Deals extensively with the "Jewish question" in postwar Europe. The vanquishing of Nazism in 1945 did not put an end to antisemitism: the late 1940s saw anti-Jewish outbursts in various countries, and the treatment of the Jewish DPs also contained an element of antisemitism. Although Jews are disappearing in Europe, "the Jewish question" has not gone away. It has persisted in different national and ideological contexts, both in the USSR and its satellites (Czechoslovakia, Poland, etc.) and in liberal Western Europe. The establishment of the State of Israel added new motives for the "Jewish problem", and in the 1970s-80s it exposed Jews in the diaspora to "anti-Zionist" terrorism. The political upheaval in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989-91 fueled antisemitism and caused the mass emigration of Jews from these countries. Discusses, also, the impact of the Holocaust on postwar Jewish consciousness and on attitudes toward Jews, as well as efforts of the Christian Churches to improve their stance toward the Jews.

"The Görlitz synagogue was inaugurated in 1911. The 600-seat Jewish house of prayer with its magnificent blend of neoclassical architecture and Art Nouveau interior was set on fire during the Night of Broken Glass, but not destroyed. The book tells the story of this architectural jewel, the players, problems, and finally the completion of its rescue."--Page 4 of cover.

"The theme of this book involves the Holocaust [...]. Itzkoff's main concern is to understand and explain this event in the context of Jewish history and the unfolding meaning of Western civilizational experience"--Front flap.

What has given the Jewish people their resilience, their power of survival, and their ability to adapt to radically new conditions without losing their identity? What combination of religious faith, social organization, intellectual toughness, and poetic imagination constitutes Jewishness? Eighteen eminent scholars address these questions in this richly illustrated survey of Jewish history from its earliest days to the foundation of Israel. Equal weight is given to Judaica and to the ways in which Judaism has coped with the challenges of modernity. This unparalleled work of scholarship is enhanced throughout by a plethora of superbly reproduced illustrations, from manuscript illuminations and liturgical objects to medieval prints and popular art. 436 illustrations, 135 in color. Edited by Elie Kedourie, a distinguished historian and political philosopher, the book includes essays by Haim Beinart, T. Carmi, Amnon Cohen, S. Ettinger, Shelomo Dov Goitein, A. Grossman, Oscar Handlin, Arthur Hertzberg, Arthur Hyman, Lionel Kochan, Hyam Maccoby, Jacob Neusner, H. W. F. Saggs, Amnon Shiloah, Ezra Spicehandler, David Vital, R. J. Zwi Werblowsky, and Zvi Yavetz.

Founded in 1794 as a frontier city on the Black Sea, Odessa soon grew to be one of Russia's busiest seaports. Settlers of all nationalities went there to seek their fortune, among them Jews who came to form one of the largest, wealthiest, and most culturally fertile Jewish communities in Europe. This history of Jewish Odessa traces the rise of that community from its foundation in 1794 to the pogroms of 1881 that erupted after the assassination of Alexander II. Zipperstein emphasizes Jewish acculturation: changes in behavior, attitude, and ideology as reflected in schools, synagogues, newspapers, and other institutions of the period. The patterns set then affected the community's cultural development well into the second decade of the twentieth century. More a modern metropolis than any other Russian city with a significant Jewish population, Odessa offers a window into the diversity of Russian Jewish experience.

This textbook aims to provide, in accessible form, a full history of Jewish religion and tradition. Within a broad outline of the history and religion of the Jewish people, this volume highlights cultural and spiritual developments which have shaped Jewish self-consciousness through the centuries. Beginning with an account of the history and religion of the ancient Near East, the book focuses on the influence of ancient Near Eastern civilization on the Hebrew scriptures. This discussion is followed by an outline of ancient Israelite history, emphasizing the role of the patriarchs, the exodus from Egypt, the rise of monarchy and the emergence of prophecy. The book then examines later biblical history, the development of Judaism in Hellenistic times, and the emergence of classical Rabbinic literature and theology. The Medieval period in Islamic and Christian lands is also investigated, giving special attention to the rise of Jewish philosophy, theology and mysticism. Turning to the modern period, the rise of Hasidism is examined as is the emergence of religious reform. Finally, the study concentrates on the development of Jewry in the 19th and 20th centuries, and concludes with a discussion of the future of Judaism as a living faith. Through this overview of the Jewish heritage, the reader is asked to approach Judaism in an appreciative spirit - to examine sympathetically its beliefs, doctrines and ideals in an historic context. The book aims to provide both factual information about the development of the Jewish tradition and a survey of a range of Jewish issues through the centuries to the present day.

