Chapter 8: Age of Migration and Ideologies
Study Questions
1) What was new about the anti-Semitism which reemerged in the last quarter of the nineteenth century in western and central Europe? Did it contradict European socio-economic progress or was it in some ways a symptom of it?
2) Jewish immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries showed not only movement from east to west, but also, a pronounced urbanization. In what ways were Jews uniquely equipped for the transition to urban life?
3) Gartner suggests that German and Austrian Liberalism’s elitist, anti-democratic character served to weaken Jewish Liberals’ response to anti-Semitism (page 218). Do you find this argument convincing? Why or why not?
4) In speaking about late nineteenth century anti-Semitism, Gartner asserts that it was “most extensive” in Germany. What evidence does Gartner provide?
5) What impression does Gartner create in the reader’s mind of Bismarck’s position with respect to the Jews?
Bismarck was an autocrat opposed to any and all groups within Germany which he believed loyal to worldly powers other than the German nation-state. He thus led a campaign against German Catholics (whom he saw as beholden to Rome) and, subsequently, against the German Socialists. Could the Jews have been viewed as posing such a “threat”?
6) How does Gartner account for the unimpressive electoral showing of the anti-Semitic parties in Imperial Germany which, as he observes, “peaked” in 1893, winning just 16 of the roughly 400 seats in the Reichtstag and subsequently declined to six seats by 1912 (page 222)?
7) In speaking of the German socialists, Gartner disparages their opposition to anti-Semitism as resulting from their socioeconomic interpretation of historical development rather than any sense of “justice.” Did Marxists otherwise derive their official party positions from reasons other than those provided by official party doctrine?
8) In comparing Germany’s practice of Christianity with that of Great Britain, Gartner observes that Germany’s was “strongly anti-Jewish” in tone whereas Britain’s was not. Can you point to the evidence Gartner provides to substantiate this assertion? Does his footnote (page 226) suffice?
9) How did the local Zionists’ approach to anti-Semitism differ from that of such organizations as the Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith established in 1893?
10) Why does Gartner refer to the pronounced anti-Semitism of Vienna’s Mayor Karl Lueger (in office from 1897 to 1910) as “opportunistic”?
11) Look up the French fascist movement Action Francaise led by Charles Maurras. Do you agree with Gartner that it was just “a nuisance”?
12) Why did the Jews’ status in Russia suddenly worsen in 1881? What were some of the reasons for the pogroms which ensued?