Genisa-Blätter IV

Universitätsverlag Potsdam, 2023
ISBN: 978-3-86956-539-2
162 pages
16 EUR

Even though genizot - Jewish repositories of books and cult objects that are no longer in use - have rarely received attention in previous historical research, they are highly significant as sources from original Jewish hands and can deepen our understanding of the implementation of rituals in the context of the local community. The focus of 'Genisa-Blätter IV' is on questions about Jewish ritual practices and their meaning, their objects and actors. Eight scholarly and one essayistic contribution approach these topics through concrete finds from genizot of Central European Jewish communities, ranging from religious texts such as the fragment of a Torah scroll and a minhagim book to personal documents, musical scores and items of clothing.

The "Genisa-Blätter IV" results – like the previous ones – from an interdisciplinary workshop held in March 2019: "From Medieval Cairo to Modern Veitshöchheim. Jewish Religious Practices in the Mirror of Genizah Sources." This was a cooperative event organized by the European Center for Jewish Music at the Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media, the Research Centre "Dynamics of Ritual Practices in Judaism in Pluralistic Contexts from Antiquity to the Present" at the Max-Weber-Kolleg of the University of Erfurt, the Chair of Jewish Studies at the Otto-Friedrich-University of Bamberg, and the Association for Jewish Studies e.V. One of the editors (Rebecca Ullrich) was a junior researcher at the Research Centre "Dynamics of Ritual Practices" at the University of Erfurt.