The unyielding wall: Jews and Catholics in restoration and July monarchy France

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Abstract

In early-nineteenth century France, conservative Catholics (Ultramontanes), whose Church had been irrevocably weakened by events of the previous decades, were forced to renegotiate their place in a world forever changed, and where, for example, traditional hierarchies and boundaries between Catholicism and Judaism were being challenged, and Jews were present and nominally equal. How were they to make sense of sense of this new world? This article probes this question by looking at the lives of the two Jewish apostates and brothers-in-law David Drach and Simon Deutz. Ultramontane responses to the choices made by these two men, and the efforts of the former to ensure that the wall between the two religions would remain ‘unyielding’, reveal them to have been profoundly uncomfortable with the fundamental changes their world had undergone, and the constant reminder that was the presence in society of French Jews.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)661-686
Number of pages26
JournalFrench Historical Studies
Volume26
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2003
Externally publishedYes

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