Fellows

Translating Jewish Tradition: Bertha Pappenheim (1859–1936) and Religious Writings for Women

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Born into a well-to-do, orthodox Jewish family in the mid 19th century Vienna, Bertha Pappenheim subtly revolted against the two guiding principles of her upbringing – bourgeoisie and religious orthodoxy, – without completely forsaking them. As a religious Jewish woman, Pappenheim was bound by the laws and traditions of a male-dominated Jewish society that discriminated against women in practical, intellectual and religious concerns. To uphold the universality of religion, Pappenheim had to find strategies that would include her (as a woman) into a system that was based upon the exclusion of women.
In order to detect these strategies, the project seeks exploring Pappenheim’s life and her religious writings in the context of cultural translation. First of all, her role as a translator and cultural mediator of diverse feminist and religious texts shall be examined. Additionally, Pappenheim’s religious writings shall be analyzed as part of her subversive feminist activities (especially her battles against the suppressive religious establishment) as well as in connection with the emancipatory character of women’s devotional literature.

CV

Louise Hecht ist seit 2007 Senior Lecturer für Jüdische Geschichte am Kurt-und-Ursula-Schubert-Institut für Jüdische Studien an der Palacký-Universität, Olmütz (CR). Sie promovierte 2002 an der Hebrew University, Jerusalem, und erhielt 2003 den Pridan Prize für die beste Dissertation in jüdischer Geschichte an der Hebrew University. 2002–2004 war sie Postdoctoral Fellow am Leonid Nevzlin Center for Russian and Eastern European Jewry, Hebrew University. Seit 2004/05 lehrt sie an den Universitäten Klagenfurt und Wien.

Publications

(u. a.): (Hg.), Haskalah – Aufklärung – Osvícenství: Jewish Enlightenment in the Czech Lands in a European Perspective, erscheint in: Jewish Culture and History [2010]; Ein jüdischer Aufklärer in Böhmen: Der Pädagoge und Reformer Peter Beer (1758–1838), Köln 2008; Modern Jewish Education between Ideological Premises and Political Interests, in: Shmuel Feiner and Israel Bartal (Hg.), The Varieties of Haskalah, Jerusalem 2005, 91–119 (Hebr.).