Pre-modern caste structure made Jewish separation a normal rather than exceptional status

Evidence

In a society divided into estates or castes, the Jews were just one estate or one caste among many. The individual Jew was defined by the caste to which he belonged, and by the specific privileges and burdens the caste enjoyed or bore. But the same applied to every other member of the same society. The Jews were set apart, but the state of being set apart in no way made them unique. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 126

Categorization

• XREF: Core scaffolding claim: pre-modern Jewish estrangement was unexceptional because segmentary society normalized separation; this sets up the later argument that only modernization made the Jews uniquely visible as a category to be managed. — connects to: Demonization of Jews stems from their modern ambiguous social role, not medieval memories — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 831; Jews existed between social classes rather than within any one of them.; Jewish survival depended on voluntary self-separation, not on Gentile persecution. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 18 (+6 more)

Related

• Modernity’s legal equality made Jewish separation a problem to be manufactured (similarity 0.85)
• Before modernity, segregated class perspectives kept hostile stereotypes of Jews from merging. (similarity 0.84)
• Jewish emancipation removed visible markers of difference and so made Jews newly threatening (similarity 0.80)
• Jewish survival depended on voluntary self-separation, not on Gentile persecution. (similarity 0.80)
• The conceptual Jew occupied every boundary conflict of Western modernity (similarity 0.79)
• Demonization of Jews stems from their modern ambiguous social role, not medieval memories (similarity 0.78)
• Jews formed a state-defined group outside the class system (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Modernity’s legal equality made Jewish separation a problem to be manufactured #expands (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 169
• Before modernity, segregated class perspectives kept hostile stereotypes of Jews from merging. #corroborates (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 139
• Social exclusion of Jews made abstract stereotypes replace personal knowledge. #expands (0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 531