Jews fared better in pluralist than in fully secular societies

Evidence

I have spoken of two of the diasporas, the Christian and the Muslim, and tried to compare and contrast them. There is also a third, the secular. Here it is important to note a distinction between secularism and pluralism. Secular soci­ eties are usually pluralist. Pluralist societies are not necessarily secular. There are many examples of pluralist societies in which one group, one religion, usually one ethnic–religious group is dominant, but permits others to survive or even to flourish, subject to the acceptance of certain limitations. On the whole, Jews have done rather better in pluralist societies of this kind, such as the medieval Islamic caliphates, or the empires of the Ottomans and the Hapsburgs in the Middle East and in Central Europe. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 329

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes pluralism (tolerated minority under a dominant group) from secularism (state with no official religion) — a useful conceptual distinction.
• ADDENDUM: Relevant to the article on complaints about immodesty: pluralist toleration with restrictions parallels how dress-codes in empires like the Ottomans signaled tolerated-minority status.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 329