Unexplored Terrain: The History of Small Jewish Communities in Western Society

Although scholars studying the modern Jewish experience have devoted considerable attention to the history of major Jewish communities such as those of New York and Paris, they have paid relatively little attention to smaller Jewish communities in Western society. Focusing on France and the United States, this article draws attention to the significance of the small Jewish communities that developed in the West in the century and a half following the age of the democratic revolutions. The essay comments on the scholarship of local Jewish history to demonstrate how smaller Jewish centers have been largely ignored, it explores a few of the questions that can be raised about the history of these less visible Jewish centers, and it reflects upon the value of studying small Jewish communities from a comparative perspective.