Revealing Jews: Culture and Visibility in Modern Central Europe

Abstract

This essay reviews three recent books from the disciplines of history, art history, and German studies that inject new meaning into age-old questions about why Jewish difference mattered in the creation of modern culture in Central Europe. Each foregrounds the centrality of the dynamic of visibility/invisibility that formed a crucial source of power and control for Jews living among populations that never completely accepted them in Budapest, Vienna, and the cities of Weimar Germany. By highlighting subtle and often unarticulated instances of engagement with Jewish difference that are usually dismissed or relegated to footnotes, these expertly contextualized studies illuminate the invisible circumscribed codes of behavior that shaped Jews’ experiences. In doing so, they add a great deal of nuance to our understanding of the history of Jews in modern Central Europe. They show that, while Jewishness was often subtle and ephemeral, the influence of Jews on the culture they created persists.