having done pioneer work with his "Histoire de la Religion des Juifs" (5 vols. Rotterdam, 1707-11).
The pioneer of modern Jewish history is Isaac Marcus Jost (1793-1860). His "Allgemeine Geschichte des Juedischen Volkes." and "Meniere Geschichte der Israeliten." in spite of their shortcomings due to the lack of preparatory studies, where real historiographic achievements, while his "Geschichte des Judenthums und seiner Sekten" remains a standard work to the present day. Next to Jost is to be mentioned Selig (Paulus) Cassel (1821-92), whose article on Jewish history in the "Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste" of Ersch and Gruber (vol. xxvii.) may justly be called a memorable work. Both of these, however, were overshadowed by H. Graetz (1817-91), whose "Geschichte der Juden," in eleven volumes, although inadequate in many details, owing mainly to the absence of sufficient preparatory investigations, is still the only comprehensive and indispensable work on the subject. Since the appearance of Graetz's history, a great deal of critical research has been carried on by a number of younger scholars, the results of which have been published in monographs and magazines. The labors of Isidore Loeb, D. Kaufmann, and A. Harkavy in the field deserve special mention. The Jewish Encyclopedia, by stimulating research in detail, will have paved the way for the future writer of a universal Jewish history based on thoroughgoing scientific investigation.
The historical matter in this work is presented according to a system which may be indicated as follows: The history of all communities of any importance is given in detail; this information is summarized in connection with the various divisions of the different countries containing Jewish communities; lastly, a general sketch with cross-references to these subdivisions has been provided for each country. In addition to this, numerous general topics have been dealt with in their relations to the Jews, such as the Papacy, the Crusades, the Inquisition, Protestantism, etc. Strange as it may seem, there is no country that possesses an adequate history of its Jews, though the late years considerable activity has been shown in collecting material for such histories. There exists no comprehensive history of the Jews of Germany, Austria, France, Holland, England, Italy, Poland, or the United States, or even of such political divisions as Bohemia, Moravia, and Galicia, or of congregations of such historic importance as those of Amsterdam, Frankfort-on-the-Main, London, Prague, or Wilna.
The entire field of history, sociology, economics, and statistics of the Jews in America has hitherto been left almost uncultivated. There has, for example, been no Jews in
America.attempt to present a comprehensive account concerning the foundations of the earliest Jewish communities, either in North or South America or in the West Indies. The developmental stages through which Judaism has passed in America, although of extreme interest, not only in themselves, but as promising to react upon the shaping of Judaism over all the world, have received but little attention. In The Jewish Encyclopedia the facts concerning Jews and Judaism in the New World are for the first time adequately presented.
There is no section of Jewish history that has been more meagerly treated that that pertaining to the Jews of Russia. Graetz in his work devotes very little space to Russia, Poland, and Lithuania, a defect remedied to some extent in the Hebrew translation of his history, by S. P. Rabbinowitz, with notes by A. Harkavy. In the reform period of Emperor Alexander II, the government archives were partially thrown open, so that scholars like Harkavy, Orshanki, Fuenn, and Bershadski were enabled to furnish valuable material for the early history of the Russian Jews. Dubnow has contributed largely to the history of the Hasidim, the Frankists, and the old Jewish communities. In 1900 the first volume of the "Regesti i Nadpisi" (documents, epitaphs, and extracts
