Search Results (390)

Over the past two decades, research on issues of agency and liminality around borders has highlighted the mutual permeability, fluidity and overlapping of spheres such as religion and politics, providing arguments on the construction of identity and otherness that allow us to reappraise long-standing historical debates. This framework is particularly illuminating for the case of 15th-century Castile, when consolidation of a pioneering centralized monarchy in Europe witnessed the end of the coexistence between Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities, eventually leading to the persecution of converts and the expulsion of cultural and religious minorities. Drawing upon both primary and secondary sources, and adopting the analytical framework of frontier-crossing, this article identifies the conditions under which particular social agents reconfigured the boundaries between religion and politics in 15th-century Castile. It further examines the process by which border crossing by various agents made customs and everyday practices crystallize into a third sphere for the construction of alterity and exclusion and analyzes the specific context in which the intersection of these three domains contributed to the stigmatization of Jews, Muslims and converts, ultimately leading to their exclusion and expulsion. Initially subordinated to theological and legal concerns, social practices, rituals and ceremonies became central to discourse intersecting the political, religious and moral domains, underpinning social stigmatization and the institutional mechanisms of rising monarchical centralization. Full article

In her final novel, Daniel Deronda (1876), George Eliot (1819–1880) repeatedly stages moments in which gentile characters project expectations onto Jewish women, drawing on inherited cultural representations from literature, history, and the performing arts. These moments reveal how limited their real-world knowledge of Jews—particularly Jewish women—was, and how readily they relied on cultural templates rather than lived experience. George Eliot herself, however, had undertaken extensive study of Jewish history, religion, and culture in preparation for the novel, including research into the Talmud, Mishna, kabbalah, and halacha (Jewish law). Yet this knowledge is purposefully not afforded to her characters. This article examines George Eliot’s increasing understanding of Jewish society, and her shifting attitudes towards Judaism, and explores how allusions to Jewish women in history, literature, and performance shape the gentile characters’ othering of Mirah Lapidoth, a young Jewish woman fleeing enforced familial exploitation, whom Daniel rescues from drowning in the Thames. Two significant conceptual terms underpin my argument. Objectification refers here not only to eroticisation or aestheticisation, but to the broader process by which Mirah is perceived as a symbolic figure—as an image, a type, or role—rather than a fully realised person. Othering denotes the interpretative habit by which gentile characters position Mirah through pre-existing stereotypes or literary precedents, instead of understanding her as a subject with her own history and interiority. Rescue describes the narrative mechanisms by which Mirah is brought into focus, first through Daniel’s intervention, then through her placement within the Meyrick household, and finally through marriage, though always within structures that continue to idealise, discipline, or contain her. I argue that George Eliot’s deployment of familiar stereotypes does not reinforce them; instead, she exposes them as cultural constructions that must be deconstructed or exorcised before she reconstructs her own version of Jewish culture and identity, which she referred to as “the inner life of modern Judaism” in her notebooks. I also argue that Daniel’s rescue of Mirah, rather than an act of pure benevolence, becomes a further site of objectification, othering her as an idealised model of Jewish womanhood rather than acknowledging her as an autonomous individual. Full article

In Psalm 91, the psalmist implores Jews not to become overwhelmed by fear, promising that God will protect and deliver the faithful from the troubles that threaten them. Foremost among these, as laid out in verse 6, are “pestilences” and “plagues.” Reciting or praying this psalm and this verse has been used for centuries as a way for Jews to remain hopeful in the face of challenges, especially during times of pandemic disease. This paper details how the rabbinic literature understood Psalm 91:6 as a description of a demonic force, and describes how Jews were told to protect themselves from this force, namely through faith and trust in God and through religious observance. The paper also discusses the Jewish experience with pestilential disease, from the 14th century plague pandemic to the 19th century cholera pandemics to the 1918 influenza pandemic and to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the paper lays out how Jews have made use of Psalm 91:6 in responding to the threat of pandemics, especially during COVID-19, including through both prayer and more esoteric applications. Full article

Mycorrhizae utilization is an integral part of the strategy for adapting to climate change in semi-arid regions. A controlled experiment was conducted at the University of Limpopo, South Africa, to determine the effects of arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF) and soil type on crop growth and root colonization of Jew’s mallow. Treatments comprised two levels of mycorrhiza (with and without), two soil sources (Ofcolaco and Syferkuil), and three Jew’s mallow cultivars (“Amugbadu”, “Oniyaya”, and a landrace). The results revealed that the Amugbadu cultivar produced the highest Mycorrhizal growth response (MGR) in Syferkuil soil, whereas the Oniyaya cultivar was the highest in Ofcolaco soil. MGR in Ofcolaco soil was six times higher than in Syferkuil soil. AMF-inoculated Amugbadu consistently resulted in the highest crop growth rate (CGR) in Ofcolaco soil. The inoculated landrace was superior in CGR, compared to the uninoculated landrace in Syferkuil soil. Approximately 71.23–75.86% of the Jew’s mallow roots were colonized by AMF in both soil sources, with inoculated “Amugbadu” producing the highest root colonization. The landrace root colonization was inferior in both soil sources. Our results indicate that incorporating AMF in Jew’s mallow could improve root colonization, growth rate, and productivity in the semi-arid regions of South Africa, depending on soil type. Full article

