Századok – 2009

TANULMÁNYOK - Konrád Miklós: Vallásváltás és identitás. A kitért zsidók megítélésének változásai a dualizmus korában III/593

CHANGE OF RELIGION AND IDENTITY Changes of the Attitude towards Converted Jews in the Period of the Dual Monarchy by Miklós Konrád (Summary) Conversion among the emancipated Jewry gradually became an integral part of Jewish life throughout Europe. In Hungary it was at the end of the 19th century that the phenomenon became a matter of worry for the (neolog) intelligentsia, which was strongly attached to its own Jewish identity and voiced its ideas as such in public matters. Since most of the converted came from the ranks of the economic and cultural elite, Christening seriously undermined the internal cohesion of the entire Jewish society. Besides the formal condemnation of conversion and the argumentation which went with it, by the turn of the century the (neolog) Jewish intellectuals found themselves in the necessity of forming an attitude not only towards the fact of „abandoning the faith" but also 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.