Blog questions for October 28, 30, and November 1

1. The reading assignment for Monday, October 28, is on Jewish demographics and the move to cities, in The Jews: A History, pp. 294-298.

Questions:

1. How and why did the Jewish population increase so rapidly in the 19th century?
2. Why did Jews move to cities and which cities became large Jewish centers?

2. Reading assignment for Wednesday, October 30, is on Modern Antisemitism. Readings are:

The Jews, A History: pp. 298-313
Primary Sources, in Mendes-Flohr, ed., The Jew in the Modern World, pp. 306-311, 319-332)

•  “The Victory of Judaism over Germandom” (by Wilhelm Marr)
•  “The Question of the Jew is a Question of Race” (by Karl Duehring), 
• “Judaism: Race or Religion?” (by Ernest Renan), 
• “A Word about our Jewry” (by Heinrich von Treitschke), 
• “Another Word about our Jewry” (by Theodor Mommsen), 
• “Of the People of Israel” (by Friedrich Nietzsche), “
• The Racists’ Decalogue” (by Theodor Fritsch), “J’Accuse” (by Émile Zola)

Modern antisemitism developed in the 19th century as a political movement, based in ideas of a Jewish conspiracy and of Jews as belonging to an inferior race. The reading from The Jews: A History, discusses the socio-political reasons for the rise of a new form of anti-Jewish feeling and action, and then surveys anti-semitism in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, and Russia. The survey includes anti-semitic ideologies, parties, and attacks upon Jews.

The primary source readings consist, for the most part, of essays written by anti-semites, and they evidence the development of anti-semitism from its original basis in Christian anti-Judaism into political and racial anti-semitism.

Questions: 

1. What were the new formulations of anti-Jewish feelings as expressed by political and racial anti-semites? 
2. How did conceiving of Jewishness as a racial identity change anti-Jewish feelings and actions? What impact did it have upon Jews?
3. How did the new anti-semitic parties and political movements impact Jews living in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, and Russia?

3. The reading assignment for Friday, November 1, is on Jewish socialism, one of the Jewish responses to rising anti-semitism. Read The Jews: A History, pages 313-316, and the primary sources in The Jew in the Modern World, pp. 397-402: “Cultural Autonomy” (by Simon Dubnow), and documents from the Jewish Bund (Workers’ Union in Poland and Russia). To understand more about socialism, I would also recommend taking a look at the Communist Manifesto, which is available at http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm

Questions:

1. Why did Jews support socialist movements and become involved in them?
2. What socialist groups did Jews found specifically for Jews, and how were they different from other socialist movements?