In a broad sweep from central Europe to Ireland and from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century, this unusual work puts the Jewish community and its rabbinic and 'lay' leaders at the centre of Jewish history. Of surpassing value is Kochan's treatment of the community not only as a religious but also as a political unit. It shows the community at grips with the Reformation and the introduction of the ghetto system in the Italian states. Thence to the great maritime centre of Venice, Amsterdam, Hamburg and London, under the dominance of the Sephardi exiles from Spain and Portugal; and also to the metropolitan centres of Prague, Vienna and Berlin and the liaison of their court-Jews with the Hasburgs, Broubons and Hohenzollerns. This was not achieved without severe tension inside the communities and, whilst eschewing the concept of class-struggle, Kochan's analysis of the clash of interests between the few wealthy and the multitude of poor Jews raises doubts about the whole notion of 'community'. The later chapters critically examine the policy of emancipation as pursued by the Jewish leadership in France and the German and Italian states during the wars of the French revolution and the Napoleonic period. This section discusses the failure of Jewish diplomacy at the Congress of Vienna. A final chapter expounds the emergence of Orthodoxy in terms of the tumultuous changes in Jewish society over these two centuries.

The biblical prohibition of images sets Judaism apart, together with Islam, from all other religious systems. This book attempts to explain the reasons for the prohibition - as well as its limits - and then shows how influential it has been in determining aspects of Jewish thinking in relation to such key concepts as holiness, symbolism, mediation between man and God, aesthetics and the role of memory in religion. Why is music the one art to which Judaism is hospitable? Is Judaism a religion of the ear rather than the eye? What is the real issue at stake in the age-old debate between Jerusalem and Athens? How do these issues relate to the iconoclastic movements in Byzantine Christianity and the Reformation? Lionel Kochan makes clear that to the prohibition of the graven image there is more than meets the eye.

The biblical prohibition of images sets Judaism apart, together with Islam, from all other religious systems. This book attempts to explain the reasons for the prohibition - as well as its limits - and then shows how influential it has been in determining aspects of Jewish thinking in relation to such key concepts as holiness, symbolism, mediation between man and God, aesthetics and the role of memory in religion. Why is music the one art to which Judaism is hospitable? Is Judaism a religion of the ear rather than the eye? What is the real issue at stake in the age-old debate between Jerusalem and Athens? How do these issues relate to the iconoclastic movements in Byzantine Christianity and the Reformation? Lionel Kochan makes clear that to the prohibition of the graven image there is more than meets the eye.

In a broad sweep from Central Europe to Ireland and from the Sixteenth to the early Nineteenth-century, this work puts the Jewish community and its rabbinic and 'lay' leaders at the centre of Jewish history. Of surpassing value is Kochan's treatment of the community not only as a religious but also as a political unit. It shows the community at grips with the Reformation and the introduction of the ghetto system in the Italian states. Thence to the great maritime centre of Venice, Amsterdam, Hamburg and London, under the dominance of the Sephardi exiles from Spain and Portugal; and also to the metropolitan centres of Prague, Vienna and Berlin and the liaison of their court-Jews with the Hapsburgs, Bourbons and Hohenzollerns. This was not achieved without severe tension inside the communities and, whilst eschewing the concept of class-struggle, Kochan's analysis of the clash of interests between the few wealthy and the multitude of poor Jews raises doubts about the whole notion of 'community'.