The Port Jews Of Habsburg Trieste

Download or read book The Port Jews of Habsburg Trieste written by Lois C. Dubin and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work offers a perspective on the process of Jewish integration in modern Europe. The author addresses the Habsburg Monarchy, which contained the largest Jewish population in Europe outside Russia, by focusing on the free port of Trieste, at the crossroads of Central Europe, Italy, and the Levant. In this dynamic port city, mercantilist state-building, enlightenment absolutism, multicultural diversity, and Italian-Jewish traditions produced a path toward integration that is generally ignored in modern Jewish history: that of merchants in commercial centers who were assimilated into the local culture. The book provides an in-depth study of enlightened absolutism in action - of the way rulers, officials, and subjects negotiated and implemented policies. It also emphasizes the commitment by Trieste Jews to the new norms of assimilation, enlightenment, and civil inclusion - in contrast to the wariness expressed by other European Jews to enlightened absolutist programs of societal transformation.