Sholem Aleichem and welcome back we come
to lesson
the subject pretty dear to my own heart
I want to review a few points we were
talking about and then give us a little
summary of what's to come and then go
through some of the options that are
going to be coming out today we ended
off last time we were talking about the
importance of Galician jewelry as really
a massive population almost a million
souls by world war one the second
largest population in Europe and in the
austro-hungarian Empire itself in the
Austrian half the Jews were the fifth
largest nation if you want to call them
a nation after the Germans Czechs poles
and Ruthenians I want to remind you that
there was a general trend towards
Germanisation among the elites at least
the masses remained still traditional
mostly Hasidic mostly politically
unidentified support for Polish Nisour
to began to grow a little bit in 1848
there was an expression of Polish
support among the elite Jews but in the
German language in other words
Polishness was something that it was
akin to liberalism for them and
ultimately they tended to support the
Austrian option the Austrian identity as
we spoke about last time and in 1867 and
this is what we left off last time there
was complete Jewish emancipation as part
of the reconstruction of the Austrian
Empire into austria-hungary the Dual
Monarchy and in Galicia
there's the establishment of Polish
autonomy in the hands of the Polish
conservatives the Polish nobility polis
is made the official language of the
province and Galicia has really reshaped
into a center of Polish culture in all
the ways we we spoke about and this is
part of the establishment of a
constitutional monarchy it's a
parliament it means national minority
rights as we spoke about that famous
article 19 and that nationality defined
linguistically by own gangs raqqa
language of daily use with a listed nine
potential options of League of language
choice this means nine nationalities and
Yiddish is deliberately excluded we
spoke about that as well
and the sentence was designed to placate
national strife the sentence was
designed to say okay you can declare
nationality you'll get certain national
minority rights and this way will
stabilize the Empire but actually had
paradoxically the opposite effect
because every ten years when the
sentence came out people were required
to choose a linguistic nationality so if
we call back in 1846 when we have that
uprising in Krakov
those serfs or maybe their children
better
and are now going to be switching from
an identity as Austrian serfs to an
identity as poles and that is going to
have serious consequence now Jews had to
choose from one of the existing
languages of which were language they
chose is gonna depend on when we're
talking about early on it's going to be
German by and large but over time each
decade that passes Jews are going to
increasingly be registered as poles and
that reflects a change in power more
than actual polarization even after
World War one only ten or twelve percent
of collisions ooz spoke polish as their
primary language but by 1910 there are
registered 92 percent polish speaking
because poles were in charge of the
census and they needed the Jews as the
critical demographic balance to take
control of the province because without
the Jews poles and ruthenians were
essentially equal and so what we're
coming to today is the story about how
Galician Jews came to conclude that they
also constituted a nationality in the
Habsburg Empire that took a lot of time
and the process wasn't really complete
until about 1910 1914 even and this
brings us to the other point about
modern Jewish politics and I made this
point with you when we spoke about the
Haskalah modern Jewish politics in
Zionism in particular is not simply a
reaction to anti-semitism yes 1881
there were pogroms and there was
reaction in the Russian Empire with mass
emigration and Zionism and and you know
if you know about Leo Pinsker and so on
fine
there is a reaction to anti-semitism
there was a sense of rejection there was
a push toward Zion ISM in modern Jewish
politics socialism also and so on from
that context but there are other
internal and external external forces at
play here we saw how modern Jewish
politics and Jewish nationalism in
particular comes out of the Haskalah
they take from the huskar the desire for
Hebrew language for a positive Jewish
identity for a secular Jewish identity
and so on and they also take the modern
dry for an unhyphenated identity they
take from the Haskalah the desire to
regenerate the Jew that he cannot ask
allow the desire to transform the Jews
all of these things come out of an
internal momentum from the high school
which was already
getting to advocate a sense of Jewish
nationality of will of the people in the
1860s and 70s we talked about the ethnic
roots of Jewish nation hood the Jews are
living in Eastern Europe and English as
well in particular even and very
concentrated areas in urban settings
they are speaking a unique language
Yiddish they are practicing a unique
religion Judaism they are mirroring
mostly among themselves and they feel
more and more like a nation in a context
in which language and religion and class
Jews being commercially focused tend to
define nationality and a beyond all that
this modernity itself the ability of
isolated political ideas or for that
matter
distant pogroms because there were no
programs in Galicia to become part of
the realm of experience of large numbers
of people in an age of rapid
communication and transportation
urbanization railroads rapid mail
delivery the proliferation of news media
meant the penetration of new ideas into
heretofore isolated groups as well as a
growing sense of national community
based on this shared discourse this will
lead eventually to the growth to the
domination of nationalism and this is
part of the context to because it's a
site-geist of nationalism and
particularly in Eastern Europe of ethnic
nationalism defined not by territory but
by ethnicity and religion and language
and blood and there's increasingly
pressure on the Jews to choose a
nationality not to remain neutral so
take for example this correspondence in
1904 to the paper demonstrated the true
Jew Ohio Jew travelling through our town
asked his Foreman something in Polish in
the middle of the city square Ruthenian
peasant who happened to be standing
nearby fell on the Jew murderously and
shouted curse a Jew you live on
ruthenian land you eat ruthenian bread
and you speak polish he began to beat
the Jew with a big stick and he was
barely able to get away from him the
Jews just don't know what to do
however they speak it all turns out bad
the poles scream that their German
because they speak Yiddish which is
similar to German if they speak Polish
the Athenians are angry whatever they do
it's not right and this comes to speak
to a point that the great Ezra
Mendelssohn once made that Jewish
nationalism often does best often
thrives best often appears first in
places of binational conflict and by
national conflict of poles and
Ukrainians then called Athenians is
probably the definitive mark at the last
half century of Galicia now there's not
going to be only two choices for example
assimilationists or Zionists there's
going to exist a dizzying array of
political and cultural visions which
coalition Jews combined in countless
permutations a chaos of ideas as one
contemporary put it and many figures are
going to adopt different approaches over
the course of their own lives often
tolerating tremendous inconsistencies at
various moments for example Jewish
nationalists railed against polls and
against polarization in Polish while
Orthodox leaders who couldn't speak
Polish insisted on supporting Polish
conservatives self-described
