Wissenschaft des Judentums

German Jewish academic movement

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"Wissenschaft des Judentums" (literally in German the expression means "Science of Judaism"; more recently in the United States it started to be rendered as "Jewish Studies" or "Judaic Studies," a wide academic field of inquiry in American universities) refers to a nineteenth-century movement premised on the critical investigation of Jewish literature and culture, including rabbinic literature, to analyze the origins of Jewish traditions.

## The Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden

[edit]

The first organized attempt at developing and disseminating Wissenschaft des Judentums was the Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden (Society for Jewish Culture and Jewish Studies), founded around 1819 by Eduard Gans, (a pupil of Hegel), and his associates. Other members included Heinrich Heine, Leopold Zunz, Moses Moser, and Michael Beer, (youngest brother of Meyerbeer). It was an attempt to provide a construct for the Jews as a Volk or people in their own right, independent of their religious traditions. As such it sought to validate their secular cultural traditions as being on an equal footing with those adduced by Johann Gottfried Herder and his followers for the German people. Immanuel Wolf’s influential essay Über den Begriff einer Wissenschaft des Judentums (On the Concept of Jewish Studies) of 1822, has such ideas in mind. Its principal objective, as it was then defined in the Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (1822), was the study of Judaism by subjecting it to criticism and modern methods of research.[1]

The failure of the Verein, attributable largely to the far greater attraction, amongst German Jews, of identification with German culture, was followed, significantly, by the conversion to Christianity of many of its leading figures, including Gans and Heine.[2]

## The Wissenschaft des Judentums movement

[edit]

First edition from 1822

Despite the lack of success of the Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden, its principles inspired many Jewish thinkers to invest their efforts in a wider Wissenschaft des Judentums movement, and also provoked a conservative reaction (see Opposition). The historian Amos Elon, in his book The Pity of It All, places the movement in the context of anti-Semitic riots in Germany in 1819. The purpose, Elon writes, "was to bring ordinary Jews into the orbit of German Kultur and at the same time reinforce their Jewish identity by bridging the gulf between secular and religious education"; the movement sought to explore Judaism as "both secular civilization and religion", and thereby "help young Jews to remain Jews", even as they moved to a more secular view.[3] According to Dr. Henry Abramson, the primary aim of the proponents of the movement was to articulate a modality of Jewish identity that was consonant with nineteenth century values, and where Jews had to demonstrate that they were patriotic members of their own societies, and at the same time express their Judaism proudly.[4] The movement took on slightly differing characteristics in different national contexts so that, for example, the nature of the Anglo-Jewish movement was affected by the more ambivalent, less overtly hostile, state of Jewish-Christian relations in England; historical critical approaches to Bible were unpopular; a strong interest in rabbinic theology, liturgy, and prayer; an emphasis upon eccentricity, marginality, and challenges to normative rabbinic Judaism; and a widening of the scholarly franchise in England to women and non-established scholars.[5]

### Goals

[edit]

Proponents of Wissenschaft des Judentums attempted to place Jewish culture on par with Western European culture, as evinced in Goethe's ideas of Bildung, and endeavored to have "Jewish Studies" introduced into the university curriculum as a respectable area of study, freeing the field from the prevailing bias that regarded Judaism as an inferior precursor to Christianity and studied it as such. They also developed and advocated a style of scholarship which allowed complete freedom in the interpretation of traditional texts, and which might be pursued without concerns about the practical ramifications such interpretations might have for religious observance and religious life (Glatzer 1964).

Leopold Zunz (1794–1886), one of the movement's leading figures, devoted much of his work to rabbinic literature. At the time, Christian thinkers maintained that the Jews' contribution ended with the Bible, and Zunz began to publish in the area of post-biblical rabbinic literature. His essays "Etwas über die rabbinische Literatur" and "Zur Geschichte und Literatur" addressed this issue. His biography of Rashi of Troyes was pivotal. When the Prussian government forbade preaching sermons in German synagogues, on the grounds that the sermon was an exclusively Christian institution, Zunz wrote History of the Jewish Sermon in 1832. This work has been described as "the most important Jewish book published in the 19th century." It lays down principles for the investigation of the Rabbinic exegesis (Midrash) and of the siddur (prayer-book of the synagogue).

