Get Free Shipping on orders over $89
Sovereignty and Religious Freedom : A Jewish History - Simon Rabinovitch

Sovereignty and Religious Freedom

A Jewish History

By: Simon Rabinovitch

Hardcover | 3 April 2025 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover


Limited Stock Available

RRP $61.95

$46.75

25%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $11.69 with

 or 
In Stock and Ships in 1-2 business days
A comparative legal history of Jewish sovereignty and religious freedom, illuminating the surprising ways that collective and individual rights have evolved over the past two centuries

It is a common assumption that in Israel, Jews have sovereignty, and in most other places where Jews live today, they have religious freedom instead. As Simon Rabinovitch shows in this original work, the situation is much more complicated. Jews today possess different kinds of legal rights in states around the world; some stem from religious freedom protections, and others evolved from a longer history of Jewish autonomy.

By comparing conflicts between Jewish collective and individual rights in courts and laws across the globe, from the French Revolution to today, this book provides a nuanced legal history of Jewish sovereignty and religious freedom. Rabinovitch weaves key themes in Jewish legal history with the individual stories of litigants, exploring ideas about citizenship and belonging; who is a Jew; what makes a Jewish family; and how to define Jewish space. He uses recent court cases to explore problems of conflicting rights, and then situates each case in a wider historical context. This unique comparative history creates a global picture of modern legal development in which Jews continue to use the law to carve out surprising forms of sovereignty.

About the Author

Simon Rabinovitch is the Stotsky Associate Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. His book Jewish Rights, National Rites was a Choice Outstanding Academic Title and a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award.
Industry Reviews
"Group rights never died in modern times, Simon Rabinovitch demonstrates in this enjoyable and eye-opening book. Tracking the exemplary and unique case of Jews across centuries and in different parts of the world, this book illuminates how Jewish histories and global legal histories cross."-Samuel Moyn, Yale University

"This ambitious and fascinating book makes a persuasive argument that the question of what kinds of rights Jews hold-as a group and as individuals-is anything but settled."-Jessica M. Marglin, author of The Shamama Case

"With great skill, formidable range, and a capacity to rub history against the grain, Simon Rabinovitch offers a bold transnational history of Jews and collective rights over the past two centuries."-David N. Myers, University of California, Los Angeles

"Ambitious and compelling, this book offers a wide-ranging historical and comparative account of modern Jewish collective rights. A must-read for anyone interested in the relationship between minority religious groups and the state."-Assaf Likhovski, Tel Aviv University

More in Social & Cultural History

The Voynich Manuscript - Raymond Clemens

RRP $82.95

$60.75

27%
OFF
Abandoned Women : Scottish Convicts Exiled Beyond the Seas - Lucy Frost
The Dawn of Everything : A New History of Humanity - David Graeber
Hood Feminism : Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot - Mikki Kendall
How to Move a Zoo : The incredible true story - Kate Simpson

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
The Origins of Totalitarianism : Penguin Modern Classics - Hannah Arendt
A World Appears : A Journey Into Consciousness - Michael Pollan

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
Hard Streets : Working-Class Lives in Charlie Chaplin's London - Jacqueline Riding
Goliath's Curse : The History and Future of Societal Collapse - Luke Kemp
Entitled : The Rise and Fall of the House of York - Andrew Lownie

RRP $37.99

$19.99

47%
OFF
The Breath of the Gods : The History and Future of the Wind - Simon Winchester
Raven Mother : War, family and inheritance: a memoir - Jane Messer
Trip to the Moon : Understanding the True Power Of Story - John Yorke
The Library That Made Me : 200 years of the State Library of NSW - Richard Neville
Women, Race & Class : Penguin Modern Classics - Angela Y. Davis

RRP $26.99

$22.75

16%
OFF