Michael Brocke, (ed.) Beter und Rebellen. Aus 1000 Jahren Judentum in Polen by Heinz-Dietrich Lowe

Summary

This volume offers an admirable purview of Jewish life, culture and history in Eastern Europe. Though mostly not original scholarly work, the fifteen contributions are of a generally high level and give a good introduction to the subject, which is also of interest to the specialist, because almost all contributions are well researched and documented and careful in judgement and interpretations. Although of course it is unfair to pick out only a few authors, I found of particular interest those articles which describe the confrontation of ‘Western’ Jews with their eastern brothers during or after the First World War. In contrast to earlier periods, the reactions evoked are no longer entirely negative and condescending. This confrontation of two different worlds and belief-systems is now turned into a productive rediscovery of common roots and into a new assertion of Jewishness among many western, especially German Jews. Of course this did not mean that 'Western’ Jews simply moved ‘eastward’ - in mentality, with respect to religion or intellectually. Rather the results of this confrontation led to something new, often creating new tensions and having their effect far beyond the Jewish world - as for instance the theology of Martin Buber and his rediscovery of Hasidism for Western Jewry. In a different vein, the contribution of East European Jewish immigrants to American culture and the Jewish contribution to ‘world art’ are treated in two separate essays. The author of the first claims boldly that the Jews brought Europe back into American culture. For him, paradoxically, the point of the greatest Jewish influence was reached at exactly that moment when the specific Jewish and Eastern-] ewish culture began to dissolve. The second essay does not in any detail discuss the problems of the concepts involved, but it describes Jewish artists and their works. Well known figures, especially from the time of the Russian avant garde, are mentioned, Chagall, Soutine, Zadkine and others. Hasidism and the BeShT are the topic of further articles which describe the thinking of the Hasid and the position of Hasidic writing in the context of the general Jewish literary tradition.