The Jews in the Modern World: A History since 1750

464 Pages·2002·30.3 MB·English

by  Hilary L. Rubinstein

The Jews in the
Modern World:
A History since 1750
Hilary L. Rubinstein
Dan Cohn-Sherbok
Abraham J. Edelheit
William D. Rubinstein
A member of the Hodder Headline Group
LONDON
Co-published in the United States of America by
Oxford University Press Inc., New York
First published in Great Britain in 2002 by
Arnold, a member of the Hodder Headline Group,
338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH
http://www.arnoldpublishers.com
Co-published in the United States of America by
Oxford University Press Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY10016
© 2002 Hilary L. Rubinstein, Dan Cohn-Sherbok,
Abraham J. Edelheit and William D. Rubinstein
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The advice and information in this book are believed to be true and
accurate at the date of going to press, but neither the authors nor the publisher
can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions.
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ISBN 0 340 69162 X (hb)
ISBN 0 340 69163 8 (pb)
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Contents
List of maps v
Preface vii
Chronology of Jewish history from 1750 ix
The authors xv
1 The Jews from their origins to modern times 1
2 Enlightenment and emancipation in continental Europe,
1750-1880 14
3 Modern developments in Judaism 45
4 The Jews of the Russian Empire, 1772-1917 64
5 Sephardi and oriental Jewry since 1750 87
6 Antisemitism and philosemitism 110
7 The 'zone of antisemitism': eastern Europe from 1918 136
8 The Soviet Union from 1917 172
9 The Holocaust 204
10 Jews in Britain and the United States 234
11 The world-wide Diaspora 273
12 The development of modern Zionism 303
13 Zionism, 1914-47: from settlement to state 317
14 Israel from Independence to the Six Day War, 1948-67 334
15 Israel since the Six Day War, 1967-2000 363
16 Jewish women in modern times 384
17 The demography and socio-economic status of the Jews;
Jewish achievement 413
18 Conclusion: Jews in today's world 439
Index 441
List of maps
Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah) in Europe 16
The Jews in the Russian Empire in the late nineteenth century 66
Concentration camps 206
Jewish death toll, 1939-45 219
The Jews of the United States, 1860-1960 236
Zionism 305
United Nations partition plan, 29 November 1947 319
Arab-Israeli conflict, 1948-present 336
The source of all maps is Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Atlas of Jewish History
(Routledge, 1994)
Preface
During the past thirty years, the study of modern Jewish history has moved
from the periphery to the centre of academic historiography. Hardly taught
at the university level a generation ago, and all but ignored in mainstream
history textbooks, modern Jewish history has become a widely-recognised
subject attracting considerable interest and a vast, ever-growing volume of
monographs, journals, conferences, and dissertations. In part this has
occurred because of the centrality of the Holocaust to contemporary con-
sciousness, of a general awareness of the Jews as the archetypal persecuted
minority, and of the popularity of ethnicity as a mode of social analysis. In
part it has occurred because of the breakdown, regretted by many, of the
familiar 'kings, dates, and battles' history oriented around the nation-state,
and its supercession, in part, by categories derived from social history. In
part it has occurred because of the sheer volume of writing on this subject,
generally by Jewish scholars, but often and increasingly by non-Jews.
While this explosion of interest has resulted in a vast profusion of mono-
graphs and specialist studies, rather curiously there has not been an equiva-
lent increase in general textbook studies of the topic, and Jews in the
Modern World is designed to fill a real gap. So far as we are aware, the
major textbook in this field remains Howard M. Sachar's invaluable The
Course of Modern Jewish History, now more than forty years old. Our
work reflects somewhat different emphases, as well as the great increase in
scholarship in this field during the past generation; it is,we hope, just as
comprehensive as Sachar's work, and perhaps more so. We have, for exam-
ple, included more on women, on Sephardim, and on socio-economic and
demographic trends.
Given the controversial nature of much of modern Jewish history and the
different viewpoints which exist within the Jewish matrix, we have tried
very hard to be neutral while reflecting a consensual viewpoint where one
exists within this matrix and, in addition, to be fair and even-handed to all
elements within Jewry, especially in the religious sphere. There is also the
vi Preface
question of the transliteration or spelling, in English, of Yiddish and
Hebrew terms. Here, we have tried to reflect the most reasonable transliter-
ation where no consensus exists.
Margaret Broadway and Gill Parry skilfully typed the manuscript, and
Vanessa Mitchell was a helpful copy-editor, for which we express our grat-
itude.
Acknowledgement
The publishers would like to thank Taylor & Francis for permission to
reproduce the maps that appear in this book, all of which are taken from
Dan Cohn-Sherbok: Atlas of Jewish History (Routledge, 1994).
Chronology of Jewish history
from 1750
1750 Moses Mendelssohn attempts to launch first periodical of the
Haskalah, Kohelet Musar.
1753 (May) - The 'Jew Bill' (Jewish Naturalisation Bill) passed by
Britain's Parliament but repealed in December.
1754 G.E. Lessing's play Die Juden (written 1749) published.
