A Double Crime in Erlangen

Despite the important amount of researches dedicated to the extreme left - RAF, among others - crimes and developments in West Germany significantly less attention was paid to the wave of far right violence who reached its highest peek at the beginning of 1980s. Interestingly, even less was written - at least internally - about the common denominator of the two extremes, who often got professional training for their attacks against Jews and Israel in the same training camps in Lebanon or Iraq, among others.

Professor Uffa Jensen researched a case relatively less covered that may echo however ´the spirit of the time´: the double murder of Shlomo Lewin, an Israeli/German Jew and his non-Jewish German partner Frida Poeschke. Killed in cold blood in their apartment in Erlangen by members of the Bavarian far right movement. 

The book is trying to put together all the elements of the crime, connected with the overall mood in Germany, particularly Bavaria, and the main actors of the far right scene, eventually involved in the crime like WSG Hoffmann. A serious crime that was relatively fast forgotten and superficially analysed and contextualized.

Overall, a very interesting analysis of an episode representative for a very specific mindset with reverberations until today. 

The Yeshiva and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature by Marina Zilbergerts

I am reading a lot of OTD memoirs and novels, but very often I had a déjà vu. Every time I delved into stories of dramatically breaking up with tradition, and starting a secular life, while keeping the mental traces of the life before, it sounded like there is a much older story behind it.

The Yeshiva and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature by Marina Zilbergerts is connecting the historical and literary dots from past Jewish experiences to current times. The book aims and suceeds offering a new model for understanding the rise of modern Hebrew letters, in the larger context of and connected with the mentality challenges underwent by the majority in the midst of which Jews leaved.

The end of the 19th century Russia marked not only the rise of a new generation of Jewish writers, not few of them former yeshiva students, who will create under the more or less distant influence of thhe Russian intellectual trends, particularly the anti-religious ones. 

´The world of Talmudic study - its practices, themes, and language - served as a rich reservoir of expression for writers engaged in the creation of new Hebrew literatures well into the twentieth century´. 

Most of the anti-religious authors who pioneered the Hebrew literature used to be yeshiva students and although their work grew in the non-Jewish environment, whose topics - modern love, among others - were included into their literary repertoire, they remained anchored into the Jewish religious mindset. Similarly, the OTD literature - mostly memoirs though - is adapting to modern, anti-religious topics, while maintaining the Jewish mindset.

Interestingly, Zilbergerts specifically traces the influences from the Russian literature, with authors references, in the works of Jewish writers in Yiddish and Russian.

The book is well organised and very rich in literary references, particularly from the modern Hebrew literature. My list of classical Jewish writing is growing by the day and such well-written monographies are inspiring me to explore more sources and authors. 

Zionism. An emotional state by Derek J. Penslar

There are many different ways to approach a movement like Zionism and the focus on emotional aspects is clearly one of them. But what type of national-ism/-oriented movement isn´t emotional? Similarly with a religious awakening, a nationalism requests more emotiona connection than rational choice. In moderate dosis it can magnify the individual, offering them a place within the larger community, with at least one function to perform: being counted towards the identity group.

Zionism, at least in terms of theoretical origin, can be placed under the same category of national revival occuring in the 19th century. Canadian-American historian Derek J. Penslar is analyzing it as ´an emotional state´, which may be a very interesting take.

Is Zionism different than any other national mainstream movements? It answers a different national aspiration and clearly is based on a different narrative than, let´s say French nationalism. And although the book has a solid factual historical background, it lacks the deeper connection, including emotional, which makes Zionism slightly different also from the historical point of view. Across centuries, no one prayed to return to Germany or France, but the idea of Zionism pre-existed the 19th century.

The author quotes from Bava Batra 158B: ´the air of Eretz Israel creates wisdom´. I´ve heard a variant of this very often and it shows a thought that goes, including emotionally, beyond the current debate confronting antisemitism and anti-Zionism or the state of Israel in general. Such references would have offer a much realistic overview of a movement that, clearly, is the subject of more emotional interest than any other in the world. Understanding the ´why´ is still something that needs to be answered.

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review