The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History

by Paul Mendes-Flohr (Editor), Jehuda Reinharz (Editor)

The last two centuries have witnessed a radical transformation of Jewish life. Marked by such profound events as the Holocaust and the establishment of the state of Israel, Judaism's long journey through the modern age has been a complex and tumultuous one, leading many Jews to ask themselves
not only where they have been and where they are going, but what it means to be a Jew in today's world.
Tracing the Jewish experience in the modern period and illustrating the transformation of Jewish religion, culture, and identity from the 17th century to 1948, the updated edition of this critically acclaimed volume of primary materials remains the most complete sourcebook on modern Jewish history.
Now expanded to supplement the most vital documents of the first edition, The Jew in the Modern World features hitherto unpublished and inaccessible sources concerning the Jewish experience in Eastern Europe, women in Jewish history, American Jewish life, the Holocaust, and Zionism and the nascent
Jewish community in Palestine on the eve of the establishment of the State of Israel. The documents are arranged chronologically in each of eleven chapters and are meticulously and extensively annotated and cross-referenced in order to provide the student with ready access to a wide variety of
issues, key historical figures, and events. Complete with some twenty useful tables detailing Jewish demographic trends, this is a unique resource for any course in Jewish history, Zionism and Israel, the Holocaust, or European and American history.

Genres: History, Judaism, Jewish, Religion, Judaica, Collections

766 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1980

About the author

Paul R. Mendes-Flohr was an American-Israeli scholar of modern Jewish thought. As an intellectual historian, Mendes-Flohr specialized in 19th and 20th-century Jewish thinkers, including Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Gershom Scholem, and Leo Strauss.

Reviews

[Petra X]

Update Ayaan Hirsi Ali on anti-Semitism today, written May 25th 2021. The first comment is well worth reading.
____________________
]Today, June 3rd 2021, a 19 yr old woman was attacked by 3 men on the underground in Vienna (Hitler was from Austria). She was reading this book. The attackers pulled her hair and called her 'child murderer' and a 'Jewish slut'.

She got off the train and asked police officers for help. They deemed her reading that book to be provocative and one of them said, " 'Why do you have to read such a book now in this conflict situation?' (And women who go out with short skirts deserve to be raped, right?). The police also told her that she should forget the incident and it wasn't anti-Semitism anyway since she wasn't Jewish.

She tried to take it further knowing that there was video footage but was told it had been deleted since the police didn't request it.

Anti-Semitism. Misogyny. Victim-blaming. Hitler was from Vienna. One of the recent Austrian Presidents, Kurt Waldheim, also UN General Secretary was a Nazi. It doesn't seem enough to purge Austria of Nazi policies and educate people has been done, if it has been done at all. But anti-Semitism is the last acceptable racism. In politics both the Right and Left, and some of the social justice movements, all of them fight their corner defend their victims but none of them speak out against anti-Semitism.

[Alex Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

this class… oh boy
very interesting but very dense

[Lisa Feld · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m always up for a well-curated set of primary sources, but what sets this anthology apart is that we get to see not just the landmark writings of the great thinkers from each period, we get to see the letters and articles they were reacting to, as well as the ones that responded to them in turn. We get to see the conversations of each era, in wonderful complexity. My only objection is that this anthology contributes to the erasure of women who I know were part of particular conversations. With that caveat, though, the book has a lot to recommend it.

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Used in a graduate level modern Jewish history class as a sourcebook. Useful as a teaching tool and includes an incredibly wide range of sources. Covers 17th century to 1948. Includes Jewish demographic tables across centuries that are particularly useful for research papers, and an editor's introduction to each section. Only major downfall is the common one (Ashkenormative to a large degree). Recommended, but purely academic.

[Annika]

Read for modern Jewish history

[Bob Mendelsohn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was edited by Paul Mendes-Florh and Jehuda Reinharz and is a collection of original source documents a la Back to the Sources (Barry Holtz). Kant, Spinoza, Mendelssohn, Friedlander, decrees about and against Jews, Frankel and Chorin and heaps of others. Good stock.

[Seth Kaplan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic collection of primary source material about the Jewish experience in the modern era. Does a wonderful job of bringing history to life and is a great source for the study of modern Jewish history.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great collection of translated documents for use in teaching modern Jewish history.

[Nranger7 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought for a class on Modern Jewish History. Good book with interesting documents.