Project Details
Projekt
Social Responsibility in German-Jewish Life: Traditions and Places as Jewish Heritage?
Subject Area
Modern and Contemporary History
General Education and History of Education
General Education and History of Education
Term
since 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 497374084
Jewish cultural heritage in a European context is a multifaceted entity. It encompasses the entire heritage of European Jewries, tangible and intangible. It is sustained by the knowledge and skills of Jewish men and women and passed on from generation to generation; at the same time, it is subject to a permanent process of change. It also includes the social sphere. In view of the combination of convergence and increasing cultural, social and religious diversity that is today’s Europe, both Jews and non-Jews face the challenge of preserving and developing this heritage, thus contributing to both tolerance and identity formation.The project investigates how nineteenth- through twenty-first-century Jewish welfare in Germany was and is perceived and transmitted in different temporal and spatial contexts. The central question is how the respective societies, as well as Jewish institutions, have dealt with Jewish Heritage and memorial culture related to the social sphere. To what extent, and in what ways, has “the social” become part of a recognized cultural heritage? What are the conclusions that can be derived from a study of how the specific Jewish cultural heritage “Jewish Welfare and Modern Jewish Social Work” has been handled? The aim of the project is to use the resulting insights to formulate recommendations as to how the cultural heritage of Jewish social work can be preserved, developed, and cultivated in the future.Using interdisciplinary approaches derived from history, the social sciences, and education, as well as a broad variety of methods (interviews, discourse and network analysis alongside the study of documents and media), the project will ensure that Jewish Heritage, remembrance culture, social science and (social-)pedagogical perspectives are all taken into account. The research program is made up of three modules: (1) Places of Jewish Welfare and Social Work, (2) Actors in Social Places, and (3) Jewish Social Work since 1945. Module 1 examines exemplary places of Jewish welfare and social work and their discursivation in different social contexts. Module 2 focuses on the discourse regarding the various actors involved in the establishment and development of social institutions in the respective places. It examines to what extent, and why, these actors did or did not gain retrospective recognition for their work. Diversity and gender aspects will be highly relevant here. Module 3 will explore the perception of Jewish institutions and their social work after 1945. Focusing on the Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland (ZWST, or Central Welfare Office of the Jews in Germany), founded in 1917 and re-established in 1951, it will be based on the observation that a scholarly discursivation of the work done since 1945 has taken place only to a limited extent. The effect this has had on the way the socio-cultural heritage as a whole has been handled will be examined here. This will feed back into the project’s overall aims.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Subproject of
SPP 2357:
Jewish Cultural Heritage
