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The academic study of Judaism, including the modern, critical study of Jewish history, began in 19th century Germany. Early 19th-century German society afforded history a new and prominent role. The spirit of the age, romantic nationalism, argued that the forces of history and tradition were dominating factors in human behavior. Historian Howard Sachar explains, “To understand any belief or ideal, any custom or institution, one had merely to examine its gradual growth from primitive beginnings to its present form. The validity of any institution or idea was no longer to be measured by its reasonableness or utility, but rather by its origin and history.” In this manner, the 19th century became the age of historical investigation.
Modern historical investigation introduced the methodology of science to history. In an effort to discover “what really happened”--to separate fact from fiction--historians were expected to collect and analyze their sources objectively. The results, reasoned scholars, would dispel ignorance and promote understanding of people, cultures and institutions.
The birth of modern historical method coincided with a period of conservatism and mounting anti-semitism in Germany. During this period, maskilim (followers of the Jewish enlightenment movement) questioned why large segments of Christian society continued to display hostility toward them despite the fact that they had acquired knowledge of European culture and adopted its manners and behavior.
One group of maskilim reasoned that this continued hostility resulted from European society’s ignorance of Judaism’s history and its contribution to European culture. In order to present the treasures of Jewish creativity to the non-Jewish world, these Jews, mostly university students, founded a group dedicated to raising Jewish scholarship from obscurity to science, called the Society for Culture and Science among the Jews (Wissenschaft des Judenthums) in 1819.
Leopold Zunz was a founder and leader of the Society. Zunz was a Jewish orphan who received a traditional religious education and taught himself secular subjects by reading German books. Begging and borrowing, he managed to attend the University of Berlin where he was exposed to German ideas of history and science. He ultimately received a doctorate at the University of Halle and thereafter made his living as a rabbi and Sunday School teacher for various Reform congregations. Zunz lead the Society in the attempt to master all the material incorporated into Jewish literature, to arrange it according to its historical development, and to relate it to world literature.
With such a huge task before them, it is not surprising that the Society ran out of energy in just a few years, but Zunz alone succeeded in realizing a major goal of the organization by cataloguing the lot of Jewish literature.
In his most famous work, Contributions to History and Literature, Zunz combed Jewish history to demonstrate that the Talmud, medieval poetry, homiletics, philosophy, and folklore all belonged to the realm of literature as they were authentic expressions of Jewish national life and thought. With the publication of this work in 1845, Zunz demonstrated that Jewish genius had not exhausted itself with the Bible as Christians had asserted. He revealed the wealth of the Jewish literary tradition.
Zunz attracted a group of followers, among them Mortiz Steinschneider, who devoted his life to Jewish scholarship. Steinschneider’s first book chronicled Jewish literature from the 8th to the 18th century. It was so well received that a year later he was called to Oxford to prepare a catalogue of Hebrew literature for the library there. Jewish scholarship had arrived!
In addition to Zunz and his group in Germany, other traditionally educated Jews who were interested in and familiar with Western European culture resolved to apply the new scholarly methods the classical sources of Judaism. Notable among these scholars were Samuel David Luzzatto, in Italy, and, in Galicia, Nahman Krohmal and Solomon Judah Rappaport.
The most famous Jewish historian to emerge during this period was Heinrich Graetz. His eleven volume History of the Jews would become the most widely read and consulted work in modern Jewish studies. It attracted much criticism, for although Graetz collected the facts in a scientific manner, his own ideas came through in his interpretation of the facts. His rare synthesis of scholarship and style popularized not only the history of the Jews but also the science of Judaism.
These first modern Jewish historians and the scholars who followed them faced issues both typical and unique in their efforts to record the Jewish past. Like all historians, Jewish historians must determine causality, create periodizaiton schemas (the division of history into identifiable periods), and take a stand on whether history is moving progressively toward a goal.
The job of the Jewish historian, however, is made more complex by the fact that their subject matter is, in the words of historian Michael Meyer “a protean entity--which seems to bear few if any constant characteristics and which for the far greater part of its history has been scattered without a land of its own.”
Jews have lived in all corners of the globe, and their daily life, including religion, has been influenced by the societies in which they lived. While Jews are influenced by larger societal trends, they are also affected by events that are unique to the Jewish experience. This “double consciousness”, a product of living as both part of and apart from larger society, results in complexity for historians of the Jewish experience, who must consider both the larger culture and Jewish culture when analyzing and understanding Jewish life.
