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Orthodox Judaism is often perceived simply as the continuation of pre-modern Jewish tradition. In fact, Orthodoxy represents a diverse range of self-conscious attempts to promote new forms of Jewishness that are cast as unchanging over time, filling an urgent need in an age of constant change. In the midst of a tumultuous era, marked by the new values of Enlightenment, Orthodoxy emerged as a new term and movement, struggling to gain stability in a world of conflict and adaptation. Quite unlike its public reputation, Orthodoxy does not convey fixity; rather, it is an elastic term that embraces different and evolving sub-groups of Jews who do not necessarily embrace each other as they struggle to police their boundaries.  

In this first comprehensive history of Orthodoxy, Joshua Shanes argues that Orthodox Jews are not traditional, but traditionalist. As the great historian Jacob Katz explained, traditionalists consciously attempt to recreate a pre-modern system in a new context and with decidedly modern tools, and in an environment that does not take its values as self-evident or authoritative. Even beyond the ritual and theological innovations of Orthodoxy – which are many - its awareness that other options are available produces a counter-intuitive break between Orthodoxy and the world it seeks to perpetuate.

This book traces the emergence and evolution of the term “Orthodoxy” in Judaism and the communities that claimed it, from Western and Central Europe into Eastern Europe, America, Israel and other parts of the Jewish Diaspora. It unpacks an intriguing historical irony: how a traditional culture evolved into a voluntary religio-political community maintained by a determined minority that viewed itself as the sole carriers of Jewish authenticity in the modern world.