Peter Schäfer (Judaist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Schäfer (born June 29, 1943 in Hückeswagen ) is a German Judaist and university professor. He is considered one of the leading experts on Judaism of antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Schäfer has received both the Mellon Award (2007) and the Leibniz Prize (1994). From 2014 to 2019 he was director of the Jewish Museum Berlin .

Working as a university professor

Education and career

After graduating from high school in 1962 at the old-language branch of what was later to be the Otto Pankok High School in Mülheim an der Ruhr , Peter Schäfer studied four semesters of Catholic theology , philosophy and Jewish studies at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn , for another two years with a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and most recently at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg . In 1968 he was in Freiburg with Arnold Goldberg Dr. phil. PhD . After working as a research assistant at the Eberhard-Karls-University of Tübingen , he qualified as a professor in 1973 in Jewish studies at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main .

In 1974, Schäfer was offered a professorship at the University of Cologne for the extraordinary professorship for Jewish Studies at the Martin Buber Institute; In 1982 he became a professor in Cologne. In 1983 he moved to the Free University of Berlin (FU) , where he became professor and director of the Institute for Jewish Studies.

In 1992 Schäfer became a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he was also Visiting Mellon Professor from 1994 to 1996. From 1998 to 2013, Schäfer was the first professor at Princeton University to hold the “Ronald O. Perelman Professorship of Jewish Studies” and was a “Professor of Religion”. From 2005 to 2013 he was also director of the Jewish Studies program there. At the Free University of Berlin he was on leave until his retirement (2008).

Peter Schäfer, who speaks fluent English and Hebrew , was visiting professor at several universities and is involved in numerous committees. From 1983 to 1985 he was chairman of the Association of Judaists in the Federal Republic of Germany. Since 1987 he has been a corresponding member ( Corresponding Fellow ) of the British Academy and since 1997 a foreign member of the American Philosophical Society and since 2006 a fellow at the American Academy for Jewish Research. In 2002/2003 he became a fellow at the Historisches Kolleg in Munich and in 2007/2008 at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin . Schäfer is a full member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and is involved in the "Martin Buber Works Edition" commission. In 2017 he was elected as an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Schäfer has published numerous books and scientific papers in his field.

Appreciation

Schäfer received the Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation in 1994 , the highest German science prize. In 2007 he was awarded the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award, or Mellon Award for short, for his significant initiative to revive the tradition of Jewish studies in Germany. The $ 1.5 million award is the highest honor for humanities scholars in the United States . Other honors Schäfer received were the Ruhr Prize for Art and Science (2008), the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize (2014) and the Reuchlin Prize (2015).

In 1993 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Utrecht and an honorary doctorate from the University of Tel Aviv , Israel, in 2007 .

The reason given by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the 2007 Mellon Award is stated that Schäfer was one of the most important Jewish studies researchers for the period of antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The influence of his scientific work, however, extends far beyond the subject of Jewish studies. His historical and analytical work shaped research in other fields of the humanities and religious studies, including research on mysticism, the literature of the Renaissance and early Christianity. Schäfer contributed significantly to reviving the tradition of Jewish studies in Germany and thus influenced the academic landscape in other European countries.

With the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize of the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the University of Tübingen recognized Schäfer's “outstanding contribution to the study of the history, literature and theology of ancient and early medieval Judaism”.

In 2015, on the occasion of the Reuchlin Prize , the city of Pforzheim named Schäfer “one of the most important Judaists of our time, who has achieved outstanding merits with his research on Christian-Jewish religious relations”.

Working as a museum director

In June 2014, the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Museum Berlin decided to appoint Peter Schäfer to succeed W. Michael Blumenthal as director. He took office on September 1 of the same year.

Schäfer's contract as director of the museum was extended by one year (until the end of August 2020) despite the controversies surrounding the design of the Jerusalem exhibition and the visit to the Iranian cultural council (see below). After the heated discussion about a tweet from the museum's public relations department regarding the BDS decision of the Bundestag (see also below), Schäfer resigned from the contract on June 14, 2019 in order to prevent damage to the museum.

Activities of the museum under Schäfer's directorate

In addition to numerous other activities, the exhibition A for Jewish was under Schäfer's directorate at the end of 2018 . Opened in 22 letters through the present , which looks at Jewish identities and realities of life in Germany today. 22 snapshots provide an insight into everyday life and the self-image of long-established and immigrant Jews in the 21st century. The participatory platform Jewish Places went online in 2018 . In previous years, the Jewish Museum and nationwide cooperation partners had recorded and visualized more than 8500 current and historical data on places of Jewish life in Germany on an interactive map. The Jewish Museum Berlin and the Foundation New Synagogue Berlin - Centrum Judaicum invited to the international symposium Stolen Judaica , which dealt with the robbery and destruction of Jewish cultural assets from 1933 to 1945. In 2016, the Jewish Museum's fellowship program was expanded to include the W. Michael Blumenthal Fellowship on the history of Jewish-Islamic relationships . The first fellow was Walid Abd El-Gawad with a research project on the reflections on Islam and Judaism in the writings of German-speaking Jewish orientalists in the 19th and 20th centuries. Century.

