Jewish Enlightenment in an English Key: Anglo-Jewry's Construction of Modern Jewish Thought »

"Ruderman offers a major challenge to conventional ways of thinking about the beginnings of modern Jewish history. His is the first account of Anglo-Jewish thought in the eighteenth century. Indeed, I would guess that few Jewish historians know that these materials exist, let alone the degree to which they reflect their authors' immersion in the broad cultural currents of the time. . . . Ruderman's judgments are shrewd and acute but cautious as well, informed by a broad knowledge of both pre-modern Jewish texts as well as early modern science, philosophy, and religion."--Todd M. Endelman, University of Michigan.

Eugene C. Black - American Historical Review

David B. Ruderman's cleverly conceived and well executed study won this year's Koret Jewish Book Award in History. The book richly merits this recognition. This is a good and important book.

List of Illustrations viii Preface and Acknowledgments xi Introduction 3
Chapter One: "The Scripture Correcting Maniae": Benjamin Kennicott and His Hutchinsonian and Anglo-Jewish Detractors 23
Chapter Two: The New and "Metrical" English Bible: Robert Lowth and His Jewish Critic, David Levi 57
Chapter Three: Deism and Its Reverberations in English Jewish Thought: Abraham hen Naphtali Tang and Some of His Contemporaries 89
Chapter Four: Between Rational and Irrational Dissent: Political Radicalism in Anglo-Jewish Thought 135
Chapter Five: Science and Newtonianism in the Culture of Anglo-Jewry 184
Chapter Six: Translation and Transformation: The Englishing of Jewish Culture 215
Afterword 269
Appendix: Moses Mendelssohn through Anglo-Jewish Eyes 275
Index 287