Title

The Minorities Treaty (June 28, 1919) was meant to provide equal protection and opportunity to minorities living within the borders of Poland.  On the surface this seems a very lofty and admirable goal but I wonder if it did not help to build resentment towards Jews.  Jews were often considered outsiders within the nations they inhabited due to their religion, education, and position in society.  The treaty gave equal protection (on paper if not practice) to Jews and allowed them to receive an education in the language most comfortable to them.  While such acts may have improved the live of minorities living in Poland they also created tensions as governments had to devote funding to schools.  Furthermore the League of Nations did not have the power to enforce the demands and when Poland renounced the treaty there was little that could be done.  The fact that they treaty was rejected shows the hostility of Polish citizens to minorities living within their borders and their requirement to their protection and education likely only further intensified their feelings.  Rather than demanding that Poland and other nations look after their minorities perhaps a better way would have been to create incentives for them to do so or perhaps leaving the issue open for the people themselves to decide.  It is also slightly ironic that the U.S. would force another country to provide equal treatment to minorities when so many groups within the U.S. did not receive the same benefits as white males.

My second question is this, why did so many Jews join Lenin's secret police after being given access to government jobs in Ukraine?  Earlier in the reading they mentioned Jews forming self defence groups to protect them from pogroms.  Did Jews join in the hope that they would be able to help protect their communities?  Many Jews hoped that a socialist revolution would free them from persecution so in that context the disproportionate number of Jews who embraced the communist revolution is not particularly surprising.  Antisemites for years had been claiming that Zionists were attempting to infiltrate the governments of countries to take them over.  There is little evidence to back up their claims but I cannot help but wonder of Jews embraced communism in an attempt to gain favor with the ruling government.