The Port Jews of Habsburg Trieste

"I like this book because I am drawn to groups that are slightly off-centre. I study a group that might or might not be considered European – the Greeks. They are in a border category all by themselves. They are Christians, but are they part of European history? I myself am a historian who works in the interstices; I study a Muslim Empire but I work on a Christian people. So I am drawn to these Jews of Trieste who are not the Jews of Berlin and Paris who are so much at the centre of modern Jewish history. These are Jews that don’t really fit into our story of 18th-century Jews. They are Jews on the border. Dubin argues that the Jewish Enlightenment in Trieste was a less radical and revolutionary movement than in northern Europe because this group was very cosmopolitan, like the Greeks. Traditionally, they enjoyed a greater symbiosis with the surrounding culture. They weren’t as isolated as some other Jewish groups and were much more comfortable with tradition. They could also accommodate enlightenment but it didn’t necessarily imply this great break-away with tradition. I am interested in people who fit in, people who want to get along, rather than in revolutionaries and ideologues, so I am drawn to this particular community, a people who sit back and assess the world and work out how they can fit into the cracks and survive."