During the German "Kulturkampf" in the 1870s, the Frankfurt rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch enjoined all Jews of his community to exercise a right given by Prussian law: to withdraw from the united community which was dominated by Reform forces in order to belong only to a separate Orthodox community, founded according to Jewish law (Halakha).
This work investigates the significance of these events for Orthodox Judaism in the 20th century. Focussing...