assimilationists encouraged young Jews
to study Hebrew and express Jewish pride
as poles of the Jewish faith while
Zionists held rallies held rallies and
polish insisting that Jews constituted a
nation based on Hebrew or Yiddish
neither of which they could speak so
this is the agenda for today number one
let's look at the basic categories of
modern Jewish politics laid out by by
Ezra Mendelssohn's eternal vaca and then
let's see how these categories played
out how they express themselves in
galicia from 1867 until World War one
the last half-century of Habsburg rule
and note that we're talking about these
ideas we're talking about minority
groups representing maybe thousands of
people even the Orthodox and certainly
designers but because they are later
going to define Jewish life in the 20th
century they become incredibly important
to understand in the 19th century what
are the basic categories of modern
Jewish politics well first of all two
points about them number one modern
Jewish politics are not just politics
modern Jewish politics are also identity
they're about understanding what it
means to be a Jew so certainly are going
to ask questions like what kind of
allies should we make in the non-jewish
world what kind of politics do we want
to pursue a high-level politics an open
in the street or something back channel
politics but they're also gonna ask
questions like what exactly is it you
what language is the primary language of
Jewishness where should Jews be living
what is the solution to the Jewish
problem
what Jewish texts are the most important
and which are less important and how do
we read them what Jewish holidays are
the most important and how do we read
them who are our heroes in Jewish
history it's not just about politics
it's about who you are what it means to
be a Jew and second of all I can't
emphasize the point enough that there
was a fluidity going on the 19th and
even a 20th century Jews aren't jumping
from side to side trying to figure out
what it means because traditional
definitions of Jewishness fall apart in
the new world fall apart in my society
fall apart when they move to the larger
town either literally moving to a larger
town or modernity comes to where they're
living up so what are these categories
number one assimilation ISM and I mean
here real assimilation ISM the total
abandonment of all vestige of Jewishness
collective or personal now this in the
modern sense of the term is a tiny
movement at in the nineteenth century
it's a label that Zionists historians
will later place on individuals and
groups who don't advocate for that
whatsoever in fact the most important
assimilation is the 19th century we're
not the anti Zionist liberals most of
them were not assimilationist in that
sense but rather Jews who joined the
general socialist movement there are
these Jews who will tend to advocate and
a few liberals but mostly not the total
abandonment of Jewishness and we'll see
that later on in Galatia
number two the integrationists this is
the view that Jews are a religion or
maybe an ethnic group a hyphenated
identity integration to seek the social
political and especially cultural
integration of Jews into the surrounding
society and this means linguistic
acculturation as well Jews in Galicia
should be speaking polish they said they
should be advocating Hebrew language as
part of their identity but they should
be speaking Polish Jews in Germany
should be speaking German and so on they
tend to have a lower profile politics
working through the system with liberal
activism using their power as liberal
professionals and so on but not
necessarily
rallies on the street and a hero for
that would be someone like Moses
Mendelssohn that's their hero in Jewish
history it's very optimistic politics
very optimistic things are getting
better and better and the solution comes
from integrating into broader society
and again these are not assimilationists
integration ism is a legitimate Jewish
political view a legitimate view we'll
see more about that in a little bit
third of all orthodoxy now this does not
mean traditional Jews
this means self-aware politicized
leaders of Orthodoxy the party that's
most associated with them tends to be a
good assisted in 1912 but especially
active after World War one in Poland but
actually orthodoxy is born right here in
Galicia in the 1870s and they are
seeking greater autonomy control of the
Jewish community by themselves by the
Orthodox leaders and they'll use
politics of the state to advance that
cause and they tend to idealize the
politics of Scotland neut meaning
lobbying behind the scenes but they'll
use modern political methods when they
need to that means newspapers that means
rallies that means petitioning that
means pamphlets and so on and finally
the nationalist and this is a huge
category I mean the Nationals agreed
Jews our nation that much they can agree
on and nobody else sees it that way for
the Orthodox Jews are some kind of a
people maybe for the integrations as
well people but probably a religion for
the nationalist Jews our nation and
modern nation everything else is off is
on the table what language were the /
language Hebraic versus you dishes and
some of them by the way don't speak II
the language the divider than the
question of where Zionists looking
towards Palestine or maybe some other
territory and autonomous and other
diaspora nationalists led by the
theoretician seaman Dube nove who are
looking for autonomy right here where we
live what's called the neatest I kite
looking for Jewish national rights white
right where we are the divided a social
question socialist Zionists versus those
who want to transcend a class they
divide on religions secular zionists
versus religious Zionist they're divided
on history which passed which passed is
the idea that we want to look to for
many Zionists is the period of the
Maccabees or barkow
rebellion 2000 years ago for others like
the diaspora national act seaman Dube
nove they're looking at the 16th century
in Poland Nevada art shows the count of
the four lands the heyday of Jewish
autonomy they want a secular modern
version of it but that's their dream
date that's what they're looking towards
they all basically want a more
high-profile
politics a more mass politics but again
this is equally about imagining what it
means to be a Jew and in this sense I
think the most constructive way to
understand Zionism for example is as a
form of Judaism as a denomination of
Judaism telling its adherents what are
the ways you're supposed to express your
Jewishness what it means to be a Jew
what's expected of you who are your
allies and enemies and so on and again
there's fluidity between these camps
within the camp of nationalists and so
on how do these ideas express themselves
in galicia and i wrote here political
cultural options because again politics
and culture are connected this is this
is a single nexus of questions you
actually point to cultural you could
point to say newspapers or theater as a
means of tracing the development of
these nationalist movements so for
example a German language theater was
established in Hamburg and evolved in
1776 a Polish theater in 1809 a
Ukrainian theater 1864 and a Yiddish
theater not until 1890 it's a way of
tracing how these national movements
begin to develop and there's a lot of
political options for these modernizing
Jews to choose from and we're actually
going to begin in a second with
integration ISM in orthodoxy and I want
to point out an irony there because
typically scholars of modern Jewish
politics understand integration is I
mean especially Orthodox ly as reactive
forms of modern Jewish politics because
they've use ioan ISM and socialism as
really the first real forms of modern
Jewish politics and then Orthodoxy for
