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Rose Lerner on her latest hero, being Jewish in Regency England, and an interesting bit about Ivanhoe

TPAsh, the hero of my Regency romance True Pretenses, is a Jewish con artist who grew up in a London rookery and has been passing as a Gentile for a number of years. The heroine Lydia is the daughter of a baron. For various financial reasons, they are considering a marriage of convenience. (Well, Ash actually wanted Lydia to marry his brother for convenience, but she had other ideas…)

Dabney emailed me to say that while she was reading, she wondered “if Ash could ever come out [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][as Jewish] and not have it ruin him. What did it mean at the time to be poor and Jewish, wealthy and Jewish, or married to a Jew?”

As you can imagine, the short answer is, “it’s complicated.” Before I get into it, I just want to say that I’m going to talk primarily about my hero and heroine’s specific situation, and about Jews who wanted (for a variety of reasons) to be accepted into Christian British society, and not about the majority of Jews in Regency England who lived, worked, socialized, and married within the Jewish community.

Based on my research (if you want to know more, I highly recommend The Jews of Georgian England 1714–1830 by Todd Endelman), I don’t think that simply the fact of being Jewish would “ruin” Ash. He wouldn’t lose his property, his and Lydia’s marriage once performed would not be voided (getting an annulment was hard during the Regency), he wouldn’t have to flee town.

The primary consequence Ash would face if he told everyone in the heroine’s hometown that he was Jewish would be a lot of annoying, depressing, upsetting, prejudiced bullshit. Ash puts it like this: “If I told everyone I was Jewish, it would be the same life, with the same people, except that everything would be more difficult, and I’d have to hear them do and say things that would make it hard to like them.”

A number of Jewish people were accepted into the upper echelons of Christian high society, to a degree anyway. For example, Benjamin Goldsmid (a government loan contractor) was friends with Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton (among other notables), once entertained the King and Queen as drop-in dinner guests, and had the Prince of Wales over for an afternoon. (Endelman mentions that the future Regent’s visit “scandalized the more orthodox members of the Jewish community since the Prince had selected the Jewish Sabbath for his visit and Goldsmid had not wanted to offend him by suggesting another day”!)

Sir Walter Scott's 1820 Ivanhoe featured a "fair Jewess" in love with a Christian knight. The ending, in which Ivanhoe married a Christian girl, was unpopular with readers. As you can see, poor Rowena didn't make it onto the cover of this Classic Comic! Thackeray's sequel killed off Rowena and made Rebecca Lady Ivanhoe...but he had her convert first, something Scott's Rebecca flatly refused to do.
Sir Walter Scott’s 1820 Ivanhoe featured a “fair Jewess” in love with a Christian knight. The ending, in which Ivanhoe married a Christian girl, was unpopular with readers. As you can see, poor Rowena didn’t make it onto the cover of this Classic Comic! Thackeray’s sequel killed off Rowena and made Rebecca Lady Ivanhoe…but he had her convert first, something Scott’s Rebecca flatly refused to do.

There was a sort of unpredictable algorithm for how accepted you could be based on (1) how much money you had and how good your parties were and (2) how British you were willing to be. The markers in the British assimilation spectrum were things like “dressing in British fashions,” “not keeping kosher,” “donating money to Christian charities,” etc. The end of the spectrum was conversion, and rich Jews who hoped to integrate fully into British society did convert. Whether they were truly 100% accepted is doubtful, but they certainly got much closer.

This passage from Endelman’s book really stuck with me:

Thomas Babington Macaulay, the great parliamentary spokesman for Jewish emancipation*, wrote to his sister Hannah in 1831 that a costume ball given by the financier Isaac Lyon Goldsmid**…had ‘a little too much of Mary St. Axe [a Jewish neighborhood in the City] about it,—Jewesses by dozens, and Jews by scores.’ He explained to her that after the ball he could not fall asleep right away, as ‘the sound of fiddles was in mine ears, and gaudy dresses, and black hair, and Jewish noses were fluctuating up and down before mine eyes.’

