"The Only Society That I Have ...": Cultural Historical Possibilities for the Historiography of Jewish Conversion in Germany's Long Ninethenth-Century

Nathaniel P. Weston
Department of History
University of Washington, Seattle

Abstract:
This article surveys the historiography of Jewish conversion in Germany from 1780-1914.  These histories include conversions of elite Jews in Berlin under late Prussian absolutism (the “Old Regime”), conversions of individuals during the early decades of the nineteenth-century, Christian missionary efforts to convert Jews, interpretations of conversion statistics, and the “impulse” to convert during the Kaiserreich and in fin-de-siècle Germany.  This article also addresses secondary histories that are located outside of nineteenth-century Germany to show how conversion has been conceived in different times and places and how those conceptions have influenced both historians and historical actors.

I begin with descriptions of the various extant approaches to conversion, but will also point toward areas where engagement with the wider questions of culture might advance the ways historians have interpreted the issue.  Though less frequently employed to date, I suggest that cultural history offers the most promising approach because of its potential to attend to the construction, maintenance, and operation of categories such as “Jewish,” “convert,” and even “Christian."