Shtetlach were governed by The Council of the Four Lands – Great Poland ;( Posen); Little Poland (Cracow; Red Ruthenia around Lemberg and Volhynia, now North-west Ukraine). The Jews of Poland formed a nation within a nation. After In 1764 the Polish Parliament (Diet) dissolved the Council of Four Lands, Kahillas (decentralized Councils) replaced them as its judicial, religious, and charitable institutions, constituting a unit of self-government.
In addition. The subsequent partitions of Poland among Russia, Austria, and Prussia reconfigured the whole geographical pattern. No longer could there be nations within a nation, governed …show more content…
Unprecedented conditions restricting Jews’ life and liberty in Russia, Poland, Romania and Galicia (bordering on Poland, in or near the Austria-Hungary Empire).
May Laws
After situational pogroms and ukases (laws) restricting Jewish life, the 1882 May Laws were an increasingly draconian measure to make Jewish life a living hell.
In 1891, U.S. President Benjamin Harrison, responding to nativist (against ANY newcomers) sentiment, wanted to find out why so many Jews immigrated to the United States. Accordingly, the Weber Commission found, among other things, these legal disabilities:
If either a husband or wife converts to the official Russian State religion, Orthodox Christian, they must sign a declaration to convert their partner.
Fourteen year old Jews may become members of the Orthodox Church without parental permission. (Sec. 1, Supp. to Sec. 78 of the Law on Prevention of Crimes, 1876; Weber, p. 150.)
The Minister of the Interior has the authority to enable Jewish children to convert to any Christian denominations in the Empire, without consent of their parents.
As an incentive or reward, every Jewish convert to Christianity will receive 15 to 39 …show more content…
In 1887, Tsar Alexander imposed a 10% quota on secondary schools and University in the Pale of the Settlement (where Jews may have represented 5-% of the population; 5%, outside the Pale. St. Moscow and St. Petersburg, 3%. Tsar Nicholas II lowered the quotas to &% within the Pale; 3% outside the Pale; and 2% on Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Jewish Identity in 1880’s and 1890’s in Russia
Because the Russians found the Jews a nuisance, the Jewish population became very self-reliant. They conflated several doctrines for survival: stricter religious observance; assimilation; conversion; and social revolution, among others.
The social revolution and socialism resulted in the Jewish Bund in 1897. A socialist union of Jews working for the benefit of Jewish workers, following haskala (western thought), it also wanted to change the conditions of workers for both Jews and Russians. See Tobias
In addition, the socialists (composed mostly of Jewish intellectuals), known as Bundists, brilliantly re-made industrial socialism blend into the Jewish tradition.
When the Bundists found resistance, Jews had two main options: Zionism pioneering in a hoped-for Jewish homeland) or immigration to the United States. Most Jews, sensing the pioneering work with attendant malaria and other diseases opted for the United