Novel Opportunities, Perpetual Barriers: Patterns of Social Mobility and Integration among the Jewish Dutch Elite, 1870-1940

Abstract

From the final decades of the nineteenth century until the German occupation, Dutch Jews experienced unprecedented opportunities for climbing the social ladder and integrating into mainstream society. Sietske van der Veen’s dissertation ‘Novel Opportunities, Perpetual Barriers: Patterns of Social Mobility and Integration among the Jewish Dutch Elite, 1870-1940’ offers the first systematic, large-scale analysis of the social mobility and integration of Dutch Jews with a relatively high social status. What specific opportunities did they seize? And what role did their Jewish background play in their lives? By studying over seven hundred Jews whose life stories were documented in the Dutch Biography Portal, with a focus on work, education, place of residence, religious affiliation, marriage, and association membership, this dissertation presents a fresh perspective on scholarly notions about Jewish social mobility and integration. It also analyses Jewish involvement in the women’s movement, Jewish country house life, and Jewish migration to the Dutch East Indies in three separate case studies, showing how Dutch Jews from the upper middle and upper classes could act on particular opportunities in this period. This dissertation demonstrates how the position of Jews in Dutch society shifted as the lives of Jewish members of the financial, political, and cultural elites became more interwoven with those of their non-Jewish counterparts. At the same time, this dissertation emphasises the agency of a very diverse group of Jews, exposing mechanisms of cultural exchange. In doing so, it makes evident that integration is never a one-sided or exhaustive process.