1756 Excommunication of Jacob Frank, scandalous 'pseudo-
Messiah' and founder of the Frankists, by Podolian rabbis.
1760 Death of the Baal Shem Tov (Israel ben-Eliezer, founder of
Hasidism).
1760 Foundation of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
1772 Death of Dov Ber, Maggid of Mezhirich.
1772-95 Partitions of Poland; hundreds of thousands of Jews become
subjects of Prussia, Austria, and, especially, Russia.
1781 C.W. von Dohm issues essay 'On the Civil Improvement of the
Jews'.
1782 Toleranzpatent issued by Austria's Emperor Joseph II.
1783 Publication of Moses Mendelssohn's Jerusalem, a plea for
religious tolerance.
1783 Moses Mendelssohn and the Friends of Hebrew launch Ha-
Meassef.
1786-91 Beginnings of the Pale of Settlement by decrees of Empress
Catherine II.
1789 Abbe Gregoire's Essai sur la regeneration physique, morale, et
politique des Juifs published at Metz.
1789-91 Jews given equal rights in France following the French
Revolution of 1789.
1790 Enactment of the American Bill of Rights, which guarantees free-
dom of religion and forbids the establishment of any religion.
1792-1810 Removal of many Jewish disabilities throughout Europe by
Napoleon's conquering armies.
viii Chronology of Jewish history from 1750
1803 Establishment of the famous yeshivah in Volozhin, Lithuania.
1804 Shneur Zalman (1747-1813), founder of the Chabad move-
ment, settles in Lyady.
1804 Tsar Alexander I issues Statute concerning the Jews.
1805 Frankfurt-born Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777-1836) moves
from Manchester to London and establishes the English branch
of the celebrated bank.
1806-07 'Assembly of Jewish Notables' deliberate in Paris.
1807 Convocation of the 'Grand Sanhedrin' of Jewish leaders by
Napoleon.
1809 Death in battle of Berek Joselowicz, Poland's Jewish military hero.
1810 Earliest Reform Temple (at Seesen) completed (closed 1815).
1814-15 The Congress of Vienna instructs the German states to grant
citizenship rights to Jews.
1815 Reform services begin in Berlin.
1827 Imposition of the brutal Cantonist Decrees in Russia.
1831 Recognition of Judaism as a state-supported religion in France.
1832 Abraham Geiger (1810-74), pioneer of Reform Judaism,
becomes rabbi at Wiesbaden and institutes religious reforms.
1833-69 Gradual emancipation of the Jews in the German states.
1835 Tsar Nicholas I defines Pales of Settlement.
1838 Sir Moses Montefiore becomes president of the Board of
Deputies of British Jews.
1840 The Damascus Affair.
1843 Establishment of B'nai B'rith in New York.
1848-49 Revolutions throughout continental Europe advance Jewish
rights, but their failure causes thousands of Jews to flee to
America, especially from Germany.
1851 Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-88), most influential German
neo-Orthodox leader, becomes rabbi of Frankfurt-On-Main.
1856 Modification of the Cantonist Decrees in Russia.
1858 Admission of a practising Jew, Baron Lionel de Rothschild, as
a member of the British House of Commons.
1858-59 The Mortara Affair.
1860 Establishment of the Alliance Israelite Universelle in Paris.
1862 Judah P. Benjamin (1811-84) becomes secretary of state of the
Confederacy.
1862 Moses Hess publishes Rom und Jerusalem, the first Zionist
classic.
1868 Benjamin Disraeli becomes Britain's prime minister.
1870 Abolition of the Rome ghetto, the last in Europe.
1873 Economic depression in Germany heightens antisemitism.
1877 Saratoga Springs Hotel bars a prominent Jewish banker from
staying there, one of the first instances of social antisemitism in
the United States.
Chronology of Jewish history from 1750 ix
1878 Foundation of the antisemitic Christian Workers Party in
Germany by Adolf Stocker.
1879 Wilhelm Marr coins the term 'antisemitism', with the introduc-
tion in Germany of the Antisemiten-Liga (League of
Antisemites), the first organisation anywhere to carry such a
title.
1881 Violent pogroms in Russia lead to the mass emigration of Jews
to the West, especially to America.
1881 Eliezer ben-Yehuda, pioneer of modern spoken Hebrew, settles
in Jerusalem.
1882 (May) - Promulgation of the notorious May Laws in Russia
(repealed 1917).
1882 Publication of Leon Pinsker's Auto-Emancipation, a pioneer-
ing work of Zionism.
1882-1903 The 'First Aliyah' to Palestine; Chibbat Zion movement
founded in Russia.
1885 Nathaniel Rothschild (1840-1915) takes his seat in the British
House of Lords as Lord Rothschild, the first practising Jew
there.
1891-92 Expulsions of Jews from Moscow and St Petersburg.
1894-1906 The Dreyfus Affair in France; Captain Alfred Dreyfus is
arrested, tried for treason, convicted, and sent to Devil's Island
(1894); retried (1899); pardoned (1906).
1896 Theodor Herzl publishes Der Judenstaat, central work of
modern Zionism.
1897 First Zionist Congress held in Basle, with Herzl as President.
1897 Establishment of the Bund (General Federation of Jewish
Workers) in Vilna.
1902 Publication in Russia of The Protocols of the [Learned] Elders
of Zion.
1903 Joseph Chamberlain, British colonial secretary, offers East
African territory to the Zionist movement as a possible Jewish
homeland.
1903 Kishinev pogrom, and publication of H.N. Bialik's famous
poem 'In the City of Slaughter'.
1904 Herzl unexpectedly dies, aged only 44.
1904-05 Further murderous pogroms in Russia.
1904-14 The 'Second Aliyah' to Palestine.
1906 Oscar Straus becomes the first Jewish member of an American
Cabinet.
1906 Zenith of Jewish immigration to the United States: 154,000
Jewish immigrants arrive.
1909 Herbert Samuel enters the British Cabinet as the first practising
Jew.
1912 Foundation of Agudas Israel, Strictly Orthodox political party.