Books by Barbara Krawcowicz
Equinox, 2023
https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/thinking-smith/
In his bio-bibliographical essay, J. Z. Smith ... more https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/thinking-smith/
In his bio-bibliographical essay, J. Z. Smith wrote that he was fond of the expression “when the chips are down” in the sense of all being said and done. With his passing in December 2017, the phrase has gained an additional layer of sad finality—the chips are really down. Scholarship is not poker, however, which means that these chips not only can but in fact should be picked up and circulated.
Thinking with J. Z. Smith brings together the contributions of scholars who do exactly that by considering theoretical and methodological issues central to J. Z. Smith’s oeuvre in the context of their own research. Through analyses of Smith’s own work as well as applications of his concerns to new situations, historic periods, and regions, the contributors to this volume test the adequacy and applicability of Smith’s ideas and provide an indirect assessment of his influence and legacy in the field of religious studies.
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Barbara Krawcowicz's History, Metahistory, and Evil: Jewish Theological Responses to the Holocaus... more Barbara Krawcowicz's History, Metahistory, and Evil: Jewish Theological Responses to the Holocaust provides a novel comparative analysis of the theological struggles of key Jewish thinkers during and after the Holocaust. Usually considered in isolation, Krawcowicz's placement of Holocaust and post-Holocaust thinkers in proximity to each other uncovers new points of connection and disjuncture. At the same time, by situating these responses within a long-range view of Jewish theology that takes seriously its encounters with modernity prior to the Holocaust, Krawcowicz is also able to provide a far more historically nuanced analysis of continuity and rupture than previous studies. The book comprises a comparative reading of the theological responses of four Haredi rabbis writing during the Holocaust-Shlomo Zalman Ehrenreich, Shlomo Zalman Unsdorfer, Yissakhar Shlomo Teichthal, and Kalonymous Kalman Shapiraalongside the works of post-Holocaust thinkers Richard Rubenstein, Emil Fackenheim, and Eliezer Berkovits. Interestingly, however, rather than placing these thinkers into the opposing camps of "theodic" (Haredi thinkers during the war) and "anti-theodic" (post-Holocaust thinkers), Krawcowicz pursues a reading that identifies both theodic and anti-theodic tendencies across time and religious affiliation. This framework then allows these responses to sit in creative tension, as "through an act of reciprocal illumination, the juxtaposition of the comperands I have chosen to analyse sheds light on the presence, absence, and limits of theodicy in Jewish liturgical responses to the Holocaust" (p. xxiii). Theodicy is largely understood in this study as resulting from a breach in the covenantal pact (p. xxiv). Whether the response will be theodic or anti-theodic, Krawcowicz contends, is a result of whether the thinker in question envisages Judaism, or more accurately, the Covenant, as "vulnerable to history" (p. xxix). Indeed, the question of whether historical events impact the eternal nature of the Covenant is perhaps the central challenge for post-Holocaust thinkers. The question becomes this: Are these thinkers still able to discern in the events of the Holocaust evidence of theophany, the evidence of God's hand in history, or does the enormity of the Holocaust shatter these providential paradigms? Krawcowicz examines both Haredi and post-Holocaust perspectives to uncover whether and how these responses continue to propagate or depart from what Jacob Neusner defines as
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History, Metahistory, and Evil: Jewish Theological Responses to the Holocaust, 2021
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Papers by Barbara Krawcowicz
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Thinking with J. Z. Smith Mapping Methods in the Study of Religion, 2023
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Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, 2019
Many analyses of the impact of the Holocaust on Jewish theology emphasize discontinuity and ruptu... more Many analyses of the impact of the Holocaust on Jewish theology emphasize discontinuity and rupture. From this perspective, the Holocaust, as an unprecedented event, faced Jewish theology with new questions while radically undermining traditional answers. The wartime writings of Orthodox rabbis who experienced the intensifying repressions constitute a fascinating primary source whose analysis makes it possible to outline the transformation of Jewish theology in reaction to the Holocaust. The paper presents an interpretation of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Unsdorfer's wartime sermons emphasizing the many dimensions in which Unsdorfer's thought is a continuation of selected threads of rabbinical tradition and the way in which it fits into the framework of the traditional Jewish theological responses to historical catastrophes.
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Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, 2019
In a search for a theoretical framework that would structure and orient a comparative analysis of... more In a search for a theoretical framework that would structure and orient a comparative analysis of diverse Jewish theological responses to the Holocaust, the author reached for J.Z. Smith’s discussions of comparative enterprise. The questions of similarity, difference and of the putative goal of comparison loomed large over her project. In J.Z. Smith’s work, the author found helpful clues, illuminating insights as well as somewhat confusing and counter-intuitive examples.
