Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Episode: Iris Idelson-Shein, "Between the Bridge and the Barricade: Jewish Translation in Early Modern Europe" (U Penn Press, 2024)
Date: October 25, 2025
Host: Rabbi Mark Katz
Guest: Dr. Iris Idelson-Shein

Overview: Exploring Jewish Translation and Identity

This episode examines Iris Idelson-Shein’s new book, Between the Bridge and the Barricade: Jewish Translation in Early Modern Europe, which investigates how Jewish translations of non-Jewish texts shaped Jewish culture, literature, and identity from the 16th century to modern times. Through analysis of translational practices and the innovative JEWT database, the book reveals the distinctive, often radical, "domestication" strategies early modern Jewish translators employed to both engage and safeguard Jewish cultural identity.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Genesis of the Book and Author’s Background

(04:34–08:04)

• Idelson-Shein's Path: Trained as a European historian (specializing in German-speaking Jews), she had no formal Jewish history background and hesitated to approach Jewish texts.
• Epiphany: Upon reading 18th-century Hebrew texts, she recognized many as creative translations of familiar German or French works, sparking her interest in translation as a site of cultural dialogue and identity formation.
• Detective Work: She began identifying "Jewish" texts as unacknowledged translations and pursued the larger patterns behind this phenomenon.

“I was actually reading texts that were very familiar to me, and in some cases, I was reading unacknowledged translations of texts that I'd already read before in German or in French.” — Iris Idelson-Shein [06:34]

2. Title Breakdown: ‘Bridge and Barricade’ as Metaphors

(08:04–14:39)

• Traditional Metaphors: Bridges represent translation as harmonious, culture-bridging practice.
• Limitations and Critiques: Translation can also set up or reinforce boundaries ("barricades"); it has been complicit with colonization, missions, and language extinction.
• The ‘Ghetto’ Metaphor: Drawing on historian Robert Bonfil, Idelson-Shein likens translation to the early modern ghetto—it both segregated and enabled cultural participation, allowing safe absorption of surrounding culture without assimilation.
• Unique View: Translation is simultaneously a bridge and a barricade—it connects Jews to broader culture but also safeguards cultural and religious integrity.

“Translation functions as both a bridge and a barricade. It brings people together ... but it also prevents cultural assimilation.” — Iris Idelson-Shein [13:31]

3. The Principle of Domestication in Jewish Translation

(14:39–20:25)

• Domestication Defined: Making texts ‘less foreign’ for the target community; a standard in translation studies.
• Jewish Adaptations: Early modern Jewish translators remade foreign works to fit Jewish norms—removing Christian references, “Judaizing” settings and identities, even radically transforming stories (e.g. Robinson Crusoe as a Galician Jew with a servant named "Shabbos").
• Detoxifying Knowledge: Translations were intended to "detoxify" non-Jewish content, protecting readers from alien or dangerous ideas.
• Relentless Application: Even private, non-public translations reflected these domestication norms.

“The goal was to take these foreign texts and to make them Jewish. ... What little honey floats on the surface of foreign texts merely masks the venom that lurks in their depths.” — Iris Idelson-Shein, referencing Rabbi Yaakov Emden [16:48]

4. Jewish Translation Across Historical Periods

(21:46–32:03)

• Medieval vs. Early Modern: Medieval Jewish translation was elite, centered on Hebrew, and well-documented, often from Arabic or Latin. By the early modern era, translation exploded into new geographic regions (Ashkenaz), and new source (German, Dutch) and target languages (Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Italian).
• Mass Translation: Early modern translations addressed wider audiences—women, non-elite men, children—largely enabled by print culture.
• Modernity & the Haskalah: Standard narratives position the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah) as a sharp break, but Idelson-Shein finds greater continuity: the domestication principle persisted, and even radical ideas came in heavily "Judaized" forms.
• Transparency Increases: Haskalah translators more frequently credited sources and valued authenticity, reflecting wider Enlightenment translation norms, but domestication remained central.