example reacting against that realizing
well in this new world if we don't use
the tools of mass politics we're gonna
be left in the dust
but in galicia precisely because of
emancipation because of the political
importance of Jews especially English in
the cities because of that we actually
see liberalism and
orthodoxy first on the scene in the
seventies and sixties and seventies and
only later Zionism and socialism follow
so let's begin with integration ISM
assimilation
they call themselves assimilationists
they called themselves assimilations but
they're not in the modern sense what
they meant was what we understand to be
integration ISM the progressive
intelligentsia English had been
attracted the idea of assimilation in
the 19th century sense since the birth
of the Haskalah I mean that's what the
Haskalah was advocating the earliest
trend was towards Germanisation this was
encouraged by the Habsburg machine and
rewarded by the Habsburg regime and
that's the formation for example in 1846
of that reform temple in Lemberg that
Deutsch is reelected as Beth house which
continued to have German language
sermons all the way into the 20th
century these forces establish a society
what becomes the first political society
in Galicia Jewish political society
called shomer Israel Guardians of Israel
they're going to have cultural events
lectures classes and so on to promote
Enlightenment ideas and civic patriotism
among Galician Jews and they have a
newspaper of course there is release the
Israelite which is published in German
in a Gothic script and the point of der
Israel eat is to advance this goal the
same way and again their Israel eat I
want to point out I haven't mentioned it
before they like the name Israelite will
seem modernizing we see integrationist
Jews who tend to prefer the term
Israelite to Jew because it seems to
somehow de-emphasize the national aspect
of the Jewish character and emphasize a
more religious or perhaps ethnic aspect
of the Jewish character initially from
Israel is quite cultural but with
emancipation it quickly becomes a
political group especially in 1873 the
rules for electing representatives to
Parliament in Vienna change and sort of
being appointed by the provincial diets
they're going to be directly elected now
if that democracy we have a system of
votes most people don't have the vote
only taxpayers can vote and it's what's
called a curial system which greatly
favors the great landowners and nobility
over everybody else in terms of weight
of who can elect whom as you have at one
point I think among the great landowners
20 or 25 of them
it only took to elect a single presenter
Liam's work
take tens of thousands or hundreds of
thousands of others to elect a single
representative but nevertheless you do
have a direct election and this group
and show me swell 1873 decides to make
an alliance for the first time with Wu
Fei nians against the polls with the
German liberals the idea being that
German liberalism is the ideology which
emancipated them the polls actually
weren't so sure they even wanted to
confirm that emancipation in 68 when the
Galician diet finally confirmed the
immense bay from the Jews it was a big
debate about it and it was only with
quite a good good quite a great deal of
pressure that they confirmed him so the
sense of these Jewish integrationists
was our natural our lives with the
German liberals and this Ally ourselves
with the Athenians to support them
against the Polish conservatives and it
was moderately successful they managed
to elect 3/3 representatives to the
Parliament and they advocated a sort of
neutral Austrian identity that would
allow them to be Jews and citizens
simultaneously as one of them put it in
an article at the time the nationality
of the Jews is humanity in its entirety
its fatherland the globe its religion
the absence of a Creed outside the four
walls of its synagogue this global
citizenship of the Jews
does not however affect its patriotism
we are patriots
but our nationality is humanity and this
was their goal in 73 the next election
was in 79 and by then it was impossible
polish power and the threat of
retribution was enough to end this and
liberal Jews went back to the Polish
camp and it wasn't just political
expediency that wasn't the only reason
for it during the 70s and 80s German
assimilation ISM simply made less sense
it waned because of the reality on the
ground we call the reality of
polarization Lemberg is no longer
Lemberg really it's la Veuve at this
point a Polish dominated City and
besides that the younger generation of
integrated Jews are now being educated
in a Polish system with Polish language
and Polish values the most famously one
of the most famous of them is alfred
Nosek whose article on his life you read
and this produced a polarized
intelligentsia and professional class
numbering in the thousands and
they are not interested in German
they're interested in polarization you
know we've seen it already in western
Galicia in Cracow for some time Jews had
been attracted to polish nests spreads
throughout the province and of course
this was mainly the Intelligencer in the
middle class as a small minority but an
important minority of the glish and
Jewish population and I want to point
out here that there was almost no
attraction to Ukrainian ization in
Eastern Galicia Ukrainians I say with a
nians at that time constituted the
overwhelming majority population but
there was no push towards it poles were
dominant politically and economically
Ukrainians themselves were suffering and
you know there's this historic
connection between Jews and poles
especially the Polish gentry on top of
that you have a feeling of history of
Ukrainian anti-semitism which is now
being made worse by the fact that the
intelligentsia the Ukrainian telegenic
is coming out of the priestly class
which can be problematic from the Jewish
perspective and Jews tend to imagine
Ukrainians they're still thinking in
terms of kamenetsky the so thinking in
terms of traditional paradigms and
there's almost no move towards Ukrainian
identity by 1883 shomer Israel is now
calling for pollenization not
Germanization including the figure on
your screen Emil Bick who's polish was
never great of course as a Jewish
identity a Polish Jewish identity but
that means support for the Polish Club
for the conservative polish party
nevertheless there is relief continued
to be published in German advocating
polish nough sindermann temple sermons
didn't switch to polish into the 20th
century when they ironically had to hire
a zionist because none of them could
speak polish well enough to give the
sermons the older generation can't
switch it's hard to learn a new language
that the older generation couldn't
switch the language as easily as their
identity now they were very secular but
moderately so this is the moderate
Haskalah vision their arc rival tends to
be the Orthodox leaders the Orthodox who
organized in 1879 as the Mokka sikheya
das party us because them in a moment
they actually tend to be max Kadosh
means upholders of the faith and they
like to call them if you drop a letter
it becomes mozzie chaos the destroys of
the faith and it's always for poking at
them that they're the ones who are
destroying our faith destroy
community show me as well wants to
reshape Jewish communities the Jewish
the coolest combined which are still
important they are religious bodies but
still important but they want to remake
them in a liberal form and they're using
their expertise as lawyers and so on to
do so an even more radically polarizing
group was found in 1882 by the children
either literally or metaphorically of
the show-me swell founders this is
called a Goodis shocking the union of
brothers found it in part by this guy
alfred Nosek and their papers called h
