Ritual murder, expulsion, and Martin Luther's infamous anti-Jewish diatribes are themes that modern scholars generally use to frame studies of German Jewry from roughly 1450 to 1650. But such approaches, Debra Kaplan argues convincingly, leave significant dimensions of early modern Jewish social and religious life unexamined. To cast light on Jewish lives, she draws heavily on archival and published primary sources in German, Hebrew, and Latin to present a meticulous and, in some respects, model case study of the relations between Jews and Christians in Alsace and its metropolis, Strasbourg, one of the most extensively researched cities of the German Reformation. Focusing on the period from roughly 1530 to 1648, she argues that confessionalization and confession building, whereby the Lutheran, Calvinist, and Roman Catholic churches in the Holy Roman Empire sought to distinguish themselves sharply from one another through the vigorous and uncompromising defense of their respective teachings, practices, and institutions, contributed significantly to a pronounced worsening of these relations after 1570.

Because of expulsions in the late Middle Ages, Jews in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries no longer lived in Colmar, Selestat, and Strasbourg, the major urban centers in Alsace, but instead resided in dozens of villages and small towns throughout the region. Thus Jewish communities, having become demographically fragile and geographically more dispersed, developed stronger ties with one another, especially for ritual purposes, thereby compensating for the loss of the much larger communities in the three cities. Moreover, in correcting earlier interpretations of the consequences of the late medieval expulsions, Kaplan stresses that Jews and Christians in these towns and villages interacted frequently with one another.

Beyond Expulsion, however, deals mostly with the various ties between Alsatian Jews and the regional metropolis. For much of the sixteenth century, the city magistrates, primarily for economic reasons, allowed Jews to lend money to Strasbourg citizens and sell animals, especially horses, and agricultural products in the city's markets. Jewish physicians may even have treated some burghers. By means of a unique contract drawn up by Josel of Rosheim, the representative of the Jews of Lower Alsace, these relations came under tighter regulation in 1534, but largely to obligate Jews to settle legal disputes with Strasbourg citizens only in municipal courts. Additionally, during the early Reformation, Christian Hebraism flourished and became institutionalized in city's gymnasium. The Strasbourg reformers Martin Bucer and Wolfgang Capito propelled this development by translating portions of the Old Testament and writing grammatical treatises and biblical commentaries that drew on Jewish sources. To procure these sources, as well as receive insights into ancient Jewish life, Bucer, Capito, and others, Kaplan argues, relied heavily on Alsatian Jews. Here her treatment of Capito, who never expressed the harshness toward the Jews that Luther and Bucer did, is particularly discerning. In short, although not domiciled in the city, many Jews contributed significantly to Strasbourg's economic and intellectual life.

After 1570, however, this contribution shriveled. The magistrates discontinued the contract of 1534 and severely restricted the participation of Jews in the city markets. By allowing the publication of anti-Jewish writings, the magistrates also showed less concern than they showed previously for Jewish sensibilities, and Christian Hebraism in Strasbourg (but not necessarily elsewhere) developed in ways that weakened the need for the city's theologians to draw on the knowledge of local Jews. Beyond Expulsion plausibly argues that the weakened ties between Jews and Christians resulted from the clergy and magistrates' efforts to accentuate the city's confessional identity, as Strasbourg moved gradually toward acceptance of the Formula of Concord in 1598 and thus firmly aligning itself with Lutheran orthodoxy. But support for this argument comes primarily from the synchronicity of developments and the implied logic of confession building rather than from sources that explicitly link Concordial Lutheranism to increasing intolerance toward Jews.

Josel of Rosheim, whom many contemporaries regarded after 1529 as the leader of the Jews in all the German lands, receives considerable attention in Beyond Expulsion. Using archival records of his correspondence with the magistrates of Strasbourg, Kaplan exhaustively explores his efforts to protect the safety and defend the economic interests of Jews in Lower Alsace. She also insightfully discusses his Hebrew writings on Jewish history and contemporary life in the Holy Roman Empire, highlighting Josel's views toward Jewish converts to Christianity, his understanding of divine providence, and his differential assessment of the Reformation and its leaders.

Undeniably original and informative, Kaplan's study seems also to dodge some difficult but significant issues. First, the geographical dimensions of Alsace's confessional divisions remain unclear. As territorial prince, the bishop of Strasbourg, who resided in Saverne, controlled considerable territory in the region, and a large percentage of the Jews in Alsace probably lived under his authority and interacted more frequently with Catholics than with Protestants. Moreover, the bishop also regulated Jewish affairs, and Kaplan herself notes in passing that he prohibited Jews in 1562 from working anywhere in Alsace. Finally, the episcopal office itself was at the center of the confessional struggles in the region, for from 1583 to 1604 Protestant and Catholic factions in the cathedral chapter vied with one another and in 1592 elected different claimants to the crosier. Thus the question of how Catholic confession building reinforced or worked against the developments in Strasbourg that Kaplan identifies certainly deserves attention.