Several weeks ago was the eleventh yahrzeit of the late Professor Jacob Katz of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, arguably "the most distinguished Jewish historian of the twentieth century." In addition to the works that have been dedicated to the memory of Prof. Katz, there have been countless tributes written, delivered, and published in memory of the man who has squarely secured himself a permanent place at the junction of Heinrich Graetz and Simon Dubnow in the great modern Jewish historiographical debate. Prof. Katz’s more than 300 bibliographical entries are available on the website created and hosted by his sons. For two wide-ranging collections devoted to the legacy and memory of Prof. Katz, see the articles collected in Jay M. Harris, ed., The Pride of Jacob: Essays on Jacob Katz and His Work (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002), and, more recently, Israel Bartal and Shmuel Feiner, eds., Historiography Reappraised: New Views of Jacob Katz's Oeuvre (Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar and Leo Baeck Institute, 2008; Hebrew). In perhaps a fulfillment of the injunction of the prophet Isaiah 30:20, see the photographs that I posted last year at "A Picturesque Look at Prof. Jacob Katz on his 10th Yahrzeit," the Michtavim blog (27 May 2008), available here, and special thanks are extended to Prof. Michael K. Silber of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for his assistance in obtaining the pictures from the children of the late Prof. Jacob Katz, and if you would like any of these photographs to adorn your home or sukkah wall, please let me know.
For the most-recently published appraisal of Katz's historiographical legacy, which I picked up from the Centre which is nearby by the Shai Agnon House (you know, the one on Rechov Klausner!), see the latest issue of Zion 74 (2009) for a symposium titled "Remembering and Forgetting: Israeli Historians Look at the Jewish Past," with contributions by Ezra Mendelsohn, Nadav Na'aman, Daniel R. Schwartz, Aharon Oppenheimer, Daniel J. Lasker, Ivan G. Marcus, Moshe Rosman, Mordechai Zalkin, Jacob Barnai, Dan Michman, Billie Millman, Gur Elroy, Anita Shapira, Mordechai Bar-On, David N. Myers, Kimmy Caplan, and Yfaat Weiss, and for an article that has a specific focus on the historiography of Prof. Jacob Katz, see Ivan G. Marcus, "Israeli Medieval Jewish Historiography: From Nationalist Positivism to New Cultural and Social Histories," Zion 74 (2009): 109-140, esp. 122-131 (Hebrew). For a work of a quite-similarly-titled, albeit from the American academic scene, see the articles in a volume published a decade ago by David N. Myers and David B. Ruderman, eds., The Jewish Past Revisited: Reflections on Modern Jewish Historians (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), which includes contributions by Anthony Grafton, Moshe Idel, Israel Jacob Yuval, David N. Myers, Derek J. Penslar, David B. Ruderman, Elliott Horowitz, Gideon Libson, Martha Himmelfarb, and Sara Japhet.
Of course, ANYONE who is interested in any aspect of the Katz worldview and especially of his unyielding mesirat nefesh in his early years following aliyah, MUST read through the pages of Jacob Katz, With My Own Eyes: The Autobiography of an Historian, trans. Zipporah Brody (Hanover, N.H.: Brandeis University Press, 1995), for a review of this volume by my teacher, see David Berger, "Odyssey," Commentary 100:1 (July 1995): 58-60; and for a study of Prof. Katz's earliest of years, see David N. Myers, "Rebel in Frankfurt: The Scholarly Origins of Jacob Katz," in Jay M. Harris, ed., The Pride of Jacob: Essays on Jacob Katz and His Work (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002), 9-27; and for an article that could have been titled "Katz Responds!!!," see Immanuel Etkes, "Jacob Katz Confronts his Critics," in Israel Bartal and Shmuel Feiner, eds., Historiography Reappraised: New Views of Jacob Katz's Oeuvre (Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar and Leo Baeck Institute, 2008; Hebrew), 183-200. For an important article about Prof. Katz that has appeared in print (I believe) three times, see Israel M. Ta-Shma, "Jacob Katz on Halakhah and Kabbalah," Israel Bartal and Shmuel Feiner, eds., Historiography Reappraised: New Views of Jacob Katz's Oeuvre (Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar and Leo Baeck Institute, 2008; Hebrew), 143-152 (Hebrew), which appeared earlier idem, "Jacob Katz on Halakhah and Kabbalah," in Jay M. Harris, ed., The Pride of Jacob: Essays on Jacob Katz and His Work (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002), 29-39; and (if my memory serves me correctly) in idem, "Jacob Katz on Halakhah and Kabbalah," in Creativity and Tradition: Studies in Medieval Rabbinic Scholarship, Literature and Thought (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies, 2007), though I do not have my copy at hand to provide you the exact pages.
