Making Jews Dutch: Secular Discourse and Jewish Responses, 1796-1848
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University of Groningen Making Jews Dutch Rädecker, Tsila Shelly IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2015 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Rädecker, T. S. (2015). Making Jews Dutch: Secular discourse and Jewish responses, 1796-1848. University of Groningen. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 28-09-2021 Making Jews Dutch Secular Discourse and Jewish Responses )1796–1848) Tsila Rädecker To the memory of my grandparents Salemon Jacobs (Blokzijl, 1907– Sobibor, 1943) z’’l Rachel Heijman (Rijssen, 1905 – Sobibor, 1943) z’’l ii Acknowledgements “I guess there’s no point in hanging on to this tuba, then,” I said. (Wonder Boys, 1995) Curiosity and fascination with Jewish history went hand in hand in the preparation of this book. It resulted in a pleasant and perverse presence in these last few years of my life. Research was always there, lingering in the dark, plucking at my clothes and pulling me back to work. And now this sweet burden has flown the nest, leaving its creator empty handed and longing for a new research pet. I have been privileged to spend this time in an intellectual playground. The Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen has provided me with a warm and inspiring intellectual climate, witty colleagues, and a life-long aversion to the carillon. Travelling to international conferences and participating in summer schools have further enriched my personal life and research. In the course of my research I have encounterd many brilliant scholars, all of whom, both intentionally and unintentionally, contributed to this study. First of all I am grateful to my supervisor, Kocku von Stuckrad, who saw potential in my research proposal and from whose knowledge I greatly benefitted. His guidance, optimism, and sharp criticism not only improved the research but also helped me to better understand my research position and perspective. I am also very grateful to my second supervisor, Karin Hofmeester. With her knowledge of Jewish history and keen observations, she pointed me in the right direction and has prevented me from making errors. Her absolute trust in my ability gave me the confidence to complete this task. Yaniv Hagbi, my co-promotor, requires a special mention. He tutored me during my studies at the University of Amsterdam and encouraged me to pursue an academic career. His advice, comments, and suggestions have proven to be of great value. I am grateful to my collegues at Groningen, my fellow PhDs and members of informal as well as formal PhD peer groups, who commented on my work in its early stages. I especially want to thank Froukje Pitstra and Michael Green for their kind advice. Collegues such as Bart Wallet and David Wertheim have contributed greatly to my research. I am also grateful to members of the groyse un klayne kraiz, under the guidance iii of Justus van der Kamp, as they have stirred up a long-lasting love for the Yiddish language. I also want to express gratitude to the assistant conservator of the Library Rosenthaliana, Rachel Boertjes, who tracked down many manuscripts and books for me. In addition, I thank my editor Alissa Jones Nelson for carefully (copy) editing the manuscript and patience with my endless requests. This research would not have been possible without the generous funding of the Henriette Boas Stichting, Rothschild Foundation, Stichting, Association for Jewish Studies (AJS), Max Cohen Fonds, Goudse Stichting voor Joodse Sociale Arbeid, and the Vilnius Yiddish Institute. Their support enabled me to present my research at international conferences, visit archives, and enroll in summer schools. I devote this last paragraph to my family. Firstly, I need to apologize to my father, whose library on Jewish history in the Netherlands I have plundered and pilfered. I am grateful for his suggestions and help. My husband David J. Knibbe has been invaluable. He not only engaged in lengthy discussions and provided me with helpful insights and perspectives, but also meticulously read and edited my writings. Without his input, I would not have been able to write this book. A special thanks to my sweet daughter Serle, who sat cozily in my belly during the writing of this book and who afterwards has been such a delight and a pleasure. iv Contents Acknowledgements iii Introduction 1 1. Between secularization and sacralization 