Brothers and Strangers: The East European Jew in German and German Jewish Consciousness, 1800–1923

PREFACE

PREFACE THIS work examines the place of East European Jews in German and German Jewish consciousness. On a more general level, it attempts to delineate the fateful and complex role of "the ghetto" in modern self-understanding. The analysis is not primarily socioeconomic , demographic, or institutional, nor is the central focus upon the migration and absorption of East European Jews into Germany. These aspects have been covered by S. Adler-Rudel in zyxwvutsrqpon Ostjuden in Deutschland 1880-1940, and more definitively, by Jack L. Wertheimer in his "Germany Policy and Jewish Politics: The Absorption of East European Jews in Germany (1868-1914)."* I include such data where appropriate, but my central goal has been to write a cultural and intellectual history. I have attempted to discover the nature of discourse concerning the East European Jews and to pinpoint its major changes and continuities. This will, I hope, help to fill a significant gap in the literature. Although the study is basically about Germany, I have included the experience of other areas of the German Kulturbereich (Austria and Czechoslovakia) where this has directly influenced German attitudes or is of comparative value. *Both works are listed in the bibliography at the back of this book. Wertheimer's thesis, which became available to me only after I had completed the original version of my book, contains much of importance. Given its different emphases and approach, it should be regarded as complementary to my own. xiii PREFACE zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA XIV It is a pleasure to record my debt to George L. Mosse. He has had a profound personal as well as intellectual influence on my life. His guidance and acute criticism have always been constructive, his interest and support unfailing. Without him I would never have begun, let alone completed, this work. Sterling Fishman has been the source of constant encouragement and warmth, his friendship deeply valued. Stanley Payne has always gone out of his way to help and encourage me. I must make special mention of Klaus Berghahn. His unflagging interest, numerous suggestions, and bibliographic references have all been incorporated in this work. I also thank Jehuda Reinharz and Alexander Orbach for their useful suggestions. For their generous assistance, I am indebted to the staffs of the Memorial Library of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., and the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem. The archivists at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York, the Central Zionist Archives, the Martin Buber Archives, and the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (all in Jerusalem) were unfailingly helpful and courteous. I also wish to express my appreciation to the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, whose grants partly supported the conception and completion of this work. I am grateful to Mary Maraniss and to those on the editorial and production staffs of the University of Wisconsin Press who helped transform my manuscript into a book. I thank Deborah Goldberg for her bibliographical and technical assistance. Last, but far from least, my beautiful wife, Hanna, and my lovely children, Ariella and Yoni, made sure that I never lost my sense of perspective. They made this worth writing. INTRODUCTION zyxwvutsrqponmlk Brothers and Strangers Reconsidered Brothers and Strangers first appeared in 1982. Its present republication1 provides a welcome opportunity to reassess the work and place it into personal and scholarly contexts.2 I should start at the beginning with the question: Why did I write the book in the first place? Amongst other things, the conventional (and usually more dull) academic considerations certainly applied. In 1977 I was a (not so young) doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison searching for a suitable dissertation topic to be supervised by Professor George L. Mosse. (His presence there constituted the only possible justification for an ex-South African Israeli, used to warm climes, to expose himself and his family to the unimagined temperatures of the icy Midwest.) He suggested that I write a work on the role of the "ghetto"—actual and metaphorical —within modern German politics and culture. This seemed to 1 The text remains more or less as it was, although I have taken the opportunity to correct some errors—mostly technical, a few substantive—that critics and others have pointed out to me over the years. 2 This task was begun when, fifteen years after publication, Professor Massimo Ferrari Zumbini of the University of Viterbo...