Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture Online

Jewish Bible translations have been undertaken ever since antiquity in various historical contexts, as a result of the need to understand the text of the Bible on the part of Jewish communities who no longer knew the original languages (Hebrew and Aramaic), or did not know them well enough. The translations provide insight into the cultural and religious orientations both of the translator in question and of the Jewish readership for whom he was preparing the translation.1. Antiquity and Middle AgesThe Hebrew letters (Alef-Bet) and language (Hebrew) in which the Bible (Tana…

Modern historical Bible criticism was, in the 19th century, the domain of Protestant exegesis. Its critical reception by the Wissenschaft des Judentums took place in the area of tension between Jewish modernization discourse, efforts toward the recognition of Judaism in modern society, as well as the intellectual defense against antisemitism. Out of the culture struggle for the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible emerged, from the late 19th century on, various – orthodox as well as liberal …

The beginnings of the scientific bibliography of Jewish literature date back to the 17th century when Christian scholars published the first registers of Hebrew scriptures. In the 19th century, Moritz Steinschneider (1816–1907) founded the modern, scientifically substantiated bibliography, which was not only comprised of rabbinical literature but all fields of the Wissenschaft des Judentums. His work and that of his students formed the basis of all subsequent research in Jewish studies. 1. From Christian to Jewish bibliographers Under the influence of the Renaissan…

The main library of Oxford University and the second-largest library in England. The Bodleian Library (Bibliotheca Bodleiana), named for its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley (1545-1613), has one of the most extensive special collections of Hebrew manuscripts and books. Primarily due to the collections catalogue  Catalogus librorum Hebraeorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana (1852–1860) published by Moritz Steinschneider for research purposes, it has been a central knowledge base for the study of Jewish history and literature since the mid-19th century.The genesis of the Hebraica c…

The Biedermeier period (1815–1848/1849) coincided with the development of a Jewish bourgeoisie in the German-speaking area whose self-understanding was also articulated in the visual arts. One of the most well-known painters of this time is Moritz Daniel Oppenheim (1800–1882). His works reflect the challenges faced by the Jewish community since the early 19th century; the Biedermeier style with its preferred display of domestic idylls in the bourgeois environment providing him with the opportunity to express himself artistically.The retreat into the private and domestic…

Bikkure ha-Ittim (The First Fruits) was a Hebrew yearbook of the Haskalah from Vienna which was published between 1820 and 1831 in twelve volumes. Its publication marks the shift of the center of Hebrew Haskalah literature from Germany to the Habsburg Empire. Bikkure ha-Ittim was the most important Hebrew publication organ of its time and developed a lasting influence on other Haskalah periodicals in the Hebrew language.The initiative for the printing of a magazine for an enlightened Jewish readership came from the Catholic, Viennese print and typefoundry sh…

Bildung, an untranslateable term for the uniquely German tradition of self-cultivation and process of personal and cultural maturation, was a central feature of the bourgeoisification process of German-speaking Jews in the 19th century. Already in the Jewish Enlightenment of the late 18th century an educational ideal had formed which was based on a specifically Jewish tradition and in the early 19th century developed a culture-shaping power. The ensuing middle class educational culture h…

Series of amendments of the United States Constitution of 1789 which were adopted in 1791. In particular, the First Amendment, which grants freedom of worship to all American citizens, was important to the Jews of America: it was guaranteed that freedom of conscience and civil rights were inalienable rights which were not tied to religious affiliation. The spirit of the Bill of Rights has its roots in the traditions of thought of the European Enlightenment which put the social and political stat…

Region in the far-eastern administrative district of what is now the Russian Federation that was declared a Jewish Autonomous Oblast of the Soviet Union in 1934. The project of a socialist Jewish state in Birobidzhan arose from Soviet national policy, but in the end it was unsuccessful. During the great purges of the mid-1930s, the influx of Jewish immigrants dried up. Ten years later, in the course of Stalin’s anti-Jewish campaign, the efforts to develop Birobidzhan into a Jewish center within the Soviet Union were completely discontinued.1. Between Bira and BidzhanWhen the Soviet …

As a biological constant and precondition for the continuation of life, birth is accompanied by various rituals in different cultures. In Judaism, it is also an intrinsic part of the religious commandment of reproduction. Both the biblical and rabbinic traditions ritualize the birth and first months of the child’s life. The birth of a son was traditionally privileged with public rituals. Attempts to rectify this inequality with the establishment of new rituals for the birth of a girl are first to be encountered in the modern era.In traditional Judaism, procreation and birth are t…

Bi’ur (Hebr. for commentary, exegesis) is the usual name for the first modern Hebrew commentary on the Pentateuch, whose lead co-author and editor was the most important exponent of the Berlin Haskalah, the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786). Mendelssohn published his exegesis of the Hebrew Bible along with a German translation in  Sefer Netivot ha-shalom (1780–1783, “The Paths of Peace”); this was one of the tours de force of Haskalah and remained an important symbol of the movement for over a century. In the  Bi’ur, where knowledge of the rabbinic an…

Popular form of entertainment in the United States in which white entertainment singers (minstrels) performed musical parodies of the milieu of the Southern states and their plantation economy. Wearing black make-up on their faces and hands, they imitated African American slaves in their appearance, language, and behavior in a caricatural distortion. Blackface, whose area began in 1830, also allowed immigrants such as the Irish and later especially Jews access to the stage. After 1900, J…

Since the mid-12th century, Christians have alleged that Jews murdered Christian children for religious reasons. Hatred of Christians was the supposed motive for the murders, with further explanations of the re-enactment of the crucifixion of Christ and, beginning in the mid-13th century, the use of the victim’s blood for preparing unleavened bread for Passover. Despite papal and imperial bans on the blood libel, instances of the allegation of ritual murder increased in the Middle Ages, …

Jewish aid organization founded in the United States in 1843. Originally conceived as a lodge on the model of the lodges of Freemasonry, B’nai B’rith (Hebr.; "Children of the Covenant,” also: Bnai Brith, Bne Briss) set itself the purpose of strengthening Jewry in the world through education, cultivation, and social welfare, promoting it as a community and combating antisemitism. The organization spread to European countries from the late 19th century, and developed into the world's largest Jewish aid organization in terms of membership.1. Foundation and spreadThe Constitution of…