*”Emancipation” in this context means Jews being allowed to become voters, hold public office, take commissions in the military, etc.—things which during the Regency required taking an Anglican oath and therefore excluded all non-Anglicans.

**Benjamin’s nephew.

And that guy was a promiment pro-Jewish politician. I’m sure that was fun to deal with from your Christian friends!

(If you want to read more “witty” Regency anti-Semitism—not to mention other forms of racism and prejudice—check out Charles Lamb’s “Imperfect Sympathies”, which appeared in London Magazine in 1821 as part of his wildly popular Elia essay series. You’ll probably want this footnote: Hugh of Lincoln’s Wikipedia page.)

Something conversion did unquestionably make far easier was intermarriage, because there was no secular marriage in England at this time. The only way to be legally married was in a religious ceremony. Which meant that if a Jew and a Christian wanted to marry each other openly, one of them had to convert (at least nominally).

All that said, as Dabney astutely pointed out, my hero Ash is dealing with two flavors of intermarriage: Jewish/Christian and very poor/aristocratic. Of the two, very poor/aristocratic would probably shock Lydia’s social circle more. Ash is not a wealthy Jewish financier. His mother was a sex worker, and he’s a swindler and an ex-housebreaker. That he could never admit and reasonably expect to be received anywhere or do business with anyone. Probably even just admitting what neighborhood in London he was from would be enough to ostracize him.

As for what it meant to be poor and Jewish to Christian poor people…you were still looking at a lot of bullshit from a lot of people, and very likely violence of some kind at some point(s) in your life. But there were plenty of intermarriages and interfaith friendships. Large portions of the urban working poor and urban criminal underclass, who cared less about social status and reputation, also cared less about religious strictures. Intermarriage was simple if you didn’t feel that an official marriage ceremony was required! Among Londoners, many Christians who married Jews even converted to Judaism (especially if the woman was the non-Jewish partner).

Endelman even notes: “Integrated teams of pickpockets, housebreakers, and shoplifters, while never coming to constitute a majority of cases, appear with increasing frequency from the 1770s”!


 

Rose Lerner is the author of four historical romances. Her latest is True Pretenses. She is giving a way a e-book of True Pretenses. To be entered in a drawing for that, make a comment below.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

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Sharyn Mckee
Sharyn Mckee
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02/08/2015 1:20 pm

I would like to be entered for the book. I love Regency’s and as a Jewish woman I am always interested in seeing Jewish characters. “”Never deceive a Duke”” so surprised me when Gareth turned out to be Jewish. I will put your book on my TBR pile as I wait to see if I win!

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Sharyn Mckee
02/09/2015 6:02 pm

Sharyn, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the book has already been given away. :( Better luck next time! If you do end up getting your hands on a copy I’d love to hear what you think of Ash. I too always get excited when I see one of us on the page…

Gumbybird
Gumbybird
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02/04/2015 1:06 am

Thank you so much for the Goodreads link! As a Jewish romance-lover (and a Jewish-romance lover!) , I’m always thrilled to find the rare book with a Jewish character, especially one that actually identifies with their religion. I’m so looking forward to investigating that list.

And thank you also for all your commentary on these posts – so much fascinating info!

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Gumbybird
02/09/2015 5:58 pm

You are welcome! I don’t have as much reading time as I used to and it’ll take me a while to work my way through that list, so if you come across any must-read gems please let me know!!

Ellen
Ellen
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01/24/2015 4:51 pm

I’m very much looking forward to reading the book. When I first saw the name Cohen (also my maiden name) I figured there would be some interesting twists. I’m always fascinated to see how Jews and Judaism are handled in historicals that are not specifically “”Jewish”” stories. Although it is set at a later period, I think of Daniel Deronda as a book that illustrates the fact that being a Jew was considered a severe liability. Daniel’s mother wanted him to escape is Jewish background and his guardian who raised him is horrified that Daniel would choose being a Jew over the basically “”secular Christian”” society in which he was raised. Of course he could only really do that by leaving England which might, in itself, be a commentary on the place of Jews in English society.
In any event, I have very much enjoyed Rose Lerner’s other books since they are so well written and have characters and situations that are not typical for regency set historicals. I’m sure this new one will be excellent also.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Ellen
01/24/2015 7:08 pm

I’m curious, what do you mean by “”specifically Jewish stories””?

