From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth

"A serene, lucid and stylish essay in intellectual autobiography that at the same time commemorates a vanished world."--Times Literary Supplement

"An extraordinary life--one that itself takes on symbolic, if not mystical, significance." --Robert Coles

From Berlin to Jerusalem portrays the dual dramas of the author's total break from his middle-class German Jewish family and his ever-increasing dedication to the study of Jewish thought. Played out during the momentous years just before, during, and after World War I, these experiences eventually led Scholem to immigrate to Palestine in 1923.

"Gershom Scholem is historian who has remade the world...He is coming to be seen as one of the greatest shapers of contemporary thought, possibly the boldest mind-adventurer of our generation."--Cynthia Ozick, New York Times Book Review

"A remarkable book."--Harold Bloom

"[Scholem] vividly describes the spiritual and intellectual odyssey that drew him...to a rigorous immersion in the texts of Jewish tradition."--Library Journal