Reading: Jews: A
History, pp. 231-240
Answer question #1 and one other question
1. When does the modern period in Jewish history begin? What
is modernity?
2. What is the Enlightenment?
3. What was the situation for Jews living in the main
centers of Jewish life in 1700: central Europe (Germany, Austria), France,
England, Sephardic Jews in the Ottoman Empire, Italy, and Poland-Lithuania?
Contrast the economic and social position of Jews in these various centers.
4. What signs of incipient modernization can be found in
these various Jewish communities?
5. In central Europe, new friendships between Jews and non-Jews
occurred among the elite. What were the consequences of these friendships? What
problems did some Jews see in these contacts?
6. Some Jews, among both the lower classes and the wealthy,
converted to Christianity – why did they do this?
1. The modern period in Jewish history is very difficult to pin down for the reasons that it did not begin all at once or at the same time in different areas of Europe and Africa. The modern period is differentiated from the early modern period in the appearance of new different ideas regarding Jews and their treatment. The problem is that in many countries some of these ideas were already in place. Spain expelled much of their jewish population in 1492 and Rome already confined Jews to a separate ghetto. Even within the Ottoman Empire Jews were limited in where they were allowed to live and the type of homes they could build, though these rules were often not enforced to their harshest extent. The ideas that we associate with the modern period include greater focus on the individual rather than as a group, new professions that required specialized knowledge and greater intellectual movements. By and large most countries in Europe began to enter the modern period during the eighteenth century.
ReplyDelete6. During the the Modern period there was a increase in the number of Jews who were converting the Christianity, both form the lower as well as upper classes. Both men and women converted for different reasons. For women, by converting many upper class women saw their religion as the cause of their confinement to their homes and inability to gain access to higher education, as Rahel Levin Varnhagen did. Some fathers wished to ensure that their children had greater opportunity to live a happy life. Moses Mendelssohn did precisely this and with the emergence of the Lutheran church many Jews saw christianity as a more forgiving religion, as many saw Islam in the early modern period. At the same time the changing nature of the economy in Europe saw jews losing job they had long held, both by new peoples taking over these jobs and by them being barred from it by law. By converting many of the jews who were living on the bottom of society hoped that they might find work that had once been closed to them.
1. It begins I think in the 19th century with the rise of modernity. Modernity is the state of conscious recognition that the now is unique, meaningful and original, significantly different from other eras. Through modernity, the rise of new and clear intellectual and cultural sensibilities that were conditioned by tangible changes in the economic, social, and political environment. This occurred through the decline of aristocracy and absolute monarchy, rise of modern science, as well as the middle class emergence to economic and political power.
ReplyDelete2. The Enlightenment is the refashioning of society based on progress, reason, an helping belief in the capacity of people to improve and faith in human ingenuity. The Enlightenment was inspired by the 17th century scientific revolution as well as its practice of close observation and experimentation and inner logic. These "philosophies" denied the religious and traditional authority, replacing it with the natural right to exercise their liberty and to create new social, economic, and political structures to benefit the greater good and individuals.
1. When does the modern period in Jewish history begin? What is modernity?
ReplyDeleteThe modern period in Jewish history began with the arrival of modernity, which saw the rise of entirely new and clearly visible cultural and intellectual sensibilities that were caused by substantial changes in the political, social, and economic environment. Such as the Enlightenment, the rise of modern science, the decline of the aristocracy and absolute monarchy, the beginning of industrialization and the rise of the factory system, a large scale migration from the countryside to cities, and the formation of distinctive urban sensibilities and lifestyles.
Modernity is the state of conscious recognition that the present is unique, original, and meaningfully distinct from previous eras, but it isn't just a technical term for the ancient expression of youthful rebellion. This change in the society must be substantial enough to change everything, even how people think.
2. What is the Enlightenment?
The Enlightenment was an intellectual revolution of the 18th century where leading Enlightenment figures (Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire, Adam Smith, Kant, etc) proposed a refashioning of society based on reason, progress, faith in human ingenuity, and a continuing belief in the ability of all people for improvement.