HIS208Y1 Final: HIS208 Final Exam Review Notes.docx
Document Summary
The state of the jews, the jews and the state. All these political transformations of the social order were preceded by and to a large extent inspired by the intellectual revolution of the 18th century known as the enlightenment. The leading figures of the enlightenment- men such as the french philsophes. Montesquieu, rousseau, and voltaire; english economist adam smith; and the german philsopher kant proposed a refashioning of society based on reason, progress, faith in human ingenuity, and an abiding belief in the capacity of all people for improvement. Kehillot, autonomous communities, functioned on the basis of jewish law and were served by a vast network of jewish social welfare institutions and fraternities-hevrot- that provided for their members from cradle to grave. Jewish seperateness, however, did not mean cultural insularity, as jews shared the cultural of their surroundings, even if they sometimes modified that culture to suit.
