This book investigates one of the major issues that runs through the history of Italian Judaism in the aftermath of emancipation: the correlation between integration, seen as the acquisition of citizenship and culture without renouncing Jewish identity, and assimilation, intended as an open refusal of Judaism of any participation in the community. On account of that correlation, identity has become one of the crucial problems in the history of the Italian Jewish community. This volume aims to discuss the setting of construction and formation--the family-- and focuses on women's experiences, specifically. Indeed, women were called through emancipation to ensure the continuity of Jewish religious and cultural heritage. It speaks to the growing interest for Women's and Gender Studies in Italy, and for the research on women's organizations which testify to the strong presence of Jewish women in the emancipation movement. These women formed a sisterhood that fought to obtain rights that were until then only accorded to men, and they were deeply socially engaged in such a way that was crucial to the overall process of the integration of Jews into Italian society.

Traces the contradictions between the expectations the Italian Jewish community had for women and the choices women made Shows how the Jewish community in Italy in this era identified itself as a component of the national bourgeoisie Analyzes how religious and cultural values shaped Italian Jewish women's innovative social commitment to emancipation

Autorentext

Monica Miniati is an Independent Scholar in Florence, Italy.

Inhalt

Chapter 1: Introduction: The Path to Emancipation for the Italian Jewish Diaspora.- Chapter 2: The Emergence of the Jewish Woman Question.- Chapter 3: The Role of Women in the Process of Modernization.- Chapter 4: From Integration to the Reaffirmation of Identity.- Chapter 5: The War and its Aftermath: Continuity and Change.- Chapter 6: Conclusions.