Special volume treating exemplars of the vast number of texts arising from historic and imaginary encounters between Jews and non-Jewish Germans, from the early modern period to the present.Nexus is the official publication of the biennial German Jewish Studies Workshop, which was inaugurated at Duke University in 2009 and is now held at the University of Notre Dame. Together, Nexus and the Workshop constitute the first ongoing forum in North America for German Jewish studies. Nexus publishes innovative research in German Jewish Studies, introducing new directions, analyzing the development and definition of the field, and considering its place vis-à-vis both German Studies and Jewish Studies. Additionally, it examines issues of pedagogy and programming at the undergraduate, graduate, and community levels.Nexus 5 features essays written in honor of the memory of Jonathan M. Hess, a leading scholar in German Jewish Studies who, through both his person and publications, opened up the field for many others to explore new areas of research and inquiry. It offers exemplary instances of historic and imaginary encounters based on interactions of Jews and "other Germans" from the early modern period to the present day. It also discusses adaptations and translations of Yiddish and German texts, presenting insights into connections between literary texts and their Jewish and non-Jewish readers alike. By exploring multimodal cultural works ranging from performance to poems and illustrated fairy tales, and literature in German, Yiddish, and other languages, Nexus 5 works to expand the field of German Jewish studies in the spirit of Jonathan Hess himself.

Introduction: Moments of Enlightenment for Jews and Other Germans - Ruth von Bernuth and Eric DowningRemembering Jonathan - Laura LieberJonathan M. Hess: Curriculum VitaeMaurice Sendak's Dear Mili: A Contrapuntal Elegy - Martha B. HelferPluralism and the Modernized Jesus in Mendelssohn, Schiller, and Schleiermacher - Karin L. SchutjerThe Papal Game: Telling a Jewish Story from the Mayse bukh; Ayzik Meyer Dik and Marcus Lehmann - Ruth von BernuthThe Papal Game: Telling a Jewish Story from the Mayse bukh; Ayzik Meyer Dik and Marcus Lehmann - Lea GreenbergThe Papal Game: Telling a Jewish Story from the Mayse bukh; Ayzik Meyer Dik and Marcus Lehmann - Joshua ShellyThe Fuzziness of Jewish and Non-Jewish Boundaries in Viennese Popular Culture around 1900 - Klaus HödlFreeing the Shtetl from the Ghetto-Prism: Sholem Asch and Dovid Bergelson in German Translation - Jeffrey A. GrossmanA Poetics of Genocide: The Jewish Dead Confront the Germans in Katzenelson's Warsaw Ghetto Poem "Vey dir" - Sven Erik RoseAppendix: "Vey dir" - Itzhak KatzenelsonThe New Ostjude and the Enlightened Ostdeutschen: Jewish Theater in the German Democratic Republic - Emma WoelkGerman Jewish lengevitch: A Plurilingual Poetics of Meddling - Leslie Morris