Questions for Fri 10/25

Question #2

How did religious modernization in Europe differ from religious modernization among Sephardic Jews? What factors in Sephardic life in Muslim lands led to a different experience of modernization?

Religious modernization in Europe was definitely different in comparison to religious modernization among Sephardic Jews. As enlightenment and secularization in Europe came about, the religious style of Orthodoxy emerged. The rabbis felt modernization would interfere with traditional Judaism. That is why the European rabbis created orthodoxy; in an attempt to attack the threat of modernization. The goal of orthodoxy was to deny the legitimacy of all modernist innovations. One of the major differences compared to Europe was that the Sephardic Jews did not create new radical forms of Islamic religious life as a reaction to modernization. Sephardic Jews always stayed true to their original traditions. There was less separation of religion from social and political life in Sephardic life.

The reaction to modernity in North Africa and the Middle East was way different than in Europe. Unlike the rabbis in Europe who created Orthodoxy, Islamic religious leaders decided not to create new forms of the Islamic religious life. The Jews of North Africa and the Middle East chose a more civil and accepting path in terms of their reaction towards modernity.