Les Juifs De Pitigliano À L’Épreuve Des Réformes Éclairées : Pour Une Histoire Des Conflits Intracommunautaires (1744-1796)

This study deals with Jewish intracommunity conflicts in Italy during the 18th century by linking them to the specific dynamics of Jewish communities as local institutions, and to the political and legal procedures organizing Jewish relationship with State authorities. The article examines, at first, the political nature of internal conflicts in Jewish communities in order to clarify the multiplicity of situations and the complexity of discourses condensed in the Jewish fact. Secondly, it analyses conflicts within the Jewish community of Pitigliano, in the Grand-Duchy of Tuscany, during the Tuscan reformist period from 1744 to 1796. The multiplicity and recurrence of Jewish intracommunity conflicts in Pitigliano reflect social tendencies related to the crisis of traditional normativity and to early assimilation processes. Following the impossibility of obtaining an agreement with the leaders of the community, Jewish addresses to State judicial authorities proved to be a transitory instrument to try to shift the internal power system and envision a possible change in community hierarchies.