Controversy

The Jerusalem exhibition

The exhibition Welcome to Jerusalem , curated by Margret Kampmeyer , was criticized as one-sided by the Israeli Prime Minister and the Berlin Jewish Community. The anti-Semitism commissioner of the Jewish community in Berlin, Sigmount Königsberg, thinks that in the extensive exhibition “the image is distorted by systematic omission”. Thus Israel would be portrayed unilaterally as the aggressor and the Palestinians as victims who defend themselves in a legitimate way (in the liberation struggle). The criticism was also shared by the Green politician Volker Beck : “It is claimed that Israel conquered East Jerusalem in 1967 without cause .” On the other hand, the advance of the Egyptian army , the Jordanian shelling of West Jerusalem and Israel's warning of Jordan against entering into war fell "More or less under the table". Schäfer was criticized by Michael Wuliger and Sigmount Königsberg for dealing with these and similar reviews .

The visit of the Iranian Cultural Council

The Cultural Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran , Seyed Ali Moujani, had contacted the Jewish Museum Berlin to hand over Iranian-owned Judaica to the museum. On March 8, 2019, Moujani visited the museum and was received by its director, Peter Schäfer. The cultural department of the Iranian embassy then reported in detail about the appointment on the Internet. Accordingly, both interlocutors agreed on the assessment of the problem of “equating anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism ” and the analogy between Zionism and “ Islamic State ”. A few days later, Schäfer's photo was removed from the report, and the text was added: “At the request of the museum management, this part is to include the statements and views of Prof. Dr. Peter Schäfer and the photo of the conversation have been removed from the report. ”The invitation of the cultural council to the museum and Moujani's reception by Schäfer, as well as the alleged statements by Schäfer at the meeting, were approved by some Jewish journalists, including Alan Posener , Henryk M. Broder and Michael Wuliger , criticized. The Mena-Watch blog later reported on a statement by Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters on a parliamentary question by the AfD regarding Moujani's visit and the statements made by Schäfer during the visit. Accordingly, Grütters presented Schäfer's statements as “taken out of context” and misunderstood by the Iranian interpreter. The museum or Schäfer did not provide any clarification.

The BDS decision of the Bundestag

After the German Bundestag declared the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions initiative to be anti-Semitic in May , the Jewish Museum commented on Twitter on June 6, 2019 that this decision would “not help in the fight against anti-Semitism”. Reference was made to the public criticism of 240 Israeli and Jewish scholars of this decision, and a corresponding article in the daily taz was linked. This tweet was sharply criticized by Jeremy Issacharoff , the Israeli ambassador to Germany, his US colleague Grenell and the Central Council of Jews in Germany . The latter said in a tweet that the Jewish Museum appeared to be "completely out of control" and asked whether the term "Jewish" was still appropriate for the museum.

Support from well-known colleagues

Schäfer received support from numerous colleagues from all over the world, especially after his resignation from the director's office of the Jewish Museum. "As museum directors, curators and professionals who work for Jewish and non-Jewish museums, we would like to express our concern about the attacks against our colleague [...]", it says in their statement. Schäfer's resignation is "the culmination of a long-running campaign in the German media that discredited the work of the museum with its first-class public programs and exhibitions". The museum has made it its business to serve as a public platform for a multitude of voices and to discuss a number of topics in a variety of ways, which is particularly necessary today. “We see Professor Schäfer's departure as an alarming sign of the prevention of debates and the prevention of free discussions, which fundamentally contradicts not only one of the tasks of a socially relevant museum, but also the Jewish-traditional, constructive-intellectual culture of debate (Hebrew: machloket) “This event was the result of a broader, worrying global trend towards the routinely interfering of governments and campaigning bodies to restrict or even suspend the independence of universities, museums and cultural institutions. "As museum experts we ask [...] what this might mean for the future of our work." 58 directors and curators from 14 countries signed, including the heads of the Jewish museums in Munich and Frankfurt and the NS Documentation Center in Munich. Before that, more than 300 Jewish and non-Jewish scientists from Germany, the USA, Israel and the like had met. a. placed behind Schäfer.