2 2. Historiography on the emancipation of the Jews 5 3. An alternative research perspective 12 4. Chapter topics and outline 18 5. Notes on the chronological framework and the historical sources 26 Chapter one State, citizenship, and nucleation: The Dutch Jewish community in transition 31 1. Maskilic nucleation in the Netherlands 32 2. The naye kille 37 Jewish political participation 39 The ideal of equality 41 The Sephardic ideal 43 The alte kille’s response 46 Public shaming 47 The naye kille’s legacy 50 3. Orthodox nucleation 52 The Lehren family 52 Lehren’s private minyan 57 The Hasidic influence 60 Torat ha-qena’ot vis-à-vis Reform 62 Jews vis-à-vis the state 65 v 4. Conclusion 75 Chapter two Civilizing the Jews: The reform of language, education, and religion 70 1. The abandonment of Yiddish 71 Dutch in the synagogue 73 The translation of the Hebrew Bible 77 Pronunciation of Hebrew 79 The Hebrew pronunciation polemics 81 2. Educating Dutch Jews 89 Reform of the Jewish schools 90 A Jewish signature 94 3. Religious reform 98 The naye kille’s liturgy 100 Governmental religious reform 106 Romantic visions of the Jewish ritual: The case of hamankloppen 107 4. Conclusion 111 Chapter three Rituals: New, old, and invented 112 1. Judaizing the state ritual: The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 113 The Additional Declaration 114 Rabbi Moses Löwenstamm’s resistance 117 The “For the Sake of Heaven” petition 120 The naye kille’s support of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 121 vi 2. The politicalized Jewish ritual: Purim productions 124 Addressing ‘the Jewish question’ 125 Jewish poverty 126 Jewish unproductivity 130 Critique of the Jewish religion in the character of Yerushalmi 133 3. The politicalized Jewish ritual: The sermon 136 The gunpowder tragedy in Leiden 138 Promotion of the Dutch language 142 The sermon as a moral message 144 The pastoral role 147 4. Conclusion 150 Chapter four Self-labelling and othering: Images of the Jew 152 1. The Jewish self-image 153 The Jewish beard 154 Samuel Berenstein’s beard 157 Eating as a Jew 161 The Jew as soldier 167 Jewish conscription 173 2. Perception of the Jews by non-Jews 176 The Jew as citizen 177 The coarse Jew 183 The Jew in need of regeneration 186 3. Conclusion 189 Chapter five vii The Dutch Jewish Community: Betwixt and between medicine, and religion 190 1. The Jewish burial controversy 182 Reform of Jewish burial in the Netherlands 193 2. Criticism on Jewish circumcision 199 Dutch reform of Jewish circumcision 200 Critique of meẓiẓah 204 The meẓiẓah controversy in the Netherlands 207 3. Conclusion 212 Conclusion: Making Jews Dutch 214 1. Modes of Jewish responses to secular discourse 214 Withdrawal 215 Rejection 216 Essentialization of contested Jewish practices 217 Embracing 218 Selective incorporation 219 Lip-service 221 2. Limitations of research 222 3. Future research 223 Summary in Dutch 226 Bibliography 228 Appendices 250 viii Introduction 1. Between secularization and sacralization The Church is separate from the State, but not the State from the Church. That means, in other words: the State has to watch over everything that goes on in the State. It cannot get involved in the inner affairs of the churches, but when it sees that the heads of a specific church are capable of violating the laws of the land, it is the State’s duty to step in. Otherwise a church administration could consider itself above the sovereign of the country and be capable of treating the people of that church really like subjects 1 and thereby breach the social and civil order. In the above citation, the recently seceded Jewish community in Amsterdam discusses the repercussions of newly acquired citizenship for Jews.2 The Emancipation Decree issued on 2 September 1796 transformed the Jews from strangers with a semi- autonomous status into a religious minority under state authority. In this new political constellation, the relationship of the Ashkenazi community in Amsterdam vis-à-vis the state became uncertain and needed to be redefined. These developments arose after the French invaded the Netherlands in 1795 and founded their satellite state, the Batavian Republic. The Republic granted the Jews citizenship, while at the same time enforcing the enlightened political ideal of the separation between church and state. The gist of this ideological reorientation for Dutch Jewry was the loss of their punitive powers and relative sovereignty within the Dutch state.