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Judaism and Jewish life reflect a diversity of identity after the past two centuries of modernization. This work examines how the early reformers of the 19th century and their legacy into the 20th century created a livable, liberal Jewish identity that allowed a reinvention of what it meant to be Jewish-a process that continues today.Many scholars of the modern Jewish identity focus on the ways in which the past two centuries have resulted in the loss of Jewishness: through "assimilation," intermarriage, conversion to other faiths, genocide (in the Holocaust), and decline in religious observance. In this work, author Frederick S. Roden presents a decidedly different perspective: that the changes in Judaism throughout the 19th and 20th centuries resulted in a malleable, welcoming, and expanded Jewish identity-one that has benefited from intermarriage and converts to Judaism.
The book examines key issues in the modern definition of Jewish identity: who is and is not considered a Jew, and why; issues of Jewish "authenticity"; and the recent history of the debate. Attention is paid to the experiences of individuals who came to Judaism from outside the tradition: through marrying into Jewish families and/or choosing Judaism as a religion. In his consideration of the tragedy of the Holocaust, the author examines how a totalitarian regime's racial policing of Jewish identity served to awaken a connection with and reconfiguration of what that Jewish identity meant for those who retrospectively realized their Jewishness in the postwar era.
List of contents
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Authentically Jewish? Of Marranos,
Mischlinge, and
GerimPart One: The Making of Modern Jewish Identity: "Race" versus "Religion" and the Mission of Judaism1. Jews and Modernity: German and American Contexts
2. The Development of a Reform Theology and Practice
3. The Mission of Judaism: Proselytism and Conversion at the Turn of the Century
Part Two: Modernity Redefined: Nazism's Ethnic and Cultural Legacies4.
Mischlingkeit: Nazi Racial Law and the Invention of Mixed Identity
5. Contested Identities and Christian Representations
6. Reluctant Awakenings: Imperatives to Jewishness
Part Three: Post-Holocaust Jewish Identities7. Being and Believing in the Aftermath of the
Shoah8. The New Proselytes and "Jews by Choice": From Mission of Israel to Missionary Judaism
9. Turns and Returns to Judaism: Modern and Postmodern Possibilities
Epilogue: Revisiting "The Jew" and "The Other"
NotesBibliographyIndex
About the author
Frederick S. Roden, PhD, is associate professor of English at the University of Connecticut.
