The Jews by John Efron Steven Weitzman Matthias Lehmann & Matthias Lehmann & Steven Weitzman

Author:John Efron,Steven Weitzman,Matthias Lehmann & Matthias Lehmann & Steven Weitzman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Chapter 11

MODERN TRANSFORMATIONS

THE JEWISH PEOPLE were energized by their encounter with modernity, stepping forward to meet its challenges by trying to refashion themselves and their faith to suit the demands of changing times. Jewish thinkers, writers, and ordinary people produced a dizzying array of cultural and political options that reflected the prodigious diversity of the Jewish people. The relationship of Jews to modernity was not merely reactive; it was also proactive. In the process of refashioning themselves, Jews also contributed to the creation of modern sensibilities. What made for the rich variety of responses was the fact that beginning in the early modern period but becoming even more pronounced in the eighteenth century, the Jewish world, particularly in Europe, began to fracture. This was especially the case among Ashkenazim, the majority faction among world Jews. Despite certain differences in Halakhah (Jewish law) and minhag (Jewish custom) between Western and Central European Jews, on the one hand, and those from Eastern Europe, on the other, the pan-Ashkenazic religious culture had been relatively uniform. Beyond this, there was what has been termed a “meta-Ashkenazic interconnecting web of [family and business] relationships.” But in the eighteenth century, whatever religious and social cohesion had existed began to further unravel as Ashkenazic communities that extended from England to Russia became increasingly different from one another.

Radically divergent policies across eighteenth-century Europe also left a deep impact on the character of various Jewish communities. In liberal England, the small Jewish population became increasingly English, whereas, at the same time on the Continent, Empress Maria Theresa expelled the Jews of Prague in 1744 as if they constituted a foreign body. What a contrast to the situation in France, where the revolution transformed Jews into French citizens. At the same time, German Jews, while becoming ever more German and middle-class, were still denied the full benefits of civic freedoms. Within the Jewish world, moderate and radical Sabbateans fought bitterly with each other, while small but significant numbers left Judaism altogether, choosing apostasy. Eastern European Jews, while politically disenfranchised, nevertheless expressed great cultural vibrancy with the advent of Hasidism and its opposition movement, Mitnaggdism. Proponents of the Haskalah or Jewish Enlightenment further contributed to the splintering of Eastern European Jewry. The Ashkenazic world split into a variety of types, courtesy of both historical forces and Jewish attempts to confront, adapt, and often anticipate change. Jews who initiated transformations in Jewish society often did so in reaction to contemporary developments, but it would be inaccurate to claim that Jews were merely playing catch-up. The modern Jewish proponents of the reform or regeneration of Jewish life also acted just as Jews always had, as agents of their own destiny, filled with new ideas born of Jewish needs and experience.

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