The author specifically examines the rise of distinctive German-Jewish subculture based not, as widely believed, on nationalistic (Jewish v. German) or religious (Jewish v. Christian) grounds, but rather on the struggle for emancipation and social acceptance in German society. The emergence of this subculture, he argues, though not widely recognized by its members, attests to the fact that German Jewry's emancipation did not result in assimilation nor was its cultural productivity gained at the cost of self-denial. Readership: scholars and students of Jewish and German history, and Jewish culture.