Dear readers and dear friends of Medaon,

Within our editorial focus ‘November 9 and the Jews’, our Fall-issue 2018 provides contributions to this interpretation-laden date and to the many real and symbolic connections drawn to the date in the history of Jews. In her contribution, Karolin Kosuch raises questions about the radical Socialist Ideas of Jews in the 1918/19 Revolution. Roman Töppel and Wolfgang Reinicke dedicate their text to different aspects of November 9, 1923, the day of the failed Hitler-Ludendorff coup d’état. At the center of Daniel Ristau’s and Christoph Kreutzmüller’s contribution are the November Pogromes of 1938 on the basis of sources rarely paid attention to.

Beyond this, Alexander Friedman devotes himself to the biography of Eduard Goldstücker. He pays special attention to the anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic attacks against Goldstücker in wake of his vehement support of the Prague Spring fifty years ago.

Since digitalization in the field of history, and in Jewish history more specifically, has been a topic in past issues – we especially want to refer readers to our focal issue Zwischen Versprechungen und Herausforderungen. Perspektiven auf das Verhältnis von Digitalisierung und jüdischer Geschichte (17/2015)1– the editors of Medaon have decided to make it a permanent topic and founded the editorial section “Digitales”. We welcome Anna Menny and Nina Zellerhoff as editors and are delighted at their commitment. The aim is to critically reflect on challenges and perspectives of Jewish History in the digital Humanities and at the same time provide generic insights into new research projects. In this issue, we want to initiate this new thread with an introductory text by Gerben Zaagsma on the question, in how far it can be productive to discuss the specialties of Jewish Studies in digital Humanities. A specific example of the merits of the digital method can be drawn from the Footprints-Project, presented in a further contribution.

For these and all other contributions we wish you pleasant reading.

But we do not want to miss the chance to thank our long-term editorial member Hendrik Niether. He is leaving the editorial office for new professional challenges. He has been greatly responsible for the advancement of the journal and especially for creating the editorial section “Jüdisches Leben nach 1945”. We wish him a lot of success.

We could not have made this issue without the support of our reviewers. Corrections and translations were made by Cathleen Bürgelt, Cornelia Franz, Phillip Roth, Marcus Schaub, Margi Schellenberg, Patricia C. Sutcliffe und Steffen Schröter (text plus form) – we want to thank them very much!

The editors of Medaon, January 2019.