About Daniel Deronda, it’s definitely an interesting insight into how Christians viewed Jews at the time. I’d be really interested to read a range of contemporary Jewish responses to the novel. I bet some loved and some hated it!

I’d love to know what you think of the book when you read it!

Susan/DC
Susan/DC
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01/21/2015 5:50 pm

The book Emily K refers to where the Jewish secondary character is attracted to the heroine but falls in love with a Jewish woman is, I think, Marjorie Farrell’s “”Lady Barbara’s Dilemma””. I liked it (but then, I liked most of her books), in part because of the friendship Lady Barbara has with David. I did not see it on the Goodreads list, so there clearly are more such books out there, even if not many.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Susan/DC
01/21/2015 5:56 pm

Oh, cool, thanks! I should check that out. I don’t think I’ve read anything by her.

Yeah, I’m sure there are some out there that aren’t on the list! Plus it’s limited to romances where the hero or heroine is Jewish. I know I’ve read more Jewish secondary characters than protagonists.

Susan/DC
Susan/DC
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Reply to  Rose Lerner
01/22/2015 6:43 pm

Part of what I liked about the Farrell book is that the Jewish secondary character gets his own romance and plays a fairly major role in the book. Often the Jewish characters are the shopkeeper or some such, more tertiary than secondary, and relegated to far in the background.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Susan/DC
01/23/2015 5:29 pm

Oh, that’s awesome! I love secondary romances; sometimes they’re the best thing about a book. Thanks!

Sharyn Mckee
Sharyn Mckee
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Reply to  Susan/DC
02/08/2015 1:21 pm

Thanks for the new author. I will look for her. I also enjoy finding Jewish characters.

Patricia M.
Patricia M.
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01/21/2015 8:58 am

In Carla Kelly’s “”The Admiral’s Penniless Bride””, the Admiral and his penniless bride settle into a newly bought manor and go to call on neighbors. They call first on the successful Jewish banker nearby. It turns out that in the many years that the banker had lived there, not one neighbor had ever called on him or his wife which had hurt his wife. It was a poignant scene. Not the Regency, but since one commenter asked about Jews in other parts of the continent, I thought to mention that my brother-in-law wrote a scholarly work on “”secret Jews”” in Spain after the Jews were expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella. It is called “”Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of Crypto Jews””. It is not light reading however so it probably just for the true history buffs, especially since it was the result of many years research in Inquisition files.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Patricia M.
01/21/2015 12:02 pm

That’s incredible that they just kept living there! I hope they kept up their acquaintance with their Jewish friends in town or that must have been ridiculously, masochistically lonely.

Your brother-in-law’s book sounds fascinating! If I write a book set in Spain I will definitely check it out. Thank you!

Anna R.
Anna R.
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01/21/2015 3:44 am

Thanks for this very interesting piece. I’ve been looking for more diversity in romance, especially historical romance as that is one of the primary genres I read, so I am pleased to read this. I have a question though. I am not well versed in the difference historically between Jewish as a religious category versus as a racial/ethnic category. Was it possible for people who were ethnically Jewish to integrate with Gentile society if they underwent a religious conversion? Or was that not really possible because being Jewish was considered more of a ethnic/racial category rather than a religious one?
Also, is your hero a practicing Jew (who observes Shabbat, Jewish holidays, etc)? Since your hero chooses to keep his Jewish heritage a secret, how would he manage to observe those traditions without drawing suspicion?

