“In the hundred years prior to the end of the sixteenth century, despite constant pressures to the contrary, the Jews of Italy--who were made up of relatively small and ethnically different groups that traced their origins to lands are far apart as Spain and Turkey--managed with no small success to preserve their diverse ancestral religious traditions. Suddenly, from sometime about 1570, the winds shifted, and Italian Jews became receptive to innovations that led to major changes in their religious practices and attitudes. I say “suddenly,” because revolutionary change did not require a revolution. The major changes that occurred apparently were not preceded by an extended period of cultural and social ferment. The opposition to change seems to have been sporadic, limited in scope, of brief duration, and far weaker than might have been expected, certainly with respect to other Jewish societies, where less significant changes in daily life and religious opinions occasionally generated considerable controversy. Problems of intellectual nonconformity, at least at first glance, seem to have effected only slight sensitivities to issues involving authority and institutional and social stability.”