URBAN VISIBILITY AND BIBLICAL VISIONS: Jewish Culture in Western and Central Europe in the Modern Age richard i. cohen Could Moses Mendelssohn (172986) the Enlightenment Jewish philosopher and originator of the Bi'ur (a translation of the Bible into German in Hebrew characters) have seen what a Galician-born Jewish artist used for the frontispiece of an illustrated Bible at the beginning of the twentieth century he would certainly have been shocked and uncomfortable. But whether Ephraim Moses Lilien (18741925) was out to stun his audience or was just deeply engrossed in the art nouveau style is at present of little significance. However by placing the renowned thinker alongside the less-known erstwhile Zionist artist we get a fuller view of the cultural transformation of West and Central European Jewry during a century and a half. Jewish sensibilities and concerns were radically transposed as the engagement with a panoply of cultural orientations superseded earlier pinnacles of Jewish integration such as Muslim Spain. Even the Bible the Old Testament the touchstone of Judaism would be refracted and refashioned in a multitude of expressions showing the shifting boundaries of Jewish life and the Jews' profound acceptance of the surrounding environment. The tightrope Mendelssohn walked between traditional Judaism and European culture was long forgotten or discarded when Lilien brazenly incorporated into the frontispiece of his Bible (19081 1923) two androgynous figures holding an extended Torah scroll that covers their genitalia. In Lilien's day the tightrope stretched between European culture and a Jewish nationalist agenda. Juxtaposing these texts highlights other contrasts in the modern Jewish experience in Western and Central Europe. Whereas Mendelssohn continued an internal tradition of commentary and exegesis in written form Lilien offered a visual interpretation much less common or conscious of tradition. The former claimed the original text through intricate discourse the latter playfully experimented with it. The written text was directed to Jews to widen their horizons and concerns; the visual one was an ecumenical effort (which originated among German Lutherans) to engage both non-Jews and Jews. Whereas Mendels- sohn's Bible demanded distinctness Lilien's celebrated the nonsectarian but constantly alluded to the exclusive. Combined the texts merge rationalism visibility universalism uniqueness traditional scholarship and modern skepticism as well as encounters with the "other" contemporaneously and historically. They are contrasting expressions of the ways Jews have tried in the modern period to integrate their culture into a larger category of civilization but both reveal inner tensions within those paths. By studying the issues emanating from the oeuvres of Mendelssohn and Lilien we will chart some of the roads that led from one to the other. Although today neither Mendelssohn nor Lilien are cited as the pioneers of new horizons of modernism in the way Marx Freud or Kafka are perceived they and their works frame the confrontation with modernity that Jews of different religious cultural and social backgrounds faced. Mendelssohn's age saw the political and social barriers between Jews and non-Jews challenged by voices within European society and governments though not overcome. Joseph II (r. 178090) the Habsburg emperor was the first to make a serious change in the political status of European Jews. He promulgated a series of Toleration Acts that promised to integrate the Jews into the general polity and in the case of the recently occupied province of Galicia (1789) came close to

"Lay readers already hooked on Jewish history will be endlessly fascinated and those seeking a solid state-of-the art introduction to the field will find it here with ample reference to other more specialized or canonical works. . . One of the most nourishing Jewish books we've encountered in some time. . . . Wonderful." The Jerusalem Report "The writers revel in the new vistas opened by a cultural approach lavishly providing us in generous detail with descriptions of a Jewish world more various than historians have allowed us to glimpse." Tikkun "Biale has gathered a stellar international group of scholars around the grand theme of Jewish cultural history. The tastes of many different intellectual palates will find various satisfactions here." Jewish Quarterly Review

Scattered over much of the world throughout most of their history are the Jews one people or many? How do they resemble and how do they differ from Jews in other places and times? What have their relationships been to the cultures of their neighbors? To address these and similar questions some of the finest scholars of our day have contributed their insights to "Cultures of the Jews a winner of the National Jewish Book Award upon its hardcover publication in 2002. Constructing their essays around specific cultural artifacts that were created in the period and locale under study the contributors describe the cultural interactions among different Jews-from rabbis and scholars to non-elite groups including women-as well as between Jews and the surrounding non-Jewish world. What they conclude is that although Jews have always had their own autonomous traditions Jewish identity cannot be considered the fixed product of either ancient ethnic or religious origins. Rather it has shifted and assumed new forms in response to the cultural environment in which the Jews have lived. "Modern Encounters the third volume in "Cultures of the Jews examines communities ways of life and both high and folk culture in the modern era in Western Central and Eastern Europe; the Ladino Diaspora; North Africa and the Middle East; Ethiopia; mandatory Palestine and the State of Israel; and the United States.

List of Contributors Acknowledgments Preface: Toward a Cultural History of the Jews by David Biale Introduction by David Biale
ONE: Urban Visibility and Biblical Visions: Jewish Culture in Western and Central Europe in the Modern Age by Richard I. Cohen
TWO: A Journey Between Worlds: East European Jewish Culture from thePartitions of Poland to the Holocaust by David Biale
THREE: The Ottoman Diaspora: The Rise and Fall of Ladino Literary Culture by Aron Rodrigue
FOUR: Multicultural Visions: The Cultural Tapestry of the Jews of North Africa by Lucette Valensi
FIVE: Challenges to Tradition: Jewish Cultures in Yemen Iraq Iran Afghanistan and Bukhara by Yosef Tobi
SIX: Religious Interplay on an African Stage: Ethiopian Jews in Christian Ethiopia by Hagar Salamon
SEVEN: Locus and Language: Hebrew Culture in Israel 18901990 by Ariel Hirschfeld
EIGHT: The "Other" Israel: Folk Cultures in the Modern State of Israel by Eli Yassif
NINE: Declarations of Independence: American Jewish Culture in the Twentieth Century by Stephen J. Whitfield Conclusion by David Biale Index