Constructing Modern Identities: Jewish University Students in Germany, 1815-1914 Review

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Constructing Modern Identities: Jewish University Students in Germany, 1815-1914 ReviewKeith Pickus Constructing Modern Identities: Jewish University Students in Germany 1815-1914 Wayne State University Press, 1999
This work asserts that the identity and behavior of German-Jews throughout the nineteenth-century was not predicated merely on rising anti-Semitism, but was formed and reformed in response to the nature of the individual and his/her ever-changing social context. Inclusive in this social context was the anti-Semitic mood present in German society during this period; however, according to the author, such was not the exclusive determinant of German-Jewish identity. Through his meticulous investigation and analysis of Jewish university students in Germany, Keith Pickus has produced a monograph that convincingly demonstrates the identity of nineteenth-century German-Jews to be a dynamic, multidimensional, and diverse concept while simultaneously providing valuable insight into the professional study of social history. With this effort, Pickus, through well-documented statistical evidence and primary narratives, has taken the dominant one-dimensional analysis of Jewish identity in pre-modern Germany and expanded it to effect a more holistic and authentic portrait of a singular group forming personal identities which would allow them to function successfully within the predominant culture. Consequently, his work aptly reveals German-Jews of this era to have been active members of the larger German culture, not a single, disaffected out-group or merely hapless victims of German anti-Semitism. From this perspective, the Jews are shown as ingenious and distinctive in their cultural adaptations as all other subgroups in nineteenth-century German society, as vigorous, multidimensional, creative human beings.While his book sheds much needed light upon Jewish identity and behavior in nineteenth-century Germany, it certainly possesses a significant relevance for earnest endeavors in the field of social history. The most powerful statement in that we remain focused on the temporal and social context in which our historical actors perform."(170) This lone statement not only reveals the author's dedication, while soundly reinforcing his thesis, but also serves as an astute caveat for those who would mistakenly cast a narrow interpretation of past events or peoples by conceiving of them from an analyze nineteenth-century German-Jewish identity with a view to the yet-to-come Holocaust. This well-written caveat is prudent advice to students and scholars alike and calls one to be ever cautious of such bias in his/her own historical studies. Pickus has done an excellent job in this effort, and his professional growth is witnessed throughout the book as his writing style, at times starchy, relaxes into an agreeable, even flow. The book is well-worth reading for its singular insight into nineteenth-century German-Jewish identity as well as for its scrupulous treatment of and sagacious disposition toward social history. The inherent value of the work itself bids our own era to investigate more profoundly our presumptions and attitudes toward current global, multicultural, and multiethnic issues. Probing identity formation and reaction in a professionally focused manner, as exhibited in this book, might ease our most-human tendency to stereotype and prejudge specific groups, or indeed, individuals without offering due consideration to the current social context in which they exist. I recommend this work to serious students of social history, those interested in this particular facet of history, and to anyone searching for a deeper understanding of minority-majority relationships in pluralistic/multiethnic societies.
Submitted by Shelem Chamal, Richmond, Vermont, November 2, 1999Constructing Modern Identities: Jewish University Students in Germany, 1815-1914 Overview

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