The history of Jews in cosmopolitan maritime trading centres is a field of research that is reshaping our understanding of how Jews entered the modern world. The "port Jew" has been identified as a "social type" whose characteristics dramatically pre-figured conscious efforts to modernize Jewish life in 18th-century Europe. The classic "social type" was a Spanish or Portuguese Jew who fled the Inquisition to settle in ports on the Atlantic seaboard. These "New Christians", sometimes secret Jews, had already lived "double lives" and looked upon Jewish tradition with a detached eye. They were open to secular learning and other cultures. When they took advantage of the pragmatic environment of port cities such as Amsterdam, Hamburg and London and openly returned to Jewish life, it was in a way that typified the modern, voluntary Jewish community. Contributors to this book challenge the normal interpretation of Jewish history by showing that thinkers who reinterpreted Judaism on philosophical grounds or drew up programmes for reform and modernization looked enviously at the unforced, natural evolution of Jewish communities in cosmopolitan ports, notably Trieste.
The "civil inclusion" enjoyed by "port Jews" uniquely eased the way to full emancipation.