### Attitude toward religion

[edit]

Despite the outstanding scholarship of Wissenschaft personalities such as Zunz and Heinrich Graetz (most of whom pursued their scholarly labors on their own time as Privatgelehrte), the Wissenschaft movement as a whole had a tendency to present Judaism as an historical relic [6] with frequently apologetic overtones,[7] and often ignored matters of contemporary relevance:

> Zunz felt obliged to assume that Judaism had come to an end, and that it was the task of Wissenschaft des Judentums to provide a judicious accounting of the varied and rich contributions which Judaism had made to civilization. In a similar spirit, Steinschneider is said to have once quipped that Wissenschaft des Judentums seeks to ensure that Judaism will receive a proper burial, in which scholarship amounts to an extended obituary properly eulogizing the deceased.[8]

Nevertheless, throughout most of its existence and despite certain of its most prominent practitioners, such as Moritz Steinschneider, being vocal opponents of religion, Wissenschaft des Judentums was very much a religious movement—pursued largely by rabbis at Jewish seminaries who were engaged in preparing their students for rabbinical careers.[9] In a foreshadowing of the reform movement, Zunz often led services, which were accompanied by an organ, in the vernacular German, rather than Hebrew.[10] Wissenschaft scholars such as Rabbi Zacharias Frankel, the first head of the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau, and his colleague at the seminary, historian Heinrich Graetz, considered Jewish history to be reflective of a divine revelation and guidance.[11] Wissenschaft des Judentums was not restricted to progressive Judaism. In 1873, Israel Hildesheimer founded the neo-orthodox modern Rabbinerseminar in Berlin. One of its most prominent scholars, David Hoffmann, defended a literal reading of the Biblical word which he understood to be the exact product of divine revelation.[citation needed] It was this essentially religious nature of Wissenschaft des Judentums that made it even more dangerous in the eyes of its opponents.[12] Christians even thought that a more liberal form of Judaism would attract converts, or would keep Jews from converting to Christianity, and so the government forced Zunz's synagogue to close.[13]

### Attitude toward earlier scholarship

[edit]

Indeed, one detects in the writings of many Wissenschaft scholars not only an intense love of scholarship "for its own sake", but also a genuine affinity for the rabbis and scholars of old, whose works they find themselves documenting, editing, publishing, analyzing, and critiquing. Indeed, far from disparaging or despising the Jewish religion and its many generations of rabbinical scholars, the majority of Wissenschaft practitioners are very keen to take ownership of the Jewish scholarly tradition. They see themselves as the rightful heirs and successors to Saadia Gaon and Rashi and Hillel the Elder and Abraham ibn Ezra, and in those prior generations of scholars they see their own Wissenschaft spirit and likeness.

In the Wissenschaft approach to scholarship, then, the earlier generations of scholars become "de-sanctified" and "re-humanized". Wissenschaft scholars feel completely free to pass judgment on the intellectual and scholarly capacities of earlier scholars, evaluating their originality, competence, and credibility, and pointing out their failures and limitations. The Wissenschaft scholars, while respectful of their predecessors, have no patience for a concept such as yeridat ha-dorot. For them, the classical authorities are no more beyond dispute and critique than are contemporary scholars; the opinions of ibn Ezra and Steinschneider may be presented in the same sentence without any sense of impropriety, and either one may then be debunked with the same forwardness. No doubt this de-sanctification of the Jewish luminaries provided further grist for the opponents of the movement.

## Legacy

[edit]

Although the Wissenschaft movement produced a vast number of scholarly publications of lasting value, and its influence still reverberates through Jewish Studies departments (and, indeed, some yeshivas) around the world, it is possible to regard the publication of the Jewish Encyclopedia in 1901–1906 as the culmination and final flowering of this era in Jewish studies (Levy 2002). The choice of English over German as the language for this epochal work is a further sign that an era of German scholarship was drawing to a close. In the early years of the new century the Wissenschaft culture and style of scholarship was transplanted to a certain extent to bodies such as the Institute for Jewish Studies at Hebrew University (e.g., Gershom Scholem) and Jewish Studies departments at American universities such as Brandeis and Harvard (e.g., Harry Austryn Wolfson).

