Åbo Akademi: Open Journal Systems
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Erich Fromm och Gersholm Scholem: analys av en ovänskap
No full textErich Fromm and Gershom Scholem met each other in Frankfurt in the early 1920’s. Both were young, intelligent and ambitious and would later become famous celebrities, Fromm as a psychoanalyst and social critic, Scholem as a pioneering historian of Jewish mysticism. But they did not become friends. Rather the opposite, one can say that a certain animosity arose between the two. Scholem has published nasty comments on Fromm. In one Fromm was quite unjustly called a “psychoanalytical Bolshevik”. Scholem’s claim that Fromm was an enthusiastic Trotskyist is not correct either, although Fromm expressed some admiration of Trotsky as a person. Fromm, on the other hand, did not publicly (only in a letter) comment Scholem as a person, but criticized his theories on messianism on some points. The question why the two felt an antipathy towards each other is not easy to answer. On some issues they had different views, which of course is not a sufficient reason not to be friends. The fact that they developed along contrary lines (Scholem from assimilatory tendencies to conscious Judaism and Zionism, and Fromm from orthodoxy to non-theism and anti-Zionism) might have been of importance. And finally, some reasons for the fact that certain persons just don’t fit together are not possibly to determinate
Glimt fra Elie Wiesels forfatterskap
No full textIn this article, the author reflects on the life and writings of Elie Wiesel. His works, which are to a great extent of fictional character, bear influences from his own life, existential questions, Jewish history and fate. This article provides an overview of Wiesel’s works and tries to find connections throughout his works
300-års-jubilæet for Det Mosaiske Troessamfund i København
No full textOn the 16th December 1984 the Jewish community (Det mosaiske troessamfund) in Copenhagen could celebrate the 300th anniversary of the official permission from the Danish state to hold services in Denmark. Granted by King Christian V, this permission marks the official birthday of the community. This was the tender start of a community which gained foothold during the 18th century, and towards the turn of the century considerable communities had established themselves in Copenhagen and several provincial towns. The Jewish reform movement founded in Germany also reached Denmark and from the early 19th century a number of reforms were introduced in congregational life and in relation to the surrounding Christian community
From misprision to travesty. Harold Bloom's use of rabbinic sources
No full textJewish thought is assigned a privileged place in Harold Bloom’s agonistic theory of literary production and allegedly provides a model for the concepts for which he is best known: the anxiety of influence and creative misprision. Nevertheless, Bloom’s view of rabbinic exegesis as ‘rebellious’ and ‘heretical’ emerges as a travesty. His attempt to ascribe a radical, competitive individualism to what is essentially a body of collective authorship reflects a serious misconception of the nature of rabbinic thought and a scant, ill-informed reading of the sources. What I propose to do here is both descriptive and evaluative: to examine and characterize the ways in which Bloom handles rabbinic sources, and then to step outside the Bloomian circle in order to put his (mis)readings to the tests of standard scholarly inquiry. As we shall see, again and again, the test is failed. It may be that one reason for this is technical, that is, Bloom’s lack of the requisite linguistic and historical knowledge. But beyond the detailed catalogue of elementary scholarly error – a substantial affair, as we shall see – there is another story to be told. It is a story of appropriation and distortion motivated by the impact of one theory (Bloom’s) on another (the rabbinic) with which in reality it has very little in common
Finns det antisionism i den marxistiska kritiken av Moses Hess?
No full textOne of the most influential proto-Zionists is Moses Hess (1812–1875), who at the same time was one of the leading socialists of his time in Germany. The purpose of this article is to explore whether there are anti-Zionist traits in the criticism against Hess, posed by Marxists such as György Lukás, Irma Goitein, Julius Motteler, Wolfgang Mönke, and others. When Hess is criticized, it is not only because of Zionism, but rather because his Zionism emphasize his misunderstanding of the core of socialism
Zionism in Sweden
No full textThe first Zionist Congresses left the Jewish majority in Sweden relatively untouched. It is true that Professor Gottlieb Klein, the influential Rabbi of Stockholm, a student and personal friend of the great German reformer, Abraham Geiger, and to a lesser extent his colleague in Gothenburg, Dr. Koch, did oppose the Jewish national movement, but not until January 1910, when the first Zionist society was founded in Stockholm, did Swedish Jews seriously consider this alternative to their “prophetic” Judaism. Efforts by the Zionists in Sweden to gain public attention for themselves were mainly ineffectual until Kurt Blumenfeld, the General Secretary and Chief of Information for the World Zionist Organization in Berlin, visited Stockholm and Gothenburg in 1912 to deliver several open lectures.
Broder Giovanni och judarna
No full textThis paper deals with the portrayal of the Jew in a Finnish comic magazine edited by the pseudonym Veli Giovanni (Brother Giovanni) for more than thirty years (1919–1950). The stereotypical and negative image of the Jew hardly changed from the very first issue to the last. There were caricatures of the Jew in almost every issue of the magazine. Because of its popularity it was probably not completely without influence, although it claimed to be innocent entertainment and did not confess to any political attachment. The physiognomy of the Jew follows the classical pattern (big nose, curly hair, short body). The character is congruent with the body. The Jew is a slimy figure, constantly trying to cheat others. He is greedy and his main interest is money. He is an internationalist, a non-patriot, and he speaks Finnish with a strange accent and using his own idiolect (Jewish gibberish). He is the total opposite of the real Finn and an alien in Finnish society. The son of the Jew is the adult in miniature
Bilden av judar och judendomen i gymnasiets religionsundervisning i Finland
No full textIn Finland the majority of the people speak Finnish as their mother tongue, while there is a minority of about 6 % of Swedish-speaking inhabitants. The curricula of the Swedish-speaking schools are identical to those of the Finnish-speaking ones. This investigation concerns the contents of the confessional Lutheran religious instruction at the gymnasium (upper school) with respect to Jews and Judaism. The most difficult sections about Judaism after biblical times concern the question of the Jewish state and the situation in the Middle East. The instruction given at the gymnasium in religion to a great extent follows the textbooks. If this is correct, the standard of the teaching about the Jews and Judaism can be said to be rather high despite the fact that the textbooks contain small inadequacies
Cartographer’s experience of time in the Mercator-Hondius Atlas (1606, 1613)
No full textThis article analyses the articulations of temporality in the Mercator-Hondius Atlas. Firstly, the atlas reflects the sense of the past as the cartographers had to assess the information included in ancient texts in relation to modern testimonies. Secondly, Hondius had to take into account the worldview provided by the explorers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Hence the experience of time articulated in the Mercator-Hondius Atlas reflected not only the cartographers’ ideas of the Dutch cartographic industry but also directed the making of the atlas