Italy Out of the Ghetto: A Catholic Nation in the Jewish Mirror, 1789-1910

FAIN: FEL-262681-19

L. Scott Lerner
Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, PA 17603-2827)

Writing leading to the publication of a book-length study of the role religion and politics played in the formation of Italian national identity in the nineteenth century.

The phrase “out of the ghetto” typically refers to the integration of European Jews into the modern nations of Europe, including Italy. What has never previously been studied is how Catholic Italy itself came out of the ghetto. By examining the sites of intersection between Christians and Jews—carnivals and festivals, novels and operas, political discourse, church façades and monumental synagogues—Italy Out of the Ghetto: A Catholic Nation in the Jewish Mirror, 1789-1910 relates the story of Italy’s struggle to move beyond the social, cultural and religious logic that led to its ghettos. My thesis is that during both the ghetto and Liberal periods, the Jews were visibly positioned in society in the mirror of the Catholic order. Yet their role was even more critical. The ghetto served as the mirror, helping pre-Enlightenment society to perceive its own Catholic order, and later reflecting the ways in which the Liberal nation reconceived its identity as a Catholic community.