Michah Gottlieb

Feb 4, 2023

The Jewish Reformation

Bible Translation and Middle-Class German Judaism As Spiritual Enterprise

Oxford University Press 2021

The Jewish Reformation: Bible Translation and Middle-Class German Judaism as Spiritual Enterprise (Oxford University Press, 2021) was the 2022 winner of the AHA’s Dorothy Rosenberg Prize in the history of Jewish diaspora. In it, Michach Gottlieb looks at Bible translations by Mendelssohn, Leopold Zunz, and Samson Raphael Hirsch. Gottlieb argues that each translator sought a "reformation" of Judaism along bourgeois lines, which involved aligning Judaism with a Protestant concept of religion.

Michah Gottlieb is Associate Professor in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU.

Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network.

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Caleb Zakarin

Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network.

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