Introduction: Visualizing Jews: An introduction to literary and material representations of Jewishness and Judaism through the ages

Ewence, Hannah E and Spurling, Helen (2019) Introduction: Visualizing Jews: An introduction to literary and material representations of Jewishness and Judaism through the ages. In, Ewence, Hannah and Spurling, Helen (eds.) Visualising Jews through the ages: Literary and material representations of Jewishness and Judaism. 1 ed. New York. Routledge, pp. 1-13. (doi:10.4324/9781315756479).

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

In the centre of Jerusalem stood the Jewish Temple and in the inner sanctum of the Temple was the 'Holy of Holies', a place where only one man, the High Priest, was permitted to enter just once a year, on the Day of Atonement. Hegel, however, took Pompey's side of the argument. The Jews rejection of images and idols seemed to Hegel to confirm this people's distinct lack of any aesthetic sensibility. Dan Smith has pointed out, there is plenty of evidence to challenge the assumption that prohibitive iconoclasm is the sole reason for an overall absence of Jews from Western art history. Drawing on the insights of Jacques Lacan, Leader suggests that the visual arts have a peculiarly ambivalent role in the play of our desires. Metzger, a refugee from Nazi Germany, knows only too well the scandal and radical insufficiency of every representation or memorialisation after Auschwitz.

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