Transcript Eastern Europe - Part 1

Lesson 13
Lecture Notes
East European Jewry
Part I
Western Europe/Eastern Europe
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[insert map of Europe]
Historical Background: Poland
(13th – 17th centuries)
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Jewish Community
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Economics
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Lived separately
Lived according to Jewish law
Jews prospered
Jews involved in wheat trade
Culture/Governance
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Center of Jewish Learning
Council of the Four Lands
Historical Background: Cossacks
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Cossacks
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“free person”
Privileges in return for military svc
Revolt when privileges are
threatened
1648-1650 Chmielnicki
Insurrection
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Led by Bogdan Chmielnicki
Goal: create independent state
Uprising against landlords and
Jewish estate managers
Known as the Deluge
Bogdan Chmielnicki
Historical Background: Partition
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Weaker Kings mean weaker country
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No longer saw Jewish advantage
Decline of Jewish community
Partition of Poland
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Neighbors (especially Russia) took bites
1772, 1793, and 1795
Russia absorbs most of Poland & her Jews
Historical Background:
Pale of Settlement, 1835-1917
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Pale estb. 1794 by
Catherine the Great
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Other Tsars expand
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90% Jews already
there
Other Jews sent there
1 mil. Sq. miles in W
Part of larger plan
1.
2.
3.
Undermine Jewish life
Restructure community
Direct into useful,
“non-Jewish”
occupations
Laws Relating to the Jews
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Alexander I
Statutes Concerning the
Organization of Jews
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Statutes Regarding the
Military Service of Jews
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Nicholas I
Alexander I (1777-1825)
Limits Jewish movement
Send children to public
schools
Use only Russian, Polish or
German
Dress in Russian or Polish
fashion
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Nicholas I (1796-1855)
Jews serve military for 25
years
Under 18 preliminary service
first
Alienate Jewish children
Religious Life: Hassidic Judaism
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Jews searching for something spiritual
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Israel ben Eliezer of Miedzyboz
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Jewish Study until 18th century – Pilpul
 Available primarily to wealthy Jews
Recovering from Deluge
Ba’al Shem Tov
Besht
Taught through folk tales
Hassidism
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Religious fundamentalism
Worship through joyous prayer
Find goodness and Godliness in all things
Religious Life: Mitnagdim
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Many Jews opposed
Hassidim
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Mitnagdim (those opposed)
Elijah ben Solomon Zalman
(1720-1797)
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Vilna Gaon (Genius of Vilna)
Leader of Mitnagdim
Pronounced herems
(excommunications)
Cultural Life: Haskalah I
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Definition: The Jewish Enlightenment was
known as the Haskalah (from the Hebrew
for “Reason”). It was a Jewish secular
movement which encompassed education,
Jewish literature and culture. Its
proponents were known as maskilim.
Cultural Life: Haskalah II
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Education
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Maskalim set up secular schools to help
improve future generations of Jews
Curriculum
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National language (not Yiddish)
Secular subjects (not Talmud)
New job skills (farming, crafts) – elevate Jews
Dress – like Russians and Poles
Tsar Nicholas I and Maskalim on same page for
awhile
Cultural Life: Haskalah III
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Secular Jewish literature increased
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Poetry – in Hebrew and Russian
Judah Lieb Gordon
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Awake My People! (1866)
 Optimistic
 Forward-looking
 Take advantage of opportunities
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For Whom Do I Toil? (1871)
 Despair
 Didn’t see results he was looking for
Cultural Life: Haskalah IV
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Language
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Debate
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Russian – Arguments For
Yiddish – Arguments For and Against
Hebrew – Arguments For
Debate never really resolved
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Haskalah leads to growth of literature in all 3
languages
Modern Hebrew grows out of Haskalah literature
Next Class
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Preview
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Increased Anti-Semitsm
Emigration
Socialism