This article advances a method of anthropological contextualization for a Christian theological reading that applies the salvation of all Israel in Rom 11:26 to the present, by comparing Paul’s first-century people categories with those of the modern world. In Rom 9–11 Paul deals with the hardened Israelites of his day—the torah-observant descendants of Jacob who rejected Jesus—distinguishing them from gentiles and from the broader category of Jews which includes proselytes. Paul envisions alternating waves of salvation between Israelites and gentiles, so that some of the hardened Israelites of his day join the remnant Israelites (those who have already believed in Jesus), together constituting all Israel—a synchronic reference to the totality of believing Israelites in Paul’s time. Tracing those first-century Israelites forward, however, is not possible: tribal genealogies were lost and Jewish communities expanded and diversified through intermarriage, conversion, and apostasy. Consequently, equating Paul’s Israelites with modern Jews as a fixed, continuous biological entity is unwarranted. Contextualized today, the expectation of all Israel’s salvation encompasses all nations, including Jews, without reconstituting Israel as a biological or national category distinct from the church. Full article

Mamluk historiography is predominantly centred on the political actions of the ruling elite, particularly sultans and senior officials, whose careers and decisions are extensively documented in chronicles, biographical dictionaries, and autobiographical writings. In contrast, lower-ranking members of the ruling hierarchy appear only sporadically and occupy a structurally marginal position within historical narratives. Legendary and folkloric traditions are similarly marginalised, typically remaining outside the scope of official historiography and surviving primarily through oral transmission or in sources linked to socially and politically peripheral groups. Although a small number of reports attributed to lower-ranking mamluks are preserved in certain texts, they were largely ignored by Mamluk historians. This article examines Mamluk accounts of the legend of the “Green City” located in Tīh Banī Isrāʾīl (the Wilderness of the Children of Israel) in Sinai. The story is attributed to the Mamluks, who allegedly encountered the city while fleeing to Bilād al-Shām after the assassination of al-Amīr Fāris al-Dīn Aqṭāy by Sultan al-Muʿizz Aybak in 652/1254. Despite its proximity to this major political event, the narrative survives only in brief references by six historians across the entire Mamluk period (648–923/1250–1517). By analysing the transmission and marginalisation of this account, the article argues that the legendary narrative of the Green City offers a revealing case study of how extraordinary desert traditions were selectively incorporated into Mamluk historiography. A microhistorical and critical reading of the story further illuminates the interplay between oral testimony, desert knowledge, and the historiographical practices that shaped the preservation, adaptation, or omission of such narratives. Full article

Background/Objectives. The Black Death pandemic, combined with the antisemitic climate of 14th-century Europe, led to widespread violence against Jewish communities, including numerous pogroms such as the one in 1348 in Tàrrega (Catalonia, Spain). In the Roquetes necropolis of Tàrrega, six communal graves containing at least sixty-nine individuals, with signs of violence, were dated to the mid-14th century. Based on the hypothesis that Iberian medieval Jewish communities preserve genetic similarities to other ancient and modern Jewish communities, our study aims to provide genomic information on medieval Iberian communities, which to date have been unknown. Methods. We analyzed DNA from sixteen individuals from the Roquetes necropolis using Twist ancient DNA enrichment capture. Several paleogenomic analyses based on nuclear DNA and uniparental markers were conducted to determine their genetic relatedness and population origin. Results. PCA and ADMIXTURE analyses revealed genetic affinities with ancient and modern Jewish populations. Uniparental markers, which exhibited high diversity, aligned with typical patterns within the Jewish community. The qpAdm modeling suggested that the genetic composition of the Roquetes population can be explained by a mixture of Canaan individuals (0.69) and the Iberian non-Jewish non-Islamic medieval population (0.31). No close genetic kinship was detected, but RHO analyses indicated a certain level of background endogamy. Conclusions. This is the first study to report genomic data for medieval Iberian Jews. Our findings reveal genomic affinities of the Roquetes individuals with ancient and modern Jewish populations and corroborate the previous attribution of the burials to victims of the 1348 Tàrrega pogrom. Full article

