Histories of Jewish culture in Central and Eastern Europe

Hey there.

I'm looking for recommendations on histories of books about Jews in Central and Eastern Europe. The books don't have to be specifically about Jewish culture. I've read a lot of histories on Poland, Hungary and the Ukraine, and the books I've read make good efforts, I believe, to address minorities. Norman Davies, for example, writes well about Jewish society in his histories of Poland.

Anyway, recommendations are welcome. Hopefully the group isn't "dead."

Thanks!

Jim C.

I recently read The Sacred Chain by Norman F. Cantor. It's a survey of all Jewish history, from ancient times to the late twentieth century. Still, there are quite a few chapters devoted to Central and Eastern Europe. Cantor's opinions are provocative, so it's a fun read.

I've just added The Sacred Chain to my wishlist. Have you bumped it up against The Invention of the Jewish People?

Robert

Just got The Invention of the Jewish People today. I'm looking forward to reading it. What did you think?

I was enthralled. It'll be on my top five list for the year; so far I haven't nominated any others. From LibraryThing's Get This Book connection I had hoped to find The Sacred Chain at Borders yesterday, but I couldn't -- their computer may not be keeping up with things anymore.

Robert

Fun story: I got The Invention of the Jewish People at Borders yesterday and began reading it, only to discover that, in the copy I purchased, pages 21-53 were missing, and pages 54-62 are repeated. Sigh.

Oh, that's too bad, and no returns too. You can probably take it up with the publisher. It might cost you some postage (not to mention annoyance), but they'll probably make good on it.

Robert

Replacement copy received. Will let you know what I think.

Please give me a recommendation on a complete Jewish history before Christ up to 1948. If possible, it must be concise and complete and could be easily found. Thanks!!

~9

Question from a Philosophy final exam: Define the Universe. Give three examples. (You have 15 minutes.)

~7

I got about half way through The Invention of the Jewish People and decided to stop. Frankly, the apparent thesis seems as ludicrous as the views of John Wansbrough and Patricia Crone Hagarism, who maintain that Islam, the Qur'an and Muhammad were invented by the Arab conquerors a couple hundred years after their conquests.

This approaches silliness.

>1 jamesecradockjr: - I just discovered today this Group and hope it will again come to life. A very modest proposal is about the history of Jews in Romania, where before WW2 there was a flourishing community of about 800.000 people. Half of it perished during the Shoah and half migrated to Israel, the USA etc. Today there are some 10 - 20.000 Jews, many of whom not members of official Communities.
Tel Aviv University published a few years ago a five-volume history; one of the authors is an American, from the Washington Holocaust Museum.
The foremost contemporary Western European Jewish historian on the subject is Prof. Carol IANCU, of the Paul Valéry University in Montpellier, France,

Hanukkah Sameach.

Welcome along nisgolsand! Happy Chanuka to you too!

Genetic evidence for the Khazarian hypothesis is strong:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130116195333.htm

Robert

~14

Interesting, but hardly startling or of much importance to most Jews who are not Ashkenazic Haredim. Most Jews today recognize that Judaism was, at least as early as the early Roman empire, and probably much earlier, a proselytizing religion that "took in" many converts. The main problem with the Khazarian hypothesis is thus not that formerly Eastern European Jews are not identifiable genetic "sons of Abraham" but the evidence for (1) the existence of Khazar and (2) the mass conversion of the Khazarian nation to Judaism. Such things did, of course, happen - see the much better established history of Yemen - but the evidence for a Khazar or a Jewish Khazar is rather thin. (Having said that, if there was going to be such a nation in early medieval times it would have had to be outside of the domain of Byzantium, which was fervidly antisemitic.)