- http://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/js-rw/institut/chair-of-jewish-thought/rauschenbach.htmledit
We are pleased to announce the publication of a new book series in Sephardic Societies and Cultures. Volumes will be published in English and/or German. For further information, please download the flyer and/or check... more
We are pleased to announce the publication of a new book series in Sephardic Societies and Cultures. Volumes will be published in English and/or German.
For further information, please download the flyer and/or check
https://www.ergon-verlag.de/2023/05/25/neue-reihe-zum-sephardischen-judentum-bei-ergon/
https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/buchreihe/B001206300/gesellschaften-und-kulturen-des-sephardischen-judentums-i-sephardic-societies-and-cultures?qReihe=B001206300&qReiheNr=B001206300&l=en
For further information, please download the flyer and/or check
https://www.ergon-verlag.de/2023/05/25/neue-reihe-zum-sephardischen-judentum-bei-ergon/
https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/buchreihe/B001206300/gesellschaften-und-kulturen-des-sephardischen-judentums-i-sephardic-societies-and-cultures?qReihe=B001206300&qReiheNr=B001206300&l=en
Research Interests: Sephardic Studies, Sephardi/Mizrahi Studies, Western Sephardic Diaspora, Sephardic Literature, Sephardic Jewish Heritage, and 5 moreSephardic Literature and Culture, Migrations of Sephardim and Mizrachim, Sephardic Diaspora and Migrations, Marranos Crypto-Jews Anusim Sephardics Sephardic-Jews Spanish-Jews Judaism Converts Proselytes, and Sephardic Jewish Literatures and Cultures
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Sephardic and Ashkenazic Judaism have long been studied separately. Yet, scholars are becoming ever more aware of the need to merge them into a single field of Jewish Studies. This volume opens new perspectives and bridges traditional... more
Sephardic and Ashkenazic Judaism have long been studied separately. Yet, scholars are becoming ever more aware of the need to merge them into a single field of Jewish Studies. This volume opens new perspectives and bridges traditional gaps. The authors are not simply contributing to their respective fields of Sephardic or Ashkenazic Studies. Rather, they all include both Sephardic and Ashkenazic perspectives as they reflect on different aspects of encounters and reconsider traditional narratives. Subjects range from medieval and early modern Sephardic and Ashkenazic constructions of identities, influences, and entanglements in the fields of religious art, halakhah, kabbalah, messianism, and charity to modern Ashkenazic Sephardism and Sephardic admiration for Ashkenazic culture. For reasons of coherency, the contributions all focus on European contexts between the fourteenth and the nineteenth centuries.
Ebook: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110695410/html?lang=de
Ebook: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110695410/html?lang=de
Research Interests:
Sefardische Studien sind an deutschen Universitäten eine Seltenheit. Mit dem Aufbau eines sefardischen Schwerpunkts an der Universität Potsdam und am Selma Stern Zentrum für Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg (ZJS) wird das Fach in... more
Sefardische Studien sind an deutschen Universitäten eine Seltenheit. Mit dem Aufbau eines sefardischen Schwerpunkts an der Universität Potsdam und am Selma Stern Zentrum für Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg (ZJS) wird das Fach in Deutschland institutionell verankert und weiterentwickelt. Die Beiträge des Bandes resultieren aus Diskussionen, die im sefardischen Schwerpunktjahr 2015-2016 am ZJS geführt wurden. Thematisiert werden u.a. Converso- und Morisco-Chroniken auf der Iberischen Halbinsel, Dienstboten im portugiesisch-jüdischen Amsterdam, sefardische und aschkenasische Debatten über die moderne Feuerbestattung, Franco-Spanien und die Sefarden sowie sefardische Identitätskonstruktionen im Sarajevo der Gegenwart.
Contributions of the volume are partly in German and partly in English.
Contributions of the volume are partly in German and partly in English.
