SICSA  Internatinal Conference

    The Richard Koebner Center for German History, the Department of Comparative Religion, and the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, all of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, together with the Philologische Seminar and the Seminar fuer Religionswissenschaft of the Eberhard-Karls-Universitaet Tuebingen convened an international workshop on "Paganism, `Volk Religion,' and Antisemitism, 19th-20th Centuries," which was held at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 21-23 October 1996.

    Among the topics of discussion were the neo-pagan reactions to the Jewish roots of Christianity, the "pagan" heritage of Nietzsche's philosophy, the place of antisemitic elements in the German "voelkisch philosophy" and the German "national religion," the cultural forms of Nazi neo-paganism, as well as current political and ideological aspects of neo-paganism and antisemitism in contemporary Germany and the Western world.

    The participants included well-known scholars from Germany, Israel, France, and the United States, the leading academic architects of the workshop being Prof. Hubert Cancik (Eberhard-Karls-Universitaet Tuebingen), and Prof. Dalia Ofer, Prof. Guy Stroumsa, and Prof. Moshe Zimmerman (all of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem). 

• Steven Aschheim, Hebrew University of Jerusalem:

Nietzsche, The Pagan Prophet
• Shmuel Almog, Hebrew University of Jerusalem:

The Borrowed Identity: Neo-Pagan Reactions to the Jewish Roots of Christianity
• Hubert Cancik, Eberhard-Karls-Universitaet:

Paganism and Antisemitism: Remarks on Religious History in France and Germany, 1789-1889
• Robert S Wistrich, Hebrew University of Jerusalem:

Hitler, Nazi Neo-Paganism, and Esthetic Antisemitism
• Richard Faber, Freie Universitaet Berlin:

Rome against "Judaea," "Judaea" against Rome: A Critique of "Black Nietzscheanism"
• Itta Shedletzky, Hebrew University of Jerusalem:

Jewish German Writers of the Fin de Siecle and German Paganism: Ludwig Jacobowski and Samuel Lublinski
• Gesine Palmer, Freie Universitaet Berlin:

The Case of Paul de Lagarde
• Guenter Kehrer, Eberhard-Karls-Universitaet:

National Religion and Antisemitism as Unintended Offspring of Liberal Protestantism
• Horst Junginger, Eberhard-Karls-Universitaet:

Religion and the Study of Religion under the Impact of the Voelkisch Idea
• Oded Heilbronner, Hebrew University of Jerusalem:

Catholic Antisemitism in Germany, 1870-1933
• Shaul Baumann, Hebrew University of Jerusalem:

Wilhelm Hauer's "Deutsche Gottschau": A Pagan Credo of the Thirties
• Hiroshi Kubota, Eberhard-Karls-Universitaet:

Voelkisch Religion and Liberal Protestantism: J. W. Hauer and Liberal Protestant Theologians in and outside the German Faith Movement
• Dominique Bourel, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique:

Max Brod and Contemporary Paganism
• Frank Stern, Tel-Aviv University:

Siegfried's Cinematic Quest: From the Germanic Forest to Olympic Virtues
• S. Kurre and Hubert Mohr:

"The Gods Are Still with Us": Constructs of Ethno-Religious Identity in German Television Features since 1989
• Simcha Epstein, Hebrew University of Jerusalem:

The Profanation of Jewish Cemeteries: A Pagan Phenomenon?
• Guy Stroumsa, Hebrew University of Jerusalem:

The Case of Georges Dumezil
• Leon Volovici, Hebrew University of Jerusalem:

Mircea Eliade and the Eternal Return to the Jews
• Hubert Mohr, Eberhard-Karls-Universitaet:

Remarks on "Jew" as a Social Myth and Some Theoretical Reflections on Antisemitism
• Stefanie V. Schnurbein, Universitaet Goettingen:

Religion of Nature or Racist Cult? Contemporary Neo-Germanic Pagan Movements in Germany
• Sylvia Kurre:

Antisemitism and Anti-Judaism within the Reception of Celtic Religion
• Steven Wasserstrom, Reed College, Portland, OR:

From Ahriman to ZOG: The Jews as Planetary Antagonist in Archetype and Stereotype