ABSTRACT
In mid-eighteenth-century France, a Jewish woman named Glucka Schwab (also spelled Schouabe in the sources) was sent to the convent of Les Nouvelles Catholiques. At first it appears that she had been placed there involuntarily, as it was rare for Jewish women to be confined to a cloister. In 1729, members of the Schwab family were involved in the “Schwab Affair” involving bankers, accusations of financial crimes, and legal responses colored by the reigning antisemitic attitudes in Paris and Metz. Records indicate police files were opened on the same day for Abraham, son of Jacob and a woman named Glucka, herself daughter of Ruben. There is much evidence to suggest that these cases are related and that Glucka initiated her conversion to Catholicism. Her name was changed to Angélique, and the young woman remained in the convent after her conversion. Angélique contracted an illness from which she was not expected to survive. Her motives for conversion, assuming she made this choice for herself, may have been to separate herself from her family, which was then embroiled in legal problems. While her sincere conversion cannot be ruled out, it seems more likely that hers was a calculated attempt to gain more control over her desperate situation of forced marriage and antisemitism. For Angélique and perhaps others in desperate circumstances, conversion to Catholicism and residence in the convent may have provided a modicum of control, support, and safety for women who were particularly vulnerable.
