Jewish court status depended on state distance from the people

Evidence

Both the political influence and the social status of the Jews had for centuries been due to the fact that they were a closed group who worked directly for the state and were directly protected by it on account of their special services. Their close and immediate connection with the machinery of government was possible only so long as the state remained at a distance from the people, while the ruling classes continued to be indifferent to its management. In such circumstances the Jews were, from the state’s point of view, the most dependable element in society just because they did not really belong to it. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 292

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the structural mechanism — closeness to the state and non-belonging to society — that underlies Jewish political status across pre-modern regimes.
• XREF: Connects forward to the Islamophobia field’s treatment of how minority groups’ proximity to state power renders them vulnerable when the state’s base shifts.