Published by the University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, and Yad Vashem, Jerusalem Based on an unparalleled and exhaustive collection of original Jewish accounts and sources not available until the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu in the late 1980s, Jean Ancel provides a detailed analysis of the path of antisemitism that led to the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust in Romania. The Romanians, and other nations inside and outside the Balkans, related differently to ?their Jews? and ?other Jews,? that is, those living in districts annexed to Romania after the First World War and in areas occupied and annexed to the Romanian military administration after the Soviet invasion in June 1941. The Jews of the Regat, the core Romanian principality, suffered pogroms, decrees, and degradation, but on the whole they survived the Holocaust. Contradicting long-held assumptions, Ancel shows that Romanians were largely responsible for murdering their Jewish community?one of the largest in Europe before the war?and although its survival rate was the highest in Europe, the survival rate in areas where Jews were liquidated was one of the lowest.

A study of Jewish life in the Polish-Lithuanian town of Ejszyszki (Eisiskes), based largely on interviews with former residents of the town. Pt. 6 (pp. 557-697), "The Bitter End: 1933-41, " deals with the Holocaust period. The story of the destruction of the Jewish community is interlaced with the story of Eliach's family, the Sonensons, and their experiences during the war. Many Jews were killed by the Nazis and local collaborators on 25-26 September 1941. The Sonensons were among the few who managed to escape; they passed through some small ghettos and were then hidden by a Polish farmer, Kazimierz Korkuc. They returned to Eisiskes after the liberation, but Eliach's mother and baby brother were murdered in their home by rampaging Polish AK partisans in October 1944. Contends that, despite the relatively large number of rescuers, the majority of Poles were antisemitic and wished for a "Poland without Jews." The Nazis would not have been able to carry out the genocide of the Jews without widespread Polish and Lithuanian collaboration.

Analyzes the communal organization, political affiliations, and cultural contributions of Vienna's Jews from 1848 to World War I. After 1848, Jewish emancipation became an issue in party politics. Jews identified with the Austrian Liberal Party, with the Emperor and Germanism, in all of which they saw safeguards of Jewish emancipation. Analyzes the antisemitism of Schönerer's Pan-German Party, which found many adherents at the University of Vienna, and of Lueger's Christian Social Party. Describes the cautious reactions of Jewish officials, who supported the Liberal Party even in defeat and in the face of that party's desertion of the Jewish cause; the more nationalist faction led by Rabbi Joseph Samuel Bloch, a member of the Austrian parliament from 1884-95 and a militant fighter against antisemitism; and the Austrian Israelite Union set up in 1886 to encourage pride in Jewish identity and combat antisemitism. Surveys the role of antisemitism in the rise of Zionism. Suggests that the surge of antisemitism in Vienna, rather than the Dreyfus case, was responsible for Herzl's concern with the "Jewish question". Analyzes the Jewish self-hatred of Karl Kraus and Otto Weininger, and the role of Jewish identity and antisemitism in the life and work of Freud, Schnitzler, and other Austrian Jewish writers.

Portrays the hopes of Jews for acceptance on equal terms in European society in the countries that emerged from or were affected by World War I. In all the cases described, great expectations gave way to lost illusions, as antisemitism played a role in the establishment of fascist societies. Stresses the failure of postwar minority treaties to guarantee rights for Jews. Discusses the situation in Ukraine (particularly as reflected in the 1927 trial in Paris of Shalom Schwarzbard for the murder of Petlyura), Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Austria (especially Vienna), Germany (especially Berlin), and France. Devotes much attention to leftist Jews, whom antisemites tended to identify with the Bolshevik threat, and to Jews in European culture, whom antisemites saw as dominating their countries. Among the figures featured are: Bela Kun, Lucien Wolf, Sigmund Freud, Rosa Luxemburg, Walther Rathenau, and Leon Blum. A number of these Jews were assassinated, victims of rightist antisemitism.

"A detailed, first-hand account of the atrocities committed against Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust ..."--Provided by publisher.

