Becoming Austrians seeks to explore the “role of Jews and the “Jewish” in shaping Austrian culture” (p. 6). By focusing on the First Austrian Republic (1919–1938), this study presents a welcome addition to existing historiography centering on the Habsburg Empire. But Silverman's study is not merely about filling a gap or another depiction celebrating the so-called Jewish contribution to Austrian culture. It offers a bold and stimulating attempt to rethink the concept of Jewishness in the special years between the world wars.

The idea of Jewishness is based here on the notion of difference as a cultural code that despite remaining frequently unarticulated more often than not made “Austrians” into Jews regardless of their degree of Jewish self-identification. This is an ambitious approach that seeks to elevate the notion of Jewish difference to an analytical category that like gender and class “used each others’ terms in order to articulate their power” (p. 6). The four chapters of the book explore the process of becoming “Jewish.” They demonstrate how Jewish difference has mattered even in cases where the subject of scrutiny did not acknowledge the deep meaning and extensive implications the binary division between the “Jewish” and the “non-Jewish” had on their lives. Each chapter deals with several episodes of interwar life, some of which deserve a book-length study in their own right. This is definitely the case with the first chapter, in my view, the most compelling section of the book. This chapter explores a series of court trials implying a strong link between the coding of Jewish difference and broader political and social tensions that shaped the First Republic. Based on meticulous reading of original trial documents, Silverman demonstrates how assigning abstract qualities coded “Jewish” and “not-Jewish” colored the public perception and eventually influenced the outcome of these trials. The underlying idea here is not only to explain the practice of distinguishing between “Jewish” and “non-Jewish,” but also to expose the negative attitude to everything coded “Jewish.” This negative approach to the question of Jewish difference comprises the common thread that ties together the different sections of Silverman's study.

After dealing with actual court cases, the book examines Hugo Bettauer's well-known novel and subsequent film entitled City without Jews (1924). Heeding the absence of Jewish women in the novel, Silverman argues that Bettauer's novel conveys the anxiety of Jewish men who saw Jewish women as an impediment to the attempt to blur the boundaries between the “Jewish” and “non-Jewish.” Thus Jewish women were frequently doubly disadvantaged by the prevalent male perception of successful Jewish women as the avatar and keeper of Judaism. In this case, too, “difference” is conceived in negative terms. Interestingly, the disparity between the life experiences of Jewish men and women is displayed as reflecting the constructed social order of Jewish difference and not vice versa.

After discussing the gendered nature of Jewish difference, Silverman turns to the spatial dimension of the construction of Jewish otherness. The third chapter of the book not only deals with the established association of Vienna as a Jewish city, but also explores the fine interplay between the efforts to make the city suit Jewish needs, and how Jews were shaped by the city. At the hub of this chapter is a discussion of the Jewish quarter of Vienna—Leopoldstadt—which is not simply depicted as a Jewish space, but as another manifestation of the Jewish situation where Jews are “attached to, yet fundamentally excluded from their city” (p. 124). This sense of ambivalence also dominates the fourth and final chapter of the study where Silverman explores the efforts of both Max Reinhardt and Hugo von Hofmannstahl to forge an Austrian identity that reveals their engagement with the question of Jewish difference.

It should be clear from this brief summary that Silverman's book raises important questions and breaks new ground both empirically and conceptually. But the boldness and the occasional overreliance on theoretical terminology entail certain risks. The dense argument is at times difficult to follow. Some parts might have benefited from lengthier and more empirical-based analysis. The approach to the notion of Jewish difference is one sided and does not always acknowledge the complexity of the notion of distinction in modern society. But more importantly, in the end the study does not seem to go beyond the prevailing focus of Jewish studies on intellectuals and cultural production. Lastly, the division between the text and the lengthy endnotes, which comprise almost half of the book, impede what is otherwise an enjoyable read of a fluid narrative. These concerns aside, scholars of the Jewish experience should look at Silverman's work for an imaginative example of how to rethink their discipline and methodology.