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 ...
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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.
Todd M. Endelman
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781904113010
- eISBN:
- 9781800342606
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781904113010.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This book seeks to expand the horizons of modern Jewish historiography by focusing on 'ordinary' rather than exceptional Jews, arguing that what ordinary people did or felt can do more to deepen our ...
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This book seeks to expand the horizons of modern Jewish historiography by focusing on 'ordinary' rather than exceptional Jews, arguing that what ordinary people did or felt can do more to deepen our understanding of Jewish history than what a few exceptional individuals thought and wrote. The book makes a strong case for comparative history, showing convincingly that only a comparison across national borders can identify the Germanness of German Jewish history or the Englishness of English Jewish history, and thereby reveal what is unique about each. The book redefines the area under consideration and deftly restates the need for Jewish social history to counterbalance the current focus on cultural studies. The book offers an important examination of the major trends in the writing of modern Jewish history and the assumptions that have guided historians in their narration of the Jewish past. It shows in particular how the two watershed events of twentieth-century Jewish history — the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel — influenced Jewish historiography for decades thereafter. It also demonstrates how progressive integration into the scholarly framework of American academia has shaped both the form and the content of Jewish historical research. Each of the case studies focuses on a largely unknown figure whose career illustrates the often tortuous paths of integration and acceptance that Jews faced. Some achieved fleeting fame but many of the people who populate the volume remain altogether unknown, their histories recoverable only as statistics.Less
This book seeks to expand the horizons of modern Jewish historiography by focusing on 'ordinary' rather than exceptional Jews, arguing that what ordinary people did or felt can do more to deepen our understanding of Jewish history than what a few exceptional individuals thought and wrote. The book makes a strong case for comparative history, showing convincingly that only a comparison across national borders can identify the Germanness of German Jewish history or the Englishness of English Jewish history, and thereby reveal what is unique about each. The book redefines the area under consideration and deftly restates the need for Jewish social history to counterbalance the current focus on cultural studies. The book offers an important examination of the major trends in the writing of modern Jewish history and the assumptions that have guided historians in their narration of the Jewish past. It shows in particular how the two watershed events of twentieth-century Jewish history — the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel — influenced Jewish historiography for decades thereafter. It also demonstrates how progressive integration into the scholarly framework of American academia has shaped both the form and the content of Jewish historical research. Each of the case studies focuses on a largely unknown figure whose career illustrates the often tortuous paths of integration and acceptance that Jews faced. Some achieved fleeting fame but many of the people who populate the volume remain altogether unknown, their histories recoverable only as statistics.
David Sorkin
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691164946
- eISBN:
- 9780691189673
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691164946.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
For all their unquestionable importance, the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel now loom so large in modern Jewish history that we have mostly lost sight of the fact that they are only ...
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For all their unquestionable importance, the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel now loom so large in modern Jewish history that we have mostly lost sight of the fact that they are only part of—and indeed reactions to—the central event of that history: emancipation. This book seeks to reorient Jewish history by offering the first comprehensive account in any language of the process by which Jews became citizens with civil and political rights in the modern world. Ranging from the mid-sixteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first, the book tells the ongoing story of how Jews have gained, kept, lost, and recovered rights in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the United States, and Israel. Emancipation, the book shows, was not a one-time or linear event that began with the Enlightenment or French Revolution and culminated with Jews' acquisition of rights in Central Europe in 1867–71 or Russia in 1917. Rather, emancipation was and is a complex, multidirectional, and ambiguous process characterized by deflections and reversals, defeats and successes, triumphs and tragedies. For example, American Jews mobilized twice for emancipation: in the nineteenth century for political rights, and in the twentieth for lost civil rights. Similarly, Israel itself has struggled from the start to institute equality among its heterogeneous citizens. By telling the story of this foundational but neglected event, the book reveals the lost contours of Jewish history over the past half millennium.Less
For all their unquestionable importance, the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel now loom so large in modern Jewish history that we have mostly lost sight of the fact that they are only part of—and indeed reactions to—the central event of that history: emancipation. This book seeks to reorient Jewish history by offering the first comprehensive account in any language of the process by which Jews became citizens with civil and political rights in the modern world. Ranging from the mid-sixteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first, the book tells the ongoing story of how Jews have gained, kept, lost, and recovered rights in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the United States, and Israel. Emancipation, the book shows, was not a one-time or linear event that began with the Enlightenment or French Revolution and culminated with Jews' acquisition of rights in Central Europe in 1867–71 or Russia in 1917. Rather, emancipation was and is a complex, multidirectional, and ambiguous process characterized by deflections and reversals, defeats and successes, triumphs and tragedies. For example, American Jews mobilized twice for emancipation: in the nineteenth century for political rights, and in the twentieth for lost civil rights. Similarly, Israel itself has struggled from the start to institute equality among its heterogeneous citizens. By telling the story of this foundational but neglected event, the book reveals the lost contours of Jewish history over the past half millennium.
