This week's Featured Fellow is Edward Breuer, a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an IIAS Individual Fellow. We spoke to Edward about biblical criticism, its reception in modern Jewish history, and kayaking…
What research are you working on during your time at the IIAS?
My field is modern Jewish intellectual history, and I am looking at the way in which Jews responded to new ideas that they encountered as they integrated into European societies in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I am now focused on one set of ideas that would prove challenging not only then, but to this day, namely new ways of understanding the Hebrew Bible. Beginning in the eighteenth century, European scholars – overwhelmingly German Protestants – began to raise all kinds of questions regarding the Bible: did the Hebrew text undergo any changes through the millennia? If so, can we recover the original readings? When were the various biblical books written, and under what circumstances?
The field of study spawned by these questions – biblical criticism – presented a serious challenge to traditional notions of the Bible. Many assume that traditional Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries stood in opposition to biblical criticism, and that those who sought to reform Judaism, or those who began to espouse a Jewish nationalism that turned its back on traditional Judaism, were more open to it. But the historical picture is more complicated, more nuanced, and far more interesting. Many Reform leaders of the nineteenth century expressed hostility to biblical criticism, in some cases espousing a mild variety of biblical fundamentalism. Important thinkers like Solomon Schechter tried to articulate a nuanced response – only to have that nuance largely miss its mark. Jewish nationalists and Zionists were also initially hostile to the critical study of the Hebrew Bible, or deeply ambivalent about its conclusions. On the other hand, there were traditionalists who demonstrated an openness to the notion that the biblical text was in need of careful emendation, and later, those who felt strongly that no one could ignore the results of this scholarship. All these positions shifted over time, and that is very much the point of this project: if one traces the ways in which Jews handled these questions over the past two and a half centuries, we are presented with a fascinating tableau – really a moving picture – of the modern Jewish experience.
What materials and resources are you using to explore this?
One of the interesting aspects of our project is that in casting our net broadly, we have encountered all kinds of texts: beyond the obvious – editions of the bible, or essays about how to study the bible – we are also including speeches, popular writings, dissertations, letters home, responsa literature, and more.
How did you first get involved in this area of research?
It began with a book chapter written with Marc Brettler, a Bible scholar at Duke University. We not only realized just how interesting the question was, but how important it was to work as an interdisciplinary team.
How has your experience been so far at the IIAS?
Everyone will tell you that their experience at the IIAS is wonderful – and everyone is right. But for this project, the fact that the IIAS is now accepting Individual Fellows has been a godsend. The fact that Marc and I could arrive at the IIAS and work together, and only a few hundred meters from the National Library of Israel, is an incredible opportunity.
I would only add that the mix of scholars and fields at the IIAS makes for an incredibly stimulating environment. We all come to work on our well-defined projects, but we get to interact regularly with scholars of so many different fields and of such varied interests and perspectives. This social-intellectual aspect is very special.
Do you have any hobbies outside of your research?
As someone born and raised in Canada, I developed an early passion for canoeing; in recent years, I turned to kayaking, and as my family will tell you, once I am out there it is hard getting me back to shore.
What's your favourite spot in Jerusalem?
Truth be told, I don’t have a favourite spot – I really love walking all the streets of this city. We live in a really complex place with no small number of serious issues, but there is nothing like Jerusalem in its variegated beauty and character.