The biblical
idea of a distinct ‘Jewish contribution to civilization’ continues to engage
Jews and non-Jews alike. This book seeks neither to document nor to discredit
the notion, but rather to investigate the idea itself as it has been understood
from the seventeenth century to the present. It explores the role that the
concept has played in Jewish self-definition, how it has influenced the
political, social, and cultural history of the Jews and of others, and whether
discussion of the notion still has relevance in the world today.

The book
offers a broad spectrum of academic opinion: from tempered advocacy to reasoned
disavowal, with many variations on the theme in between. It attempts to
illustrate the centrality of the question in modern Jewish culture in general,
and its importance for modern Jewish studies in particular.











Part I
addresses the idea itself and considers its ramifications. Richard I. Cohen
focuses on the nexus between notions of ‘Jewish contribution’ and those of
‘Jewish superiority’‚ David N. Myers shifts the focus from ‘contribution’ to
‘civilization’, arguing that the latter term often served the interests of
Jewish intellectuals far better, and Moshe Rosman shows how the current
emphasis on multiculturalism has given the idea of a ‘Jewish contribution’ new
life. Part II turns to the relationship between Judaism and other monotheistic
cultures. Elliott Horowitz’s essay on the sabbath serves as an instructive
test-case for the dynamic and complexity of the ‘contribution’ debate and a
pointer to more general, theoretical issues. David Berger expands on these in
his account of how discussion of Christianity’s Jewish legacy developed in the
late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and Susannah Heschel shows how the
Jewish–Christian encounter has influenced the study of other non-Western
‘others’. Daniel Schroeter raises revealing questions about the altogether
Eurocentric character of the ‘contribution’ discourse, which also bore heavily
on perceptions of Jews and Judaism in the world of Islam. Part III introduces
us to various applications and consequences of the debate. Yaacov Shavit probes
the delicate balance forged by nineteenth-century German Jewish intellectuals
in defining their identity. Mark Gelber moves the focus to the present and
considers the post-war renewal of German Jewish culture and the birth of
German-Jewish studies in the context of the ‘contribution’ discourse. Bringing
the volume to its conclusion, David Biale compares three overviews of Jewish
culture and civilization published in America in the twentieth and
twenty-first-centuries.