On November 24, 2020, Yale University Press published The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume 9: Catastrophe and Rebirth, 1939–1973, edited by Samuel D. Kassow and David G. Roskies. This volume covers a period Kassow and Roskies call “one of the most tragic and dramatic in Jewish history,” from the eve of World War II through the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War.
This monumental anthology of primary sources, many appearing in English for the first time, encompasses Jewish civilization and culture throughout this era of transformation. Organized geographically and then by genre, Volume 9: Catastrophe and Rebirth details Jewish cultural and intellectual accomplishments—in political thought, literature, the visual and performing arts, and religion. It explores Jewish perceptions of the momentous events of the mid-twentieth century and how Jews around the world redefined themselves in the face of tragedy, displacement, and dispersion. The breadth and depth of this work goes beyond any comparable collection, with detailed insights and sharp focus to accompany its breathtaking scope.
Volume 9: Catastrophe and Rebirth demonstrates the vitality and diversity of Jewish responses to the Holocaust while it was happening, both within the occupied war zone and throughout the Jewish world. It chronicles the birth of the State of Israel, tracks the expulsion and dispersion of Jews from Arab lands, crosses the divide between Western and Eastern Europe, and presents Jewish culture in North and South America in a multilingual light. According to the editors, “If form is content, then an anthology of arts and letters, culled from two dozen languages and covering all but one continent (Antarctica) is the only form that can do justice to ‘Jewish culture and civilization’ between 1939 and 1973.”
“The Posen Library challenges the primacy of religion as the dominant mode of Jewish life and culture over the centuries,” explains editor in chief Deborah Dash Moore. “It is a somewhat controversial way of approaching the Jewish past and Jewish culture and civilization. The Posen Library explicitly contends that how Jews earned a living, related to each other in community, and decorated their homes is as worthy of understanding as how Jews wrote commentary on Torah.”
