Jüdische Settlements in Europa. Ansätze einer transnationalen sozial-, geschlechter- und ideenhistorischen Forschung

Settlements played an important role worldwide to resolve social problems and problems of assimilation of immigrants in a new surrounding. Up until now it has been forgotten to recognize the history of the Jewish People Homes and Toynbee Halls as examples of Jewish settlements in Europe. Jewish People Homes and Toynbee Halls were mostly self organized social projects facilitating cultural contact between assimilated Jews and Jewish immigrants coming from Eastern Europe. Jewish men and women sought to realize models of emancipation and to renew the Jewish identity.
Focused on these assumptions, the article will ask why the settlement movement was welcomed in Jewish circles and which were the transnational and gender-related similarities between some settlements. Secondly the article will ask in a micro-historical study of the Jewish People Home in Berlin, as an example of a Jewish settlement, for the way it operated, the various activities it pursued and its actors.