Challenges of equality
Subtitle: Judaism, state, and education in nineteenth-century France
By: Jeffrey Haus.
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Detroit
Language: eng
Number of pages: 230
ISBN-13: 9780814333808
Subjects: Jewish religious education of adults -- France -- History -- 19th century; Rabbis -- Education -- France -- 19th century; Rabbinical seminaries -- France -- History -- 19th century; Jews -- France -- Politics and government -- 19th century; Jews -- France -- History -- 19th century; Judaism and state -- France -- History -- 19th century; Judaism -- France -- History -- 19th century
Description: "Historians have typically characterized nineteenth-century French Jewry as largely eager to assimilate, or at the very least passively accommodating to assimilation, with only the most traditional Jews rejecting the trappings of French culture. Through the lens of Jewish primary and rabbinical education, author Jeffrey Haus shows that even integrated French Jews sought to set limits on assimilation and struggled to preserve a sense of Jewish distinctiveness in France. Challenges of Equality argues that Jewish leaders couched their views in terms that the government could understand and accept, portraying a Judaism consistent with the goal of cultural and political unification of the French nation. At the same time, their educational activities asserted the existence of distinctively Jewish cultural space." "Haus shows how French government officials repeatedly used political and financial pressure to advance their own vision of an integrated French Judaism. In response, Jewish leaders focused on the concepts of "utility" and "equality" to erect and manage the boundaries between their institutions and the state, as these were key elements of governmental policy toward religious and educational establishments. Haus examines these issues by comparing the financial and curricular histories of Jewish primary schools run by the Consistory and the central French rabbinical school. Utilizing a variety of sources - including school curricula, rabbinical ordination examinations, government documents and correspondence, state jurisprudential decisions, and the French Jewish press - Challenges of Equality paints a picture of a resilient and persistent French Judaism that adapted and integrated but nevertheless survived." "Scholars of Jewish history, French history, European history, and the history of education will appreciate the detailed look at Jewish integration in France that Haus provides."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Foundations; title: Roadblocks to regeneration; title: Redefinition and consolidation; title: Rabbinical education and the state, 1808-1875; title: How much Latin should a rabbi know?; title: A tale of two cities: from Metz to Paris; title: Challenges of equality: financial anticlericalism; title: Jewish education and Jewish space; title: Just proportions: financial anticlericalism and rabbinical space.