MyJewishLearning.com
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The secret service agent employed to protect Jackie Kennedy has recounted the terrifying moments after the president's assassination in 1963, and how the First Lady scrambled to reach his limp body.
In a memoir, Clint Hill, now 80, reveals his sheer determination to throw himself between the Kennedys and the bullets as parts of the president's brain and skull splattered over his shirt.
As he moved towards Mrs Kennedy, he watched her reaction: 'Her eyes were filled with terror,' he wrote. 'She was reaching for something. She was reaching for a piece of the President's head.'
Hill was alongside the presidential vehicle when John F. Kennedy was shot in the neck and head before he slumped into his wife's arms while driving through Dallas, Texas in November 1963.
Hill is the figure in the famous Zapruder film of the shooting which shows him climbing onto the back of the president's limousine
In his book Mrs Kennedy and Me, Hill recalled the crowds cheering for the motorcade and the moment he heard an explosion. He looked around and saw the president grab his throat.
'Somebody had fired a shot at the President, and I had to get myself between the shooter and the President and Mrs. Kennedy,' he wrote. 'Nothing else mattered.' Before he could reach them, two more bullets were shot - the final one hitting the president in the head, just above his right ear.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2125086/Clint-Hill-memoir-Jackie-Kennedys-secret-service-agent-recounts-day-JFK-assassinated.html#ixzz1r84FcG7E
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The Romans attacked Scotland with a far larger force than previously realised, assaulting the tribes north of Hadrian's Wall with a force bigger than the one used to hold all of England and Wales.
Researchers have found 260 Roman military camps in Scotland, the largest number of any country in Europe, and 20 more than the 240 found in England and Wales.
The Roman Camps in Scotland are the least studied of all Roman monuments. The camps were temporary homes and headquarters for the would-be conquerors' legions and armies.
The 260 camps discovered provided transient, basic accommodation for thousands of soldiers at a time.
They are some of the largest Romans remains to have survived, and the camps discovered in Scotland were significantly larger than those found south of Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall.
Dr Rebecca Jones, an expert on the Roman frontier who researched the camps for a new book, Roman Camps in Scotland says, "The Roman army in Britain left an archaeological legacy that is the envy of the rest of the Roman world. The forts, fortresses and frontier defences are rightly celebrated but less well known are the temporary camps. These were constructed to house the army for short periods of time while on campaigns patrols and manoeuvres ... By mapping and recording the hundreds of army outposts in Scotland, we have provided an important benchmark for further research into the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire."
Many of the camps have been discovered through archaeological aerial survey flights, particularly during dry summers, where the outlines of ancient structures lying beneath the soil show up as crop marks.
A number of Roman camps - including Pennymuir in the Scottish Borders - have survived despite thousands of years of changes to the landscape and are still remarkably well preserved.
The majority of camps are situated around the Borders and in the south of the country, but a first-century camp in Kintore in Aberdeenshire, the size of over 60 football pitches, has seen the largest excavation in the world of any camp left by the Roman Empire, revealing new information about the day-to-day lives of Roman soldiers while on the march.
Over 180 Roman ovens have been recorded there alongside numerous pits. The debris recovered from these pits - often rubbish thrown away by the soldiers - gives an insight into the life of an army on the move during one of the first Roman campaigns in the north east of Scotland.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2125067/The-Romans-assaulted-Scotland-larger-force-used-hold-ALL-England-Wales--failed-subdue-tribesmen.html#ixzz1r7z5l0xy
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Germany is breaking one of its major post-war taboos by announcing there will be an annual Veterans' Day to remember fallen soldiers.
The country's defence minister has unleashed a storm of criticism from opposition politicians and pacifists who object to the army being honoured given Germany's bloody past in the 20th century.
German Defence Minister Thomas de Maizière has proposed May 22 as an annual Veterans’ Day to honour former soldiers living and dead.
This would mean honouring those troops of both world wars who acted as aggressors - and in the case of the Nazis in World War 2 - often as criminals.
More than 5million German servicemen fell in WW2, and 2million in the First World War.
There has not been a specific day to honour the military dead ever since the Third Reich fell in 1945.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2125006/Germany-plans-Veterans-Day-remember-fallen-soldiers-INCLUDING-fought-World-Wars.html#ixzz1r7tDMkHG
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Director James Cameron, a self-proclaimed perfectionist, has made only one change in the re-release of his 1997 blockbuster, Titanic – and it’s all thanks to one man.