Rekindling the Torch: The Story of Canadian Zionism begins with the long and troubled history of the Jewish people that informed the nineteenth-century idea of Zionism: the search for a homeland. After surviving anti-Semitic laws and pogroms, Jewish refugees faced not only the ultimate crime against humanity, but also the shocking indifference of the West when they were turned back from safe havens. Far from weakening the spirit, these combined tragedies strengthened their collective will. In Canada, Jewish immigrants created communities, pooled their resources, and rose to become captains of industry, among them the Bronfmans, the Batshaws, and the Hayes. They organized and actively pursued the goals of nationhood in Palestine. Richly illustrated and extensively researched, Rekindling the Torch celebrates the struggle of the Canadian Jewish people and their contributions to the state of Israel.

According to historical teaching, a Jewish man should give thanks each day for ''not having been made a gentile, a woman, nor a slave.'' Yoel Kahn's innovative study of a controversial Jewish liturgical passage traces the history of this prayer from its extra-Jewish origins across two thousand years of history, demonstrating how different generations and communities understood the significance of these words in light of their own circumstances. Marking the boundary between ''us'' and ''them,'' marginalized and persecuted groups affirmed their own identity and sense of purpose. After the medieval Church seized and burned books it considered offensive, new, coded formulations emerged as forms of spiritual resistance. Owners voluntarily carefully expurgated their books to save them from being destroyed, creating new language and meanings while seeking to preserve the structure and message of the received tradition. Renaissance Jewish women ignored rabbis' objections and assertively declared their gratitude at being ''made a woman and not a man.'' Illustrations from medieval and renaissance Hebrew manuscripts demonstrate creative literary responses to censorship and show that official texts and interpretations do not fully represent the historical record. As Jewish emancipation began in the 19th century, modernizing Jews again had to balance fealty to historical practice with their own and others' understanding of their place in the world. Seeking to be recognized as modern and European, early modern Jews rewrote the liturgy to fit modern sensibilities and identified themselves with the Christian West against the historical pagan and the uncivilized infidel. In recent decades, a reassertion of ethnic and cultural identity has again raised questions of how the Jewish religious community should define itself. Through the lens of a liturgical text in continuous use for over two thousand years, Kahn offers new insights into an evolving religious identity and recurring questions of how to honor both historical teaching and contemporary sensibility.

The Great Synagogue: A History of Sydney’s Big Shule is a beautifully designed illustrated history of Australia’s oldest synagogue and its congregation. Written by its emeritus rabbi, Raymond Apple, and members of the congregation, it spans the fascinating history of the Jews in Sydney, from their arrival on the First Fleet--sixteen of them as convicts--through to the construction of the synagogue in 1878 and up to the present day. Illustrated with numerous historical documents, paintings and photographs, this book brings to life the history of the most visited and visible Jewish building in Australia and its congregation.

In the English-speaking world, it is generally believed that there are very few Jews living and thriving in Germany. Yet, there has been an unlikely postwar history 1945-2001 that has been somewhat repressed in North America and the United Kingdom. While most people are well-informed about the Holocaust and the consequences that this tragic event has had for the world, very few people know that there has been a steady increase in the population of Jews in Germany since 1945 and that there is a flourishing 'Jewish' culture, certainly a relatively strong Jewish presence, in Germany today. Does this development mean that Jews are playing a significant role in German social life? Does this mean that the great German-Jewish relationship, often referred to as a kind of symbiosis, has re-emerged despite the odds against it? The sixteen essays in this book written by the leading critics in the field cover the fascinating changes that have been made in German society since 1945 in the Jewish communities, literature, theater, film, architecture, and other areas of interest including an examination of the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Austria. For anyone interested in reading about the unpredictable transformations in German-Jewish relations since 1945, Unlikely History will provide information and insights into a history that needs to be told to bring about greater understanding of Jews and Germans in contemporary Germany.

A comprehensive history of the Holocaust in Hungary, relating also to the history of Hungarian Jewry from its emancipation in 1849 to the present. The first anti-Jewish laws in the 1920s and the increase of antisemitism in the 1930s were followed by persecution, forced military occupation by the Nazis, ghettoization, and deportation. Discusses the events of the Holocaust according to six territorial zones: the Carpathians and the northeastern parts of Hungary; northern Transylvania; northern Hungary; southeastern Hungary; western Hungary; Budapest and environs. Describes the fate of the Jews in many locations. Relates, inter alia, to the military labor service units, the Jewish Council, Jewish rescue operations, the Nazis' actions and the cooperation of the Hungarian authorities, and the actions of the Arrow Cross, as well as international interventions and rescue actions of the Christian Churches.

