David Aberbach
Biographic Data
| ID | 119547 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Aberbach |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Aberbach |
| SIGNATURE | ABERBACH D |
| AFFILIATIONS | McGill University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 48 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1986 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Biblical Genealogy and Nationalism
The chronological/genealogical narrative structure of the Hebrew Bible points to an editorial aim: to give a history of Israel as a nation from Creation to the 6th century BCE Babylonian exile and the return to the land of Israel, and in so doing to bring to life and unite two dead Near Eastern kingdoms. This article considers the scribes and editors who created the structure of the Hebrew Bible as forerunners of modern cultural nationalists, esp…
Moral Dilemmas and the Environment: The Hebrew Bible and the Literature of Industry
Moral dilemmas are central in the literary genre of protest against the effects of industry, particularly in Romantic literature and “Condition of England” novels. Writers from the time of the Industrial Revolution to the present – William Blake, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, Emile Zola, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, T.S. Eliot and John Steinbeck – follow the Bible in presenting environmental pollution and calamity in moral terms, and as a c…
The Patriotism of Gentlemen with Red Hair: European Jews and the Liberal State, 1789–1939
European Jewish history from 1789–1939 supports the view that construction of national identities even in secular liberal states was determined not only by modern considerations alone but also by ancient patterns of thought, behaviour and prejudice. Emancipation stimulated unprecedented patriotism, especially in wartime, as Jews strove to prove loyalty to their countries of citizenship. During World War I, even Zionists split along national lines…
National Poetry, Empires and War
Nationalism has given the world a genre of poetry bright with ideals of justice, freedom and the brotherhood of man, but also, at times, burning with humiliation and grievance, hatred and lust for revenge, driving human kind, as the Austrian poet Grillparzer put it, ‘From humanity via nationality to bestiality’. National Poetry, Empires and War considers national poetry, and its glorification of war, from ancient to modern times, in a series of h…
A One-Sided Love Affair”: German-Jewish literature 1789–1939
Scholem's comparison of the so-called German-Jewish symbiosis to a “one-sided love affair” accurately describes pre-1939 literary accounts of Jews in German-speaking countries. As Jewish emancipation after 1789 led to increased Jew-hatred throughout Europe, Jewish writers—Heine, Stefan Zweig, Schnitzler, Rathenau, Buber, Kafka, Joseph Roth, Lasker-Schüler, Werfel, and Zuckmayer, among others—responded with stories and poems of unrequited love, at…
Imperialism and Biblical Prophecy: 750-500 Bce
Imperialism and Biblical Prophecy is a radically new interpretation of prophetic poetry. Using more than thirty new translations from the Hebrew Bible, it shows that this poetry is inseparable from imperialism, that each of the three major waves of biblical prophecy which have survived in the Old Testament occurred in response to simultaneous waves of imperialist conquest
The European Jews, Patriotism and the Liberal State 1789-1939
The fragility of the liberal democratic state after 1789 is illustrated in the history of the European Jews from the French Revolution to the Holocaust. Emancipation and hope of emancipation amongst the European Jewish population created a plethora of Jewish identities and forms of patriotism. This book takes the original approach of studying European Jewish patriotism as a whole, with particular attention given to creative literature. Despite th…
The European Jews, patriotism and the liberal state, 1789-1939: A Study of Literature and Social Psychology
European national poetry,Islam and the defeat of the medievalChurch
TheMuslim conquest of theHolyLand fromChristendom, the invasion of southwesternEurope in the eighth century, and theChristian struggle, ultimately unsuccessful, to regain theHolyLand fromIslam in theCrusades dominatedEuropean culture, particularly its poetry, for centuries. From theOldFrench epic,TheSong ofRoland(c. 1100) to theAlbanian epic,TheHighlandLute(early twentieth century), a vast popular culture grew inEuropean vernacular languages in r…
Patriotism and Antisemitism: The Crisis of Polish Jewish Identity between the Wars
The British Empire and revolutionary national poetry
Zionist Patriotism in Europe, 1897–1942: Ambiguities in Jewish Nationalism
(2009). Zionist Patriotism in Europe, 1897–1942: Ambiguities in Jewish Nationalism. The International History Review: Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 268-298
Beggars of Love: Flaubert and Agnon
