I percorsi che hanno portato i cattolici a ripensare il proprio rapporto con gli ebrei sono molti e investono aspetti molteplici del problema. A questo tema, approdato infine al Concilio Vaticano II con la dichiarazione Nostra Aetate (1965), si è aggiunta la questione della posizione dei cristiani di fronte alla nascita dello Stato di Israele. Le riviste cattoliche italiane (di cui si sono qui prese in esame quelle d’opinione di diverso orientamento), luogo di discussione e di formazione di un’opinione pubblica consapevole, rispettarono tale pluralismo e, grazie all’impulso conciliare, affrontarono con crescente competenza la questione dei rapporti ebraico-cristiani, diventando fucina di un confronto fecondo con l’ebraismo. La vicenda dello Stato di Israele si è certamente intrecciata con il dialogo ebraico-cristiano, ma la maggior parte delle riviste cattoliche riuscì a non confondere i due piani e a compiere valutazioni distinte. La solida difesa del dialogo ebraico-cristiano si accompagnò nelle riviste della sinistra cattolica, soprattutto dopo il 1967, a una visione sempre più critica del ruolo che Israele stava svolgendo in Medio Oriente e a un avvicinamento alle posizioni palestinesi. Nella destra cattolica, in alcuni casi lontana dallo spirito conciliare sul tema dei rapporti tra le due fedi abramitiche, furono maggiori le voci in favore dello Stato di Israele, il cui ruolo era inserito nel quadro della guerra fredda. / Paths bringing Catholics to reconsider their relationship with the Jewish are various and touch manyfold aspects of the issue, which finally was brought up during the Second Vatican Council in the declaration Nostra Aetate (1965). Meanwhile Christians were further confronted by the foundation of Israel. Italian Catholic reviews, in the pluralism of the Council, faced with increased competence the issue of Christian-Jewish relationship and became the place for internal debates, opinion making, but also fruitful confrontation with Hebraism; those holding different views are specifically taken into account in this work. The course of Israel as state is certainly interwoven with the Christian-Jewish dialogue, but most Catholic reviews managed to keep the discussion and their evaluations on two different levels. The support of Christian-Jewish dialogue did not prevent left-wing Catholics from a critical vision of the role played by Israel in the Middle East, particularly in 1967, when positions came close to Palestinians. On the other hand within the Catholic right-wing, sometimes far from the spirit of the Council about the two religions with same roots, voices rose in favour of Israel and its role in the frame of the cold war.

Jews were present in Pietersburg [Polokwane] from the time of its establishment in 1868. They came from Lithuania, England and Germany. They were attracted by the discovery of gold, land and work opportunities. The first Jewish cemetery was established on land granted by President Paul Kruger in 1895. The Zoutpansberg Hebrew Congregation, which included Pietersburg and Louis Trichardt was established around 1897. In 1912, Pietersburg founded its own congregation, the Pietersburg Hebrew Congregation. A Jewish burial society, a benevolent society and the Pietersburg-Zoutpansberg Zionist Society was formed. A communal hall was built in 1921 and a synagogue in 1953. Jews contributed to the development of Pietersburg and held high office. There was little anti-Semitism. From the 1960s, Jews began moving to the cities. The communal hall and minister's house were sold in 1994 and the synagogue in 2003. Only the Jewish cemetery remains in Pietersburg. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A. (Judaica)

