Daniel B. Schwartz
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691142913
- eISBN:
- 9781400842261
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691142913.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This introductory chapter considers why the hallmark of modern Jewish identity is its resistance to—and, at the same time, obsession with—definition. Like battles over national identity in the modern ...
More
This introductory chapter considers why the hallmark of modern Jewish identity is its resistance to—and, at the same time, obsession with—definition. Like battles over national identity in the modern state, clashes over the nature and limits of Jewishness have frequently taken the shape of controversies over the status—and stature—of marginal Jews past and present. The Jewish rehabilitation of historical heretics and apostates with a vexed relationship to Judaism has become so much a part of contemporary discourse that it is difficult to imagine secular Jewish culture without it. Yet this tendency has a beginning as well as a template in modern Jewish history, which the chapter introduces in the figure of Baruch (or Benedictus) Spinoza (1632–1677)—“the first great culture-hero of modern secular Jews,” and still the most oft-mentioned candidate for the title of first modern secular Jew.Less
This introductory chapter considers why the hallmark of modern Jewish identity is its resistance to—and, at the same time, obsession with—definition. Like battles over national identity in the modern state, clashes over the nature and limits of Jewishness have frequently taken the shape of controversies over the status—and stature—of marginal Jews past and present. The Jewish rehabilitation of historical heretics and apostates with a vexed relationship to Judaism has become so much a part of contemporary discourse that it is difficult to imagine secular Jewish culture without it. Yet this tendency has a beginning as well as a template in modern Jewish history, which the chapter introduces in the figure of Baruch (or Benedictus) Spinoza (1632–1677)—“the first great culture-hero of modern secular Jews,” and still the most oft-mentioned candidate for the title of first modern secular Jew.
Matthias B. Lehmann
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804789653
- eISBN:
- 9780804792462
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804789653.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
This chapter introduces the subject of this study: the Istanbul-based network of support for the Jews in Ottoman Palestine and the rabbinic emissaries who sustained its fundraising missions in the ...
More
This chapter introduces the subject of this study: the Istanbul-based network of support for the Jews in Ottoman Palestine and the rabbinic emissaries who sustained its fundraising missions in the eighteenth century, and the changing dynamics of the relationship between the Holy Land and the Jewish communities of the diaspora. The introduction situates the current study in the broader context of modern Jewish historiography, challenging many assumptions not only of an older, teleological, and nationalist (Zionist) historical narrative, but also many of the assumptions of its post-Zionist critics.Less
This chapter introduces the subject of this study: the Istanbul-based network of support for the Jews in Ottoman Palestine and the rabbinic emissaries who sustained its fundraising missions in the eighteenth century, and the changing dynamics of the relationship between the Holy Land and the Jewish communities of the diaspora. The introduction situates the current study in the broader context of modern Jewish historiography, challenging many assumptions not only of an older, teleological, and nationalist (Zionist) historical narrative, but also many of the assumptions of its post-Zionist critics.
Melissa R. Klapper
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814748947
- eISBN:
- 9780814749463
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814748947.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book explores the social and political activism of American Jewish women from approximately 1890 to the beginnings of World War II. It demonstrates that no history of the birth control, ...
More
This book explores the social and political activism of American Jewish women from approximately 1890 to the beginnings of World War II. It demonstrates that no history of the birth control, suffrage, or peace movements in the United States is complete without analyzing the impact of Jewish women's presence. The book is based on years of extensive primary source research in more than a dozen archives and among hundreds of primary sources, many of which have previously never been seen. Personal papers and institutional records paint a vivid picture of a world in which both middle-class and working-class American Jewish women were consistently and publicly engaged in all the major issues of their day and worked closely with their non-Jewish counterparts on behalf of activist causes. The book makes a unique contribution to the study of modern women's history, modern Jewish history, and the history of American social movements.Less
This book explores the social and political activism of American Jewish women from approximately 1890 to the beginnings of World War II. It demonstrates that no history of the birth control, suffrage, or peace movements in the United States is complete without analyzing the impact of Jewish women's presence. The book is based on years of extensive primary source research in more than a dozen archives and among hundreds of primary sources, many of which have previously never been seen. Personal papers and institutional records paint a vivid picture of a world in which both middle-class and working-class American Jewish women were consistently and publicly engaged in all the major issues of their day and worked closely with their non-Jewish counterparts on behalf of activist causes. The book makes a unique contribution to the study of modern women's history, modern Jewish history, and the history of American social movements.
Sarah Wobick-Segev
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781503605145
- eISBN:
- 9781503606548
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9781503605145.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
This book is the first comparative study of Jewish communities in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. It analyzes how Jews used social and religious spaces to reformulate patterns of fraternity, ...