Research Interests:
Menasseh ben Israel (1604-1657) was one of the best known rabbis in early modern Europe. In the course of his life he became an important Jewish interlocutor for Christian scholars interested in Hebrew Studies and negotiated with Oliver... more
Menasseh ben Israel (1604-1657) was one of the best known rabbis in early modern Europe. In the course of his life he became an important Jewish interlocutor for Christian scholars interested in Hebrew Studies and negotiated with Oliver Cromwell and Parliament the return of the Jews to England. These interactions coincided with a growing market for “Jewish knowledge” in the seventeenth-century republic of letters. Born to a family of former conversos, Menasseh was versed in Christian theology and astutely used this knowledge to adapt the content and tone of his publications to the interests and needs of his Christian readers. His books, most of which were published in two (or more) languages, are a quintessential case of early modern cultural translation. Menasseh ben Israel: Judaism for Christians is the first extensive study to systematically focus on Menasseh’s Latin works and discuss the success and failure of his strategies of translation in the larger context of early modern Christian Hebraism. In addition to Menasseh’s efforts, it focuses on the mistranslation of his books by Christian scholars, who were not yet ready to share Menasseh’s vision of an Abrahamic theology and of a republic of letters whose members were not divided by denomination. Ultimately, Menasseh’s plans to use Jewish knowledge as an entrée billet for Jews into Christian societies proved to be illusory. Christian readers distorted his words and quoted him as a Jewish witness for “Christian truths.” Menasseh’s Jewish coreligionists disapproved of what they perceived to be his dangerous involvement in Christian debates, providing non-Jews with delicate information. It was only a century after his death that his approach gained new importance and Menasseh was to become a model for new generations of Jewish scholars.
Research Interests:
This volume contributes to the growing field of Early Modern Jewish Atlantic History, while stimulating new discussions at the interface between Jewish Studies and Postcolonial Studies. It is a collection of substantive, sophisticated... more
This volume contributes to the growing field of Early Modern Jewish Atlantic History, while stimulating new discussions at the interface between Jewish Studies and Postcolonial Studies. It is a collection of substantive, sophisticated and variegated essays, combining case studies with theoretical reflections. Chapters treat converso slave traders, race and early Afro-Portuguese relations in West Africa, Sephardim and people of color in 19th-century Curaçao, Portuguese converso/Sephardic imperialist behavior, Caspar Barlaeus’ attitude towards Sephardic Jews, David Nassy’s famous Essai historique sur la Colonie de Suriname (1788), Savannah’s 18th-century the Sephardic community of Savannah, Freemasonry and Sephardim in Jamaica, the figure of Columbus in recent literature about the Caribbean, Sephardim, the holocaust, slavery and race in recent Caribbean literature, the reception history of Esther Brandeau/Jacques La Fargue and Canadian Jewish identity and Moroccan-Jewish memories of a 16th-century Portuguese military defeat.
Ebook: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-99196-2
Ebook: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-99196-2
Research Interests:
Song Cycle by Osias Wilenski based on poems Luis de Carvajal the Younger with texts from Carvajal's memoirs and testimony. Concept: Sina Rauschenbach Musical arrangement: Katharina Hanstedt First performances sponsored by the... more
Song Cycle by Osias Wilenski based on poems Luis de Carvajal the Younger with texts from Carvajal's memoirs and testimony.
Concept: Sina Rauschenbach
Musical arrangement: Katharina Hanstedt
First performances sponsored by the University of Potsdam and the Exc 16 of the University of Konstanz:
29 October 2015, Potsdam, Schinkelhalle
12 November 2015, Konstanz, Steigenberger Inselhotel
https://www.exc16.uni-konstanz.de/uploads/media/Carvajal_Flyer.pdf
Participants: Friedemann Hecht, Tenor; Nikola David, Speaker; members of the modern art ensemble (Klaus Schöpp, flute; Katharina Hanstedt, harp and musical direction; Yoriko Ikeya, piano ; Matias de Oliveira Pinto, violoncello).