“The domestication is translation, and it remains translation for these thinkers well into the 19th century. Even in later translations beyond the Haskalah, there’ll be translators who say, well, we’re translating Shakespeare to get back at the British who took our works. So it really is a very Jewish way … up until, say, the late 19th century.” — Iris Idelson-Shein [35:45]

5. Travel Literature as Metaphor in the Haskalah

(36:22–43:08)

• Prevalence: Maskilim (Jewish Enlighteners) disproportionately translated travel tales for children—not due to reader demand but as literary metaphors for their own cultural journey and return.
• Meaning: These stories symbolized the process of venturing into foreign knowledge and safely returning to the fold, mirroring the Maskilim’s own efforts to modernize Judaism while affirming communal identity.
• Form and Function: Choosing children’s literature ensured protagonists "came home," reinforcing the message of acculturating and returning, not assimilating or losing oneself.

“This way of thinking about acquiring knowledge as a way of traveling outside and having to deal with all the dangers or the hazards and travails of faraway sea travel, it's really ingrained within Jewish notions of knowledge consumption in this period.” — Iris Idelson-Shein [37:44]

6. Methodology: The JEWT Database

(43:08–48:35)

• Collaborative Solution: Given the multilingual, underdocumented, and often disguised nature of Jewish translations, Idelson-Shein built an interdisciplinary team to catalog all Jewish translations (1450–1800), resulting in the open-access JEWT database.
• Tools for All: The database is accessible to Jewish studies scholars and broader audiences, aiming to democratize data and invite further research.
• Pride in Collaboration: The project highlights the value of shared data and collective research in uncovering hidden histories.

“It really shows the value of collaborative research and it shows the value of sharing our data, our raw data.” — Iris Idelson-Shein [46:25]

7. Current and Future Research Directions

(48:56–50:37)

• Future Projects:
  • Continuing research into translation, especially translations between Jewish languages (Ladino, Yiddish, Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic).
  • Investigating early Yiddish literature’s engagement with Enlightenment debates—possibly reframing the “Jewish Enlightenment” as also a Yiddish, not only Haskalah-Hebrew, phenomenon.

“Right now, what I'm working on is a project that I half jokingly call 'Euffklerung,' which kind of tries to expand that observation that I made earlier about the proximity between Yiddish literature in the 18th century and what would later become the Haskalah.” — Iris Idelson-Shein [49:20]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Necessity and Danger of Translation:

  "If an Israelite should navigate among the nations to learn sciences from foreign books, waves of foreign knowledge will divert him from the straight path. ... The solution is translation ... so that Israel shall not need another nation." — Rabbi Shaul Halevi of the Hague, cited by Iris Idelson-Shein [12:42]

• On the Radical Creativity of Jewish Translation:

  “Sometimes you'll find texts in which the entire story is simply entirely Judaized... Robinson Crusoe becomes a Jewish merchant from Galicia, his Friday becomes a Judaized servant... Robinson is constantly preoccupied in how to keep kosher on the island...” — Iris Idelson-Shein [18:30]

• On Travel Literature:

  “It was kind of a masculic initiation rite to translate a travel book. ... This ideal of coming back, of coming back with the findings and the riches of the journey, really coincides with the norms of children's literature ... there's no place like home.” — Iris Idelson-Shein [40:50]

Key Timestamps

• 04:34 – Idelson-Shein's background and motivation for writing the book
• 08:04 – Explanation of "bridge" and "barricade" metaphors in translation
• 14:49 – The concept and history of domestication in Jewish translation
• 21:46 – Medieval vs. early modern Jewish translation; shifts in audience and genres
• 32:03 – Haskalah-era translation: changes and continuities
• 36:22 – Significance of travel literature in Jewish Enlightenment
• 43:41 – The JEWT database: origins and impact
• 48:56 – Future research directions and projects

Conclusion

Iris Idelson-Shein’s work compellingly reframes the history of Jewish translation as a creative, strategic, and communal practice that shaped Jewish modernity—not only as a passive bridge to the wider world, but also as a barricade and ghetto-like space safeguarding identity while absorbing new ideas. Her methodological innovations (like the JEWT database) and rethinking of Enlightenment Jewish literature challenge common narratives and reveal the complexity and agency of Jewish translators across centuries.