Status and Position of European Jews at the End of 19th Century

Status and Position of European Jews at the End of 19th Century

The status of Jews at the end of the nineteenth and start of the

twentieth century varied depending upon their location. At the

beginning of the twentieth century there were an estimated nine

million Jews living in Europe. These were spread through twenty-one

different countries. Most of these Jews were living in the east of

Europe, in countries like Poland and the USSR.

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By the end of the 19th century four million Jews were living in

Russia. Unlike in Western Europe the ideas of Enlightenment did not

spread. Most of those were living in separate settlements, such as

villages and towns within the pale of settlement. However, the Jews

were not allowed to just settle where they pleased. This shows how the

Jews were treated in Germany compared to Russia. Some Jews were

ordered to serve the Russian army for up to twenty years. This was

often used as an attempt to break up the Jewish communities. The

German Jews fitted in with the general public, however in Russia they

were used as scapegoats. Pogroms occurred in 1881-1882 and 1902-1905.

Thousands were left wounded and about one hundred died. Nicholas II

(the czar at the time) encouraged these pogroms and even funded them

on occasions. News of these pogroms shocked the world.

The tsarist government who were happy to blame the Jews for their

economical problems and often ordered these attacks. This period was a

hard time for the Jews. Probably the most well known instance of

anti-Semitism was the ' Protocols of the Elders of Zion'.

This was meant to be a plan written by the Jews of world domination.

It was a forgery and it didn't stop people believing it.

This lead to mass beating of the Jews in more pogroms. Many Jews

migrated to the United States of America or to Western Europe.

Self-defence groups were formed, and occasionally succeeded in driving

the attacks away. The Jewish deaths in Russia shocked most of Western