Jews and Gentiles: A Historical Sociology of Their Relations

by Werner J. Cahnman

Overview

Studies of the Jewish experience among peoples with whom they live share some similarities with the usual histories of anti-Semitism, but also some differences. When the focus is on anti-Semitism, Jewish history appears as a record of unmitigated hostility against the Jewish people and of passivity on their part. However, as Werner J. Cahnman demonstrates in this posthumous volume, Jewish-Gentile relations are far more complex. There is a long history of mutual contacts, positive as well as antagonistic, even if conflict continues to require particular attention.

Cahnman's approach, while following a historical sequence, is sociological in conception. From Roman antiquity through the Middle Ages, into the era of emancipation and the Holocaust, and finally to the present American and Israeli scene, there are basic similarities and various dissimilarities, all of which are described and analyzed. Cahnman tests the theses of classical sociology implicitly, yet unobtrusively. He traces the socio-economic basis of human relations, which Marx and others have emphasized, and considers Jews a "marginal trading people" in the Park-Becker sense. Simmel and Toennies, he shows, understood Jews as "strangers" and "intermediaries." While Cahnman shows that Jews were not "pariahs," as Max Weber thought, he finds a remarkable affinity to Weber's Protestantism-capitalism argument in the tension of Jewish-Christian relations emerging from the bitter theological argument over usury.

The primacy of Jewish-Gentile relations in all their complexity and variability is essential for the understanding of Jewish social and political history. This volume is a valuable contribution to that understanding.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765802125
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	11/30/2003
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Werner J. Cahnman (1902-1980) worked at the Berlin Industrial and Trade Chamber and the Counsel of the National Association of Bavaria before being arrested by the Gestapo. Upon his release he went to the United States and taught at many American universities, including Rutgers University. His major contributions in social science were made through his work in the sociology of Jews and sociological theory. His books include Ferdinand Toennier and A New Evaluation and Sociology and History. Judith T. Marcus is professor emeritus of sociology at the State University of New York -Potsdam. She has taught sociology at Kenyon College, Skidmore College, The College of Wooster, Rutgers University, and the New School for Social Research. She is the author of Georg Lukacs and Thomas Mann: A Study in the Sociology of Literature editor of Foundations of the Frankfurt School of Social Research and Georg Lukacs: Theory, Culture, and Politics.

Zoltán Tarr was visiting Fulbright Scholar to Budapest, Hungary, and taught sociology and history at the City University of New York, the New School for Social Research, and Rutgers University. Some of the books he has authored or edited include Georg Lukács, Jews and Gentiles, and Foundations of the Frankfurt School of Social Research.

Table of Contents

1: Approach to the Subject; 2: Theology as a Point of Departure; 3: The Initial Position of the Jews in the Social Structure; 4: The Usury Privilege; 5: The Revolt of the Masses; 6: The Jews and the Society of the High Middle Ages; 7: The Judaeo-Arabic Symbiosis and the Splendor and Misery of the Jews of Spain; 8: The Jews of Eastern Europe; 9: The Ghetto; 10: Court Jews and Bankers; 11: Galut and Citizenship; 12: From Liberalism to Racism: The Dialectics of Catastrophe; 13: The Actual Jew and the Mythical Jew; 14: A Comment about the Soviet Union; 15: Is America Different?; 16: Varieties of Pluralism in America; 17: Jews and Blacks; 18: The State of Israel

Editorial Reviews

Cahnman (1902-1980), one of the pioneers of historical sociology, surveys Jewish-Gentile relations from antiquity to the present, focusing on the role of Jews as outsiders who serve as "mediators" between worlds. He pays particular attention to the High Middle Ages in central Europe where, he contends, "the structural patterns that govern Jewish-Gentile relations have been consolidated..." [A] great deal of information in a short space. Its publication serves as a loving tribute to Cahnman by devoted students. Summing Up: Optional. For specialized libraries.” —J. D. Sarna, Choice "Cahnman's history is a valuable aid in examining Jewish relationships or responses to Christianity as the model for the modern Jewish experience." —Sander L. Gilman, Modern Judaism

From the Publisher