Before the Statue of Apollo: Jews and the Classics in the Longue Durée
International Interdisciplinary Conference - Universität Bern
January, 14–15 2025
Throughout history, Jewish culture has maintained a complex and multifaceted relationship with the Greco-Roman world, marked by both fruitful exchange and tense conflict. As Shaul Tchernichovsky’s poem “Before the Statue of Apollo” (1899) poignantly reflects, this “ancient quarrel” characterized antiquity and reverberates into modernity. In antiquity, coexistence was not always peaceful, both from a political and from a religious-cultural point of view: The celebration of Hanukkah marks the conflict between the Maccabees and the “Hellenized Jews” (mityavnim) against the Maccabees; later, Rome, the destroyer of the Second Temple, was identified with Edom, the Biblical enemy of Israel. Nonetheless, the contribution of the Greek and Roman world to Jewish culture is undeniable: For example, in terms of literary and intellectual history, the coexistence “under the same roof” generated a broad array of Jewish texts in Greek and brought about a productive encounter of Judaism with Platonism and Neoplatonism; linguistically, over three thousand linguistic loanwords from Greek and Latin are attested in rabbinic literature and in the Talmud; as for the arts, the decoration of ancient synagogues is clearly influenced by Graeco-Roman artistic models. In modernity, the understanding of the ancient encounter of Judaism and the classical world became key to the construction of a new, modern Jewish identity as well as to the definition of its relationship with non-Jewish culture. Inspired by Tchernichovsky’s fascination with classical culture, this inter- disciplinary conference brings together a diverse group of scholars from various disciplines, backgrounds, and institutions to critically examine this multifaceted relationship. We broadly define this interaction as encom- passing cultural, linguistic, literary, artistic, philosophical, religious, and lifestyle aspects. By transcending specific eras and fields of study, we seek to explore this dialogue in a longue durée perspective, from antiquity to the present day.
Program:
https://www.academia.edu/126000492/Before_the_Statue_of_Apollo_Jews_and_the_Classics_in_the_Longue_Dur%C3%A9e_University_of_Bern_Conference_
January, 14–15 2025
Throughout history, Jewish culture has maintained a complex and multifaceted relationship with the Greco-Roman world, marked by both fruitful exchange and tense conflict. As Shaul Tchernichovsky’s poem “Before the Statue of Apollo” (1899) poignantly reflects, this “ancient quarrel” characterized antiquity and reverberates into modernity. In antiquity, coexistence was not always peaceful, both from a political and from a religious-cultural point of view: The celebration of Hanukkah marks the conflict between the Maccabees and the “Hellenized Jews” (mityavnim) against the Maccabees; later, Rome, the destroyer of the Second Temple, was identified with Edom, the Biblical enemy of Israel. Nonetheless, the contribution of the Greek and Roman world to Jewish culture is undeniable: For example, in terms of literary and intellectual history, the coexistence “under the same roof” generated a broad array of Jewish texts in Greek and brought about a productive encounter of Judaism with Platonism and Neoplatonism; linguistically, over three thousand linguistic loanwords from Greek and Latin are attested in rabbinic literature and in the Talmud; as for the arts, the decoration of ancient synagogues is clearly influenced by Graeco-Roman artistic models. In modernity, the understanding of the ancient encounter of Judaism and the classical world became key to the construction of a new, modern Jewish identity as well as to the definition of its relationship with non-Jewish culture. Inspired by Tchernichovsky’s fascination with classical culture, this inter- disciplinary conference brings together a diverse group of scholars from various disciplines, backgrounds, and institutions to critically examine this multifaceted relationship. We broadly define this interaction as encom- passing cultural, linguistic, literary, artistic, philosophical, religious, and lifestyle aspects. By transcending specific eras and fields of study, we seek to explore this dialogue in a longue durée perspective, from antiquity to the present day.
Program:
https://www.academia.edu/126000492/Before_the_Statue_of_Apollo_Jews_and_the_Classics_in_the_Longue_Dur%C3%A9e_University_of_Bern_Conference_