Introduction
    This page is designed to discuss the cultural roles of the jews during the second industrial revolution.  The Jews had a large impact on the society during this time.  They contributed to many professions and cultural activities.  The were able to succeed in education, but they were not always admitted to the best institutions.  The change of society during this time period contributes to the shift in societies view of the relationship from a group of powerless people to individuals able to achieve great things.



How Did the Role of the Jewish People Change During
             the Second Industrial Revolution?
 
    The Jews in Europe were treated very poorly until a reform began in the late eighteenth century.  The Jews lived in ghettos where they were not even considered citizens.  The Jewish Enlightenment questioned this treatment.
    Emancipation is defined as, "the legal process, which began in Europe with the French Revolution, or granting to the jews equal civic rights in the countries in which they reside."  The Jewish emancipation occurred during the Second Industrial Revolution due to the rise of nation-state and mercantilism (Calgary).  The Jewish emancipation began at the end of the eighteenth century.  It offered jews social, economic, and political opportunities, but it challenged traditional jewish life and values by making available new avenues of integration (Cornell).
    The Enlightenment was a "jewish ideological movement that aimed at modernizing Jewish life and thought" (Calgary).  During the enlightenment some reforms were made.  In 1782, Joseph II gave the Jews of the Habsburg Empire equal treatment as the Christians.  France gave citizenship to Jews in 1789.  Also during this time places such as Italy and Germany were treating Jews and Christians equally.  An exception to the fair treatment was Russia.  Russia continued to discriminate against Jews until World War I.  The Russian government controlled the publication of Jewish books, the areas Jews could live in, and excluded them from receiving a higher education.  The government even started riots in the Jewish communities.  This was when many Jews decided to leave Russia and move to the United States.  At the time they had all the legal rights as others, but they did encounter prejudice in the United States.
    Life seemed to improve greatly for the Jewish people between the years of 1850 to 1880.  They were granted full citizenship in Germany, Italy, and Scandinavia.  They were able to be elected to Parliament in Great Britain after 1858.  Austria-Hungary gave full legal rights to Jews in 1867.  They quickly entered politics and took office in some of the highest positions.  During this time Jews did not encounter much discrimination or prejudice treatment.  This was a great time for them to excel in the professions they choose and in cultural activities.
    Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), a pioneer of the Jewish Enlightenment, was a German philosopher and author.  He was a strong advocate of Jewish civil rights.  He was born in Dessau, Germany.  In 1750 he became a tutor to children and a silk merchants partner.  In 1754 he became good friends with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a supporter of the Jewish Emancipation.  Lessing published work by Mendelssohn and together they published a satire called Pope A Metaphysician.  Mendelssohn wrote books on Judaism, but his most important achievement was opening the world of German language and literature to his fellow Jews with his translations of the first five books of the Old Testament, the Psalms, and other sections of the Bible into German.
    Although life was good for most of the Jews due to the positive changes of the enlightenment, some were treated poorly by anti-Semites.  Anti-Semites did anything possible to hurt Jewish people including accusing Jewish bankers of causing the economic stagnation in the 1870s.  Many Jews felt this treatment was only temporary, but they were sadly mistaken.
    There were three phases of Jewish Emancipation.  It began in 1783 in Central Europe, mostly Germany.  In 1820 it began in Galican Europe.  Finally, from 1830 to 1882 it was occurring in Eastern Europe.  The demands for this time was for vocational reform, educational reform, and religious reform.   The assimilation of Jews in Germany happened quickly.  Jews became more modern during this time period.  Many Jews remained traditional preventing the complete assimilation of Jews.  In Germany, an anti-Semitic party was formed in 1890.  This group had the support of 3.4 percent of the people by 1893 and then vanished soon after the elections of that year.  Jews were forced to identify as a group because they were not permitted in all German organizations.  These German Jews eventually regarded Palestine as a homeland for Eastern Jews, but not for themselves.  Germany had a lot of anti-Semitism, but not as much as other countries such as France, Austria, and Russia.
    The time period where Jews and Christians were treated equally in Europe made the transition more difficult when the discrimination began again.  The treatment of Jews became very bad in the years preceding the First World War and they did not improve for many more years of pain and suffering.
 
Borneman, John and Jeffery M. Peck. Sojourners.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,1995.

Caron, V. Cornell University. March 1, 1998. www.cornell.edu/Academic/Courses97/csas/as1359.html.

Colby University. March 3, 1998. www.colby.edu/personal/rmscheck/GermanyB4.html.

Glatzer, Nahum Norbert. C.A.N.D.L.E.S. March 15, 1998. www.candles_museum.com/antsem.htm.

Greenberg, Louis. The Jews in Russia. Ed. Mark Wischnitzer. New York: Schocken Books, 1976.
 
Segal, Eliezer. University of Calgary. February 27, 1998.                   http://acs6.acs.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/363_Transp/02_Emancipation.html.
 
 
 

Links to Sites

Calgary
This site gives information about the Jewish Emancipation and Moses Mendelssohn.  It has very specific information about what the emancipation was, what the causes were, the implications, and it also had information about the enlightenment.

C.A.N.D.L.E.S
This site provides information about anti-Semitism, which is, political, social, and economic agitation and activites directed against the Jews.  It goes into detail about the history of anti-Semitism, persecution in Eastern Europe, the origins of anti-Semitism in the United States, the organized anti-Semitic groups used as a political tools, and anti-Semitism after World War II.

Colby
This site has important information about Jews in Germany.  It discusses how German Jews were mostly assimilated, but that caused them to lose a part of their special and unique culture.  The site goes into depth about the events leading up to the Holocost in Germany.

Cornell
This page talks about the transformation of the Jews life in Europe.  It tells how Jewish emancipation offered social, economic, and political opportunities.

Torah
This site was the source of the picture used on this page.  It was also helpful in obtaining any information about the Jewish culture.  It contained very valuable information and many links to other helpful sites.
 
                                                              This site was designed by
                                                                      Allison Clark