Unwelcome Strangers: East European Jews in Imperial Germany (Studies in Jewish History) [Hardcover]

Jack Wertheimer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 1987 | ISBN-10: 0195048938 | ISBN-13: 978-0195048933

When East European Jews migrated westward in ever larger numbers between 1870 and 1914, both German government officials and the leaders of German Jewry were confronted by a series of new challenges. What policies did government leaders devise to cope with the seemingly unending tide of Jews flooding across Germany's borders? What was the actual, as opposed to the perceived, character of these Jewish migrants? How did native Jews respond to the arrival of coreligionists from the East? Drawing on archival research conducted in East and West Germany, Israel, and the United States, Unwelcome Strangers probes into these questions, touching on some of the most troubling issues in modern German and Jewish history--the behavior of Germans toward strangers in their midst, the status and self-perception of emancipated Jews in pre-Nazi Germany, and the responses of "privileged" Jews to needy, but alien, coreligionists.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

With arresting scholarship, Wertheimer has written a first-class analysis of the German and German-Jewish reception of East European Jews immigrating to Germany, 1871-1914. Testing and often exploding stereotypical myths about the character of these Jews, their putative threats to Germany, and their relation to native German Jews, Wertheimer illustrates how the Jewish immigration affected German public policy on aliens and crystallizes the governmental responses which, together with the East European Jews' particular demographic, economic, and organizational status, elicited German Jewry's ambivalent response to the immigrants. Replete with much new historical data, this compelling work is social history at its best; it is the best book on the subject. Essential for historians and students of history. Benny Kraut, Judaic Studies Dept., Univ. of Cincinnati
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A book which at times makes fascinating reading, but whose greatest contribution is to bring a dose of common sense to an agonized topic."--Times Higher Education Supplement

"Wertheimer's valuable and well-researched study seeks to explain these unhappy circumstances. In its analysis of both the govenment's and German Jewry's practical dealings with immigrant Ostjuden, his book stands alone in the German and English literature."--Journal of Modern History

"A major contribution to both European and Jewish history."--Paula Hyman, Yale University

"Original, well-conceived, and interestingly written. [Wertheimer] has given us new insight into an important confrontation between two very different kinds of modern Jews."--Michael A. Meyer, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

"Wertheimer's carefully researched and closly argued book dispels a number of myths and supplies the materials for a comparative history of Jewish migration....We now have a sophisticated and comprehensive analysis of East European Jewry's place in German and German-Jewish history."--English Historical Review

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 290 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 25, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195048938
• ISBN-13: 978-0195048933
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,182,243 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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