Jews of Hungary: History, Culture, Psychology

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Jews of Hungary is the first comprehensive history in any language of the unique Jewish community that has lived in the Carpathian Basin for eighteen centuries, from Roman times to the present. Noted historian and anthropologist Raphael Patai, himself a native of Hungary, tells in this pioneering study the fascinating story of the struggles, achievements, and setbacks that marked the flow of history for the Hungarian Jews. He traces their seminal role in Hungarian politics, finance, industry, science, medicine, arts, and literature, and their surprisingly rich contributions to Jewish scholarship and religious leadership both inside Hungary and in the Western world. Patai's main focus within the overall history of the Hungarian Jews is their culture and their psychology. Convinced that what is most characteristic of a people is the culture which endows its existence with specific coloration, he devotes special attention to the manifestations of Hungarian Jewish talent in the various cultural fields, most significantly literature, the arts, and scholarship.

FROM THE CRITICS

Jewish Book World

Massive overview of Hungarian Jewish history from the Middle Ages to contemporary times by a leading Jewish anthropologist. Adopting a socio-cultural analysis, Patai also includes key political events, both internal and external, that influenced the community. The chapters on the Holocaust are brief, but very effective, while Patai's sections on postwar Hungarian Jewry break new ground in contemporary Jewish studies.

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