isne fatherland which ones to teach the
jews to be conscious conscious conscious
citizens of their country meaning poland
but i want to point out and you can see
them your screen or each isne has a
supplement called hamas CI mascara Von
Erichs blonde so the reminder of of your
love to your fatherland it's a Hebrew
language paper designed to encourage
this hyphenated Jewish polish identity
and look at their emblem right the
Polish eagle with the Star of David
that's what they're advocating it's not
simply assimilationist the way it's
attacked they call themselves
assimilations but look at the emblem
look at the Hebrew language paper
they're putting out they are advocating
an integrated identity and they're
organizing educational activities
evening schools libraries and clubs to
teach the Polish language and culture to
celebrate Polish heroes as Jews and
their arch rival is not the Orthodox
they oppose the Orthodox but their arch
rival tends to be the nascent Zionist
movement a goose up game would not last
more than a dozen years or so it would
eventually collapse and actually funny
enough literally the office of a Goodis
Hakeem
the office of euch isne is taken over by
the Zionists and the Zionists will
celebrate that as a metaphor for the
further victory over the so called
assimilationists we'll come back to them
in a few minutes
the Zionists like to always call a
Buddhist Aachen by changing the letters
ever so slightly they would call it a
good as a coon which means the band of
pagans is supposed to the band of
brothers but Jewish hopes for social
equality through integration
continues with the secular
intelligentsia
precisely because of emancipation
because you know Galician economy is
weak which means that constant ISM will
be quite strong
unlike in Hungary where integration ISM
is very very strong among the Jews it's
not that strongly show but this worship
of Franz Yosef and there's idealization
of glitches this land of Jewish freedom
there's a basis to that and therefore
hopes for the future through integration
and Galicia do not go away there are
real hopes they are not complete despite
the dissolution of a good socking they
continue then we come to orthodoxy or
'the attacks again not the same as
traditional Jews or Judaism most Jews
will remain traditional through the 19th
century they're not part of any of these
ideologies they're not yet Orthodox they
are traditional and part of this has to
do with the nature of Hasidic movement
in Galicia and particularly the
institutionalization of the dynastic
succession right it preserves the
cohesiveness of these traditional Jewish
communities it's a complete religious
social economic order which encompass
compasses most of the Jews of Eastern
Europe and especially of Galicia in
Lithuania it's a little bit different
there you have the leaders of the great
you vote the Godot a Torah they'll tend
to have to play that role there
beginning in the 1860s and we talked
about this once before we see the
beginning of a modern eventually
politicized orthodoxy
this means orthodoxy as an ideological
response to modernity a self-conscious
traditionalism there was a growing sense
with the growth of reform movement in
Central Europe and in America even talk
of it in Russia there's a growing sense
you know maybe that most East European
Jews are still quite observant of the
minutiae of Jewish law but there's an
impression that we form movement is
gaining power that somehow traditional
Judaism is in grave danger there's a
reaction to that so very famously for
example Moses so fare the cotton so fare
he he wrote a clever pun he pulls a
verse out of the Talmud Kadosh assuming
a Torah that the newness new things are
forbidden by the Torah in the context it
meant very obscure law about new wheat
going to the temple
olden days but what he meant was newness
modernity is forbidden by the Torah we
have to circle the wagons against
modernity and that's a self-conscious
defense of traditionalism its
traditional list rather than traditional
you have also that moved in Mooser
movement of Israel cylinder which is
trying to defend itself against the
threat of modernity likewise in other
words the age of unreflective
self-evident adherence to tradition was
coming to an end and with orthodoxy
becoming politicized you have rabbinic
authorities beginning to engage in
modern political tools first they start
using the tool of denouncing their
opponents the state they were more
afraid of the masculine than they are of
the state and then in 68 69 we spoke
about the first Orthodox newspaper a
formal response to reform however none
was they didn't family took it over
that's not important published in Paris
designed again to advocate for the
Orthodox goal but here in Galicia we see
the founding of the very first Orthodox
party Massacre Haddad the defenders of
the faith and it's founded with the
backing of the Rebbe of bells the bells
that Rebbe was the sort of the stamp of
authenticity that gave it its power and
here in Galicia of course Casa de Miz is
supreme hassan ism is dominant and this
is a response directly to show me as
well their idea was we're gonna
represent the silent majority we're
gonna restore torah leadership to its
previous hegemony and it's the first
time we see a jewish political
association wielding religion as a
political tool something parallel to the
other christian political parties at the
time once it actually went too far they
slandered one of so many Shirelles
most prominent leader who was a virulent
anti-authority
figure and they issued a harem against
him in excommunication which was illegal
for many decades already in the austrian
empire and the you know thousands of
copies of the offending issue the paper
was confiscated and the editor was
jailed for a month that was going too
far they opposed most most most of all
show me swell and particularly that
group's efforts to reshape Jewish
communities according to liberal
principles they're going to use modern
means to shut them down
petitions leaflets and the newspaper and
the newspapers what interests me the
most right now and it was very
controversial and I want to show you a
couple passages from the first editor of
that paper
Isaac Evan who is reflecting on decades
later here's what he wrote bells inside
the guarantees of course the - two of
the most important dynasties in Galicia
bells in South agir differed about how
to safeguard cotton ism against
modernity Bella's receding had a deep
antagonism to sow together facade they
could not forgive this alligator
transgressions and dress wearing the
styles of modern Europe among custom of
bells Jewish traditional dress was a
Dogma 14th Creed men had to wear a high
fur hat and flat shoes with white socks
bells was especially outraged by the
high fashion clothes of the women of the
South Agera Court in 1878 the Belzer
Rebbe Joshua kya kya kya convened the
rabbinical assembly in Limburg to found
the moxie ka dot its purpose was the
publishing newspaper to strengthen
crusted ism and piety among Galician
Jews and to combat the shomer Israel of
member ger and the many periodicals of
the Haskalah the moxa Kadosh was to be
directed by bells the Santa Gary Bobby
and his two brothers ribbons of short
governance IATI knees of the children of
Israel of regime were invited to the
conference but they utterly opposed the
newspaper and their opinion that would
bring about precisely what the moxa care
das was intended to combat an unheard-of
thing cried the bells of rugby
indignantly I who all my life waged war
against every single innovation I
understand that now is the time to serve
God and we need a paper to strengthen
Judaism but they the enlightened are
suddenly worried but who was right he
asks I was the editor of Comox takea -
the voice of mock securedocs for several
