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The Emancipation of European Jewry during the nineteenth century led to conflict between tradition and modernity, creating a chasm that few believed could be bridged. This illuminating work provides keen insight into the history and development of the various streams of Judaism and the issues that continue to divide them in contemporary times.
List of contents
Table of Contents
PrefaceIntroduction. Nineteenth to Twenty-First Centuries: From Pessimism to Optimism
1. Rabbinic Responses to Nonobservance in the Modern Era
2. The Emergence of an Orthodox Press in Nineteenth-Century Germany
3. The Circumcision Controversy in Classical Reform in Historical Context
4. Clerical Robes: Distinction or Dishonor?
5. Intermarriage in the Early Modern Period
6. Military Service: Ambivalence and Contradiction
7. The Testament of a Halakhist
8. Between East and West: Modernity and Traditionalism in the Writings of Rabbi Yehi¿el Ya`akov Weinberg
9. Liturgical Innovation and Spirituality: Trends and Trendiness
Index
About the author
Judith Bleich, Ph.D., has been Professor of Judaic Studies at the Touro Graduate School of Jewish Studies since its inception and has taught at the Lander College for Women for over four decades. In 2004, she received the Founding Faculty Award of the Lander College for Women. She specializes in the nineteenth-century development of Reform and Orthodoxy in the wake of the Enlightenment and has written and lectured extensively on modern Jewish history. She serves on the editorial committee of Tradition, is a contributing editor of Jewish Action and a member of the Orthodox Forum Steering Committee.
Summary
The Emancipation of European Jewry during the nineteenth century led to conflict between tradition and modernity, creating a chasm that few believed could be bridged. The essays in this collection depict the passion underlying the disparate views, the particular areas of vexing confrontation and the hurdles faced by champions of tradition.
Additional text
“Prof. Judith Bleich, masterful teacher and distinguished scholar of modern Jewish intellectual history, revered rebbetzin in the New York Orthodox community and beyond, is an eminent authority on the emergence of the modern movements of Orthodox and Reform Judaism and the history of the polemics between those movements. A selection of her published essays in the latter area appeared recently as Defenders of the Faith: Studies in Nineteenth-and Twentieth-Century Orthodoxy and Reform. Every essay is characteristically erudite and repercussive, of essential importance to scholars in the field. All, as always, are authored with meticulous attention to historical detail, rigorous analysis of primary and secondary sources, and elegantly crafted prose.”
—Tradition Online
