Vanishing Diaspora: The Jews in Europe Since 1945 - Hardcover

Wasserstein, Bernard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674931963 ISBN 13: 9780674931961

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1996

Synopsis

Looks at the sharp decline in Europe's Jewish population since World War II, and makes predictions about Jewish population and culture in Europe from the year 2000 onward

About this title

Review:

ÝA¨ lucid and informative study...ÝIt is¨ provocative in the context of American debates over Jewish identity and continuity. -- Paul Breines "Washington Post Book World"

There have been historical studies of the individual Jewish communities in postwar Europe, but Wasserstein is the first to survey them all...This well-written survey is a valuable work because of its breadth and its contextualization of the major Jewish events of the last 50 years.

A lucid and comprehensive chronicle of the perils of postwar European Jewry...The bibliography underscores just how many books are concentrated within this essential one-volume text. It is likely to be a standard in its field for decades--more time than Wasserstein gives the vanishing diaspora of Europe.

We are indebted to Bernard Wasserstein for a well written and challenging book that raises many serious questions not only about the survival of European Jewry, but of the future of Jewish existence in this country as well...Clearly, this is a book worth reading and sharing with thinking and concerned Jews.

ÝWasserstein's¨ writing deftly pulls the reader along from the reconstruction of Europe after the war to the birth of the Jewish state, to life behind the Iron Curtain and the relative ease and freedom of Western Europe, all through the eyes of Jews. This is a work of history, but it has the feel of a narrative as Mr. Wasserstein combines literary and cultural references with statistics, dates and places...ÝAn¨ excellently researched and written book. -- Abby Wisse "Washington Times"

contextualization of the major Jewish events of the last 50 years.

deserves only part of the blame for the Jews' gradual disappearance.

its field for decades--more time than Wasserstein gives the vanishing diaspora of Europe.

as well...Clearly, this is a book worth reading and sharing with thinking and concerned Jews.

occasional turns of wit redolent of the best English historiographical writing. He admirably wends his way through the intricate jigsaw of European Jewries, east and west.

About the Author:

Bernard Wasserstein is Professor of History at Brandeis University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0674931963
• ISBN 13: 9780674931961
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352