This highly acclaimed study depicts and evaluates in an original and imaginative fashion the 'Golden Age' of Viennese Jewry during the long reign of Emperor Franz Joseph II. Based on exhaustive and meticulous research, Professor Wistrich's reconstruction of the place of the Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Empire provides a multitude of new insights not only into the factors that accompanied its rise, but also into the ideological conflicts that have marked the twentieth century.