The Nobel laureate for Hebrew literature S. Y. Agnon (1888–1970) acknowledged Gustav Flaubert (1821–1880) as an inspiration for his fiction, a master perfectionist and totally dedicated to his art. The extent of Flaubert’s influence on Agnon is greater than previously realized by scholars. This article considers numerous parallels that have not been brought together before: in Agnon’s psychological realism and the pattern of relations between the…
Byron to D'Annunzio: From Liberalism to Fascism in National Poetry, 1815–1920
From Byron's death at Missolonghi in 1824 to D'Annunzio's capture of Fiume for Italy in 1919, the nationalism of universal liberalism and independence struggles changed, in literature as in politics, to cruel dictatorial fascism. Byron was followed by a series of idealistic fighter‐poets and poet‐martyrs for national freedom, but international tensions culminating in World War I exposed fully the intolerant, brutal side of nationalism. D'Annunzio…
Jewish Cultural Nationalism
Jewish Cultural Nationalism explores the development of Jewish nationalism from the Bible to modern times, focusing on particular movements and places as well as texts which signified, or themselves brought about, change: the Bible (Hebrew prayer book), and the modern Hebrew literature, particularly in Tsarist Russia. While the influence of the Hebrew Bible alone on nationalism in individual periods has been subject to much scholarly study, the p…
Jewish Cultural Nationalism: Origins and Influences
Introduction 1. Nationalism and the Hebrew Bible 2. The Roman-Jewish Wars and Hebrew Cultural Nationalism 3. Jewish Nationalism in Medieval Islam 4. Nationalism, Reform Judaism and the Hebrew Prayer Book 5. The Renascence of Hebrew and Jewish Nationalism in the Tsarist Empire 1881-1917
Nationalism, Reform Judaism and the Hebrew Prayer Book: Reform Judaism and the Hebrew Prayer Book
The Hebrew prayer book (siddur), the oldest of which dates from the ninth century, frequently expresses Jewish chosenness and hopes for the gathering of the exiles and the return to the Land of Israel. In nineteenth-century German Reform prayer books, such references to Jewish nationalism were altered or eliminated. In an age of growing European nationalism, this attempt to ‘de-nationalise’ Jewish identity was virtually unique. Responding to accu…
Nationalism and the Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible, though generally seen mainly as a religious document, has also provided models of secular national identity. A number of biblical motifs have been revived in modern cultural nationalism: for example, the importance of moral regeneration, attacks on internal and external enemies of the nation, and the unification of disparate groups despite geographic dislocation. The Hebrew Bible also anticipates various forms of conflict in mod…
The poetry of nationalism
The poetry of nationalism has roots in ancient literature, particularly the Hebrew Bible, but is mostly a product of nationalism since the French Revolution. Many national poets are politically active and serve in government. Asserting artistic individuality, they express national individuality, though nationalism can also suppress creativity. Calling for moral regeneration, poets inspire their people with memories of heroism, real or imagined, a…
Hellenism and Jewish nationalism: Ambivalence and Its Ancient Roots
This essay sketches the ambivalent relationship of Hebraism and Hellenism from ancient times to the foundation of modern Israel. It analyses classical Greek influence on the Jewish Enlightenment (the Haskalah) and modern Jewish nationalism, particularly as reflected in Hebrew literature. Greece's successful struggle for independence from Ottoman Turkey in the 1820s showed the early Zionists that an ancient nation could be resurrected. Also, the a…
The Roman—Jewish Wars and Hebrew Cultural Nationalism
The Roman‐Jewish wars of 66–70, 115–17 and 132–35 CE destroyed the territorial, social and political bases of militant Jewish nationalism. Successive defeats brought a Roman ban on Jewish residence in Jerusalem and on proselytisation. Most of the Jewish population of Judaea, in southern Palestine, was annihilated or exiled. The creative heart of Judaism shifted to Galilee, where the study of rabbinic law and homiletics flourished, mostly in Hebre…
The Artist as Nation‐Builder: William Butler Yeats and Chaim Nachman Bialik
The poets William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) and Chaim Nachman Bialik (1873–1934) were among the builders of their respective Irish and Jewish national cultures. Their lives and careers were in limited ways remarkably alike and throw light on the dynamics of cultural nationalism. Each emerged in an historical watershed, leading to the establishment of an Irish state in 1921 and a Jewish state in 1948. Though their circumstances, styles, receptions …
Revolutionary Hebrew, Empire and Crisis: Four Peaks in Hebrew Literature and Jewish Survival
Until 1948, Hebrew literature was created mostly under the rule of empires, notably those of ancient Mesopotamia, Rome, medieval Islam, and Tsarist Russia. Aberbach argues in this controversial book t
