Saskia Dönitz

Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Seminar fuer Judaistik, Post-Doc

Universität Münster, Institut für Jüdische Studien, Faculty Member

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I am a postdoctoral researcher on medieval Jewish history with a focus on Byzantine Jewish literature and culture. My research wants to promote the hitherto unexplored area of Byzantium and its contribution to medieval Jewish history in larger framework of the Jewish diaspora communities in Europe and their network. I am also working on the various aspects of cultural transfer pertaining to Jewish-Christian as well as Jewish-Jewish relations. My research areas include reception history, manuscripts studies, historiography and intellectual and cultural history.
Currently I am involved in a project on Miqdash Meat by Moshe da Rieti who lived and wrote in the shadow of Dante, conducted by Elisabeth Hollender and Alessandro Guetta.
Address: Berlin, Berlin, Germany

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Papers by Saskia Dönitz

"To my Beloved: Shemarya ha-Iqriti’s Panegyric to David ben Avraham ha-Nagid" with Joachim Yeshaya

Frankfurter Judaistische Beiträge, 2024

Text, Translation and Commentary with Introduction

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“Hebrew Panegyric of the Late Middle Ages - Shemaryah, son of Elijah, and his Praise Poems,” in: Medieval Encounters 30 (2024), special issue ed. by K. Kubina, N. Zagklas, 688-708

Late medieval Byzantine Hebrew poetry unfortunately belongs to a rather neglected field of Hebrew... more Late medieval Byzantine Hebrew poetry unfortunately belongs to a rather neglected field of Hebrew poetry. Only a few authors have been studied in-depth. This article will examine the poetic work of the fourteenth century exegete and philosopher Shemaryah son of Elijah who produced panegyrics and liturgical poetry alongside exegetical and philosophical writings. Shemaryah's panegyric pieces were dedicated to the leader of the Jews in Egypt and the grandson of Maimonides, David ha-Nagid. Although spending most of his life in Negroponte or Chalkis on the island of Euboea, Shemaryah was in contact with leading figures of Egyptian Jewry around 1300 as well as with the Angevin King Robert of Anjou in Naples in the 1330s. These contacts to the east and to the west reflect Byzantium's role as a cultural hub between Europe and the Middle East.

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The Hebrew Manuscripts of Sefer Yosippon, in: Carson C. Bay, Michael Avioz & Jan Willem van Henten (eds.), From Josephus to Yosippon and Beyond. Text - Re-interpretations - Afterlives (Leiden: Brill, 2024), 169–210. (open acess https://brill.com/display/title/69894 )

From Latin into Hebrew: Medieval Hebrew Narrative Adaptations of the Books of the Maccabees

The Books of the Maccabees: Literary, Historical and Religious Perspectives, 2022

“Silk Artisans and Silversmiths – Byzantine Jewish Craftsmen,” in: Handbook of Medieval Jewish Crafts, ed. by M. Stürzebecher, A. Lehnertz, J. Lifshitz, S. Goldin (to be published with De Gruyter)

“Judaeo-Greek – New Perspectives”, in: C. Rapp, E. Bonfiglio and E. Mitsiou (eds.), Language Multiplicity in Byzantium and Beyond (to be published in Vandenhoek & Ruprecht)

“Jews as Cultural Brokers between Byzantium and the Latin West, 859-1200,” in: S. Kolditz; N. Drocourt (eds.), A Companion to Byzantium and the West 900-1204, Brill 2021, 496-512

“Assessing the Manuscripts of Sefer Ḥasidim”, in: E. Baumgarten, E. Hollender, E. Shocham-Steiner (eds.), Sefer Hasidim in Context (special Issue of Jewish History), Jewish History 34 (2021), 1-16

Jewish History, 2021

This article examines the content and structure of the manuscripts of Sefer Ḥasidim , engaging wi... more This article examines the content and structure of the manuscripts of Sefer Ḥasidim , engaging with ideas concerning its production addressed in Ivan Marcus’s recently published book on Sefer Ḥasidim . Marcus has argued that the book was written piece by piece and not as an integral book and further suggested that each and every manuscript of Sefer Ḥasidim should be taken as a distinct edition of the book prepared by Judah he-Ḥasid. The present study demonstrates that, notwithstanding the gradual process in which Sefer Ḥasidim was written and the great variations among the manuscripts, it is possible to reconstruct a textual process that led to the larger compilations found in the three well-known text editions of Sefer Ḥasidim , represented by MS Parma 3280, MS JTS Boesky 45, and the edition printed in Bologna in 1538. The analysis focuses on the distribution of the text in the manuscripts. While it is difficult to show linear relations among them, the different versions demonstrat...

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With Elisabeth Hollender, „Knotenpunkt Byzanz – Aharon ben Yosef und die Vermittlung sefardisch-andalusischer Traditionen nach Byzanz“, in: Frankfurter Judaistische Beiträge 41 (2016/17), 19-36

by Elisabeth Hollender and Saskia Dönitz

Frankfurter Judaistische Beiträge, 2016

In der Forschung wurde den spätmittelalterlichen byzantinisch-karäischen Autoren bisher wenig Auf... more In der Forschung wurde den spätmittelalterlichen byzantinisch-karäischen Autoren bisher wenig Aufmerksamkeit zuteil. Während die Exegeten des karäischen »Goldenen Zeitalters«, d. h. der Zeit vom 9. bis zum 11. Jahrhundert in den letzten 20 Jahren systematisch bearbeitet wurden und weiterhin werden, 1 stehen die Werke der späteren Karäer erst neuerdings wieder im Fokus der Forschung. 2 Einige laufende und kürzlich abgeschlossene Forschungsprojekte thematisieren die innerkaräische Rezeption älterer Autoren durch die byzantinischen Karäer. 3 Als Beispiel für die Untersuchung des 1 Hier sei auf die zahlreichen Publikationen von Meira Polliack und Michael G. Wechsler sowie auf die Reihe »Karaite texts and studies« bei Brill verwiesen. Für die ältere Forschung ist noch immer maßgelblich Zvi Ankori, Karaites in Byzantium:

