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Neither Germans nor Poles: Jewish Nationalism in Galicia before Herzl, 1883-1897

Neither Germans nor Poles: Jewish Nationalism in Galicia before Herzl, 1883-1897 Although galician jewry constituted one of the largest Jewish communities in the world before World War I, it has attracted too little scholarship. Galician Jews sat on the frontier between East and West. Religiously and economically, they were similar to Russian and Romanian Jewry, but since their emancipation in 1867 they enjoyed wideranging civil and political rights akin to those of their Western brethren. Historians focusing either on the numerically more significant Russian Jewry, or the politically and financially more important Western Jewry, have tended to avoid Galicia, even though the region was home to almost a million Jews by the turn of the century. Most Zionist historiography has also underemphasized the importance of this community, particularly in the pre-Herzlian period, by which time Galician Zionists could already boast a considerable degree of organizational infrastructure. This neglect is partly a reflection of the general historiographical trend within modern Jewish history. It also reflects, however, the unusual nature of Galician “Zionism,” which was largely Diaspora-oriented—directed toward national cultural work in the Diaspora as well as political activities designed to secure national minority rights—long before Zionists in either Russia or the West had begun to engage in such activities. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Austrian History Yearbook Cambridge University Press

Neither Germans nor Poles: Jewish Nationalism in Galicia before Herzl, 1883-1897

Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 34: 23 – Feb 10, 2009
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Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 2003
ISSN
0067-2378
eISSN
1558-5255
DOI
10.1017/S006723780002049X
Publisher site
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Abstract

Although galician jewry constituted one of the largest Jewish communities in the world before World War I, it has attracted too little scholarship. Galician Jews sat on the frontier between East and West. Religiously and economically, they were similar to Russian and Romanian Jewry, but since their emancipation in 1867 they enjoyed wideranging civil and political rights akin to those of their Western brethren. Historians focusing either on the numerically more significant Russian Jewry, or the politically and financially more important Western Jewry, have tended to avoid Galicia, even though the region was home to almost a million Jews by the turn of the century. Most Zionist historiography has also underemphasized the importance of this community, particularly in the pre-Herzlian period, by which time Galician Zionists could already boast a considerable degree of organizational infrastructure. This neglect is partly a reflection of the general historiographical trend within modern Jewish history. It also reflects, however, the unusual nature of Galician “Zionism,” which was largely Diaspora-oriented—directed toward national cultural work in the Diaspora as well as political activities designed to secure national minority rights—long before Zionists in either Russia or the West had begun to engage in such activities.

Journal

Austrian History Yearbook – Cambridge University Press

Published: Feb 10, 2009

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