Jacob Katz, born in 1904 in Magyargencs, Hungary, was an
acclaimed Jewish historian and educator. He was also something of an innovator,
bringing sociological methods into play in his study of Jewish communities,
with special attention to changes in halachah and Orthodoxy. In his
youth he pursued both religious and secular studies, receiving rabbinic
ordination and a doctorate in social history. Awarded the prestigious Israel
Prize in 1980l he died in Israel in 1998.
Published in 1959, Exclusiveness and Tolerance is a scholarly
account of one of the most difficult and persistent issues faced by Jews in the
diaspora: how to live as Jews in a non-Jewish world.
Subtitled ‘Studies in Jewish-Gentile Relations in Medieval
& Modern Times’, this work is divided into three sections. The first sets
out the author’s methodology and terms of reference. The second reviews the 10th
to 14th centuries and the third spans the 16th to 18th
centuries. In an even-handed approach, Katz examines both Jewish and Christian
sources and materials.You can find this book here in Beit Knesset Hanassi, in the
Marvin N. Hirschhorn collection.