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 ...
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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, ...
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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, ...
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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 ...
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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.
Marc Saperstein
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781906764401
- eISBN:
- 9781800340848
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781906764401.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Wartime sermons reveal how Jews perceive themselves in relation to the majority society and how Jewish and national values are reconciled when the fate of a nation is at stake. They also illustrate ...
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Wartime sermons reveal how Jews perceive themselves in relation to the majority society and how Jewish and national values are reconciled when the fate of a nation is at stake. They also illustrate how rabbis guide their communities through the challenges of their times. The sermons reproduced here were delivered by American and British rabbis from across the Jewish spectrum from the Napoleonic Wars to the attacks of 9/11. Each sermon is prefaced by a comprehensive introduction explaining the context in which it was delivered. Detailed notes explain allusions unfamiliar to a present-day readership and draw comparisons where appropriate to similar passages in contemporary newspapers and other sermons. A general introduction surveys more broadly the distinctive elements of modern Jewish preaching. What Jewish religious leaders said to their congregations when their countries went to war (or, in some cases, were considering going to war) raises questions of central significance for both modern Jewish history and religious thinking in the civic context. This book makes an important contribution to the American- and Anglo-Jewish history of this period while also making available a collection of mostly unknown Jewish texts produced at dramatic moments of the past two centuries.Less
Wartime sermons reveal how Jews perceive themselves in relation to the majority society and how Jewish and national values are reconciled when the fate of a nation is at stake. They also illustrate how rabbis guide their communities through the challenges of their times. The sermons reproduced here were delivered by American and British rabbis from across the Jewish spectrum from the Napoleonic Wars to the attacks of 9/11. Each sermon is prefaced by a comprehensive introduction explaining the context in which it was delivered. Detailed notes explain allusions unfamiliar to a present-day readership and draw comparisons where appropriate to similar passages in contemporary newspapers and other sermons. A general introduction surveys more broadly the distinctive elements of modern Jewish preaching. What Jewish religious leaders said to their congregations when their countries went to war (or, in some cases, were considering going to war) raises questions of central significance for both modern Jewish history and religious thinking in the civic context. This book makes an important contribution to the American- and Anglo-Jewish history of this period while also making available a collection of mostly unknown Jewish texts produced at dramatic moments of the past two centuries.
Marc Saperstein
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781906764494
- eISBN:
- 9781800341081
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781906764494.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter reviews the rabbinic responsa regarding the Boycott of Ancona. It was written by Ottoman rabbis addressing dramatic issues of international significance that affected both the morale and ...
