Sovereignty and Religious Freedom : A Jewish History

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;