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The Oxford handbook of Jewish studies (Edited by Martin Goodman. Associated editors Jeremy Cohen & David Sorkin, 2002) is reviewed by Hanne Trautner-Kromann.Juden, Bürger, Deutsche. Zur Geschichte von Vielfalt und Differenz 1800–1933 (eds. Andreas Gotzmann, Rainer Liedtke, Till van Rahden, 2001) is reviewed by Thorsten Wagner.Frie jøder? Forholdet mellem kristne og jøder i Danmark fra Frihedsbrevet 1814 til Grundloven 1849. Kirkehistoriske studier, III. række nr. 10 (Martin Schwarz Lausten, 2005) is reviewed by Lars Hagensen.Jødene fra Trondheim (Jon Reitan, 2005) is reviewed by Dagfinn Rian.A fusion of traditions. Liturgical music in the Copenhagen synagogue. University of Southern Denmark Studies in History and Social Sciences vol. 310 (Jane Mink Rossen & Uri Sharvit, 2006) is reviewed by Claus Røllum-Larsen.

In this introduction the author gives some comments on the Hebrew or Jewish Bible and the literature of the rabbis, based on the Bible, and then presents the background of the articles included in this volume.

The rescue of the Danish Jews in October 1943 aroused great interest, admiration, and hope in the Free World both during and after World War II. The transfer of over 7,000 Danish Jews to neighboring Sweden by Danish fishermen and helpers and Sweden’s “open doors” policy were used in the United States as an argument for pressuring the British government to open the gates of Palestine in order to find a refuge for doomed European Jewry. A mass meeting was called at Carnegie Hall on October 31, 1943, in an advertisement in the New York Times with the heading “It Can Be Done! Simply by opening its doors Sweden saved the Jewish population of nearby Denmark. Simply by opening the gates of Palestine thousands of Jews from nearby countries will save themselves.”1 The results of the mass meeting were probably small, if there were any, and in Denmark the struggle for daily life and freedom went on and did not leave any time for reflection. Many years later, however, a growing number of mostly American Jews started asking the Danes about the rescue and the reasons that prompted the helpers to risk their own lives in order to save their fellow compatriots. At first the answers were evasive and few, but the last twenty years have brought much research and several memoirs to public view, and now a more complete picture of the events and the motives is beginning to appear.

A Torah binder is a long piece of cloth consisting of mostly four smaller pieces sewn together. It is used to tie a Torah scroll together when not in use. On the binder is embroidered or painted a standardized Hebrew inscription stating the Hebrew name of a newborn boy and his father, his Hebrew date of birth and the phrase: “May God raise him to the Torah, to the marriage canopy and to good deeds. Amen. Selah”. A border of motif of flowering vines and an illustration of the name of the boy and his father and the child’s zodiac sign are very common on the Danish binders. The Danish collection belonging to the Jewish community in Copenhagen is unique, since nearly all of them have been identified, which is rarely true for other collections. The Danish collection of Torah binders can tell us different things according to the perspective adopted, especially when they are combined with all the facts yielded by other ceremonial artifacts and by Danish-Jewish cultural history.

The history of controversies between Jews and Christians is long and varied. As early as the New Testament there are traces of anti-Jewish polemic, and in subsequent centuries a number of Christian writings appeared with the aim of persuading Jews and Gentiles (and presumably also the Christians themselves) of the truth of the Christian religion. The Christians interpreted the Jewish scriptures allegorically, typologically and Christologically, reading texts and events as statements about … or prophecies of … Jesus, Christianity and the Christians. The Christians claimed to be the ‘new’, the ‘true’, or the ‘spiritual’ Israel, while Jews were the ‘carnal’ Israel or had completely forfeited the right to bear the name of Israel. This development is clearly seen in the writings of the Church fathers and in the texts called ‘Adversus ]udaeos’.1 Some Christian scholars and clerics were interested in Jewish Bible exegesis and had access to Jewish texts, and some even studied Hebrew with Jewish scholars. Nicholas de Lyra and through him also Martin Luther were influenced by Jewish traditions but this did not stop the Christian polemics. On the contrary, in the centuries after the Protestant Reformation the Christian study of Jewish literature and Hebrew and the increased contact with Jews led to even more polemics and mission to the Jews.

Die zweite Talmuddisputation von Paris 1296 (Ursula Ragacs, 2001) is reviewed by Hanne Trautner-Kromann.De fromme og jøderne. Holdninger till jødendom og jøder i Danmark i pietismens tid (1700-1760) (Martin Schwarz Lausten, 2000) is reviewed by Torbjörn Gustavsson.

Hanne Trautner-Kromann comments on Tryggve Kronholm's review of her doctoral dissertation, published in Nordisk Judaistik Vol. 11 No 1-2, 1990.

From the start there has been a conflict between Christianity and Judaism. In the New Testament the Pharisees are objects of polemics, and during the next centuries a great number of texts claiming the Christian superiority were written. During the 14 th and 15 th centuries in France and Spain Jews experienced forced conversion to Christianity, which was supported by secular authorities. The Jews reacted to this not only by defending their Jewish faith and way of life; they also criticized the Christian faith and way of life. Jewish polemic texts against Christianity can thus be viewed as a reaction to the writings from the Christian side. This is the background to the extensive number of Jewish polemic texts written during the 14 th century in France and during the 15 th and 16 th centuries in Spain, but these texts are not primarily directed toward Christians.

Jewish polemics against Christianity in the Middle Ages show a striking change in contents and in the linguistic form of the texts after the First Crusade. While the texts up to about 1100 are reports on religious discussions between Jews and Christians, often held in a friendly tone, the texts after 1100 contain aggressive or bitter attacks on the Christians. An example of how this was put into words appears in a Jewish text from the 1250s. In seven points the author gives voice to this protest against the introduction by the French king of a number of harsh edicts against the Jews. There is a marked dividing line between the predominantly aggressive texts from Northern France and the more sober ones from Southern France. On the one hand every single Jewish polemical passage should be analyzed as to form and content, including the context and text type in which the passage occurs, on the other hand the passages should be related to each other including their historical background. By this procedure of comparison every single passage can contribute towards creating a more differentiated and comprehensive picture of the conditions of the Jewish minorities in Christian Europe.

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