The Invention of the Jewish People

Abstract

Shlomo Sand?s The Invention of the Jewish People, which appeared in Hebrew as Matai ve?ekh humtza ha?am hayehudi? [When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?] (1) elicited a thunderous response that has yet to abate. Beginning with an interesting and very personal introduction, Sand proceeds to engage, chronologically, the thought of Jews about their own character as a ?people,? ?nation,? and occasionally, ?race? (sic), largely by examining the published writings of figures known to scholars in Jewish Studies, but less familiar to historians generally ? including Josephus, Isaak Markus Jost, Heinrich Graetz, Simon Dubnow, Yitzhak Baer, Ben-Zion Dinur, Hans Kohn, and Salo Baron. Sand?s preface to the English language edition states that ?the disparity between what my research suggested about the history of the Jewish people and the way that history is commonly understood ? not only within Israel but in the larger world ? shocked me as it shocked my [Hebrew] readers? (p. xi). Sand insinuates that this ?shock? accounts for the excitement surrounding the book ? which is a more reasonable assessment regarding its reception in Israel than in the English-speaking world.