of Wissenschaft des Judentums.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Benzion Dinur (Dinaburg), "Wissenschaft des Judentums", Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd. Ed., 2007)
  2. ^ VEREIN FÜR CULTUR UND WISSENSCHAFT DER JUDEN in the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906).
  3. ^ Elon 2003, p. 110.
  4. ^ Dr. Henry Abramson, Who Was Philo Judaeus of Alexandria?, minutes: 49:41–50:19, speaking on the Wissenschaft des Judentums.
  5. ^ Langton, Daniel R. "Wandering Jews in England’s Green and Pleasant Land: Wissenschaft des Judentums in an Anglo-Jewish Context" in Wissenschaft des Judentums in Europe: Comparative and Transnational Perspectives Studia Judaica 76. editor Christian Wiese; Mirjam Thulin. Berlin: de Gruyter, Walter GmbH & Co, 2014.
  6. ^ Mendes-Flohr1998 [page needed]
  7. ^ Meyer 2004 [page needed]
  8. ^ Mendes-Flohr 1998, p. 41.
  9. ^ Meyer 2004, pp. 105–106.
  10. ^ Elon 2003, p. 112.
  11. ^ Meyer 2004, p. 106.
  12. ^ Meyer 2004 [page needed]
  13. ^ Elon 2003, p. 112.
  14. ^ Mendes-Flohr 1998, p. 45
  15. ^ Roth (1999, p. 3).
  16. ^ Roth (1999).[page needed]
  17. ^ Werblowsky (1964, p. ix).

References

  • Elon, Amos (2003). The Pity of it All. Picador.
    ISBN 978-0-312-42281-3
    .
  • Glatzer, Nahum N. (1964), "The beginnings of modern Jewish studies", in Altmann, Alexander (ed.), Studies in Nineteenth-Century Jewish Intellectual History, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 27–45.

Further reading

  • George Y. Kohler, "Judaism Buried or Revitalised? ‘Wissenschaft des Judentums’ in Nineteenth Century Germany – Impact, Actuality and Applicability Today", in: Jewish Thought and Jewish Belief, (ed. Daniel J. Lasker), Beer Sheva 2012, p. 27-63.
  • Michael A. Meyer, “Jewish Religious Reform and Wissenschaft des Judentums: The Positions of Zunz, Geiger and Frankel”, in: Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 16 (1971), pp. 19–41.
  • Michael A. Meyer, “Two Persistent Tensions within Wissenschaft des Judentums”, in: Modern Judaism and Historical Consciousness, (ed. C. Wiese and A. Gotzmann), Leiden 2007, p. 73-89.
  • Ismar Schorsch “Scholarship in the Service of Reform”, Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 35, 1990, pp. 73–101.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Leopold Zunz.
  • Entry "Wissenschaft Des Judentums" by Benzion Dinur (Dinaburg) in the Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd. Ed., 2007)
  • Goldestein Goren Intl. Center, e-lectures Wissenschaft des Judentums [1]
  • Iancu, Carol From the "Science of Judaism" to the "New Israeli historians" - landmarks for a history of Jewish historiography [2]
  • "The Freimann Collection." Digitized books based on Aron Freimann’s Wissenschaft des Judentums bibliography (Katalog der Judaica und Hebraica, Erster Band: Judaica, Frankfurt am Main: Stadtbibliothek Frankfurt am Main, 1932), from the collections of the Leo Baeck Institute, American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and other international collections
  • Cultures of Wissenschaft des Judentums at 200. Zeitschrift der Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien e. V. / Journal of the German Association for Jewish Studies Online access to English articles
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