The Emancipation of the Jews of Alsace: Acculturation and Tradition in the Nineteenth Century

This wide-ranging book explores for the first time the impact of civil emancipation on a traditional Jewish population largely untouched by secular culture. Drawing on governmental sources, literature, memoirs, and communal records, Paula E. Hyman discusses the effects of modernization on Jews who lived in the villages and small towns of Alsace, analyzing the political, social, and economic factors that not only reshaped their behavior and self-understanding but also sustained their traditional Jewish practice.