Jewish Studies

Albert Baumgarten

Elias Bickerman as a Historian of the Jews

A Twentieth Century Tale

[Elias Bickerman als Historiker der Juden. Eine Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts.]

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Published in English.
Albert Baumgarten presents the biography of one of the most distinguished historians of the Jews in antiquity that demonstrates the important connections between his scholarship, life, and times. The events of the twentieth century provide the context for the analysis of Bickerman's scholarly production.
This biography of Elias Bickerman (1897–1981), one of the foremost historians of Graeco-Roman antiquity active in the twentieth century, focuses on his role as a historian of the Jews. Bickerman had an extraordinary life. He was born in Kishinev and grew up in St. Petersburg. He arrived in Berlin in 1922, where he pursued an academic career (Doctorate, 1926; Habilitation, 1930). With the rise of the Nazis, he moved to Paris in 1933, then to the USA in 1942. He died in Tel Aviv and was buried in Jerusalem.
Albert Baumgarten explores the connections between Bickerman's life and his scholarly work on the Jews in its different cultural and academic contexts (Russian, German, French, and American). He argues that Bickerman intended to create a usable Jewish past. He further shows that Bickerman conceived the ancient Jewish encounter with Hellenism and the modern Jewish entry into European civilization in light of each other. He demonstrates that Bickerman argued that there were some ancient Jews who were wrong in the way they tried to bridge the gap between Judaism and Hellenism, while there were other ancient Jews who found the right solution. He illustrates the contemporary significance of these conclusions concerning the past for Bickerman himself and for other Jews of his time. Bickerman saw the circumstances of his life as a series of unfortunate dislocations. This book emphasizes the intellectual and academic benefit Bickerman derived from his life experience in the twentieth century.
Authors/Editors

Albert Baumgarten Born 1942; 1972 PhD Columbia University; currently Professor of Jewish History at Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.

Reviews

The following reviews are known:

In: Studies in Contemporary Jewry — 27 (2014), S. 290–302 (Olga Litvak)
In: Journal for the Study of the OT — 35.5 (2011), S. 5–6 (A.C. Hagedorn)
In: H-Soz-u-Kult — http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/2011–3-044 (07/2011) (Kay Ehling)
In: Studies in Religion / Sciences Religieuses — 40 (2011), S. 383–384 (Shlomo Mahn)
In: Anabases — 14 (2011), S. 250–252 (Corinne Bonnet)
In: Jewish Review of Books — 2010, Heft 3, S. 37–38 (Anthony Grafton)
In: Association Jewish Libraries Newsletter — February/March 2011, S. 12 (Jim Rosenbloom)
In: Shofar — 29 (2011), S. 228
In: Theologische Literaturzeitung — 135 (2010), S. 1080–1082 (Catherine Hezser)
In: Judaica — 67 (2011), S. 224 (Herbert Niebr)
In: Journal for the Study of Judaism — 41 (2010), S. 372–373 (Pieter W. van der Horst)
In: Journal of Jewish Studies — 62 (2011), S. 180–184 (Fergus Millar)
In: Salesianum — 73 (2011), S. 574–575 (Rafael Vicent)