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French-Jewish 'Emancipation' Pierre Birnbaum. Jewish Destinies: Citizenship, State and Community in Modern France. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. New York: Hill & Wang, 2000. vii + 324 pp. $35.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8090-6101-3. Reviewed by Jonathan Judaken Published on H-Antisemitism (February, 2001) French-Jewish 'Emancipation' and its Discon‐ ous welcome extended to the Jews from France' s tents former colonies.' --Annie Kriegel 'Let us be grateful to assimilation. If at the These two epigraphs encapsulate the histori‐ same time, we oppose it, it is because this ' with‐ cal, political and sociological questions raised in drawal into the self' which is essential to us, and this excellent translation of Pierre Birnbaum's which is so often disparaged, is not the symptom tour de force, Destins juifs: De la Revolution fran‐ of an outmoded phase of existence, but reveals a ' caise a Carpentras (1995). Jewish Destinies is an beyond' to universalism.' --Emmanuel Levinas ' outstanding overview of key debates and person‐ The vise gradually tightened. The frst stage alities that have shaped the history of Jews in was the roundup of a thousand prominent Jews in modern France. Birnbaum, a Professor at the Uni‐ December 1941. One of my uncles was in that versity of Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne) and the In‐ group. He and most of the others never returned stitut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris, a leading politi‐ from deportation. That roundup proved conclu‐ cal sociologist, and one of France's most eminent sively that Nazis were going to destroy the Jews, scholars of the political history of Jews in France, whatever their origin. Until then--not to their has written close to twenty books, several of credit or foresightedness, it must be said--French which have appeared in English. Unlike Paula Hy‐ Jews thought they would be treated differently man's masterful social history of The Jews of Mod‐ from foreign Jews. That day, they realized that ern France (1998), which offers a general histori‐ they shared a common destiny. This important cal survey, Birnbaum's book focuses on how the lesson influenced the French Jewish community conflicts faced by the contemporary Jewish com‐ in the postwar years. They realized that they munity between universality and particularity, shared a common destiny whatever their back‐ the national community and individuality, and re‐ ground. That explains, I believe, the warm, gener‐ ligiosity and secularism were shaped by France's distinct path through the modern period. H-Net Reviews The text is divided into three parts with (3) the compatibility of communal structures with twelve chapters framed by an introduction and citizenship and the structures of the nation-state conclusion, with a preface for American and Eng‐ (p. 19). lish readers that sketches the differences between On the basis of these principal issues, Birn‐ the constructions of citizenship, state and commu‐ baum revisits the historical debates of the Revolu‐ nity in France, the United States and Great tion that eventually led to Jewish emancipation Britain. An ' Afterword' discusses events in the on September 27, 1791, showing clearly that the French-Jewish community since the book's French price of Jewish emancipation was cultural inte‐ publication. Even for readers familiar with Birn‐ gration. Therefore, taking the civic oath, which baum's other work, his discussions of the 'Differ‐ conferred the right to vote and participate in civic ent Roads to Emancipation' (Part I) and 'The Scope life, meant limiting Judaism and Jewishness to the of the Opposition' (Part II) are nevertheless in‐ private sphere and that citizenship would be in triguing to revisit here because they are framed conflict with communal affiliation. This tension by the concerns he raises most directly in Part III, was the cost of the Franco-Jewish social contract ' The Unknown Present.' This section is richly in‐ that remained unchallenged until the Dreyfus Af‐ formed by the perspective of the longue duree, fair and that was torn asunder by the Vichy be‐ which Birnbaum concludes is sorely missing from trayal of the Jewish 'fous de la Republique' much of the discussion in France today (p. 277). [zealots for the Republic] (p. 4). Since his book is less a survey than a tableau that The limits of the model of French citizenship allows Birnbaum to intervene in the major histo‐ as the pathway to emancipation were best repre‐ riographical debates of modern French-Jewish sented by Abbe Gregoire, the outstanding history, I will discuss each chapter to highlight the spokesman for Jewish emancipation, since in di‐ strengths and weaknesses of what constitutes the agnosing the degeneration of the Jewish people, unifying leitmotif of this work, Birnbaum's own