Századok – 2010

TANULMÁNYOK - Konrád Miklós: Vallásváltás és identitás. A kitért zsidók megítélésének változásai a dualizmus korában

46 KONRÁD MIKLÓS towards those who in fact abandoned it. Whereas the discourse put forward in connection with the abstract notion of convert, as well as the argumentation elaborated against conversion itself, was coherent and homogeneous, the opinions articulated in the cases of individual converted Jews show a much greater degree of diversity: they arch from the plain condemnation of the dishonesty of some „renegades" to the praise lavished on others independently from their conversion, going in some cases as far as emphasising „racial Jewishness" which dwarfed conversion. Yet all these apparently contradicting attitudes were in fact subordinated to one ultimate effort, which aimed at maintaining and strengthening by all possible means the Jewish identity of the middle class. And as such they were parts of the same, though changing, discourse.