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Masters Thesis
British and Jewish: Jewish Women’s Quest for Britishness and Jewish Civil and Political Equality in Britain, 1790-1860
Purpose of the Study: In my thesis, I examine the role of Jewish women in British acculturation and political and civil emancipation efforts in the first two-thirds of the nineteenth century. Histories written in the last hundred years on Jews in nineteenth-century Britain have generally not included Jewish women. British women's historians have done considerable research on women's roles and participation in nineteenth-century British politics and society in the last thirty years, but they too have predominantly ignored Jewish women. Anglo-Jewish literature scholars have done important research in the past twenty years, using Jewish women writers and their works to examine gender, religion, and identity in Victorian Britain. While their research has focused on Jewish women, Anglo-Jewish historians have yet to incorporate literature scholars’ sources or conclusions into their own works. By including Anglo-Jewish women and integrating them into the past, my research will begin to fill the existing gap in the fields of Modern Anglo-Jewish and British history. Procedure: To demonstrate that Jewish women in Britain participated in acculturation efforts and in the political and civil emancipation movement between 1790 and 1860, I particularly look at middle- and upper-class Anglo-Jewish women writers, such as Grace Aguilar and Celia and Marion Moss. I draw primarily on these women’s poems, novels, and travelogues, as well as newspaper articles, letters, journal entries, and other primary sources of the time, for my research and evidence. I have also used secondary sources, research done by other historians and literature scholars, to argue and prove my thesis. Findings: A large part of being British in 1790 or 1800 was being Anglican, but by 1830 elite Jewish men and women had gained British identities. They became socially and culturally indiscernible from Protestant Britons, while remaining Jewish. Like middle and upper-class Jewish men in Britain, Jewish women became British so they would gain all the rights and privileges of their class that came with Britishness, specifically citizenship and acceptance, which no Jews in Europe had at the time. What mattered more to Britons of the same economic class was wealth and culture, that Jews had the same amount of wealth and were culturally identical to them, rather than what religion they practiced. Evidence of that was elite non-Anglican Protestants and Catholics all having civil and political equality in Britain by 1830. They were considered British and included in the British polity, but despite their efforts, elite Jewish men and women were not. In order to be recognized as British by their government, elite Jewish women, along with Jewish men, took part in the Jewish emancipation movement and its debates on British identity and citizenship through written and public participation between 1830 and 1858. As a result of both sexes’ efforts, full British citizenship was granted to elite Jewish women and men in 1858, while Jewish men additionally gained full political rights. Conclusion: Middle- and upper-class Jewish women and men gained British identities befitting their economic class between 1790 and 1830 in order to be integrated into British society and culture and accepted by Christian Britons of their class. Anglo-Jews, both women and men, fought for inclusion, recognition, and acceptance in Britain between 1830 and 1858, and were successful in 1858. After all of their acculturation and emancipation efforts, elite Jews achieved Britishness, and were granted full civil and political rights as a result.
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