Social Justice, Bioethics, Holocaust studies

Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira, The Piasechner Rebbe His Holocaust and Pre-Holocaust Thought, Continuity or Discontinuity?

by Isaac Hershkowitz

M.A. Thesis (cum laude), Department of Jewish Philosophy, Bar-Ilan University

7. "Rabbinic Nazi Camp Survivors and the Call for a Religious Protection of Human Prerogatives"

by Isaac Hershkowitz

in: M. Neerland-Solime (ed.), Prisoners of War and Forced Labor: Histories of War and Occupation (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), pp. 138-149.

The Metamorphosis of Law into Gospel: Gerhard von Rad's Attempt to Reclaim the Old Testament for the Church

by Bernard M. Levinson

(Co-authored with Douglas Dance). Published in: Recht und Ethik im Alten Testament. Altes Testament und Moderne 13. Edited by Bernard M. Levinson and Eckart Otto. Münster/London: LIT Verlag, 2004, 83–110.

From 1933 through 1945, the Hebrew Bible was under attack in Nazi Germany. Indeed, the entire notion that Christianity... more From 1933 through 1945, the Hebrew Bible was under attack in Nazi Germany. Indeed, the entire notion that Christianity had any connection to Judaism was systematically denied. Even within the Church, the long-standing tradition of “Old Testament“ studies was marginalized. This article examines the heroic struggles of Gerhard von Rad at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Jena, in Germany, as the university sought to transform itself into a bastion of National Socialism. It tells the story of how von Rad, long before he before he became a famous Protestant theologian, fought in near isolation to defend the Old Testament. Much of the gripping story has not been widely known, and has only recently become available.

Keywords: Old Testament hermeneutics, Deuteronomy, law-gospel dichotomy, kerygma of Deuteronomy, National Socialism, Walter Grundmann, Gerhard von Rad, disciplinary history, Karl Astel, Institut zur Erforschung und Beseitigung des jüdischen Einflusses auf das deutsche kirchliche Leben, Karl Astel, Deuteronomy as sermon, kerygma des Deuteronomiums, Theologische Fakultät der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena; Theological Faculty of the University of Jena