User:Pseudo-Richard/Sorkin Notes

Defining characteristics
Sorkin identifies five salient influences that define the "Port Jew".


 * 1) the importance of migration and commerce;


 * 1) the valuation of commerce - that Jews were given rights due to their commercial utility


 * 1) their different legal status - unlike other Jews the port Jew was not part of an autonomous community, therefore their path to equality was not challenged by their different political status;


 * 1) their different experience of Judaism - coming from former converso heritage they had to rediscover Judaism and did not have to develop a Haskalah as they were already integrated within the non-Jewish world; #and lastly also springing from their converso background, they could be neglectful of Jewish law but still maintain their Jewish identity.

First, Sorkin points out that Port Jews had the good fortune to be situated in societies that valued international trade and that could benefit from their specialized skills. In an age without a developed banking system, they had the great advantage of being able do business with, and draw bills of exchange on a trusted network of relatives, friends, and business associates. Because of these distinct capabilities, Jewish merchants assisted their host societies in the linkage of old Mediterranean trade routes with the Atlantic economy.

Second, Sorkin stresses the valuation of commerce. He argues that it was the precisely the commercial utility of Jews to host societies which valued international trade that assured Jews not just the right to settle but long-term, continuing residence in a polity.

Third, the Jews’ commercial utility gained them forms of social acceptance and legal status over and beyond mere residential privilege. Examples of this phenomenon include the acceptance of Jews in chambers of commerce, the Masonic order, and honorary and appointed offices of municipal government. Their enhanced social status and legal privilege enabled Jews to move toward full emancipation.

Fourth, Sorkin notes significant intellectual ferment among Jews in these nurturing economic, political, and social contexts. Rabbinic Judaism revitalized as ‘New Christians,’ or Jews who had converted to Christianity as a self-defence mechanism during the reign of the Inquisition and who were deried as ‘Marranos’ (pigs) by their Christian adversaries, were able to reconvert to their original faith. Others who had remained Jews all along had the opportunity to deepen their commitment to faith and practice in the relatively unrestricted environment of port cities. Still other Jews, without any formal exposure to the Enlightenment tracts of Voltaire, Locke, or Moses Mendelsohn, were able to access and imbibe a broad secular culture. Sorkin calls this phenomenon haskalah avant la letter. Many of these maskilim, or “Enlightened Jews,” simultaneously retained and expanded upon Judaic beliefs. Sorkin cites the example of the Etz Haim Yeshiva of Amsterdam, which integrated secular subjects such as vernacular language, arithmetic and geography into a curriculum of Jewish subjects that included the independent study of the Bible and Hebrew language alongside study of the Talmud. [4]

Fifth, Sorkin offers a broad definition of “Jewish identity” as it existed in port cities, noting that some Jews who were “lax if not altogether neglectful in observance… (and yet) remained identifiable Jews through their loyalty to the community.” They expressed their secularized Jewish identity through philanthropy and political intercession. He cites the example of a Portuguese Jew who “did not keep the dietary laws, selectively observed the holidays, and in general questioned the authority of the Oral Law. Nevertheless he [was] always ready to contribute funds…to both secular and religious education…and to intercede with the authorities.” Sorkin describes “wealthy Sephardi merchants [in London] who lived like Christian gentlemen…at a distance from the synagogue.” They nevertheless continued “to support the community with their wealth and influence.”