Moses Gaster și Lazăr Șăineanu: Problema dublei identități
Moses Gaster and Lazăr Șăineanu: The Question of Double Identity

Summary/Abstract: In the 1880s, as a result of the acculturation process, a generation of elite Jewish intellectuals became active, who promoted the idea of Romanian Jewish identity and came to make significant contributions to Romanian science and culture. The present paper aims to study the question of double identity concerning the generation of Romania’s acculturated Jewish intellectuals in the late 19th century, by analyzing two representative cases: Moses Gaster, a moderate assimilationist with Jewish nationalist tendencies, and Lazăr Șăineanu, who came to adopt a radical form of assimilation by converting to Christianity. This research will be undertaken from an interdisciplinary approach that includes cultural, historical, and political perspectives. The question of double identity regarding the two Jewish intellectuals will be related to aspects of their biographical trajectory, with a focus on their personal and professional backgrounds, on the relationship with the Jewish community and religious life, on cultural and scientific concerns, as well as on integration issues. By following the personal and cultural destinies of the two Jewish intellectuals, this paper aims to emphasize the impact of their work on both Romanian and Jewish cultures and to reveal the main difficulties that the whole generation they represented had to face by assuming the Romanian Jewish identity: increase in anti-Semitism, hostile reactions coming from the cultural and political authorities, rejection of integration, the pressure of the Romanian culture with ethnic-national identity tendencies on their Jewish identity.

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