Diaspora in the Reading of Jewish History, Identity, and Difference

Bibliographic Data

ID3892095
AuthorsDenise Eileen Mccoskey (0000-0003-2914-5425, Miami University, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume12
Issue3
Pages387-418
Publication date2003-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiaspora A Journal of Transnational Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1044-2057 • E-ISSN: 1911-1568
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/dsp.2011.0012
OpenAlexW2108673079
LanguageEN
References cited28

Diaspora 12:3 2003 Diaspora in the Reading of Jewish History, Identity, and Difference1 Denise Eileen McCoskey Miami University of Ohio Diaspora: Jews amidst Greeks and Romans. Erich S. Gruen. Cambridge , MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. Identity is what you imagine yourself and the other to be; history and historiography is the writing of the narratives of that difference. —Sander Gilman, Jewish Frontiers (3) Introduction In recent years, classical historians have sought to explore the interplay of a wide variety of peoples and civilizations in the ancient Mediterranean. This method seeks not to erase the power exercised both culturally and politically by the Greeks and Romans but to shed greater light on the areas of contradiction and ambiguity that accompanied their hegemonic expressions; that is, to examine more closely not only attempts at domination but also the shifting strategies and consequences produced at the site of contact among Greeks, Romans, and others.2 While such paradigmatic shifts have resulted in numerous regional studies of the ancient Mediterranean, the case of the ancient Jews, who cannot be accounted for within any single region, has invited perhaps more heated debate than any other. For an evaluation of the lives of the majority of Jews in antiquity necessitates coming to terms with the complex and lengthy experience of diaspora. The stakes attached to such historical investigations are considerable. Given that, for many Jews, the diaspora begun in antiquity was concluded only with the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948, studies of the ancient diaspora are poised to interrogate some of the very foundations of modern Jewish identity, as well as contemporary claims of Jewish territorial rights and nationhood. In his latest book, Diaspora: Jews amidst Greeks and Romans (2002), Erich Gruen, historian of the ancient world, enthusiastically enters this complex terrain, attempting to situate the Jewish diaspora within its broader historical context and, in doing so, to clarify, and at times contest, the traditional interpretations drawn from xxxxxxxxxxxx 387 Diaspora 12:3 2003 such a charged historical experience. Recognizing the centrality of the term “diaspora” to Jewish identity, Gruen writes, “Diaspora haunts the history and imagination of the Jewish people. Jews have brooded about it for two and a half millennia. For many, it constitutes the defining characteristic of the Jewish experience” (1). Yet one of Gruen’s goals is to challenge assumptions that the concept of diaspora had a parallel significance for Jews in antiquity. Far from defining themselves through their “diasporic condition,” Gruen asserts that the ancient Jews did not even “contrive a theory or philosophy of diaspora” (6). He likewise suggests that an affiliation with their distant homeland did not conflict conceptually with the local strategies that Jews adopted in life outside Palestine. In short, for ancient Jews, diaspora life was perceived not as a fundamental lack but as an “achievement of both/and” (252). Gruen identifies two primary areas of investigation: the “realities ” of Jewish life and the more abstract role diaspora played in structuring ancient Jewish identity (7). Beginning with the realia, Gruen examines Jewish life in three distinct geographic settings: Rome, Alexandria, and Asia Minor (chapters 1– 3). He then addresses the disputed evidence for various Jewish religious and civic organizations (chapter 4). When he turns to the “constructs” of Jewish life, Gruen’s approach narrows considerably to focus on two dominant themes: the role of humor in Jewish literature (chapters 5 and 6) and the attitudes of Jewish intellectuals toward Greek culture (chapter 7). In both cases, he finds evidence of a Jewish selfconfidence that calls into question any characterization of Jews as a disempowered and alienated minority. In the final chapter (chapter 8), Gruen turns to a more theoretical discussion of the term “diaspora” itself, outlining the complicated bond between diaspora Jews and their putative homeland. I would like to use Gruen’s work as a starting point for engagement with broader trends in Jewish diaspora studies. His treatment of the topic usefully suggests three fields of exploration: history, identity, and the meaning of diaspora. To begin, writing Jewish history requires decisions about how to structure, as Sander Gilman phrases it, “certain narratives of ... difference” (3). Studies of the Jewish diaspora have long

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Diaspora · Greeks · Historiography · Judaism · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Sociology · Torah · Anthropology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classics · Gender Studies · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Law

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