In an overall treatment of any aspect of Jewish religious activity through its inevitably chequered history, the survey of the modern period ought on the surface to be the easiest to complete and the least problematic to analyse. The original sources are numerous and varied, the events are not chronologically distant and previous scholarly attention is rarely lacking. Paradoxically, however, these same considerations may bring with them the danger of misrepresenting the nature and significance of developments. Because of the documentary embarras de richesse one is easily tempted to treat both sources and earlier assessments at face value and to overlook the fact that the modern period is no more free of tendentiousness than any other. Indeed, the very variety of views and freedom of opinion that are among its hallmarks may intoxicate the enquirer with a surfeit of information and precipitate a failure to distinguish adequately between historical criticism and theological bias. As with the early Christian era, scholars approaching the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are rarely without their preconceived notions and personal religious biases and while this state of affairs may not necessarily invalidate their evidence, one is well advised to take it into consideration in assessing the validity of their evaluations. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren that we are of those who created much of modern history, it is no mean challenge to have to stand back from personal biographies and family commitments and offer as near a scholarly interpretation of their historical background and development as human proensities make possible.