Opening remarks: From Tablet to Tablet – workshop Jewish Studies & Digital Humanities, Hamburg, 4-6 September 2017

*** This is the written version of opening remarks I gave at From Tablet to Tablet, a workshop on Jewish Studies and Digital Humanities supported by the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe in co-operation with the Institute for the History of the German Jews that took place in Hamburg between 4-6 September 2017. Several introductiory blog posts and discussions with participants where posted on the Yerusha blog

My warmfelt thanks to Sinem Adar for comments on an earlier version. I have drawn in some parts upon an earlier article On Digital History published in 2013 as part of a thematic issue of the BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review on digital history.

These remarks are intended as a discussion piece so feedback and comments are most welcome!

 

Book Introduction: From ‘Chosen Fighters of the Jewish People’ to Jewish Resistance Fighters

The introduction to my forthcoming book, Jewish volunteers , the International Brigades and the Spanish Civil War can now be downloaded through the link below.

The book will be published on 6 April. More information can be found here and on the Bloomsbury Academic website

Edit 14 March: Bloomsbury has provided a temporary 35% discount when ordering through their website, using the code JVIBSCW35.

Digital history and the hidden archive

Two months ago an important conference took place at the European University Institute in Florence on Public History and the Media. Exploring a variety of forms of public history, the second day was devoted to the topic of ‘digital public history’. While the links between the two fields are fairly obvious they are of course not the same. As one participant put it: “Digital History is not the same as Public History *but* Public History needs Digital History”. 

Various projects that were presented or referenced during this day explored ways in which the public can be engaged in, contribute to, and co-author history. Thus the Philadelphia Public History Truck, “a mobile museum project which partners with Philly neighborhood grassroots organizations to explore local history”, enables new voices and audiences to be heard and engage in (local) history. The Europeana 1914-1918 provides an excellent example of enaging the public to create a new user-generated online archive/museum. Digtal history functions in an enabling way here: new voices/audiences and user-generated materials empower ‘the public’ in various ways. But clearly these are also new forms of creating history. 

The diaries of Anne Frank. Research—Translations—Critical Edition

I currently work as a research fellow at the Lichtenberg Kolleg at the Georg August Universität Göttingen on the project The diaries of Anne Frank. Research—Translations—Critical Edition. The project is a collaboration between the Lichtenberg Kolleg at the Georg August Universität Göttingen and the Fritz Bauer Institute in Frankfurt. It involves a new historical-critical edition of the diaries in Dutch, English and German as well as an accompanying multi-author research monograph. I am responsible for the annotations of the new edition as well as involved in planning the monograph for which I will contribute a chapter on wartime Yiddish diaries.