Tarnovo Church Council in 1360 and the Bulgarian-Jewish Religious Conflict from 1350ies

The article focuses on problems relating to the Jewish community’s origin in medieval Tarnovo, the reasons that provoked the Bulgarian-Jewish conflict from the 1350ies and its aftermaths. The hypothesis that Tarnovo Jews originated from Byzantine and appeared in medieval Bulgarian capital at the end of the 12th century as manufacturers of silk is proposed. The religious clash from the 1350ies is ascribed to the influence exerted by some Talmudic anti-Christian texts on the local Jewish community, to the broken inner status-quo between Christians and Jews after the second marriage of the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Alexander and to the reactions of part of the Christian population against the breach of this status-quo.

Relations among Jews and Gentiles in Kosovo and Metohija between the Two World Wars: From Autocentrism to Assimilation

Relations among Jews and Gentiles in Kosovo and Metohija between the Two World Wars: From Autocentrism to AssimilationThe period between the two world wars in Kosovo and Metohija (1918-1941) was a peak period of legal protection, economic development, national and political self-positioning, educational and cultural emancipation, and general progress of the local Jewish community. The local Sephardic community, dedicated to tradition, enriched by the presence of the most progressive Ashkenazi newcomers, and surrounded by the Islamic and Christian majority populations in the private and public arena, strived to access the broader, more general framework of modern societal trends. Encouraged by examples from the immediate surroundings, by the national Yugoslav framework and the more developed Jewish municipalities within the state, through daily and varied interaction with neighbors and institutional contact, a metamorphosis of the local Jewish community was enabled. Internal changes were partially conditioned by intensifying relations with the non-Jewish communities. They mostly accompanied these relations and were their inevitable outcome. Parallel to the development of increasingly diverse and more frequent contacts which were pursued in order to self-develop, to maintain and improve interethnic relations, at the social level there erupted elements of interethnic intolerance based on political, religious or economic grounds. Antisemitism strained and, alongside other factors (internal tightness, popular mentality, national tradition, religious differences), additionally complicated and halted closer cooperation. Besides these disagreements, integration into Yugoslav society was complete, especially among the young generation, but only in extraordinary conditions did it end in assimilation, which was exclusively enabled by the newly arrived Jews coming from other, more open and more cosmopolitan environments. This paper will show and elaborate on numerous examples of private and social collaboration between Kosovo-Metohijan Jews and other nations in the given chronological framework that were, above all, of wider importance for regional development and establishing civilizational heritage. Relacje Żydów ze społecznością nieżydowską w Kosowie i Metochii między dwiema wojnami światowymi – od autocentryzmu do asymilacjiOkres między dwiema wojnami światowymi w Kosowie i Metochii (1918-1941) to ważna epoka ochrony prawnej, rozwoju gospodarczego, samostanowienia narodowo-politycznego, emancypacji edukacyjno-kulturowej i ogólnego rozwoju tamtejszej społeczności żydowskiej. Wierna tradycji lokalna społeczność sefardyjska, wzbogacona o wpływy bardziej postępowych przybyszów aszkenazyjskich i otoczona w większości przez ludność islamską i chrześcijańską, w sferze prywatnej i publicznej aspirowała do wejścia na szerszą, ogólną ścieżkę współczesnych ruchów społecznych. Zachęcona przykładami z najbliższego otoczenia – ze strony narodów jugosławiańskich i bardziej rozwiniętych społeczności żydowskich w kraju, poprzez codzienne różnorodne obcowanie z sąsiadami i poprzez kontakty instytucjonalne, lokalna społeczność żydowska uległa metamorfozie. Zmiany wewnętrzne były częściowo uwarunkowane intensyfikacją stosunków ze światem nieżydowskim, z reguły podążały za tymi stosunkami i były ich nieuniknionym skutkiem. Równolegle z rozwojem coraz bardziej zróżnicowanych i częstszych kontaktów budujących, utrzymujących i poprawiających relacje międzyetniczne, na płaszczyźnie społecznej pojawiały się elementy nietolerancji międzyetnicznej, wynikającej z kontekstu politycznego, religijnego i ekonomicznego. Antysemityzm, oprócz kilku innych czynników (zamknięcie wewnętrzne, mentalność mieszkańców, tradycja ludowa, różnice wyznaniowe), dodatkowo obciążał i wstrzymywał jeszcze ściślejszą współpracę. Mimo tych sprzeczności integracja ze społeczeństwem jugosłowiańskim, zwłaszcza wśród młodego pokolenia, była pełna, ale tylko w wyjątkowych przypadkach kończyła się asymilacją, wyłącznie wśród nowo przybyłych Żydów, pochodzących z innych, bardziej otwartych i kosmopolitycznych środowisk. W artykule zostaną przedstawione i omówione liczne przykłady prywatnej i społecznej współpracy Żydów z Kosowa i Metochii z innymi narodami w podanych ramach chronologicznych, które miały przede wszystkim szersze znaczenie dla rozwoju regionalnego i postępu cywilizacyjnego.