The Iron Age, imperialism, and the prophets
Hebrew Literature and Jewish Nationalism in the Tsarist Empire 1881–1917
After 1881, Hebrew literature in the tsarist empire became an integral part of the rise of Jewish nationalism, and it created literary norms which were transplanted to mandatory Palestine. This literature, in contrast to most pre‐1881 Hebrew literature, is aesthetically on a very high level. Led by Mendele Mocher Sefarim in prose fiction and by Chaim Nachman Bialik in poetry, it asserted Jewish national feeling even when not overtly nationalistic…
Nationalism and the Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible, though generally seen mainly as a religious document, has also provided models of secular national identity. A number of biblical motifs have been revived in modern cultural nationalism: for example, the importance of moral regeneration, attacks on internal and external enemies of the nation, and the unification of disparate groups despite geographic dislocation. The Hebrew Bible also anticipates various forms of conflict in mod…
The poetry of nationalism
The poetry of nationalism has roots in ancient literature, particularly the Hebrew Bible, but is mostly a product of nationalism since the French Revolution. Many national poets are politically active and serve in government. Asserting artistic individuality, they express national individuality, though nationalism can also suppress creativity. Calling for moral regeneration, poets inspire their people with memories of heroism, real or imagined, a…
Hellenism and Jewish nationalism: Ambivalence and Its Ancient Roots
This essay sketches the ambivalent relationship of Hebraism and Hellenism from ancient times to the foundation of modern Israel. It analyses classical Greek influence on the Jewish Enlightenment (the Haskalah) and modern Jewish nationalism, particularly as reflected in Hebrew literature. Greece's successful struggle for independence from Ottoman Turkey in the 1820s showed the early Zionists that an ancient nation could be resurrected. Also, the a…
The Artist as Nation‐Builder: William Butler Yeats and Chaim Nachman Bialik
The poets William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) and Chaim Nachman Bialik (1873–1934) were among the builders of their respective Irish and Jewish national cultures. Their lives and careers were in limited ways remarkably alike and throw light on the dynamics of cultural nationalism. Each emerged in an historical watershed, leading to the establishment of an Irish state in 1921 and a Jewish state in 1948. Though their circumstances, styles, receptions …
The Roman—Jewish Wars and Hebrew Cultural Nationalism
The Roman‐Jewish wars of 66–70, 115–17 and 132–35 CE destroyed the territorial, social and political bases of militant Jewish nationalism. Successive defeats brought a Roman ban on Jewish residence in Jerusalem and on proselytisation. Most of the Jewish population of Judaea, in southern Palestine, was annihilated or exiled. The creative heart of Judaism shifted to Galilee, where the study of rabbinic law and homiletics flourished, mostly in Hebre…
Hebrew Literature and Jewish Nationalism in the Tsarist Empire 1881–1917
After 1881, Hebrew literature in the tsarist empire became an integral part of the rise of Jewish nationalism, and it created literary norms which were transplanted to mandatory Palestine. This literature, in contrast to most pre‐1881 Hebrew literature, is aesthetically on a very high level. Led by Mendele Mocher Sefarim in prose fiction and by Chaim Nachman Bialik in poetry, it asserted Jewish national feeling even when not overtly nationalistic…
Byron to D'Annunzio: From Liberalism to Fascism in National Poetry, 1815–1920
From Byron's death at Missolonghi in 1824 to D'Annunzio's capture of Fiume for Italy in 1919, the nationalism of universal liberalism and independence struggles changed, in literature as in politics, to cruel dictatorial fascism. Byron was followed by a series of idealistic fighter‐poets and poet‐martyrs for national freedom, but international tensions culminating in World War I exposed fully the intolerant, brutal side of nationalism. D'Annunzio…
Revolutionary Hebrew, Empire and Crisis: Towards a Sociological Gestalt
Hebrew has unique sociological interest as the oldest, in some ways most successful minority literature. There are salient patterns in its development prior to 1948. Most of its major periods of artistic growth occurred under the rule of powerful empires with leading cultures. These include the empires of ancient Mesopotamia, Rome, medieval Islam and Tsarist Russia, whose cultures were highly attractive to substantial numbers of Jews. Imperial cr…
Zionist Patriotism in Europe, 1897–1942: Ambiguities in Jewish Nationalism
(2009). Zionist Patriotism in Europe, 1897–1942: Ambiguities in Jewish Nationalism. The International History Review: Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 268-298
