Next Year in Marienbad The Lost Worlds of Jewish Spa Culture

"Next Year in Marienbad offers a fascinatingly erudite glimpse of the joys and sorrows of well-to-do Jews on holiday over a century ago."-The Forward "A charming, highly readable, and scholarly contribution to the cultural history of the Jewish bourgeoisie of central and eastern Europe. With wit and learning Mirjam Zadoff has elevated Marienbad to the rank of a Jewish 'lieu de memoire.'"-Saul Friedlander, University of California, Los Angeles "A rich tale beautifully told, Mirjam Zadoff's evocative study introduces us to the single most important recreational activity for modern Jews in Central Europe: their annual summer pilgrimage to take the waters at their favorite spa resorts. Zadoff's remarkable history of Jewish sociability introduces us to a Chaucerian parade of characters and transports us back to those spas, reanimating for the reader their long-gone social and cultural life and making it clear why Jews so eagerly looked forward to spending next year in Marienbad."-John M. Efron, University of California-Berkeley "A very engaging, interesting, suggestive, and important book. Next Year in Marienbad deals with three famous international spas and skillfully uses evidence from each of them to paint a broader picture of 'Jewish space' in European life between 1870 and 1938."-Marsha L. Rozenblit, University of Maryland