Concept: Sina Rauschenbach
Musical arrangement: Katharina Hanstedt
First performances sponsored by the University of Potsdam and the Exc 16 of the University of Konstanz:
29 October 2015, Potsdam, Schinkelhalle
12 November 2015, Konstanz, Steigenberger Inselhotel
https://www.exc16.uni-konstanz.de/uploads/media/Carvajal_Flyer.pdf
Participants: Friedemann Hecht, Tenor; Nikola David, Speaker; members of the modern art ensemble (Klaus Schöpp, flute; Katharina Hanstedt, harp and musical direction; Yoriko Ikeya, piano ; Matias de Oliveira Pinto, violoncello).
Research Interests:
Seit wann gibt es „Intellektuelle“? Der Begriff selbst wurde erst um 1900 geprägt. Seit längerem zählen allerdings auch die Protagonisten des Aufklärungszeitalters wie z.B. Voltaire zu den Begründern dieses Sozialtypus, woraus sich die... more
Seit wann gibt es „Intellektuelle“? Der Begriff selbst wurde erst um 1900 geprägt. Seit längerem zählen allerdings auch die Protagonisten des Aufklärungszeitalters wie z.B. Voltaire zu den Begründern dieses Sozialtypus, woraus sich die Frage ergibt, wie weit dessen Vorgeschichte in die Frühe Neuzeit zurückreicht. Sind „Intellektuelle“ somit Gebildete, die unberufen in einer über ihr jeweiliges Spezialgebiet hinausweisenden öffentlichen Debatte Position beziehen? Beschreibt der Begriff einen bestimmten Persönlichkeitstypus oder eine soziale Rolle, also eine spezifische Form des öffentlichen Handelns? Welchen Einfluss übt das jeweilige Umfeld aus, also jener Resonanzraum, der sich in der Vormoderne durch Struktur und Kommunikationsformen deutlich von der „kritischen (Medien-) Öffentlichkeit“ der Gegenwart unterscheidet? Intellektuelle bedienen sich gemeinhin des gesprochenen oder geschriebenen Wortes: Wie verhält es sich in diesem Zusammenhang mit den Werken der Belletristik, der Musik oder den Bildkünsten, der Theologie und der Naturwissenschaft?
Der Band "Intellektuelle in der Frühen Neuzeit" ist das Ergebnis eines Arbeitsgespräches an der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel im Jahr 2006. Vertreter der verschiedensten kulturwissenschaftlichen Disziplinen suchen anhand ausgewählter Beispiele Antworten auf die oben genannten Fragen. In 13 Einzelstudien werden unter anderem Romane und Motetten, Gemälde und Parlamentsdebatten auf ihre intellektuelle Relevanz hin befragt. Der Bogen spannt sich über ganz Europa vom 14. bis zum frühen 19. Jahrhundert und berührt dabei vielfältige Milieus wie die Universitäten, die Höfe, das Zeitungswesen, die Medizin oder die spezifische Situation bestimmter sozialer Gruppen wie der Juden oder der Frauen. Die Herausgeber fassen in einer Einleitung und in einem Nachwort die Überlegungen zusammen und skizzieren die Umrisse des frühneuzeitlichen Intellektuellen „avant la lettre.“
Der Band "Intellektuelle in der Frühen Neuzeit" ist das Ergebnis eines Arbeitsgespräches an der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel im Jahr 2006. Vertreter der verschiedensten kulturwissenschaftlichen Disziplinen suchen anhand ausgewählter Beispiele Antworten auf die oben genannten Fragen. In 13 Einzelstudien werden unter anderem Romane und Motetten, Gemälde und Parlamentsdebatten auf ihre intellektuelle Relevanz hin befragt. Der Bogen spannt sich über ganz Europa vom 14. bis zum frühen 19. Jahrhundert und berührt dabei vielfältige Milieus wie die Universitäten, die Höfe, das Zeitungswesen, die Medizin oder die spezifische Situation bestimmter sozialer Gruppen wie der Juden oder der Frauen. Die Herausgeber fassen in einer Einleitung und in einem Nachwort die Überlegungen zusammen und skizzieren die Umrisse des frühneuzeitlichen Intellektuellen „avant la lettre.“
Josef Albo (around 1380-1444) is considered to be the last Jewish Philosopher of the Middle Ages. Following the basic ideas of Maimonides he writes his Sefer ha-iqqarim, his Book of Principles, in the interval between the Tortosa... more
Josef Albo (around 1380-1444) is considered to be the last Jewish Philosopher of the Middle Ages. Following the basic ideas of Maimonides he writes his Sefer ha-iqqarim, his Book of Principles, in the interval between the Tortosa Disputation and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain with the intention to strengthen his correligionists against Christian attacks. In early modem times the book becomes an important source for Christian Hebraists in theological discussions.
