After centuries of persecution and discrimination, Jews are today often seen as a successful and well-integrated religious minority group in a 'Judeo-Christian West'. This book qualifies this narrative by exploring the legacy of Christian ambivalence towards Jews in contemporary secular law. By placing disputes over Jewish practices, such as infant male circumcision and the construction of eruvin, within a longer historical context, the book traces how Christian ambivalence towards Jews and Christianity's narrative of supersession became secularised into a cultural repertoire that has shaped central ideas and knowledge underpinning secular law. Christian ambivalence, this book argues, continues to circumscribe not only the rights and equality of Jews but of other non-Christians too. In considering the interaction between law and Christian ambivalence towards Jews, the book engages with broader questions about the cultural foundations of Western secular law, the politics of religious freedom, the racialisation of religion, and the ambivalent nature of legal progress.
Riedel
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1. Introduction: Jewish questions past and present; 2. From Jewish other to citizen of the Mosaic Faith; 3. Contentious cut: Male circumcision, Christian ambivalence, and children's rights; 4. The body of the other: a German controversy over circumcision; 5. Dividing lines: the eruv, urban space, and public religiosity; 6. When Orthodox Judaism goes public: an eruv dispute in Australia; 7. Conclusion: persistent ambivalence.
Riedel, Mareike
Mareike Riedel is a Lecturer at Macquarie Law School in Sydney and a Visiting Fellow at the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University. Drawing on her background in both law and the humanities, her research examines the intersections of law, religion, and race and the history of secular law. Before joining Macquarie University, she has held research fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, at the Australian National University, and at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology.
