The Last Generation of the German Rabbinate

"After the Nazi seizure of power on January 30, 1933, over 250 German rabbis, rabbinical scholars and students for the rabbinate fled to the United States. The Last Generation of the German Rabbinate follows their lives and careers over decades in America. It was particularly the younger members of this group who left a considerable mark intellectually, socially, and theologically on American Judaism and on American Jewish congregational and organizational life in the postwar world. Although culturally uprooted they continued their professional lives and intellectual leadership in the United States. Only after they had reconstructed the foundations of their lives and reached mid-life did the refugees have the time, opportunity, and desire to reflect on and historicize their experiences in an effort to make sense of their own personal past and of the German-Jewish experience as a whole. As Cornelia Wilhelm explains, this process was necessary but difficult and painful, because it included direct and often very emotional confrontations with a divided Germany and German people after the Second World War. Meticulously researched, The Last Generation of the German Rabbinate reveals the trials of those who had lost so much and celebrates the legacy they made for themselves in America"--