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The Jews of Modern France explores the endlessly complex encounter of France and its Jews from just before the Revolution to the eve of the twenty-first century. In the late eighteenth century, some forty thousand Jews lived in scattered communities on the peripheries of the French state, not considered French by others or by themselves. Two hundred years later, in 1989, France celebrated the anniversary of the Revolution with the largest, most vital Jewish population in western and central Europe. Paula Hyman looks closely at the period that began when France's Jews were offered citizenship during the Revolution. She shows how they and succeeding generations embraced the opportunities of integration and acculturation, redefined their identities, adapted their Judaism to the pragmatic and ideological demands of the time, and participated fully in French culture and politics. Within this same period, Jews in France fell victim to a secular political antisemitism that mocked the gains of emancipation, culminating first in the Dreyfus Affair and later in the murder of one-fourth of them in the Holocaust. Yet up to the present day, through successive waves of immigration, Jews have asserted the compatibility of their French identity with various versions of Jewish particularity, including Zionism. This remarkable view in microcosm of the modern Jewish experience will interest general readers and scholars alike.

Jews --- Middle East --- Regions & Countries - Asia & the Middle East --- History & Archaeology --- History --- Jewish religion --- History of France --- anno 1800-1999 --- France --- Ethnic relations. --- History. --- acculturation. --- alienation. --- antisemitism. --- assimilation. --- central europe. --- citizenship. --- discrimination. --- dreyfus affair. --- europe. --- france. --- french culture. --- french history. --- french identity. --- french jews. --- french revolution. --- global diasporas. --- hate. --- history. --- holocaust. --- integration. --- isolation. --- jewish citizenship. --- jewish experience. --- jewish particularity. --- jewish people. --- jewish population. --- jews. --- judaica. --- judaism. --- modern france. --- nonfiction. --- political antisemitism. --- prejudice. --- religion. --- zionism.

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Enlightenment writers, revolutionaries, and even Napoleon discussed and wrote about France's tiny Jewish population at great length. Why was there so much thinking about Jews when they were a minority of less than one percent and had little economic and virtually no political power? In this unusually wide-ranging study of representations of Jews in eighteenth-century France-both by Gentiles and Jews themselves-Ronald Schechter offers fresh perspectives on the Enlightenment and French Revolution, on Jewish history, and on the nature of racism and intolerance. Informed by the latest historical scholarship and by the insights of cultural theory, Obstinate Hebrews is a fascinating tale of cultural appropriation cast in the light of modern society's preoccupation with the "other." Schechter argues that the French paid attention to the Jews because thinking about the Jews helped them reflect on general issues of the day. These included the role of tradition in religion, the perfectibility of human nature, national identity, and the nature of citizenship. In a conclusion comparing and contrasting the "Jewish question" in France with discourses about women, blacks, and Native Americans, Schechter provocatively widens his inquiry, calling for a more historically precise approach to these important questions of difference.

Jews --- French literature --- Jews in literature. --- Public opinion --- Hebrews --- Israelites --- Jewish people --- Jewry --- Judaic people --- Judaists --- Ethnology --- Religious adherents --- Semites --- Judaism --- Opinion, Public --- Perception, Public --- Popular opinion --- Public perception --- Public perceptions --- Judgment --- Social psychology --- Attitude (Psychology) --- Focus groups --- Reputation --- Social conditions --- History and criticism. --- History --- Public opinion. --- Identity. --- Napoleon --- Bonapart, Napoleon, --- Bonāpārṭa, Nepoliyana, --- Bonaparte, Napoleão, --- Bonaparte, Napoleon, --- Bonaparte, Napoleone, --- Bonaparṭeh, Napolyon, --- Buonaparte, Napoleon, --- Na-pʻo-lun, --- Nābuliyūn, --- Napoleone --- Napʻolleong, --- Napolun, --- נפוליאון --- נפוליאון, --- نابليون --- بونابرت، نابليون، --- Būnābart, Nābuliyūn, --- Relations with Jews. --- France --- Ethnic relations. --- Napoléon --- Bonaparte, Napoléon --- Bonāpārṭa, Nepoliyana --- Bonaparte, Napoleão --- Bonaparte, Napoleon --- Bonaparte, Napoleone --- Buonaparte, Napoleon --- Na-pʻo-lun --- Napolun --- Napoleon -- I, -- Emperor of the French, -- 1769-1821 -- Relations with Jews.. --- Jews -- France -- Identity.. --- Jews -- Public opinion.. --- Public opinion -- France -- History -- 18th century.. --- Public opinion -- France -- History -- 19th century.. --- Jews in literature.. --- French literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism. --- acculturation. --- alienation. --- antisemitism. --- assimilation. --- belonging. --- citizenship. --- cultural appropriation. --- cultural theory. --- discrimination. --- enlightenment. --- europe. --- exile. --- feminism. --- france. --- french history. --- french jews. --- french revolution. --- gender. --- homeland. --- human nature. --- indigenous people. --- intolerance. --- jewish history. --- jewish population. --- jewish question. --- judaica. --- judaism. --- national identity. --- native americans. --- nonfiction. --- othering. --- politics. --- prejudice. --- racism. --- religion. --- religious difference. --- social body. --- social issues. --- tradition.