American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was on Cameron’s case for more than a decade trying to have a historically accurate night sky - spoiler alert - in the scenes after the Titanic sank.
After several encounters, Dr Tyson got his wish, but first, Cameron challenged Dr Tyson to send him the exact constellation map for the sky around 4:20am on April 15, 1912.
Historically, said Tyson, the sky ‘was cloudless and moonless – we have software you can run that just unwinds the star patterns – you get the right time and the right date, the sky is a very predictable thing, and what birthed our understanding of physics.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2125209/Youve-got-wrong-sky-How-James-Cameron-altered-night-sky-reworked-Titanic-3D-years-complaints-outspoken-astronomer.html#ixzz1r7rENrBi
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The scrapping of the cane has led to a deterioration in children’s behaviour at school, according to teachers.
Sanctions available to schools since corporal punishment was abolished 25 years ago are ‘totally inadequate’ at reasserting authority in the classroom and lack the same deterrent effect, they said yesterday.
Laws forbidding state schools from using the cane or slipper to discipline pupils were introduced in The United Kingdom in 1987, and a decade later in independent schools. When corporal punishment was abolished nothing was put in its place that had equivalent deterrent powers,’ said Julian Perfect, a teacher from London.
How dumb is that?
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2125336/Ban-cane-schools-led-discipline-childrens-behaviour.html#ixzz1r7mDh0SB
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Sneak peek of upcoming American Masters documentaries on To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee and Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind,
which both air Monday, April 2nd starting at 9pm.
Take a look at these unique and exciting programs
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Charles Dickens, who was born 200 years ago this week, created some of the best-known and most loved figures in English literature, from Oliver Twist and David Copperfield to Pip, Miss Havisham and Magwitch.
But of all the characters he wrote about, none played as important a role in his work as that of London itself: its hustle and bustle, its glittering promise and grimy streets and the extremes of poverty and wealth experienced by those who lived there.
Alex Werner, the curator of the Museum of London's "Dickens and London" exhibition, says the city was "absolutely central" to Dickens' work.
"It triggered his imagination," he told CNN. "He called it his 'magic lantern', and would spend hours pacing the streets, drawing inspiration from what he saw around him."
London was Dickens' muse, helping to spark his creativity and provide ideas for some of the most memorable characters, settings and plot twists in English literature.
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Paul Cezanne's master work "The Card Players," missing for decades, has been rediscovered among the paintings of a Texas art collector, and looks set to sell for more than $15 million when it goes under the hammer later this year.
The watercolor, one of the preparatory sketches for Cezanne's five painting series, was only known from a black and white photograph, having last been seen in public in 1953, and was presumed lost.
But the immaculately preserved work was found earlier this year in the collection of Texas medical expert and art collector Dr. Heinz F. Eichenwald, and will be sold at Christie's in New York on May 1.
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The anti-Christ. The Battle of Armageddon. The dreaded Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
The last book in the Bible has fascinated readers for centuries.
Elaine Pagels, one of the world’s leading biblical scholars, first read Revelation as a teenager. She read it again in writing her latest book, “Revelations: Visions, Prophecy & Politics in the Book of Revelation.”
Pagels’ book is built around a simple question: What does Revelation mean? Her answers may disturb people who see the book as a prophecy about the end of the world.
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Thirty years after the invasion of the Falkland Islands, CNN investigates the legacy and lasting tensions between Argentina and the UK.
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A huge chunk of the largest holiday camp ever constructed by the Nazis has been sold for £2.2million.
Block One of the Colossus of Prora - built by Hitler in the 1930s along the lines of Butlins in the UK - will be converted into a 400-bed luxury hotel and 400 apartments.
The building, the single-biggest sold in post-war Germany, had a reserve price of £700,000, but telephone bidding at a Berlin auction on Saturday sent the price soaring.
Prora was constructed on the Baltic island of Ruegen by the stormtroopers of the Nazi 'Strength Through Joy' leisure organisation over a six-year period and occupies nearly three miles of beachfront.
It was meant to provide holiday entertainment for 20,000 of Hitler's hordes at any one time. But not a single Nazi ever got to stay there.
The last rooms of the 'Butlins-of-the-dark-side' were finished just as World War Two began in 1939 and Prora was left empty, the greatest white elephant of all time.