## Opposition

[edit]

The Wissenschaft movement drew criticism from traditional elements in the Jewish community, who regarded it as sterile at best, and at worst damaging to the religious community. A key opposition leader was Samson Raphael Hirsch. He and other traditional religious scholars representing urban and sophisticated Orthodox constituencies regarded the Wissenschaft movement as failing to meet the needs of the living Jewish community; Mendes-Flohr observes in this context that historians, by virtue of their craft, necessarily "transform traditional knowledge, draining it of its sacral power."[14] The Orthodox orientation of Wissenschaft figures such as David Zvi Hoffmann did not spare them from Hirsch's condemnation.

## Guttmann and his Philosophie des Judentums

[edit]

Julius Guttmann is best known for Die Philosophie des Judentums (Reinhardt, 1933), translations of which are available in Hebrew, Spanish, English, Japanese, etc. The English title is The Philosophy of Judaism: The History of Jewish Philosophy from Biblical Times to Franz Rosenzweig (New York, 1964).

Roth sees in this publication "the last product in the direct line of the authentic Judaeo-German 'Science of Judaism'" (more commonly known as Wissenschaft des Judentums).[15] While the movement did not utterly expire with the publication Guttman's work—its spirit living on in the work of G. Scholem and H.A. Wolfson among many others—it is certainly the case that the Wissenschaft movement in Germany had by the 1930s already ceased to thrive.[16]

The original German edition of Philosophie des Judentums ends with Hermann Cohen, the primary influence on Guttman's own philosophy, while the later Hebrew edition includes Franz Rosenzweig. It is also notable that Guttman's work excludes major thinkers of the Kabbalistic school, which reflects his own attitude toward Jewish philosophy.[17]

## List of Wissenschaft des Judentums personalities

[edit]

Leopold Zunz (1794–1886), a founder of the Verein für Wissenschaft des Judentums Heinrich Graetz, (1817–1891): his magnum opus History of the Jews was written in the spirit of Wissenschaft des Judentums.

* Hermann Cohen
* Wilhelm Bacher
* Eduard Gans
* Heinrich Graetz
* Julius Guttmann
* Heinrich Heine
* David Zvi Hoffmann
* Moses Moser
* Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport
* Solomon Schechter
* Moritz Steinschneider
* Leopold Zunz
* Samuel David Luzzatto
* Ismar Elbogen
* Isaiah Sonne

## See also

[edit]

* Jewish portal
* Judaism portal

* Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums
* Jewish studies
* Sociology of Jewry

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Benzion Dinur (Dinaburg), "Wissenschaft des Judentums", Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd. Ed., 2007)
2. ^ VEREIN FÜR CULTUR UND WISSENSCHAFT DER JUDEN in the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906).
3. ^ Elon 2003, p. 110.
4. ^ Dr. Henry Abramson, Who Was Philo Judaeus of Alexandria?, minutes: 49:41–50:19, speaking on the Wissenschaft des Judentums.
5. ^ Langton, Daniel R. "Wandering Jews in England’s Green and Pleasant Land: Wissenschaft des Judentums in an Anglo-Jewish Context" in Wissenschaft des Judentums in Europe: Comparative and Transnational Perspectives Studia Judaica 76. editor Christian Wiese; Mirjam Thulin. Berlin: de Gruyter, Walter GmbH & Co, 2014.
6. ^ Mendes-Flohr1998 [page needed]
7. ^ Meyer 2004 [page needed]
8. ^ Mendes-Flohr 1998, p. 41.
9. ^ Meyer 2004, pp. 105–106.
10. ^ Elon 2003, p. 112.
11. ^ Meyer 2004, p. 106.
12. ^ Meyer 2004 [page needed]
13. ^ Elon 2003, p. 112.
14. ^ Mendes-Flohr 1998, p. 45
15. ^ Roth (1999, p. 3).
16. ^ Roth (1999).[page needed]
17. ^ Werblowsky (1964, p. ix).

