German-Jewish Literature and Culture and the Field of German-Jewish Studies

This chapter delineates the parameters of developments and relationships to the 'Jewish contribution discourse'. It notes the marginality of Jewish culture in present-day Germany that has enabled the emergence of the quintessential post-modern field of cultural studies in Germany and the basis for diverse criticism. It also mentions Moritz Goldstein, who boldly claimed in his 'Deutsch-jüdischer Parnass' that the Jews in Germany had become the custodians and arbiters of the spiritual treasures of German society. The chapter explores the understanding of European culture as largely Jewish, which militates against the idea of a possible Jewish contribution to that culture since the term 'contribution' appears to make little sense if the Jewish element is the dominant one. It explains the concept of a contribution that rests on the notion of a dominant host culture to which guests might contribute.

Introduction

This chapter investigates the idea of the 'Jewish contribution' that was borne on Jews, non-Jews, and the interaction between them in modern times, from the seventeenth century to the present. It determines what role 'Jewish contribution' has played in 'Jewish self-definition' and how it has influenced the political, social, and cultural history of the Jews. It also discusses the biblical heritage that Jews, Christians, and Muslims share that highlights the people of the book and the impact of biblical monotheism on the history of religions. The chapter looks at the survival of the Jews as a distinct ethnic group and a multinational religious community that wrestles with the phenomenon to understand the reasons for their survival. It mentions the tragedy of the Nazi Holocaust and the re-establishment of the Jewish state in its wake that piqued the curiosity of the world.

The ‘Jewish contribution’ to Christianity

This chapter explains how the discussion of Christianity's Jewish legacy on either side of the interreligious divide developed in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It cites Jewish apologetics and Christian antisemitism that confronted one another against the background of the new biblical criticism. It also covers the universalist prophetic ethic that was immortalized in the liberal Protestant denominations in Christianity and outweighed the Mosaic law at the bedrock of traditional Judaism. The chapter looks at Judaism's efforts to define its own contours and penetrate the depths of its soul as it encounters the dominant Western faith. It identifies the extent of the Jewish role and the positive assessment of discipline, field, or ideal that Jews had allegedly contributed.

From Admission Ticket to Contribution: Remarks on the History of an Apologetic Argument

This chapter probes the delicate balance forged by nineteenth-century German-Jewish intellectuals between an array of desiderata. It analyses Jewish acculturation, Jewish participation and partnership in the culture of the enlightened Christian majority, as well as the retention of an essential Judaic character that is deemed superior and unique. The chapter identifies the heroes of Shavit's story that envisioned neither Nazism nor the Final Solution, in which Shavit wonders if their endeavour proved a vain waste of the Jews' cultural vitality and productivity and a disastrous self-delusion. It talks about the renewal of German-Jewish culture and the birth of German-Jewish Studies as an academic discipline in post-war Germany.

From Counterculture to Subculture to Multiculture: The ‘Jewish Contribution’ Then and Now

This chapter analyses the survey of the 'Jewish contribution' discourse that extends to the twenty-first century. It discusses the academic disparagement of the study of the Jewish contribution and the regnant values of multiculturalism that have offered the idea of new life and possibilities. It also considers how Jews are constructed as an allegory, metaphor, or trope that represents all the people who sinned against modern Western civilization. The chapter explains the subject of the 'Jewish contribution to civilization', which refers to a certain variety of Jewish apologetic rejoinder to the modern antisemitism's denial of the reality of the full integration of Jews into European and American societies. It talks about the 'contribution discourse', which appeared after the formal success of the Jewish political emancipation project and the incubation of a high degree of Jewish acculturation to general European values and lifestyle.

Discourses of Civilization: The Shifting Course of a Modern Jewish Motif

This chapter focuses on 'Jewish civilization', in which the term served the interests of Jewish intellectuals far better when counterpoised against the German Romantic notion of a distinct national culture. It probes the significance of 'civilization' at several key rhetorical moments during the last two hundred years. It also recounts the event when German Jews endeavoured to reach a high standard of civilization through concerted self-cultivation and social integration in the early nineteenth century. The chapter talks about European Jews who applied their own standards of 'civilization' to other 'oriental' Jews. It describes the years between the Great Depression and the outbreak of the Second World War, when Mordecai Kaplan equated Jewish peoplehood and civilization.

Judaism, Islam, and Hellenism: The Conflict in Germany over the Origins of Kultur

This chapter discloses how the Jewish–Christian encounter spilled over into the study of other non-Western 'others' in Germany. It describes German intellectuals who referred to classical Hellenism as the cultural and racial foundation of the Aryan ideal and German-Jewish scholars who explained how the biblical religion of Israel was indeed the progenitor of contemporary German Kultur. It also discusses classical Islamic civilization as the cultural context in which Judaism had flourished in earlier times, especially along rationalist, philosophical, and aesthetic lines. The chapter argues that Islam preserved the genuine legacy of the Greeks more than Christianity. It reveals how rational Judaism, which had once spawned both the teachings of Jesus and those of Muhammad, continued to carry the torch forward into modernity.

From Sephardi to Oriental: The ‘Decline’ Theory of Jewish Civilization in the Middle East and North Africa

This chapter reveals that the 'orientalism' of European Jewish scholars was more than one dimensional. It discusses Western Jewish historians from Heinrich Graetz to Shlomo Dov Goitein who typically cast Islam as more tolerant and more enlightened than Christianity, facilitating the unique Judaeo-Arabic cultural symbiosis that nourished the 'golden age' of Spanish Jewry. It also recounts the wake of the Spanish Jewish expulsion in 1492, when oriental Jewry embarked upon a cultural decline. The chapter investigates this 'rise and decline' model of Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewry while revealing questions about the Eurocentric character of the 'contribution discourse'. It reviews the biological argument on the ideal Sephardi type that was adopted to counter antisemitic charges of Jewish degeneracy.

‘Jewish Contribution to Civilization’ and its Implications for Notions of ‘Jewish Superiority’ in the Modern Period

This chapter reviews the landmarks of Jewish historiography from Simone Luzzatto to Jacob Katz, while giving special attention to the nexus between notions of 'Jewish contribution' and 'Jewish superiority'. It discusses the value system that proves the worthiness of Jews according to the criteria of a non-Jewish or Christian worldview. It also claims how Jewish apologists still asserted their cultural 'superiority' in their title to the Bible, their prophetic mission, or the virtuosity and pristine singularity of their Judaism. The chapter cites Joseph Jacobs and Cecil Roth, who have often been mocked for their studies on 'Jewish contribution to civilization'. It looks at Jacobs's and Roth's apologetic, naive works that respond to antisemitic claims about Jews in a caricaturistic manner.

Day of Gladness or Day of Madness? Modern Discussions of the Ancient Sabbath

This chapter discusses the sabbath, which serves as an illuminating test case for the dynamic and complexity of the 'Jewish contribution' debate. It reviews the works of Jewish apologists and religious reformers, the ideologically grounded investigations of a biblical precept, and the initiatives for ecumenical dialogue and cooperation between Christians and Jews. It also mentions the Galician-born and Vienna-educated historian named Salo Baron, who acknowledged that the obvious origin of the Jewish sabbath had been in ancient Babylonian astronomy. The chapter recounts how the sabbath was to be considered a Judaeo-Christian contribution to civilization despite its Babylonian origins. It refers to Cecil Roth, who published The Jewish Contribution to Civilisation and stated that the sabbath was included among the various gifts imparted by Baron to the civilized world.