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This chapter reviews the rabbinic responsa regarding the Boycott of Ancona. It was written by Ottoman rabbis addressing dramatic issues of international significance that affected both the morale and the economic well-being of many Jews. These texts, grappling with legal issues on the basis of conflicting narratives of what had happened, reveal that the boycott was far more complicated than it originally appears. The boycott of the port of Ancona in 1556 was an unparalleled event in early modern Jewish history, the only attempt before the twentieth century to organize Jewish economic pressure and to wield it in the arena of international affairs for the benefit of Jews persecuted in other lands. Powerful forces converged in this event.Less
This chapter reviews the rabbinic responsa regarding the Boycott of Ancona. It was written by Ottoman rabbis addressing dramatic issues of international significance that affected both the morale and the economic well-being of many Jews. These texts, grappling with legal issues on the basis of conflicting narratives of what had happened, reveal that the boycott was far more complicated than it originally appears. The boycott of the port of Ancona in 1556 was an unparalleled event in early modern Jewish history, the only attempt before the twentieth century to organize Jewish economic pressure and to wield it in the arena of international affairs for the benefit of Jews persecuted in other lands. Powerful forces converged in this event.
Kristi Groberg and Avraham Greenbaum (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781874774730
- eISBN:
- 9781800340732
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781874774730.003.0032
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter reviews A Missionary for History: Essays in Honor of Simon Dubnow, which was edited by Kristi Groberg and Avraham Greenbaum. The most useful cluster of essays in this volume is the trio ...
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This chapter reviews A Missionary for History: Essays in Honor of Simon Dubnow, which was edited by Kristi Groberg and Avraham Greenbaum. The most useful cluster of essays in this volume is the trio on Dubnow and the pogroms. Michael Hamm, Shlomo Lambroza, and John Klier show that there is little evidence to support Dubnow's view that the pogroms of the late imperial period were carefully prepared and centrally directed, in part to discredit and intimidate liberals and revolutionaries, and in part to divert peasant discontent. Most importantly, they explain how Dubnow's understanding of the pogroms, which still enjoys enormous influence and informs many synthetic accounts of modern Jewish history, derived from his lack of access to important sources as well as to his lack of distance from the events and his own involvement in Russian Jewry's political struggles. Stimulating as well is Israel Bartal's essay on how Dubnow's diaspora nationalism influenced his view of medieval Jewish autonomy, leading him to reverse the Haskalah's negative attitude towards communal autonomy and, at the same time, to describe this autonomy in thoroughly anachronistic terms.Less
This chapter reviews A Missionary for History: Essays in Honor of Simon Dubnow, which was edited by Kristi Groberg and Avraham Greenbaum. The most useful cluster of essays in this volume is the trio on Dubnow and the pogroms. Michael Hamm, Shlomo Lambroza, and John Klier show that there is little evidence to support Dubnow's view that the pogroms of the late imperial period were carefully prepared and centrally directed, in part to discredit and intimidate liberals and revolutionaries, and in part to divert peasant discontent. Most importantly, they explain how Dubnow's understanding of the pogroms, which still enjoys enormous influence and informs many synthetic accounts of modern Jewish history, derived from his lack of access to important sources as well as to his lack of distance from the events and his own involvement in Russian Jewry's political struggles. Stimulating as well is Israel Bartal's essay on how Dubnow's diaspora nationalism influenced his view of medieval Jewish autonomy, leading him to reverse the Haskalah's negative attitude towards communal autonomy and, at the same time, to describe this autonomy in thoroughly anachronistic terms.
Ada Rapoport-Albert (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781874774204
- eISBN:
- 9781800340787
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781874774204.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Hasidism has been a seminal force and source of controversy in the Jewish world since its inception in the second half of the eighteenth century. Indeed, almost every ideological trend that has made ...