Gregoire 'the emancipator, and Edouard Dru‐ defense of French Republicanism. His apologia is mont, the indefatigable antisemite, were virtually muted by his deep understanding of the problems identical' (p. 17). The crucial difference was, of of the Republican model, but it nevertheless fails course, that for Gregoire, while Judaism was in‐ to go beyond reaffirming the promises of Franco- herently degenerate, Jews were not. He thought Judaism because of the dangers he identifies with that through the ineluctable effects of an educa‐ a different path. tion steeped in French culture, Judaism' s deleteri‐ Birnbaum's frst chapter lays out the debates ous effects could be overcome leading ultimately on citizenship, state and community in the Revo‐ from Jewish assimilation to conversion. lutionary period. The French conception of citi‐ Birnbaum's second chapter, 'Responding to zenship depends upon a sharp dichotomy of the the Revolution,' retraces the different positions of public and private spheres. Birnbaum discusses the two major Jewish communities in France in these as ' the civic,' which ' emphasized the nation the Revolutionary period: the Sephardic and more and its glory,' and the ' ' civil,' which was charac‐ integrated Jews of southwestern France and the terized by a withdrawal into the private realm, in Ashkenazic and largely religiously observant Jews this instance [by] a particular religious communi‐ of Alsace-Lorraine and Metz. In assessing how the ty' (p. 20). He contends that three key factors de‐ differences in their positions were negotiated in termined how the state adjudicated the demarca‐ the course of the Revolution, he suggests that tion between the public and the private: (1) the there was a paradoxical effect to the centraliza‐ right to vote; (2) access to the civil service and tion of the state and the universal model of citi‐ eventually to the machinery of government; and 2 H-Net Reviews zenship to which Jews would have to adhere as Birnbaum's third chapter, 'From Court Jews to the cost for their normative integration into State Jews' succinctly covers the whole of the French society. nineteenth century via an analysis of the relation‐ In doing so, Birnbaum lays out three major ship between Jews, the growth of the modern interpretations of the consequences of the Revolu‐ French state, and industrial and capital develop‐ tion for French Jewry. The frst is that of North ment. The chapter is framed by cautionary re‐ American historians, most prominently Michael marks about the pitfalls of both Hannah Arendt' s Marrus and Paula Hyman, who Birnbaum claims and Werner Sombart's analyses. Birnbaum argues ultimately denigrate the Franco-Judaism that that while exceptional Jews like the Rothschilds emerged from the Revolution because it turned had a long history as 'court Jews,' fnancing some Jews into Israelites, ultimately excluding Jewish of the state's affairs and handling some of the f‐ communal solidarity and a distinctive Jewish his‐ nances of princes and aristocrats, in France, Jews torical consciousness. Birnbaum reduces the com‐ played a minor role in the development of bank‐ plexity and the historical nuances of these leading ing and industry. Rather than captains of industry American historians of French Jewry whose criti‐ or even leaders of fnancial capitalism, the evi‐ cal perspective on Franco-Judaism, in my opinion, dence of the success of French integration was the certainly seems warranted by the teleology of prominence of 'state Jews' -- 'men who would owe events that each narrates (i.e. the Dreyfus Affair their careers to the ultimate victory of the univer‐ and Vichy). The second interpretation, advanced salistic principles laid down by the French Revo‐ most prominently by Phyllis Cohen Albert, argues lution' (p. 60). that while Jews did embrace the Republic as uni‐ While there certainly was social mobility and versal citizens, they still maintained their social cultural integration of Jews in the frst half of the ties and some cultural traditions so that commu‐ nineteenth century, by mid-century, there was still nal solidarity continued to survive. The third posi‐ little evidence of Jewish emancipation in the up‐ tion, which Birnbaum himself advocates, is per levels of government and the civil service. Michael Graetz's provocative argument that 'the This changed dramatically with the advent of the French Revolution promoted centralization not Third Republic when Jews became highly visible just of French society but also of the Jewish com‐ as 'state Jews.' The Third Republic (1870-1940) saw munity, which emerged from the Revolution a profound transformation of the Jewish commu‐ stronger and more unified than ever' (p. 33-34). nity demographically, geographically, culturally, Birnbaum closes the chapter by discussing the re‐ socially and politically, especially
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