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“Shemarya ha-Ikriti and the Karaite Exegetical challenge,” in: E. Hollender, J. Yeshaya (ed.), Exegesis and Poetry in Medieval Karaite and Rabbanite Texts, Leiden 2016, pp. 228–248

This article examines the interplay between Rabbanite and Karaite exegesis in thirteenth-and four... more This article examines the interplay between Rabbanite and Karaite exegesis in thirteenth-and fourteenth-century Byzantium. It suggests that Byzantium represented a crossroad for Jewish communities where knowledge from the West, that was especially transferred after the Fourth Crusade, converged with scholarship from the East, which arrived during the migration of Karaites from Jerusalem to Constantinople. The exegetical methodologies of Shemarya ha-Ikriti-the Rabbanite scholar whose prolifĳic oeuvre is particularly remarkable vis-à-vis the paucity of transmitted Byzantine writings-are compared to those of Aaron ben Joseph and Aaron ben Elijah, known Karaites whose lifetimes framed Shemarya's. On the basis of his exegetical writings and scholarly priorities, this study demonstrates how Shemarya was reacting to the Karaite challenge to the authority of Rabbanite teachings. Byzantium represents a long-neglected area in Jewish Studies; with the exception of general surveys, few subjects in this fĳield have been studied in depth.2 Its Quellenlage is difffĳicult to access: most extant prose writings by Byzantine Jews are still in manuscript and very few of their authors are known to us.3 One of these fĳigures is Shemarya ben Elijah ha-Parnas, who was born before 1300 in 1 This article is the fĳirst publication from a DFG-funded project on "Shemarya ha-Ikriti and the Intellectual Cosmos of the Byzantine Jews in the 14th Century," conducted at Goethe University Frankfurt's Department for Jewish Studies.

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Josephus im jiddischen Gewand – die jiddische Übersetzung des Sefer Yosippon

Aschkenas, 2015

This article describes the reception history of the Jewish-Hellenistic author Flavius Josephus in... more

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Sefer Yosippon (Josippon), in: Z. Rodgers, N. Chapman (Hg.), A Companion to Josephus, Oxford 2016, pp. 382-389

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“Josephus torn to Pieces – Fragments of Sefer Yosippon in Genizat Germania”, in: A. Lehnardt, J. Olszowy-Schlanger (Hg.), Books within Books. New Discoveries in Old Book Bindings, Leiden 2014, pp. 83–96

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„Jüdisch-christliche Begegnungen in verschiedenen Kulturräumen Europas – Byzanz und Ashkenaz im Vergleich“, in: FJB 38 (2013), S. 85–100

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“Alexander the Great in Medieval Hebrew Traditions”, in: Z.D. Zuwiyya (Hg.), A Companion to Alexander Literature in the Middle Ages, Leiden 2011, pp. 21–39

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Puzzling the Past – Reconstructing a Mahzor from Receipt Wrappings, in: A. Lehnardt (Hg.), “Genizat Germania”. Hebrew and Aramaic Binding Fragments in Context, Leiden 2009, pp. 31–40

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„Von Italien nach Ashkenaz – Sefer Yosippon und die historiographische Tradition des Mittelalters“, in: A. Kuyt, G. Necker (Hg.), Orient als Grenzbereich. Rabbinisches und Außerrabbinisches Judentum, Wiesbaden 2008, S. 169–182

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„Jüdische Buchstabenspekulationen vom Sefer Yetzira bis zu den Haside Aschkenas – Das Alphabet des Rabbi Aqiva und sein literarisches Umfeld“, in: K. Herrmann, G. Veltri (Hg.), Judaistik zwischen den Disziplinen. Jewish Studies between the Disciplines, Festschrift P. Schäfer, Leiden 2003, S. 149–179

„Josephus im jiddischen Gewand – die jiddische Übersetzung des Sefer Yosippon“, in: Aschkenas 25 (2015), S. 53-61

Books by Saskia Dönitz

Transkulturelle Verflechtungen

Vorwort Diese Studie stellt keine individuelle, also letztlich monoperspektivische Syntheseleistu... more Vorwort Diese Studie stellt keine individuelle, also letztlich monoperspektivische Syntheseleistung dar. Vielmehr ist sie das Ergebnis eines kollaborativen Schreibaktes von neun MediävistInnen aus den Fachbereichen Germanistik, Geschichtswissenschaften, Islamwissenschaften, Judaistik, Kunst-und Architektur-, Wirtschafts-und Rechts-, Theologie-und Philosophiegeschichte. Besondere Schwerpunkte der Studie liegen auf der Auseinandersetzung mit den Quellen, den Herausforderungen ihrer Interpretation und der Entwicklung einer tragfähigen und operationalisierbaren Terminologie ihrer Beschreibung im Blick auf die Thematik. Den Rahmen dieses kollaborativen Schreibaktes stellte ein von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft mit großem Verständnis für unsere Arbeitsweise gefördertes ‚Netzwerk'. Es konstituierte sich aus einem Kern ehemaliger Mit-arbeiterInnen des DFG-Schwerpunktprogramms 1173 ‚Integration und Desintegration der Kulturen im europäischen Mittelalter' sowie weiteren Interessierten-in alphabetischer Reihenfolge:

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