A People Apart A Political History of the Jews in Europe 1789-1939

by Vital, David

• ISBN13: 9780199246816
• ISBN10: 0199246815
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-10-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In the twentieth century, the world saw both the greatest triumph of Jewish history--the birth of the nation of Israel, and its greatest tragedy--the state-sponsored genocide of the Holocaust. A People Apart is the first study to examine the role played by the Jews themselves, across the whole of Europe, during the century and a half leading up to these momentous events. David Vital explores the Jews' troubled relationship with Europe, documenting the struggles of this 'nation without a territory' to establish a place for itself within an increasingly polarized and nationalist continent. This powerful new analysis represents a watershed in our understanding of the history of the Jews in Europe, and as a result, in the whole history of the continent.

Author Biography

David Vital is former Nahum Goldmann Professor of Diplomacy at Tel Aviv University. He served in the Israeli government for eleven years, holding posts in the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister's office. He has taught at UCLA, Dartmouth, and Northwestern. He lives in Israel.

Table of Contents

List of Maps	xiv
List of Tables	xv
A Note On Transliteration And Translation	xvi
Abbreviations	xvii
Introduction: The Old Dispensation	1	(1)
The old regime	1	(3)
Two levels of authority, two yokes to bear	4	(5)
Social control: the modalities	9	(3)
The gevir	12	(5)
Self-help and self-governance	17	(7)
Consensus and conformism	24	(3)
Part I. Integration and Fragmentation	27	(252)
Proposals	31	(68)
Under the Enlightenment---'useful' Jews and 'useless' Jews	31	(6)
In England---incrementalism	37	(5)
In France---principles	42	(21)
In the Germanies---impenetrable hostility and legal rigour	63	(6)
In Poland---deadlock	69	(11)
In Russia---despotism for all...	80	(9)
...but the Jews as an encumbrance to be dealt with	89	(10)
Disjunctions	99	(67)
Emancipation: the early responses	99	(4)
The fears of the orthodox	103	(18)
The enthusiasm of the modernists	121	(9)
The cultural inroads	130	(6)
The haskalah as a halfway house	136	(10)
Modern education---the Russian carrot	146	(10)
Military conscription---the Russian lash	156	(7)
The irreversibility of fragmentation	163	(3)
Questions From Without And Within	166	(113)
The Jewish Question posed	166	(17)
The Question formulated	183	(2)
The Jews re-characterized	185	(4)
The Jews re-demonized	189	(9)
Calls for treatment	198	(7)
The Decembrists (along with other Russians) try their hand	205	(6)
Internal politics: the beginnings	211	(21)
Triumph at Damascus...	232	(12)
... and its limitations	244	(4)
Jews in general politics and in society at large: the German model	248	(31)
Part II. Aspirations and Equivocations	279	(362)
Movement	283	(63)
Pogroms	283	(8)
Poverty	291	(6)
Migration	297	(13)
Decline	310	(7)
West versus East	317	(17)
Eastern European Jewry as the question	334	(12)
Auto-Emancipation?	346	(130)
Leaderlessness as a condition	346	(20)
National self-determination as an idea: Zion as a destination	366	(34)
Jews as revolutionaries	400	(15)
The Bund	415	(22)
Herzl	437	(39)
Crystallization	476	(165)
Intercession institutionalized	476	(11)
1878---triumph in Berlin, failure in Bucharest	487	(21)
The limits of intercession	508	(1)
Kishinev as a paradigm	509	(6)
Impotence, shame, and fury	515	(13)
Violence and counter-violence	528	(7)
The blood-libel and the rule of law	535	(5)
Bernard Lazare and the Affair	540	(26)
Russia in 1905---Jews as targets, Jews as participants	566	(27)
The Zionists stand still	593	(23)
The orthodox circle their wagons	616	(25)
Part III. New Dispensations	641	(256)
War	647	(56)
The Jewish contingents	647	(4)
The Jewish increment	651	(13)
The 'Palestine Idea'	664	(11)
A neutral Zionism, belligerent Zionists	675	(12)
The 'Palestine Idea' revived	687	(5)
Self-determination	692	(11)
Peace	703	(52)
Bolshevik Russia and the binding of its Jews	703	(12)
The great slaughter	715	(13)
Who speaks for the Jews?	728	(11)
At the Peace Conference	739	(16)
Captivity	755	(82)
Wilson's world	755	(6)
The nation-state as grindstone	761	(13)
Ancient frictions in the new Poland	774	(24)
Polish equivocation: Jewish ambivalence	798	(2)
Germany takes the lead	800	(4)
Machtergreifung	804	(5)
Towards extrusion	809	(14)
The Jews of Germany crushed	823	(6)
A community destroyed	829	(8)
Denouement	837	(60)
On the eve	837	(4)
Once again: who will lead them, where will they be led?	841	(8)
A World Jewish Congress	849	(7)
Loyalties and principles	856	(11)
The purposes of Zionism, the needs of the Jews	867	(8)
Pragmatism and honour	875	(6)
The final rejection	881	(9)
Into the night	890	(7)
Epilogue	897	(2)
Bibliography	899	(19)
Glossary	918	(3)
Index	921