Category Archives: Judaism

Guardians of the Sacred

Bible and Holy Land, Calligraphy, Islam and Christianity, Islamic Texts, Judaism

by F. E. Peters, NYPL Website, October 18, 20120

For very long time, Jews, Christians and Muslims have behaved toward one another like members of a dysfunctional family, like the competitors for an immense inheritance, the favor of Almighty God. But the current exhibition at the New York Public Library uncovers quite another strain of familiarity among the three, their devotion to the book.

Many cultures value the written word, the art of writing and a reverence for books, but Jews Christians and Muslims are unique in their devotion not merely to books – the scribe was always among their elite members before the age of printing – but to the Book. Continue reading Guardians of the Sacred →

Sanity through Inanity

Ethics, Humor and Satire, Islam and Christianity, Islam in Europe, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media, Judaism

Yes, sanity through inanity, and certainly not with a talking (but brainless) head like Hannity. Yesterday comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert brought a few hours of utter sanity almost to the steps of Congress in their Rally to Restore Sanity. Fear and hate, the fuel of electoral robo-calling, were ridiculed. If, as Glenn Beck not long before sermonized, people in America have turned their back on God, perhaps they should back off a bit and act more like the Jesus of the beatitudes than Joshua at the battle of Jericho. All it takes to get back on track is for everyone to tone down the rhetoric and hear the laughter. For one sunny afternoon in our nation’s capital God finally had a reason to laugh, given the mess we humans have been making of things and each other. At least this time the stage featured two jesters who know they are jesters rather than Fox News’ gift to incivility. No one was compared to a Nazi, nor a Communist. As Stewart noted in an eloquent speech at the end of the show:

“This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith, or people of activism, or to look down our noses at the heartland, or passionate argument, or to suggest that times are not difficult and we have nothing to fear.”

It was, contrary to those steeped in Tea Party rhetoric, a clarion call for the values that have become antithetical to our political system: being calm, civil and accepting of differences. Stewart has not only read Rousseau’s “social contract,” but reminds us through humor of the central importance of tolerance for democracy to work. If the world was watching yesterday, they finally had something to smile about: I do not only mean the jokes but an American proud of his country for the right reasons.

One of the right reasons is the beauty of a Jewish comedian defending the right of Muslims to be American too. Continue reading Sanity through Inanity →

The Jewish-Christian Tradition Is an Invention

Islam and Christianity, Islam in Europe, Judaism


Almut Shulamit Bruckstein Coruh; photo by Simon Harik

by Almut Shulamit Bruckstein Coruh, Qantara.de

Every day in Germany, one hears talk of the Jewish-Christian tradition in the West. Usually, it is meant in the context of defending our system of the rule of law and the constitution, the liberal values of our society, and even “gender equality and the freedom of artistic expression, opinion, and religion”. On this battleground, there is one main opponent – Islam. And it doesn’t appear that any hyphen will come to our aid.

Islam is often reflexively equated with religion – one that cannot deny its “militant Arab” origins. It supposedly consists of Sharia and the Koran, explain the experts, TV presenters, educators, politicians, and journalists, all the while invoking the Jewish-Christian tradition.

They all unashamedly tinker around with concepts from a literary tradition that is foreign to them, and which, just as the rabbinical tradition, embraces a whole world of casuistic judgements. In all this, one thing prevails – a threatening, didactic tone of unambiguity: This is what it says in the Koran, Islam says this, that is what the Sharia commands. Continue reading The Jewish-Christian Tradition Is an Invention →

Kafka, Egyptian Style

Egypt, Judaism, Literature


Atef Botros’s Kafka Study
A Jewish Writer from the Arab Perspective
Franz Kafka (1883-1924)

by Julian Tangermann, Qantara, June, 2010

Passionate literary criticism? Is this possible? As an academic discipline it is forbidden from emotion or passion. Nevertheless in Atef Botros’s Kafka, ein jüdischer Schriftsteller aus arabischer Sicht (Kafka, a Jewish writer, from the Arab perspective) this question is posed anew.

His well-founded, comprehensive critical analysis of Kafka’s reception in the Arab world closes with a passionate appeal for freedom in the Middle East. This does not, however, impair the academic rigour of the work in the slightest. In fact, his concerned, incisive view of the Middle East conflict and his excellent literary criticism feed off each other and make this work what it is.

The bulk of the book is concerned with the analysis of Kafka’s reception in the Arab world from 1939 to the present day; with how Kafka’s works have been understood and interpreted over the last seventy years in Arab countries and cultures. It posits three phases of responses to Kafka during this period, which are all examined according to their social, intellectual and literary implications. Continue reading Kafka, Egyptian Style →

Fiddler on the mosque

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Film and Video, Islam in Europe, Judaism

By JONNY PAUL, JERUSALEM POST, April 23, 2010

Released this week in the UK is a timely and wholesome comedy that celebrates Jewish and Muslim culture in a way not often seen in cinema. It uses comedy to take a light-hearted look at religion.

The Infidel is about a Muslim who discovers that he adopted and is actually Jewish. Written by renowned Jewish comedian and author David Baddiel, the film is a timely reminder of the commonality between both religions and goes further than most ethnic comedies.

It champions the Jewish and Muslim everyman, celebrating and laughing at aspects that are both unique and common to both religions. The film is novel in that it shows a normal Muslim family, rarely seen in cinema with the tendency to portray Muslims as radicals. Other ethnic films tend to revolve around the idea of ethnic minority adapting to the dominant culture. This film doesn’t do that, it is about minority cultures. Continue reading Fiddler on the mosque →

Yosef Tobi at Hofstra

Books You Should Read, Conferences and Talks, Judaism, Scholars, Yemen, Zaydi

Professor Yosef Tobi of Haifa University will be presenting a talk entitled “The Legal Status of the Jews in Muslim Yemen, 897-1948” at Hofstra University on Tuesday, April 27 at 9:35 am in 201 Barnard Hall. This lecture is sponsored by the Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies Program and the program in Jewish Studies at Hofstra. Dr. Tobi is one of the leading experts on the history of Yemenite Jews and has written several important books on the topic, including The Jews of Yemen: Studies in their History and Culture (1999).

For a review of Dr. Tobi’s The Jews of Yemen, click here.

For an article by Dr. Tobi entitled “THE CONTRIBUTION OF YEMENITE
JEWISH WRITINGS TO YEMENITE HISTORY” click here.

Love Trumps Religion in Yemen

Gender and Sexuality, Judaism, Yemen


Yemeni Jews and Muslims talk at the village of Kharef, 50 miles, 80 kilometers, north of the capital Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Dec. 15, 2008. Photograph by Mohammad al-Qadhi, AP

Complete Story of Jewish Liya’s Islam, Divorce and Marriage

Yemen Post, July 26, 2009

Over the recent period, the issues of Jewish minority have been hitting the titles in media outlets and their news is widely covered at local and international levels.

These news stories range from “Ninawa” embracing Islam and getting married to “Hani Saran”, forced migration of “Al Salem Jews” from Sa’ada and granting them apartments in the Sana’a Tourism City after being threatened by Houthis, killing incident of Masha Ya’aish at the hands of a former military pilot to the two-time marriage of “Liya” bint Sa’eed in a week and later her elopement with her Muslim husband to the nearby Arhab tribe and later on to the Al-Souk Al-Jadid in Amran’s Kharef area. Continue reading Love Trumps Religion in Yemen →