Defending the Faith: Nineteenth-Century American Jewish Writers on Christianity and Jesus (review)

Vol. 10, No.3 Spring 1992 131 Jewishness is a goal for which he has striven: "Whatever regrets I may feel, I cannot deny that I have wanted this, worked for it. From childhood on, I dreamed a world without ethnic or religious divisions, though I knew that this meant a world without J~ws" (p. 179). The end of Fiedler's Jewish "blood consciousness," it is clear, is the end of the Jews elevated to a principle of high idealism. This is a notion that found few followers even in the heyday of the Jewish romance with leftist ideology; today, in the eclipse of Marxism, it seems not only antiquated but perverse. Nevertheless, the idea is not altogether idiosyncratic to Fiedler, and readers interested in following its sad course will learn much from Fiedler on the Roof Those interested in other, more positive aspects of American Jewish literary consciousness would do well to look elsewhere. Alvin H. Rosenfeld Jewish Studies Program Indiana University Defending the Faith: Nineteenth-Century American Jewish Writers on Christianity and Jesus, by George L. Berlin. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.. 207 pp. $19.95. George Berlin, professor at Baltimore Hebrew University, has written a very valuable book on the Jewish experience in America during the nineteenth century. He has compiled a great deal of information into his text which gives the reader a rather fine summary of the intellectual and social issues affecting Jewish life during this period. Berlin does this by examining the writings of a number of the major Jewish figures of the time, while setting their ideas within the context of the religious history of America. Although I was familiar with this period, Berlin opened my eyes to themes and ideas I had not seen before, and I found his examination of the period very useful. Oddly enough, although he concentrates on the nineteenth century, I found a good deal of this material useful in understanding the current state of Jewish-Christian relations in contemporary America. Berlin clearly shows how the American promise of religious freedom for all people was constantly threatened by the attempt of Protestant churches and leaders to make America a "Christian nation." More than one 132 SHOFAR attempt was made to change the Constitution to say just that. Jews were thus placed in the strange position of seeing America as a great hope for Jews fleeing from European antisemitism, while at the same time fending off the religious imperialism of the Protestant establishment and the ebb and flow of anti-Jewish movements in American political life. Berlin is able to show that a good deal·ofJewish literature attempted to show how Jews were good Americans and how Judaism was good for America. The dual problem for Jews was the combination of missionary zeal with patriotic fervor. .:e. Berlin's chapter on Christian missionary efforts among the Jews in the nineteenth century introduced me to a number of obscure and littleknown groups and people. He discusses a number of debates which were carried out in religious newspapers in the early part of the century in which Jews defended themselves from missionary attempts to convert them. He deals at length with Solomon Henry Jackson, editor of the first American Jewish newspaper, The jew, which began publishing in 1823. Jackson was aggressive in his anti-missionary campaign which consisted of three elements: "1) a defense ofJews and Judaism against the misrepresentation of the missionary and of Israel's Advocate (a missionary paper); 2) an attack on both the' motives and methods of the American Society for Meliorating the Conditions of the Jews; and 3) a polemical attack on Christianity." Jackson made good use of the American principles of freedom of speech and conscience in encouragingJews to resist all efforts to convert them to Christianity. Berlin sees Jackson as the first great defender ofJews in America. Berlin's next two chapters deal with two different approaches used by Jewish writers to defend Judaism. The one view emphasizes the differences between Judaism and Christianity, and this position stressed the need for Jews to remain faithful to the Orthodox tradition. Berlin points to Isaac Lesser as the pivotal figure of this...