Search Results (233)

The Dar Rabbi Haim Pinto is a small place of Saint veneration located in the medina of Casablanca. It is situated near a recently renovated area known as the “Triangle of Tolerance”, which comprises a synagogue, a mosque, and a church. This portion of the Old City has been heavily patrimonialized in the last decade and now encloses two museums which host Jewish objects. The Dar Rabbi Haim Pinto, located in the same area, has not attracted institutional attention. It remains a shared space of veneration and preserves religious objects in a form of insider-led practice of conservation. This article interrogates the different trajectories of religious heritage in the medina of Casablanca, highlighting how State-led projects of patrimonialization have resulted in a form of secularization of Jewish heritage. The study of Dar Rabbi Haim Pinto illustrates how rituality and faith can constitute different forms of motivation for the preservation of Jewish heritage in Casablanca and foster community resilience and transmission. The contribution is based on ethnographic and museological fieldwork within the Dar Rabbi Haim Pinto and in the surrounding urban area, coupled with semi-structured interviews with the guardian of the Dar and other members of the Jewish community of Casablanca. Full article

This article examines Daniel 10 as a key witness to the formation of early Jewish apocalyptic literature. The chapter portrays Daniel as a sage whose encounter with a celestial messenger prepares him to guide his community. Narratively, this scene introduces the final revelation of Daniel 11–12; ideologically, it expresses the authors’ conviction that access to the heavenly realm is achieved through scribal discipline and engagement with inherited traditions. The study advances two related contributions. Drawing on recent reassessments of apocalyptic origins—especially insights from Aramaic texts at Qumran—the study offers a new analysis of intertextuality in Daniel 10, highlighting how apocalyptic writing predates the persecutions of Antiochus IV and is developed through the reinterpretation of authoritative Scriptures in the Persian and Hellenistic periods. Daniel’s profile aligns with elite temple-based scribes who operated across imperial and cultic settings and used apocalyptic discourse in intra-Judean power struggles. In addition, the reference to the Tigris in Dan 10:4 is reinterpreted in light of Seleucia-on-Tigris, whose culturally hybrid environment illuminates the cosmopolitan backdrop of the maśkîlîm traditions. Full article

This study examines how social media platforms function as arenas for identity construction among minority student groups. Social media fosters a culture of connectivity, openness, and positive affect, projecting images of belonging that often contrast with the challenges faced by marginalized communities in everyday campus life and their yearning for distinction and communal boundaries. Drawing on Butler’s framework, identity online is understood as performative, emerging through repeated acts and recognizable signs, rather than as a reflection of fixed essence. Against this backdrop, the study investigates the Instagram presence of Hillel centers in the United States. A semiotic analysis of over one thousand Instagram images, supported by informal conversations with students, staff, and social media managers, reveals a communicative repertoire we term Celebrating Identity. This repertoire integrates Jewishness, youthfulness, national belonging, and institutional affiliation to produce a diffuse and inclusive Jewish identity. While such representations foster community and affirm multiple affiliations, they also risk masking the vulnerabilities and tensions experienced by Jewish students amid campus unrest and antisemitism. Social media thus emerges as both a resource of empowerment and a fragile form of support for minority identity work in contemporary higher education. Full article

In recent years, a growing number of interpreters propose that the audience in Romans is purely gentile. Problematic for this position is that Jewish persons are greeted by Paul towards the end of the letter in Romans 16:3–16. Respondents appeal to an ancient epistolary convention suggesting that second-person greetings to a third party identify those who are not among the letter’s recipients. Also, the encoded reader is said to be a gentile. This study, however, presents from ancient epistolary conventions most relevant to Rom. 16 that second-person plural greetings assume the third parties are among the same community as the letter recipients. Internal evidence from Rom. 16:6 and 16:16 also confirms this viewpoint. As well, beyond the encoded reader, a reading that affirms the historical recipients of the letter suggests that these recipients include the persons who are named in Rom. 16. Full article

This article explores the concept of blood and the Jewish “Blood Community” (Blutgemeinschaft) in Franz Rosenzweig’s Star of Redemption. It looks at how this notion is deeply ensconced with literary and philosophic practices connected to “Rabbinic Thought.” The article draws parallels between Rosenzweig’s own interpretive practices and those of contemporary Rosenzweig scholars seeking to use his “Blood Community” to buttress the position of the (Jewish) philosopher in the Anglo-American public sphere. It highlights the “Blood Community’s” role in allowing Rosenzweig to offer a universalist critique of the State and a particularist conception of Jewish identity. Full article

