The Occupations of the "Exemplary Modern": Commerce, Law, Medicine, Textual Interpretation and Cultural Mediation
The Jewish Century
The 20th century witnessed an unprecedented flourishing of Jewish creativity and social involvement
“After all, modernization is about everyone becoming urban, mobile, literate, articulate, intellectually intricate and occupationally flexible.
It is about learning how to cultivate people and symbols, not fields or herds. It is about pursuing wealth for the sake of learning,
learning for the sake of wealth, and both wealth and learning for their own sake.
It is about transforming peasants and princes into merchants and priests,
replacing inherited privilege with acquired prestige, and dismantling social estates for the benefit of individuals.
In other words, it is about everyone becoming Jewish.”
“Some of the oldest Jewish specialties – commerce, law, medicine, textual interpretation, and cultural mediation –
have become the most fundamental (and most Jewish) of all modern pursuits.
It is by being exemplary ancients that the Jews have become model moderns.”
– Yuri Slezkine