Secularization and Pluralism: Urban Jewish Cultures in Early Twentieth-Century Berlin

Urbanization and secularization are inseparable. All too often, this position has dominated the study of urban Jewish cultures. By putting forward the argument that the modern big city was simultaneously a site of secularizing tendencies and new forms of religiosity, this article calls for a revision of this position. Examining different cultural practices employed by urban Jews to come to terms with the challenges of modernity, this article, thus, argues that early twentieth-century Berlin became a space for diverse new expressions of Jewish identity and different conceptualizations of Jewishness and Judaism rather than a hostile environment for religiousity.