Law and Jewish Difference
Ambivalent Encounters

Explores the lasting legacy of Christian ambivalence towards Jews and Judaism in Western secular law.

Mareike Riedel (Author)

9781316514870, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 November 2024

292 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 2.2 cm, 0.56 kg

'This book is an important contribution to debates around the politics of difference in general and Jewish difference in particular. Riedel's work is a rigorous and sensitive reading of Jewish life as it has emerged in secularist states and under a regime of secular law. She has succeeded admirably in filling a lacuna that is present in contemporary critical theory, social-legal studies, the humanities, cultural studies and Jewish Studies. Scholars in these fields will take much from this work.' David Seymour, Social & Legal Studies

After centuries of persecution and discrimination, Jews are today often seen as a successful and well-integrated religious minority group in a 'Judeo-Christian West'. This book qualifies this narrative by exploring the legacy of Christian ambivalence towards Jews in contemporary secular law. By placing disputes over Jewish practices, such as infant male circumcision and the construction of eruvin, within a longer historical context, the book traces how Christian ambivalence towards Jews and Christianity's narrative of supersession became secularised into a cultural repertoire that has shaped central ideas and knowledge underpinning secular law. Christian ambivalence, this book argues, continues to circumscribe not only the rights and equality of Jews but of other non-Christians too. In considering the interaction between law and Christian ambivalence towards Jews, the book engages with broader questions about the cultural foundations of Western secular law, the politics of religious freedom, the racialisation of religion, and the ambivalent nature of legal progress.

1. Introduction: Jewish questions past and present
2. From Jewish other to citizen of the Mosaic Faith
3. Contentious cut: Male circumcision, Christian ambivalence, and children's rights
4. The body of the other: a German controversy over circumcision
5. Dividing lines: the eruv, urban space, and public religiosity
6. When Orthodox Judaism goes public: an eruv dispute in Australia
7. Conclusion: persistent ambivalence.

Subject Areas: Law & society [LAQ]