In the period from 1780 to 1840 German Jewry underwent a twofold revolution that set the basic patterns of its experience for the century to follow: the end of the Jews's feudal status as an autonomous community forced them to face a protracted process of political and civic emancipation and a far-reaching social metamorphosis, while their encounter with the surrounding culture resulted in an intense productivity. In this groundbreaking study, David Sorkin argues that emancipation and the encounter with German culture and society led not to assimilation but to the creation of a new Jewish identity and community - a vibrant subculture - that produced many of Judaism's modern movements and a pantheon of outstanding writers, artists, composers, scientists, and academics.
The transformation of German Jewry from 1780 to 1840 exemplified a twofold revolution: on one level, the end of the feudal status of Jews as an autonomous community forced them to face a protracted process of political emancipation, a far-reaching social metamorphosis, and growing racial
anti-Semitism; yet, on another level, their encounter with the surrounding culture resulted in their own intense cultural productivity. In this ground-breaking study, David Sorkin argues that emancipation and encounter with German culture and society led not to assimilation but to the creation of a
new Jewish identity and community--a true and vibrant subculture that produced many of Judaism's modern movements and fostered a pantheon of outstanding writers, artists, composers, scientists, and academics. He contends that German-Jewish subculture was based not, as widely believed, on
nationalistic (Jewish versus German) or religious (Jewish versus Christian) disparities, but rather on the struggle for freedom and social acceptance in German society. By studying German Jewry's cultural history in its social and political context, as well as in the larger setting of German
history, this study firmly asserts that the subculture both distinguished German Jewry from other European Jewish communities and accounted for its members' prominent role in Jewish and general culture.
David Sorkin's important and much-praised book, first published in 1987 and now reissued in paperback, explores in great detail how emancipatory legislation caused the German Jewish community to change its character and yet to remain distinct ... According to the ideology of emancipation, they should have merged with the German bourgeoisie. But they did not, and Sorkin's original contribution is to demonstrate this failure in massive but lucidly controlled detail.
