A New Orient: From German Scholarship to Middle Eastern Studies in Israel

A history of knowledge transfer of Oriental Studies stretching along an axis from Germany to Palestine/Israel. This study examines the history of Zionist academic Orientalism—referred to throughout as Oriental studies, the term contemporary English speakers would have used—in light of its German-Jewish background, as a history of knowledge transfer stretching along an axis from Germany to Palestine. The transfer, which took place primarily during the 1920s and 1930s, involved questions about the re-establishment, far from Germany, of a field of knowledge with deep German roots. Like other German-Jewish scholars arriving in Palestine at the time, some of the Orientalist agents of transfer did so out of Zionist conviction as olim (immigrants making aliyah, or literally "ascending" to the homeland), while others joined them later as refugees from Nazi Germany; both groups were integrated into the institutional apparatus of the Hebrew University. Unlike other fields of knowledge or professions, however, the transfer of Orientalist knowledge was unique in that the axis involved an essential change in the nature of its encounter with the Orient: from a textual-scientific encounter at German universities, largely disconnected from contemporary issues to a living, substantive, and unmediated encounter with an essentially Arab region—and the escalating Jewish-Arab conflict in the background. Within the new context, German-Jewish Orientalist expertise was charged with political and cultural significance it had not previously faced, fundamentally influencing the course of the discipline's development in Palestine and Israel.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Critique, counter-critique, transfer and influence: An overview German Orientalism, German-Jewish Orientalism, and their discontents Knowledge transfer and its impact: from Germany to Palestine Scholarly archives and knowledge networks Chapter 1. The Science of the Orient: The Beginnings of Oriental Studies at the Hebrew University German inheritance: the development of modern German Orientalism and the question of applied science Judaism with the Orient for an Orient without Judaism: preparations for the foundation of the School of Oriental Studies The Goldziher proposal Jewish Studies, Oriental Studies, and the Humanities Initial plans: Mayer, Margolis The Horovitz Plan and the establishment of the institute Berlin-Frankfurt-Jerusalem: the impact of ideas and material conditions The research projects Teachers and scholars Outside the institute: Avraham Shalom Yahuda, Israel Ben-Ze’ev A German image: On the character of the German legacy Chapter 2. “With its back to the Orient”? The School of Oriental Studies and the Question of the Arab Scholars Scholarly love: Relations between the School of Oriental Studies and the Arab and Muslim intellectual world The textual circle The ethnographic-archaeological circle The student circle Invisible and exposed: Intellectual amity and the failure to institutionalize The Question of the Arab lecturer The border line: Dreams of affinity, Zionist reality, and German standards Chapter 3. The Orient Renewed: The Birth of Israeli Oriental Studies and the Diplomatic Mission The Goitein era: Chronological and thematic expansion beyond the war The “Abandoned Property” books The modern Middle East The study of Jews from Islamic lands The Israeli Oriental Society and ‘The New Orient’ The Heyd era: The rise of a second generation and the geographical expansion of Oriental Studies 3 The conceptual infrastructure The Institute of Asian and African Studies Generation gap? The Florence Conference (1958) and generations of Israeli Oriental Studies “Truly, Jerusalem has one benefit: Lying within the Orient”: Epilogue Bibliography

About the Author :
Amit Levy is a research fellow in the Department of Israel Studies, University of Haifa. His research focuses on the history of knowledge and migration and their impact on cross-cultural encounters. He has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Oxford, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the Open University of Israel

Review :
Recipient of the Jordan Schnitzer First Book Publication Award “Levy’s nuanced history shows that leaders of the School of Oriental Studies made many attempts to lay the foundations for the collaboration of Jewish, Arabic, and Palestinian scholars, though their efforts were often scuttled by nationalist political and economic considerations. A fine model for how to write a fair-minded history of academic institutions in the post-colonial world.” “An engaging story of German Jewish Orientalists who arrived in Mandatory Palestine, either as refugees or as active Zionists and established the School of Oriental Studies at the Hebrew University. Levy explores the dilemmas faced by these scholars, the tensions between European traditions and Middle Eastern reality, and the escalating struggle between Zionism and Arab nationalism in Middle Eastern studies in Israel.” “Levy deserves special praise for providing a nuanced history that will be received with great interest by different audiences in the US—Jewish historians, Israel studies scholars, Middle East historians and scholars, Palestine studies scholars, and anyone interested in Orientalism (Said, and unSaid).”