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Anna R.
01/21/2015 11:58 am

Thanks, Anna! That’s great to hear. :)

That’s a complicated question, and also one that was shifting in this time period (for a discussion of how racism changed to be more essentialist as the British Empire grew, see my comment to Emily K above). I think the answer is both yes and no.

Certainly, conversion to Anglicanism gained Jews a much higher level of social acceptance. It also, if a Jew was looking to be accepted among the upper classes, removed the legal barriers to their participating in gentlemanly careers like the army, the church, politics, and the law. There were statutes still on the books forbidding Jews from purchasing landed estates (they got around this by having property held in the name of Christian friends or employees). There was no way for Jewish immigrants to become naturalized English citizens. Jews were not legally allowed to vote (although some liberal election officials let them). In the Regency, there were no English universities that would accept them as students (so definitely no Oxford or Cambridge!). So obviously conversion, by removing these legal barriers, made acceptance into the higher ranks of society much much easier, even setting aside what Christians thought and felt about conversion.

Many Jews did convert and enter Gentile society. Whether they were fully viewed as “”one of us”” is doubtful (Endelman notes, for example, “”the common practice of referring to Jewish converts to the Church of England as Jews long after their conversion””). But many of them were highly successful and popular despite lingering prejudice: John Adolphus, Sir Francis Palgrave, and Benjamin Disraeli are just a few prominent names. Sure, Disraeli had anti-Semitic slurs like “”old clothes!”” and “”usurer!”” yelled at him on the hustings during his first political campaign, but he became Prime Minister of England.

And no, my hero Ash is not a practicing Jew. I don’t think he ever was exactly observant or religious, although he celebrated Shabbas and the Jewish holidays and maybe even occasionally went to synagogue when he lived in a Jewish community. But when he fled his Jewish gang and took his brother with him, he decided it was safest and most profitable to give that up, and he hasn’t really looked back. His little brother misses it more than he does.

But as you say, there’s Jewish as a religion and there’s Jewish as a group of cultures and ethnicities, and Ash definitely identifies as Jewish.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Rose Lerner
01/21/2015 11:59 am

Oops! I should have said, Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Anna R.
Anna R.
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Reply to  Rose Lerner
01/23/2015 9:03 pm

Thank you, Rose! Your posts are so interesting. I also love history, especially the sometimes overlooked stories and experiences of marginalized people, so I find this stuff fascinating. I’m excited to read this book now.

bn100
bn100
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01/20/2015 9:30 pm

interesting info

Karen
Karen
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01/20/2015 8:14 pm

Thanks, Rose! I own all your books and will buy this if I don’t win the eBook. I love your originality! And I appreciate your research so we can truly experience the time period. Well done!

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Karen
01/21/2015 11:15 am

Aw, thanks, Karen! Research is one of my favorite parts of the job. I always wish I had time to do more of it.

Violet Bick
Violet Bick
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01/20/2015 4:58 pm

Thank you for your post, for sharing your research, and for the additional comments in this thread. I’m glad Dabney thought to ask the question. I love reading historical romances that are supported by historical fact. Yay for authors who love research! I can’t wait to read “”True Pretenses.””

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Violet Bick
01/21/2015 11:13 am

Thank you! I hope you like the book. :)

neurondoc
neurondoc
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01/20/2015 3:11 pm

I loved your earlier books and am especially looking forward to True Pretenses (love the title). Being a “”nice Jewish girl”” with a long love of romance novels (especially Regencies) and historical novels, I’m always on the lookout for books with Jewish characters. I’m totally heading over to that GoodReads list after this. :-)

Keep me in the running!

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  neurondoc
01/20/2015 4:05 pm

Thank you! If you particularly love any of the books off the list, let me know!!

Lindsay B.
Lindsay B.
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01/20/2015 2:59 pm

This is fascinating! Thank you for sharing a bit of your research. It’s definitely made me want to delve deeper into some of those research books you’ve mentioned. Very interesting stuff. (The reason I love reading historical romance is because of the history, so I love confirming that an author’s done her homework on the subject!)

