The Jewish Contribution to Civilization

The biblicalidea of a distinct 'Jewish contribution to civilization' continues to engageJews and non-Jews alike. This book seeks neither to document nor to discreditthe notion, but rather to investigate the idea itself as it has been understoodfrom the seventeenth century to the present. It explores the role that theconcept has played in Jewish self-definition, how it has influenced thepolitical, social, and cultural history of the Jews and of others, and whetherdiscussion of the notion still has relevance in the world today.The bookoffers a broad spectrum of academic opinion: from tempered advocacy to reasoneddisavowal, with many variations on the theme in between. It attempts toillustrate the centrality of the question in modern Jewish culture in general,and its importance for modern Jewish studies in particular.Part Iaddresses the idea itself and considers its ramifications. Richard I. Cohenfocuses on the nexus between notions of 'Jewish contribution' and those of'Jewish superiority'' David N. Myers shifts the focus from 'contribution' to'civilization', arguing that the latter term often served the interests ofJewish intellectuals far better, and Moshe Rosman shows how the currentemphasis on multiculturalism has given the idea of a 'Jewish contribution' newlife. Part II turns to the relationship between Judaism and other monotheisticcultures. Elliott Horowitz's essay on the sabbath serves as an instructivetest-case for the dynamic and complexity of the 'contribution' debate and apointer to more general, theoretical issues. David Berger expands on these inhis account of how discussion of Christianity's Jewish legacy developed in thelate nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and Susannah Heschel shows how theJewish-Christian encounter has influenced the study of other non-Western'others'. Daniel Schroeter raises revealing questions about the altogetherEurocentric character of the 'contribution' discourse, which also bore heavilyon perceptions of Jews and Judaism in the world of Islam. Part III introducesus to various applications and consequences of the debate. Yaacov Shavit probesthe delicate balance forged by nineteenth-century German Jewish intellectualsin defining their identity. Mark Gelber moves the focus to the present andconsiders the post-war renewal of German Jewish culture and the birth ofGerman-Jewish studies in the context of the 'contribution' discourse. Bringingthe volume to its conclusion, David Biale compares three overviews of Jewishculture and civilization published in America in the twentieth andtwenty-first-centuries.