2009
ISSUE 72 | 69
EXCERPTS OF NEW BOOKS BY HUC-JIR FACULTY
The Jews: A History
Joshua Holo,
John Efron, Steven Weitzman,
Matthias Lehmann, Prentice Hall, 2009
T
he Jews: A History
recounts Jewish history
from its ancient Israelite origins to the
recent past in a way that captures the religious,
cultural, social, and economic diversity of Jewish
life. Derived from the 19th-century conception
of Jewish national identity, which was rooted in
the rise of nationalism and tied to the increased
secularization of European and Jewish culture
that broadened the definition beyond a com-
munity of faith, this volume also reflects more
recent intellectual currents. It features new re-
search — recent archaeological excavation in
Israel, the discovery and publication of previ-
ously unknown texts from the ancient and
medieval periods, the opening of archives in the
Former Soviet Union, a new attentiveness to Jew-
ish life in Muslim lands, and revisions in Israeli
historiography, and many other developments —
that have unsettled established ideas about the
Jewish past. The authors capture the agency of
Jews as Jews within the larger cultural environ-
ments in which they have lived and operated,
not simply how they have adapted to or mirrored
those environments, with the goal of presenting
Jewish history as knowable, tellable, and
ultimately teachable.
The Fate of Forced Converts
The ideal of
Kiddush ha-Shem
–
accepting
death or killing oneself to preserve God’s honor
–
was widely embraced as an ideal in medieval
Europe, but many Jews nonetheless opted to
save their lives and those of their families by
accepting conversion to Christianity, and their
status posed a difficult legal and social prob-
lem: Does a Jew have a greater obligation to
preserve his or her own life (with the intent to
return to Judaism when it is safe to do so) or to
die for the sanctification of God’s name? How
does coercion affect the status of the person
who chooses to convert to save his or her life?
And what of forced converts who want to re-
turn to Judaism when they are able? Should
they be accepted back into the community
after having left it for another religion?
Forced converts, though adopting another
religion, did not necessarily abandon Judaism
in their hearts, and they sustained the family
ties and friendships that bound them to the
Jewish community. For such reasons, many
Jews sought to return to Judaism when it was
safe to do so. They were not always welcome,
however. As the First Crusade demonstrated,
many Jews believed that they had an obligation
to sacrifice their lives rather than to betray
God. Those who did were treated as heroes,
while conversely, those who opted to convert
were often deeply resented by fellow Jews.
Seeking to resolve these issues, some me-
dieval authorities tried to strike a balance,
acknowledging the ideal of martyrdom while
trying to allow room for those choosing con-
version over death. Such was the case with
Maimonides, for example, who may have
briefly converted to Islam under duress.
Around 1165, he wrote a letter in which he
tried to ease the burden of the Jew who chose
to convert under fear of death rather than to
die for his faith: “True, it is incumbent upon
him to surrender to death, but if he does not,
he is not guilty.” In fact, he should choose to
live, he maintained – to “leave these places
(
where he was persecuted for his religion) and
go to where he can practice religion and fulfill
the Law without compulsion or fear.” Living
under Christian rule, Rabbi Meir of Rothen-
berg (1215-1293) echoed Maimonides’ view.
Meir took the position that “although a Jew is
required to choose death rather than be forced
to worship idols [in this case, to become a
Christian], should he violate this law, he would
not become disqualified as a witness, though
he would be guilty of having committed a sin.”
In other words, even if forced to submit to bap-
tism, the Jew’s core character and faithfulness
are not to be doubted by his community, as
long as he repents for the sin of idol worship.
And Meir goes on to take an even more lenient
position for those who clearly converted un-
willingly, excusing their action by writing that
because “they never actually embraced Christi-
anity, but merely listened without comment to
the priest’s recitation… [so they] never com-
mitted a sin.” In his mind, it was legitimate to
fake conversion to survive: “A Jew is not
required to choose death rather than allow
the Christians to deceive themselves into be-
lieving that they have converted him.” Jews
who disguise their Judaism under the guise
of conversion have come to be known as
crypto-Jews.
Such views created an alternative to
Kid-
dush ha-Shem
by allowing for the possibility of
a tactical or feigned conversion if that was the
only way to preserve one’s life. They also justi-
fied the reintegration of such Jews when they
sought to return to the community. On the
other hand, when Christians came to recognize
the possible insincerity of Jewish conversion,
that intensified their suspicions of both Jewish
converts and Jews themselves.
is Associate Professor of Jewish History and Di-
rector of the Louchheim School of Judaic Studies
at HUC-JIR in Los Angeles. He has published on the Cairo Genizah and the Jews of
Byzantium and of Spain. His book
Byzantine Jewry in the Mediterranean Economy
is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.
Dr. Joshua Holo
