Introduction

Abstract

Abstract This introductory chapter presents an overview of the book. It begins with a discussion of the purpose of the book, which is to examine the qualitative aspects of the life of Jews in Germany. The book begins in the 17th century, the early modern period among Jewish communities in the German states, principalities, and duchies, and concludes in 1945, a caesura in German-Jewish life. Sources range from memoirs, letters, and diaries to rabbinic response (replies by rabbinic scholars applying Jewish law to queries concerning the exigencies of daily life), communal and organizational histories, and Jewish newspapers.