years I don't want to spit in the well
from which I drank but I must speak my
mind the historian writing about the
Jews and Galicia will have to give much
credit for the modern cultural
development of today's Galician juice
the Belzer Rebbe and the moxa chaos for
the truth is not Yosef Perl nor Nam
crock mal succeeded in raising
intellectual level of Jewish you think
Alicia as
much as did this Hasidic Hebrew paper
without intending it not even aware of
what it was accomplishing this newspaper
made fertile the soil on which Hebrew
schools the modern Hebrew language and
Zionism flourished the south again Rebbe
was right this fanatic Hasidic paper
which dared not mention a word about the
Zionist Congress stirred Hasidic youth
from their lethargy and propelled them
out of the prayer houses first into the
ten to the masculine and then into the
arms of the Zionists what they did he
means was they sanctified the use of
reading newspapers even for Sabbath
reading Taska for Sabbath reading and
this leads them to reading Hebrew in
general reading the opposing Hebrew
Papers the Zionists and muscular Cuba
papers it leaving the becoming newspaper
readers fluent in political discourse
and once you modernize traditional Jews
you've lost the game at least you've
threatened your game they have an
alliance with the politicos
conservatives in 1879 they work with
them in the parliamentary elections and
they actually elect their president
humans so fair he's the son of Moses
over we mentioned a few minutes ago to
Parliament in a heavily Jewish district
based on Cola mayor
but with Polish support he spoke neither
German nor Polish he never spoke once in
Parliament he simply raised his hand and
said I or nay based on what the Polish
club told him to do once and they even
made him he had to stay late for a
Shabbos they even made him a minion in
the Parliament building so you could
stay late Friday night to vote his
polishness was not from a Polish
identity it was political it was to him
a natural choice the polls were
religious they were the local power so
of course I'm going to work with them
and ironically one of the concessions he
would extract from the Post Club is that
the children of his people would never
actually have to learn polish in their
school they could maintain their strict
regimen of education so they were voting
polish order never to become polish now
most Jews are not Orthodox but maxy
chaos does have considerable influence
that has the
king of the Rebbe of bells one of the
most important delicious collisional
acidic leaders and again these are the
two first forms of politics to emerge in
Galicia even though typically we think
of them as being reactionary third of
all Jewish socialism this is a form of
Jewish nationalism actually that's why I
didn't list it earlier but it has his
own brand a Jewish socialists were among
the earliest activists in Galicia a few
of them actually formed a short-lived
Jewish socialist group 1892 with their
own Yiddish language paper they are by
Toshima the workers voice and they're
part of this world of emerging polish
and Athenian socialist parties in the
early 1890s one of the earliest
successes was in 1892 it's not well
known but there was a massive strike in
column a against the tallest factory
owner essentially you have this Jewish
factory owner hiring Hassidim of the
same court with really exploited
conditions 16 hour work days starvation
wages and so on and at one point the
Socialists you know they infiltrate the
workforce and he rallies the people to
form that a union but a strike and they
go to the synagogue and on the Torah
itself swear that anyone who crosses the
picket line will suffer all the curses
of Moses matura they all say on then and
so on and they strike and the socialist
movement goes crazy for them actually
they're raising money for the strikers
all the way in Vienna it's one of the
most popular strike funds in the in the
campaign of the fall of 1892 you can see
it in the reports and it was quite
exciting because socialists imagine for
a moment that these simple cosmetic Jews
were being instilled with class
consciousness and the end it didn't work
out first of all the strike collapsed
they couldn't hold out they were too
hungry they're too poor and eventually
they brought in scabs from from from
outside of Colonia but it was at least
an event that got Jews thinking the
Zionists were quite upset about that
strike because they imagined that the
local Zionist leaders lost the simple
Jews to the strike but designers on the
scene said don't worry you know these
aren't socialist Jews these are starving
Jews they're striking for food not for
you know the future they're still
praying for Zion three times a day and
so on
don't worry well once they become active
politically we'll get them eventually
and there's something some truth
actually in any event an independent
Jewish socialist party takes some time
to emerge in Galicia eventually comes
out in the early 20th century the Jewish
social democratic party of Galicia in so
in Polish digital ska party asociado
Democrat it's Nina
it's from the 1905 when Jewish
separatists finally split from the
polish party called the short known as
the PP SD the Polish social democratic
party over the issue of Jewish nation
and they wouldn't recognize the
existence of a Jewish nation these
Jewish socialists were also jewish
nationalist they said the future
socialist utopia just like polish
socialists wanted to see polish national
rights protected in the future socialist
state they want to see jewish national
rights protected in the future socialist
state and so they break away and from
their own party 1905 modeled after a
similar group the more famous russian
bund that was formed a few years earlier
and that burned by the way also gave the
materials propaganda and a lot of
support in the early years and they
insisted like all jewish socialists that
Jews constitute their own nation that
Jewish workers need to be addressed in
their own language ie Yiddish and they
need to be represented by their own
party and they have their own paper in
Galicia called their social democrat
which is of course you just language and
they are opposed by the pp SD which
denies that the Jews constitute a
nationality they deny that you have a
right to their own party especially
above all its Jewish leaders when the
most famous is Hermann diamond diamond
diamond began his political career as a
Zionist he was an early Zionist leader
and then eventually leaves that movement
becomes staunchly assimilationist and
joined the general Socialist Party and
by the time we get the twentieth century
among his most famous quotes at the
following there are no special Jewish
traits worth conserving all retention of
Jewish uniqueness is notorious we have
to assume new forms and not flinch at
the difficulties encountered in Polish
society we must bend every effort to
eliminate all manifestations of
uniqueness that my friends is
assimilation ISM and that is what he
believed and that's what they at that
with the policy of the pp SD
you also have a group called portlets I
own the workers of Zion founded in
Austria especially strong in Galicia and
that you know for they break away from
the general Zionists we speak about them
in a minute but they remain closed to
the general Zionists and here's one of
their main papers called the usual
arbiter the Jewish worker and note by
the way that it's in Yiddish Paul etzion
is very comfortable using Yiddish
language propaganda despite the fact
that they're scientists it's founded by
Barbara Howe but actually is much more
influenced by the ideas of knocking
Sirkin meaning that they view national
community over class-conscious as being
the most important thing in 1907 for
example and I was think about that in a
