Writing for the masses: Heinrich Graetz, the popularization of Jewish history, and the reception of National Judaism

This dissertation examines the role that Heinrich Graetz played in the popularization of Jewish history. Prior to Graetz, Jewish history had been read by only a small number of scholars and enlighteners. Following the publication of his Geschichte der Juden, and then later his Volksthumliche Geschichte der Juden, Jewish history was promoted for all Jews as a way of strengthening their Jewish consciousness, and his works were considered essential for any Jewish library. Graetz's placement of the Jewish nation at the center of his History, an approach I have called National Judaism, played a crucial role in how his History was received. National Judaism represents an important stage in the development of Jewish nationalism, one that both differed from Zionism, as well as resisted its teleology.; The first half of the dissertation explores the process by which Graetz's History became part of the modern Jewish canon. This History , which combined the traditional values of Hokhmat Yisra'el scholars in the Austro-Hungarian Empire with modern German historical methodology, represented a third way in Jewish historiography. With its nation-centered narrative and subjective approach to historical writing, it was bridge for the cultural values of Hokhmat Yisra'el to be presented to Western European Jews. It became the catalyst for prompting Jews to read their own history and for changing the way Jewish history was written, and through its translations into French, English, Russian, Hebrew, and Yiddish, transmitted these values to much of the Jewish world.; The second half of the dissertation looks at the particular role played by National Judaism in the reception of Graetz's History among two distinct and often opposing groups: German-Jewish reformers and Zionists. In both cases, the determining factor in their response to Graetz's History was his emphasis on the continuing importance of the Jewish nation. For the reformers, for whom such a national conception was impossible, Graetz was labeled as "Polish," and his History as anti-German. The Zionists, on the other hand, saw in Graetz's National Judaism a forerunner of their own form of Jewish nationalism and claimed both Graetz and his History for Zionism.