This article examines the impact of 19th-century Jewish emancipation on architecture through the example of the Yüksek Kaldırım Ashkenazi Synagogue in Istanbul. The emancipation process enhanced the public visibility of Jews, and synagogue architecture emerged as a medium reflecting this new search for identity. The adoption of Orientalist architectural trends—which became widespread in 19th-century Europe—as an expression of Jewish identity led to the incorporation of Eastern styles, particularly those influenced by Islamic and Andalusian esthetics, in synagogue design. Within this framework, the article analyzes the architectural design of the Yüksek Kaldırım Ashkenazi Synagogue, commissioned by an Ashkenazi congregation that had migrated from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and explores the intellectual and historical context behind its Orientalist style. Identity representation is assessed through architectural elements such as arch forms, ornamentation, and structural arrangements inspired by Islamic architecture. The architect, construction process, and the social position of the Ashkenazi community within the Ottoman Empire are also examined through historical documentation. In conclusion, the synagogue constructed in Istanbul is interpreted as a reflection of the Orientalist architectural approach embraced by Jewish communities in Europe, as manifested within the Ottoman context, drawing attention to the relationship between identity, belonging, and architectural representation. Full article

This study examined cultural differences in teachers’ attitudes towards the inclusion of students with disabilities in Jewish and Arab Israeli schools. We explored whether cultural differences influence attitudes and perceptions, considering the distinct educational contexts and cultural values. The research involved 1191 teachers who completed an inclusion questionnaire. Jewish teachers rated inclusion more positively across all domains, with no significant differences between school levels. Arab teachers showed more positive attitudes in elementary schools, but these declined in high schools, reflecting cultural tendencies toward community-oriented practices at the primary level. The study highlights the role of cultural values, such as collectivism in Arab communities, in shaping educational practices and underscores the impact of sociocultural dynamics on the success of inclusive education. Full article

The Knanaya Christians, also referred to as Thekkumbhagar or Southists, represent a distinct endogamous group within the wider community of Saint Thomas Christians of southern India. Their origins can be traced to the arrival of Jewish Christians led by Knai Thoma or Thomas of Cana, who migrated to the Malabar Coast from Persia in 345CE. Upon their arrival, they mingled with the established Christian population of the Malabar Coast, known as the Vadakkumbhagar or the Northists, whose roots extend back to the apostolic mission of Saint Thomas in the 1st century CE. However, the Knanaya Christians have successfully preserved their unique identity through the practice of endogamy, which keeps their bloodlines separate from those of the Vadakkumbhagar, while also maintaining a spiritual connection and liturgical continuity with the latter. Despite their matrimonial exclusivity, the Knanaya Christians have followed the same developmental path as the larger Thomas Christian community, sharing liturgical practices, enjoying similar privileges, facing the same challenges during the Portuguese era, experiencing divisions in the 17th century, and striving to preserve their identity. The migration of this endogamous community to other parts of the world since the mid-20th century, in similar lines with different groups of Thomas Christians, has posed challenges to their traditions and practices, especially endogamy. This paper explores how Knanaya Christians maintain and adapt their endogamous marriage traditions in transnational settings by focusing on how Knanaya religious authorities and lay members collectively negotiate these tensions—whether by reinforcing endogamy or adapting it in response to shifting realities in North American settings. Full article

In hagiographic accounts, the fictitious Christian saint Judas Kyriakos is made to speak Hebrew-like words. In both his inventio and passio narratives, Judas Kyriakos’ voice is made to transverse the fraught landscape of Jewish conversion, and highlights his indelible Jewishness even long after his conversion to Christianity. Despite not being actual Hebrew, his pseudo-Hebrew gibberish has been labelled as Hebrew across sources for a millennium. The present essay examines how Judas Kyriakos’ speech is challenged and subverted by a parallel figure, Rabbi Yehuda, composed as his foil in the Jewish Toledot Yeshu tradition; and the ways in which doctrine, magic, polemic, and identity are all entangled within saintly speech in both legends. Specific case studies of Judas Kyriakos’ cult in the medieval trade cities of Provins and Ancona are analyzed to illustrate how his public veneration posed direct polemical threats to local Jewish communities, further necessitating the counter-narrative. Full article

This article explores an interreligious educational initiative jointly developed by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) and the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), the “Sixteen Sheets on Judaism,” created to support Catholic religious education in Italian schools. Using a dialogical-hermeneutic methodology within a constructivist qualitative framework, the study applies Hermeneutic Content Analysis to thematically code and interpret the corpus. The analysis shows how the sheets seek to dismantle long-standing stereotypes and theological distortions about Judaism—often still present in educational settings—and to prevent forms of antisemitism by fostering accurate knowledge and mutual respect. Key themes include the Hebrew Scriptures, the Written and Oral Torah, and the Jewish identity of Jesus and Paul. The materials promote mutual recognition and religious literacy through dialogical engagement and the affirmation of Judaism as a living and autonomous tradition. By enabling Jewish self-representation and encouraging theological reciprocity, the sheets exemplify a model of transformative non-formal education. The article positions this case within broader debates on interreligious pedagogy and presents it as a valuable tool for inclusive curriculum design and intercultural citizenship. Full article