few minutes during the elections in
which all these parties competed for
Parliament the poll eight she own
support the Zionists the Jewish
Socialist will support the socialist but
the polarity on support the Zionists and
they write the following for the Jewish
worker there is no question for whom to
vote in those districts were a socialist
assimilationist is competing with a
Democratic Jew if a guy like the amond
which he was is running against a
Zionist you vote for the bourgeois
Zionist because assimilation is a
reactionary stance that damages the
interests of the people the assimilation
ISM of the PP SD despite its red color
is no less dangerous than regular
assimilation ISM and its essence it is
anti-socialist to oppose it is not
chauvinism but rather concern for the
national interest of the Jewish worker
and again speaking of this political
culture I want to remind you of the
point of fluidity the article you read
in Nosek is pointing he starts out as an
assimilationist and then moves towards
the jewish nationalist in different ways
these groups have shifting ideologies
and the young generation themselves are
jumping from one group to another one
and so we finally come to the last level
the Jewish nationalism in the remaining
time when speak about the history of
that camp and how it evolves in
coalition and the early Zionists
especially English but actually this
could be cited elsewhere as well are
mixed you have two types of Jews on the
one hand you have disillusioned
integration
people who are integrated who are
advocating for
culturation and feel disillusioned that
this is not going to work that they
experienced anti-semitism or they
experience a sense of net of say polish
nationalism that doesn't accept
Jewishness as part of that you have on
the one hand these groups most famously
Gallic hurts it would follow that but
English of course a little bit different
and then you have modernizing Ethne
cysts these are Jews who are coming from
a traditional background who know Hebrew
who speak Yiddish and they are looking
for a modern secular Jewish identity and
Jewish nationalism fits the bill and
actually in galicia these two groups and
we know their names meets when they form
the first jewish nationalist
organizations in galicia beginning in
1883 with a group called miracle - holy
assembly now holy assembly Nikola qodesh
is a masculine group actually it's
supported early on by so many strong who
wants to help the Jewish youth with a
hyphenated masculine identity and that's
what they were advocating they were
teaching Jewish history Hebe language
Jewish pride all these sorts of things
which are both can be compatible with
Haskalah combated with some israel but
so easily can slip into what we think of
a sign is immense and to be sure in 1888
five years later
macoco dish is done and there's a new
election a new boards elected and they
changed their name to see own and it
becomes a full-fledged Zionist
Organization a fully secular and
secularizing
organization we think of Zionism we have
to remember that Zionism is a secular
ideology Jewish nationalism is a secular
ideology it's understanding Jewishness
and modern terms Hebrew is not the holy
language it's our historic language
Palestine to accept we care about it all
is the historic land not the holy land
and so on and this is a group that is
largely quite Paulo noised dominated by
people who are speaking and working in
the Polish language you have polarized
intellectuals finding me
in Zionism others not others are
continuing to work in the Polish
movement these guys are joining this
nascent Zionist movement and they have a
deliberately political program but in
galicia that program is diaspora
oriented they are more aligned with what
will become known as diaspora
nationalism and they are with what we
come known as political Zionism they are
not advocating Jews leave to Palestine
maybe someday whatever they're
advocating for Jewish national rights
and building Jewish national
consciousness here in Galicia and that's
to be expected
it's a context of no programs limited
anti-semitism and a world in which
national rights are already the law on
paper not yet for Jews but that's the
context so of course they're going to
advocate for Jewish national
consciousness the acceptance of Jewish
nation hood and Jewish national rights
right here in Galicia in the nice
example of that is the election of this
guy in your screen Josef block who's
from Galicia and he's now in 1883
running for Parliament Shimon so fair
died suddenly there was a replacement
election and the Nationalists rentman
early nationalist rally behind Yosef
block who's running against the symbol
of the integrationist movement Emil Bick
max takea - by the way won't endorse
either of them they can't endorse Bick
who's the leader of show me Sorrell and
they won't endorse bloc who they find to
be too modern so then instead they
endorsed the local Christian candidate
the Belzer Rebbe famously said if the
choice is to support such a Jew as bloc
it's better to have a goy that's typical
of masticated us and for bloc he's not
even a Zionist in the modern sense the
Jews aren't a nationality four-block
there are some kind of a people but
that's close enough for the early
Zionist movement it's not so much about
anyway what he's going to do in
Parliament it's about using the election
to rally people behind an idea we'll see
that more as we go through the period
their focus is above all on national
lysing Jews instilling in them a modern
national identity and this is part of
and parallel to the general process of
nationalization of identity going on in
Galicia among poles and among Ukrainians
in the Ukrainians case doesn't get going
to the 1890s 1900s so for example they
create these wonderful Maccabee
celebrations every Hanukkah for the
Zionists for Jewish nationalism designs
in particular I should say Hanukkah is
the most important how nothing comes
more important than Hanukkah it's always
the very first festival of any Zionist
club because Hanukkah seems to suggest a
robust manly Jew the Maccabees fighting
against some kind of foreign overlord
that was very important to them and
those festivals created a sort of space
we're modernizing and modern Jews could
express Jewishness in a safe secular way
and that's against points - Zionism is a
sort of a new form of Judaism there has
to be thought of that way they provides
these secular Jews or secularizing Jews
with a space to express that Jewishness
for example the Zionists advocate a
campaign to buy us rogues and Sukkos
only from Palestine not to buy from
Greece there have been a series of
enzymatic attacks in Greece and so they
push don't buy your s rogues from Corfu
don't buy your s rugs from the
anti-semites buy them from the new
colonies in Palestine the point of that
wasn't just to support these counties
they already were being supported by
Rothschild the point of it was to turn
the ritual of the etrog and circus that
that citron fruits to turn it from being
just a mitzvah a traditional mitzvah but
to turn it into something that was a
Zionist Mitzvah it's sanctified Zionism
and that was very important likewise the
way they raised money so for example in
Galicia every era of Yom Kippur and the
day before Yom Kippur the people
traditionally put out plates to collect
money and this is an old curse of the
custom they said that when the coins
clanked on the plates
when you
gave money to these causes it broke the
Clipper broke the evil that was gonna
you know decree you a bad year and so
you gave them money in that clanking
noise was key the point is they put up
the plates for the Zionists cause with
the other plates and they boasted about
it it wasn't about the money I mean the
money was nice but that wasn't about the
