Traces the gradual opening of university education in Germany to Jews, its significance for assimilation to the bourgeoisie, and the legal restrictions that nonetheless barred Jewish graduates from most professional careers.
For centuries Jews in Germany were denied full rights and excluded from gentile society. At the same time, Jewish law restricted scholarship to exegesis of the Talmud. But from the late seventeenth century onward, as German universities progressively opened their doors to them, many Jews turned toward university studies. This process accelerated around 1800 once education (
Bildung) assumed a central role for social ascent among the so-called
Bildungsbürgertum (cultural bourgeoisie). Many Jews sought to benefit from the professional and social opportunities that university attendance enabled, but they soon discovered that while the state encouraged education as a means of the ’moral improvement’ of the Jews, it was unwilling to concede them the right to professional careers. Alienated from their ancestral religion and unwilling or unable to return to trading occupations, academized Jews often found themselves leading precarious existences. Many joined the struggle for emancipation or took up the reform of Judaism. Now available in English translation for the first time, Monika Richarz’s classic study addresses the far-reaching transformation of German Jewry under the impact of university education. It traces the secularization of Jewish education, the significance of academic education for social assimilation, and the loss of Jewish solidarity with increasing acculturation and emancipation.
Innehållsförteckning
Foreword to the English Edition
Foreword to the German Edition
Preface to the German Edition
Translator’s Note
List of Abbreviations
1: Jewish Education in the Enlightenment Era
2: Jewish Encounters with the University before Emancipation
3: Jewish Students in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century
4: The Social Situation of Jewish Students in the pre-1848 Era
5: The Professional Experience of Jewish University Graduates
Conclusion
Documents
Bibliography
Index
Om författaren
JOYDEEP BAGCHEE is a Berlin-based scholar, author, and translator. He holds a Ph D in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research.
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