Examines the social and political history of the Jews of Miskolc-the third largest Jewish community in Hungary-and presents the wider transformation of Jewish identity during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It explores the emergence of a moderate, accommodating form of traditional Judaism that combined elements of tradition and innovation, thereby creating an alternative to Orthodox and Neolog Judaism. This form of traditional Judaism reconciled the demands of religious tradition with the expectations of Magyarization and citizenship, thus allowing traditional Jews to be patriotic Magyars. By focusing on Hungary, this book seeks to correct a trend in modern Jewish historiography that views Habsburg Jewish History as an extension of German Jewish History, most notably with regard to emancipation and enlightenment. Rather than trying to fit Hungarian Jewry into a conventional Germano-centric taxonomy, this work places Hungarian Jews in the distinct contexts of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Danube Basin, positing a more seamless nexus between the eighteenth and nineteenth century. This nexus was rooted in a series of political experiments by Habsburg sovereigns and Hungarian noblemen that culminated in civic equality, and in the gradual expansion of traditional Judaism to meet the challenges of the age.

This book is a survey of the history of the Jewish people from biblical antiquity to the present, spanning nearly 2,500 years and traversing five continents.

Opening with a broad introduction which addresses key questions of terminology and definition, the book's ten chapters then go on to explore Jewish history in both its religious and non-religious dimensions. The book explores the social, political and cultural aspects of Jewish history, and examines the changes and continuities across the whole of the Jewish world throughout its long and varied history. Topics covered include:

• the emergence of Judaism as a religion and way of life
• the development during the Middle Ages of Judaism as an all-encompassing identity
• the effect on Jewish life and identity of major changes in Europe and the Islamic world from the mid sixteenth through the end of the nineteenth century
• the complexity of Jewish life in the twentieth century, the challenge of anti-semitism and the impact of the Holocaust, and the emergence of the current centres of World Jewry in the State of Israel and the New World.

This book is a survey of the history of the Jewish people from biblical antiquity to the present, spanning nearly 2,500 years and traversing five continents. Opening with a broad introduction which addresses key questions of terminology and definition, the book's ten chapters then go on to explore Jewish history in both its religious and non-religious dimensions. The book explores the social, political and cultural aspects of Jewish history, and examines the changes and continuities across the whole of the Jewish world throughout its long and varied history. Topics covered include: the emergence of Judaism as a religion and way of life the development during the Middle Ages of Judaism as an all-encompassing identity the effect on Jewish life and identity of major changes in Europe and the Islamic world from the mid sixteenth through the end of the nineteenth century the complexity of Jewish life in the twentieth century, the challenge of anti-semitism and the impact of the Holocaust, and the emergence of the current centres of World Jewry in the State of Israel and the New World.

Transleithanian Paradise: A History of the Budapest Jewish Community, 1738-1938 traces the rise of Budapest Jewry from a marginal Ashkenazic community at the beginning of the eighteenth century into one of the largest and most vibrant Jewish communities in the world by the beginning of the twentieth century. This was symptomatic of the rise of the city of Budapest from three towns on the margins of Europe into a major European metropolis.Focusing on a broad array of Jewish communal institutions, including synagogues, schools, charitable institutions, women's associations, and the Jewish hospital, this book explores the mixed impact of urban life on Jewish identity and community. On the one hand, the anonymity of living in a big city facilitated disaffection and drift from the Jewish community. On the other hand, the concentration of several hundred thousand Jews in a compact urban space created a constituency that supported and invigorated a diverse range of Jewish communal organizations and activities. Transleithanian Paradise contrasts how this mixed impact played out in two very different Jewish neighborhoods. Terezvaros was an older neighborhood that housed most of the lower income, more traditional, immigrant Jews. Lipotvaros, by contrast, was a newer neighborhood where upwardly mobile and more acculturated Jews lived. By tracing the development of these two very distinct communities, this book shows how Budapest became one of the most diverse and lively Jewish cities in the world.

Transleithanian Paradise: A History of the Budapest Jewish Community, 1738-1938 traces the rise of Budapest Jewry from a marginal Ashkenazic community at the beginning of the eighteenth century into one of the largest and most vibrant Jewish communities in the world by the beginning of the twentieth century. This was symptomatic of the rise of the city of Budapest from three towns on the margins of Europe into a major European metropolis.Focusing on a broad array of Jewish communal institutions, including synagogues, schools, charitable institutions, women's associations, and the Jewish hospital, this book explores the mixed impact of urban life on Jewish identity and community. On the one hand, the anonymity of living in a big city facilitated disaffection and drift from the Jewish community. On the other hand, the concentration of several hundred thousand Jews in a compact urban space created a constituency that supported and invigorated a diverse range of Jewish communal organizations and activities. Transleithanian Paradise contrasts how this mixed impact played out in two very different Jewish neighborhoods. Terezvaros was an older neighborhood that housed most of the lower income, more traditional, immigrant Jews. Lipotvaros, by contrast, was a newer neighborhood where upwardly mobile and more acculturated Jews lived. By tracing the development of these two very distinct communities, this book shows how Budapest became one of the most diverse and lively Jewish cities in the world.