Salon Jewish Studies Blog

PaRDeS. Journal of the association of Jewish Studies e.V. aims at documenting the

multifaceted culture of Judaism and its connections to diverse areas of research. The journal is meant to promote an interdisciplinary dialogue necessary within the field of Jewish Studies.We hereby warmly welcome articles or essays for our next special issue: Ghetto: On Space and Borders in Judaism, that will be published in spring 2011. Referring to two historical forms of ghettos: the enclosed Jewish living quarters in the modern age and the national socialist ghettos – the ghetto has become the symbol of oppression par excellence. This usage of the term has led to a monotonous research discourse, coloured by the victim-perpetrator-paradigm. More recently however, attempts have been made to change this. Thus, the ghetto as phenomenon has been analyzed with concepts like "Lebenswelt",experience and construction of space, and with an explicit awareness of the ambivalent natureof space and borders. For instance: the positive potential of borders to initiate cultural processes and to preserve culture within the ghetto, has been taken into consideration.A steadily growing interest in the philosophical thinking on ghetto as concept, as well as in the historical notions of ghettos, and how they are reflected in literature and arts, indicates shift of perspective within the research. The more differentiated view, (illustrated above with the problematization of the border concept), have evoked new questions and problems, which resist the scientific tendency to reduce Jewish history and culture to a discourse of oppression and persecution. With this call for articles (and the upcoming issue of PaRDeS) we support the endeavour to differentiate and improve the scientific discussion of the subject ghetto. Conveying interdiciplinarity: We welcome contributions from various fields of research, that transgress the often narrow discipline borders, and combine different perspectives. The articles should:

Articles in German or English should contain between 15 and 20 standard pages (12pt, 1.5 line spacing). Essays in German or English should contain about 5 standard pages (12pt, 1.5 line spacing). Editorial deadline is the 15th of January 2011; the journal will be published in March 2011. If you are interested in submitting an article or essay please send a synopsis (1- 1½ pages) until the 15th of March 2010.

If you have further questions please do not hesitate to contact our Editorial team: Rebekka Denz, denz@bundism.net
Grażyna Jurewicz, jurewicz@web.de

Please send your application and synopsis (deadline: 15th of March 2010) to both e-mail-addresses: denz@bundism.net, jurewicz@web.de

Reviews on different topics of Jewish Studies are published in PaRDeS as well. Please contact Daniel Jütte, who is in charge of the reviews in our journal: daniel.juette@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de.

Webpage of the Association of Jewish Studies e.V.: