German Jews Beyond Judaism

First published in 1985, German Jews Beyond Judaism is George L. Mosse's sweeping exploration of German-Jewish secular identity across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In Germany, Jews were emancipated at a time when cultural education was becoming an integral part of German society. They felt a powerful urge to find their Jewish substance within German culture and thus craft an identity as both Germans and Jews. Mosse argues that they did so by adopting the concept of Bildung―the id...