Militant Ethics

The publication of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s play Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod (Garbage, the City, and Death; 1976) constitutes one of the major scandals in German cultural history. The play was accused of being anti-Semitic, because one of its key characters, a real estate speculator, was merely called the Rich Jew. Furthermore, some (negative) dramatis personae in the play openly express anti-Semitic views. When asked to respond, Fassbinder retorted that philo-Semites (in the West Germany of the time) are in fact anti-Semites, because they refuse to see how the victims of oppression can at times assume the roles and positions assigned to them by pernicious social structures. Fassbinder’s vilification on the part of the right-wing press prevented the play’s staging; subsequently, in 1984 and 1985–86 two Frankfurt productions were banned due to the reaction on the part of the local Jewish community. A similar controversy sparked off by the film adaptation of the play Shadow of Angels by Daniel Schmid. During the film’s screening at the Cannes Film Festival the Israeli delegation walked out, while there was also rumor of censorship in France. Gilles Deleuze wrote an article for Le Monde titled “The Rich Jew” defending the film and the director. Deleuze’s article triggered a furious reaction from Shoah (1985) director, Claude Lanzmann, who responded in Le Monde and attacked the cultural snobbery and “endemic terrorism” of the left-wing cinephile community. Lanzmann saw the film as wholly anti-Semitic and suggested that it identifies the Jew—all Jews—with money. While the author acknowledges the complexity of the subject, he revisits the debate and the film to unpack its ethical/aesthetic intricacy and propose a pathway that can potentially enable us to think of ways that political incorrectness can function as a means of exposing the persistence of historical and ethical questions that are ostentatiously resolved. He does this by drawing on Alain Badiou’s idea of militant ethics and Jacques Rancière’s redefinition of critical art as one that produces dissensus.

Urban landscape as biographical experience: Pre-war Lublin in the oral testimonies of its inhabitants

For several hundred years, Lublin has developed as a multiethnic city. As a result of World War II and the destruction of the local Jewish community, its urban structure and its cultural landscape were significantly altered. The image of pre-war Lublin emerging from archival documents, pictures, newspaper articles, and individual memories is multilayered. Studies of the oral testimonies of local inhabitants reveal the deeply sensory and cultural components of spatial experiences characteristic of the cultural landscape of pre-war Lublin. This aspect will be presented as a reference point to conduct analyses concerning cultural and social aspects of the perception of Lublin’s urban landscape.

XVII-wieczne macewy z Chęcin – aspekty historyczne i kulturowe

Seventeenth-century matzevot from Chęciny: Historical and cultural aspects The article focuses on the seventeenth-century Jewish tombstones made of a decorative limestone (the so-called Chęciny marble) in stonecutters’ workshops operating from the early seventeenth century in Chęciny. It discusses matzevot produced in this town both for clients from other localities (including Lublin and Kraków) and for local population (matzevot preserved at the local Jewish cemetery). It analyzes their artistic and technical values as well as the situation of producers and clients in a broader historical context (such as wars and epidemics in the mid-century). It also explores the tombstones preserved in Chęciny itself as historical sources for the study of the local Jewish community and the cemetery as such. The last part of the article includes a catalogue of eleven best preserved matzevot from the Jewish cemetery at Chęciny.

Paul the Cosmopolitan?

The apostle Paul has been viewed by many as a cosmopolitan thinker who called Christ-followers to embrace the ideal of a single humanity living in harmony with a divinely ordered cosmos. A close comparison of Paul's apocalyptic theology with various interpretations of ‘cosmopolitanism’ over the centuries, however, shows few points of agreement. Paul was fundamentally a Jewish sectarian whose vision for a better world embraced only Christ-followers and involved the cataclysmic end of the present world order. Those who accepted and lived by this vision were effectively relegated to the same marginal position in civic life as the local Jewish community.

Uruguay’s Stance on the Palestinian Problem at the United Nations and the Creation of the State of Israel

Examination of documents on the decision-making process that accounts for the pro-Zionist stance of the Uruguayan delegation at the United Nations during the debate on Palestine reveals that the position coincides with the pro-Zionist consensus among local political groups and was influenced by the local Jewish community lobby and its contacts with government representatives. Un examen de los documentos sobre el proceso de toma de decisiones que explica la postura pro-sionista de la delegación uruguaya en las Naciones Unidas durante el debate sobre Palestina revela que la posición coincide con el consenso pro-sionista entre los grupos políticos locales y fue influenciada por el lobby de la comunidad judía local y sus contactos con representantes del gobierno.

A Jewish Response to French Antisemitism in Revolutionary Times

In the same years in which Jews were elected to the Dutch national assembly (the Batavian Convention), Jews on Curaçao were characterized in a letter received on the island in an unmistakably anti-Semitic way. The author was the prominent French official Victor Hugues, based in Guadeloupe. Two elders of the local Jewish community responded with a letter that shows a remarkable assertiveness, probably facilitated by the emancipation of Jews in the Dutch metropole. They reminded him of the principles of the French revolution, of which he was a servant. The letter, in the possession today of a private collector, is transcribed and translated here and provided with a context.