T HE J EWISH Q UARTERLY R EVIEW, Vol. 97, No. 4 (Fall 2007) 660–672 New Reflections on Jewish Historiography MICHAEL A. MEYER Michael Brenner. Propheten des Vergangenen: Ju ¨ dische Geschichtsschreibung im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Munich: Verlag C. H. Beck, 2006. Pp. 400. Yitzhak Conforti. Zeman ‘avar: Ha-historyografyah ha-Tsiyonit ve-‘itsuv ha- zikaron ha-le’umi. (Past Tense: Zionist Historiography and the Shaping of the National Memory). Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 2006. Pp. 332. Moshe Rosman. How Jewish Is Jewish History? Oxford and Portland, Ore.: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2007. Pp. xiv 224. I N 1932 L EO B AECK published an article in which he expressed deep regret at how modern Jewish historiography had wrought rupture: ‘‘The old tradition, which until then could always be experienced with immedi- acy in every present, which entered consciousness ever anew, which through its succession of teachers brought about and ensured an outer and inner unity, tore apart . . . One no longer stood in it but outside of it. Tradition gave way before learned reconstruction; historical knowledge supplanted historical connection.’’ 1 Yet only a year earlier the very popu- lar Jewish historian Josef Kastein could write of his deep personal con- nection to his subject: ‘‘No man who feels impelled by a deep passion to write history, more especially the history of his own people, can remain neutral; if he did he could not breathe his own soul into the narrative.’’ 2 This question of continuity and relationship between tradition and crit- ical historical writing, proximity versus distance in relation to the past, which Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi brought to heightened consciousness in his Zakhor, has continued to occupy reflections on Jewish historiography. But it does not stand alone. Other related questions play as significant a 1. Leo Baeck, ‘‘Theologie und Geschichte’’ (1932), in idem, Aus drei Jahrtausen- den (Tu ¨ bingen, 1958), 32. 2. Josef Kastein, History and Destiny of the Jews (1931), trans. H. Paterson (Garden City, N.Y., 1936), 5. The Jewish Quarterly Review (Fall 2007) Copyright  2007 Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. All rights reserved.