Hasidism Reappraised

1996 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Jewish History ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Modern Jewish History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Intellectual Context ◽  
Extensive Introduction ◽  
State Of Research ◽  
To Come

Hasidism has been a seminal force and source of controversy in the Jewish world since its inception in the second half of the eighteenth century. Indeed, almost every ideological trend that has made itself felt among Jews since that time has claimed to have derived some inspiration from this vibrant movement. While this is sure testimony to its vitality and originality, it has also given rise to many misconceptions as to what hasidism is about. This book offers a wide-ranging treatment of the subject in all its aspects. The book encompasses a complete field of modern scholarship in a discipline that is central to the understanding of modern Jewish history and the contemporary Jewish world. The book is dedicated to the memory of Joseph Weiss, and its opening section assesses his contribution to the study of hasidism in the context of his relationship with Gershom Scholem and Scholem's long-standing influence on the field. The remaining chapters are arranged thematically under seven headings: the social history of hasidism; the social functions of mystical ideals in the hasidic movement; distinctive outlooks and schools of thought within hasidism; the hasidic tale; the history of hasidic historiography; contemporary hasidism; and the present state of research on hasidism. The book also incorporates an extensive introduction that places the various articles in their intellectual context, as well as a bibliography of hasidic sources and contemporary scholarly literature. It shows an intellectual world at an important juncture in its development and points to the direction in which scholarly study of hasidism is likely to develop in the years to come.

The Social and Political Context of Conversion in Germany and England 1870–1914

2010 ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
Todd M. Endelman
Keyword(s):  
Jewish History ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The First World War ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Modern Jewish History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
First World

This chapter focuses on Jews who left Judaism in the decades before the First World War and who were not attracted by the spiritual truths or ethical values of Christianity. It discusses disaffiliation as a hallmark of modern Jewish history in the West in which the flow out of Judaism was not equally strong in all countries and among all strata of Jewish society. It also analyses the characteristic patterns of drift and defection that emerged in every country or region bearing the impress of larger social and political conditions. The chapter talks about the temptation to abandon Judaism, which increased from 1870 to 1914, when rising antisemitism called into question Jewish integration into state and society with unprecedented intensity. It refers to England and Germany as states with dissimilar political cultures and social systems, which illuminates the history of the Jewish communities there.

Jewish Women’s History: First Steps and a False Start—the Case of Jacob Katz

2007 ◽  
pp. 168-181
Author(s):  
Moshe Rosman
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social History ◽  
Jewish Community ◽  
Jewish History ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Methodological Innovation ◽  
The Social ◽  
False Start ◽  
History Of ◽  
Over Time

This chapter discusses Jacob Katz, the social historian of the mid-twentieth century. He originated some principles, methods, and concepts that have become critical in pursuing the history of Jewish women and in writing gender-conscious historiography. In discussions about Katz's contribution to the study of the history of the early modern Jewish community, it is standard to emphasize his methodological innovation. In his earlier works Katz applied the methods of ‘social history’ to his research and writing about Jewish history. According to Katz, ‘social history’ had a different aim. It used the tools of sociology, but did so in order to understand the development of a particular historical society over time — that is, through history. Katz was not interested in extrapolating universal laws.

Love, Work and Death

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel Toaff
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Jewish History ◽  
Jewish Life ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Love Marriage ◽  
History Of ◽  
Archival Documentation ◽  
Renaissance Italy

The latter part of the thirteenth century is regarded as a key period in the history of Italian Jewry. During that time many Jewish communities sprang up in the regions of central and northern Italy. Their appearance marked a turning-point in the history of Jews in the Italian peninsula as the Jewish presence had previously been focused on Rome and the south. This acclaimed study, originally published in Italian, captures all the intricacies of everyday life in the medieval Jewish communities of Umbria. The book characterizes in detail the defining features of Jewish life in the region at that time and shows clearly how the common stereotype of a single, undifferentiated Jewish community does not reflect the reality. Instead, the book presents a picture of a complex society that contributed greatly to contemporary society and played a significant role in shaping it, while at the same time also being influenced by the surrounding Christian society. The book elaborates contemporary Jewish traditions and practices associated with love, marriage, food, work, sickness, and death in the context of everyday social relations between Christians and Jews. In so doing it presents a reconstruction of the Jewish life of the period that faithfully reflects the links and divides between the two communities. The book will be of interest to the general reader, while its detailed references to archival documentation make it a particularly valuable source for students of medieval Jewish history and specialists in the social history of medieval and Renaissance Italy.

scholarly journals TOWARD THE REHABILITATION OF THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE SERBS DURING THE OTTOMAN RULE: THE SERBIAN SOCIETY IN THE 15TH CENTURY

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-52
Author(s):  
Ema Miljković ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social History ◽  
Family Life ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come

The aim of this paper is to point out to the immense value of the social history of the Serbian people under the Ottoman rule, since it is the only way to come to some conclusions about less-known issues, such as everyday life and family life.

