Judaism, modernization, and anti-modernization

Abstract

The manner in which etements of Judaism as a religion may have been active in mediating the effects of early stages of modernization in Eastern and Western Europe, and how that religion itself may have been altered, call for careful examination The concept of shifting boundaries has been used to underscore both the dialectical relationship and numberable positions between tradition and modernity as useful designations While dealing primarily with Prussia as an example of certain Western patterns of change, and different regions of prepartition Poland illustrating Eastern patterns, this analysis of shifting boundaries can be extended to other areas—France, England, Holland and the Americas—to understand movements and developments of modern Jewish history The broad comparative historical sociology for which this paper calls will relate the more universal and regional studies of Judaism and nuxtemization, ennched by the newer conceptualizations of the relationship between religion and modemizattion