Jewishness and Beyond: Jewish Conversions in Hungary 1825–1914

The government of Hungary dismantled obstacles to citizenship for its Jewish communities, promoting Hungarian language, culture, and sensibilities, but did not officially require Jews to abandon their faith. Despite the egalitarian promises and laws of Hungary's liberal nationalist government, the administration and traditional elites maintained a persistent bias against Jews, spurring particularly high conversion rates among the community's upper echelons. Conversion was an uneven and ever-shifting process in which gender and occupation played key roles, and the actual percentage of converts within the total Hungarian Jewish population contrasted sharply with both Christian and Jewish perceptions of its frequency and spread.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 450 pages
Publication date: 06 August 2024
Publisher: Indiana University Press

Throughout the nineteenth century, Hungary's government took steps to dismantle barriers that prevented its rapidly growing Jewish communities from fully enjoying the benefits of citizenship. These efforts included promoting the Hungarian language, culture, and sensibilities, but did not explicitly require Jews to abandon their faith. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews converted to Christianity during this period, with conversion rates continuing to rise even as Judaism gained full legal equality. This apparent contradiction between the egalitarian promises and laws of Hungary's liberal nationalist government and the persistent bias against Jews within the administration and traditional elites is explored in the book "Jewishness and Beyond." The book reveals that while Christians never forgot the origins of converted Jews and often viewed them in racialized terms, they also valued and rewarded conversion and the symbolic gesture of baptism. Conversion was an uneven and ever-shifting process, with gender and occupation playing key roles, and the actual percentage of converts within the total Hungarian Jewish population contrasting sharply with both Christian and Jewish perceptions of its frequency and spread. "Jewishness and Beyond" serves as an introduction to the identity dilemmas of Hungarian Jews in the age of emancipation, shedding light on the motivations and strategies behind the conversions, the complex reactions within and outside of their communities, and the converts' own grappling with the expected and unforeseen outcomes of conversion.

Weight: 678g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 32 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780253070517