Leo Baeck Institute Year Book XXXVI (review)

Book Reviews 135 having to milk on the sabbath. Sometimes solutions were provided by rabbinical dispensations; later technological innovations would solve the problem (e.g., automated milking machines). What is the net impact of Judaism on economic performance? According to one study, between 1958 and 1982 the RKF group have persistently outperformed the secular kibbutzim; the gap became even greater after 1983, apparently because offinancial mismanagement on the part of the secular group. It is also possible that the RKF did better because of the German background of its members with their relatively ascetic life style. Basically, "religion ... reinforces the kibbutz norms" (p. 140). The author offers no description of daily life in the communities. Neither are we told anything about the provenance of the membership-do they come from inside or the outside? And do the children of members stay? But these are not Fishman's main concerns. Students of the kibbutz and of religious movements will find this study worth their close attention. Walter Hirsch Purdue University Leo Baeck Institute Year Book XXXVI, edited by Arnold Paucker. London: Martin Secker and Warburg, Ltd., 1991. 615 pp. £24. It is very difficult to define the amalgam of Judaic tradition and German culture that has lent specific characteristics to the identity of German Jews. Among Jews and non-]ews alike, German Jews form a distinct group, but there are no corresponding features of internal homogeneity that would help narrow the focus. Consequently, writing the history of German Jewry is a task as difficult as it is necessary, or rather it is a task made all the more necessary by the difficulties it poses. It is necessary because any reference to German Jews is problematic and immediately directs attention to the process that forges the relationship the dual term "German Jew" is meant to convey. This fundamental problem and the direction of inquiry it sponsors sets the tone for the entire volume and is most succinctly expressed in Michael A. Meyer's title for his introductory essay: "Jews as Jews versus Jews as Germans. Two Historical Perspectives. Introduction to Year Book, XXXVI." The text that appears under this heading, brief though it may be, is essential reading for anyone concerned with Jewish or German Studies 136 SHOFAR Summer 1993 Vol. 11, No.4 and should be complemented by the previous Year Book's section on historiography. It surveys the perspectives from which German Jews have been sighted by Jewish historians, and it notes the comparative lack of perspective for any such sightings on the part of German historiography. In other words, the phenomenon to be captured has eluded historians since it is perceived only in Jewish or German terms, each exclusive of the other, depending on who writes history. Basically, the author's outline of the prevailing problem and its corresponding resolution can be reduced to the question of how both German and Jewish historiography must expand their relative horizons in order to accommodate the history of German Jews. This is a question of critical theoretical importance that calls for fundamental methodological innovation. The framework proposed here for the new approach is not only applicable to writing the history of German Jewry but could be considered paradigmatic for attending to the ever more urgent requirement of establishing a viable multiculturalist historiography. Essentially, Michael A. Meyer presents a sketch of the concerns and principles that will be reflected in a four-volume comprehensive history of German Jewry, which project has been commissioned by the Leo Baeck Institute under his editorship. Consequently, readers gain an introduction to this volume that situates it in the larger context of a novel approach to the writing of history. As others before it, this present volume offers a series of contributions that break new ground. Grouped under general headings, the range extends from the eighteenth century to the most recent years in ours. Very much in keeping with his approach that distinguished Frankfurt on tbe Hudson, Steven M. Lowenstein opens the discussion with an essay that concentrates on the status and life of Berlin Jewry outside the most famed and wealthy families usually identified as representative, or rather customarily cited as illustrative, for the Emancipation era. The...