Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Editors and Advisers
- Contents
- Polin
- Statement From the Editors
- ARTICLES
- The Reconstruction of Pre-Ashkenazic Jewish Settlements in the Slavic Lands in the Light of Linguistic Sources
- Jewish Perceptions of lnsecurity and Powerlessness in 16th-18th Century Poland
- Some Basic Characteristics of the Jewish Experience in Poland
- The Changes in the Attitude of Polish Society Toward theJews in the 18th Century
- Eros and Enlightenment: Love Against Marriage in the East European Jewish Enlightenment
- Polish-Jewish Relations and the January Uprising: The Polish Perspective
- Loyalty to the Crown or Polish Patriotism? The Metamorphoses of an Anti-Polish Story of the 1863 Insurrection
- The Polish Revolt of 1863 and the Birth of Russification: Bad for the Jews?
- A Turning Point in the History of Polish Socialism and its Attitude Towards the Jewish Question
- The Question of the Assimilation of Jews in the Polish Kingdom (1864-1897): An Interpretive Essay
- The Secular Appropriation of Hasidism by an East European Jewish Intellectual: Dubnow, Renan, and the Besht
- Some Methodological Problems of the Study of Jewish History in Poland Between the Two World Wars
- Jews and Poles in Yiddish Literature in Poland Between the Two World Wars
- Is There a Jewish School of Polish Literature?
- The Underground Movement in Auschwitz Concentration Camp
- DOCUMENTS
- INTERVIEW
- A DIALOGUE
- BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS
- BOOK REVIEWS
- CONTRIBUTORS
The Question of the Assimilation of Jews in the Polish Kingdom (1864-1897): An Interpretive Essay
from ARTICLES
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Editors and Advisers
- Contents
- Polin
- Statement From the Editors
- ARTICLES
- The Reconstruction of Pre-Ashkenazic Jewish Settlements in the Slavic Lands in the Light of Linguistic Sources
- Jewish Perceptions of lnsecurity and Powerlessness in 16th-18th Century Poland
- Some Basic Characteristics of the Jewish Experience in Poland
- The Changes in the Attitude of Polish Society Toward theJews in the 18th Century
- Eros and Enlightenment: Love Against Marriage in the East European Jewish Enlightenment
- Polish-Jewish Relations and the January Uprising: The Polish Perspective
- Loyalty to the Crown or Polish Patriotism? The Metamorphoses of an Anti-Polish Story of the 1863 Insurrection
- The Polish Revolt of 1863 and the Birth of Russification: Bad for the Jews?
- A Turning Point in the History of Polish Socialism and its Attitude Towards the Jewish Question
- The Question of the Assimilation of Jews in the Polish Kingdom (1864-1897): An Interpretive Essay
- The Secular Appropriation of Hasidism by an East European Jewish Intellectual: Dubnow, Renan, and the Besht
- Some Methodological Problems of the Study of Jewish History in Poland Between the Two World Wars
- Jews and Poles in Yiddish Literature in Poland Between the Two World Wars
- Is There a Jewish School of Polish Literature?
- The Underground Movement in Auschwitz Concentration Camp
- DOCUMENTS
- INTERVIEW
- A DIALOGUE
- BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS
- BOOK REVIEWS
- CONTRIBUTORS
Summary
At the end of the nineteenth century Polish publicists started to taik with increasing frequency about the bankruptcy of assimilation. Although vigorously denied by lzraelita, many of its sympathisers shared the opinion. They intensified their criticism of their previous activity, they acknowledged numerous mistakes and attempted to formulate a new programme. They blamed the Orthodox, the Zionists and the anti-semites for their own lack of widespread influence. They complained of Polish society's indifference to the problems that they were forced to face. The final words of the Lwów paper Ojczyzna were:
Tired and exhausted we yield. We once believed and still believe that the Jews could only be granted citizenship with the cooperation of native Polish society. We thought that the Polish community would extend its hand to this joint work toward our common advantage. We have been disappointed. What has the country contributed towards the moral and economic elevation of the Jewish masses during the quarter century of autonomous govemments?
It is worth looking closer at this question of the bankruptcy of assimilation. Did this bankruptcy really occur and why did assimilation decline, a movement which had seemed so dynamic immediately after the January Uprising? Are the assimilationists themselves more to blame for its failure than the Poles? Were ‘mistakes’ made by both sides?
First, however, I would like to draw attention to a problem of terminology. Various terms were used in the second half of the nineteenth century to describe this and related phenomena: assimilation, the attainment of citizenship (uobywatelnienie), emancipation, civilizing and progressiveness. These were often used interchangeably. No research was done at the time into the phenomenon of assimilation, neither was a theory developed that could adequately describe this process. Approaches to it were, on the whole, intuitive. Assimilation, many publicists assumed, meant the same as the attainment of citizenship, emancipation or, for that matter, progress. Polonized Jews were called ‘postfępowy’ (progressives) or civilized. These words were used by all groups, Jews and Poles alike, although they understood them somewhat differently. The Ha-Tsefirah group for instance saw emancipation as interconnected with acculturation; Poles of the Mosaic persuasion, on the other hand, understood emancipation as linked to assimilation. The latter group saw assimilation as a natural outcome of possession of equal rights. That was what in fact happened, on the whole, in Poland in the first half of the nineteenth century as well.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Poles and Jews: Renewing the Dialogue , pp. 130 - 150Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2004