The Emancipationists

A thought-provoking exploration of the roots of modern Jewish politicsThis is the first book to explore the nineteenth-century political movement led by Jewish leaders seeking equality—a movement that historian David Sorkin calls emancipation politics. The emancipationists, most of whom had received a formal secular education, pioneered the key practices of modern Jewish politics: law, philanthropy, the press, and diplomacy. In so doing, Sorkin argues, the emancipationists renovated the venerabl