My thesis examines relations among practitioners of various religions, especially Christians and Jews, during the era when Jesus’ project went from being a Galilean sect, to a persecuted minority, to religio licita status, and eventually to imperial favor, all happening between the first century resurrection of Jesus and the fourth century rise of Constantine. There is an abiding image of the Church in wider public consciousness that it is unwittingly and in some cases antagonistically exclusionist. This is not a late-developing image. I trace it to the period that the church developed into a formal organization with the establishment of canons and creeds defined by Church councils. This notion is so pervasive that an historical retrospective of Christianity of any period, from the sect that became a movement, to the Reformation, to the present day’s multiple Christian iterations, is framed by the late Patristic era. The conflicts and solutions reached in that period provided enduring definition to the Church while silencing dissent. I refer here to such actions as the destruction of books and letters and the banishment of bishops. Before there emerged the urgent perceived need for doctrinal uniformity, the presence of Christianity provided a resilient non-militant opponent to and an increasing intellectual critique of all religious traditions, including that of the official gods that were seen to hold the empire together. When glaringly manifest cleavages in the empire persisted, the Emperor Constantine sought to use the church to help bring political unity. He called for church councils, starting with Nicaea in 325 CE that took no account for churches outside the Roman Empire, and many within, even though councils were called “Ecumenical.” The presumption that the church was fully representative without asking for permission from a broader field of constituents is just that: a presumption. This thesis studies the ancient world of Christianity’s growth to explore whether, in that age of new and untested toleration, there was a more advisable way of responding to the invitation to the political table. The answer to this can help us formulate, and perhaps revise, some of our conduct today, especially for Christians who obtain a voice in powerful places. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)

Constructed Reality: A Critical Discourse Analysis of News Texts Surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict After the United States’ Recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel. Within hours the American announcement was international news with an almost unanimous UN Security Council condemning the act. The purpose of this study is to examine how the conflict is constructed in news articles from Sweden's two largest daily newspapers as well as two largest evening papers, ranging a week from the US recognition of Jerusalem. The study is conducted with a starting point in theoretical perspectives that deal with the media’s influence of people's perceptions of reality and their world view. The methods applied are first and foremost the overarching model of critical discourse analysis, with a combination of quantitative content analysis and qualitative text analysis. The study concludes that overwhelmingly, the newspapers represented the parties involved (Israelis and Palestinians) in a balanced, neutral fashion. The newspapers were however not as balanced and neutral when it came to which sources were cited.

The theme of this thesis is attitude of the Communist Party and Czechoslovak totalitarian regime to Zionism in 1947-1957. The main aim of the archive research was to map gradual change of the communist regime from its position of the supporter of Zionism to that one of convinced anti-Zionism (nearly to anti-Semitism). Support of Zionism was primarily presented by help to the nascent state of Israel in 1947-1949. The evidence is given by the role of Czechoslovakia at meetings of the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 and its role as a member of United Nations Special Committee on Palestine. Furthermore, supplies of military equipment to Israel, diplomatic support, demographic support and training of Jewish brigade in Czechoslovak territory in 1948. Gradual change to anti-Zionist position at the end of 1940s and beginning of 1950s is illustrated with complicated negotiations on economic cooperation and with interfering of the regime in running of Jewish religious communities and Zionist organisations. During the first half of 1950s the support turned into downright opposition and lead in a diplomatic quarrel caused by the Slánský trial which had definitely anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist dimension. Utterly anti-Zionist position of the regime is also supported with further politically motivated trials -...

Albert Einstein published the English translation of Relativity: The Special and General Theory in the midst of two big events in 1920: the confirmation of the two theories of relativity and spacetime in 1919 and the Nobel prize in physics in 1921. The new global celebrity wanted to make the theories intelligible and readable for an international English-speaking audience, an audience that also included antagonistic scientists and even anti-Semites. The aim of this thesis is to do a rhetorical analysis of Einstein’s character, his ethos, in Relativity, with a specific focus on creation of credibility in regard to his historical context: scientific ideals, values and norms as well as the political and cultural tendencies in Europe during the early 20th century. This was done firstly by identifying the implied auditor. Secondly, based on the material, I have identified three stereotypes or characters – the professional idealist, the mentor and the internationalist –  which emphases different features and capacities that are crucial for the credibility of the text. Thirdly, by using these stereotypes and in regard to the specific historical context, I investigated how Einstein developed his primary ethos into a secondary ethos in the text. The rhetorical analysis of Einstein’s Relativity shows that his ethos stands in relation to the social and cultural perception of the virtuous epistemic scientist; to fight prejudices regarding being a Jewish-German theoretical physicist; and, noteworthy, a way to produce a well-needed international space – a crucial alternative to continue the positivistic knowledge production counter to the nationalistic project.

