The Jewish Journey: A Passage through European History

by Edward Gelles

Overview

The history of European Jewry is a vast and complex subject. In this book, Edward Gelles traces Jewish history in Europe and the Near East including population movement, settlement, integration, advancement in aspects of European culture and learning, relations with European states and dynasties, Christians and Ottomans, persecution, the world wars, anti-Semitism, indeed the story of European Jewry from early times to the present. Edward Gelles and his family, both immediate and in their wider circle have huge and distinguished family connections that provide historical context. In combining biography, traditional genealogy and a contribution from the rapidly developing field of genetic genealogy this book weaves emerging patterns into the grand tapestry of European history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784534530
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/28/2016
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Edward Gelles is an independent historian and genealogist. Born into a distinguished Jewish family, he came to England in 1938 after the Anschluss and studied at Balliol College, Oxford. He pursued a career in chemistry, returbaning to the study of history and genealogy after his retirement.

Table of Contents

List of Genealogical Charts and Tables xi

List of Photographs xvii

Preface xix

Acknowledgements xxi

Map of Europe xxii

Introduction A Mirror of the Past 1

Part 1 Genealogical Threads

1 Carolingian connections in the eighth century: Kalonymos of Narbonne 30

2 In the Spanish March and Provence from the tenth century: Benveniste and Shem Tov Halevi 40

3 From Portugal to the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century: Joseph Nasi, Duke of Naxos 46

4 From Provence to Venice and beyond: Eliyahu Menachem Chalfan 52

Part 2 Sixteenth To Seventeenth Centuries

5 Bohemia, England and America: David and Chaim Gans of Prague 62

6 Golden age for the Jews of Prague: Judah Loew and contemporary rabbis of Prague 68

7 From Padua and Venice to Poland and Lithuania: Life and times of Saul Wahl 74

8 A Polish affair: Sigismund III Vasa and Hannele Wahl 86

Part 3 Eighteenth Century and Later

9 Capitalists and rabbis: Galician social and economic background 98

10 Jewish community life in Brody: 'The Jerusalem of Austria' 110

11 From the Baltic to the Black Sea: Jewish migrations in eastern Europe 124

12 Rabbi Shmuel Helman of Metz: Connections of an influential eighteenth-century rabbi 130

13 Frankists: A heretical Jewish sect in eastern Europe 144

14 Ghasiclism in the Age of Enlightenment: Rational and mystical strands in eighteenth-century Jewry 156

Part 4 Various Roads to Modern Times

15 Mendelssohn, Marx, Buber: And other descendants of Saul Wahl 168

16 Chayes: Prague, Brody Livorno and Vienna: Pan-European connections from the fifteenth to the twentieth century 190

17 They met in Trieste: Christians and Jews in an ethnic melting-pot 208

18 Rabbis and lawyers: A shared ethos 218

Part 5 A Brief Look Back To Our Legendary Past

19 Davidic descent: Historical impact of ancient myth 228

Appendix: Onomastics and Genetic Genealogy 235

20 Family names 238

21 A study in genetic genealogy 252

22 The Wahls of Tarnobrzeg: Genealogical links and DNA tests 280

23 X-DNA matches and European roots 292

24 Genetic admixture of Ashkenazi Jews: Relating to their millennial migrations 306

Epilogue: Who Am I And Where Did I Come From? 327

Published Work on Genealogy and History Edward Gelles 2000-13 332

Glossary 336

Index 341