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Lindsay B.
01/20/2015 4:04 pm

Thanks! Research is one of the perks of the job, I think. :)

Kim
Kim
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01/20/2015 2:36 pm

Congratulations on your new release. The schism between the Church of England and Catholicism forced Catholics to secretly worship in their homes. Were there any synagogues in the UK during this time period?

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Kim
01/20/2015 2:58 pm

There were many! Mostly in London–the two biggest were Bevis Marks, the Sephardi synagogue, and the Ashkenazi Great Synagogue which most of the poorer Jews attended because you could attend without paying membership dues. But there were smaller ones everywhere the Jewish community was big enough to support it. In communities too small to pay for a dedicated building services were held in homes, as any congregant can lead Jewish services anywhere, an official rabbi and a dedicated building is not necessary.

What you do need is 10 men (a “”minyan””) to hold Jewish services. Some Jewish businessmen in the country had arrangements like, they would subsidize traveling salesmen if they promised to come back every Friday for services.

Here is a neat Rowlandson print of the Great Synagogue in London.

Lily
Lily
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01/20/2015 11:19 am

Thank you for the interview and choosing an interesting angle for the book. I look forward to reading it!

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Lily
01/20/2015 1:51 pm

Thanks! I hope you like it. :)

Jennifer
Jennifer
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01/20/2015 5:37 am

An interesting interview, and an interesting perspective on the place of Jews in Regency society. It is interesting to compare this with the recent surveys about the level of anti-Semitism in the UK.
I really enjoyed In for a Penny, and Sweet Disorder is waiting TBR on my ereader. I am looking forward reading True Pretenses.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Jennifer
01/20/2015 1:51 pm

Thank you! Incredible to remember that Jews could not stay at non-Jewish hotels or go to many non-Jewish businesses or belong to non-Jewish clubs not so long ago in the US, isn’t it? Not sure if the same was true in the UK…

Rosie
Rosie
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01/20/2015 3:45 am

I look forward to reading your newest release. A marriage of convenience and the couple being from different classes? Yes, please!

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Rosie
01/20/2015 1:38 pm

Two of my favorite tropes as well. ;) Hope you like it!

Paola
Paola
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01/20/2015 3:30 am

In for a Penny is one of my favorite romances and I also loved Sweet Disorder.
Glad to know this series will continue with at least two other books.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Paola
01/20/2015 1:38 pm

Aw, thanks! <3

LeeF
LeeF
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01/19/2015 11:37 pm

I really enjoyed “”In For a Penny”” a while back and, more recently, “”Sweet Disorder””. I look forward to reading “”True Pretenses”” soon.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  LeeF
01/20/2015 1:37 pm

Yay! That’s awesome that you liked my earlier books. Hope this one lives up!

ML
ML
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01/19/2015 11:32 pm

Thank you for a fascinating post and the contest! One question: as Judaism technically descends through the mother, did British society view it as any difference in a mixed marriage if the Jewish parent was the mother or the father?

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  ML
01/20/2015 1:33 pm

ML–great question! I doubt most British people’s thinking was affected at all by how Jewish law works. Like, I don’t think your average British person would think the child of a Christian father and a Jewish mother was more more Jewish than the child of a Jewish father and a Christian mother. In fact, they would probably think exactly the opposite. There was a societal expectation in Regency England (and many other times and places) that a wife took on her husband’s social status and lived in his community.

And that’s leaving aside the issue of conversion. Historically, when a Jewish/Gentile intermarriage occurs, the wife converts to the husband’s religion far more often than vice versa. Where the Jewish law thing does come into play is that, if her Jewish husband or his family cared about her children being legally Jewish, a Christian wife would probably have a lot of pressure put on her to convert. Which would in turn affect her relationship with her own community. (Depending on her class. As I mentioned, working-class women apparently frequently did convert to marry Jews and it wasn’t that big a deal.)

