Rabbis and Lawyers: The Journey from Torah to Constitution - Softcover

Auerbach, Jerold S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253208432 ISBN 13: 9780253208439

Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr, 1993

Synopsis

Renowned legal historian Jerold S. Auerbach examines the special contributions of rabbis and lawyers to American Jewish acculturation. Based on extensive reading and research in American and Israeli archives, his analysis of how lawyers displaced rabbis as community leaders at the beginning of this century illuminates a decisive moment in American Jewish history. The author of Unequal Justice (1976), the landmark study of the legal profession in history, turns to the more specific issue of the development of the lawyer class in the U.S. and its role in changing the way Jewish Americans assimilated and were perceived by others.

About this title

About the Author:

Dr. Auerbach is Emeritus Professor of History at Wellesley College, and the author of acclaimed books on the U.S. legal profession, Israel, American Judaism, and the Pueblo Indians.

From Publishers Weekly:

American Jews' assimilation required a drastic modification of their commitment to sacred law and holy land, contends Wellesley College historian Auerbach. In his scenario, Jews transferred their allegiance from the Torah to the Constitution--from a covenantal relationship with God to a secular outlook shaped by constitutional principles promoting individual freedom. In a rewarding, challenging study, Auerbach ( Justice Without Law? ) maintains this metamorphosis was abetted by rabbis like Isaac Mayer Wise and such lawyers as Louis Brandeis and Louis Marshall who "taught Jews how to become Americans." He faults Reform rabbi Stephen S. Wise for "deferential caution" in his failed attempt to prod FDR into rescuing Europe's Jewry from Hitler's impending bloodbath. He also takes aim at optimistic celebrants of a revitalized Judaism like Charles Silberman and Leonard Fine. Sure to be hotly debated, this book recasts the debate on Jewish acculturation in new terms.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0253208432
• ISBN 13: 9780253208439
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272