Languages of Community. The Jewish Experience in the Czech Lands

Kieval, Hillel J. Languages of Community. The Jewish Experience in the Czech Lands. Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press, 2000. First edition. Quarto. XI, [3], 311, [1]pp. Original tan cloth over green paper covered boards with black lettering on spine. With a keen eye for revealing details, Hillel J. Kieval examines the contours and distinctive features of Jewish experience in the lands of Bohemia and Moravia (the present-day Czech Republic), from the late eighteenth to the late twentieth century. In the Czech lands, Kieval writes, Jews have felt the need constantly to define and articulate the nature of group identity, cultural loyalty, memory, and social cohesiveness, and the period of “modernizing” absolutism, which began in 1780, brought changes of enormous significance. From that time forward, new relationships with Gentile society and with the culture of the state blurred the traditional outlines of community and individual identity. Kieval navigates skillfully among histories and myths as well as demography, biography, culture, and politics, illuminating the maze of allegiances and alliances that have molded the Jewish experience during these 200 years. Dust jacket missing. Slight discoloration along edges of covers. Previous owner’s signature on inside of front board. Binding in overall good+, interior in very good condition. g. Hardcover. (27579) $40