Haskala

1. Haskala & Eastern Jewry in the 18th and 19th C.

2. Haskala - Enlightment • The last quarter of the 18th up to the 1880´s • Sceptical about hassidic mysticism and dismissal of the belief in messianic liberation • Aim: integration of the Jews • Maskilim • Raising nationalism – every nation has a right on fatherland • Feudal system in Europe collapses • Napoleon – Poles saw him as a potential liberator • Ended following the pogroms in 1881-2 when it became evident that enlightment alone was unable to provide the desired emancipation : new movements emereged from its ruins: Hibbath Zion, Zionism, Jewish socialist movement.

3. MosesMendelsohn • Berlin, son of a poor scribe • Philosophical treatises : "the world results from a creative act through which the divine will seeks to realize the highest good." • After 1750 won a Berlin Academy Prize for an essay on the application of mathematical proofs to methaphysics (Kant among the competitors – became friends) • After 1760 granted a priviledge of Protected Jew by the king • Challenged by a theology student to publicly defend his Judaism or to convert to Christianity  Mendelsohn proclaimed his Jewishness

4. MosesMendelsohn • Next year translated Tanakh into German with a Hebrew commentary: Bi´ur, 1783 • Jerusalem: the state has no right to interfere with the religion of its citizens • Plurality of truths – various nations need different constitutions – so individuals may need different religions • Lessing, Nathan the Wise (= Mendelsohn) – spokesman for love and humanity; classic on religious tolerance

5. Mendelsohn Moses • accepted the existence of miracles and revelation as long as belief in God did not depend on them • revelation can not contradict reason • reason can discover the reality of God, divine providence and immortality of the soul • The first to speak out against the use of excommunication as a religious threat. • Wanted to take the Jews out of a ghetto lifestyle and into secular society. • Systematic demonstration of the compatibility of traditional Judaism with the precepts of the Enlightment

6. Haskala • Importance of education • New Jewish schools (text on traditional rural cheder by Shalom Aleichem, Shtetl, p.98) • The study of non-religious disciplines should be a part of the education of Jewish children • Jews should have perfect knowledge of the language of the country (somewhere led to disappearance of yiddish) • The study of hebrew should be encouraged – rebirth of national consciousness • New rationalistic interpretation of traditional religious values  often conflicts with ortodox Jews • Traditional pilpul succesful lawyers • Secular learning (cities, universities – law, medicine) sharply refused in the rural traditionalist shtetleks • Reform of Judaism

7. Eastern Jewry in the 18th and 19th C. • Partitions of Poland 1772-1794 : lasted untill 1918 • 900 000 Jews in Poland – 10% of the total population (a relatively large number due to early marriage and lower infant mortality) • Prussia, Russia, Austria – Jews became subject to the laws of three different powers – more complex and unhappy phase • In Prussia and Austria Jews recquired to accept Germanic surnames

8. 1772- 1794

9. Eastern Jewry in the 18th and 19th C. • Austria: Galicia, Cracow • Russia: Lithuania, Belarussia, Ukraine - 60% of the Polish territory and 45% of its population; 700 000 Jews • Prussia– the lowest number of Jews, the poorest Jews expelled from the country(„protected“ x „tolerated“ Jews – untill 1848) • Tension between hassidim, mitnagdim and maskilim

10. Pale of Settlement • Catherine the Great, Russia • Influenced by antisemitism of the philosophers of enlightment • Ortodox church – deeply antisemitic • Her predecessor expelled Jews from Russia • New Russia = provinces N from the Black Sea  authorised Jews to settle there • 1782- Jews shall live in the cities  protests of Russian merchants against the mass arrival of Jews in the cities (merchant´s class) • Catherine granted Jews priviledges and treated them as potentionally useful citizens - made efforts to treat them as a religious minority but at the end failed due to the opposition of Poles and Russian merchants • Merchants (middle class) had not right to move from one city to another- same for Jews

12. Pale of Settlement • 1791 – Pale of Settlement • Severe restrictions of Jewish rights of residence and movement – Jews can´t settle in central Russia, they have to live in Poland and in the annexed territories (Lithuania, Belorussia, Ukraine...) • 700 000 Jews since 1795 • Jews had to pay a double tax, later could settle in villages as the only merchants and had a very profitable lease to sell alcohol • Could move to Moscow but only by bribing the police (several thousands) • 1804 Alexander I – Statutes improving the situation of Jews – right to study. Liberty of commerce, right to work on land

