New Books in Intellectual History Simon Rabinovitch, "Sovereignty and Religious Freedom: A Jewish History" (Yale UP, 2024)
Mar 19, 2025
Simon Rabinovitch, Stotsky Associate Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies at Northeastern University, unpacks the intricate relationship between Jewish sovereignty and religious freedom. He explores the evolution of Jewish identity through legal frameworks and discusses a significant South African court case that challenges individual versus collective rights. Rabinovitch analyzes the ongoing complexities of Jewish autonomy in diverse contexts, including a family's legal battle in Israel, revealing how these themes resonate within modern Jewish life.
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Discovery of Jewish Communal Autonomy
- Simon Rabinovitch discovered Jewish communal autonomy in Helsinki was legally recognized through religious community tax support.
- This realization challenged the assumption that Jewish collective rights had fully disappeared after emancipation.
Collective Rights Persist Today
- Post-WWII human rights law focused heavily on individual rights, minimizing collective minority rights.
- Rabinovitch argues collective rights still persist robustly in modern states, especially for Jews globally.
Sovereignty Beyond Full Independence
- Rabinovitch defines sovereignty broadly, including partial autonomy unlike full political independence.
- Jewish communities exercise forms of sovereignty through self-definition within states, challenging simplistic views of Jewish sovereignty.
