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Derek Penslar's book addresses the role of economics and economic thought in shaping Jewish identity and culture in Europe, particularly Germany, in the 19th and early 20th century. Modern Jewish philanthropy emerges as both an outcome and contributing factor to other developments. The book will be of obvious interest to historians. While Penslar limits his reflections on the contemporary period to a brief epilogue, I found this very well written book an interesting mirror through which to view current developments. The differences between the Jewish situation then and now are obvious. The "Jewish problem" then concerned masses of poor Jews, many moving east to west. Now we are concerned with affluent Jews seemingly in movement away from Judaism. Then anti-Semitism was a major factor in Jewish life. Now acceptance seems to be our major challenge. We place the origins of our communal institutions at the turn or middle of the 20th century in America. This book makes clear that their precursors and, one would imagine to some extent their roots, were in Europe. This includes the emergence of Jewish professionals, philanthropic planning and institution building (including tensions between the push for centralization and local/individual initiative), and the role of Palestine as part of the new economic uplift agenda of Zionist, non-Zionist and anti-Zionist philanthropists. It also includes the response of the Jewish middle and upper classes (then a minority, now a majority) to wealth, optimism, power, and even triumphalism (ironical only in retrospect.) Many of the issues were similar to or mirror images of today's issues. In this brief review, I will limit myself to one philanthropic example. The "mega-donors" in 19th century Europe were primarily Jewish bankers, exemplified and symbolized by the Rothschilds. During the same period a Jewish bourgeoisie emerged. In the 1870s they began to assume control of communal affairs and obtain the services of the first modern Jewish professionals. A major issue in Jewish life today is the evolving relationship between independent, Jewish mega-donors and institutions whose formal leadership are today's counterparts to the Jewish bourgeoisie described by Penslar. We can gain historical perspective on these important developments through the kind of historical perspective provided by books like Penslar's - if only to realize that the issues are not unique to our era. But perhaps more importantly, we can gain perspective through intellectual and cultural lenses that are more common among Europeans, then and now. We tend to see the world through a-historical eyes. We are more prone to pragmatic than theoretical assessment and to understanding ourselves in our uniqueness rather than in comparative terms. In these ways Jewish Americans are typical Americans. We are far from triumphalist in regard to our Jewish circumstances and future. But are we triumphalist (or, at least, prone to the narrowing of perspective and self-insight engendered by ethnocentrism) regarding our ways of understanding our world, including our Jewish world? After reading Penslar's book, my thoughts turned from 19th century Europe to Jewish development and thought in contemporary Europe -- a parallel universe often hidden, even in our discourse on Israel and Diaspora, and an intellectual universe far more theoretical, historical, and comparative than our own. In regard to the triangular philanthropic relationship alluded to above, is there something to be learned by pragmatic Americans (focused on institutional structures and relationships; funding and impact strategies) from European thinkers (more likely to be focused on political economy, issues of power, and questions of meaning)? And vice versa. To take a very different, though related, subject, the same need for new concepts and language exists in regard to the reshaping of the meaning and relationship between the traditional categories of Jewish identity, "religious" and "secular" - the emergence of the latter being a major theme of Penslar's narrative. . Dr. Carl A. Sheingold is on the faculty of the Hornstein Program and Director of the Fisher-Bernstein Institute for Leadership Development in Jewish Philanthropy at Brandeis University (c)2004 Sh'ma. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Sh'ma.
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