Social and religious controls in pre-revolutionary France: The beginnings of modernity

Abstract

Focusing on social and religious controls enacted by the kehillotof northeastern France in the ancien regime, this articleexamines the dynamics of social change in the century precedingthe Revolution. At the heart of this study is the propositionthat Metz and Alsace represent two distinct frameworks in whichthe encounter of Jewish tradition and modernity can be observed. The sumptuary laws issued by the Metz community in 1690–1697 and in1769 reflect the efforts of an increasingly powerful urban laityto assert its authority over a declining rabbinate. Sumptuarylegislation was used as a tool to freeze the existing socialhierarchy and exclude from the communal power structure a youngergeneration whose wealth was derived from new commercialopportunities. Acknowledging that certain cultural changes werean inevitable consequence of the expanding mercantile economy,lay leaders endeavored to limit conspicuous consumption, curb theinsubordination of youth, and legislate standards of moral andreligious behavior. An analysis of the takkanot ratified by theprovincial assemblies of Alsace in the 1770s reveals severalimportant differences. The Alsatian legislation reflected moretraditional concerns about the influence of the surroundingvillage culture and the potentially harmful impact of modernityon moral and religious life; neither consumption nor classdivisions were mentioned. In rural Alsace, where the social,cultural, and economic milieu differed sharply from Metz, thecommunal leadership was far more aggressive in its efforts tostrengthen rabbinic authority and religious institutions. Thecomparison between the urban and rural settings suggests thatthere is a correlation between economic condition and religious change, and that modernization, at least in its preliminary stage, wasalready underway well before the advent of civic emancipation.