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of Ph.D. thesis: Middle Eastern Conflict in the French Public Space (2000-2010) Václav Nekvapil, 2013 The main objective of the thesis is to analyse and typologise French social discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on a reflection of certain opinions, interests, stances and values associated with today's Jewishness and Jewish diasporic identity. The research also contains an analysis of the official political-diplomatic discourse of both Presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy. Based on the methodology of typologisation and critical discourse analysis, we distinguish three basic positions related to the debate on the abovementioned topics in the years 2000- 2010: republican, anti-imperialist and neoconservative. The thesis elaborates on attitudes of presidents of the French Fifth Republic towards Israel and how their policies have been perceived by the Jewish community. The community as such is also a matter of the research: its changing religiosity, demography, immigration of Nord African Jewry and the attitude towards Zionism and the State of Israel. The thesis follows four main thematic axes when analysing arguments of the most important speakers. First, when analysing the duty of memory (devoir de mémoire), the author carefully examines moral argumentation concerning the...

Die vorliegende Arbeit analysiert den Umgang mit dem Tatbestand der Holocaust-Leugnung durch die Europäische Union (EU) und den Europäischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte (EGMR). Derzeit befinden sich diese in einer heiklen Situation: Sie müssen das Gedenken an ein für die europäische Identität zentrales historisches Ereignis – den Holocaust – pflegen und schützen und zugleich die Achtung der Grundrechte, insbesondere der Meinungsfreiheit, gewährleisten. Diese besondere Situation erfordert eine gründliche Untersuchung des europäischen Umgangs mit dem Tatbestand der Holocaust-Leugnung. Der erste Teil der Dissertation steckt den Anwendungsbereich der europarechtlichen Verpflichtungen zur Kriminalisierung der Holocaust-Leugnung ab. Bewertet wird insbesondere die Bedeutung des Rahmenbeschlusses 2008/913/JHA über Rassismus und Fremdenfeindlichkeit für die EU-Mitgliedstaaten. Dabei werden einige Beispiele der Umsetzung in staatliches Recht dargestellt. Der zweite Teil der Arbeit befasst sich mit der Rechtsprechung des EGMR und untersucht das Verhältnis zwischen dem Tatbestand der Holocaust-Leugnung und der Meinungsfreiheit mit dem Ziel, die Grundsätze, nach denen Staaten verpflichtet sind, entsprechende Äußerungen zu kriminalisieren, herzuleiten. Die übergreifenden Ziele der Untersuchung sind: a) den Charakter des Zusammenspiels zwischen EU und EGMR herauszuarbeiten; b) zu ermitteln, ob die jeweiligen Positionen gegensätzlich oder komplementär sind; c) die Rechtsnatur und den Inhalt der für die Mitgliedstaaten begründeten Verpflichtungen zu bestimmen; d) herauszuarbeiten, ob eine europaweite Kriminalisierung verpflichtend ist oder lediglich gefördert werden soll; und e) ob beziehungsweise unter welchen Bedingungen ein mit Kriminalstrafe sanktioniertes Verbot der Holocaust-Leugnung erstrebenswert wäre. / The present study aims to analyse the legal treatment of the crime of denialism by the two main actors in European justice, namely, the European Union (‘EU’) and the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’). Presently, these two systems find themselves in a delicate position: they must cherish and protect the memory of an historical event – the Holocaust – which is central to Europe’s own identity, while simultaneously promoting respect for fundamental rights such as the freedom of speech. This unique balance raises a need for a thorough investigation into Europe’s approach to the crime of denialism. The dissertation’s first section seeks to measure the scope of EU-imposed obligations to make denialism a crime. Notably, the impact on EU Member States of the Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA on racism and xenophobia is assessed, with illustrations of a few archetypal examples of domestic implementing legislation. The second part of the dissertation turns to the jurisprudence of the ECtHR to examine the relationship between Holocaust denial as a crime and the right to freedom of expression, with a view to deducing the principles under which States must comply in the criminalization of this kind of utterance. The work’s overall goals are to assess: a) the nature of interactions between the EU and ECtHR; b) whether their positions on denialism are better portrayed in terms of contrast or mutual support; c) the legal nature and content of the obligations originating for the Member States; d) whether a Europe-wide criminal prohibition on denialism is dictated or simply encouraged; and e) whether such a prohibition would be desirable, and if so, under what conditions.