Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture Online

The Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, founded in 1872 in Berlin, developed over the sixty years of its existence into one of the most important centers of academic study of Jewish history, literature, and culture in Europe. The institution, which was home to a large number of outstanding scholars of the Wissenschaft des Judentums, which was excluded from the German universities, gained central importance for the intellectual orientation of the Jewish-liberal movement in Germany and …

Formerly a suburb of Los Angeles and since 1911 the site of numerous film studios, which were founded primarily by Jewish immigrants from Europe. With them, Hollywood became a synonym for the American film industry and its style of films and production. The end of the classic Hollywood era in the 1940s and 1950s coincided with the advent of television, the forced sale of the studios’ own chains of cinemas, and the anti-communist McCarthy era.1. From Eastern Europe to the East CoastThe history of Hollywood began with a group of young Jews from Eastern and Central Europe, inc…

The word “Holocaust” goes back to the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, where it designates a sacrificial animal (whole offering) that is to be completely burnt in the Temple. This meaning was maintained for centuries. Since the early modern period, the word was used with increasing frequency in the English-speaking world for non-religious phenomena as well: first, for fire catastrophes, and then later also for such man-made catastrophes as wars and mass murders. These secularized meanings …

Ḥoveve Tsiyon is the name for a series of associations founded in the 1880s in the Russian Empire and Romania which were dedicated to the settlement of Jews in Erets Israel, as well as to the financial support of the settlements there. Whereas the movement was officially called  Ḥibbat Tsiyon (Love of Zion), the designation of its members as  Ḥoveve Tsiyon (Friends of Zion) also became established as a collective term for the individual organizations. The movement is usually considered as the beginning of Zionism and modern settlement in Palestine. Fr…

In view of the devastations of the Second World War, efforts were multiplied to bring about an international legal codification of human rights in the context of the nascent United Nations. Already at the end of the 18th century, legal equality of the Jews had been brought about through the French Revolution and the human and civil rights promulgated in the American Constitution. The French-Jewish jurist and subsequent Nobel Peace Prize laureate René Cassin (1887–1976) had an essential influence on the drawing up of the Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in Paris in 1948.1. The apo…

In the second half of the 19th century, a specifically “Jewish humor” emerged among the Ashkenazim of Europe and the United States. Particularly in America, a stock of characters arose in popular books, newspapers, and entertainment media that are still considered typical today. However it was not until the end of the 20th century that a positive Jewish self-identification developed by way of humor, when Jews began to reflect their Jewishness, especially in television and film. A particular role…

Language was a key indicator of affiliation for modern Hungarian national consciousness. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, increasing pressure was exerted on the multilingual population groups in the Kingdom of Hungary to adopt Hungarian as their national language. The majority of the Jewish population welcomed this initiative. Voluntary Magyarization, associated with hopes for social integration and ascent, manifested itself in numerous projects in religion and literature, as well …

On the initiative of leading representatives of the Jews of Hungary, the “National Congress of Israelites in Hungary and Transylvania” convened in Pest from December 10, 1868, to February 23, 1869, as the first and only all-embracing conference of Hungarian Jews. It took place in the wake of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and of the ensuing Emancipation Act, which granted Jews equal civil rights. The national congress aimed to find a mutual settlement for the organization of th…