At Eden's door: The Habsburg Jewish life of Leon Kellner 1859-1928

Leon Kellner (1859–1928) was ‘one of the great and good of Habsburg Austria’ (p. 1). Born to an orthodox Jewish family in the Galician town of Tarnów, he came to be an acclaimed scholar and writer, social activist, and early Zionist leader. In many respects, his successes, and their limitations, often due to the antisemitism so deeply entrenched in Austrian society, make him a representative of the grand narrative of the Jewish experience in the late Habsburg Empire. David Rechter’s biography brings Kellner’s path and experience, his milieu and social environment, and the dialectical relation between acculturation and nationalism to light, remembering and honouring a passionate teacher, advisor to presidents, prolific scholar and friend of Theodor Herzl.