money it was about I am now giving money
to the Zionists and that is a wholly
religious act the same reason why
Zionism as a whole pushed those blue
boxes the Jewish National Fund boxes
which were exactly parallel to the
famous boxes of urban Mayor Balin mace
and they encouraged women Friday night
before lighting candles to put money in
the box for the Jewish National Fund not
just to raise money but thereby giving
money to design this becomes a religious
act likewise the gymnastic Association's
design is formed it wasn't just about a
club it was about changing the Jews and
in English in particular they very much
targeted traditional Jews to attract
them for these gymnastic clubs to change
them into this modern Jew what max Nora
the co-founder of the Zionist
Organization called Jews of muscle and
by the way the most famous sketches of
Jews of much muscle comes from Ian
Lillian who is a glitzy honor coming out
of throw which these images here of
these new Musco mutt Musco you doing
these muscular Jews and you can tell
obviously that they're trying to mimic
Herzl that's from Lillian coming out of
throw which that's the ideology being
advocated here or the Star of David
which was very deliberately chosen for
the later flag of the Zionist movement
and I can't was just giving you this
story in sons remember number signs the
most important class of the group in awe
of Galicia and Sons the Zionist movement
finally comes is that sounds was
described by one memoirist that a 1902
the most secular guy in the entire city
was a man who instead of wearing a fur
hat on Shabbos morning went with a
regular black fedora
he was a real heretic he went with the
black fedora but eventually you can't
resist the Zionists come and the first
thing they do is they have a Harlequin
celebration and the Hanukkah celebration
means
that in the market square they post a
banner announcing a celebration with the
Star of David so the rabbi the end the
next day comes to the synagogue and from
his lectern
he says the Star of David the Magan
dahveed is meta McGavin it's been
defiled it's no longer a kosher Jewish
symbol he recognized it that's exactly
right
it was in fact being appropriated by the
Zionists and he said there's no longer
kosher he directed every man to rip off
the Star of David from the tefillin bags
and to rip it off the curtains of the
Holy Ark that night a young Zionist
being a young Zionist snuck into the
synagogue and carved a Star of David
into the lectern the rabbit comes to
synagogue the next morning finds the
lectern finds the Star of David picks it
up elderly guy picks it up marches it
outside and throws it down the stairs
screaming it's worse than if he had
carved a crucifix and the guy eventually
was afraid of being caught he fled he
said that Germany didn't feel safe and
fled all the way to America eventually
this is what I'm talking about this is
really trying to turn Jews into a
national community and by the way max
Ageha das was the most active anti
Zionist element in the 1890's political
orthodoxy which began as an anti liberal
political party becomes defined by its
anti-zionism there's one exception the
man on the screen David Moshe Friedman
who was the drug of short coven to his
death 1903 he actually was quite
sympathetic with the Zionist movement
there was an effort by a guy named Aaron
Marcus to connect him and Herzl which
hurts a little walked away from but he
was actually quite sympathetic to Jewish
nationalism but eventually because
classic movement and ultra-orthodox he
became so defined by anti-zionism that
position became untenable and they
eventually abandoned it too and went to
a Goose's realm to the political
orthodoxy but for for a brief while he
played with it but for the most part
political orthodoxy is absolutely
defined by its anti-zionism and the on
the streets of Galicia and the early
nineteen hundred's
there's a lot of violence a lot of
violence between the
hassidim and the zionist design is also
like the other parties the jewish
nationalist to say like in the parties I
say Zionists but these are Zionists they
call themselves scientists they're
advocating diaspora Jewish nationalism
in any event they begin to use for the
first time in 1890s the Yiddish press to
reach beyond this narrow band of secular
intellectuals to nationalize traditional
Jews especially the classic Jews and
only reminds you that the masculine
historically were very resistant to
using guinness Yiddish was this
degenerate language and so on Hebrew was
a language of the Jewish nation and
there's actually quite a bit of under
appreciation of the galician story in
understanding the Yiddish press because
in many ways the birth leaders press
actually happens in Galicia the daily it
is press was ten years later you don't
get that and in the big cities until the
1900s but in the province especially
Cola Maya and the surrounding area of
southeastern Galicia you have populist
Yiddish papers already in the 1890s with
names like the folks frying the fuss
folk leaders a folk site soon there's a
folks plot all these are the populist
names and their goal is to combat
national indifference to build national
community to term traditional Jews into
modern Jews using the press and this is
something that the latest recent scholar
Benedict Anderson famously talked about
the print media hero the print media
allows otherwise isolated individuals or
communities to become aware of quote the
hundreds of thousands even millions of
people in their particular language
field and at the same time that only
those hundreds of thousands of millions
are so belong these fellow readers to
whom they were connected through print
form the embryo of the nationally
imagined community that's this most
famous termed imagined communities in
other words the evidence of these papers
were engaging in a self-fulfilled
prophecy the process of popularizing the
notion of a Jewish national community
actually created that community the
papers forged the Jewish nation by
allowing traditional Jews
to imagine it so for example they tried
to speak to the coming man they had a
character in one paper who called
himself schmuely cussin i'm the simple
guys schmuely crusted here he talks
about the effort to bring modern rabbis
to coalition here's what he says it's
always been a puzzle to me why the three
a medical doctor a lawyer and a rabbi
are all given the title doctor only when
I look at the contemporary educated
rabbi are all three questions answered
for me the first one knows the disease
the other makes the disease and the
third one is the disease only in the
mean time into the fresh reform rabbis
are ready
I mean yet still a bit of a human being
I can still come to the rabbis my
friends we drink a bit of wine we say
the higham we hear words of Toyota we'd
celebrate Toyota Manyu we celebrate with
him and he with us he doesn't look to
whether I'm a dirty you I have a still
torn caftan I am the huset I may go as I
please when I come to the rabbi to ask a
question he answers me as I understand
in a simple Yiddish ah how bitter and
dark will it be for me then I would have
to come to the doctor rabbi knock on the
door my hat under my arm maybe I'll even
have to give him a kiss in the hand
no and how exactly will I express myself
and polish if I could given a couple
kind of often kid goes for its milk off
their yoke honestly I don't know where
to begin
will he possibly understand Yiddish I'm
highly doubtful so in this way the
reader sympathizes this is a man talking
to him and then they can ease into ideas
of Jewish nature and for them Palestine
was only a symbol for the Diaspora
nationalist agenda it was only a symbol
rather it was Galicia that was the focus
of their effort so they could be first
simultaneously to Palestine as the
fatherland of the Jews and to Galicia to
