In Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story "Guests on a Winter Night", there's one part where he describes the folks inside a coffee shop as "emancipated":
It was even more interesting to look into Chaim's coffee shop. Many couples sat there, all of them emancipated, not Hasidic. The place was frequented by thieves and 'strikers' - the young men and girls who only a few years before were throwing bombs and demanding a constitution from the tsar.
(translated by the author and Dorothea Straus)
I'm not quite sure what "emancipated" is supposed to mean here. From the sentence it's in, I'd be inclined to think it meant non-religious, but then from the further context it looks like they're some sort of revolutionaries. I'm also for some reason unable to find the original Yiddish text.
What does "emancipated" mean in this context?