The time of the French Revolution was when, for the first time, European Jews were granted the right to be citizens of the countries in which they lived. Ghettos were abolished, special clothing or insignia were abolished, people could live where they wanted, dress as they wanted, and have whatever occupation they wanted. Many Jews settled outside the Jewish quarters and began to live like their neighbors and speak the language of the country. They also began to attend secular schools and universities.

In 1815, after Napoleon’s defeat, Jews lost their citizenship rights in some European countries. It was then that some of them converted to Christianity in order to retain those rights. Scholars of the problem realized that these actions were not because these Jews disliked their Judaism, but rather they had done so in order to retain the advantages that being citizens now gave them. Many rabbis thought that the solution was to force Jews to distance themselves from Christians and not attend their schools. But this did not work.

In 1819, Leopold Zunz proposed that Jews study their history and learn from the great achievements of their past. Together with other young men, including the poet Heinrich Heine, he founded the “Society for the Culture and Science of the Jews,” with the aim of presenting the Jew as a people in his own right and not just as a religious tradition. Although the society was not very successful, the concept of the “Science of Judaism,” Der Wissenschaft des Judentums, inspired many intellectuals to study Judaism in a structured way.

Their idea was to put Jewish culture on a par with Western European culture and they sought to introduce Judaic studies into universities as an area of ​​study as valid as any other. They wanted to end the prejudice that presented Judaism as an inferior precursor to Christianity. His approach to Jewish studies involved complete freedom in interpreting traditional texts, without concern for the effects of such interpretations on religious observance.

Although Zunz was observant of Jewish ritual practices, he understood them as symbols, in contrast to the traditional position that saw them as divine commandments to be obeyed without questioning their meaning. Nevertheless, the “Science of Judaism,” der Wissenschaft des Judentums, had a religious background. Many rabbis in seminaries followed its guidelines when preparing their students, as a preamble to what would be the new approaches of liberal Judaism. However, other scholars such as Zecharias Frankel and Heinrich Graetz, who used critical methods for the study of Judaism, continued to consider religion and Jewish history as a reflection of divine revelation and guidance.

The “Science of Judaism” produced a great number of academic works, but the most notable of these was the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906, considered the culmination and final fruit of this era. Its legacy was inherited by universities such as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Brandeis and Harvard in Boston and many others that have opened departments of Jewish studies. The “Science of Judaism”, der Wissenschaft des Judentums, left a mark that has lasted to this day.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Judaica and other sources.