Millenarianism originated from apocalyptic literature in Judaism, emphasizing that the “Messiah” would establish a “millennial kingdom” on earth ruled by the Jews. This ideology became a theoretical weapon for Jews to resist imperial tyranny during classical antiquity and was later embraced by early Christian theology. By the early modern period, with the intense unfolding of the Reformation and social upheavals, the theory of the “millennial kingdom” re-emerged as a mainstream topic in Christian theology. Regarding the nature of the “millennial kingdom” and how it would be realized, early modern Christian factions split into two interpretive camps. One emphasized the spiritual attributes of the “millennial kingdom”, while the other stressed its material aspects, advocating the violent establishment of a political entity on earth ruled by Christians. These two distinct interpretive models ultimately converged on the issue of colonial expansion, transforming millenarianism into a theoretical tool to justify overseas expansion. Full article

The Ottoman Empire possessed a multi-religious social structure whose continuity was maintained through legal and administrative mechanisms. While Muslims, Christians, and Jews preserved their religious identities within the imperial framework, conversion was a closely monitored and regulated process at both the individual and public levels. Because religious conversion had direct consequences for taxation, legal and social status, family structure, and communal affiliation, it became a matter of concern for the Ottoman legal order. In this context, the sharia courts constituted the primary institutional arena in which cases of ihtidā (conversion) were recorded, supervised, and given legal effect; they also produced the principal documentation that verified the procedural validity of conversion and secured the legal standing of new Muslims. This study examines the social and legal contexts of religious conversion in the Ottoman provinces through cases recorded in the sixteenth- to nineteenth-century court registers of the district of Rodosçuk. It challenges interpretations that portray ihtidā as a coercive and one-directional policy of Islamization, demonstrating instead that legal protection and economic opportunity could function both as outcomes of conversion and as enabling preconditions. The study also questions assumptions about systematic judicial bias against non-Muslims, emphasizing that in the Rodosçuk example the courts operated as a neutral forum accessible to different confessional communities. The evidence suggests that conversion unfolded through slow, gradual, and largely individual processes shaped by the combined influence of religious, economic, and social motivations. Full article

Background/Objectives: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most prevalent cancer and a chief cause of cancer-related mortality throughout the world. SIRT6 is a fundamental sirtuin that governs several disease processes encompassing inflammation and cancer, including HCC. Longevity in centenarian Ashkenazi Jews was recently associated to novel allelic variants of SIRT6 (N308K/A313S), which ameliorate genome maintenance and DNA repair, and suppress cancer cells. It is currently unknown whether the above-mentioned SIRT6 variants display divergent or similar roles in HCC pathogenesis, compared to the wild-type (WT) counterpart. Methods: Our goal was to elucidate how these new centenarian-associated SIRT6 genetic variants may modulate HCC cell lines’ (HepG2 and Huh-7) aggressiveness and behavior, using functional and transcriptomic approaches. Results: We demonstrate that adeno-associated virus (AAV2/8)-mediated overexpression of centenarian-associated SIRT6 variants hampered HCC cell proliferation, with transcriptomic data showing the modulation of hallmark genes involved in the turnover of collagen/extracellular matrix (ECM). In addition, we found that AAV2/8-mediated overexpression of SIRT6 N308K/A313S decreased invasion and also increased stiffness in HCC cells, as measured by nanoindentation, in a more pronounced fashion compared to SIRT6 WT. Intracellular stiffness is a property of the cancer cells themselves, which, along with ECM invasiveness, plays a significant role in the progression of HCC. Conclusions: These data suggest that increased intracellular stiffening mirrors increased cell motility and invasive behavior; it can be indicative of suppressed cancer development and progression by the centenarian-associated SIRT6 N308K/A313S mutant. Full article

This study examines the dialectic between “navigating secularism” and “lived religion” in the context of modern Jewish Orthodoxy, focusing on the rulings of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (1910–1995) regarding secular Jews. The research relies on two analytical models: Ravitzky’s theological model, based on the Chazon Ish’s distinction between a “full wagon” and an “empty wagon”; and the phenomenological model of Zohar and Sagi, which examines the halakhic distinction between belonging to the religious collective versus the ethnic collective. Contrary to the consensus of 20th-century halakhic authorities, who applied the category of “captured child” (tinok shenishba) to modern secular Jews, Rabbi Auerbach rejects this categorical expansion and reinstates the traditional halakha: one who publicly desecrates the Sabbath has the status of a gentile in all matters. This normative decision yields far-reaching halakhic implications: prohibition of a secular person’s contact with wine, prohibition of inviting a secular person for festivals, and more. The study identifies an internal tension in Rabbi Auerbach’s rulings: theoretically, he considers whether it might be preferable to die than to live as a gentile, but practically, he permits saving secular Jews on the Sabbath based on extra-halakhic theological reasoning. This tension reflects a conflict between his loyalty to halakhic deontology and his humane character. The study classifies Rabbi Auerbach within the ahistorical approach, which views the halakhic conceptual system as an eternal entity. Nevertheless, the religious public perceives him as a lenient authority toward secular Jews. This gap is explained through Wolfgang Iser’s hermeneutics and the category of “textual indeterminacy”: readers interpret his words through the prism of an expectation for tolerance, based on their perception of his warm personality, thereby creating a subjective textual meaning. Full article