Does that answer your question?

Barbara Elness
Barbara Elness
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01/19/2015 11:00 pm

A very interesting post, and I look forward to reading True Pretenses.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Barbara Elness
01/20/2015 1:33 pm

Thank you! I hope you enjoy the book. :)

Elinor Aspen
Elinor Aspen
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01/19/2015 9:27 pm

Liz Carlyle’s “”Never Deceive a Duke”” (which I seem to recall was set during the Regency or thereabouts) featured a hero who was the result of an intermarriage between a Jewish mother and a British gentile father (from a cadet branch of a ducal family). He was raised by his maternal grandparents after the deaths of his parents, but they refused to bring him to the synagogue, as they did not want to endanger his ability to enter his father’s society. He knew he was Jewish by birth (and would face prejudice because of it), but he was mostly ignorant of his cultural and religious heritage.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  Elinor Aspen
01/19/2015 10:00 pm

That sounds like a sad way to grow up, with your own family excluding you and not letting you do things with them! But maybe it was less isolating than I’m imagining from your description…

EmilyK
EmilyK
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01/19/2015 8:51 pm

I’ve got the book already (saving for a plane trip tomorrow) so no need to enter me in the contest. But I wanted to post to thank you for explaining this background. I would love to see more Jewish characters. The only other ones I have read in regencies or the like are Carola Dunn(?)’s Miss Jacobson’s Journey and a sequel, and then another one (name escapes me) where the B plot involved a fairly secular/assimilated Jewish man who was initially interested in marrying the heroine, but ended up marrying a more observant Jewish woman.
Is it correct that these emancipation issues were the same ones affecting Catholics? I feel like I’ve seen more discussion of that, but come to think of it, I can’t remember many Catholic principals (aside from an old Patricia Veryan). I assume the prejudice issues would be worse for Jews than for Catholics? Were there other religious prejudices encountered (would many Anglo-Indians have ended up back in England and been Hindu? Muslim?)?

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  EmilyK
01/19/2015 9:55 pm

Fly safe! And I hope you like the book. :) I absolutely love Miss Jacobson’s Journey, I must have read it over a dozen times in middle school and high school and it’s still on my keeper shelf. It’s one of the books that cemented my love of Regencies.

My knowledge of other religious minorities besides Jews is fairly general. I’m not sure I understand what you mean by Jewish and Catholic emancipation issues being “”the same,”” but certainly the practical barrier in both cases was the inability to take an Anglican oath, if that’s what you’re asking. Despite that, to the best of my knowledge, all the non-Anglican religious categories (Catholics, Jews, Dissenters–i.e. Protestants who weren’t Church of England, etc) were “”emancipated”” separately, with separate political debates surrounding each.

The Roman Catholic Relief Act which removed many barriers for Catholics was passed in 1829 while Jews were not granted all rights available to Anglicans until thirty years later. (I don’t know a ton about it since it’s post-Regency but the Wikipedia page is really interesting! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_of_the_Jews_in_the_United_Kingdom) However Catholics (especially Irish Catholics) also faced significant prejudice and suspicion, with bitterness from the Civil War and various Jacobite rebellions still very much present.

I assume that some of those sexy Highlanders must be Catholics, right? I don’t read too many Scottish historicals so don’t know.

My impression is that most of the non-Christian Indians who made it to Britain during the Regency were Muslim, but I still know very little about that. I’m researching it now for the book I’m working on! I’m really enjoying the book I’m reading, if you are interested to know more: “”Counterflows to Colonialism: Indian Travellers and Settlers in Britain, 1600-1857″” by Michael Fisher.

Something that I think is important to remember is that cultural prejudices were shifting in the early nineteenth century as the British Empire grew and solidified. To broadly, broadly simplify, earlier prejudice was against people who were “”not English”” which was a fluid/permeable category. A foreigner, or a non-Anglo-Saxon English person, who spoke English fluently, dressed in the English manner, and followed mainstream English cultural norms could gain significant acceptance/equality. But as the British Empire grew (and as immigration to Britain grew) it became much more important to see colonial subjects as INHERENTLY, GENETICALLY inferior, and racism in general and ideas of ethnicity became more rigid, vicious and carefully policed.

