Jewish life in Austria and Germany since 1945 : identity and communal reconstruction / Susanne Cohen-Weisz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cohen-Weisz, Susanne, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--Germany--History--1945-1990.

Jews.

Identity (Philosophical concept).

History.

Social conditions.

Germany.

Jews--Germany--History--1990-.

Jews--Germany--Social conditions--20th century.

Jews--Germany--Identity--History--20th century.

Jews--Austria--Vienna--History--20th century.

Jews--Austria--Vienna--Social conditions--20th century.

Jews--Austria--Identity--History--20th century.

Germany--Ethnic relations.

Ethnic relations.

Austria--Ethnic relations.

Austria.

Jews--Identity.

Jews--Social conditions.

Austria--Vienna.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

423 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Budapest ; New York : Central European University Press, 2016.

Summary:

"Based on published primary and secondary materials and oral interviews with some eighty communal and organizational leaders, experts and scholars, this book both provides a comparative systematic account of the reconstruction of Jewish communal life in Germany and Vienna (representing 98% of Austrian Jewry) after 1945 as it developed over the next six decades, and explains the process of communal reconstruction, and its outcomes in the two countries. In particular, it focuses on the similarities and differences between the communities in regard to their political, social, institutional and identity developments, and their members' changing attitudes toward and relationship with the surrounding societies, and seeks to show how these developed in diverse national political circumstances and varying governmental policies. It will eventually prove that more influential than national politics were domestic Jewish development processes - especially changes in Jewish group identity, which shapes not only the Jewish community itself but also its view of the gentile world and its interaction with it at the national level. The comparative perspective is then broadened to reveal the key variables and their pattern of influence responsible for the developments of and within the European Jewry and European-Jewish organizations"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction 23

1.1 Introduction 25

1.2 Identity, Group Identity, and Jewish Group Identity Theory 32

1.3 On Anti-Semitism 38

1.4 Methodology 40

Comparative Analysis 40

Sources 42

Chapter 2 1945-1953 Two Parallel "Communities" and the Short-Lived Revitalization of Jewish Life 45

2.1 Communal organization 50

Organizational framework 50

Communal leadership 54

2.2 Demography 58

2.3 Jewish Group Identity 66

Variations of Jewish group identity 66

The Shoah in Jewish group identity 76

The State of Israel in Jewish group identity 80

Austrian, respectively German, elements in Jewish group identity 85

2.4 Communal Reconstruction 88

Institutional developments 88

Communal unity 92

2.5 External Communal Representation 96

2.6 Austrian and German Politics and Attitudes toward Jewry 100

Chapter 3 1953-1980 "Sitting on Packed Suitcases" 121

3.1 Communal Organization 125

Organizational framework 125

Communal leadership 128

3.2 Demography 129

3.3 Jewish Group Identity 132

Variations in Jewish group identity 132

The Shoah in Jewish group identity 135

The State of Israel in Jewish group identity 137

Austrian, respectively German, elements in Jewish group identity 141

3.4 Communal Reconstruction 147

Institutional developments 147

Communal unity 148

3.5 External Communal Representation 156

3.6 Austrian and German Politics and Attitudes toward Jewry 161

Chapter 4 1980-2015 Settled and Flourishing Jewish Communities 177

4.1 Communal Organization 181

Organizational framework 181

Communal leadership 188

4.2 Demography 194

4.3 Jewish Group Identity 203

Variations in Jewish group identity 203

The Shoah in Jewish group identity 211

The State of Israel in Jewish group identity 216

Austrian, respectively German, elements in Jewish group identity 218

4.4 Communal Reconstruction 233

Institutional developments 233

Communal unity 241

Organizational framework and communal unity 259

4.5 External Communal Representation 263

4.6 Austrian and German Politics and Attitudes toward Jewry 295

4.7 Conclusion 326

Chapter 5 European-Jewish Identity and Cooperation: The Future Direction of Austrian and German Jewries? 335

5.1 European Identity 339

5.2 European-Jewish Identity 343

5.3 European Jewish Cooperation 346

5.4 Conclusion 363

Chapter 6 Conclusion 367.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 397-420) and index.

ISBN:

9789633860793

9633860792

9789633861035

9633861039

OCLC:

903473918