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Prophets of the Past is the first book to examine in depth how modern Jewish historians have interpreted Jewish history. Michael Brenner reveals that perhaps no other national or religious group has used their shared history for so many different ideological and political purposes as the Jews. He deftly traces the master narratives of Jewish history from the beginnings of the scholarly study of Jews and Judaism in nineteenth-century Germany; to eastern European approaches by Simon Dubnow, the interwar school of Polish-Jewish historians, and the short-lived efforts of Soviet-Jewish historians; to the work of British and American scholars such as Cecil Roth and Salo Baron; and to Zionist and post-Zionist interpretations of Jewish history. He also unravels the distortions of Jewish history writing, including antisemitic Nazi research into the "Jewish question," the Soviet portrayal of Jewish history as class struggle, and Orthodox Jewish interpretations of history as divinely inspired.
History proved to be a uniquely powerful weapon for modern Jewish scholars during a period when they had no nation or army to fight for their ideological and political objectives, whether the goal was Jewish emancipation, diasporic autonomy, or the creation of a Jewish state. As Brenner demonstrates in this illuminating and incisive book, these historians often found legitimacy for these struggles in the Jewish past.
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Viewpoints on Jewish History 1
Objectivity and Partiality 2
Remembering and Forgetting 4
Nation and Religion 6
Scholarship and Ideology 9
Heroes and Eras 12
Chapter 1: Jewish History as History of Religion
Wissenschaft des Judentums in the Service of Reform and Emancipation 17
Christian Beginnings 18
Traditional Reverberations 21
In the Service of Religious Reform 24
In the Battle for Political Emancipation 27
Jewish Religious History as Counterhistory 36
One Religion among Numerous Nations 42
Chapter 2: Between Religion and Nation
Graetz and His Construction of Jewish History 53
The Battle against Reform and Assimilation 57
Only a History of Suffering and Learning? 60
The Debate with Christianity and Germanness 64
Rationalism and Mysticism 68
Translations and New Interpretations 73
External Opinions on Jewish History 82
Chapter 3: The Nationalization of Jewish History The View from the East 93
Dubnow: Diaspora Nationalism as a Historical Concept 93
Polish Jewish Historiography between the Wars 106
Under the Soviet Star: Jewish History as Class History 114
Chapter 4: Jewish History without Tears?
New Perspectives in the West 121
Baron in New York: Against the Lachrymose Version of Jewish History 123
Roth in Oxford: More Than a History of Victims 131
From the Salon to the Academy: The Beginnings of Jewish Women's History 136
The Return of Tears: Jewish History versus the History of the "Jewish Question" 144
A Signal in Dark Times: The "Jewish Contribution" to Civilization 151
Chapter 5: The Return of the Nation to Its Land Zionist Narrative Perspectives 157
The Revolt against the Father: The Break with Wissenschaft des Judentums 158
Patricide: Scholem's Metaphorics of Death 163
New Fathers: The "Jerusalem School" under Baer and Dinur 171
New Sons: Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson, Shmuel Ettinger, and Jacob Katz 183
The Revolt of the Grandchildren: The New Historians 192
Chapter 6: Postmodern Influences A New Subjectivity 197
From One Jewish Community to Many Jewish Cultures 204
Epilogue 217
Notes 221
References 265
Index 297
Overview
Prophets of the Past is the first book to examine in depth how modern Jewish historians have interpreted Jewish history. Michael Brenner reveals that perhaps no other national or religious group has used their shared history for so many different ideological and political purposes as the Jews. He deftly traces the master narratives of Jewish history from the beginnings of the scholarly study of Jews and Judaism in nineteenth-century Germany; to eastern European approaches by Simon Dubnow, the interwar school of ...