Description
Book SynopsisIn September 1791, two years after the Revolution, French Jews were granted full rights of citizenship. Scholarship has traditionally focused on this turning point of emancipation while often overlooking much of what came before. In Rites and Passages, Jay R. Berkovitz argues that no serious treatment of Jewish emancipation can ignore the cultural history of the Jews during the ancien régime. It was during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that several lasting paradigms emerged within the Jewish community—including the distinction between rural and urban communities, the formation of a strong lay leadership, heightened divisions between popular and elite religion, and the strain between local and regional identities. Each of these developments reflected the growing tension between tradition and modernity before the tumultuous events of the French Revolution.
Rites and Passages emphasizes the resilience of religious tradition during
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"Although the French National Assembly granted Jews citizenship in 1791, this magisterial book argues that the meanings of this revolutionary watershed must be understood through much longer-running discussions and complex variations among French Jews. . . . This detailed volume . . . should interest a wide range of scholars in religious and civic history." * Choice *
"A formidable achievement that deserves to be read by all historians of modern Jewry and of the French Revolution. Berkovitz has laid out a fertile path for future exploration, and scholars will no doubt be indebted to him for many years to come." * Jewish History *
"A rich work of scholarship that tells with great erudition the unique story of French Jewish modernization." * Journal of Religion *
"A remarkable achievement. . . . Berkovitz has produced an erudite and persuasive work and a model of interdisciplinary scholarship. A major contribution to the study of European Jewry, Rites and Passages is equally relevant to the study of French history, cultural history, and the relationship between religion and modernity." * Ronald Schechter, H-France Review *
Table of Contents
Introduction
PART I. LEADERSHIP, COMMUNITY, AND RITUAL IN THE ANCIEN RÉGIME
1. Communal Authority and Leadership
2. Secularization, Consumption, and Communal Controls
3. Ritual and Religious Culture in Alsace-Lorraine
PART II. REVOLUTION, RÉGÉNÉRATION, AND EMANCIPATION
4. The Ordeal of Citizenship, 1782-1799
5. Religion, State, and Community: The Impact of Napoleonic Reform
6. The "Jewish Question" During the Bourbon Restoration
PART III. TRANSFORMATIONS IN JEWISH SELF-UNDERSTANDING
7. Scholarship and Identity: La Science de Judaïsme
8. Rabbinic Authority and Ritual Reform
9. Patrie et Religion: The Social and Religious Implications of Civic Equality
Conclusion
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
