Fellows 2022

Abraham Rubin

Postdoctoral Fellow at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Resident at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

November 2021–February 2022

Research topic at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

»Conversion and the Problem of Persuasion in Modern Jewish Life Writing«

Project outline:

Conversion and the Problem of Persuasion is a study of the autobiographical writings of six European Jews, who converted to Christianity and Islam in the first half of the twentieth century. It asks how such figures articulated the meaning of their conversion and forged their religious identity in relation to their Jewish background. It analyzes the rhetorical means they used to persuade themselves and their audiences of the authenticity of their religious transformation at a time when conversion from Judaism was perceived to be a craven act of communal betrayal, and Jewishness construed as an intractable racial trait. Contrary to the notion that conversion represents a radical break with one’s Jewish past, this study seeks to demonstrate the ways in which the political and cultural dilemmas of modern Jewish identity and its corresponding modes of self-representation were carried over into converts’ autobiographical accounts of religious transformation. (Abraham Rubin)

Research partner:

Abraham Rubin cooperates with Christian Wiese, holder of the Martin Buber Chair in Jewish Thought and Philosophy at Goethe University and member of the Board of Directors of the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften. His stay is sponsored by the Johanna Quandt Young Academy at Goethe.

Scholarly profile of Abraham Rubin

Abraham Rubin received his PhD in Comparative Literature from the City University of New York. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Martin Buber Society of Fellows at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Before coming to Jerusalem, he held postdoctoral positions at Lawrence University in Wisconsin and Goethe University, Frankfurt.

Website:
Please find more information about Abraham Rubin here.

Main areas of research:

Religious conversion; spiritual autobiography; life writing; German-Jewish studies; intellectual history; interreligious dialogue; modern Jewish thought

Selected publications:

»Zionism, Pan-Asianism and the Post-Colonial Predicament in the Interwar Writings of Eugen Hoeflich«, in: AJS Review 45.1 (2021), p. 120-142.
»Hugo Hamid Marcus (1880-1966): The Muslim Convert as German Jew«, in: The Jewish Quarterly Review 109.4 (2019), p. 598-630.
»Reading Kafka, Debating Revelation: Gershom Scholem’s Shadow Dialogue with Hans-Joachim Schoeps«, in: Literature and Theology 31.1 (2017), p. 78-98.

Abraham Rubin

Scholarly profile of Abraham Rubin

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