Customer Reviews

How Jews Became Germans: The History of Conversion and Assimilation in Berlin

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One of the best books I've read lately. Deborah Hertz weaves a wonderful tale of several Jewish families in Berlin during the late 18th and early 19th century and their struggle between remaining true to their faith while trying to assimilate into German society during a time of national awakening. Ms Hertz goes further by attempting to explain through her characters what it is about human nature that compels us with the need to belong.

Though slightly scholarly, the book is a wonderfully told story of real lives and real struggles amid tradition in a changing world. One is left feeling as if we were eavesdropping into their lives. In reality, this is a story that is just as much valid today as it was in 18th and 19th century Berlin.

Deborah Hertz has written a thought provoking and very accessible history of Jewish conversion in Berlin, nicely balancing keen historical analysis with insightful vignettes of Jewish adaptation and self-creation. Throughout the work she is concerned to highlight the costs of assimilation, the separated families and lost traditions, and yet also the benefits, the increased employment and social opportunities. She writes with great empathy and without the slightest hint of judgment, and yet still laments the great loss of Jews--their numbers, talents, and future contributions to the Jewish community--to Christian conversion. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in Jewish or German history, and also the history of Jewish-Christian relations.

I'm not really sure that the author's conclusions are consistent. On the one hand, she seems anxious to assure her readers that not all conversions were insincere or based on hypocritical self-interest. On the other hand, she argues that, for most, abandonment of the old faith through religious conversion was the golden road to economic and social emancipation.

This is an amazing book that chronicles Jewish assimilation to German society; an essential to understanding Jewish identity. The text is clear and wonderfully written. I recommend this book both as a valuable, thought provoking academic resource and as a fun nightside book.