Jews at the Crossroads
Tradition and Accommodation during the Golden Age of
the Hungarian Nobility
Howard N. Lupovitch, Pulver Family Associate
Professor of Jewish Studies
Colby College, History Department
Examines the social and political history of the Jews
of Miskolc-the third largest Jewish community in Hungary-and
presents the wider transformation of Jewish identity
during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It explores
the emergence of a moderate, accommodating form of traditional
Judaism that combined elements of tradition and innovation,
thereby creating an alternative to Orthodox and Neolog
Judaism. This form of traditional Judaism reconciled
the demands of religious tradition with the expectations
of Magyarization and citizenship, thus allowing traditional
Jews to be patriotic Magyars.
By focusing on Hungary, this book seeks to correct a
trend in modern Jewish historiography that views Habsburg
Jewish History as an extension of German Jewish History,
most notably with regard to emancipation and enlightenment.
Rather than trying to fit Hungarian Jewry into a conventional
Germano-centric taxonomy, this work places Hungarian
Jews in the distinct contexts of the Habsburg Monarchy
and the Danube Basin, positing a more seamless nexus
between the eighteenth and nineteenth century. This
nexus was rooted in a series of political experiments
by Habsburg sovereigns and Hungarian noblemen that culminated
in civic equality, and in the gradual expansion of traditional
Judaism to meet the challenges of the age.
Contents
Preface; Introduction Rethinking the Rhythms
of Emancipation and Enlightenment; Chapter 1 Eighteenth
Century Pastorale: The Allures and Uncertainties of
the Hungarian Frontier; Chapter 2 Crown, Town,
Magnate, and Jew: Corporate Politics in Borsod County;
Chapter 3 The Hevra Kadisha and the Rise of the
Family Syndicate; Chapter 4 Jews in the Time
of Cholera: The Epidemic of 1831 and Its Aftermath;
Chapter 5 The Kehilla and the Business of Religion;
Chapter 6 Educational Reform and Religious Identity;
Chapter 7 Széchenyi's Soup at Szemere's
Table Miskolc Jewry and the Era of Reform, 1836-1848;
Chapter 8 Revolution by Proxy: Jews in the Hinterland;
Chapter 9 Coming of Age, 1851-1878; Conclusion
1878 and Beyond: Two Chambers of One Heart; Appendix:
"Words of Peace and Truth": A Call for Unity
by Moses Ezekiel Fischmann; Bibliography; Index
"As Lupovitch shows in a carefully researched
local case study, there is value in turning from the
large centers of Jewish life in central and eastern
Europe to examine smaller Jewish communities. In reality,
the Miskolc Jewish community was far from negligible.
In 1848, this was the third largest Jewish community
in Hungary after Budapest and Nagyvárad, and
by 1869 Jews made up more than 20 percent of the city's
population. Seizing upon the survival of a rich collection
of communal protocols, Lupovitch offers a detailed reconstruction
of the development of Jewish institutions in the city,
the relationship between Jews and their non-Jewish noble
patrons, and debates within the Jewish community during
the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."
- Slavic Review
"Lupovitch organizes the book into three sections
corresponding to the phases in the development of noble-Jewish
relations. In the first period, from the origins of
organized Jewish life in Miskolc until the cholera epidemic
of 1831, Jews were primarily economic partners of the
nobility. In the second period, Jews became administrative
allies of the nobility as well. Finally, from the Jewish
emancipation debates of the 1840s through the Miskolc
Jewish community's affiliation with moderate Orthodoxy
in 1878 and beyond, Jews aided the nobility in the promotion
of the Magyar national movement in the Kingdom of Hungary,
an essential aspect of their citizenship in the multinational
state." - Austrian History Yearbook
"Lupovitch is most successful when closely examining
- among others - the nature of litigations between Jews
and magnates, the everyday functioning of Jewish organizations,
as well as, for instance, when analyzing the heated
debates behind choosing a new rabbi for the community.
Lupovitch convincingly supports his thesis about the
middle-ground option of the Miskolc commmunity, and
his work also prompts the re-examination of accepted
tenets on East- and Central-European Jewish historiography
through its investigation on the local level. Considering
how substantially researched and well-written Jews
at the Crossroads is, Lupovitch's community study
is likely to prove an indispensable piece of Jewish
history in the region." - ECE Journal
2007
303 pages
ISBN 978-963-7326-66-0 cloth $44.95 / €34.95 /
£30.00
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