An anthropological perspective on such key aspects of Jewish culture as biblical memory; traditional Jewish concepts of time; timeless images of the Promised Land; language as a metaphor for history; contemporary Jewish preoccupations with ‘continuity’ and ‘survivalism’; and the memory of the Holocaust and of the Jewish past in Poland. A fascinating exposition of the enigmatic character of Jewish historical consciousness, of ‘history’ as a new Jewish religion, and what this implies for understanding the contemporary Jewish world.