This study places two Jewish rituals—circumcision and kosher butchering—at the intersection of Jewish and German discourses over the limits of modernization, toleration, and integration. The exploration of intense, ongoing debates over the suitability of two religious rituals, involving Jews, Christians, anti-Semites, elected politicians, and different state institutions with regulatory power, illustrates the transformation of political culture(s) in Germany during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The study covers a period of almost one hundred years, from the final stages of Jewish emancipation to the rise of the Nazi regime. Judd has examined countless local debates over circumcision and kosher butchering throughout Germany. The list of local and contemporary newspapers, trade journals, and reports of small associations comprises more than one hundred titles in the bibliography. The book contains numerous noteworthy illustrations and a (rather inaccurate) map of Imperial Germany.

Judd begins with an examination of inner-Jewish disputes over the rite of circumcision. These conflicts betray Jewish anxieties peculiar to the German context of prolonged emancipation. Some Jews were concerned that preserving certain rituals might endanger the emancipation project. But determined Jewish opposition against abolition also shows that circumcision was by no means a strange relic but an important religious symbol. Judd explains how cities and Jewish communities instrumentalized the circumcision issue to defend their position as regulating institutions vis-à-vis the expanding central state. Even after German unification, when all Jews in Germany were formally emancipated, inner-Jewish and wider discussions over the suitability of kosher butchering and circumcision did not subside. During the Kulturkampf, Catholic leaders contributed to debates over Jewish ritual, making a more general case for toleration of religious difference. But the support of Catholics for the protection of Jewish rituals led to mixed reactions among Jews. While some welcomed Catholic support, in 1875, the rabbi and influential editor of the leading Jewish weekly Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, Ludwig Philippson, defended the “authenticity” of the Jewish ritual and accused Catholics of practicing “invented” rituals. Around the turn of the century the Catholic Center party again introduced bills in the Reichstag calling for the protection of kosher butchering. A state ban on this Jewish ritual, Catholic leaders feared, would lead to a stricter policy against religious minorities in general. Liberals, on the other hand, who earlier had opposed the calls by anti-Semites and others in favor of a ban, split over the issue around 1900. Some liberal politicians hoped to use the call for banning kosher butchering to make their own declining party more attractive to voters.

The rise of modern anti-Semitism in the late 1870s had an immediate impact on Jewish ritual debates. Anti-Semites exploited existing stereotypes and widespread ignorance over both rituals, portraying Jews as “bloodsuckers” and presenting “evidence” for an alleged Jewish affinity to blood. Judd stresses the “tremendous irony” associated with this particular accusation. While Jewish law strictly bans the consumption of blood, blood-sausage was a rather popular German delicacy. Blood also lies at the heart of the German concept of citizenship, as Judd correctly states. But she misses the subtleties of the ius sanguinis (law of blood) principle that defines citizenship based on heredity. Unlike the 1913 German citizenship law, Nazi ideologues explicitly distinguished between different qualities of blood. (Readers interested in the tradition and meanings of blood metaphors should turn to David Biale's newly published Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol Between Jews and Christians.)

Judd takes the story beyond 1914. She argues convincingly against an inevitable movement toward Nazi rule. In numerous instances, Jews could defend themselves successfully against threatened bans. In a short epilogue, Judd gives a brief overview of how Nazi propaganda and policies evolved. The banning of kosher butchering was one of the first laws enacted by the Nazi regime, an indication of the symbolic importance attached to the issue by the new rulers. The immediate post-1945 discussion is summarized in a lengthy footnote. More could have been said here. Kosher butchering continued to be a controversial matter in the Federal Republic. As before 1933, disagreements among local, state, and federal officials produced contradictory regulations. Currently kosher butchering is legal throughout Germany, but halal butchering was, until recently, not. Debates about the integration of Muslims appear, at least in this particular instance, to resemble earlier discussions about Jewish rituals.

Judd focuses on Germany. In the introduction she argues convincingly that the conflicts over kosher butchering or circumcision do not point to a firm path toward Nazi dictatorship. In fact, she reads these conflicts as reflections of the respective political culture at the time. But in her attempt to identify almost every debate, even in the most remote villages, she appears to suggest that neither circumcision nor Kosher butchering were ever fully accepted as “normal”—unlike, one would assume, outside Germany—, even though German Jews often successfully found allies, lobbied for their rights, and defended themselves against false accusations. How and why did Germany and German Jews differ? During the second half of the nineteenth century, Jews outside Germany also discussed whether circumcision was an appropriate rite of passage; foreign animal protection associations, too, protested against kosher butchering; and anti-Semites, state authorities, and groups supporting the protection of religious rituals played a part. The footnotes and the occasional remark indicate that Judd is well aware of the wider European and American context. Nevertheless, ultimately it remains unclear if Germany represented a Sonderweg (special path) and, if so, what the wider implications of such a thesis would be with regard to the 1980s debates over the alleged German Sonderweg.

None of this detracts from an impressive study. Judd opens a new and innovative perspective on modern German and modern Jewish history through the prism of two much discussed, but little understood religious rites. She aptly combines a close examination of discourses on religion and modernity with a discussion of the transformation of modern Germany.