Sander Gilman and the late George Mosse were among the first scholars to recognize that antisemitism in central Europe often was fixated on Jewish men as antithetical to the good of society and the nation. Current historiography on antisemitism reveals depth and sophistication based, to a large degree, on attention to the canard that Jews were agents of “effeminacy.” Concomitant with Mosse and Gilman's gender-conscious approaches, Marion Kaplan embarked in the 1970s on a pioneering scrutiny of German Jewish social history. Her work is foundational for incorporating Jewry into women's studies and unsettling mainstream Jewish historical narratives. Kaplan showed that German-speaking Jewish women made notable attempts to alter the course of their own lives and those of later generations. Jewish men internalized stereotypes but also forged original notions of what it meant to be a Jewish male. Such ideas became institutionalized in Jewish politics and diverse efforts to change and reform Jewry.

Jewish Masculinities: German Jews, Gender, and History takes up questions raised by Mosse, Gilman, and Kaplan, and advanced by scholars such as Daniel Boyarin, John Efron, David Biale, Matti Bunzl, Todd Presner, David Luft, Atina Grossmann, and the late Paula Hyman. The superb introduction by the editors, Benjamin Maria Baader, Sharon Gillerman, and Paul Lerner, should be accorded a preeminent place in the canon of gender studies and Jewish studies. It comprises the best central address for those who wish to explore and further investigate issues pertaining to gender in German Jewish history.

The first chapter, “Respectability Tested: Male Ideals, Sexuality, and Honor in Early Modern Ashkenazi Jewry,” by Andreas Gotzmann centers on Veith Kahn, who “was everything a seventeenth-century Jewish man was not supposed to be” (p. 23). This knits together the project of Peter Gay, who argued that Europe was more sexually explosive than typically believed, and that of Shmuel Feiner, who writes that divergence from traditional Jewish norms predates the self-conscious embrace of secularism. Gotzmann paints a vivid picture of “the discrepancies between religious prescriptions and social practices” as well as its limits (p. 43). Despite Kahn's outrageous behavior, “it was ultimately [his wife's] actions which were deemed unacceptable, because she challenged and ursurped the male authority still embodied by her profligate husband” (p. 44).

Baader's “Jewish Difference in the Feminine Spirit of Judaism in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Germany” is, similar to Gotzmann's chapter, a refreshing break from prevailing assumptions. It builds on the insights of Daniel Boyarin but also reaches beyond, grounding Baader's study not only in central European Jewry of the nineteenth century but the wider religious milieu—drawing on theories of Rebekka Habermas and Anne-Charlott Trepp (p. 61). The luminaries featured by Baader; Samson Raphael Hirsch, a founder of modern Orthodoxy; and Reform rabbi Adolf Jellinek of Vienna, preached that “femininity constitutes the principle of the Jewish religion” and that Jewish men are morally outstanding because of their “feminine traits” (p. 50). Antisemites who accused Jews of unmanliness were, however, oblivious to this interpretation (pp. 63–4).

Baader's analysis resonates in Judith Gerson's survey of “German Jewish Masculinities among Nazi Era Refugees.” Gerson's research suggests that there were “multiple forms of masculinity in practice.” Commitment to serving their families took precedence over men's keeping up appearances of strength and control (p. 225). In this setting, “German Jewish men and women were more alike than different” (p. 226).

Robin Judd's “Moral Clean Men of the Jewish Faith: Jewish Rituals and their Male Practitioners, 1843–1914” reminds us that kosher slaughtering and circumcision have been a part of non-Jewish, public discussion since emancipation. Jewish polemics about the men entrusted with these duties stressed their manliness and moral uprightness. Jews professed that they were indeed like, or as good as, everyone else, while insisting on their “right” to be “different” from the majority (p. 84).

Lisa Fetheringill Zwicker examines a Jew and a Catholic at play—but of a serious sort. “Performing Masculinity: Jewish Students and the Honor Code at German Universities” confronts a seminal issue in the nexus of middle-class Jewry and masculinity: duels with non-Jews. Zwicker fleshes out the rich context of one (Jewish) battle, and the (Catholic) avoidance of another, relating that a larger struggle between the sexes—the recent entry of women into the universities—exacerbated sexualized aggression on the part of Jews and non-Jews alike (p. 119).

Four chapters deal with individual case studies. Sander Gilman introduces N. O. Body, pseudonym for Karl M. Baer (1885–1956), who “suffered from an incorrect gender assignment because of the apparent ambiguity of his genitalia as an infant” (p. 139). Baer's attempt to navigate her/his sexual identity includes a self-styled ethnic reassignment as “French”—assisted by Baer's understanding of how one assumes a “Zionist” identity (pp. 146–7). Ann Goldberg astutely analyzes the life of Friedrich Gundolf (1880–1931), a literature scholar at Heidelberg who was “a classic Jewish Wagnerian” and simultaneously “challenged the notion of Jewish Wagnerianism” (p. 186). Stephanie Schüler-Springorum spotlights Aron Liebeck of Königsberg, whom she describes as “A Soft Hero.” A particular strength of this article is the author's attention to Liebeck's self-perception as a businessman—and how crucial this was to his manhood. Interestingly, there is only one chapter on an athlete per se: Sharon Gillerman's discussion of “A Kinder Gentler Strongman? Siegmund Breitbart in Eastern Europe,” “the most visible performer of Jewish masculinity” of the early twentieth century (p. 197). Although Breitbart may not have embodied outright contradictions, his complex super-constructed persona allowed for sweetness, gentility, and a modest nobility accompanying his astounding physical strength (p. 208).

Daily life, rather than spectacle, foregrounds Etan Bloom's “Toward a Theory of the Modern Hebrew Handshake: The Conduct of Muscle Zionism.” Bloom convincingly argues that Jewish military men “developed the chapcha”—“strong slaps on the back and shoulders” along with a firm handshake (p. 152)—“as a kind of emotional safety valve. It allowed them to express intimacy while retaining elements of masculine aggression and even cruelty” (p. 174). Bloom superbly illuminates a seemingly small but nevertheless vital aspect of Zionist and Israeli culture with its roots in central and eastern Europe.

While several of the chapters are based on highly unusual stories and even what might be termed “oddities,” all derive from extensive archival research and are well contextualized. Historians of central Europe will be enriched by the interrogations of “theory” along with excavations of little-known yet critical avenues of Jewish history in this excellent volume.