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"'''''Wissenschaft des Judentums'''''" (literally in [[German language|German]] the expression means "Science of Judaism"; more recently in the United States it started to be rendered as "Jewish Studies" or "Judaic Studies," a wide academic field of inquiry in American universities) refers to a nineteenth-century movement premised on the critical investigation of [[Jew]]ish literature and culture, including [[rabbinic literature]], to analyze the origins of Jewish traditions.

==The ''Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden''==
The  first organized attempt at developing and disseminating ''Wissenschaft des Judentums'' was the ''Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden'' (''Society for Jewish Culture and Jewish Studies''), founded around 1819 by [[Eduard Gans]], (a pupil of [[Hegel]]), and his associates. Other members included [[Heinrich Heine]], [[Leopold Zunz]], [[Moses Moser]], and [[Michael Beer (poet)|Michael Beer]], (youngest brother of [[Meyerbeer]]). It was an attempt to provide a construct for the Jews as a ''[[Volk]]'' or people in their own right, independent of their religious traditions. As such it sought to validate their secular cultural traditions as being on an equal footing with those adduced by [[Johann Gottfried Herder]] and his followers for the [[German people]]. Immanuel Wolf’s  influential essay ''Über den Begriff einer Wissenschaft des Judentums'' (On the Concept of Jewish Studies) of 1822,  has such ideas in mind. Its principal objective, as it was then defined in the ''Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft des Judentums'' (1822), was the study of Judaism by subjecting it to criticism and modern methods of research.<ref name=EJ>[https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/wissenschaft-des-judentums Benzion Dinur (Dinaburg), "Wissenschaft des Judentums"], ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' (2nd. Ed., 2007)</ref>

The failure of the Verein, attributable largely to the far greater attraction, amongst German Jews, of identification with German culture, was followed, significantly, by the conversion to [[Christianity]] of many of its leading figures, including Gans and Heine.<ref name=JE>[https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4797-culturverein-der-juden VEREIN FÜR CULTUR UND WISSENSCHAFT DER JUDEN] in the ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1901-1906).</ref>

==The ''Wissenschaft des Judentums'' movement==
[[File:Die wissenschaft des Judentums.jpg|150px|thumb|left|First edition from 1822]]Despite the lack of success of the ''Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden'', its principles inspired many Jewish thinkers to invest their efforts in a wider ''Wissenschaft des Judentums'' movement, and also provoked a conservative reaction (see [[Wissenschaft des Judentums#Opposition|Opposition]]).  The historian [[Amos Elon]], in his book ''[[The Pity of It All]]'', places the movement in the context of [[Hep-Hep riots|anti-Semitic riots]] in Germany in 1819. The purpose, Elon writes, "was to bring ordinary Jews into the orbit of German ''[[Kultur]]'' and at the same time reinforce their Jewish identity by bridging the gulf between secular and religious education"; the movement sought to explore Judaism as "both secular civilization and religion", and thereby "help young Jews to remain Jews", even as they moved to a more secular view.<ref>{{harvnb|Elon|2003|p=110}}.</ref>  According to Dr. [[Henry Abramson]], the primary aim of the proponents of the movement was to articulate a modality of Jewish identity that was consonant with nineteenth century values, and where Jews had to demonstrate that they were patriotic members of their own societies, and at the same time express their Judaism proudly.<ref>Dr. Henry Abramson, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6zvpUK7Gi8 Who Was Philo Judaeus of Alexandria?], minutes: 49:41–50:19, speaking on the ''Wissenschaft des Judentums''.</ref> The movement took on slightly differing characteristics in different national contexts so that, for example, the nature of the Anglo-Jewish movement was affected by the more ambivalent, less overtly hostile, state of Jewish-Christian relations in England; historical critical approaches to Bible were unpopular; a strong interest in rabbinic theology, liturgy, and prayer; an emphasis upon eccentricity, marginality, and challenges to normative rabbinic Judaism; and a widening of the scholarly franchise in England to women and non-established scholars.<ref>Langton, Daniel R. "Wandering Jews in England’s Green and Pleasant Land: Wissenschaft des Judentums in an Anglo-Jewish Context" in ''Wissenschaft des Judentums in Europe: Comparative and Transnational Perspectives'' Studia Judaica 76. editor Christian Wiese; Mirjam Thulin. Berlin: de Gruyter, Walter GmbH & Co, 2014.</ref>

===Goals===
Proponents of ''Wissenschaft des Judentums'' attempted to place Jewish culture on par with [[Western culture|Western European culture]], as evinced in [[Goethe]]'s ideas of [[Bildung]], and endeavored to have "[[Jewish Studies]]" introduced into the university curriculum as a respectable area of study, freeing the field from the prevailing bias that regarded Judaism as an inferior precursor to Christianity and studied it as such.  They also developed and advocated a style of scholarship which allowed complete freedom in the interpretation of traditional texts, and which might be pursued without concerns about the practical ramifications such interpretations might have for religious observance and religious life {{Harv|Glatzer|1964}}.

