On the Negotiation of Tradition and Modernity: Hirsch’s NINETEEN LETTERS

• In Event: Seductive Modernity?: Intimacy and Culture in the 19th Century

Abstract

As debates about the civic emancipation of the Jews swirled around them, German rabbis debated the practices of Judaism and the basis on which these practices might be updated to suit modernity. Over time, the specific changes they defended—whether subtle or dramatic—evolved into the distinct religious ideologies that today we identify as the Reform, Conservative, and modern Orthodox movements of Judaism. My presentation will focus on Samson Raphael Hirsch’s attempt to justify the practice of Judaism in the modern age in his NINETEEN LETTERS. With reference to writings by Samuel Hirsch, Zechariah Fraenkel, and others addressing similar questions, my comments will consider the relationship between ritual and ideology in these sources and offer some suggestions of how these writings might shed light on issues facing these movements in their contemporary, American settings.

Author

• Claire Sufrin, Northwestern University