1st Edition

Jewish Centers and Peripheries Europe Between America and Israel Fifty Years After World War II

Edited By S. Troen Copyright 1999
    452 Pages
    by Routledge

    452 Pages
    by Routledge

    After World War II, the center of gravity for world Jewry moved outside Europe. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, large-scale emigration and postwar assimilation resulted in a disheartening contraction of European Jewry, with the notable exception of France. Today, Europe's Jews number only 17 percent of the world Jewish population. At the beginning of this century, they comprised 83 percent and were the center of the modern Jewish experience. In a radical reversal, former peripheries became the centers, notably American Jewry, the largest and most dynamic of the Diaspora communities, and the State of Israel. An examination of the altered place of Europe and its future role in Jewish history is long overdue.In Jewish Centers and Peripheries, S. Han Troen presents evidence of cultural renewal and community reorganization - both internally driven and supported by Israeli-and American-based Jewish organizations - which promise to assure the continuity and vitality of Jewish life in Europe. This volume presents the contributions of scholars, senior community professionals, lay leaders, and former diplomats from Europe, Israel, and America, including Yosef Gorny, Gabriel Sheffer, Rashid Kaplanov, Barry Kosmin, Ralph Goldman, Jean-Jacques Wahl, Israel Finestein, David Patterson, and Daniel Elazar.These original and thoughtful contributions examine dynamic relationships among European, American, and Israeli communities at times bringing personal knowledge of significant events pertinent to understanding these relationships. Collectively they suggest that present conditions are ripe for the reemergence of European Jewry, though on a scale much diminished from that of the pre-Holocaust period. Moreover, the prospects for the rejuvenation of European Jewry mirror the possibilities for Jewish continuity everywhere. Jewish Centers and Peripheries is a strikingly informative assessment of the condition of world Jewry at the close of the century.

    Introduction: The Post-Holocaust Dynamics of Jewish Centers and Peripheries PART I: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES 1. Reflections on the Jewish Present-Past 2. From Israeli Hegemony to Diaspora Full Autonomy: The Current State of Ethno-National Diasporism and the Alternatives Facing World Jewry PART II: HISTORICAL DOCUMENTATION 3. The Involvement and Policies of American Jewry in Revitalizing European Jewry, 1945-1995, 4. National Communism and Jewish Politics: Romanian Chief Rabbi Rosen’s Miracles and Dilemmas PART III: COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES —EASTERN EUROPE 5. Jews in the Former Soviet Union: Between Dissolution and Renaissance 6. Jewish Intellectuals and the Problem of Reconstruction of the Jewish Community in Russia 7. Jewish Hungary Today: The Jewish Cultural Heritage in the Contemporary Culture of Hungary 8. The Jewish Communities of Vienna and Cracow: Communities Against All Odds PART IV: COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES —WESTERN EUROPE 9. From Mosaics to Jews: The Rejection of an Unsuccessful Pattern 10. Five Centuries After the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Is the French Jewish Community a Model of a New Golden Age? 11. British Jewry: Prospects and Problems 12. A Community of Paradox: Office, Authority, and Ideas in the Changing Governance of Anglo-Jewry 13. The German Jewish Community: Between Adjustment and Ambivalence 14. The Renaissance of Jewish Learning in Post-World War II Europe PART V: VIEWS FROM AMERICA AND ISRAEL 15. Old World and New World Diasporas: Similar Problems But Different Solutions? 16. Cooperation and Tensions Between American Jewry and Israel Over Selected Problems Confronting European Jewry 17. Sixty Years of World Jewish Congress Diplomacy: From Foreign Policy to the Soul of a Nation 18. Israel and the Diaspora: Roles and Responsibilities

    Biography

    S. Troen