Works (selection)

As an author:

  • The idea of ​​the Holy Spirit in rabbinical literature (= studies on the Old and New Testament. Vol. 28). Kösel, Munich 1972, ISBN 3-466-25328-4 (= dissertation, University of Freiburg im Breisgau, 1968/69).
  • History of the Jews in antiquity. The Jews of Palestine from Alexander the Great to the Arab conquest. Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-460-32021-4 . Review by Jan Thomas Nelis in: Journal for the Study of Judaism. Volume 14, Number 2, 1983, pp. 221-224.
    • 2nd revised edition: History of the Jews in antiquity. Mohr Siebeck / UTB, Tübingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-16-150218-7
  • Judeophobia: Attitudes toward the Jews in the Ancient world. Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1997, ISBN 0-674-48777-X .
    • German Translation: hatred of Jews and fear of Jews. The emergence of anti-Semitism in antiquity. Verlag der Weltreligionen, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-458-71028-8 .
  • Jesus in the Talmud. Princeton University Press, Princeton 2007, ISBN 978-0-691-12926-6
  • The origins of Jewish mysticism . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-16-149931-9 .
    • German Translation: The origins of Jewish mysticism . Verlag der Welteligionen, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-458-71037-0 .
  • The birth of Judaism from the spirit of Christianity. Five lectures on the emergence of rabbinic Judaism (= Tria Corda. Vol. 6). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-16-150256-9 .
  • The Jew Who Would Be God. In: The New Republic , May 18, 2012, ISSN  0028-6583 , pp. 36-39 ( E-Text ; see Alan Brill under web links).
  • The Jewish Jesus: How Judaism and Christianity Shaped Each Other . Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-691-15390-2 .
  • Two Gods in Heaven: Concepts of God in Jewish Antiquity . CHBeck 2017, ISBN 978-3-406-70412-3 .

As editor:

  • with Leora Batnitzky, publisher of the quarterly journal for Jewish studies: Jewish Studies Quarterly (JSQ), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen.
  • (with Irina Wandrey) Reuchlin and his heirs: researchers, thinkers, ideologues and nuts. Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2005, ISBN 3-7995-5981-7 .
  • Ways of a mystical experience of God: Judaism, Christianity and Islam (= writings of the Historical College. Colloquia, vol. 65). Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-486-58006-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jüdisches Museum Berlin press release of June 19, 2014: Change at the helm of the Jewish Museum Berlin , accessed on June 19, 2014
  2. ↑ [1] Barbara Beuys in Zeit No. 47 from November 18, 1994
  3. ^ Fellows: Peter Schäfer. British Academy, accessed January 27, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Member History: Peter Schäfer. American Philosophical Society, accessed January 27, 2019 (with biographical notes).
  5. ^ Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: 2007 Annual Report
  6. ↑ Renowned US Prize for Scientists at Freie Universität: Professor of Jewish Studies Peter Schäfer honored with the Mellon Award. Freie Universität Berlin, January 12, 2007, accessed on August 29, 2014 .
  7. ↑ uni-protocol.de of April 15, 2014: The Judaist Peter Schäfer receives the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize 2014 , accessed April 15, 2014
  8. ↑ Press release of the city of Pforzheim from February 12, 2015 ( Memento from February 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ a b c Jewish community criticizes the management of the Jewish museum. Morgenpost.de, January 23, 2019, accessed on May 2, 2019 .
  10. ^ Jewish Museum: Peter Schäfer will stay for another year. Morgenpost.de, April 30, 2019, accessed on May 2, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Press release of June 14, 2019. Jewish Museum Berlin, June 14, 2019, accessed on June 15, 2019 .
  12. ^ Resigned director of the Jewish Museum Foundation .
  13. ↑ https://www.jmberlin.de/geschichte-des-juedischen-museums-berlin-zeitzeile
  14. ↑ "Jewish Museum Krähwinkel" , Jüdische Allgemeine , January 24, 2019
  15. ↑ Iranian Cultural Council visits the Jewish Museum in Berlin. In: irankultur.com. March 19, 2019, accessed May 2, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Michael Wuliger: “Visit from the Mullahs” , Jüdische Allgemeine , March 13, 2019.
  17. ↑ Iranian Cultural Council visits the Jewish Museum in Berlin. In: irankultur.com. March 31, 2019, accessed May 2, 2019 .
  18. ↑ Build anti-Zionist bridges. In: jungle.world. March 19, 2019, accessed May 21, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Visit from the mullahs. In: juedische-allgemeine.de. March 19, 2019, accessed May 2, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Alan Posener: “The Jewish Museum and the Mullah Regime: Useful Idiots, Deceived - or ...?” , Stark-mappen.de, March 18, 2019
  21. ^ Anti-Semites in the Jewish Museum Berlin: German Federal Government has no objections. In: mena-watch.com. May 1, 2019, accessed May 2, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Everything for the press at a glance. In: jmberlin.de. May 2, 2019, accessed May 2, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Stefan Reinecke and Jannis Hagmann: BDS tweet of the Jewish Museum Berlin: Strife, power, control . taz of June 15, 2019, p. 3 ( online , accessed June 15, 2019).
  24. ↑ https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/juedisches-museum-schaefer-museumsdirektoren-1.4497220
personal data
SURNAME Shepherd, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Judaist
DATE OF BIRTH June 29, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Hückeswagen