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The Emergenceof Historical Consciousness inModern Judaism BY ISMAR SCHORSCH The emergenceof historical consciousness in modern Judaism is a subject that transcends the restricted focus and technical vocabulary of historiography . * Conceived as an intellectual revolution , it comprises a fundamental change in mentality and epitomises the dialectic process of Westernisation that transformed medievalAshkcnazic Judaism . More concretely , historical thinking facilitated the urgent and agonising effort to rethink the natureof Judaism . It quickly became the primary vehicle for translating the ideas , institutions , and values 0 [ an ancient oriental religion into equivalent or related Western categories , and beyond that served as the arbiter of what is authentic J udaism and the source for new and diverse sclf-pcrccptions . In short , Wissenschafl des Judentums , which is best rendered as the academic studyof Judaism , lies at the very heartof nineteenth-century Jewish intellectual histor...
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