The State of the Jews, The Jews and the State - Wed. Sept. 25 Questions

1.) When does the modern period in Jewish history begin? What is modernity?
The modern period in Jewish history began when, for lack of a better word, modernity was onset.

Modernity is USUALLY used to describe something that, currently, is consciously different and unique than previous years. Most of these changes are cultural, social, and intellectual. Modernity, in the mid-nineteenth century, included the Enlightenment. Along with this came the decline of the monarchy and the rise of science. The middle class was given more power and industrialization rose. Life for everyone changed; religion and religious authority was questioned, the bourgeoisie took the reigns and people started to move from rural areas to cities, in order to hold more factory jobs. The classes, understandably, clashed. Out of this rose a new self-awareness of class and and institutions based on class.

2.) What is the Enlightenment?
The Enlightenment can be characterized as an intellectual revolution - along with the cultural, social, and economical changes of Modernity came a change based in progressiveness. Human intellect and innovative was tested and pushed. Religion was questioned as philosophes, like Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire, "exercised their natural right to liberty, created new, economic, political and social structures for the benefit of both individuals and the greater good." While the Enlightenment was a deeply intellectual movement, the ideas spilled over into political and economic structures. People were pushed more to innovate, to write, and to not take things at face value.