[[Leopold Zunz]] (1794&ndash;1886), one of the movement's leading figures, devoted much of his work to rabbinic literature. At the time, [[Christianity|Christian]] thinkers maintained that the Jews' contribution ended with the [[Bible]], and Zunz began to publish in the area of post-biblical [[rabbinic literature]]. His essays "Etwas über die rabbinische Literatur" and "Zur Geschichte und Literatur" addressed this issue. His biography of [[Rashi]] of [[Troyes]] was pivotal. When the [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]] government forbade preaching sermons in German synagogues, on the grounds that the [[sermon]] was an exclusively Christian institution, Zunz wrote ''History of the Jewish Sermon'' in 1832. This work has been described as "the most important Jewish book published in the 19th century."  It lays down principles for the investigation of the Rabbinic exegesis ([[Midrash]]) and of the [[siddur]] (prayer-book of the synagogue).

===Attitude toward religion===
Despite the outstanding scholarship of ''Wissenschaft'' personalities such as Zunz and [[Heinrich Graetz]] (most of whom pursued their scholarly labors on their own time as ''Privatgelehrte''), the ''Wissenschaft'' movement as a whole had a tendency to present Judaism as an historical relic <ref>Mendes-Flohr1998 {{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref> with frequently apologetic overtones,<ref>Meyer 2004 {{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref> and often ignored matters of contemporary relevance:
<blockquote>Zunz felt obliged to assume that Judaism had come to an end, and that it was the task of ''Wissenschaft des Judentums'' to provide a judicious accounting of the varied and rich contributions which Judaism had made to civilization.  In a similar spirit, Steinschneider is said to have once quipped that ''Wissenschaft des Judentums'' seeks to ensure that Judaism will receive a proper burial, in which scholarship amounts to an extended obituary properly eulogizing the deceased.<ref>{{harvnb|Mendes-Flohr|1998|p=41}}.</ref></blockquote>

Nevertheless, throughout most of its existence and despite certain of its most prominent practitioners, such as [[Moritz Steinschneider]], being  vocal opponents of religion, ''Wissenschaft des Judentums'' was very much a religious movement—pursued largely by rabbis at Jewish seminaries who were engaged in preparing their students for rabbinical careers.<ref>{{harvnb|Meyer|2004|pp=105–106}}.</ref> In a foreshadowing of the reform movement, Zunz often led services, which were accompanied by an organ, in the vernacular German, rather than Hebrew.<ref>{{harvnb|Elon|2003|p=112}}.</ref> ''Wissenschaft''  scholars such as Rabbi [[Zecharias Frankel|Zacharias Frankel]], the first head of the [[Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau]], and his colleague at the seminary, historian Heinrich Graetz, considered Jewish history to be reflective of a divine revelation and guidance.<ref>{{harvnb|Meyer|2004|p=106}}.</ref> Wissenschaft des Judentums was not restricted to progressive Judaism. In 1873, [[Israel Hildesheimer]] founded the neo-orthodox modern [[Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary|Rabbinerseminar]] in Berlin. One of its most prominent scholars, [[David Zvi Hoffmann|David Hoffmann]], defended a literal reading of the Biblical ''word'' which he understood to be the exact product of divine revelation.{{Citation needed|date=January 2016}} It was this essentially religious nature of ''Wissenschaft des Judentums'' that made it even more dangerous in the eyes of its opponents.<ref>Meyer 2004 {{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref>  Christians even thought that a more liberal form of Judaism would attract converts, or would keep Jews from converting to Christianity, and so the government forced Zunz's synagogue to close.<ref>{{harvnb|Elon|2003|p=112}}.</ref>

===Attitude toward earlier scholarship===
Indeed, one detects in the writings of many Wissenschaft scholars not only an intense love of scholarship "for its own sake", but also a genuine affinity for the rabbis and scholars of old, whose works they find themselves documenting, editing, publishing, analyzing, and critiquing.  Indeed, far from disparaging or despising the Jewish religion and its many generations of rabbinical scholars, the majority of Wissenschaft practitioners are very keen to take ''ownership'' of the Jewish scholarly tradition.  They see themselves as the rightful heirs and successors to [[Saadia Gaon]] and [[Rashi]] and [[Hillel the Elder]] and [[Abraham ibn Ezra]], and in those prior generations of scholars they see their own Wissenschaft spirit and likeness.

