The ?Identity? of Sephardim of Medieval Christian Iberia

Abstract

dentity formation among national and ethnic groups is usually dated by European historians to the onset of modernity, when traditional social structures fashioned by nation, church, and socioeconomic class began to break down. Similarly, the beginning of modernity for students ofJewish history is linked with the downfall of the medieval corporate society and of the organizedJewish community that had characterized a Jew's identity from cradle to grave. With the entry of Jews as citizens into the civic life of the modern nation-state, Jews became free to create their own religious and national affiliations. Modern Jewish historians have been fascinated by this process of identity formation, chronicling how Jews began consciously to construct their own sense of identity from both Jewish and non-Jewish elements. They have further argued that modern Jewish identity is not uniform; a modern Jew has been able to fashion his or her own sense ofJudaism and Jewish peoplehood from a melange of ideas, practices, ideals, and social connections.' This understanding of Jewish identity has also served to demarcate the periods of medieval and modern Jewish history. It is exactly their agency, the capacity of theJews to be the authors of their own identity, it has been maintained, that gives modern Jewish culture its particular cast. Medieval Jews, however, having been born into their corporate status mandated by the governing institutions of the society, had no ability to choose. Their condition, it has been suggested, remained static and did not develop in any appreciable degree over time. But are these distinctions between medieval and modern Jews as obvious and self-evident as we frequently like to assert? Is there always