HISTORY / JEWISH STUDIES

BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY

Haim Zhitlowski, Simon Dubnow, Ahad Ha-Am, and the Shaping of Modern Jewish Identity

David H. Weinberg

During the late nineteenth century, Russian Jews faced the opportunity and challenge of participating in society at large. Zhitlowski, Dubnow, and Ahad Ha-Am are leading representatives of that "transitional generation" who struggled to articulate the issues of national identity and culture as the Jewish community experienced the ideological and political process of modernization and secularization.

Rejecting the pragmatic activism of the political Zionists and militant socialists who would eventually triumph over them, Ahad Ha-Am, Dubnow, and Zhitlowski attempted to reaffirm in secular form the spiritual and ehtical ideas of traditional Judaism. Weinberg emphasizes their roles as secular prophets who called for the revitalization of Jewish society's fundamental values and ideals. They were influenced by the ideas and attitudes of Central and East European nationalism, whose leaders saw themselves as moral teachers and guides to spark the cultural reawakening of oppressed ethnic groups.

"A thoughtful and well-researched study of three figures who were at the cutting edge of Jewish modernity. The basic problems that they faced are still with us today. Weinberg's study will help us think about the present with greater insight. This book is required reading for all those who care about contemporary Jewish life."
—Arthur Hertzberg

"Faced with anti-Jewish riots and massacres, segregation and anti-Semitic government policies, the three Russian-Jewish thinkers profiled in ... Weinberg's cogent study sought diverse ways to secure a new foundation for modern Jewish history and renewal."
—Publishers Weekly

"Weinberg's study presents a lucid, penetrating analysis of the intellectual worldviews of three of Russian Jewry's most intriguing early-twentieth-century thinkers ... This book succeeds admirably as a history of ideas."
—Choice

"[This book] reanimates the discussion of Jewish-cultural nationalism and 'autonomism' in an age when the politics of ethnic minorities, including Jews, demands a serious survey of the achievements, failures, and reasoned discussions of the recent past."
—Religious Studies Review

David H. Weinberg is professor of history and Director of the Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies at Wayne State University.


385 pp • map, photos, bibliog., index • ISBN 0-8419-1355-2
$40.00 (cloth)
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