In the Wissenschaft approach to scholarship, then, the earlier generations of scholars become  "de-sanctified" and "re-humanized".  Wissenschaft scholars feel completely free to pass judgment on the intellectual  and scholarly capacities of earlier scholars, evaluating their originality, competence, and credibility, and pointing out their failures and limitations.  The Wissenschaft scholars, while respectful of their predecessors, have no patience for a concept such as ''[[yeridat ha-dorot]]''.  For them, the classical authorities are no more beyond dispute and critique than are contemporary scholars; the opinions of [[Abraham ibn Ezra|ibn Ezra]] and [[Steinschneider]] may be presented in the same sentence without any sense of impropriety, and either one may then be debunked with the same forwardness.  No doubt this de-sanctification of the Jewish luminaries provided further grist for the opponents of the movement.

==Legacy==
Although the ''Wissenschaft'' movement produced a vast number of scholarly publications of lasting value, and its influence still reverberates through [[Jewish Studies]] departments (and, indeed, some [[yeshivas]]) around the world, it is possible to regard the publication of the ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' in 1901–1906 as the culmination and final flowering of this era in Jewish studies {{Harv|Levy|2002}}.  The choice of [[English language|English]] over [[German language|German]] as the language for this epochal work is a further sign that an era of German scholarship was drawing to a close.  In the early years of the new century the ''Wissenschaft'' culture and style of scholarship was transplanted to a certain extent to bodies such as the  ''Institute for Jewish Studies'' at [[Hebrew University]] (e.g., [[Gershom Scholem]])  and Jewish Studies departments at American universities such as [[Brandeis University|Brandeis]] and [[Harvard]] (e.g., [[Harry Austryn Wolfson]]).

==Opposition==
The ''Wissenschaft'' movement drew criticism from traditional elements in the Jewish community, who regarded it as sterile at best, and at worst damaging to the religious community.  A key opposition leader was [[Samson Raphael Hirsch]].  He and other traditional religious scholars representing urban and sophisticated Orthodox constituencies regarded the ''Wissenschaft'' movement as failing to meet the needs of the living Jewish community; Mendes-Flohr observes in this context that historians, by virtue of their craft, necessarily "transform traditional knowledge, draining it of its sacral power."<ref>{{harvnb|Mendes-Flohr|1998|p=45}}</ref> The Orthodox orientation of ''Wissenschaft'' figures such as [[David Zvi Hoffmann]] did not spare them from Hirsch's condemnation.

==Guttmann and his ''Philosophie des Judentums''==
[[Julius Guttmann]] is best known for  ''Die Philosophie des Judentums'' (Reinhardt, 1933), translations of which are available in [[Hebrew]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[English language|English]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]], etc.  The English title is ''The Philosophy of Judaism: The History of Jewish Philosophy from Biblical Times to Franz Rosenzweig'' (New York, 1964).

Roth sees in this publication "the last product in the direct line of the authentic Judaeo-German 'Science of Judaism'" (more commonly known as Wissenschaft des Judentums).<ref>{{Harvtxt|Roth|1999|p=3}}.</ref> While the movement did not utterly expire with the publication Guttman's work—its spirit living on in the work of [[G. Scholem]] and [[H.A. Wolfson]] among many others—it is certainly the case that the Wissenschaft movement in Germany had by the 1930s already ceased to thrive.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Roth|1999}}.{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref>

The original German edition of Philosophie des Judentums ends with [[Hermann Cohen]], the primary influence on Guttman's own philosophy, while the later Hebrew edition includes [[Franz Rosenzweig]].  It is also notable that Guttman's work excludes major thinkers of the [[Kabbalistic]] school, which reflects his own attitude toward [[Jewish philosophy]].<ref>{{Harvtxt|Werblowsky|1964|p=ix}}.</ref>

==List of ''Wissenschaft des Judentums'' personalities==
[[File:Moritz Daniel Oppenheim Portrait Leopold Zunz.jpeg|thumb|[[Leopold Zunz]] (1794–1886), a founder of the ''Verein für Wissenschaft des Judentums'']]
[[File:Heinrich Graetz.jpg|thumb|[[Heinrich Graetz]], (1817–1891): his [[masterpiece|magnum opus]] ''History of the Jews'' was written in the spirit of ''Wissenschaft des Judentums''.]]
*[[Hermann Cohen]]
*[[Wilhelm Bacher]]
*[[Eduard Gans]]
*[[Heinrich Graetz]]
*[[Julius Guttmann]]
*[[Heinrich Heine]]
*[[David Zvi Hoffmann]]
*[[Moses Moser]]
*[[Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport]]
*[[Solomon Schechter]]
*[[Moritz Steinschneider]]
*[[Leopold Zunz]]
*[[Samuel David Luzzatto]]
*[[Ismar Elbogen]]
*[[Isaiah Sonne]]

==See also==
{{Portal|Jewish|Judaism}}
* [[Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums]]
* [[Jewish studies]]
* [[Sociology of Jewry]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==References==
*{{cite book|last=Elon|first=Amos |title=The Pity of it All|year=2003|publisher=Picador|isbn=978-0-312-42281-3}}
*{{Citation 
  |last=Glatzer
  |first=Nahum N.
  | editor-last = Altmann
  | editor-first = Alexander
  | contribution = The beginnings of modern Jewish studies
  |title=Studies in Nineteenth-Century Jewish Intellectual History
  |year=1964
  |pages=27–45
  | place =Cambridge, MA
  |publisher=Harvard University Press
  }}.

