Jewish Translation and Cultural Transfer in Early Modern Europe

Project Information

JEWTACT

Grant agreement ID: 801861

DOI

10.3030/801861

Project closed

EC signature date 9 October 2018

Start date 1 February 2019

End date 31 January 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 496 900,00

EU contribution

€ 1 496 900,00

Coordinated by

BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV
Israel

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - JEWTACT (Jewish Translation and Cultural Transfer in Early Modern Europe)

Reporting period: 2023-08-01 to 2025-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The JEWTACT project explored the rich corpus of translations of non-Jewish texts into Jewish languages that developed during the early modern period. Bringing together a polyglot and interdisciplinary team of researchers, the project aimed to map this diverse body of translations for the first time, offering the first comprehensive study of Jewish translation across Europe from the mid-fifteenth century to the late eighteenth century. It seeked to uncover the pivotal role these translations played in shaping Jewish culture and literature from the early modern period into modernity. Additionally, the project examined translation as a key mechanism of cultural transfer between early modern Christians and Jews across different social strata, ages, genders, and geographic spaces.

The project’s primary objectives were:
1. To uncover, for the first time, the full scope of early modern Jewish translation across languages, genres, regions, and historical periods.
2. To reveal the hidden non-Jewish corpus that underlies many works previously regarded as “original” or even “traditionalist” Jewish texts.
3. To offer a new understanding of early modern Jewish literature by highlighting its deeply intertextual, intercultural, and collaborative nature.
4. To demonstrate that translation was one of the primary and most widespread mechanisms of Christian-Jewish cultural transfer in the early modern period.
5. To provide a new perspective on Jewish modernity and the role of intercultural encounters in its formation.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The JEWTACT project made significant strides in uncovering and analyzing the vast, yet largely uncharted, corpus of early modern Jewish translations. The project brought together an interdisciplinary team of researchers who worked systematically to map the scope, sources, agents, norms, and aims of Jewish translation between 1450 and 1800.

One of the project’s most significant achievements was the development of a comprehensive online database, now publicly accessible (https://aranne5.bgu.ac.il/jtact/index.php) in collaboration with Ben-Gurion University’s Aranne Library. This database catalogues almost 1000 translations, many of which have received little to no scholarly attention. The texts documented in the database span multiple languages—Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Italian—and draw on source texts in Latin, German, Italian, Dutch, English, French, and Ottoman Turkish. The database substantially expands the known corpus of early modern Jewish translation.

In parallel, JEWTACT researchers published a large number of studies in which they illuminated previously unknown translation practices, shedding new light on the intellectual networks that linked Jewish communities to broader European literary and scientific traditions.

The project also fostered intellectual exchange through international workshops, conferences, and public-facing events. JEWTACT hosted multiple in-person and virtual symposia, conferences, and workshops, engaging scholars from a range of disciplines and institutions. In addition, team members disseminated their findings through mainstream media and public lectures, bringing their research to a wider audience beyond academia.

Taken together, these efforts have firmly established Jewish translation as a central subject of inquiry within early modern Jewish studies, opening new avenues for research on cultural transfer, textual transmission, and Jewish-Christian intellectual encounters.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

JEWTACT has significantly advanced the study of early modern Jewish translation, moving beyond previous scholarship that often treated Jewish texts as insular or self-contained. The project has demonstrated that translation was not a marginal or isolated practice, but rather a widespread and systematic mechanism of cultural transfer, shaping Jewish engagement with European literary, scientific, and philosophical traditions.

Our database of Jewish translations stands as a landmark achievement, providing researchers with the first comprehensive inventory of early modern Jewish translations. Developed entirely in English and with non-specialists in mind, it provides a valuable tool for the general public, as well as scholars of Jewish history, early modern literature, and translation studies, enabling new research on cross-cultural textual exchanges and intellectual networks.

Beyond its scholarly contributions, the project contributed to the development of new approaches to the study of the Jewish past by emphasizing data-driven research, open-access resources, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Finally, by foregrounding translation as a fundamental mechanism of Jewish-Christian interaction, the project not only revised existing narratives of Jewish intellectual history but also offered new perspectives on the formation of Jewish modernity.

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