
Description
For millennia, Jews and non-Jews alike have viewed forced population movement as a core aspect of the Jewish experience. This involuntary Jewish wandering has been explained by pre-modern Jews and Christians as divine punishment, by some modern non-Jews as the result of Jewish harmfulness, by some modern Jews as fostered by Christian anti-Jewish imagery, and by other modern Jews as caused by misguided Jewish acceptance of minority status.
In this absorbing book, Robert Chazan explores these various perspectives and argues that pre-modern Jewish population movement was in most cases voluntary, the result of a sense among Jews that there were alternatives available for making a better life elsewhere.
Product Details
Publisher | Yale University Press |
Publish Date | January 08, 2019 |
Pages | 272 |
Language | English |
Type | |
EAN/UPC | 9780300218572 |
Dimensions | 9.3 X 6.4 X 1.0 inches | 1.1 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
"Timely."--J. D. Sarna, Choice
"Robert Chazan's engaging book presents a long-scope view of premodern Jewish history through the lens of population movement. . . .an engaging and thought-provoking study of the important distinction between refugee and migrant in Jewish history."--Rebecca Wartell, H-Net Reviews
"Impressive and compelling. . . . Chazan has undertaken a major re‐evaluation of one of the key themes in traditional Jewish history. It will most certainly be widely and thoroughly discussed and become a seminal work."--Benjamin Ravid, Brandeis University
"Robert Chazan is today the leading scholar of Medieval Jewish History. This book is an exemplary introduction to the study of Jewish History and will be of much interest and much use to Jewish and general readers."--Joseph Shatzmiller, Duke University
"This deeply learned exploration of millennia of Jewish history demonstrates that Jewish population movement often resulted from voluntary responses to complex and fascinating forces."--David Berger, Yeshiva University
"In this masterful, wide-ranging study, Robert Chazan confronts one of the central myths of Jewish self-understanding. Drawing on a lifetime of learning, Chazan shows that Jews, like most migrants, moved more often not out of compulsion but in the hope of bettering themselves."--David Engel, New York University
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