Eastern Jewry in the 18th and 19th C. Partitions of Poland 1772-1795 : 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

1772- 1795

Russia Lithuania, Belarussia, Ukraine = 60% of the Polish territory and 45% of its population; 700 000 Jews Polish Kingdom (Congress Poland) – tsar = king Administred by Polish nobles – controlled by Russia

The Pale of Settlement Catherine the Great, Russia Influenced by antisemitism of the philosophers of enlightment Ortodox church – deeply antisemitic Her predecessor Elisabeth Petrovna expelled Jews from Russia in 1742 New Russia = provinces N from the Black Sea  authorised Jews to settle there (1762) 1st partition: Jews are allowed to enter Russia 1782- Jews shall live in the cities  protests of Russian merchants against the mass arrival of Jews in the cities 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

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) Untill 1917

Pale of Settlement 1804 Alexander I Statutes improving the situation of Jews right to study liberty of commerce right to work on land 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

Pale of Settlement 1825-1855 – Nicolas I – dark chapter, painful restrictions Cantonist edict: military service of Jews – valid until 1859 40-50 000 Jewish minors Suppresed the Kahal

Pale of Settlement Alexandr II (1855-1881) 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 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)

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

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

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

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)

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