There are many stories in the Hebrew Bible that depict prominent Jews in the epicentre of a foreign imperia, and biblical scholarship essentially classifies every such narrative as court tales in terms of genre. Notwithstanding nuances and sub-categorisations (e.g., court contest and court conflict, wisdom court legend, success story of the wise courtier), to have one catch-all genre designation is imprudent and amorphous. This paper argues, using Formkritik and Gattungskritik, for three subgenres whereby foreign royal stories may be distinguished. One type of tale involves a foreign king who is either sleepless (Dan 6, Esth 6) or dreams (Gen 41, Dan 2 and 4); in the former, a king intervenes favourably for Jews in distress, while in the latter, the king’s dreams are interpreted by a wise Jewish courtier. Another type of tale is the imperial banquet, where an intoxicated gentile king orders the death of a high official (Dan 5, Esth 1, 5/7); this is wrought by a woman who exploits the king’s wine-induced disposition to effect lethal action with disastrous repercussions for the kingdom. Still another type of tale is the court tale proper; these episodes, however, are restricted to the courtly etiquette and decorum of courtiers who sagaciously advise the king, alongside its tensions with monotheism (Dan 3; Esth 3). As a result of this preliminary investigation, the typical setting of the political centre of the foreign imperium in Hebrew Bible narratives comprises three subgenres: court tales, banquet tales, and bedchamber tales. Since genres are determined by the common story forms, each distinct genre is scientifically determined by corresponding distinct narrative structures, vocabulary, and outcomes. Thus, what is proposed is a more illuminating distinction to the wide array and nebulous conglomeration of biblical stories involving Jews in prominent spaces within the foreign king’s court. Furthermore, the implications of the contended three subgenres involve calcifying religious practices, which become vital expressions of Judaism in the Second Temple period. Full article

Personal experiences, even when recounted as autobiographical novels, can deepen our understanding of the past, as they present a lived history of real events. In the novel De două mii de ani (For Two Thousand Years), Iosef Mendel Hechter, using the literary pseudonym Mihail Sebastian, recounts his experience as a young Jewish intellectual, born and raised in Romania, in a society divided by ethnic tensions driven by ultra-nationalism and anti-Semitism. Our study aims to critically examine, through a historical perspective, the socio-political realities depicted by the author, the collective mentality, and the typological stereotypes of his fictional characters. These reflect the actual choices and paths taken by Romanian Jews in their responses to the anti-Semitic pressures of the era. We believe that adopting this less frequently explored perspective will enrich both our understanding of that period and the depth of the novel itself. Thus, autobiographical literature and history engage in a meaningful dialogue, where microhistory, represented by the individual experience of the main character, Ștefan Valeriu, can verify or refine macrohistory, particularly the social, political, and economic context in which interwar Romanian society developed. Full article

Intergroup communication (IC) serves as a critical arena in which narratives, worldviews, and group behaviors are expressed, confronted, and translated into concrete communicative practices. Within this unique space of interaction, divergent narratives may remain rigid and unchanging, manifesting as parallel monologues that coexist without genuine engagement. Yet, under certain conditions, such communication can also open the door to dynamic processes of mutual challenge, development, and transformation. This narrative literature review aims to strengthen the growing connection between the scholarship on narratives in societies embroiled in intractable conflict and the well-established research tradition on intergroup contact. Specifically, it seeks to enhance our understanding of the interplay between narratives, behaviors, and communication practices in both face-to-face (FTF) and online contexts of IC. While the discussion includes broader global perspectives, the primary case study centers on the ongoing conflict and communicative interactions between Israeli Jews and Palestinians. Full article

This study aimed to identify young school students’ language learning strategies (LLSs) within their diverse socio-linguistic reality. The study was conducted in one elementary school in a peripheral city characterized by a heterogeneous population (Arabs and Jews) and immigrants from various countries who speak multiple languages. The principal of this school opted to introduce young children (Grades 1 and 2) to four languages: Hebrew, as a socially dominant language; Russian and Arabic, as the children’s home languages; and English, as a global language. We used photo elicitation and dialogical conversation to obtain reflections of 11 Arab and Jewish students (Grade 2). Each student was asked to describe the strategies they used to learn a novel language in the classroom and at home. Findings support the appropriateness of Oxford’s taxonomy to young language learners: all LLSs’ categories were reported. This study contributes to our understanding of children’s ability to use LLSs in early primary school. It highlights the leading role of language teachers who seem to mediate by modelling LLSs. Furthermore, it enriches the understanding of how 7–8-year-old learners can use diverse metacognitive LLSs and transfer them across languages. We also found one “child-specific” characteristics of the strategy related to parental involvement. Full article