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Reviewed by:
  • After Emancipation: Jewish Religious Responses to Modernity
  • Marc Dollinger
After Emancipation: Jewish Religious Responses to Modernity, by David Ellenson. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 2004. 547 pp. $35.00.

After Emancipation: Jewish Religious Responses to Modernity compiles twenty-three essays that explore what Ellenson calls "the commonality and adaptability that mark the Jewish condition and Jewish life in the modern situation" (p. 19). The chapters, which represent a decade's worth of research and writing, focus on five themes: reflections on modernity, the challenge of emancipation, denominational responses, modern responsa, and a concluding section on new initiatives and new directions. While the essays move quickly across historical and disciplinary lines, they are tied together by Ellenson's interest in how Jews adapted their Judaism in the face of modernity.

After Emancipation opens with an exploration of American Judaism. Here, Ellenson is at his best synthesizing the historiographic contributions of Oscar Handlin, Irving Howe, Arthur Hertzberg, and Charles Liebman to the evolving condition of American Jewry. "Contemporary American expressions of Jewish tradition," Ellenson concludes, "are viewed by many as bearing an affinity to the positive moral values bequeathed by Enlightenment rationalism to the modern world while at the same time offering a corrective for the [End Page 132] fragmentizing effects of that secular tradition" (p. 48). In subsequent chapters, Ellenson analyzes the contributions of Jacob Katz and Max Weber to our understanding of the modern period.

In the second section of his book, "The Challenge of Emancipation," Ellenson introduces a wide and versatile set of source materials for study. He explores the Sefer Meltiz Yosher, Dutch liturgy from the early nineteenth century, the debate over the use of an organ during services in nineteenth-century Prague, and the definition of marriage in mid-nineteenth century Germany. Ellenson's essay documenting the tensions between the Reform movement and German Orthodoxy is especially good, locating the origins of the contemporary debate between the two denominations much earlier than most observers.

"Denominational Responses" comprises five chapters detailing the philosophical approaches of Abraham Geiger, Isaac Meyer Wise, Nehemiah Anton Nobel, and Isak Unna. Ellenson closes this section with an excellent chapter analyzing the curriculum of the Jewish Theological Seminary, offering an institutional history as well as intra-denominational comparison with the Reform Movement's Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion (where Ellenson serves as president).

Ellenson tackles more contemporary philosophical and ethical dilemmas in the penultimate section, "Modern Responsa." He engages questions of gender with an examination of the Jerusalem rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin's responsum as well as responsa from Israel's first three chief rabbis. Other chapters explore Rabbi Moshe Feinstein's approach to Jewish-Christian dialogue, Rabbi Hayim David HaLevi's responsa detailing the Israeli government's responsibility to its minority population, David Hartman's interpretation of Rabbi Hayim David Halevi's views on pidyon shevuyim (redemption of captives), and a concluding chapter interpreting contemporary responsa on the subject of artificial fertilization and procreative autonomy.

Ellenson's volume closes with essays on the Conservative Movement's Siddur Va'nai Tefillati, David Hartman's views on the contemporary Jewish condition, and poet and translator Marcia Falk.

After Emanicipation should be a standard reference book for students of modern Judaism. It offers a broad cross-section of philosophical and historical knowledge that will connect the reader with the major themes, debates, and personalities of the modern period. Specific essays will also provide great reading for more specialized interests. Seminary students will certainly value Ellenson's denominational surveys. The book's opening chapter, "Judaism Resurgent?," is useful for undergraduate courses in American Judaism or American Jewish history. Ellenson's exploration of gender-based responsa in chapters 14 and 15 offers a dynamic analysis of traditional Jewish sources and would [End Page 133] be a great complement to much of the contemporary literature on gender and modern Judaism.

David Ellenson's contributions in this volume are original and engaging. He draws together the most important themes of the last few centuries in chapters that employ divergent sources and intellectual approaches. He has written an outstanding book.

Marc Dollinger
Jewish Studies Program
San Francisco State University
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