Really? I'm the first? Well, I read it several years ago, but was really taken with it. I am a George Eliot fan, but this book really broadened my horizons in terms of how Jews were treated then and there - something I'd never considered in a larger context (I mean we know it's always been rough, right?). And it really makes you stop and think wow, anti-Semitism has been around forever, and it really sucks. And it was also something that was just taken for granted.

And then right after this I read a Bernard Malamud novel about a Russian Jew unlawfully imprisoned who finds his faith, and I thought holy crap, pogroms and prisons were pretty awful. If I recall, it was "The Fixer" which I'd also highly recommend. Yes, it was The Fixer, I checked.

Daniel Deronda is also a lovely little film with the very pretty Hugh Dancy and Romola Garai. Book's better, though.