It was occupied after 1945 by the Red Army and became a top-secret Soviet base.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2123510/Hitler-holiday-resort-luxury-hotel-apartments.html#ixzz1qq6FxVy9
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On March 1, 1938, DC Comics cut a $412 cheque to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, including $130 for the rights to Superman.
This scrap of history was thought to have been lost forever but now, thanks to the foresight of a DC employee, fans are scrambling to make it their own as it goes up for auction on ComicConnect.com.
The events surrounding this little piece of paper set in motion the birth of an American icon, a billion-dollar industry - and a legal battle of heroic proportions.
Three months after the sale, Superman appeared in print for the first time, red cape flowing behind him as he hurled a car across the cover of Action Comics No. 1. In November 2011, this issue - originally sold for just 10c - fetched $2,161,000 (£1.35m) at auction.
The cheque that started it all has come to symbolise not just the humble beginnings of the Man of Steel, but a debate at the heart of comic books' Golden Age.
Opinion has been split on whether DC took advantage of two eager young artists, or whether the corporation was simply and fairly exercising a shrewd eye for potential. After more than 30 years of a legal tug of war on the ownership of Superman seemed destined to close in August 1973 - or so it seemed, but once again the court found in favour of the publishers and Mr Siegel and Mr Shuster narrowly missed out on the protections of the 1976 Copyright Act.
The Act, designed by Congress to allow creators to take back rights under certain conditions, would lay the foundations for court battles that continue to this day.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2120996/For-sale-The-cheque-gave-birth-Superman-golden-age-comics-legal-battle-heroic-proportions.html#ixzz1qpp2hSuh
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The soil upon which Indian hero Mohandas Gandhi fell when he was assassinated is part of an incredible archive of material from the holy man that is to be sold.
The Father of the Indian Nation, known as Mahatma - an honorary title meaning Great Soul, was shot at point-blank range in 1948 and moments later a bystander, PP Nambiar, collected the dirt and some blades of grass.
Also in the sale is a series of letters from Gandhi that spell out his philosophy.
They are all to go for auction along with numerous other personal items where they are expected to fetch up to £80,000.
They include spectacles purchased by Gandhi in 1890 while he was studying law in London.
His prayer book for sale is written in his native Gudjerati language and there are some important hand-written letters, some signed with the rare form of his name Bapu.
Another item includes Gandhi's Chukra - a type of sewing kit - that he had with him when he travelled to London for the second Round Table Conference in 1931.
The archive has been consigned by a collector along with detailed provenance and is being sold by Mullock's auction house in Ludlow, Shropshire, on April 17.
Gandhi trained as a lawyer in London and spent most of his life fighting against injustice and for Indian independence - and he was jailed numerous times.
He was disappointed when India was partitioned after independence and strove to stop the killings between Hindus and Muslims.
He was assassinated on January 30, 1948, in Delhi, by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist who felt Gandhi was too sympathetic towards Muslims.
He was taken to hospital after he fell but later died.
That day is now observed as Martyrs' Day in India. It was the sixth attempt on Gandhi's life.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2123561/Gandhis-glasses-incredible-haul-belongings-Indian-peace-campaigner-set-fetch-80-000.html#ixzz1qpkpbW43
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The Belfast shipyard where the Titanic was built was allowed to fall into ruin as the city blocked out the painful memories of that doomed voyage.
But now the derelict dock from which the vessel set out has been revitalised for the 100th anniversary of the tragedy.
Lord Mayor of Belfast Niall O'Donnghaile said the human tragedy had made a deep impact on Belfast. 'But certainly we take great pride in the ability that we have taken from that story and that tragedy to realise opportunities for us in the here and in the now,' ... 'The story of the Titanic is known around the world and it is this unique history which will leave a deep impression upon visitors to the wonderful new building,' said Tourism Minister Arlene Foster.
'Located beside the slipway where the Titanic was built, Titanic Belfast has an authenticity which will bring the ship's legend to life.' Pat Doherty, chairman of Titanic Belfast, said he had been working on the regeneration of the shipyards for a decade.
A memorial garden has been planted at the slipway, with different-sized strips of grass and wood representing the proportion of lives lost and saved among the crew and first, second and third class passengers when the ship sank after striking an iceberg on its maiden voyage.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2123474/Derelict-shipyard-Titanic-built-revitalised-100th-anniversary-sparkling-new-tourist-attraction.html#ixzz1qph8FEgK
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An original photograph of the gigantic iceberg that sunk the Titantic has been discovered.
