The 2013 Yearbook of the Simon Dubnow Institute is centered on two focal areas: Jewish military history and the secularization of Hebrew. Jewish military history is principally a history of the integration of the Jews into their surrounding European cultures. This section highlights questions of loyalty and citizenship. The thematic focus brings together contributions from recent research on this theme. On the one hand, imperial and national life worlds are differentiated; on the other hand, topics are explored that touch on questions of religion in the face of military demands and exigencies. The second part on the secularization of Hebrew presents essays on the transformation of Hebrew as a primarily "sacred language" anchored, until the dawn of modernity, in religious written culture. In particular, it explores secularizing impulses in the medieval and early modern era affecting the language. The papers are complemented by other articles concerned with language philosophy and literary studies.The regular and the special sections of the Yearbook contain articles on Holocaust historiography, Oriental studies, Christian Hebraic studies, the Science of Judaism (Wissenschaft des Judentums), as well as contributions examining the differing processes of appropriation, transfer and representation of everyday and historical Jewish experience in literature, poetics and theater.