More
This book is the first comparative study of Jewish communities in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. It analyzes how Jews used social and religious spaces to reformulate patterns of fraternity, celebration, and family formation and expressions of self-identification. It suggests that the social patterns that developed between 1890 and the 1930s were formative for the fundamental reshaping of Jewish community and remain essential to our understanding of contemporary Jewish life. Focusing on the social interactions of urban European Jews, this book offers a new perspective on how Jews confronted the challenges of modernity. As membership in the official community was becoming increasingly a matter of individual choice, Jews created spaces to meet new social and emotional needs. Cafés, hotels, and restaurants became places to gather and celebrate festivals and holy days, and summer camps served as sites for the informal education of young children. These places facilitated the option of secular Jewish belonging, marking a clear distinction between Judaism and Jewishness that would have been impossible on a large scale in the pre-emancipation era. By creating new centers for Jewish life, a growing number of historical actors, including women and youth, took the process of community building into their own hands. The contexts of Jewish life expanded beyond the confines of “traditional” Jewish spaces and sometimes challenged the desires of Jewish authorities. The book further argues that these social practices remained vital in reconstructing certain Jewish communities in the wake of the devastation of the Holocaust.Less
This book is the first comparative study of Jewish communities in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. It analyzes how Jews used social and religious spaces to reformulate patterns of fraternity, celebration, and family formation and expressions of self-identification. It suggests that the social patterns that developed between 1890 and the 1930s were formative for the fundamental reshaping of Jewish community and remain essential to our understanding of contemporary Jewish life. Focusing on the social interactions of urban European Jews, this book offers a new perspective on how Jews confronted the challenges of modernity. As membership in the official community was becoming increasingly a matter of individual choice, Jews created spaces to meet new social and emotional needs. Cafés, hotels, and restaurants became places to gather and celebrate festivals and holy days, and summer camps served as sites for the informal education of young children. These places facilitated the option of secular Jewish belonging, marking a clear distinction between Judaism and Jewishness that would have been impossible on a large scale in the pre-emancipation era. By creating new centers for Jewish life, a growing number of historical actors, including women and youth, took the process of community building into their own hands. The contexts of Jewish life expanded beyond the confines of “traditional” Jewish spaces and sometimes challenged the desires of Jewish authorities. The book further argues that these social practices remained vital in reconstructing certain Jewish communities in the wake of the devastation of the Holocaust.
Hasia R. Diner
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780300178647
- eISBN:
- 9780300210194
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300178647.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
Peddling opened a path for a crucial new chapter in modern Jewish history. Many Jews went to work in factories in new-world cities as the demand for clothing increased. Jewish peddlers suffered from ...
More
Peddling opened a path for a crucial new chapter in modern Jewish history. Many Jews went to work in factories in new-world cities as the demand for clothing increased. Jewish peddlers suffered from verbal attacks, discrimination, and defamation. Jewish elites, specifically in the United States, tried to defend their fellow Jews. The peddler became a figure of modern Jewish history when the US finally opened its doors to mass European immigration.Less
Peddling opened a path for a crucial new chapter in modern Jewish history. Many Jews went to work in factories in new-world cities as the demand for clothing increased. Jewish peddlers suffered from verbal attacks, discrimination, and defamation. Jewish elites, specifically in the United States, tried to defend their fellow Jews. The peddler became a figure of modern Jewish history when the US finally opened its doors to mass European immigration.
David Weinberg
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190646127
- eISBN:
- 9780190646158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190646127.003.0028
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter reviews Jess Olson’s Nathan Birnbaum and Jewish Modernity: Architect of Zionism, Yiddishism and Orthodoxy, which attempts to rescue an important figure in modern Jewish history from ...
More
This chapter reviews Jess Olson’s Nathan Birnbaum and Jewish Modernity: Architect of Zionism, Yiddishism and Orthodoxy, which attempts to rescue an important figure in modern Jewish history from obscurity. Birnbaum was involved in the major Jewish ideological movements of Central and Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Zionism, diaspora nationalism, Yiddishism, and religious Orthodoxy. While most scholars either ignore Birnbaum or dismiss his intellectual peregrinations as the ramblings of a confused thinker and an egotistical and irascible personality, Olson contends that they actually reflected a sophisticated and largely credible effort to redefine the basis for Jewish national identity in a period of complex challenges.Less
This chapter reviews Jess Olson’s Nathan Birnbaum and Jewish Modernity: Architect of Zionism, Yiddishism and Orthodoxy, which attempts to rescue an important figure in modern Jewish history from obscurity. Birnbaum was involved in the major Jewish ideological movements of Central and Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Zionism, diaspora nationalism, Yiddishism, and religious Orthodoxy. While most scholars either ignore Birnbaum or dismiss his intellectual peregrinations as the ramblings of a confused thinker and an egotistical and irascible personality, Olson contends that they actually reflected a sophisticated and largely credible effort to redefine the basis for Jewish national identity in a period of complex challenges.
Zev Eleff
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190490270
- eISBN:
- 9780190490294
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190490270.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Who Rules the Synagogue explores how American Jewry in the nineteenth century transformed from a lay dominated community to one whose leading religious authorities were rabbis. Previous scholars have ...
More
Who Rules the Synagogue explores how American Jewry in the nineteenth century transformed from a lay dominated community to one whose leading religious authorities were rabbis. Previous scholars have charter the religious history of American Judaism during this era but never with religious authority in mind. In contrast, this book aims to place this subject at the center of this formative period. Early in the century, American Jews consciously excluded rabbinic forces from playing a role in their community’s development. By the final decades of the 1800s, ordained rabbis—most noticeably in the commotion caused by the Pittsburgh rabbinic conference of 1885—were in full control of America’s leading synagogues and large sectors of American Jewish life. In this refreshing study, Zev Eleff weaves together many of the important episodes and debates that shaped American Judaism and places this story into the larger context of American religious history and modern Jewish history.Less
Who Rules the Synagogue explores how American Jewry in the nineteenth century transformed from a lay dominated community to one whose leading religious authorities were rabbis. Previous scholars have charter the religious history of American Judaism during this era but never with religious authority in mind. In contrast, this book aims to place this subject at the center of this formative period. Early in the century, American Jews consciously excluded rabbinic forces from playing a role in their community’s development. By the final decades of the 1800s, ordained rabbis—most noticeably in the commotion caused by the Pittsburgh rabbinic conference of 1885—were in full control of America’s leading synagogues and large sectors of American Jewish life. In this refreshing study, Zev Eleff weaves together many of the important episodes and debates that shaped American Judaism and places this story into the larger context of American religious history and modern Jewish history.