Sina Rauschenbach's book is the first detailed monograph on Josef Albo. Moreover, the Christian reception of the Sefer ha-iqqarim is analyzed here for the first time. Due to its interdisciplinary approaches the book is of particular value for both scholars of philosophy and Jewish Studies as well as theology and history.
Ebook: https://brill.com/display/title/7633
Sina Rauschenbach's book is the first detailed monograph on Josef Albo. Moreover, the Christian reception of the Sefer ha-iqqarim is analyzed here for the first time. Due to its interdisciplinary approaches the book is of particular value for both scholars of philosophy and Jewish Studies as well as theology and history.
Ebook: https://brill.com/display/title/7633
Research Interests: Medieval Jewish History, Sephardic Studies, Sephardic Literature, Research Medieval Judaism and Jewish Christian relations in Late Antiquity and Medieval age., Medieval Iberian Jewish History, and 6 moreSephardic Literature and Culture, Solomon Ibn Verga, Sephardic Diaspora and Migrations, Shlomo Ibn Verga, Sephardic Historiography, and Jews in Iberian Lands
Research Interests:
Luis de Carvajal the Younger (1567-1596) is without doubt one of the most famous victims of the Mexican Inquisition. Born into a New Christian family of crypto-Jews in a Castilian village near the Portuguese border, Luis moved to the... more
Luis de Carvajal the Younger (1567-1596) is without doubt one of the most famous victims of the Mexican Inquisition. Born into a New Christian family of crypto-Jews in a Castilian village near the Portuguese border, Luis moved to the Americas around 1580. In 1589, he and parts of his family were for the first time arrested by the Inquisition. In 1590, they were sentenced to work and “reconciled” with the Christian Church. In 1595, Luis and his family were once more found guilty of “Judaizing” and this time sentenced to death. Carvajal, his mother and his two sisters died at the stake in 1596. Two brothers escaped the inferno with their flight to Italy. Two other sisters, who had been able to get away from persecution, were sentenced and executed five years later.
Due to his autobiography and letters which survived in the dossiers of his trials, scholars have been able to trace important aspects of Carvajal’s life, his religious thought, and his self-fashioning as a Jewish martyr (Bodian). However, one question that has not yet been entirely discussed is Carvajal’s messianism in the context of New World geographies and influences. In my chapter, I use Carvajal’s autobiography, his letters and his declarations during the trials to analyse the meaning of “the Americas” in Carvajal’s eschatological thought and to reflect upon possible relations with Mexican Franciscans and millenarianists with whom Carvajal was in contact between 1590 and 1595. Finally, I place my discussion in the broader context of recent studies of “converso messianism” (Goldish), and Jewish-Christian interactions in early modern eschatological and millenarian settings (Ruderman, Popkin, Gutwirth) to contribute to the question of entanglements between Jewish and Christian eschatological expectations in the early modern Atlantic World.