First Published in 1989 London Jewry and London Politics 1889-1986 is a study of the relationship between the London Jewish community, the London County Council, and the Greater London Council. Geoffrey Alderman draws on a wealth of primary and secondary material to illuminate a dialogue that began, a hundred years ago, in a mood of great optimism and co-operation, but which ended, in the early 1980s, in a welter of insults and antagonisms. Alderman adopts a chronological approach, looking first at the Jewish involvement in London government prior to the establishment of the London County Council in 1889. He then analyses the contribution made by London Jewry to the periods of progressive control and conservative rule. With the arrival of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe the nature of the Jewish electorate underwent considerable change and Alderman describes how the government exploited prejudice against the Jewish community causing LCC to adopt blatantly antisemitic policies. The Labour victory of 1934 was in part due to the Jewish vote, but the period of Labour rule was a disappointment and an anticlimax. This illuminating account of hundred years is an essential read for scholars and researchers of British history.

Gibraltar has been a haven for Jews since it was captured by the British in 1704 - Catholic Spain having expelled them in 1492. By the mid-18th century, a third of the population was Jewish, adding to the rich cosmopolitan mix of the free port. Today Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus, from England, Spain, Portugal, Italy, North Africa and India, live there side by side. The Gibraltar Jewish community is some 600 strong and its four historic synagogues are all still in use. They form a rare legacy, untouched by the ravages of the Second World War. Discover Jewish heritage in Gibraltar with this first-ever authoritative guidebook featuring colour photographs, drawings and an architectural heritage trail.

A collection of essays and articles translated from the revised edition of "Les Juifs, la mémoire et le présent" (Paris: La Découverte, 1991), with some changes. The following deal with antisemitism or the Holocaust:

In Sparks Amidst the Ashes, Byron Sherwin demonstrates how the unprecedented works of intellect and spirit produced during the Jewish "Golden Age" in Poland can provide contemporary Jews with the spiritual and intellectual resources required to ensure Jewish continuity in the present and future. Sherwin introduces us to the vast range of mystical speculation, evocative stories, talmudic dialectics, theological ideas, and social realities that were muted by the destruction of Polish Jewry during the Holocaust. Sherwin critiques the tendency among contemporary Jews to disregard the precious legacy bequeathed by Polish Jewry, and presents a plan for re-creating contemporary Jewish life that draws from the wisdom of the spiritual maestros and from the rich communal experience characteristic of Jewish life in pre-World War II Poland. Sherwin concludes with a controversial proposal for the future of Polish-Jewish relations.

Zwi was born in Mexico in 1928 but spent most of her life in South Africa. She moved to Australia in 1988. Her family came from Zhager, a small town on the Lithuanian-Latvian border, where over 3,000 Jews were massacred on 2 October 1941 by members of the Lithuanian Militia, and lie in a mass grave in Naryshkin Park, formerly the heart of the shtetl. Zwi recounts her quest to discover the fate of her father's family, that perished in the Holocaust, and that of her uncle Leib Yoffe, a communist idealist. Includes interviews and her own observations based on trips to Zhager (Zagare in Lithuanian) in 1991 and 1993.

"Based on new oral sources, carefully analyzed, this book explores the relationships between Jewish subjects and their tribal chieftains in Kurdistan, focusing on the patronage and justice provided by the chieftains and the financial support provided by the Jews to endure troubles and caprices of chieftains. New reports and vivid tales unveil the status of Jews in the tribal setting; the slavery of rural Jews; the conversion to Islam and the defense mechanisms adopted by Jewish leaders to annul conversion of abducted women. Other topics are the trade and occupations of the Jews and their financial exploitation by chieftains. The last part explores the experience of Jewish communities in Iraqi Kurdistan between World War I and the mass-migration to Israel (1951-52)."--Jacket.

Not only do "modern" Jewish languages like Yiddish and Hebrew have their own Jewish writers, but every major Western tongue?from German and Russian to English and Portuguese?does as well. These writers are often at the crossroad between the two traditions: their Jewish one and their own national one. Is there such a thing as a modern Jewish literary tradition, one navigating across linguistic and national lines? If so, how should one define it? Ilan Stavans is uniquely qualified to answer these questions and to comment on the power and challenges of cultural margins and literary crossings. He has been at the forefront of an appreciation of the Jewish literary tradition that is less asphyxiating, more global. His reflections on Jewish Latin America have won him the nickname "pathfinder." This incomparable volume showcases Stavans's most insightful and provocative?and at times controversial?observations on transnational Jewish culture and literature. Stavans explores the problems and prospects of representing Jewish experiences through such media as Holocaust memoirs and Jewish museums; astutely comments on well-known intellectual figures, including Lionel Trilling, Isaac Babel, Primo Levi, Harold Bloom, and Walter Benjamin; engages in memorable conversations with Norman Manea, Joseph Brodsky, and Ariel Dorfman; and offers compelling glimpses of revelatory moments in his own life.