Who are the Jews from Arab countries? What were relations with Muslims like? What made Jews leave countries where they had been settled for thousands of years? What lessons can we learn from the mass exodus of minorities from the Middle East? Lyn Julius undertakes to answer all these questions and more in Uprooted, the culmination of ten years of work studying these issues. Jews lived continuously in the Middle East and North Africa for almost 3,000 years. Yet, in just 50 years, their indigenous communities outside Palestine almost totally disappeared as more than 99 percent of the Jewish population fled. Some 650,000—including a minority of ideological Zionists—went to Israel. Before the Holocaust they constituted ten percent of the world's Jewish population, and now over 50 percent of Israel's Jews are refugees from Arab and Muslim countries, or their descendants. This same process is now repeating in Christian and other minority communities across the Middle East. This book assesses how well these Jews have integrated into Israel and how their struggles have been politicized. It charts the growing clamour for recognition, redress and memorialization for these Jewish refugees, and looks at how their cause can contribute to peace and reconciliation between Israel and the Muslim world.

Jews and Muslims in the Arab World highlights the effects of historical memory on the Arab-Israel conflict, demonstrating that both Jews and Arabs use stories of distant pasts to create their identities and shape their politics. Whether real or imagined, the past filtered through their collective memories has had and will continue to have enormous influence on how Jews and Arabs perceive themselves and each other. Jews and Muslims in the Arab World describes the ways in which the past is absorbed, internalized, and then processed among Jews and Arabs. The book stresses the importance of historical imagination on the current evolving political cultures, but does not claim that explanations from an ancient past shed light on every aspect of contemporary events.

Winner of the 2013 National Jewish Book Award, Anthologies and Collections The year 1929 represents a major turning point in interwar Jewish society, proving to be a year when Jews, regardless of where they lived, saw themselves affected by developments that took place around the world, as the crises endured by other Jews became part of the transnational Jewish consciousness. In the United States, the stock market crash brought lasting economic, social, and ideological changes to the Jewish community and limited its ability to support humanitarian and nationalist projects in other countries. In Palestine, the anti-Jewish riots in Hebron and other towns underscored the vulnerability of the Zionist enterprise and ignited heated discussions among various Jewish political groups about the wisdom of establishing a Jewish state on its historical site. At the same time, in the Soviet Union, the consolidation of power in the hands of Stalin created a much more dogmatic climate in the international Communist movement, including its Jewish branches. Featuring a sparkling array of scholars of Jewish history, 1929 surveys the Jewish world in one year offering clear examples of the transnational connections which linked Jews to each other—from politics, diplomacy, and philanthropy to literature, culture, and the fate of Yiddish—regardless of where they lived. Taken together, the essays in 1929 argue that, whether American, Soviet, German, Polish, or Palestinian, Jews throughout the world lived in a global context.

The Holocaust in Croatia recounts the history of the Croatian Jewish community during the Second World War, with a focus on the city of Zagreb. Ivo and Slavko Goldstein have grounded their study on extensive research in recently opened archives, additionally aided by the memories of survivors to supplement and enrich the interpretation of documents. The authors' accessible narrative, here available in English for the first time, has been praised for its objectivity (including rare humane acts by those who helped to save Jews) and is complemented by a large bibliography offering an outstanding referential source to archival materials. The Holocaust in Croatia stands as the definitive account of the Jews in Croatia, up to and including the criminal acts perpetrated by the pro-Nazi Ustasha regine, adding significantly to our knowledge of the Holocaust. -- Provided by publisher

The history of Jews in interwar Germany and Austria is often viewed either as the culmination of tremendous success in the economic and cultural realms and of individual assimilation and acculturation, or as the beginning of the road that led to Auschwitz. By contrast, this volume demonstrates a reemerging sense of community within the German-speaking Jewish population of these two countries in the two decades after World War I. The fresh research presented here shows that although Jews may have experiences a deepening sence of impending crisis and economic decline, a renewal of Jewish communal life was taking place, as new groupings sprang up, including organizations for youth, for rural Jews, and for political groups such as Zionists and Bundists. Several chapters consider the impact of economis and political crises on German Jewish family life. Together, these engrossing essays form a complex mosaic of German Jewry on the eve of its demise.