Ebook: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003081050-9/carvajal-franciscans-sina-rauschenbach
Due to his autobiography and letters which survived in the dossiers of his trials, scholars have been able to trace important aspects of Carvajal’s life, his religious thought, and his self-fashioning as a Jewish martyr (Bodian). However, one question that has not yet been entirely discussed is Carvajal’s messianism in the context of New World geographies and influences. In my chapter, I use Carvajal’s autobiography, his letters and his declarations during the trials to analyse the meaning of “the Americas” in Carvajal’s eschatological thought and to reflect upon possible relations with Mexican Franciscans and millenarianists with whom Carvajal was in contact between 1590 and 1595. Finally, I place my discussion in the broader context of recent studies of “converso messianism” (Goldish), and Jewish-Christian interactions in early modern eschatological and millenarian settings (Ruderman, Popkin, Gutwirth) to contribute to the question of entanglements between Jewish and Christian eschatological expectations in the early modern Atlantic World.
Ebook: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003081050-9/carvajal-franciscans-sina-rauschenbach
Research Interests:
Studies in the Jewish reception of Christian theological discussions beyond the proper field of polemics are rare and only in their beginnings. Until now, scholars have often argued that Portuguese Jews discussed Christian concepts of... more
Studies in the Jewish reception of Christian theological discussions beyond the proper field of polemics are rare and only in their beginnings. Until now, scholars have often argued that Portuguese Jews discussed Christian concepts of divine foreknowledge and human free will because they were either struggling with their own Christian past or sought to help their 'New Jewish' coreligionists to turn into reliable members of the Amsterdam Sephardic community. This article uses the example of the Catholic Controversia de auxiliis, and the Protestant fight over Predestination before and after the Synod of Dordt (1618-1619) to argue that Portuguese Jews such as Menasseh ben Israel and Daniel Levi de Barrios recognised the cross-confessional dimension of the Christian debates on divine grace; they used their Iberian background and knowledge to order and explain what they observed; and they displayed their position as outsiders to deconstruct religious boundaries, imagine alternative religious landscapes, and finally re-insert themselves into their newly created religious maps and orders. The argument is based on a close reading of one chapter of the last volume of Menasseh ben Israel's Conciliador (1651) as well as Daniel Levi de Barrios's poem Libre Alvedrío y Harmonia del Cuerpo, por disposición del alma (1680).
Open access: https://www.aup-online.com/content/journals/10.5117/SR2021.1.001.RAUS
Open access: https://www.aup-online.com/content/journals/10.5117/SR2021.1.001.RAUS
Research Interests:
In 1655, after several years of discussion with Christian millenarians and more than two decades of experience in Christian scholarly circles, Menasseh published Piedra gloriosa which was probably both, his last book in Spanish and his... more
In 1655, after several years of discussion with Christian millenarians and more than two decades of experience in Christian scholarly circles, Menasseh published Piedra gloriosa which was probably both, his last book in Spanish and his last contribution to a Christian scholarly discussion. Being an implicit adjustment of Christian readings of the Four Monarchies in the Book of Daniel and coming close to a book on the Messiah which the early Menasseh mentioned but never wrote, Piedra gloriosa differs in several ways from Menasseh’s earlier works and strategies of cultural translation. In my essay, I propose a close reading of the book in the context of earlier contributions of Menasseh’s to millenarianism on the one hand and Christian misreading of the Dutch rabbi on the other hand.
Research Interests:
In 1795, the Batavian Republic was torn by debates about the emancipation of the Jews. Among the Jews who responded was David de Isaac Cohen Nassy of Suriname, author of the famous Essai historique sur la Colonie de Surinam (1788). In his... more
In 1795, the Batavian Republic was torn by debates about the emancipation of the Jews. Among the Jews who responded was David de Isaac Cohen Nassy of Suriname, author of the famous Essai historique sur la Colonie de Surinam (1788). In his Lettre politico-theologico-morale sur les Juifs, published in 1798 and only rarely analyzed until now, Nassy explicitly condemned anarchy and egalitarianism in the aftermath of the French Revolution. But he also reclaimed some of the genuine achievements of the Revolution and defended the struggle of his Dutch coreligionists for equal opportunities and rights. At the same time, Nassy did not content himself with this defence, but continued to express opinions on Jewish patriotism and civic participation which were highly provocative in Jewish circles. In my chapter, I offer a close reading of some of the most important passages of Nassy’s Lettre and discuss them in the light of contemporary Dutch debates and Jewish Creole thought in eighteenth-century Suriname.