13. Pale of Settlement • 1822 Jews forced to live in ghettos • commerce of grain receded (decline of Jewish merchnats in this field), nobles saw Jews as competitors • Far few jobs for the population in ghettos, increasing pauperization • Small number of Jewish millionaires collaborating with the state • 1827 – Nicolas I – dark chapter, painful restrictions • Cantonist edict: military service of Jews (read Shtetl p. 115-117) – valid until 1859 • Untill 1917

14. Pale of Settlement • Alexandr II – golden age; murdered in 1881 • abolished the cantonist system, „useful“ Jews can reside outside the Pale of Settlement • Jewish intellectual life in Moscow and St Petersbourg • Alexander III - expulsions and persecutions of Jews • Permanent pogroms : Odessa and many other places • a plight forced Jews to emigrate – 1881- 1914 about 2,5 milion Jews left Eastern Europe esp. to the USA (2 mio), Palestine and W Europe • Generally not welcome, uneasy conditions, high criminality, mafia • 1920´s immigration to the USA strictly limited – untill the end of WWII (fear of Jewish socialists, jealousy against Jewish capitalists)

15. Pale of Settlement • 19th c. – industrialisation • Lodz: textile industry • Typically Jews worked in small workshops • Banking • Poles see Jews more and more as collaborators with the Russian occupier; anti-capitalism • Maskilim chose assimilation – big cities • Emancipation of women in traditional families

16. Prussia • „Protected“ Jews (Schutzjuden) • Wealthy • German-speaking • Cities, encouraged to assimilate • Tolerated Jews • equal rights only in 1848

17. Habsburg Empire

18. Bohemia and Moravia • Prague, 17th c.: European cultural center of Jewish life (10 000 Jews; 4 000 in Berlin; 3 000 in Vienna) • 1726 Family Laws – Charles VI • 1744 Expulsion of Jews - Maria Theresa

19. Bohemia and Moravia Joseph II, Edict of Tolerance and the following edicts • Jews became almost equal and were allowed to study at public schools • Banned from using hebrew and „Jewish language“ in their public and commercial records • Germanization: names to be chosen from a government-prepared list • Jews are liable for military service • Abolished rabbinical juridical autonomy • Did not gain the right of citizenship

20. Bohemia and Moravia • 1849 – Jews can leave the Prague ghetto • Family laws abolished • Jewish high bourgeoisie (industrialization) – German oriented x Jewish middle class – Czech oriented • Czechs gradually identify Jews with the German ruler • Many conversions • Zionism

21. Galicia and Bukovina • Joseph II – better situation than in Russia, difficult economic situation • Higher taxes • Military service • Predominantly Hassidic Jews • Before WWI 1 mio Jews in Galicia and 100 thousand in Bukovina

22. Hungary • 1849 – short-lived emancipation – came in effect only in 1867 • Antisemitic party in the Parliament • 1877 University of Jewish studies opened in Budapest • 5% of the population in 1910 = 900 000 pax • 23% Jewish population in Budapest, 44% in Munkacs (Mukachevo), 31% in Ungvár (Uzhorod) • Antagonism between assimilated urban Jews and Orthodox immigrants from Russia, Galicia and Romania

23. Romania • 1829 Treaty of Adrianople Russian occupation of Wallachia and Moldavia; free foreign trade • Immigration of Jews from Russia and Galicia • Jews don´t have civic rights – despite that they gain a good social position (inn-keepers, estate leaseholders, finance) • Jewish children accepted to schools if they wore the same clothing as others • Cuza • the first leader of Wallachia and Moldavia, 1859 • Wanted to grant universal suffrage and wanted to emancipate the peasants from forced labor • Expected financial support from Jews and Armenians – Jews hesitated to pay  universal suffrage exclusively for Christians

24. Romania • Carol I of Romania, 1866 • Bucharest synagogue desecrated and demolished • Anti/semitism among Romanian intellectuals – argued that Jewish immigration had prevented the rise of an ethnic Romanian middle class • 1890´s – laws excluding Jewish children from public education • No assimilation – Jewish quarters, yiddish • Mass emigration to Hungary • Romanian Peasants´ Revolt – partly antisemitic (Jewish presence among estate leaseholders) left-wing antisemitism in 1920´s (claim the peasants were being systematically exploited by Jews)

25. Serbia and Bulgaria • 1878 – independence of Romania and Serbia, autonomy of Bulgaria following the Russo- Turkish war – equal rights for Jews • The only countries that had not emancipated the Jews were Russia and Romania • Bulgaria – mostly Sephardic Jews • Antisemitism limited – the Turk was hereditary enemy, no need for a scapegoat