"A mix of autobiography and lucid invention, this highly personal work offers a deeply affecting exploration of the meaning of identity and pedigree. With his signature blend of candor, mystery, and bewitching elusiveness, Patrick Modiano weaves together a series of interlocking stories from his family history: his parents' courtship in occupied Paris; a sinister hunting trip with his father; a chance friendship with the deposed King Farouk; a wistful affair with the daughter of a nightclub singer; and the author's life as a new parent. Filled with a coterie of dubious characters - Nazi informants, collaborationist refugees, and black-market hustlers - Modiano's riveting vignettes capture the drama that consumed Paris during World War II and its aftermath. Written in tones ranging from tender nostalgia to the blunt cruelty of youth, this is a personal and revealing book that brings the enduring significance of a complicated past to life."--Publisher.

"The aftermath of World War II was a period of massive Jewish migration. More than a million Jews came to settle in the new state of Israel; hundreds of thousands moved to North America, Australia, and France, while tens of thousands resettled themselves elsewhere in Europe and the world. Emigration was, in turn, paralled by large-scale movement among second-generation Jews from the great urban centers to the suburbs. Until recently it has seemed as though the Jewish people had, in the words of the Bible, reached a situation of rest and landed inheritance. However, there is considerable evidence that Jews are still moving: from the former Soviet Union, to and from Israel, and within nations where they have been long resident. Still Moving examines the causes and character of contemporary migration in Israel and throughout the Diaspora.The contributors to this volume adopt a cross-cultural comparative approach. Part 1 establishes the context of the new migration globally with specific concentration on its effects on the institutions of Israeli democracy. Part 2 surveys immigration to Israel in the 1990s with particular emphasis on the wave of Russian emigres since the fall of the Soviet Union. Internal migration from rural to urban centers is also explored. Migration to the Diaspora is covered in part 3. The Jewish identity of Soviet Jews is compared to their American and Canadian counterparts. Economic performance and problems of multigenerational families among emigres are also treated, as are the controversies surrounding politically motivated emigration from Israel. Part 4 focuses on the changing nature of the Diaspora and its relations with Israel. Beyond its grounding in Jewish culture and history, Still Moving frames questions that are central to understanding contemporary migration in general: Does immigration accelerate or retard the abilities of host countries to restructure economically? How does greater ethnic diversity affect the social and cultural life of cities? What factors help immigrants integrate into the wider community? Does immigration contribute to the creation of a marginalized underclass? Still Moving will be essential reading for historians, sociologists, Jewish studies specialists, and policy analysts" --

The nine American Jews of whom Milton Konvitz writes are philosophers, jurists, or rabbis, widely known and readily accepted as American Jewish thinkers. Their work reflects all essential Jewish values. Each person in his own way has dedicated his work to the betterment of life and the advancement of human ideals. In this sense, their Jewishness is not defined by religion alone. Americanism permeated all they thought and all they did. Konvitz argues that in the complex modern world, secularists often serve God more handsomely than do members of synagogues or churches. For example, when the Supreme Court in 1954 (with Felix Frankfurter playing a key role behind the scenes) agreed to outlaw segregation of the races in public schools, was the Court's action secular or religious? When Congress passed the statute known as the Americans with Disabilities Act, requiring equal treatment of handicapped persons, was the action secular or religious? Is a minimum wage act secular or religious? Is Medicaid a secular or a religious act? Konvitz believes the distinction is not useful, or even possible. The book is divided into three parts, reflecting Konvitz's range of intellectual interests. The nine essays offer concise intellectual biographies of three American Jewish philosophers, three Supreme Court Justices, and three rabbis. The philosophers-Horace M. Kallen, Morris Raphael Cohen, and Sidney Hook-are world-renowned. The jurists-Louis D. Brandeis, Benjamin N. Cardozo, and Felix Frankfurter-hold prominent places in American legal history. And the three rabbis-Leo Jung, Robert Gordis, and Jacob Agus-are known wherever Jewish thought is studied. By treating with equal seriousness the lives and writings of both religious and secularist thinkers, the author intentionally minimizes the conventional antagonism and frequent conflict between religion and secularism. An unusual feature of the book is the fact that the author was a close friend of six of the persons whose lives and work are examined, allowing him a perceptive insight into their character and thought. Although the book is about serious subjects, its graceful style makes the contents easily accessible to lay persons as well as scholars and students of Judaica.

