The transformation of Dutch Ashkenazi Jewry after the Emancipation Decree of 1796 was not part of a process of secularization, in which Jews become less religious, but resulted from the restructuring of the religious and secular fields. Changing ideas on what was religious and not created a grey area, wherein the boundaries between the secular and the religious were renegotiated. These changing ideas defined the Jewish community´s transition to the status of a religious minority and also shaped new Jewish identities. This study investigates the various Jewish responses to cultural change in a secularizing environment. It identifies the modes of Jewish responses and provides an explanation for religious change.