* {{Citation | surname=Levy| given=David B. |year=2002 |chapter=The Making of the ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA and the JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA |title=Proceedings of the 37th Annual Convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries | place=Denver, CO |chapter-url=http://www.jewishlibraries.org/ajlweb/publications/proceedings/proceedings2002/levy.pdf | access-date=January 1, 2007 }}.
* {{Citation | surname=Mendes-Flohr | given=Paul |year=1998 |chapter=Jewish scholarship as a vocation|pages=33–48|editor=Alfred L. Ivry, Elliot R. Wolfson & Allan Arkush |title=Perspectives on [[Jewish Thought]] and Mysticism: Proceedings of the International Conference held by The Institute of Jewish Studies, University College London, 1994, in Celebration of its Fortieth Anniversary|publisher=Harwood Academic Publishers| place=Amsterdam, the Netherlands |isbn=9789057021947}}.
* {{Citation |last1=Meyer |first1=Michael A. |title=Two persistent tensions within Wissenschaft des Judentums |journal=Modern Judaism |volume=24 |issue=2 |year=2004 |pages=105–119 |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/modern_judaism/v024/24.2meyer.pdf | doi=10.1093/mj/kjh009}} [http://www.kww-naumann.ch/fokusiertes-angbotspektrum Kommunikation Unternehmen].
* {{Cite book|first=Leon|last=Roth|title=Is there a Jewish Philosophy? Rethinking Fundamentals|publisher=[[Littman Library of Jewish Civilization]]|place=London|orig-year=1962|year=1999}}
* [[Ismar Schorsch|Schorsch, Ismar]] From Text to Context: The Turn to History in Modern Judaism (1994) {{ISBN|0-87451-664-1}}
* {{cite book|contribution=Introduction|contributor-last=Werblowsky|contributor-first=R. J. Zwi|title=Philosophies of Judaism: The History of Jewish Philosophy from Biblical Times to Franz |year=1964|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|place=New York|author=Julius Guttmann|translator=David W. Silverman}}

== Further reading ==
* George Y. Kohler, "Judaism Buried or Revitalised? ‘Wissenschaft des Judentums’ in Nineteenth Century Germany – Impact, Actuality and Applicability Today", in: Jewish Thought and Jewish Belief, (ed. Daniel J. Lasker), Beer Sheva 2012, p.&nbsp;27-63.
* Michael A. Meyer, “Jewish Religious Reform and Wissenschaft des Judentums: The Positions of Zunz, Geiger and Frankel”, in: Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 16 (1971), pp.&nbsp;19–41.
* Michael A. Meyer, “Two Persistent Tensions within Wissenschaft des Judentums”, in: Modern Judaism and Historical Consciousness, (ed. C. Wiese and A. Gotzmann), Leiden 2007, p.&nbsp;73-89.
* Ismar Schorsch “Scholarship in the Service of Reform”, Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 35, 1990, pp.&nbsp;73–101.

==External links==
{{Wikiquote|Leopold Zunz}}
* [https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/wissenschaft-des-judentums Entry "Wissenschaft Des Judentums"] by Benzion Dinur (Dinaburg) in the ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' (2nd. Ed., 2007)
* Goldestein Goren Intl. Center, e-lectures Wissenschaft des Judentums  [http://hsf.bgu.ac.il/cjt/files/electures/glWissenschaft.htm]
* Iancu, Carol  ''From the "Science of Judaism" to the "New Israeli historians" - landmarks for a history of Jewish historiography'' [http://www.unibuc.ro/eBooks/filologie/hebra/2-10.htm]
* "[http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/freimann The Freimann Collection]." Digitized books based on [[Aron Freimann]]’s Wissenschaft des Judentums bibliography (''Katalog der Judaica und Hebraica, Erster Band: Judaica'', Frankfurt am Main: Stadtbibliothek Frankfurt am Main, 1932), from the collections of the Leo Baeck Institute, American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and other international collections
* Cultures of ''Wissenschaft des Judentums'' at 200. Zeitschrift der Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien e. V. / Journal of the German Association for Jewish Studies  [https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/41494/file/pardes24.pdf  Online access to English articles]
{{Historiography}}{{Authority control}}

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