The Economy of Jewish Spending

Antisemitic stereotypes of Jews as capitalists have hindered research into the economic dimension of the Jewish past. The figure of the Jew as trader and financier dominated the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But the economy has been central to Jewish life and the Jewish image in the world; Jews not only made money but spent money. This pape aims to examine the role and place of consumption within Jewish society and the ways consumerism generated and reinforced Jewish notions of belonging at the beginning of the last century. It will show how the advances of modernization and secularization in the modern period increased the importance of consumption in Jewish life, making it a significant factor in the process of redefining Jewish identity.