The black and white snapshot was taken by a passenger on the RMS Carpathia, the ship that belatedly came to the rescue of 705 survivors of the tragedy of April 16 1912.
Also visible in the image is the hull of the lifeboat that saved the lucky survivors from lifeboats adrift in the frozen Atlantic.
The image was given to J John Pillsbury Snyder - a 24-year-old Minnesota man who was returning from a two-month honeymoon tour of Europe with his new bride, Nelle.
It was taken by Mabel Fenwick, another newlywed passenger on the Carpathia, who had struck up a friendship with the Snyders.
The Snyders were among twenty five passengers heading for Minnesota but they were one of the few who experienced the luxury of the ship's first class quarters.
Mr Snyder was the grandson of Minnesota's eighth governor, John Sargent Pillsbury
The connection to the couple is unclear but in the letter, Frank who signs off 'Your brother' says, 'What a pity to have their wedding trip clouded by such a tragedy.'
The items are being auctioned off as part of a 100-year anniversary sale.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2123536/Is-iceberg-sunk-Titantic-Survivors-original-photograph-reveals-site-doomed-ship-seen-sank.html#ixzz1qpen6dC4
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derelict Lowther Castle
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English Heritage, which compiled the register of more than 6,000 threatened sites, yesterday called on Britons to wake up to the damage being done.
One in five scheduled monuments, registered battlefields and protected wreck sites are in danger, while one in 30 Grade 1 listed buildings are being neglected.
Lord Lockhart, chairman of English Heritage, said: 'Everybody must live near, walk past or know of a heritage treasure at risk near them.
The register includes Victorian schools and town halls, derelict railway stations, unstable remains of abbeys, eroded iron age forts and overgrown country parks.
Other at-risk sites include crumbling Second World War pillboxes, neglected 1960s tower blocks and battle sites threatened by housing.
Many of the threatened sites are known only to locals. But others - such as the Eleanor cross outside London's Charing Cross station and the Civil War site of the Battle of Newbury in Berkshire - are world-famous. Some sites are threatened by ploughing and erosion.
Others are at risk because of neglectful owners, poor developments and lack of maintenance.
The report assessed England's 30,000 Grade 1 and Grade 2 listed buildings, all 20,000 of the most important archaeological sites and monuments, all 1,500 registered historic parks and gardens, 43 battlefields and 45 wrecks.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1033432/Englands-history-threat-How-vandalism-neglect-left-treasured-heritage-sites-risk.html#ixzz1qpbI60sL
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It was built to guard New York Harbor from the Confederates during the Civil War.
But the embrasures that anchored cannons to the stone floors of Fort Totten, in Queens, New York never faced enemy fire.
One hundred and fifty years after the fortress went under construction, its eroding walls are a haunting reminder of American history.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2105677/Fort-Totten-Inside-abandoned-military-fortress-guarded-New-York-harbour-Civil-War.html#ixzz1qpYbxQPj
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For decades, it played a vital role treating the thousands of sick and injured who sacrificed themselves during the wars of the 20th century.
But now the abandoned former military hospital Nocton Hall, in Lincolnshire, that cared for civilians and soldiers from World War I up until the First Gulf War, has become a constant target for vandals and arsonists.
These new haunting images of debris strewn corridors, flaking walls and leaking roofs are testament to the decrepit state of the site, now on a list of the most endangered historic buildings in the country.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2123612/Abandoned-vandals-Grade-II-listed-military-hospital-treated-generations-servicemen.html#ixzz1qpWf30a5
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A Texas private investigator claims he knows who really killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman in 1994. And it wasn't OJ Simpson.
In a new book, 'OJ is Innocent and I Can Prove It,' William C. Dear alleges Simpson went on trial, and was acquitted of murder, in an effort to deflect attention from the true killer: His son Jason.
Dear says Simpson was at the crime scene -- but not until after his ex-wife and her friend had been stabbed to death.
After a six-year investigation, Dear says he has found circumstantial evidence that links Jason Simpson, 41, to the murders.
The private eye claims he dug through Jason Simpson's garbage and his abandoned storage locker in search of new evidence, the New York Post reported.
In the search, Dear says he found a hunting knife that forensic experts say is the murder weapon that was never recovered during the police investigation.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2123547/New-book-claims-OJ-Simpson-innocent-son-Jason-real-killer.html#ixzz1qpPWuP8p
