ABSTRACT
In an often cited article from 1975, the historian of modern German Jewry Michael Meyer noted the problematic nature of periodizing modern Jewish history, pointing to a number of possible beginning points and asserting that none could really carry the day for all Jews, given the multitude of places in which Jews lived and the varied conditions they faced. The story of modern Jewry was one of demographic change, with growing populations, migration, and increasing urbanization. Despite population losses attributable to warfare, pogroms, emigration, and declining birth rates, Jewish populations tended to increase slightly in the period between First and Second World Wars. Modernization is frequently associated, among other things, with rational and scientific thought, secularism, individualism, and religious toleration. The modern period witnessed crises and breaks that some have argued represented major changes to human existence, from industrial and technological revolutions to a general acceleration of life.
