Nordisk judaistik/Scandinavian Jewish Studies https://journal.fi/nj <p><em>Nordisk judaistik/Scandinavian Jewish Studies</em> aims at promoting Jewish studies in Scandinavia by publishing scholarly articles, surveys and documents, by reviewing recent literature, and compiling bibliographies.</p> The Donner Institute en-US Nordisk judaistik/Scandinavian Jewish Studies 0348-1646 <p>The license of the published metadata is Creative Commons CCO 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)</p> Editorial https://journal.fi/nj/article/view/125018 <p>Editorial for the Volume 33, Issue 2</p> Ruth Illman Svante Lundgren Copyright (c) 2022 Ruth Illman, Svante Lundgren https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2022-12-19 2022-12-19 33 2 1 2 10.30752/nj.125018 A note on rethinking Martin Buber’s ‘I consider a tree’ https://journal.fi/nj/article/view/119952 <p class="p1">In the original English version of <em>I and Thou</em> (1937) and in a postscript to the second English edition (1958), Martin Buber assured his readers that an <em>I–Thou</em> relationship is possible between a person and a tree. Considering the importance of dialogue in that form of relationship, commentators have often looked for ways to bypass the tree’s inability to speak in reconceptualising the <em>I–Thou</em> relationship. This article looks instead at the importance of the person’s ability to hear what trees may be telling us as a way of understanding Buber’s point. A story found in Viktor Frankl’s <em>Man’s Search for Meaning</em> (1946) is used as an illustration.</p> Richard Raskin Copyright (c) 2022 Richard Raskin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2022-12-19 2022-12-19 33 2 49 51 10.30752/nj.119952 The symbolic universe of the Temple https://journal.fi/nj/article/view/121801 <p class="p1">For Jews, the Jerusalem Temple is the historical focus of ritual practice and pilgrimage. After its destruction in 70 ce, synagogues gradually became important centres for community and ritual, yet the Temple remained a symbolic site of hope and longing in diasporic Judaism in manifold ways. By means of a case-study of a fifth-century synagogue in the town of Sepphoris, this article examines the synagogue and its mosaic floor to consider the hypoth­esis that the Jews that commissioned and used this synagogue had a self-categorised religious identity (cf. Turner <em>et al</em>. 1987) which referenced a symbolic universe of the Temple (cf. Berger and Luckmann 1966) and can be studied through visual, material and ritual symbols. It is further suggested that material and visual evidence must be seen in relation to the rituals performed in the synagogue, and the synagogue itself.</p> Johanna Bokedal Copyright (c) 2022 Johanna Bokedal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2022-12-19 2022-12-19 33 2 3 18 10.30752/nj.121801 Finlandssvensk och judisk https://journal.fi/nj/article/view/125093 <p class="p1">Artikeln undersöker hur frågor om finlandssvenskhet och judiskhet kopplas samman, kontrasteras och diskuteras i intervjuer med personer som – på skiftande vis – identifierar sig med bägge identitetsmarkörer. Artikeln söker svara på frågan hur det svenska i Finland uppfattas av intervjupersonerna: rymmer detta också det judiska och känner de sig hemma i den föreställda finlandssvenskheten? Med vardagsreligiositet (<em>vernacular religion</em>) som analytisk ram söker artikeln belysa de svåra val som uppkommer i vardagen för personer som vill leva judiskt på svenska i Finland idag, samt lyfter fram hur finlandssvenska kulturtraditioner värnas och förs vidare i judisk tappning i dagens Finland.</p> Ruth Illman Copyright (c) 2022 Ruth Illman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2022-12-19 2022-12-19 33 2 19 37 10.30752/nj.125093 Contemporary discourses on general definitions of antisemitism https://journal.fi/nj/article/view/122689 <p class="p1">This review article gives an overview of the two most influential definitions of antisemit­ism in Europe: the non-legally binding working definition by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the so-called Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. Furthermore, the article explains where the definitions come from and summarises the current debates and discourses on how to define antisemitism in view of the history and politics of Europe. It also gives brief attention to the Nexus Document as a third influential definition, which plays a more important role in the United States. The article ends with a reflection on the definition offered by the historian Helen Fein, which is more action-based, and Amos Morris-Reich’s statement of the importance of reflecting on the role of language and the ability of language to create hate and to hurt.</p> Jonah Jehoshua Jürgen Bogle Copyright (c) 2022 Jonah Jehoshua Jürgen Bogle https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2022-12-19 2022-12-19 33 2 38 48 10.30752/nj.122689 Jødiske karakterer i dansk fortellende litteratur på 1800-tallet https://journal.fi/nj/article/view/122934 <p>Bokanmeldelse av Katharina Bocks <em>Philosemitische Schwärmereien. Jüdische Figuren in der dänischen Erzählliteratur des 19. Jahrhunderts</em> (Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, 2021)</p> Christhard Hoffmann Copyright (c) 2022 Christhard Hoffmann https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2022-12-19 2022-12-19 33 2 52 55 10.30752/nj.122934 En svensk-jødisk historie https://journal.fi/nj/article/view/119682 <p>Bokanmeldelse av Johan Schücks <em>Herman Friedländer. En svensk judisk historia</em> (Stockholm: Medströms bokförlag, 2021)</p> Vibeke Kieding Banik Copyright (c) 2022 Vibeke Kieding Banik https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2022-12-19 2022-12-19 33 2 56 57 10.30752/nj.119682 Handbok om svenska judars arkiv https://journal.fi/nj/article/view/122685 <p>Bokrecension av Carl Henrik Carlssons <em>Källor till judarnas historia i Sverige. Arkivguide</em> (Stockholm: Riksarkivet, 2022)</p> Kenth Sjöblom Copyright (c) 2022 Kenth Sjöblom https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2022-12-19 2022-12-19 33 2 58 59 10.30752/nj.122685 Ett starkt bidrag till svensk-judisk historieskrivning https://journal.fi/nj/article/view/122228 <p>Bokrecension av Göran Rosenbergs <em>Rabbi Marcus Ehrenpreis obesvarade kärlek</em> (Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Förlag, 2021)</p> Daniel Leviathan Copyright (c) 2022 Daniel Leviathan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2022-12-19 2022-12-19 33 2 60 62 10.30752/nj.122228