(Interestingly, during the Regency, British people IN BRITAIN were much less viciously prejudiced against Indians than British people in British-occupied India. Indians sometimes came to England for a legal hearing or career advancement that was not available to them at home. Funny how proximity so often seems to increase prejudice instead of increasing mutual understanding.)

Which is not to say that non-Anglo-Saxons didn’t deal with a lot of awful crap during the Regency!

Um, sorry, that got really long…

EmilyK
EmilyK
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Reply to  Rose Lerner
01/19/2015 11:12 pm

Thanks, Rose. And sorry to make you do my research for me! Yes, I was pretty imprecise in my emancipation question. I think since the obvious modern solution would be to do away with the oath, I assumed it was accomplished that way (thus removing barriers to all religious minorities), rather than as you have described. I appreciate the tips on follow up reading. It is interesting that at least in fiction I seem to hear more about the question as it pertains to Catholics. Perhaps because in the Regency period that was closer to a solution. As a history major, amateur genealogist, and trusts and estates lawyer, I’m always interested in the legal history side of things (especially marriage/property/inheritance), but know so much more about the American context than the British one. One of my reading projects for 2015 is to learn more about these topics in British history.
What you describe about the proximity increasing racism/intolerance makes perfect sense to me, as well as the political “”needs”” for discriminatory attitudes. I think (unfortunately) we see that dynamic repeated through history and now.
Finally, I appreciate your insight that racial and religious minorities had more acceptance (if otherwise assimilated) in earlier times than as the Empire progressed. I’ve wondered about that since I was a kid and saw Othello and heard about Pocohantas’ trip to England. I wonder if continental Europe had the same dynamic?
Thanks again.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  EmilyK
01/20/2015 2:27 pm

lol, no worries! You know how much I love research. :)

JulieR
JulieR
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01/19/2015 8:05 pm

Most stories I’ve read with Jewish characters have featured wealthier types. Reading about your protagonist should be interesting.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  JulieR
01/19/2015 9:15 pm

I hope you like him! :) He’s one of my favorite characters I’ve written.

April
April
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01/19/2015 7:52 pm

This sounds like an interesting topic, and I have not read much about Jewish society in the Regency period.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  April
01/19/2015 9:15 pm

Thanks, April! I really enjoyed researching it–and of course I still have a lot more research ahead of me. Since Ash isn’t active in a Jewish community anymore there are a lot of things I didn’t have to know, but when I write his brother Rafe’s book I will need a lot more info. :)

stl_reader
stl_reader
Guest
01/19/2015 6:32 pm

Great interview. I bet Rose could speak at length about the many petty, sad reasons why antisemitism took hold, and continues to flourish (if slightly less), in England. Anyway, as a Jew who agrees that there is a dearth of Jewish heroes/heroines in Romancelandia, I will be adding this to my TBR list.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
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Reply to  stl_reader
01/19/2015 9:14 pm

Yay! I’m glad you liked the post. And by the way, (for you or anyone else who’s interested), I recently discovered this awesome list on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/20134.Historical_Romance_with_Jewish_Protagonists

There are a lot more books on it than I expected! Obviously 39 books out of all the thousands of historical romances published is still a dearth! BUT I’ve only ever come across one or two of these so I’m really excited to learn there are more out there.

Susan
Susan
Guest
01/19/2015 6:20 pm

Thank you for information on the cultural aspects at that time. Insightful perspectives provide enhanced understanding of the characters and their motivations. Please include me in the ebook drawing. Ms. Lerner’s work is always an enjoyable read.

Rose Lerner
Rose Lerner
Guest
Reply to  Susan
01/19/2015 9:06 pm

Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed the post. :)