Introduction: The Old Dispensation: the old regime; two levels of
authority, two yokes to bear; social control: the modalities; the
Gevir (italic), self-help and self-governance; consensus and
confusion
Part I: Integration and Disintegration
1: Proposals (italic): under the Enlightenment - 'useful' Jews and
'useless' Jews; in England - incrementalism; in France -
principles; in the Germanies - inpenetrable hostility and legal
rigour; in Poland - deadlock; in Russia - despotism for all...; the
Jews as an encumbrance to be dealt with
2: Social Fragmentation(italic): emancipation: the early responses;
the fears of the orthodox; the enthusiasm of the modernists; the
cultural inroads; the Haskalah as a halfway house; modern education
- the Russian carrot; military subscription - the Russian lash; the
irreversability of fragmentation
3: Questions From Without and Within(italic): the Jewish question
posed; the question formulated; the Jews re-characterized; the Jews
re-demonized; calls for treatment; the Decembrists (along with
other Russians) try their hand; internal politics: the beginnings;
triumph at Damascus...; ... and its limitations; Jews in general
politics and in society at large - the German model
Part II: Aspirations and Equivocations
4: Movement(italic): pogroms; poverty; migration; decline; West
versus East; Eastern European Jewry as the question
5: Auto-Emancipation(italic): leaderlessness as a condition;
national self-determination as an idea: Zion as a destination; Jews
as revolutionaries; the Bund; Herzl
6: Crystallization(italic): intercession institutionalized; 1878 -
triumph in Berlin, failure in Bucharest; the limits of libel and
the rule of law; Bernard Lazare and the Affair; Russia in 1905 -
Jews as targets, Jews as participants; the Zionists stand still;
the orthodox circle their wagons
Part III: New Dispensations
7: War(italic): the Jewish contingents; the Jewish increment; the
'Palestine idea'; a neutral Zionism, belligerent Zionists; the
'Palestine Idea' revived; self-determination
8: Peace(italic): Bolshevik Russia and the binding of its Jews; the
great slaughter; who speaks for the Jews?; at the Peace
conference
9: Captivity(italic): Wilson's world; the nation-state as
grindstone; ancient frictions in a new Poland; Polish equivocation;
Jewish ambivalence: Germany takes the lead; Machtergreifung(italic;
towards extrusion; the Jews of Germany crushed; a community
destroyed
10: Denouement(italic): on the eve; once again: who will lead them,
where will they be led?; a world Jewish Congress; loyalties and
principles; the purpose of Zionism, the needs of the Jews;
pragmatism and honour; the final rejection; into the night
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
From 1977 to his retirement in 1995, David Vital was Nahum Goldmann Professor of Diplomacy at Tel-Aviv University. present: Professor Emeritus, Tel Aviv University
`gradually reveals a treasure trove of fascinating and unfamiliar
details about the history of the Jews in most countries of Europe
from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of WW II.'
Professor Albert S. Lindemann, Reviews in History.
`A People Apart is a tour de force. Here, at last, is a one-volume
history of the Jews in modern Europe that is up to date,
comprehensive and challenging.'
David Cesarani, THES, 3/3/00
`a grave and exhaustive account of the political background to the
monstrous crime against a gifted, civilised and peaceful
people.'
Naim Dangoor, The Scribe September 1999,
`valuable book'
The Economist 18/09/99
`powerful account ... A People Apart is a valuable addition to our
knowledge of European Jewish history in its most sombre aspects ...
David Vital provides a grave and exhaustive account of the
political background to this monstrous crime against a gifted,
civilised and peaceful people.'
Paul Johnson, TLS, 18/06/99.
`a work as impressive in its scope and as awesome in its command of
sources as it is perceptive in its depth of analysis... an
admirable introduction to its subject matter, and it will surely
earn its place as a text of first resort.'
Professor Geoffrey Alderman, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Middlesex
University, Jewish Chronicle, 18/06/99.
`A Monumental and magisterial work. A People Apart offers the
necessary historical perspective, without which one cannot hope to
understand either the holocaust or the creation of the state of
Israel. Destined to be the definitive study of our time.'
Kirkus Reviews 1999
`I confidently predict that it will become a historical classic ...
The first thing that strikes one about Vital's book, apart from its
epic scale, is the elegance of his prose ... here are elaborate,
stately though never sententious sentences, often with a sting in
the tail ... His brave elegy to an indomitable people is itself
part of the legacy of hope.'
Daniel Johnson, Daily Telegraph
`David Vital's magesterial survey explores what happened to those
Jews who responded to the challenges of modernity ... a nuanced and
sensitive exploration of European Jewry from within.'
John Klier, History Today, Jan 2000
`David Vital's densely argued and documented A People Apart: The
Jews of Europe 1789-1939 is a fiercely dispassionate, perhaps
definitive analysis of what led to the destruction of European
Jewry'
Frederic Raphael The Sunday Times
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