EAST OF TIME is a rendezvous of history and imagination, of realities and dreams, hopes and disenchantments. This extraordinary book, by turns stark and poetic, unfolds in a succession of short reminiscences that weave together into a shimmering tapestry depicting a lost world. The setting is Lodz, Poland, in the years of the author's childhood, when he witnessed the grand belief in a just new world overtaken by the cataclysmic events of the 1930s, imprisoned between the walls of ghettos, and finally silenced at Auschwitz. The book's touchstone is the determination of an entire community to remain human, even at the last frontier of life.

"Focusing on the former province of Galicia, this book tells the story of Europe's eastern borderlands, stretching from the Baltic to the Balkans, through the eyes of the diverse communities of migrants who settled there for centuries and were murdered or forcibly removed from the borderlands in the course of World War II and its aftermath. Omer Bartov explores the fates and hopes, dreams and disillusionment of the people who lived there, and, through the stories they told about themselves, reconstructs who they were, where they came from, and where they were heading. It was on the borderlands that the expanding great empires--German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman--overlapped, clashed, and disintegrated. The civilization of these borderlands was a mix of multiple cultures, languages, ethnic groups, religions, and nations that similarly overlapped and clashed. The borderlands became the cradle of modernity. Looking back at it tells us where we came from." -- Provided by publisher.

" . . . a chronicle of man's bestiality to man, and therefore the few exceptional instances of courage and humanity shine forth with particular brightness." —The Russian Review "Essential reading for any holocaust course." —Religious Studies Review Bitter Legacy collects scholarship from America, Israel, Russia, Germany, and the Ukraine on the perpetration of the Holocaust in the Soviet Union and its lasting consequences from the postwar period through post-Soviet times. Newly accessible wartime archives in the former Soviet Union provide chilling details of what happened, of collaboration with the Nazis, and of rescue efforts, too.

" ... explores the myths of Holland's "Good War" -- the brave nation that hid Anne Frank from the Nazis -- by using the story of soccer in Holland and the Amsterdam club Ajax to puncture the tales that post-war Holland lives by. Through interviews with Resistance fighters, survivors, wartime soccer players and more, Kuper uncovers a history that has been largely ignored. Ranging far beyond the Netherlands and examining the stories of soccer and war in England, German and France, Kuper writes an alternative history of Europe at its darkest hour. He helps change the way we understand ordinary people's experience of the war in Europe." -- Back cover.

Much more than a particular period in world history, modernity has fundamentally transformed how we think and live, and especially how we understand and relate to religious traditions. As the 'ghetto walls' have fallen, both empirically and metaphorically, Judaism is compelled to compete in an open marketplace of ideas. Jews can no longer count on an assumedly necessary Jewish identity or commitment, nor on the rallying force of anti-Semitism to ensure an individual and collective sense of belonging. Rather Jewish moral, spiritual and historical values and ideas must be read with new eyes and challenged to address modernity's proliferating array of questions and realities. The pertinent questions modern Jewry faces are how to embrace modernity as Jews and what such an embrace means for the meaning and future of Jewish life. This collection of essays, authored by scholars of the Shalom Hartman Institute, addresses three critical challenges posed to Judaism by modernity: the challenge of ideas, the challenge of diversity, and the challenge of statehood, and provides insights and ideas for the future direction of Judaism. Providing readers with new insights into Judaism and the Jewish people in contemporary times, the collection explores a wide range of issues that includes: the significance of Israel for the future of Judaism; the Jewish people as a people; the relationship between monotheism and violence; revelation and ethics; Judaism and the feminist challenge; and Judaism and homosexuality.

"In a series of letters to her father, her great-grandmothers, and her children-and to thinkers such as Frantz Fanon, Hannah Arendt, Ghassan Kanafani, and Sylvia Wynter-Ariella Aïsha Azoulay examines the disruption of Jewish Muslim life in Algeria and broadly in the Maghreb and the Middle East by two colonial projects: French rule and the Zionist colonization of Palestine, which provoked the departure of Jews from these areas"--

More than just a guide to centers of Jewish populations throughout the world, this comprehensive work provides facts about the demography and history of these important communities, as well as a listing and description of community organizations, religious life, local Jewish culture, and educational facilities. Introductory sections include information on the founding of Israel, population statistics, and thoughts on topics ranging from the Diaspora to the founding of the Jewish state.