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No full textDen föränderliga identiteten: om identitetsförändringar hos den yngre generationen polska judar som invandrade till Sverige under åren 1968–1972 (Julian Ilicki, 1988) is reviewed by Susan Sundback.Yehezkel Kaufmann: ein Lebens-und Erkenntnisweg zur Theologie der hebräischen Bibel (Thomas Krapf, 1990) is reviewed by Karl-Johan Illman.Helvetesporten (Anja Lundholm, 1989) is reviewed by Karl-Johan Illman.Zionism in Sweden: its beginning until the end of World War I (Morton H. Narrowe, 1990) is reviewed by Karl-Johan Illman
Dance in the Early Church: sources and restrictions
No full textUnderstanding the role of dance in the Western Christian tradition is an underexplored territory. Sources of historical investigations are few and many of them are problematic. In this article commonly used sources are questioned and a re-examination of earlier research is begun. Focusing on the Early Church in dialogue with writing from the patristic period, a new interpretation is done around the theme of dance prohib-ition. The important contributions of Donatella Tronca as well as Graham Pont and Alessandro Alcangeli to the understanding of dance in the Early Church period are expanded by means of a more extensive theological framework. This article also aims at bringing a broader philosophical and societal understanding of the worldview and social imaginary of the Early Church period to bear on earlier research studies
In retrospect: do we have to choose between art and research practice
No full textHow do artists experience and address beauty at present? Has the notion of beauty vanished completely from artistic discourse? Are ornaments still allowed? What does a contemporary ornament look like? In the exhibition Ornament & Beauty, mounted at Titanik Gallery (5–29 May 2016) in connection with the conference Art Approaching Science and Religion, 12–13 May 2016, the artists intended to comment on questions such as those in the texts published here and through the art works presented
The Jewishness of Jesus and ritual purity
No full textToday it is commonplace for historical Jesus scholars to emphasize Jesus’ Jewishness. At the same time most New Testament scholars deny that he cared about the Jewish purity system, which was a central aspect of early Judaism. This article examines how such a reconstruction of the historical Jesus would influence his Jewishness, arguing that it indeed would make such a Jesus figure ‘less Jewish’. The article also investigates questions concerning what Jewish identity in the late Second Temple period entails and how we may characterize the Judaism of Jesus’ time, especially in relation to purity concerns. Finally, I examine key Gospel texts that are commonly used as evidence to prove Jesus’ alleged disinterest in purity laws. On the basis of a proper understanding of how the purity system functioned in Jesus’ time, I conclude that there is no evidence for the view that Jesus was disinterested in matters of purity; quite the opposite
Drag ur den finländska judenhetens historia
No full textThe earliest mention of Jewish visitors in Finland dates back to 1782. At that time Finland was a part of Sweden, and Swedish legislation only allowed Jews to settle in four cities of the mother country. When Finland was incorporated into Russia in 1809 as a consequence of the Napoleonic wars, Swedish laws remained in force in the Grand Dutchy, and they prohibited the entry of Jews. However, Jewish soldier came to the fortress of Sveaborg off Helsinki, to Viipuri and other garrison towns with the Russian army. In the 1920’s and 30’s the number of Jews in Finland reached a peak of approximately 2000. During the Second World War Jewish citizens served in the army and in other duties side by side with other Finns. There were approximately 150 Jewish refugees in Finland; eight were deported to the Gestapo in 1942. The main problems of the Jewish congregations today are depopulation, the increasing average age of the members, general secularism, and mixed marriages
Inntrykk av undervisning og undervisningsmateriale i norske skoler
No full textThis article explores the education and textbooks on Holocaust in Norwegian schools
Att "judaisera" islam. Citat från Koranen och islamisk tradition i judiska texter från medeltiden
No full textThe article discusses the strategies of handling quotations from the Koran and other Islamic texts in texts circulating among Jews, both in texts written by Jews for Jews in Arabic and in translations into Hebrew of texts by Muslim authors. The examples are culled from Al-hidâya ilâ farâ’id al-qulûb by Bahya ibn Paqûda as well as from the translation of Mîzân al-‘amal by al-Ghazâlî made by Abraham Ibn Hasdai and of the Disputation between Man and the Animals before the King of the Jinns from the 23rd essay by the Brethren of Purity as translated by Kalonymos ben Kalonymos. To this is added a discussion of the presence of the Muslim shahâda in texts circulating among Jews in Yemen and in the Christian Europe
Swedish interventions in the tragedy of the Jews of Slovakia
No full textThis article describes a largely unknown Swedish effort to intervene in deportations of Jews of Slovakia between 1942 and 1944. Swedish officials and religious leaders used their diplomatic correspondence with the Slovak government to extract some Jewish individuals and later on the whole Jewish community of Slovakia from deportations by their government and eventually by German officials. Despite the efforts of the Swedish Royal Consulate in Bratislava, the Swedish archbishop, Erling Eidem, and the Slovak consul, Bohumil Pissko, in Stockholm, and despite the acts taken by some Slovak ministries, the Slovak officials, including the president of the Slovak Republic, Jozef Tiso, revoked further negotiations in the autumn of 1944. However, the negotiations between Slovakia and Sweden created a scope for actions to protect some Jewish individuals which were doomed to failure because of the political situation. Nevertheless, this plan and the previous diplomatic interventions are significant for a description of the almost unknown Swedish and Slovak efforts to save the Jews of Slovakia. Repeated Swedish offers to take in Jewish individuals and later the whole community could well have prepared the way for larger rescues. These never occurred, given the Slovak interest in deporting their own Jewish citizens and later the German occupation of Slovakia.
Midrash and exegesis – distant neighbours?
No full textThe term Midrash should be reserved for the specific quotation literature of the rabbinic sources of classical Judaism. Decisive is its literary form: the combination of rabbinic statement and biblical quotation. All other rabbinic and non-rabbinic texts should better not be called Midrash. Great caution is needed in the use of the term exegesis in relation to Midrash. For the modern mind exegesis is something connected with critical philology and history. In principle Midrash is something completely different and could more aptly be called ‘a kind of theology’ than the usual designation as ‘a kind of exegesis’. In fact, the association of Midrash with exegesis implies a great injustice towards Midrash. Despite all appearances, Midrash is not exegesis, nor a ‘kind of exegesis’, although it does contain elements of biblical exegesis. Although Midrash has certainly played a role in the origin and history of modern biblical exegesis, this particular role is a matter of the past. The relation between Midrash and modern exegesis now has become merely platonic, a source of inspiration and, possibly, admiration as an example of textual sensitivity; as a vehicle of rabbinic theology; and – eventually – as a model for a new post-modern system of hermeneutics