Passports and piety: apostasy in nineteenth-century France

Helfand states that contrary to prevailing scholarly opinion that there was no significant incidence of conversion of Jews to Christianity in modern France, during the first half of the 19th century there was a significant conversionist movement. Describes several famous cases (e.g. the Ratisbonne brothers, David Drach). Analyzes the reasons for conversion in the 1820s-50s (particularly of young Jews from Alsace), including anti-Jewish discrimination inspired by the Church. Discusses the missionary activities of newly converted Jews (as part of the general missionary zeal at that time), which often led to controversy and scandals as they engaged in forced baptism, conversion "in extremis" (i.e. on the deathbed), and exhumation of bodies from Jewish cemeteries. Notes that there are no accurate statistics regarding the number of converts, but they were highly influential and caused serious concern in the Jewish community. The decline of the Church's authority from the late 1850s, and the gallicization of Jewish institutional life, stemmed the tide of conversion.