Constructing and Experiencing Jewish Identity

Classification is an inherent feature of all societies. The distinction between Jews and non-Jews has been a major theme of Western society for over two millennia. In the middle of the twentieth century, dire consequences were associated with being Jew ish. Even after the Shoah, the labelling of Jews as other continued. In this book, leading historians including Michael Brenner, Elisheva Carlebach and Michael Miller illuminate the meaning of Jewishness from pre-modern and early-modern times to the present day. Their studies offer new perspectives on constructing and experiencing Jewish identity.

Auteur

Rachel Blumenthal is a research fellow in the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She works as a lawyer in Israel specializing in corporate governance, international transactions and promoting the Freedom of Information Law. Daniel M. Herskowitz is the Stipendiary Career Research Fellow in Jewish Studies at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, where he wrote his DPhil (2019). Herskowitz is an intellectual historian and scholar of religion. Kerstin Mayerhofer is a PhD candidate at the University of Vienna's Department of Jewish Studies and is co advised at Queen Mary University of London. Since 2021, she is a Junior Fellow at the International Research Center for Cultural Studies Vienna.