ABSTRACT
Current conceptions of emancipation are inadequate since they tend to be geographically exclusive and chronologically truncated as well as to presume a bipartite east-west divide. A more inclusive understanding of emancipation requires defining a range of statuses (toleration, civil inclusion, partial emancipation, full emancipation) as well as fashioning a tripartite model (west, central and eastern Europe). The notion of the Port Jew is integral to the status of civil inclusion and the ‘west’ European experience of emancipation.
