Sunday, 14 August 2016

How did Jews perceive the demands made on Jewish people who wanted to enter wider society?

However fuzzy their vision of the future, Jews eager to leave "the ghetto" believed they needed to mute or abandon the marks of Jewish particularism. Obtaining emancipation, social acceptance and civic respect, the argument went, required them to broaden their cultural horizons, throw off outworn habits, modernise their religious practices and beliefs, normalise their occupational structure, and befriend their Christian neighbours and workmates.

That does kind of cover everything, doesn't it!