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The unifying thread of the interdisciplinary volume Jewish and Non-Jewish Spaces in the Urban Context is the fact that Jewish spaces are almost always generated in relation to non-Jewish spaces; they determine and influence each other.
This general phenomenon will be scrutinized and put to the test again and again in a varied collection of articles by international experienced researchers as well as junior scholars using various urban contexts and discourses as data. From the viewpoints of different temporal and regional research traditions and disciplines the contributors deal with the question of how Jewish and non-Jewish spaces are imagined, constructed, negotiated and intertwined. All examples and case studies together create a mosaic of possibilities for the construction of Jewish and non-Jewish spaces in different settings.
The list of examined topics ranges from synagogues to ghettos, from urban neighborhoods to cafés and festivals, from art to literature. This diversity makes the volume a challenging effort of giving an overview of the current academic discussion in Europe and beyond. Although the majority of the contributions are focused on Central and Eastern Europe, a more general tendency becomes apparent in all articles: the negotiation of urban spaces seems to be a complex and ambivalent process in which a large number of participants are involved. In this regard, the volume would also like to contribute to trans-disciplinary urban studies and critical research on spatial relations.
About the author
Jürgen Heyde ist Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Deutschen Historischen Institut in Warschau.
Ruth Leiserowitz; Jahrgang 1958, Bibliotheks- und Verlagsangestellte, Übersetzerin, 1990-1996 Studium der Geschichte und Polonistik in Berlin und Vilnius, 1996-1999 wiss. Mitarbeiterin am Thomas- Mann-Kulturzentrum Nida/Litauen,1997 Promotion, seit 1996 Lehrbeauftragte an der Universität Klaipeda, seit 2001 Forschungsprojekte an der HU Berlin und der FU Berlin, 2007 Habilitation. Zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen zur osteuropäischen Geschichte.
Monica Rüthers arbeitet am Historischen Seminar an der Philosophisch-Historischen Fakultät der Universität Basel über Topographien kindlicher Lebenswelten in der Sowjetunion zwischen 1950 und 1985.