Related to the quite-expanded field of the academic study of Orthodox Judaism -- most recently described in detail by Kimmy Caplan, "Trends and Characteristics in the Study of Orthodoxy in the Israeli Academy," Zion 74 (2009): 353-372 -- see the landmark article by Jacob Katz, "Orthodoxy in Historical Perspective," Studies in Contemporary Jewry 2 (1986): 3-17; as well as the very recent and important article by Aviezer Ravitzky (may he have a refuah shelaimah) in his "Dimensions and Varieties of Orthodox Judaism," in Andreas Gotzmann & Christian Wiese, eds., Modern Judaism and Historical Consciousness: Identities, Encounters, Perspectives (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2007), 391-416, and idem, "Orthodox Judaism: Dimensions and Varieties," in Benjamin Ish-Shalom, ed., BeDarkhei Shalom: Studies in Jewish Thought Presented to Shalom Rosenberg (Jerusalem: Beit Morasha of Jerusalem Press, 2007; Hebrew), 15-31; and see, as well, the article by Michael K. Silber, "The Emergence of Ultra-Orthodoxy: The Invention of a Tradition," in Jack Wertheimer, ed., The Uses of Tradition: Jewish Continuity in the Modern Era (New York and Jerusalem: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1992), 23-84; and idem, "The Emergence of Ultra-Orthodoxy: The Invention of a Tradition," in Yosef Salmon, Aviezer Ravitzky, and Adam S. Ferziger, eds., Orthodox Judaism: New Perspectives (Jerusalem: Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2006; Hebrew), 297-345; and, of course, see the recent article by Maoz Kahana, "The Hatam Sofer: The Self Image of a Posek," Tarbiz 76:3-4 (2007): 519-556 (Hebrew), which is among the carefully-studied articles that I've read this year.
For the most-recently published appraisal of Katz's historiographical legacy, which I picked up from the Centre which is nearby by the Shai Agnon House (you know, the one on Rechov Klausner!), see the latest issue of Zion 74 (2009) for a symposium titled "Remembering and Forgetting: Israeli Historians Look at the Jewish Past," with contributions by Ezra Mendelsohn, Nadav Na'aman, Daniel R. Schwartz, Aharon Oppenheimer, Daniel J. Lasker, Ivan G. Marcus, Moshe Rosman, Mordechai Zalkin, Jacob Barnai, Dan Michman, Billie Millman, Gur Elroy, Anita Shapira, Mordechai Bar-On, David N. Myers, Kimmy Caplan, and Yfaat Weiss, and for an article that has a specific focus on the historiography of Prof. Jacob Katz, see Ivan G. Marcus, "Israeli Medieval Jewish Historiography: From Nationalist Positivism to New Cultural and Social Histories," Zion 74 (2009): 109-140, esp. 122-131 (Hebrew). For a work of a quite-similarly-titled, albeit from the American academic scene, see the articles in a volume published a decade ago by David N. Myers and David B. Ruderman, eds., The Jewish Past Revisited: Reflections on Modern Jewish Historians (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), which includes contributions by Anthony Grafton, Moshe Idel, Israel Jacob Yuval, David N. Myers, Derek J. Penslar, David B. Ruderman, Elliott Horowitz, Gideon Libson, Martha Himmelfarb, and Sara Japhet.