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Shofar. Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 2015
Richard L. Rubenstein who initiated the American debate about theological consequences of the Hol... more Richard L. Rubenstein who initiated the American debate about theological consequences of the Holocaust with the publication of After Auschwitz in 1966 is best known for his claim that God was dead. This proclamation of God’s demise is usually understood as a result of reasoning that includes the occurrence of the Holocaust among its premises. In the article, the author presents an alternative interpretation. Analyzing Rubenstein’s early essays, the author argues that his rejection of theodicy as traditionally construed and of the notion of God as the Lord of History should rather be read as a part of Rubenstein’s critique of “ghetto Judaism”—Judaism born in tragic and anomalous circumstances of exile, containing intrinsically problematic ideas of God, divine providence and divine election. Heavily influenced by Existentialism in general and by Paul Tillich’s rejection of traditional theism in particular, Rubenstein believed that traditional Judaism had outlived its purpose. In Rubenstein’s thought, Auschwitz—and those interpretations of the Holocaust that attempted to place it within the parameters of traditional vocabulary and covenantal framework—the author submits, serves primarily as the most glaring example of the bankruptcy of “ghetto Judaism” and its God. It is not, however, the reason of this God’s death and Rubenstein’s argument is logically independent of the fact of the Holocaust.
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Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, 2014
Using the example of the wartime writings of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Ehrenreich (Transylvania, 1863–1... more Using the example of the wartime writings of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Ehrenreich (Transylvania, 1863–1944), the author examines how traditionally oriented thinkers approached the problems posed by the Nazi persecutions of the Jews during World War II. The author argues that the notion of paradigmatic thinking is helpful in describing
ultra-Orthodox responses to the Holocaust as it aptly captures the fundamental premise behind the interpretive perspective that enabled these thinkers to uphold the traditional understanding of theodicy and the covenantal relationship between God and Israel.
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Short by Barbara Krawcowicz
In this series with the Bulletin, we have asked 21 early career scholars to weigh in on Russell M... more In this series with the Bulletin, we have asked 21 early career scholars to weigh in on Russell McCutcheon’s Theses on Professionalization, first published in 2007. In his 21 theses, McCutcheon offers advice to young scholars entering (or soon to enter) the job market, addressing the all-to-important (but often overlooked) question of professionalization. Each of the contributors in this series has been asked to comment on a single thesis, addressing its contemporary relevance, and how it relates to their own experience moving forward in the academic world.
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Book Reviews by Barbara Krawcowicz
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Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, August 2017, Brill
DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341417
Revie... more Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, August 2017, Brill
DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341417
Review of Studying Religions with the Iron Curtain Closed and Opened. The Academic Study of Religion in Eastern Europe.
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Doctoral Dissertation by Barbara Krawcowicz
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Books by Barbara Krawcowicz
In his bio-bibliographical essay, J. Z. Smith wrote that he was fond of the expression “when the chips are down” in the sense of all being said and done. With his passing in December 2017, the phrase has gained an additional layer of sad finality—the chips are really down. Scholarship is not poker, however, which means that these chips not only can but in fact should be picked up and circulated.
Thinking with J. Z. Smith brings together the contributions of scholars who do exactly that by considering theoretical and methodological issues central to J. Z. Smith’s oeuvre in the context of their own research. Through analyses of Smith’s own work as well as applications of his concerns to new situations, historic periods, and regions, the contributors to this volume test the adequacy and applicability of Smith’s ideas and provide an indirect assessment of his influence and legacy in the field of religious studies.
Papers by Barbara Krawcowicz
ultra-Orthodox responses to the Holocaust as it aptly captures the fundamental premise behind the interpretive perspective that enabled these thinkers to uphold the traditional understanding of theodicy and the covenantal relationship between God and Israel.
Short by Barbara Krawcowicz
Book Reviews by Barbara Krawcowicz
DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341417
Review of Studying Religions with the Iron Curtain Closed and Opened. The Academic Study of Religion in Eastern Europe.
Doctoral Dissertation by Barbara Krawcowicz
In his bio-bibliographical essay, J. Z. Smith wrote that he was fond of the expression “when the chips are down” in the sense of all being said and done. With his passing in December 2017, the phrase has gained an additional layer of sad finality—the chips are really down. Scholarship is not poker, however, which means that these chips not only can but in fact should be picked up and circulated.
Thinking with J. Z. Smith brings together the contributions of scholars who do exactly that by considering theoretical and methodological issues central to J. Z. Smith’s oeuvre in the context of their own research. Through analyses of Smith’s own work as well as applications of his concerns to new situations, historic periods, and regions, the contributors to this volume test the adequacy and applicability of Smith’s ideas and provide an indirect assessment of his influence and legacy in the field of religious studies.
ultra-Orthodox responses to the Holocaust as it aptly captures the fundamental premise behind the interpretive perspective that enabled these thinkers to uphold the traditional understanding of theodicy and the covenantal relationship between God and Israel.
DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341417
Review of Studying Religions with the Iron Curtain Closed and Opened. The Academic Study of Religion in Eastern Europe.