Jewish History | Page 2

time, a psychologic characterization of Jewish history. He endeavors to demonstrate the inner connection between events, and develop the ideas that underlie them, or, to use his own expression, lay bare the soul of Jewish history, which clothes itself with external events as with a bodily envelope. Jewish history has never before been considered from this philosophic point of view, certainly not in German literature. The present work, therefore, cannot fail to prove stimulating. As for the poet's other requirement, attractiveness, it is fully met by the work here translated. The qualities of Mr. Dubnow's style, as described above, are present to a marked degree. The enthusiasm flaming up in every line, coupled with his plastic, figurative style, and his scintillating conceits, which lend vivacity to his presentation, is bound to charm the reader. Yet, in spite of the racy style, even the layman will have no difficulty in discovering that it is not a clever journalist, an artificer of well-turned phrases, who is speaking to him, but a scholar by profession, whose foremost concern is with historical truth, and whose every statement rests upon accurate, scientific knowledge; not a bookworm with pale, academic blood trickling through his veins, but a man who, with unsoured mien, with fresh, buoyant delight, offers the world the results laboriously reached in his study, after all evidences of toil and moil have been carefully removed; who derives inspiration from the noble and the sublime in whatever guise it may appear, and who knows how to communicate his inspiration to others.
The translator lays this book of an accomplished and spirited historian before the German public. He does so in the hope that it will shed new light upon Jewish history even for professional scholars. He is confident that in many to whom our unexampled past of four thousand years' duration is now terra incognita, it will arouse enthusiastic interest, and even to those who, like the translator himself, differ from the author in religious views, it will furnish edifying and suggestive reading. J. F.

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION
The English translation of Mr. Dubnow's Essay is based upon the authorized German translation, which was made from the original Russian. It is published under the joint auspices of the Jewish Publication Society of America and the Jewish Historical Society of England. H. S.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE TO THE GERMAN TRANSLATION
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
I
THE RANGE OF JEWISH HISTORY Historical and Unhistorical Peoples Three Groups of Nations The "Most Historical" People Extent of Jewish History
II
THE CONTENT OF JEWISH HISTORY Two Periods of Jewish History The Period of Independence The Election of the Jewish People Priests and Prophets The Babylonian Exile and the Scribes The Dispersion Jewish History and Universal History Jewish History Characterized
III
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF JEWISH HISTORY The National Aspect of Jewish History The Historical Consciousness The National Idea and National Feeling The Universal Aspect of Jewish History An Historical Experiment A Moral Discipline Humanitarian Significance of Jewish History Schleiden and George Eliot
IV
THE HISTORICAL SYNTHESIS Three Primary Periods Four Composite Periods
V
THE PRIMARY OR BIBLICAL PERIOD Cosmic Origin of the Jewish Religion Tribal Organization Egyptian Influence and Experiences Moses Mosaism a Religious and Moral as well as a Social and Political System National Deities The Prophets and the two Kingdoms Judaism a Universal Religion
VI
THE SECONDARY OR SPIRITUAL-POLITICAL PERIOD Growth of National Feeling Ezra and Nehemiah The Scribes Hellenism The Maccabees Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes Alexandrian Jews Christianity
VII
THE TERTIARY TALMUDIC OR NATIONAL-RELIGIOUS PERIOD The Isolation of Jewry and Judaism The Mishna The Talmud Intellectual Activity in Palestine and Babylonia The Agada and the Midrash Unification of Judaism
VIII
THE GAONIC PERIOD, OR THE HEGEMONY OF THE ORIENTAL JEWS (500-980) The Academies Islam Karaism Beginning of Persecutions in Europe Arabic Civilization in Europe
IX
THE RABBINIC-PHILOSOPHICAL PERIOD, OR THE HEGEMONY OF THE SPANISH JEWS (980-1492) The Spanish Jews The Arabic-Jewish Renaissance The Crusades and the Jews Degradation of the Jews in Christian Europe The Provence The Lateran Council The Kabbala Expulsion from Spain
X
THE RABBINIC-MYSTICAL PERIOD, OR THE HEGEMONY OF THE GERMAN-POLISH JEWS (1492-1789) The Humanists and the Reformation Palestine an Asylum for Jews Messianic Belief and Hopes Holland a Jewish Centre Poland and the Jews The Rabbinical Authorities of Poland Isolation of the Polish Jews Mysticism and the Practical Kabbala Chassidism Persecutions and Morbid Piety
XI
THE MODERN PERIOD OF ENLIGHTENMENT (THE NINETEENTH CENTURY) The French Revolution The Jewish Middle Ages Spiritual and Civil Emancipation The Successors of Mendelssohn Zunz and the Science of Judaism The Modern Movements outside of Germany The Jew in Russia His Regeneration Anti-Semitism and Judophobia
XII
THE TEACHINGS OF JEWISH HISTORY Jewry a Spiritual Community Jewry Indestructible The Creative Principle of Jewry The Task of the Future The Jew and the Nations The Ultimate Ideal

INTRODUCTORY NOTE
What is Jewish History? In the first place, what does it offer as to quantity and as to quality? What are its range