## References

[edit]

* Elon, Amos (2003). The Pity of it All. Picador. ISBN 978-0-312-42281-3.
* Glatzer, Nahum N. (1964), "The beginnings of modern Jewish studies", in Altmann, Alexander (ed.), Studies in Nineteenth-Century Jewish Intellectual History, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 27–45.

* Levy, David B. (2002), "The Making of the ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA and the JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA" (PDF), Proceedings of the 37th Annual Convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries, Denver, CO, retrieved January 1, 2007`{{citation}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
* Mendes-Flohr, Paul (1998), "Jewish scholarship as a vocation", in Alfred L. Ivry, Elliot R. Wolfson & Allan Arkush (ed.), Perspectives on Jewish Thought and Mysticism: Proceedings of the International Conference held by The Institute of Jewish Studies, University College London, 1994, in Celebration of its Fortieth Anniversary, Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Harwood Academic Publishers, pp. 33–48, ISBN 9789057021947.
* Meyer, Michael A. (2004), "Two persistent tensions within Wissenschaft des Judentums" (PDF), Modern Judaism, 24 (2): 105–119, doi:10.1093/mj/kjh009 Kommunikation Unternehmen.
* Roth, Leon (1999) [1962]. Is there a Jewish Philosophy? Rethinking Fundamentals. London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.
* Schorsch, Ismar From Text to Context: The Turn to History in Modern Judaism (1994) ISBN 0-87451-664-1
* Werblowsky, R. J. Zwi (1964). Introduction. Philosophies of Judaism: The History of Jewish Philosophy from Biblical Times to Franz. By Julius Guttmann. Translated by David W. Silverman. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

## Further reading

[edit]

* George Y. Kohler, "Judaism Buried or Revitalised? ‘Wissenschaft des Judentums’ in Nineteenth Century Germany – Impact, Actuality and Applicability Today", in: Jewish Thought and Jewish Belief, (ed. Daniel J. Lasker), Beer Sheva 2012, p. 27-63.
* Michael A. Meyer, “Jewish Religious Reform and Wissenschaft des Judentums: The Positions of Zunz, Geiger and Frankel”, in: Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 16 (1971), pp. 19–41.
* Michael A. Meyer, “Two Persistent Tensions within Wissenschaft des Judentums”, in: Modern Judaism and Historical Consciousness, (ed. C. Wiese and A. Gotzmann), Leiden 2007, p. 73-89.
* Ismar Schorsch “Scholarship in the Service of Reform”, Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 35, 1990, pp. 73–101.

## External links

[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Leopold Zunz.

* Entry "Wissenschaft Des Judentums" by Benzion Dinur (Dinaburg) in the Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd. Ed., 2007)
* Goldestein Goren Intl. Center, e-lectures Wissenschaft des Judentums [1]
* Iancu, Carol From the "Science of Judaism" to the "New Israeli historians" - landmarks for a history of Jewish historiography [2]
* "The Freimann Collection." Digitized books based on Aron Freimann’s Wissenschaft des Judentums bibliography (Katalog der Judaica und Hebraica, Erster Band: Judaica, Frankfurt am Main: Stadtbibliothek Frankfurt am Main, 1932), from the collections of the Leo Baeck Institute, American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and other international collections
* Cultures of Wissenschaft des Judentums at 200. Zeitschrift der Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien e. V. / Journal of the German Association for Jewish Studies Online access to English articles

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* Sinocentrism
* Self-Strengthening Movement
* Sprouts of capitalism
* Tibetan sovereignty debate

France|

* Cordon sanitaire
* Frankish Interregnum [fr]
* Grand Siècle
* Legendary Saracen [fr]
* Location of Alésia [fr]
* Lyon [fr]
* Historiography of Vichy France

Germany|

* Alltagsgeschichte
* Borussian myth
* Historikerstreit
* Sonderweg
* Strukturgeschichte [de]
* Sybel-Ficker controversy
* Vergangenheitsbewältigung

