Table of Contents

1. Setting the Stage: Jews, Gender, and Antisemitism in the Austrian Provinces
2. “The Hervay Affair”
3. Press Coverage
4. Legal and Literary Interpretations

About the Author

Alison Rose is a part-time faculty member for Gender and Women's studies at the University of Rhode Island and a part-time faculty member in the Religion department at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Reviews

Rose takes the reader deep inside prewar rural Austria; her analysis suggests that the “Hervay Affair” is a prism through which we can begin to understand a myriad of contemporary issues at play, including church, legal, and political reform, as well as contemporary antisemitism and misogyny. For those interested in exploring those issues, Rose’s microstudy offers many avenues for further research. What emerges from these pages is a substantive and provocative portrait, elegant and thorough, and a delight to read.
*American Historical Review*

Alison Rose’s fascinating account of the life, arrest, and trial of a rogue Jewish woman from turn-of-the-century rural Austria sheds new light on the vexed history of hatred of the Jews in Austrian history. She deftly explores this neglected episode to show how antisemitism then and there was riddled with hatred of women in general and Jewish women in particular. The book helps us see the highly personal dimensions to ideologies usually seen as intellectual abstractions and brings into clear focus the complicated roots of hatred in this important historical setting.
*Deborah Hertz, University of California at San Diego*

A deeply researched and well-written study on Austrian antisemitism. It will profoundly enrich our knowledge of a dark chapter of Austrian Jewish history.
*Klaus Hödl, Center for Jewish Studies, University of Graz and affiliated professor, University of Haifa*

Alison Rose impressively reconstructs the almost forgotten Hervay-Affair. She sheds new light onto the life and persecution of Leontine von Hervay. The book is an important contribution to the history of Antisemitism and gender in Austria.
*Dieter J. Hecht, Austrian Academy of Sciences*