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Hasidism has been a seminal force and source of controversy in the Jewish world since its inception in the second half of the eighteenth century. Indeed, almost every ideological trend that has made itself felt among Jews since that time has claimed to have derived some inspiration from this vibrant movement. While this is sure testimony to its vitality and originality, it has also given rise to many misconceptions as to what hasidism is about. This book offers a wide-ranging treatment of the subject in all its aspects. The book encompasses a complete field of modern scholarship in a discipline that is central to the understanding of modern Jewish history and the contemporary Jewish world. The book is dedicated to the memory of Joseph Weiss, and its opening section assesses his contribution to the study of hasidism in the context of his relationship with Gershom Scholem and Scholem's long-standing influence on the field. The remaining chapters are arranged thematically under seven headings: the social history of hasidism; the social functions of mystical ideals in the hasidic movement; distinctive outlooks and schools of thought within hasidism; the hasidic tale; the history of hasidic historiography; contemporary hasidism; and the present state of research on hasidism. The book also incorporates an extensive introduction that places the various articles in their intellectual context, as well as a bibliography of hasidic sources and contemporary scholarly literature. It shows an intellectual world at an important juncture in its development and points to the direction in which scholarly study of hasidism is likely to develop in the years to come.Less
Hasidism has been a seminal force and source of controversy in the Jewish world since its inception in the second half of the eighteenth century. Indeed, almost every ideological trend that has made itself felt among Jews since that time has claimed to have derived some inspiration from this vibrant movement. While this is sure testimony to its vitality and originality, it has also given rise to many misconceptions as to what hasidism is about. This book offers a wide-ranging treatment of the subject in all its aspects. The book encompasses a complete field of modern scholarship in a discipline that is central to the understanding of modern Jewish history and the contemporary Jewish world. The book is dedicated to the memory of Joseph Weiss, and its opening section assesses his contribution to the study of hasidism in the context of his relationship with Gershom Scholem and Scholem's long-standing influence on the field. The remaining chapters are arranged thematically under seven headings: the social history of hasidism; the social functions of mystical ideals in the hasidic movement; distinctive outlooks and schools of thought within hasidism; the hasidic tale; the history of hasidic historiography; contemporary hasidism; and the present state of research on hasidism. The book also incorporates an extensive introduction that places the various articles in their intellectual context, as well as a bibliography of hasidic sources and contemporary scholarly literature. It shows an intellectual world at an important juncture in its development and points to the direction in which scholarly study of hasidism is likely to develop in the years to come.
Jonathan Israel
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781874774426
- eISBN:
- 9781800340282
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781874774426.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter examines the tentative readmission of Jewry into western and central Europe from the 1570s onwards that signalled a reversal of trends which had previously prevailed everywhere west of ...
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This chapter examines the tentative readmission of Jewry into western and central Europe from the 1570s onwards that signalled a reversal of trends which had previously prevailed everywhere west of Poland. This post-1570 shift is, without doubt, a historical phenomenon of the first significance. In several ways, it marks the real beginning of modern Jewish history. For, in a matter of a few years, the whole fixed pattern of restricted interaction between western Christendom and the Jews was transformed in a way which continued to shape subsequent development for some two centuries. The transformation in European Jewry's status was rapid, dramatic, and profound, affecting and affected by much else that was then in flux, for at bottom Jewish readmission was merely a symptom of the more general revolution which convulsed and renewed western life and thought at the close of the sixteenth century. Nor did this change in Jewish status occur first in any one place and then spread. On the contrary, it is remarkable that the change of policy toward the Jews is discernible at pretty much the same moment in the Czech lands, Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.Less
This chapter examines the tentative readmission of Jewry into western and central Europe from the 1570s onwards that signalled a reversal of trends which had previously prevailed everywhere west of Poland. This post-1570 shift is, without doubt, a historical phenomenon of the first significance. In several ways, it marks the real beginning of modern Jewish history. For, in a matter of a few years, the whole fixed pattern of restricted interaction between western Christendom and the Jews was transformed in a way which continued to shape subsequent development for some two centuries. The transformation in European Jewry's status was rapid, dramatic, and profound, affecting and affected by much else that was then in flux, for at bottom Jewish readmission was merely a symptom of the more general revolution which convulsed and renewed western life and thought at the close of the sixteenth century. Nor did this change in Jewish status occur first in any one place and then spread. On the contrary, it is remarkable that the change of policy toward the Jews is discernible at pretty much the same moment in the Czech lands, Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.
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 ...
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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 ...
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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.