India|

* Greater Magadha
* Indocentrism
* Indigenous Aryanism

Ireland|

* Great Famine
* "More Irish than the Irish themselves"
* Revisionism
* Revolutionary period

Italy|

* Fascist Italy
* Fourth Italian War of Independence
* Historiae Patriae Monumenta
* Historical Series of the Bank of Italy
* Italians, the good people
* Rerum italicarum scriptores
* Revisionism of Risorgimento
* Southern question
* Neo-Bourbonism

Poland|

* Golden Liberty
* Sarmatism
* Deluge
* Partitions
* Polish People's Republic [pl]

Russia|

* Anti-Normanism
* Pre-Revolutionary Russia [ru]
* Skeptic School [ru]
* Soviet Union
* October Revolution
* Soviet famine of 1930–1933
* Causes of the Holodomor
* Holodomor genocide question
* Holodomor in modern politics

Spain|

* Black legend / White legend
* Hispanism
* Carlism in the Francoist era
* Convivencia
* Inquisition
* Limpieza de sangre controversy [es]
* Reconquista
* Islamic revolution of Spain [es]
* Revisionist
* Colonies or Provinces
* Spanish decline [es]
* Ser de España [es]

Turkey|

* Kemalist
* Ottoman Empire
* Ghaza thesis
* Decline thesis

United
Kingdom|

* Poor Laws
* Scotland
* Kingdom of Alba
* Westminster Stone
* Storm over the gentry
* Suffragette Campaign
* Tudor myth
* Ricardians
* Winter of Discontent

| British
Empire|

* Cambridge School
* Porter–MacKenzie debate
* Second colonial occupation

|

Oceania|

* Colonial Australia

By war, conflict

* v
* t
* e

Military historiography

* Military history
* List of military museums

Pre-18th century
conflicts|

* Albigensian Crusade
* Catharism debate
* Crusades
* Islamic views
* Eighty Years' War
* Origins
* Fall of Babylon
* Gallic Wars
* Late Bronze Age collapse
* Dorian invasion
* Sea Peoples
* Peloponnesian War

18th and 19th
century conflicts|

| Coalition Wars
(1792–1815)|

* French Revolution
* Causes
* War in the Vendée
* Napoleonic era
* Invasion of Russia
* Waterloo

|

* American Civil War
* Origins
* Turning point
* Franco-Prussian War
* Causes
* Paris Commune
* Great Game
* Indian Rebellion of 1857
* Causes
* Paraguayan War
* War of 1812
* Origins
* War of the Pacific
* Causes

World War I|

* Causes (Color books / Fischer thesis)
* Late Ottoman genocides (Causes of the Armenian genocide)
* Patriotic consent
* Persian famine of 1917–1919
* Powder keg of Europe
* Schlieffen Plan
* Spirit of 1914 / 1917
* Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Germany imposed this on Russia in 1918

| Treaty of
Versailles|

* Reparations
* War guilt question
* Article 231
* Reichstag inquiry

|

Interwar period|

* Burning of Smyrna
* Polish–Soviet War
* Causes
* Spanish Civil War
* Background

World War II|

* Causes
* "Blitzkrieg" concept
* Broad vs. narrow front
* German resistance to Nazism
* Nazi foreign policy debate

| Eastern Front|

* Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
* Soviet offensive plans
* Soviets and the Warsaw Uprising
* Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia
* Winter War
* Background
* Spirit

|

The Holocaust|

* Auschwitz bombing debate
* Awareness in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe
* Functionalism–intentionalism debate
* In relation to the Armenian genocide / Nakba
* Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust
* Pius Wars
* "Polish death camp"
* Responsibility
* Slovakia
* Uniqueness

Pacific War|

* Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
* "Battle for Australia"
* Bengal famine
* Second Sino-Japanese War
* Nanjing Massacre

