From Ghetto to Emancipation: Historical and contemporary reconsideration of the Jewish community

by David Myers, William Rowe

Overview

The central question addressed by the essays in this book was phrased in 1928 by a young Jewish historian named Salo Wittmayer Baron. He challenged what he called "the lachrymose conception" of Jewish history in which the Jewish Middle Ages were all black and the Jewish post-emancipation period was all white. He supported this by saying that "medieval Jews possessed more rights than the great bulk of the population...enjoyed full internal autonomy" in the corporatist order of medieval civilization, while in the wake of the Enlightenment, Judaism was recast into a narrow confessional mold.

Even if overstated, this view raises a still very current question, namely, how can a group seeking to preserve a measure of collective self-identity survive within a liberal society that values individual rights and obligations above all else? The essays in this volume deal with various answers and analyses of this question.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780940866737
Publisher:	University of Scranton Press
Publication date:	04/30/2005
Series:	Jewish History Series
Pages:	159
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	1530L (what's this?)

About the Author

William V. Rowe is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Scranton.
 
David N. Myers is Associate Professor of History and Director the Center for Jewish Studies at UCLA.



William V. Rowe is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Scranton.
 
David N. Myers is Associate Professor of History and Director the Center for Jewish Studies at UCLA.

Table of Contents

Introduction, by David N. Myers
 
The Cultural Significance of the Ghetto in Jewish History, by David B. Ruderman
"The Blessing of Assimilation" Reconsidered: An Inquiry into Jewish Cultural Studies, by David N. Myers
Redemption and Community: Reflections on Some European Jewish Intellectuals, 1900-1940, by Michael L. Morgan
Difficult Liberty: The Basis of Community in Emmanuel Levinas, by William V. Rowe
The Puzzling Persistence of Community: The Cases of Airmont and Kiryas Joel, by Nomi M. Stolzenberg
Communal Rites: The Public Culture of American Jews, by Arthur Aryeh Goren
Toward a History of Scranton Jewry, by Michael Brown
 
Contributors
Index