Of course, ANYONE who is interested in any aspect of the Katz worldview and especially of his unyielding mesirat nefesh in his early years following aliyah, MUST read through the pages of Jacob Katz, With My Own Eyes: The Autobiography of an Historian, trans. Zipporah Brody (Hanover, N.H.: Brandeis University Press, 1995), for a review of this volume by my teacher, see David Berger, "Odyssey," Commentary 100:1 (July 1995): 58-60; and for a study of Prof. Katz's earliest of years, see David N. Myers, "Rebel in Frankfurt: The Scholarly Origins of Jacob Katz," in Jay M. Harris, ed., The Pride of Jacob: Essays on Jacob Katz and His Work (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002), 9-27; and for an article that could have been titled "Katz Responds!!!," see Immanuel Etkes, "Jacob Katz Confronts his Critics," in Israel Bartal and Shmuel Feiner, eds., Historiography Reappraised: New Views of Jacob Katz's Oeuvre (Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar and Leo Baeck Institute, 2008; Hebrew), 183-200. For an important article about Prof. Katz that has appeared in print (I believe) three times, see Israel M. Ta-Shma, "Jacob Katz on Halakhah and Kabbalah," Israel Bartal and Shmuel Feiner, eds., Historiography Reappraised: New Views of Jacob Katz's Oeuvre (Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar and Leo Baeck Institute, 2008; Hebrew), 143-152 (Hebrew), which appeared earlier idem, "Jacob Katz on Halakhah and Kabbalah," in Jay M. Harris, ed., The Pride of Jacob: Essays on Jacob Katz and His Work (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002), 29-39; and (if my memory serves me correctly) in idem, "Jacob Katz on Halakhah and Kabbalah," in Creativity and Tradition: Studies in Medieval Rabbinic Scholarship, Literature and Thought (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies, 2007), though I do not have my copy at hand to provide you the exact pages.
Related to the quite-expanded field of the academic study of Orthodox Judaism -- most recently described in detail by Kimmy Caplan, "Trends and Characteristics in the Study of Orthodoxy in the Israeli Academy," Zion 74 (2009): 353-372 -- see the landmark article by Jacob Katz, "Orthodoxy in Historical Perspective," Studies in Contemporary Jewry 2 (1986): 3-17; as well as the very recent and important article by Aviezer Ravitzky (may he have a refuah shelaimah) in his "Dimensions and Varieties of Orthodox Judaism," in Andreas Gotzmann & Christian Wiese, eds., Modern Judaism and Historical Consciousness: Identities, Encounters, Perspectives (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2007), 391-416, and idem, "Orthodox Judaism: Dimensions and Varieties," in Benjamin Ish-Shalom, ed., BeDarkhei Shalom: Studies in Jewish Thought Presented to Shalom Rosenberg (Jerusalem: Beit Morasha of Jerusalem Press, 2007; Hebrew), 15-31; and see, as well, the article by Michael K. Silber, "The Emergence of Ultra-Orthodoxy: The Invention of a Tradition," in Jack Wertheimer, ed., The Uses of Tradition: Jewish Continuity in the Modern Era (New York and Jerusalem: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1992), 23-84; and idem, "The Emergence of Ultra-Orthodoxy: The Invention of a Tradition," in Yosef Salmon, Aviezer Ravitzky, and Adam S. Ferziger, eds., Orthodox Judaism: New Perspectives (Jerusalem: Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2006; Hebrew), 297-345; and, of course, see the recent article by Maoz Kahana, "The Hatam Sofer: The Self Image of a Posek," Tarbiz 76:3-4 (2007): 519-556 (Hebrew), which is among the carefully-studied articles that I've read this year.
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New blog that discusses academic Judaism
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