Galicia as the Jewish motherland for
example the following quote for can we
not live with our polish brothers in a
truly brotherly fashion even if we
should speak out the truth that we know
we have the people Israel for can we not
foster our Polish language as the
language of the land and of our
cherished Polish literature even if we
say that our own languages yiddish yes
even those jews who speak out the truth
that they are a special nation they can
still be perfectly good polish Patriots
they can love the land of Google
as their motherland and the polish
nation as their sister nation we have
one interest in common with our polish
brothers their good is our good and we
can work together for the betterment of
the land for the good of our beloved
motherland we can and should respect and
love the language of the land the
language of our sister nation we can
respect them they're our brothers we're
Galicians but we're a Jewish nation
english' and note by the way the
absolute total polish emphasis total
lack of mentioning of booth Amiens this
is a traditional audience that thinks of
Ruthenians as being some kind of lower
people on the rung and they actually
just press elsewhere calls them you know
many rungs below the Jewish people you
know look at these ruthenians they've
acquired Jewish they've acquired
national rights what's the matter with
you Jews you're so much better than them
yet you have no national rights this is
a traditional audience reading this
paper one of the things they push for is
again the reelection of this dr. block
Josef block and here it becomes an
absolutely religious obligation but
again these are not this is not mafia
das this is the nationalist because
they're also in a sense using religion
for their purpose noop locally rights
it's a holy obligation according to the
law that all rabbis and sages of Galicia
stand by the wise here dr. block and
preached in public in every city then
every person who fears God is hard to
choose only the rabbi dr. block and
every person who opposes him is sinning
against God and man because God has sent
him for our sustenance he's an angel
sent to his nation and he is putting his
life in danger to wage God's war against
those who rise up against us the entire
group of Jews who heard this agreed with
one voice than anyone who steps outside
of the community and gives his vote for
someone else he should suffer all the
curses and the rebuke of Moses in the
holy Torah and he who votes for the
Jewish fighter the rabbi dr. Yosef
Samuel Bloch he should receive all the
blessings in the Torah to this the
entire auditorium said Amen and then
they blew the shofar the holy effect
which this had on all of those all of
those gathered is indescribable finally
we come to 1907 the climax of the story
because in 1907
Austria in an effort to stave off
socialist rebellion there had been a
socialist revolution in Russia in 1905
an effort to beat that back they Emperor
agrees to change the law and there will
be universal manhood suffrage one man
one vote no Curia and the idea was to
placate socialists and nationalists
strife but actually it heightens the
ladder very very much there was a lot of
politics about those the way to divide
up those districts in Galicia the way
they worked it out there was an in
general district and they were what's
called mandates making sure that
nationalities had certain protected
gerrymandered districts the poles
insisted on having extra protection so
for example in Eastern Galicia districts
had a minority representative it wasn't
just Ukrainians who could vote for one
district but there was a minority vote
they went to the second-place person so
the Ruthenian would elect their
candidate with I don't know 50,000 votes
or whatever and then the next person
down could get elected that would get
poles elected from Eastern Galicia as
well but it also gave opportunities to
the Jews Jews were still not recognized
as a nation in law and actually the
first person to call for that wasn't a
Jew it wasn't a Jew in the Parliament it
was ruthenian it was Aliyah no man shook
who was the leader of this national
democratic faction of ruthenians he
calls for recognizing the Jews the
nation and then it gets seconded by a
Jew and then it becomes a moment never
happens but jewish nationalist realized
something they don't have to necessarily
dominate the elections just the
opportunity of the election itself is
not / - Nolita penetrate into the Jewish
mindset they nominate candidates with
ruthenian support in 20 districts in
Galicia and they have an alliance an
unprecedent alliance with the ruthenians
the sub altering group the counter
Imperial choice and they work with the
Athenians and the idea would be then
areas with a nians can't elect a Jew I
can't elect them selves because it's
urban they'll vote with the Jews or even
in the minority districts they will vote
for the Jew over the pole for the
minority candidate and in areas where
Jews can't be elected if they're living
in a rural area they'll support the
Athenian
the pole and it works they actually
elect three Jewish nationalists to
Parliament who formed their own Jewish
Nationalist Party the first thing that
ever happens and that's a very
interesting story but what's more
interesting to me now is the rallies
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
rallies across kaliesha even in places
where the Jewish nationalists had no
chance of winning and all of those
rallies people began to feel like a
nation look at this rally here
this isn't boot shot to the famous
jewish nationalist nathan Birnbaum
ironically later an orthodox figure when
they're sitting there together on the
street thousands of them together and
they're not only Jews by the way there's
with a nians mixed in there as well
there's a sense of feeling like a nation
and you're hearing these speeches about
Jewish nation hood and you're out
together men and women upper class and
lower class and it begins to feel like a
reality and that's important so coming
out of the election I think it's safe to
say that Jewish nationalism dominated
Jewish political discourse by the way
not just a Jewish nationalist socialist
now advocating Jewish nationalism the
Orthodox they won't back the jewish
nationalist candidates but they say
we're supporting the poles because
that's the best way to advance jewish
national rights even the integrationists
form their own jewish electoral
committee for the same reason that's the
best we're gonna vote and work with the
Polish club we're gonna work with the
Polish Club but that's because that's
the best way to advance Jewish
collective rights in the end the jewish
nationalist get about 30,000 plus votes
which is quite a few they elect the
jewish club but the impact the
transformative impact on identity is
hard to describe and all these
ideologies we've just gone through all
of them are going to continue into the
interwar period but at that point most
of them will accept that the jews
constitutes some sort of national
community because again politics is not
only about strategy it's also about
identity traditional jewish identity
pre-modern prix newspaper pre-rally
pre-modern traditional jewish identity
does not continue into the modern era
religious domination denominations in
the west
where the Jews are almost all liberal
they're reformed and Orthodox and so on
and in the east modern Jewish politics
will replace it and that's the real
importance here going into the modern
period it may be that in 1880s and 90's
we're talking about a few thousand
people but those ideologies we just
spent 45 minutes to an hour talking
about these ideologies will define the
parameters of Jewish life in the 20th
and actually into the 21st century it
will pick up that story next time thanks
a lot