Among Ethiopian Jews, as among all other Jewish communities throughout history, the process of conversion to Judaism, and attitudes toward converts, were shaped by the circumstances of time and place. This article investigates conversion as practiced in the Beta Israel community. It examines the motivations for conversion and the process itself. Naturally, conversion was not uniform across all Ethiopian Jewish communities, but common fundamental features reflected a core understanding of conversion, expressed in a process that was quicker than the standard conversion practice in Israel. The testimonies presented in the article describe in detail both the process and the background to the unique traditional Ethiopian Jewish approach to conversion. This article shows that in some communities, different and more rigorous conversion ceremonies were held. A central claim of the article is that in recent generations, significant changes have occurred in the conversion process in several communities as a result of the interaction between Ethiopian Jewish communities and the State of Israel and its Orthodox rabbinic establishment. This interaction, which at times included pressures for members of the community themselves to undergo a form of conversion, introduced into some communities the terminology and processes of Orthodox conversion. Full article

Particularly in the post-October 7 period, the use of the word or utterance “Jew,” or “Jewish,” is (once more) a pertinent example for understanding conflict, geopolitics, and the relation between religion and politics. Based on my ongoing ethnographic work, which explores how this is experienced in the Greek university world, I provide here a mode of understanding dominant ideological and/or intellectual origins of people’s stances in the academic workplace when they use, or encounter, the “Jewish” signifier. I do not provide ethnographic material as much as I provide a context for understanding the ethnography of a specific academic–intellectual universe. As a particular public sphere, the academic workplace has its own attitudes and strategies for handling ideological and politico-philosophical differences within itself. This condition, I suggest, can accommodate a felt predicament among interlocutors, colleagues, and other interrelated actors, as has been the case particularly during the last couple of years. The conflict in the Middle East brings the geopolitical into the classroom and onto campus in ways that may reconfigure and unsettle power relations and sentiment in the community. I trace the origins of this predicament through a synoptic genealogical trajectory from the 1960s to the present. Full article

In the early years of the Christian Church, it was difficult to reach a consensus on the relationship between God, the Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ. One focus of the discussions was the pre-established relationship between God and his wisdom, as described in Prov 8:22–25 and Sir 24. An original contribution was the Council of Nicaea’s approach to the terms ‘creator’ and ‘creature’, both of which were related to the understanding of the Hebrew verb קנה and the Greek verb κτίζω in those passages. This study employs novel linguistic methods to elucidate the meaning of both verbs, providing fresh insights into how the Alexandrian Jewish and Christian communities interpreted the relationship between God and his wisdom, and how this influenced the terminology of the Nicene Creed. Full article

Cultural and religious norms significantly influence reproductive decisions, including prenatal testing and pregnancy termination. We conducted a cross-sectional study among Muslim women living in mixed Jewish-Arab cities compared to those in predominantly Arab cities in Israel. Data for all co-variates were obtained through participants’ self-reports by an online questionnaire of 36 items for adequate content validity between July 2022 and June 2023. In total, 1081 Israeli Muslim women aged 18–49 years were enrolled. Religious affiliation has been shown to influence individuals’ attitudes toward abortion, with members of religious communities often holding more restrictive or negative views on the subject. Muslim women residing in mixed Jewish-Arab cities demonstrate significantly higher uptake of both non-invasive and invasive prenatal testing, as well as pregnancy terminations following abnormal diagnoses, compared to those in predominantly Arab cities (p < 0.001), which indicates that proximity to Jewish communities, greater availability of health services, and exposure to more permissive social norms in mixed cities may reduce religious and cultural barriers, thereby facilitating more informed reproductive decisions. Older women (≥35) in mixed cities had a higher tendency to birth a child with abnormalities in the past than Arab cities (80.9% vs. 70.0%, respectively), However, women who lived in mixed cities underwent more non-invasive (87.2% vs. 64.8%, respectively), invasive prenatal tests (85.1% vs. 69.7%, respectively), and pregnancy termination (88.3% vs. 64.1%, respectively) than those in Arab cities, p < 0.001. Our findings indicate the importance of gaining a deeper understanding of the relations between religious convictions, cultural standards, and medical practices that should contribute to reducing the prevalence of genetic disorders with their associated adverse impact on families, communities, and healthcare systems. Full article

Genealogy is the study of family history and ancestral lineage, tracing relationships across generations through records and narratives. The digital revolution has shifted genealogical research from traditional archives to online platforms. Grounded in knowledge co-creation theory, this study examined the role of social media communities and their managers as knowledge hubs within the genealogical ecosystem. Its central innovation lies in identifying two emerging actors in modern genealogical knowledge ecology: the online community as a hub of expertise and the community manager as a key figure in knowledge creation. Drawing on interviews with fifteen Facebook managers of genealogical communities from diverse Jewish backgrounds worldwide, the study explored their perceptions of online genealogical spaces and their roles as facilitators of knowledge. Participants demonstrated a high level of professionalism and thoughtful engagement with sources; however, verifying the accuracy of genealogical claims was not within the scope of this study. Interviews were conducted in English and Hebrew based on participant preference. Thematic analysis revealed five key areas: two focused on the community’s role as a knowledge hub for both members and outsiders, and three on the manager’s role through self-perception, member engagement, and strategic initiatives. As part of a broader dissertation, this chapter deepens understanding of collaborative, community-driven genealogical knowledge in the age of social media. Full article