Nationalism, Reform Judaism and the Hebrew Prayer Book: Reform Judaism and the Hebrew Prayer Book
The Hebrew prayer book (siddur), the oldest of which dates from the ninth century, frequently expresses Jewish chosenness and hopes for the gathering of the exiles and the return to the Land of Israel. In nineteenth-century German Reform prayer books, such references to Jewish nationalism were altered or eliminated. In an age of growing European nationalism, this attempt to ‘de-nationalise’ Jewish identity was virtually unique. Responding to accu…
Fantasies of Deviance in Mendele and Agnon
Fantasies of deviance, including latent homosexuality, are not a major or overt theme in the fiction of Mendele Mocher Sefarim (pen name of S. Y. Abramowitz, 18357–1917) and Samuel Joseph Agnon (1888?–1970) but are, nevertheless, an unmistakable part of the characters whom they depict. These characters, for various reasons and to varying degrees, are deflected from normal heterosexual attachments and are inclined, for this reason, to forms of per…
Biblical Patterns in Modern Hebrew Literature
Mystical Union and Grief: The Ba‘al Shem Tov and Krishnamurti
The idea of mystical union with God or a higher being is universal in theological systems, although it may take many forms, metaphorical and moral as well as metaphysical. In Hinduism this concept is expressed in the saying Tat twam asi (“This is thou”); a human being, by finding his or her true immortal self ( atman ), becomes united with Brahman and, in so doing, achieves nirvana . In Buddhism, similarly, humans must strive to recognize the uni…
Imperialism and biblical prophecy, 750-500 BCE
Fantasies of Deviance in Mendele and Agnon
Fantasies of deviance, including latent homosexuality, are not a major or overt theme in the fiction of Mendele Mocher Sefarim (pen name of S. Y. Abramowitz, 18357–1917) and Samuel Joseph Agnon (1888?–1970) but are, nevertheless, an unmistakable part of the characters whom they depict. These characters, for various reasons and to varying degrees, are deflected from normal heterosexual attachments and are inclined, for this reason, to forms of per…
Charisma in Politics, Religion and the Media: Private Trauma, Public Ideals
What are the origins of charisma? Are these the same in the various forms of public life, in politics and the media as well as in religion? In this new and radical interpretation of charisma, David Ab
The Iron Age, imperialism, and the prophets
Hebrew Literature and Jewish Nationalism in the Tsarist Empire 1881–1917
After 1881, Hebrew literature in the tsarist empire became an integral part of the rise of Jewish nationalism, and it created literary norms which were transplanted to mandatory Palestine. This literature, in contrast to most pre‐1881 Hebrew literature, is aesthetically on a very high level. Led by Mendele Mocher Sefarim in prose fiction and by Chaim Nachman Bialik in poetry, it asserted Jewish national feeling even when not overtly nationalistic…
The Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythology in Israel
Revolutionary Hebrew, Empire and Crisis: Towards a Sociological Gestalt
Hebrew has unique sociological interest as the oldest, in some ways most successful minority literature. There are salient patterns in its development prior to 1948. Most of its major periods of artistic growth occurred under the rule of powerful empires with leading cultures. These include the empires of ancient Mesopotamia, Rome, medieval Islam and Tsarist Russia, whose cultures were highly attractive to substantial numbers of Jews. Imperial cr…
Revolutionary Hebrew, Empire and Crisis: Four Peaks in Hebrew Literature and Jewish Survival
Until 1948, Hebrew literature was created mostly under the rule of empires, notably those of ancient Mesopotamia, Rome, medieval Islam, and Tsarist Russia. Aberbach argues in this controversial book t
The Artist as Nation‐Builder: William Butler Yeats and Chaim Nachman Bialik
The poets William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) and Chaim Nachman Bialik (1873–1934) were among the builders of their respective Irish and Jewish national cultures. Their lives and careers were in limited ways remarkably alike and throw light on the dynamics of cultural nationalism. Each emerged in an historical watershed, leading to the establishment of an Irish state in 1921 and a Jewish state in 1948. Though their circumstances, styles, receptions …
The Roman—Jewish Wars and Hebrew Cultural Nationalism
The Roman‐Jewish wars of 66–70, 115–17 and 132–35 CE destroyed the territorial, social and political bases of militant Jewish nationalism. Successive defeats brought a Roman ban on Jewish residence in Jerusalem and on proselytisation. Most of the Jewish population of Judaea, in southern Palestine, was annihilated or exiled. The creative heart of Judaism shifted to Galilee, where the study of rabbinic law and homiletics flourished, mostly in Hebre…
Hellenism and Jewish nationalism: Ambivalence and Its Ancient Roots
