Elijah ben Solomon, the "Genius of Vilna," was perhaps the
best-known and most understudied figure in modern Jewish history.
This book offers a new narrative of Jewish modernity based on
Elijah's life and influence.
While the experience of Jews in modernity has often been
described as a process of Western European secularization--with
Jews becoming citizens of Western nation-states, congregants of
reformed synagogues, and assimilated members of society--Stern uses
Elijah's story to highlight a different theory of modernization for
European life. Religious movements such as Hasidism and
anti-secular institutions such as the yeshiva emerged from the same
democratization of knowledge and privatization of religion that
gave rise to secular and universal movements and institutions.
Claimed by traditionalists, enlighteners, Zionists, and the
Orthodox, Elijah's genius and its afterlife capture an
all-embracing interpretation of the modern Jewish experience.
Through the story of the "Vilna Gaon," Stern presents a new model
for understanding modern Jewish history and more generally the
place of traditionalism and religious radicalism in modern Western
life and thought.
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