THE UNIQUE FASCINATION OF GERMAN-JEWISH HISTORY

Abstract

When the founders of the Wissenschaft des Judentums circumscribed the orbit of scholarly interest in Jewish history they made no distinction between one country or one geographical or cultural area and any other. Wherever Jews succeeded in developing any sort or communal life, its history was declared a legitimate, indeed mandatory objective of historical research and presentation. Factually, of course, no equal treatment was granted to all regions or periods of Jewish history, and it would be a rewarding task for those interested in the history of historiography to inquire into the grounds of this differentiation, for obviously the preference accorded one subject over another does not always lie in the objective data facilitating or impeding the research as, for instance, the accessibility of source material. The choice may depend upon the historian's evaluation of the cultural or religious contribution of the chosen period, and this evaluation-on the other hand-may be linked with the historical, cultural and spiritual circumstances of the historian and his potential constituents. Critics of historiography like to expand upon this subjective component of the historian's choice with the intention in mind of invalidating its claim to the dignity of a scientific discipline. Yet, besides the methodological error in inferring from the subjectivity in the choice of subject matter to that of the verification of the factual findings, they also commit the sin of generalization. For the cultural or spiritual affinity of the historian with the chosen subject matter is by far not the only possible motivation for his choice. Other less visible characteristics of the historical process inherent in its very nature may turn it into a coveted objective for the historian's attention--as the theme at hand, German-Jewish history in modern times, will clearly demonstrate. The factual clue to the problem is the evident preference given by historians to the recent as well as the more remote history of the GermanJewish community as compared to that of the other European Jewries who shared its tragic fate. Surveying the publication in this field, one becomes aware of the overwhelming superiority of the historical research and presentation concerning German Jewry in contrast to that of its Polish, Hungarian, or even Dutch and French counterparts, not only