Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Shmuel Feiner gives us a capacious and methodologically innovative volume on the "modernity" of the Jewish eighteenth century by juxtaposing myriad events across disparate regions recounted through a captivating panoply of personalities."—David Sorkin, Lucy G. Moses professor of Jewish history at Yale University
"Extraordinarily erudite and compulsively readable, this book transforms everything we thought we knew about the Jewish eighteenth century. A remarkable achievement."—Yair Mintzker, Princeton University
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
Part I: 1750–1763
1. Three Astounding Proclamations: Class Division, Pressure from the State, and a Rift in the Rabbinical Elite
2. The Specter: Earthquake, the Horror of War, and Patriotism
3. The Pursuit of Honor and the Masked Ball: Azulai and Geldern Wander About in Europe and the East
4. Get Out, Jews! Tests for Tolerance between London, Zhitomir, Yampol, and Rome
5. Blood for Blood: The Frankist Scandal and the Subversiveness of Religious Awakening
6. Intimate Life: Bodily Ailments, Quarrels, Crime, and Emigration
7. "We Are All Citizens of the World": The Jewish Question in the Age of the Philosophes
Part II: 1764–1780
8. "The Great Change": The Crisis in Poland, Awareness of Progress and Humanistic Sentiment
9. "They Made My Flesh and Blood Fair Prey": Tolerance and Fissures in the Walls of Society
10. 1772: A Year That Challenged the Old Order
11. "Let Every Man Do as He Pleases": The Winds of Revolt
12. Curing the "Malady of My Nation": Days of Individualism and Reform
Part III: 1781–1800
13. "Great Thoughts Bubble Up and Awaken": The Tangle of the Years 1781–1782
14. The Eve of Revolution: "The Happiest Period" or "The Great Confusion"?
15. From the Boxing Ring to the Halls of Parliament: Confrontations and Initiatives for Regeneration and Citizenship
16. "A Generation of Upheavals": Euphoria, Terror, and the Rebellion of the Young in the 1790s
17. The Future of the Jews: A New Politics, a Religion in Dispute, and Freedom of the Individual
18. The Three Last Years: "We Have Reason to Congratulate Ourselves, That We Were Born in This Enlightened Period"
Conclusion: "No More Fear, No Shame . . . I Live in Peace with Everything around Me"
Index
