Breaking Barriers and Building Boundaries: Christian-Jewish Relations in the Writings of Leo Baeck

Abstract

By the year 1900, many Jews regarded themselves as an integral part of the cultural, economic and political1ife of Germany, even if the non-Jewish population may not have seen them in the same way. In view of the subsequent fate of German Jewry, there is much to suggest that the Jewish perception was wishful thinking rather than an accurate measure of reality. But we can understand how the Jews reasoned: they had lived in Germany even before the country became Christian; some may have settled there in Roman times. By the early Middle Ages, Jews had become well established in the German lands. The impact of the French Revolution and the subsequent unification of Germany had offered them new opportunities for integration. One of the early exponents of modem Judaism, Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), was even recognized as a German philosopher of note. Other Jews had come to play important roles in the life of Germany. A growing number genuinely believed that they had good reason to feel at home in the country in which their families had lived for so many centuries.