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The first part of this article gives a short historical survey of education and the school system in Palestine since the 19 th century. After 1948 preparation of school legislation was given high propriety in Israel. Education should be based on Jewish culture and values. Israel had some challenges because of the enormous immigration after 1948. These problems of course affect the school, which has had difficulties in finding qualified teachers, in giving equal education in all areas, in providing the kind of education the State needs for a great number of students. Trying to give the sabras an identity, the state started a “Jewish Consciousness programme” which put Jewish culture and religion in focus. The second part of the article gives a survey of various teaching programmes for primary and secondary school. The projects described are one in history, one about immigration to Israel in the period from 1850 till today, and one in language and literature. The Curriculum Centre in Jerusalem coordinates all these projects, gives help to the teachers and supplies the schools with materials.

The term Midrash should be reserved for the specific quotation literature of the rabbinic sources of classical Judaism. Decisive is its literary form: the combination of rabbinic statement and biblical quotation. All other rabbinic and non-rabbinic texts should better not be called Midrash. Great caution is needed in the use of the term exegesis in relation to Midrash. For the modern mind exegesis is something connected with critical philology and history. In principle Midrash is something completely different and could more aptly be called ‘a kind of theology’ than the usual designation as ‘a kind of exegesis’. In fact, the association of Midrash with exegesis implies a great injustice towards Midrash. Despite all appearances, Midrash is not exegesis, nor a ‘kind of exegesis’, although it does contain elements of biblical exegesis. Although Midrash has certainly played a role in the origin and history of modern biblical exegesis, this particular role is a matter of the past. The relation between Midrash and modern exegesis now has become merely platonic, a source of inspiration and, possibly, admiration as an example of textual sensitivity&&as a vehicle of rabbinic theology&&and – eventually – as a model for a new post-modern system of hermeneutics.

Bogtrykket og den visuelle kommunikationsrevolution

This paper is an introduction to and commentary on what is often referred to as the holocaust literature. The author favors terms such as shoah or churban, which mean ‘catastrophe’, ‘destruction’ over the more widespread term holocaust. The latter is a sacrificial term from the Bible meaning “burn offering”. This has misleading connotations: the destruction of European Jews cannot be considered a sacrifice in any ordinary sense. The paper discusses the various genres of holocaust literature and their relation to history. The author arrives at the conclusion that fictional literature need not necessarily have a weaker relation nor give a more faulty representation of what happened than documentary literature, such as diaries and memoirs. Finally, various criticisms of holocaust literature and the preoccupation with it are discussed. The author finds no grounds for avoiding the study of this literature, to the contrary he argues that it is in fact necessary for later generations to know about and reflect on this dark chapter in human history. It is only deemed harmful if it then occupies the entire curriculum of Jewish studies at an academic institution.