The Present State of Research on the Social History of Elites and the Bourgeoisie: A Critical Assessment

1992 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Charle
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Present State ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Contemporary Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Of Research

The social history of élites and the bourgeoisie must be one of the most popular areas of French historical research at the present moment, after a long period of neglect. It may be useful to look first at the reasons for this previous distrust and present enthusiasm so as to trace the main directions of contemporary research.

Early Cinema in Scotland

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Early Cinema ◽  
Popular Song ◽  
Feature Film ◽  
Local Newspapers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Production History ◽  
History Of ◽  
International Audience

This collection of essays, drawn from a three-year AHRC research project, provides a detailed context for the history of early cinema in Scotland from its inception in 1896 till the arrival of sound in the early 1930s. It details the movement from travelling fairground shows to the establishment of permanent cinemas, and from variety and live entertainment to the dominance of the feature film. It addresses the promotion of cinema as a socially ‘useful’ entertainment, and, distinctively, it considers the early development of cinema in small towns as well as in larger cities. Using local newspapers and other archive sources, it details the evolution and the diversity of the social experience of cinema, both for picture goers and for cinema staff. In production, it examines the early attempts to establish a feature film production sector, with a detailed production history of Rob Roy (United Films, 1911), and it records the importance, both for exhibition and for social history, of ‘local topicals’. It considers the popularity of Scotland as an imaginary location for European and American films, drawing their popularity from the international audience for writers such as Walter Scott and J.M. Barrie and the ubiquity of Scottish popular song. The book concludes with a consideration of the arrival of sound in Scittish cinemas. As an afterpiece, it offers an annotated filmography of Scottish-themed feature films from 1896 to 1927, drawing evidence from synopses and reviews in contemporary trade journals.

Editor's Notes

2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-7
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Ethnic Studies ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

In this opening issue of volume 31 we are presented with both nuanced and bold entry into several long enduring issues and topics stitching together the interdisciplinary fabric comprising ethnic studies. The authors of these articles bring to our attention social, cultural and economic issues shaping lively discourse in ethnic studies. They also bring to our attention interpretations of the meaning and significance of ethnic cultural contributions to the social history of this nation - past and present.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Winter
Keyword(s):  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Rich Diversity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Religious Oppression ◽  
The Rich ◽  
To Come

This concluding chapter summarizes key themes and presents some final thoughts. The book has shown that the multiplicity of lived ʻAlawi experiences cannot be reduced to the sole question of religion or framed within a monolithic narrative of persecution; that the very attempt to outline a single coherent history of “the ʻAlawis” may indeed be misguided. The sources on which this study has drawn are considerably more accessible, and the social and administrative realities they reflect consistently more mundane and disjointed, than the discourse of the ʻAlawis' supposed exceptionalism would lead one to believe. Therefore, the challenge for historians of ʻAlawi society in Syria and elsewhere is not to use the specific events and structures these sources detail to merely add to the already existing metanarratives of religious oppression, Ottoman misrule, and national resistance but rather to come to a newer and more intricate understanding of that community, and its place in wider Middle Eastern society, by investigating the lives of individual ʻAlawi (and other) actors within the rich diversity of local contexts these sources reveal.

“Sou Inglesa! Sou Inglesa!”: Memórias de uma Menina Anglo-Portuguesa (1907-1930)

2017 ◽  
pp. 141-155
Author(s):  
Miguel Alarcão
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social History ◽  
Travel Literature ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Cultural Encounter ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Times

Textualizing the memory(ies) of physical and cultural encounter(s) between Self and Other, travel literature/writing often combines subjectivity with documental information which may prove relevant to better assess mentalities, everyday life and the social history of any given ‘timeplace’. That is the case with Growing up English. Memories of Portugal 1907-1930, by D. J. Baylis (née Bucknall), prefaced by Peter Mollet as “(…) a remarkably vivid and well written observation of the times expressed with humour and not little ‘carinho’. In all they make excellent reading especially for those of us interested in the recent past.” (Baylis: 2)

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