Doron Avraham

Bar Ilan University | BIU · Department of General History

Historical discussions about German Pietism's posture toward Jews underlined Pietists' attempts at their conversion as the dominant feature of their relationship. Contesting orthodoxy, Pietists favored a lenient attitude toward Jews, arguing that their change of heart might hasten salvation. However, revisiting Pietists' texts, I argue that from th...

German Jews’ involvement in the colonial venture of the Kaiserreich has remained almost untouched by historical research. While it has affirmed the dominance of the nation-state in outlining the Jews’ civic status and identity, historiography has overlooked the implications of colonization on Jews’ self-perception as Germans. This essay inquires in...

The emergence of German neo-Pietism after the Napoleonic Wars appeared to contest the dominance of orthodox Protestantism, mainly in Prussia, but also in other German lands. However, nineteenth-century neo-Pietists forged a different kind of relationship with the orthodox than that of the early Pietists and the orthodox about two centuries earlier....

This essay investigates German Jews’ conceptualization of colonialism, and its consequent meanings regarding their identity formation in the years between 1884 and 1919. The discussion tackles the intersections and disjunctions of identities among German Jews of various orientations, as inspired by the colonial venture and within globalization proc...

Beginning in the early nineteenth century, spokesmen for German nationalism invoked confessional reconciliation as a precondition for future unification. While the confessional divide between Catholics and Protestants seemed to hinder German unity, advocating ecumenical Christianity appeared to advance national consolidation. The article suggests t...

In the early nineteenth century, a neo-Pietist circle of awakened Protestants emerged in Prussia and other German lands. Disturbed by the consequences of the French Revolution, the ensuing reforms and the rising national movement, these neo-Pietists—among them noble estate owners, theologians, and other scholars—tried to introduce an alternative me...

Since the Nazi seizure of power in Germany in 1933, German Zionists initiated a public debate about the racial meaning of Judaism. Drawing on scientific racial, sociological, and anthropological definitions that emerged within Zionism since the late nineteenth century, these Zionists tried to counter Nazi accusations against Jews. However, as the N...

This article compares the German conservative conceptualization of Judaism and Jewish emancipation with that of liberals, from the Vormärz (1830–1848) to the Neue Ära (1858–1861). It argues that both conservatives and liberals understood Judaism not merely as a religion but also as a nationality. Yet while liberals acknowledged the national dimensi...

The Religious and Moral Origins of German Conservative Social Policy - Volume 28 Issue 1 - Doron Avraham

While excluded from society and subjected to discrimination under government measures, German Jews under the Nazi regime during 1933–38 had conducted a public discourse regarding their collective identity. Acknowledging the failure of emancipation, Zionist and Orthodox Jews used racial vocabulary and concepts to produce an independent stance and to...

From the beginning of nineteenth century German liberals endeavoured to reform the armies of different German states, subject them to constitutional authorities, open their ranks to members of civil society and turn military service into a civic obligation. After the Wars of Liberation and during the Vormärz years, the liberals struggle for democra...

Teaching the Holocaust in multicultural classrooms and in places which have experienced mass violence raises the question of whether specific methods of teaching are required. One of the answers is that Holocaust education in these cases should facilitate the creation of parallels and similarities between past events and the experiences of the lear...

From the 1830s, Prussian conservatives started to contemplate the meaning of nationalism and national identity. The continuous efforts of liberals to bring about German national unification according to modern criteria, and the constant change in the social and economic structures, required the definition of nationalism on an alternative basis. In...

Militarism is defined as the influence of military costumes, prestige, practice and values on civic aspects of life, such as politics, economy and culture. Militarism is, therefore, generally seen as standing in opposition to liberalism and modernism. However, an examination of the attitude of German liberals towards the armed forces during the per...

האם הייתה השמרנות הגרמנית, כפי שהתגבשה במחצית השנייה של המאה התשע-עשרה, הורתה של התנועה הנאציונל-סוציאליסטית? האם היונקרים הפרוסיים הם שגרמו לגרמניה לדחות את הקדמה המערבית לעבר המודרניות והליברליזם? היסטוריונים רבים, המבקשים להסביר את הנאציזם כשלב ב'דרך המיוחדת' של גרמניה, טוענים כך. דורון אברהם, לעומתם, מנתח לעומקה ולרוחבה את השמרנות הגרמנית אחרי...