JEWS in GERMANY - FROM ROMAN TIMES TO THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC by NACHUM T. NIDAL
PUBLISHED BY: Konemann. Koln. 1998.
SIZE: 8.8 x 10.6 inches
PAGES: 440, including 974 photos and other illustrations. Sumptiously illustrated.
CONDITION: book is near-mint. Only flaw is a rice-grain size speckle on top edges. Pages are glossy. DJ is mint.
Through pictures and commentary Gidal gives an account of Jewish culture and of the German Jews. He shows us a forgotten German-Jewish past: the beginning of Jewish life in Germany, and the flowering of Jewish culture which took place in the Middle Ages despite all the persecutions; the lives of rich Jews and poor Jews; the ever-resurgent hopes of the coming of the Messiah; the festivals and feast-days; the struggle for equal civil rights; the contribution made by Jews to German culture.
This pictorial documentation is the life's work of Nachum Tim Gidal, one of the great pioneers of modern photojournalism. In his quest for the history of his people, he combines the objective realism of the photographic reporter with personal commitment. For this is also his own history.
Readers' Reviews
In my view, this book stands as the best of its kind: a one-volume, fully illustrated reference. Don't be fooled...this is not a simple coffee table book. It is exhaustingly researched complete with a huge bibliography and fully footnoted. Nearly every page of every chapter is filled with pictures, photos, and the like. This book can either be read from cover to cover, or the reader can choose to read a chapter at a time...much like an encyclopedia.
This book tells a story that is often (and tragically) forgotten about: the history of German Jewry prior to the rise of the Nazis. In telling the story, Mr. Gidal makes great use of art as well as of text. Though he doesn't go into tremendous detail, he definitely covers the main thrusts and events of the German-Jewish experience. I was particularly interested in the status of Jews under Charlemagne and the early Holy Roman Empire, and in the gradual emancipation of German Jews from the 18th century onward. This book looks like a coffee-table book, but is nothing of the sort. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in German and/or Jewish history. It makes a great companion to The Pity of It All, by Amos Elon.
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