Open access: https://brill.com/edcollbook-oa/title/34860
Open access: https://brill.com/edcollbook-oa/title/34860
Research Interests:
In 1788, the Surinamese Sephardic planter, physician, and scholar David de Isaac Cohen Nassy published his Essai historique sur la colonie de Surinam. In scholarly literature, Nassy’s text – an important documentation of the pride and... more
In 1788, the Surinamese Sephardic planter, physician, and scholar David de Isaac Cohen Nassy published his Essai historique sur la colonie de Surinam. In scholarly literature, Nassy’s text – an important documentation of the pride and self-awareness of one of the most privileged Jewish communities in the world – is mostly discussed within the context of the European Enlightenment and the transfer of European ideals to the Americas. This chapter suggests that Nassy not only relied on European texts, but that he also employed strategies of “writing back” to contest them, and to reverse power relations between imperial center and periphery. Among the authors Nassy aims to correct are frontrunners of European Enlightenment historiography, such as Voltaire and Guillaume Thomas Raynal. Nassy is critical of, among other issues, their negligence of the importance of Jews in the history of the colony, as well as their general distortion of the picture of Suriname. In the final section, the scope is broadened and the discussion of Jewish-American historiography is supplemented by discussions of similar expressions of Jewish-Creole thought, challenging European mechanisms of control.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-99196-2_7
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-99196-2_7
Research Interests:
In the denominational struggles after the Reformation, Christian scholars relied on Jewish sources to legitimize their positions and to refute differing opinions of other Christian scholars. One of the few Jews to respond to this new... more
In the denominational struggles after the Reformation, Christian scholars relied on Jewish sources to legitimize their positions and to refute differing opinions of other Christian scholars. One of the few Jews to respond to this new quest for Jewish knowledge by publishing Latin books for a Christian audience was the famous Amsterdam rabbi Menasseh ben Israel (1604–1657). Menasseh quickly turned into one of the most requested Jewish scholars in seventeenth-century Christian circles. However, Menasseh’s translation strategies were a play with fire and Christian scholars retranslated his texts to use them for anti-Jewish polemics. This essay probes into various examples of Menasseh’s Latin works and their reception in Christian circles to show the ambivalent outcome of Jewish collaboration in the broader project of Christian Hebraica and its use of the Jew as legitimation.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Sephardic Studies, Western Sephardic Diaspora, "Conversos" in Medieval Iberia and Early Modern Spain, Sephardic History, Menasseh Ben Israel, and 3 moreMarranos Crypto-Jews Anusim Sephardics Sephardic-Jews Spanish-Jews Judaism Converts Proselytes, Early Modern Iberian History and Culture, and Arbitrismo político
Between 1625 and 1649, the Leiden publishing house Elzevir issued a series of thirty-five descriptions of all European, a selection of non-European, and three ancient states, that became known as the 'Elzevirian Republics'. This essay... more
Between 1625 and 1649, the Leiden publishing house Elzevir issued a series of thirty-five descriptions of all European, a selection of non-European, and three ancient states, that became known as the 'Elzevirian Republics'. This essay focuses on two of these 'Republics', Johannes de Laet's descriptions of Spain and Portugal. I argue that these books convey an attitude towards geopolitics that is best understood in the light of Caspar Barlaeus's ideal of the 'wise merchant' (mercator sapiens) and the historical regent-merchant culture in seventeenth-century Amsterdam. The essay draws on recent scholarship in the history of knowledge, commerce, and the prehistory of objectivity.