Patria ed Affetti. Jewish identity and risorgimento nationalism in the oeuvres of Samuel Luzzatto, Isaac Reggio and David Levi

PhD ceremony: Mr. A. Grazi, 16.15 uur, Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

Dissertation: Patria ed Affetti. Jewish identity and risorgimento nationalism in the oeuvres of Samuel Luzzatto, Isaac Reggio and David Levi

Promotor(s): prof. W.J. van Bekkum, prof. P.H. Bossier

Faculty: Arts

Alessandro Grazi investigated the Jews' approach to modernity in nineteenth-century Italy and aims to verify to what extent their reactions were the result of different geographic, social and political environments. Two strongly contrasting tendencies emerged as far as Jewish identity and relation between Judaism and modernity are concerned. Samuel David Luzzatto and Isaac Samuel Reggio, who lived and worked in the Italian portion of the Habsburg Empire, are good examples of the first tendency. They both developed, albeit on different levels, an adaptation strategy to modernity which allowed them to remain faithful to Jewish religious tradition and to a certain form of orthodoxy. Their approach consisted more of a modernization of the educational tools for the contemporary Jew, rather than major modifications of Judaism and Jewish identity. An alternative strategy was formulated by David Levi, born and raised in the milieus of Piedmont´s Judaism. His encounter with modernity led to secularization. Unlike Luzzatto and Reggio, Levi abandoned traditional and religious Judaism, yet kept a strong attachment to his Jewish identity. These two dissimilar approaches to modernity also resulted in different attitudes towards Italian identity, the Risorgimento and the nation-building process.