The Origins of the Modern Jew: Jewish Identity and European Culture in Germany, 1749-1824

by Michael A. Meyer

Overview

An excellent overview of the intellectual history of important figures in German Jewry.

Until the 18th century Jews lived in Christian Europe, spiritually and often physically removed form the stream of European culture. During the Enlightenment intellectual Europe accepted a philosophy which, by the universality of its ideals, reached out to embrace the Jew within the greater community of man. The Jew began to feel European, and his traditional identity became a problem for the first time. the response of the Jewish intellectual leadership in Germany to this crisis is the subject of this book.
Chief among those men who struggled with the problems of Jewish consciousness were Moses Mendelssohn, David Friedlander, Leopold Zunz, Eduard Gans, and Heinrich Heine. By 1824, liberal Judaism had not yet produced a vision of it future as a separate entity within European society, but it had been exposed to and grappled with all the significant problems that still confront the Jew in the West.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814337547
Publisher:	Wayne State University Press
Publication date:	04/01/1972
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	252
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Michael A. Meyer is professor of Jewish History, Hebrew Union Colelge-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Editorial Reviews

Professor Meyer has made a significant contribution to modern Jewish history by making the question of identity his central concern.

Journal of Ecumenical Studies

The most comprehensive volume in English on this most crucial of Jewish epochs.

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