Entangled Stories: The Red Jews in Premodern Yiddish and German Apocalyptic Lore

“Far, far away from our areas, somewhere beyond the Mountains of Darkness, on the other side of the Sambatyon River…there lives a nation known as the Red Jews.” The Red Jews are best known from classic Yiddish writing, most notably from Mendele's Kitser masoes Binyomin hashlishi (The Brief Travels of Benjamin the Third). This novel, first published in 1878, represents the initial appearance of the Red Jews in modern Yiddish literature. This comical travelogue describes the adventures of Benjamin, who sets off in search of the legendary Red Jews. But who are these Red Jews or, in Yiddish, di royte yidelekh? The term denotes the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, the ten tribes that in biblical times had composed the Northern Kingdom of Israel until they were exiled by the Assyrians in the eighth century BCE. Over time, the myth of their return emerged, and they were said to live in an uncharted location beyond the mysterious Sambatyon River, where they would remain until the Messiah's arrival at the end of time, when they would rejoin the rest of the Jewish people. This article is part of a broader study of the Red Jews in Jewish popular culture from the Middle Ages through modernity. It is partially based on a chapter from my book, Umstrittene Erlöser: Politik, Ideologie und jüdisch-christlicher Messianismus in Deutschland, 1500–1600 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011). Several postdoctoral fellowships have generously supported my research on the Red Jews: a Dr. Meyer-Struckmann-Fellowship of the German Academic Foundation, a Harry Starr Fellowship in Judaica/Alan M. Stroock Fellowship for Advanced Research in Judaica at Harvard University, a research fellowship from the Heinrich Hertz-Foundation, and a YIVO Dina Abramowicz Emerging Scholar Fellowship. I thank the organizers of and participants in the colloquia and conferences where I have presented this material in various forms as well as the editors and anonymous reviewers of AJS Review for their valuable comments and suggestions. I am especially grateful to Jeremy Dauber and Elisheva Carlebach of the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University, where I was a Visiting Scholar in the fall of 2009, for their generous encouragement to write this article. Sue Oren considerably improved my English. The style employed for Romanization of Yiddish follows YIVO's transliteration standards. Unless otherwise noted, translations from the Yiddish, Hebrew, German, and Latin are my own. Quotations from the Bible follow the JPS translation, and those from the Babylonian Talmud are according to the Hebrew-English edition of the Soncino Talmud by Isidore Epstein

A USER SURVEY OF A SITE PROVIDING CITIZEN INFORMATION: PRELIMINARY FINDINGS OF SHIL.INFO

This paper is about studying citizens’ information needs through a collection of different research lenses. We were interested in users of online, citizen rights web sites, such as the SHIL (http://shil.info) site. Our results report findings from three parallel data collection efforts. In order to gain a better understanding of how the SHIL website is used, and to compare the information needs and information sources used by SHIL, users and potential users unaware of the existence of the Website, were surveyed, using a trio of methods. We report several interesting differences between the three groups, and suggest future work on analyzing the site, its users, the content it provides and the needs it serves

Beetroot sugar: remarks upon the advantages derivable from its growth and manufacture in the United Kingdom; together with a description of the rise, progress, and present position of that industry on the continent of Europe, and some practical directions to agriculturists and manufacturers for conducting it successfully.

Mode of access: Internet

“Social Information Science” – as a concept for assimilating Smart Internet Usage in a Multi-Cultural Society : The Case of Israel

The present paper discusses Social Information Science, an innovative field of study, which can enhance assimilation of smart internet usage in multi-cultural countries such as Israel. Social Information Science (S.I.) deals with the development ,theory and applications relating to the retrieval and processing of social and medical information, training “social information scientists,” as well as the development of SI mediation services such as SI banks, SI sections in schools ,public libraries, hospitals, community centers, and private services. Together, these concerted efforts aim to establish a modern information-oriented climate in which stressful social and medical issues are handled through the retrieval and use of reliable information as the basis for knowledgeable decision making. Mediation services demonstrate the potential and risks involved in internet usage, as well as the importance of information-based decisions. Social Information Science will help train people to conduct their daily life decisions on the basis of information selection and self-responsibility- which is a step forward in the evolvement and empowerment the individual.</jats:p

A Study of Students' Perception

Recent studies have shown a growing tendency among students to commit plagiarism, especially from online information sources. This unpleasant phenomenon has a far- reaching impact on both the scientific world and the information society. The present study aimed to examine students' perceptions toward acts of plagiarism, in order to explore whether plagiarism from internet sources is perceived differently than plagiarism from printed sources. Findings of the present study indicate that students perceive plagiarism offences from online sources as significantly less dishonest than similar offences using printed sources. Possible implications of these findings are discussed and several conclusions are noted. Analysis of these findings from a broad perspective highlights the essential need to address ethical issues concerning uses of both online and offline information sources.</jats:p

Social Information Science and the School Library

The paper discusses the correlation between Social Information Science and the school library by expanding the social activities of the school library and building a unique self-help section. This new section will include direct social information as well as belles lettres for support and encouragement A model of such a section was built in 1996 in a school library in Or Yehuda, Israel. It was very successful. Most of the pupils expressed interest in the new section: there was a significant increase in reading, mainly among the boys The subjects that most of the young readers were interested in were: general teenage problems, death, and sex. The new section became an attractive part of the library and of the whole school. Building such a section in schools will expand the activities of the librarian and increase the social contribution of the library to the community.</jats:p