Lena Roos

If I Am Only for Myself, Who Am I?

Volunteer work in Jewish tradition has much in common with voluntary work in other contexts but it also has its own distinguishing features. One such particularity is related to a tendency to define Jewish identity and religiosity on the basis of practice and not of faith. This means that doing what is right, for instance, caring for the poor, is not a sign of piety, it is the most important part of piety. This article discusses three important forms of voluntary work in Jewish tradition: caring for the poor, the dead and the sick. This article mainly focuses on the work of Haredi (ultraorthodox) organizations in Israel but a historical background is also given.

From holy groves to Holy Ghost

This article discusses different types of role-play and how they can be used in teaching religion in various settings. The connection between historical role-play and classroom discussion of contemporary questions of ethics and identity within the framework of Religious Education (RE) is also addressed.

A Jewish ideology of martyrdom in a comparative perspective

During the first months of the First Crusade, groups of crusaders attacked the Jewish communities in the Rhineland, forcing them to choose between death and conversion to Christianity. Many converted, but many others chose to die as martyrs. Among these, some where killed by the crusaders, some killed themselves, each other, or even their own children in order to prevent forcible conversion. This was the first large-scale persecution of Jews in Europe during the Middle Ages. These events are briefly described in a number of Latin accounts, but also at length in three Hebrew Chronicles. These Hebrew Crusade Chronicles introduce many ideas connected to martyrdom which are not found in earlier Jewish martyr texts. They also differ considerably from contemporary texts on martyrdom, written by Jews living under Muslim rule. In this article some of these new ideas are highlighted, and it is discussed how they connect to similar ideas in the Christian context of the Hebrew chroniclers. Methodological issues that relate to the study of a Jewish-Christian exchange of ideas in the Middle Ages are also addressed.

Paul Christian: A Jewish Dominican preaching for the Jews

The so-called Barcelona disputation of 1263 was one of the earliest Jewish-Christian disputations in medieval Europe. The disputants were Paul Christian, a Jewish convert to Christianity and member of the Dominican order, and the well known Jewish sage Ramban (Rabbi Moses ben Nahman of Gerona). In the disputation Paul Christian used an innovative method: he attempted to prove the truth of basic Christian dogma, for instance that the Messiah had already come, by using classical Jewish texts, especially the Talmud. Paul Christian used the same method in his sermons which the Jews in the area were forced to listen to. When one analyses the arguments he employs, it becomes obvious how he alludes to both Jewish and Christian traditions in order to convince his listeners.