The Jewish Polity

An informative exploration of the Jewish polity from biblical times to the present.

"While contributors to The Emergence of Modern Jewish Politics debate the ultimate success and failure of the various parties and the appropriateness of their tactics, inevitably most examine such issues through the prism of the Holocaust, which effectively terminated East European Jewish politics. These essays also raise the issue of whether ethnic minorities are best served by highly ideological or highly pragmatic political movements in trying to defend their interests in nondemocratic, multiethnic states."--BOOK JACKET.

Jewish Polity and American Civil Society is a study of the civic and political engagements of American Jews as mediated by their communal and denominational institutions. The book explores how the various branches of the organized Jewish community seek to influence public affairs. Over the course of the last century, Jewish agencies and religious movements have tried to shape public debate and public policy on such issues as civil rights, church-state relations, and American foreign policy. The book sets the history of Jewish engagement in these areas into historical context; analyzes the motives, strategies, and tactics of various Jewish groups, and evaluates their successes and failures. The book also explores the underlying idea--the public philosophy--that informs American Jews' understanding of civic and political engagement.

"Black Power, Jewish Politics expands with this revised edition that includes the controversial new preface, an additional chapter connecting the book's themes to the national reckoning on race, and a foreword by Jews of Color Initiative founder Ilana Kaufman that all reflect on Blacks, Jews, race, white supremacy, and the civil rights movement"--

It was not until the emergence of the ideologies of Zionism and Socialism at the end of the last century that the Jewish communities of the Diaspora were perceived by historians as having a genuine political life. In the case of the Jews of Russia, the pogroms of 1881 have been regarded as the watershed event which triggered the political awakening of Jewish intellectuals. Here Lederhendler explores previously neglected antecedents to this turning point in the history of the Jewish people in the first scholarly work to examine concretely the transition of a Jewish community from traditional to post-traditional politics.

Contends that the starting point from which the "new" Jewish politics emerged was the organized joint Jewish-Christian protest against anti-Jewish legislation in Russia which was held in London in 1827. From this event on, the British Jewish community perceived itself as the champion of the rights of Jews everywhere. Traces the development of these politics from 1827-1903, dwelling on the main campaigns and Jewish diplomatic efforts during this period, including the Damascus Affair of 1840, the Mortara Affair in 1858, the diplomatic struggle for the civil rights of Romanian Jews and against the pogroms there in the 1860s-70s, and reactions to the pogroms in Russia in 1881-82 and the Kishinev pogrom of 1903. Gradually, from the mid-19th century on, American Jewry joined in the British Jewish protest campaigns and diplomatic efforts. Relates the activities of some Jewish leaders, e.g. Moses E. Levy from Florida and Moses Montefiore. Not all of the Jewish interventions were successful; however, the significance of the new Jewish politics can be measured not only by the formal successes of its campaigns. From the start, this new politics attracted masses of Jews in Britain and the USA, and developed into broad social movements. The tradition of popular movements for the defense of Jews worldwide continued during the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s, and during the campaign for the rights of Jews in the USSR in the 1970s.