Pity of It All A History of the Jews in Germany 1743-1933 Book

The first time I heard of this book was from my former employer, historian Rabbi Berel Wein, who said that it is a thorough history of German Jewry that would show how the Holocaust did not happen in a vacuum, but reading it would “make you want to weep.” That lead me to conclude that I *should* read the book, but it didn’t motivate me to actually do it. What changed my mind was that Malcolm Gladwell mentioned it as a source for his research in the first episode of his podcast, “Revisionist History.” Then the Nine Days of Mourning rolled around, so I figured it was the most appropriate time to look anti-Semitism straight in the face.

The book opens with the story of young Moses Mendelssohn’s arrival in Berlin. For those who don’t know, Moses Mendelssohn was the spiritual founder of the Reform movement, though he himself was strictly observant and wouldn’t even eat in the home of the German nobleman who hired him as a teacher for his son. Mendelssohn is persona non grata in the Ultra-Orthodox world in which I live, but after reading this book, I am convinced that he was an idealist who loved the Jewish people so much, he misguidedly advocated assimilation as a protection against anti-Semitism. The rest of the book chronicles the rise of Jews in German society and the terrible backlash that resulted, culminating, of course, in the Holocaust. These kind of anti-assimilationist arguments are common in the Ultra-Orthodox world, but as far as I know, the author of this book is a secular Israeli historian. The book is almost exclusively about assimilated Jews, and the Orthodox are hardly mentioned at all. It was a great disappointment to me that the book contained nothing about Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch, who was fighting assimilation in Frankfurt. Instead I learned about other famous German Jews, all of them irreligious: poet Heinrich Heine, politician Walter Rathenau, and even a bit about Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt. (If anyone can recommend any books about Rav Hirsch and the Frankfurt community, I’m very interested.)

This was probably the toughest book I’ve read all year, but even still, I can’t give it anything less than a 5. It’s thorough, authoritative, and it taught me a lot. As I said, I read it during the Nine Days, including on the Fast of Tisha B’Av. Between this, the Kinnos, and stories of terrorism in Eretz Yisroel, I sure do feel grateful to be in this peaceful corner of the galus. May Hashem redeem us soon, and please, if possible, let it be in peace.