An Interreligious Dialogue: Portrayal of Jews in Dutch French-Language Periodicals (1680–1715)

Abstract

Jews begun settling in the United Province around the same time as the Huguenots, who fled from the persecution of the Catholic authorities of their native France in the late sixteenth century. For most of these French refugees, it was their first encounter with Jews. This book discusses, how they perceived Jews in French-language periodicals published from just before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) and until 1715, which is the time, when the assimilation process of the Huguenots was becoming more and more prominent. The two categories of periodicals analysed here are scholarly journals, focused on historical and theological ideas, and lay gazettes, which dealt primarily with current events around Europe and beyond. The book focuses on classification of different types of Jews in these sources, and the attitudes expressed by their authors and editors towards Jews. By publishing in French, the editors of these periodicals not only reached local refugees and the Dutch elite, who read French, but also readers beyond Dutch borders, in their native France and everywhere else, as French was the lingua franca of the time. Finally, a comparison is made with the attitude towards Muslims and Ottoman Turks, as well as the Siamese. Special attention is given to the way that the private lives of the different groups were dealt with and how these details shaped the attitude towards them.