Jewish History | Page 2

art of making "all things seem
fresh and new, important and attractive." New and important his essay
undoubtedly is. The author attempts, for the first 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