This essay sketches the ambivalent relationship of Hebraism and Hellenism from ancient times to the foundation of modern Israel. It analyses classical Greek influence on the Jewish Enlightenment (the Haskalah) and modern Jewish nationalism, particularly as reflected in Hebrew literature. Greece's successful struggle for independence from Ottoman Turkey in the 1820s showed the early Zionists that an ancient nation could be resurrected. Also, the a…
The poetry of nationalism
The poetry of nationalism has roots in ancient literature, particularly the Hebrew Bible, but is mostly a product of nationalism since the French Revolution. Many national poets are politically active and serve in government. Asserting artistic individuality, they express national individuality, though nationalism can also suppress creativity. Calling for moral regeneration, poets inspire their people with memories of heroism, real or imagined, a…
Nationalism and the Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible, though generally seen mainly as a religious document, has also provided models of secular national identity. A number of biblical motifs have been revived in modern cultural nationalism: for example, the importance of moral regeneration, attacks on internal and external enemies of the nation, and the unification of disparate groups despite geographic dislocation. The Hebrew Bible also anticipates various forms of conflict in mod…
Nationalism, Reform Judaism and the Hebrew Prayer Book: Reform Judaism and the Hebrew Prayer Book
The Hebrew prayer book (siddur), the oldest of which dates from the ninth century, frequently expresses Jewish chosenness and hopes for the gathering of the exiles and the return to the Land of Israel. In nineteenth-century German Reform prayer books, such references to Jewish nationalism were altered or eliminated. In an age of growing European nationalism, this attempt to ‘de-nationalise’ Jewish identity was virtually unique. Responding to accu…
Jewish Cultural Nationalism
Jewish Cultural Nationalism explores the development of Jewish nationalism from the Bible to modern times, focusing on particular movements and places as well as texts which signified, or themselves brought about, change: the Bible (Hebrew prayer book), and the modern Hebrew literature, particularly in Tsarist Russia. While the influence of the Hebrew Bible alone on nationalism in individual periods has been subject to much scholarly study, the p…
Jewish Cultural Nationalism: Origins and Influences
Introduction 1. Nationalism and the Hebrew Bible 2. The Roman-Jewish Wars and Hebrew Cultural Nationalism 3. Jewish Nationalism in Medieval Islam 4. Nationalism, Reform Judaism and the Hebrew Prayer Book 5. The Renascence of Hebrew and Jewish Nationalism in the Tsarist Empire 1881-1917
Beggars of Love: Flaubert and Agnon
The Nobel laureate for Hebrew literature S. Y. Agnon (1888–1970) acknowledged Gustav Flaubert (1821–1880) as an inspiration for his fiction, a master perfectionist and totally dedicated to his art. The extent of Flaubert’s influence on Agnon is greater than previously realized by scholars. This article considers numerous parallels that have not been brought together before: in Agnon’s psychological realism and the pattern of relations between the…
Byron to D'Annunzio: From Liberalism to Fascism in National Poetry, 1815–1920
From Byron's death at Missolonghi in 1824 to D'Annunzio's capture of Fiume for Italy in 1919, the nationalism of universal liberalism and independence struggles changed, in literature as in politics, to cruel dictatorial fascism. Byron was followed by a series of idealistic fighter‐poets and poet‐martyrs for national freedom, but international tensions culminating in World War I exposed fully the intolerant, brutal side of nationalism. D'Annunzio…
Zionist Patriotism in Europe, 1897–1942: Ambiguities in Jewish Nationalism
(2009). Zionist Patriotism in Europe, 1897–1942: Ambiguities in Jewish Nationalism. The International History Review: Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 268-298
Patriotism and Antisemitism: The Crisis of Polish Jewish Identity between the Wars
The British Empire and revolutionary national poetry
The European Jews, Patriotism and the Liberal State 1789-1939
The fragility of the liberal democratic state after 1789 is illustrated in the history of the European Jews from the French Revolution to the Holocaust. Emancipation and hope of emancipation amongst the European Jewish population created a plethora of Jewish identities and forms of patriotism. This book takes the original approach of studying European Jewish patriotism as a whole, with particular attention given to creative literature. Despite th…
The European Jews, patriotism and the liberal state, 1789-1939: A Study of Literature and Social Psychology
Philosophy (22 works) · Political science (22 works) · History (20 works) · Law (20 works) · Politics (18 works) · Art (16 works) · History (15 works) · Literature (15 works) · Nationalism (15 works) · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies (14 works)