Between 1880 and 1939, a quarter of a million European Jews settled in England. Tananbaum explores the differing ways in which the existing Anglo-Jewish communities, local government and education and welfare organizations sought to socialize these new arrivals, focusing on the experiences of working-class women and children.

Not only the Jews but Dutch society at large was caught up in a cultural maelstrom between 1880 and 1940. In failing to form a separate pillar in a period when various population groups were doing just that, the Jews were certainly unlike contemporary Catholics or Protestants. In fact, the Jews were not trying to gain entrance in a pre-existing culture but were involved with non-Jews in constructing a new culture. The complexity of Dutch Jewish history once again becomes evident if not new. Judith Frishman is professor in the Faculty of Catholic Theology of Tilburg University (the Netherlands). Hetty Berg is curator and museum affairs manager of the Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam (the Netherlands).

This 1996 study of the Zionist movement in Germany, Britain, and the United States recognizes 'Western Zionism' as a distinctive force. From the First World War until the rise of Hitler, the Zionist movement encouraged Jews to celebrate aspects of a reborn Jewish nationality and sovereignty in Palestine, while at the same time acknowledging that their members would mostly 'stay put' and strive toward acculturation in their current homelands. The growth of a Zionist consciousness among Western Jews is juxtaposed with the problematic nurturing of the movement's institutions, as Zionism was consumed increasingly by fundraising. In the 1930s, Zionist images assumed a progressively greater share of secular Jewish identity, and Zionism became normalized in the social landscape of Western Jewry, but the organization faltered in translating its popularity into a means of 'saving the Jews' and 'building up' the national home in Palestine.

This volume examines music's place in the process of Jewish assimilation into the modern European bourgeoisie and the role assigned to music in forging a new Jewish Israeli national identity, in maintaining a separate Sephardic identity, and in preserving a traditional Jewish life. Contributions include "On the Jewish Presence in Nineteenth Century European Musical Life," by Ezra Mendelsohn, "Musical Life in the Central European Jewish Village," by Philip V. Bohlman, "Jews and Hungarians in Modern Hungarian Musical Culture," by Judit Frigyesi, "New Directions in the Music of the Sephardic Jews," by Edwin Seroussi, "The Eretz Israeli Song and the Jewish National Fund," by Natan Shahar, "Alexander U. Boskovitch and the Quest for an Israeli Musical Style," by Jehoash Hirshberg, and "Music of Holy Argument," by Lionel Wolberger. The volume also contains essays, book reviews, and a list of recent dissertations in the field.

'What is whose?' As there develops increasing speculation, in our age, on the nature of 'globalisation', the prodigious flux of ideas, people, ideas, goods and fashions between Europe and the United States over the centuries invites nuanced approaches and a modicum of relativisation. Imports and exports, the endless back and forth movement of political, social, economic, cultural notions and institutions permanently raise the question of reciprocal influences and contributions. 'Facing realities' is both a fact and an indispensable activity. American institutions are indebted to European thought, American culture has to deal with European visions and the variety of the European heritage; American social and political circumstances keep informing and interfering with European choices and decisions. What notions, values and artefacts are indeed 'adopted' by one or the other continent turn out to be selected in the name of idiosyncratic cultural dispositions and thereby undergo subtle modifications. No cultural object or sign ever travels without being profoundly transformed. This volume examines nationhood, citizenship and culture, on both sides of the Atlantic, in the light of such complex exchanges. At a time when Europe is exploring its own political organization, it seeks to profit by the American experience; at a time when American culture is more and more forcefully asserting its presence in Europe, critical evaluations of its real pertinence grow more numerous. What superficially appears to be one-sided imposition turns out to be an intricate and complex dialogue. Resistance, caution, recalcitrance, defiance and rejection are as important for a definition of identity as enthusiastic sharings and the adoption of welcomed influences, however ambiguous and variously motivated. An analysis of misunderstandings is the surest way to mutual comprehension. Climb aboard the cultural shuttle.