Todd Endelman - Leaving the Jewish Fold: Conversion and Radical Assimilation in Modern Jewish History

Leaving the Jewish Fold

Conversion and Radical Assimilation in Modern Jewish History

TODD M. ENDELMAN

University of Michigan

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD

Copyright 2015 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW

press.princeton.edu

Jacket design and illustration by Marcella Engel Roberts
Jacket photo Eldad Carin/Shutterstock

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Endelman, Todd M., author.

Leaving the Jewish fold : conversion and radical assimilation in modern Jewish history / Todd M. Endelman, University of Michigan.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 9780-691004792 (cloth : alk. paper)ISBN 069100479-X (cloth : alk. paper) 1. JewsConversion to ChristianityHistory. 2. Christian converts from JudaismHistory. 3. JewsConversion to ChristianityEuropeHistory. 4. Christian converts from JudaismEuropeHistory. 5. JewsCultural assimilationEurope. 6. JewsEuropeIdentity. 7. EuropeEthnic relations. I. Title.

BV2620.E53 2015

248.24608992404dc23

2014017972

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

This book has been composed in Janson Text

Printed on acid-free paper.

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For

Miriam Abigail Endelman
Noa Bess Endelman
Maya Shirleen Margolis
Ari Jacob Margolis

Preface

T HIS BOOK HAS BEEN MANY YEARS in the making. I began work on it in the late 1970s, after completing my first book, The Jews of Georgian England (1979). The choice of subject was, in part, a consequence of my interest in the history of Jewish integration into European society, a theme I explored in the British context in my first book. It was also inspired by a suggestion made to me by Haym Soloveitchik, then dean of the Bernard Revel Graduate School at Yeshiva University, where I was teaching at the time, that I consider a project on Jewish converts to Christianity in the modern period. In the academic year 198182, with the support of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, I was able to work full-time on the project. I soon realized it would be impossible for me to write the ambitious book I initially envisioned given the paucity of secondary literature on the social history of European Jewry in the modern period. So instead I narrowed my focus and worked on what became Radical Assimilation in English Jewish History (1990). However, my interest in comparing the incidence and character of conversion in different lands never flagged. I returned to the topic and worked on it intermittently during the years that I taught at Indiana University (197985) and the University of Michigan (19852012). During this period I wrote a dozen articles about conversion and other forms of radical assimilation, but devoted as much time, if not more, to other projects, including The Jews of Britain (2002) and Broadening Jewish History (2010). My retirement in 2012 finally provided me with the time to complete the book. I would like to think that it has benefited from its decades-long gestation, allowing me to test my ideas in numerous forums and to think long and hard about the problems it raises, but this may be wishful thinking on my part. In any case, I have no doubt that it has benefited from the boom in the writing of modern Jewish history in the last three or four decades. When I started my doctoral studies, in 1971, modern Jewish history was not a well-developed academic subject and the historical literature I had to master was not overwhelming. While this no doubt eased the burden of preparing for my doctoral examinations, it also hampered the task of thinking about modern Jewish history in a comparative context. In this sense, there has been an upside to the length of time I have spent on the book, even if it was unintended.

The number of friends and colleagues who have contributed to this projectby answering questions, suggesting relevant books and articles, and reading chapters at various stagesis very large indeed, and to list all of them would tax the patience of readers. I must, however, acknowledge the contribution of one friend in particular, Victor Lieberman, whose interest in the project was unflagging and whose careful reading of the complete manuscript was an enormous help. I also would like to acknowledge the extraordinary forbearance of my editor at Princeton University Press, Brigitta van Rheinberg, who never once reminded me that the manuscript was long overdue. And, as always, I am indebted to my wife, Judy, who did ask me, more than once, when the book would be finished. Her love and good cheer, especially her readiness to laugh at comments that I thought were witty, sustained me.

I am also grateful for financial support from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Humanities Institute and the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. While I was working on this book, I spent three extended periods as a fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. The Centres country estate, Yarnton Manor, was for me a haven of tranquility and an oasis of gentility. I have always profited from my time there. For understandable reasons, the Centre is disposing of the estate and moving to central Oxford. It is with a sense of regret that I note that I am part of the last cohort of scholars to live and work at Yarnton Manor.

I have dedicated this book to my four grandchildren, all of them residents of Brooklyn, a hotbed of Jewish enterprise and creativity. They are too young to read this book now, but I want them, as well as their parents, to know how much their lives have enriched my own life, offering me pleasures I had not known before they came into the world.

Abbreviations