Between Citizenship and Jewish Identity: The Yiddish Polemical Pamphlets of the Amsterdam Jews, 1797-1798

This paper investigates how the granting of citizenship 1796 divided the Dutch Jews and redefined the contents of their identity. The dispute centered whether the Jews should welcome citizenship, integrate, and become participating citizens or not. Jews who welcomed the new opportunities, such as political and military participation, established the naye kille, wherein they merged Judaism with the new political ideals. The naye kille’s foundation in 1797 was the result of maskilic discontent with the slow pace of reform of the old Ashkenazi community after the installation of the Batavian Republic in 1795. This paved the way for Jewish emancipation.

In polemical pamphlets, the Diskursn issued between 1797 and 1798, the naye kille criticized the old community, alte kille. Both communities issued Diskursn and discredited each other. The naye kille presented themselves as a community that would abrogate all the injustices caused by the former Jewish leaders, the parnasim. On the other hand, the authors of the Diskursn of the alte kille held the maskilim and their naye kille responsible for deviation, assimilation, and the corruption of the Jewish mind.

Despite, the naye kille’s abolition in 1808, the rift between the naye and alte kille on the implementation of citizenship for the Jews, caused a split in the community that would follow the fault line of this breakup. As such, citizenship contributed to a new understanding of Dutch Jewish identity.