Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Editors and Advisers
- Polin
- Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- List of Maps
- Introduction
- PART I PRE-PARTITION POLAND (to 1795)
- 1 The Reconstruction of Pre-Ashkenazic Jewish Settlements in the Slavic Lands in the Light of Linguistic Sources
- 2 Some Basic Characteristics of the Jewish Experience in Poland
- 3 Images of the Jew in the Polish Commonwealth
- 4 A Minority views the Majority: Jewish Attitudes towards the Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth and Interaction with Poles
- 5 The Changes in the Attitude of Polish Society toward the Jews in the Eighteenth Century
- 6 A Mobile Class. The Subjective Element in the Social Perception of Jews: The Example of Eighteenth-Century Poland
- PART II THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
- PART III BETWEEN THE TWO WORLD WARS
- PART IV THE SECOND WORLD WAR
- PART V AFTER 1945
- Notes on Contributors
- Chronological Table
- Maps
- Glossary
- Index
6 - A Mobile Class. The Subjective Element in the Social Perception of Jews: The Example of Eighteenth-Century Poland
from PART I - PRE-PARTITION POLAND (to 1795)
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Editors and Advisers
- Polin
- Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- List of Maps
- Introduction
- PART I PRE-PARTITION POLAND (to 1795)
- 1 The Reconstruction of Pre-Ashkenazic Jewish Settlements in the Slavic Lands in the Light of Linguistic Sources
- 2 Some Basic Characteristics of the Jewish Experience in Poland
- 3 Images of the Jew in the Polish Commonwealth
- 4 A Minority views the Majority: Jewish Attitudes towards the Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth and Interaction with Poles
- 5 The Changes in the Attitude of Polish Society toward the Jews in the Eighteenth Century
- 6 A Mobile Class. The Subjective Element in the Social Perception of Jews: The Example of Eighteenth-Century Poland
- PART II THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
- PART III BETWEEN THE TWO WORLD WARS
- PART IV THE SECOND WORLD WAR
- PART V AFTER 1945
- Notes on Contributors
- Chronological Table
- Maps
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
I apply the term ‘mobile class’ to a social grouping, which becomes the object of emotions usually directed towards several different classes. A characteristic feature of a mobile class is that its place in the subjectivelyperceived social structure changes, depending upon who is making the assessment and the degree of his familiarity with the group. The aim of this paper is to show how Jews can be considered a ‘mobile class’, since they are the subject of emotions usually directed by more highly-placed social groups to the lower classes, and, conversely, by the lower social strata to groups of higher social ranking. To illustrate my argument I shall use examples from eighteenth century Poland.
For a mobile class to come into being, a pre-requisite is, in most cases, the decay and disappearance of those characteristics which indicate social ranking. What then occurs is identification of the group on the basis of attributes belonging to various social strata. However the kind of perception which results is brought about by subjective factors. It consists essentially of a number of generalizations that do not have a real basis in reality; or which are based on some specific features of the group, rather than all its characteristics.
The Jews in eighteenth century Poland belonged, together with the burghers and the peasants, to the lower classes. Some of them were engaged directly in servicing the magnate and gentry classes. The subjective categories in which Jews were included were two-fold: the upper classes regarded the Jews as belonging to the lower orders and bestowed upon them emotions reserved for these classes. To them this seemed justified by the position of Jews in the social order. In turn the lower classes tended - especially during periods of social conflict - to identify all Jews on the basis of functions which some of them performed for the upper classes. Thus they looked on the Jews as a group with emotions normally reserved for these classes.
In both cases, subjective categorization becomes at the same time generalization; feelings which might have been justified if directed towards a section of the Jewish community were extended to the group as a whole.
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- From Shtetl to SocialismStudies from Polin, pp. 64 - 80Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 1993