Jewish orientalists were driven by sectarian grievances against Christianity, not colonial projects

Evidence

I agree that as a project, orientalism was indeed sometimes the intellectual handmaiden to colonialism. Because colonialism was often fortified and abetted by Christian missionary activity, however, it bore a particular, sectarian stamp. Given the place Jews occupied in European society, especially vis-à-vis Christianity, Jewish orientalists approached orientalism with a different set of assumptions and prejudices than Gentile orientalists. Specifically, I would argue that for the orientalists I am about to discuss, it was their Jewish sensibilities—namely, their desire for Jewish civil equality, their antipathy to Christianity, and their rejection of Orthodox Judaism—that colored their orientalism. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 377

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the mechanism by which personal identity and religious animus, not empire, shaped what scholars studied.