Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction: The Jewish Reformation
I. HASKALAH: MOSES MENDELSSOHN'S MODERATE REFORMATION
1. The Bible as Cultural Translation
2. Biblical Education and the Power of Conversation
II. WISSENSCHAFT AND REFORM: LEOPOLD ZUNZ BETWEEN SCHOLARSHIP AND
SYNAGOGUE
3. Translation versus Midrash
4. Bible Translation and the Centrality of the Synagogue
III. NEO- ORTHODOXY: THE SAMSON RAPHAEL HIRSCH ENIGMA
5. A Man of No Party: Hirsch's Nineteen Letters on Judaism as Bible
Translation
6. The Road to Orthodoxy: Hirsch in Battle
7. The Innovative Orthodoxy of Hirsch's Pentateuch
8. The Fracturing of German Judaism: Ludwig Philippson's Inclusive
Israelite Bible and Hirsch's Sectarian Neo- Orthodox Pentateuch
Conclusion: The Jewish Counter- Reformation
Appendix: Mendelssohn on the Decalogue
Bibliography
Index
Biblical and Rabbinic Sources
Michah Gottlieb is Associate Professor in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU. An expert on modern Jewish thought and culture with a focus on ethics and Jewish-Christian relations, he has written or edited several books and articles, including Faith and Freedom: Moses Mendelssohn's Theological-Political Thought.
In a riveting work, Michah Gottlieb tells the story of the Jewish
Reformation-namely, the endeavor to reconstruct a new form of
Judaism grounded in German middle-class modernity. Gottlieb both
unsettles and reconstitutes the boundaries between Protestantism
and Judaism, and redefines, in original ways, such terms as
Orthodoxy and Reform. This excellent work raises fascinating
questions about how we read religious texts; what is specific about
such readings and what is universal about them; and how
translation, education, and novel understandings of culture and
cultural production generate new exegetical practices.
*Perspectives in History*
In The Jewish Reformation, Michah Gottlieb skillfully restores the
Bible to center stage in the process of German Jewry's
emancipation, its endeavor to gain equal rights and acceptance in
German society and culture. He significantly highlights the role of
Bible translation in the ambitious effort to identify with the
surrounding culture and fashion an appropriate version of
'bourgeois' piety while concomitantly maintaining Judaism's
foundational distinctiveness.
*David Sorkin, author of Jewish Emancipation: A History Across Five
Centuries*
Why were German Jews so preoccupied with Bible translation? From
1783 to 1961 there were fifteen Jewish translations of the
Pentateuch into German. Among the translators were Moses
Mendelssohn, Leopold Zunz, Samson Raphael Hirsch, Martin Buber, and
Franz Rosenzweig. Michah Gottlieb, a leading interpreter of
German-Jewish thought, explores this question and gives surprising
answers. His important book tells the heroic story of German-Jewish
piety, erudition, controversy, and bourgeois integrity.
*Warren Zev Harvey, Professor Emeritus, The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem*
In The Jewish Reformation: Bible Translation and Middle-Class
German Judaism as Spiritual Enterprise, Michah Gottlieb has
brilliantly employed the biblical translations of Mendelssohn,
Zunz, and S.R. Hirsch as gauges to measure the cultural transition
of German Judaism and German Jews to the bourgeois world of modern
Germany. Gottlieb provides a remarkably detailed and insightful
exposition of these works and provides a delightfully rich
historical and intellectual contextualization of his subjects. The
Jewish Reformation constitutes an invaluable contribution to our
understanding of modern Judaism!
*David Ellenson, Chancellor Emeritus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion and Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern and
Judaic Studies at Brandeis University*
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