Social and religious controls in pre-revolutionary France: Rethinking the beginnings of modernity

Focusing on social and religious controls enacted by the kehillot of northeastern France in the ancien régime, this article examines the dynamics of social change in the century preceding the Revolution. At the heart of this study is the proposition that Metz and Alsace represent two distinct frameworks in which the encounter of Jewish tradition and modernity can be observed. The sumptuary laws issued by the Metz community in 1690-1697 and in 1769 reflect the efforts of an increasingly powerful urban laity to assert its authority over a declining rabbinate. Sumptuary legislation was used as a tool to freeze the existing social hierarchy and exclude from the communal power structure a younger generation whose wealth was derived from new commercial opportunities. Acknowledging that certain cultural changes were an inevitable consequence of the expanding mercantile economy, lay leaders endeavored to limit conspicuous consumption, curb the insubordination of youth, and legislate standards of moral and religious behavior. An analysis of the takkanot ratified by the provincial assemblies of Alsace in the 1770s reveals several important differences. The Alsatian legislation reflected more traditional concerns about the influence of the surrounding village culture and the potentially harmful impact of modernity on moral and religious life; neither consumption nor class divisions were mentioned. In rural Alsace, where the social, cultural, and economic milieu differed sharply from Metz, the communal leadership was far more aggressive in its efforts to strengthen rabbinic authority and religious institutions. The comparison between the urban and rural settings suggests that there is a correlation between economic condition and religious change, and that modernization, at least in its preliminary stage, was already underway well before the advent of civic emancipation.