Western Front|

* Battle of France
* Guilty Men
* Résistancialisme
* Vichy France

Cold War|

* Origins
* 1948 Palestine war
* Palestinian expulsion and flight / Ongoing Nakba
* Zionism as settler colonialism
* New Historians
* Malayan Emergency
* Causes
* Algerian War
* Six-Day War
* Origins
* Iranian revolution
* Causes
* Iran–Iraq War
* Falklands War
* Sovereignty dispute
* Sri Lankan civil war
* Origins

Post-Cold War|

* Russo-Georgian War
* Background
* Responsibility
* Syrian revolution
* Causes

Related|

* Conflict thesis
* Gunpowder and gun transmission
* War and genocide

* Category

By person

| Political
leaders|

* Adolf Hitler
* Alexander the Great
* Amin al-Husseini
* Aurangzeb
* Cato the Younger
* Che Guevara
* Chiang Ching-kuo [zh]
* Chiang Kai Shek [zh]
* Constantine the Great
* Gregory Palamas
* Horatio Nelson
* Hypatia
* Jiang Zemin [zh]
* Joseph Stalin [ru]
* José de San Martín
* Juan Manuel de Rosas
* Klemens von Metternich
* Leonid Brezhnev
* Louis Riel
* Mao Zedong [zh]
* Muammar Gaddafi
* Napoleon
* Neville Chamberlain
* Pedro II of Brazil
* Simon Bolivar
* Cult of personality [es]
* Bolivarianism
* Saladin
* Sun Yat-sen [zh]
* Thomas Aquinas
* Thomas Jefferson
* Ulysses S. Grant
* Warren G. Harding
* Yuan Shikai [zh]
* Zhou Enlai [zh]
* Zhuge Liang [zh]

| Historical
rankings|

* Australia
* Canada
* Modern Germany
* Netherlands
* United Kingdom
* United States

|

Others|

* The Beatles
* Charles Darwin
* Friedrich Nietzsche
* H. P. Lovecraft
* Jane Austen
* Muhammed
* Historicity
* Judaism
* Medieval Christian
* Jesus
* Historicity
* Resurrection
* Religious perspectives
* Christianity
* Judaism
* Islam
* J. R. R. Tolkien
* The Lord of the Rings
* Madonna
* Robert Falcon Scott
* Socrates
* Søren Kierkegaard
* William Shakespeare

Other topics

* Bears in antiquity
* Crisis of historiography [pt]
* Feudalism
* Library of Alexandria
* Nationalism in the Middle Ages
* Professionalization and institutionalization of history
* Salons
* Western European colonialism and colonization
* Desacralization of knowledge

| Economics|

* Industrial Revolution
* Great Recession
* Great Depression
* School of Thoughts
* Historical school of economics
* English historical school of economics

|

Religion|

* Avestan geography
* Early Christianity
* Background
* Historical reliability of the Gospels
* Primacy of Peter
* Opposition to Papal supremacy
* Proto-orthodox Christianity
* Early Islam
* Criticism of the Quran
* Succession to Muhammad
* Islamic golden age
* Kharijites
* Ecclesiastical history of the Catholic Church
* Second Vatican Council
* Hermeneutics of Vatican Council II [it]
* Hesychast controversy
* Protestant Reformation
* Proto-Protestantism
* Criticism of Protestantism
* Protestant work ethic
* Jesuit historiography
* Modern Jewish history
* Wissenschaft des Judentums
* Schools of thought
* Biblical criticism
* Catholic theology
* Panbabylonism
* Urreligion
* Perennial
* Religionsgeschichtliche Schule
* Roman
* Revisionist school of Islamic studies

Science /
Technology|

* Merton thesis
* Protestant Ethic and Capitalism
* Heroic theory of invention and scientific development
* Gunpowder and gun transmission
* Torsion mangonel myth

Organizations, publications

* Heritage registers
* Historical society (list)
* History institutes
* History journals
* template

Related

* Commemorative plaque
* Documentary film
* Hagiography
* Historical fiction
* Historical realism
* Historiographic metafiction
* Historical geographic information system

* Category
* Multimedia

Authority control databases

National|

* United States
* Israel

Other|

* Yale LUX

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