Claude Montefiore: His Life And Thought (Parkes-Wiener Series)

A revered scholar, philanthropist and spiritual authority, Claude Montefiore belongs to that important group of learned laymen who have sought to revolutionise Judaism. Founder of British Liberal Judaism at the turn of the century, he was the most original Anglo-Jewish religious thinker of his own day, and remains a highly controversial figure today. Claude Montefiore: His Life and Thought is an attempt to place Montefiore in the context of Jewish thought during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Controversially, it argues that Montefiores own personal conception of Liberal Judaism, which was never fully appreciated by his followers, should be regarded as more than simply a progressive Jewish denomination, and rather as an attempt to re-mould Reform Judaism in terms of the contemporary liberal Christianity. Montefiore is an important figure in Anglo-Jewish history, not least for the way in which his complex identity reflects the difficulty inherent in attempting to make Judaism genuinely relevant to the modern world.

Editorial Reviews

Revising his doctoral dissertation for the University of Southampton, Langton (Jewish-Christian relations, Manchester U.) offers primarily an intellectual history of Jewish communal leader, philanthropist, biblical scholar, and founder of British Liberal Judaism Montefiore (1858-1938). He places his work in the context of Jewish thought during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and considers how he was profoundly influenced by his Christian surroundings. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)