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Monday, April 15, 2019

EUROPE'S PALE OF SETTLEMENT 1914 AND THE JEWS

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                       
 "In 1914, WWI began, a watershed in both Jewish history and European history, as it marked the end of four great empires: the Tsarist, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and German Reich. Together, these empires were home to the majority of world Jewry."  "World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918." At the outbreak of WWI, 5,600,000 Jews lived in the empire of the Czars. Almost 2 million lived in Poland.  300,000 Jews were in the Russian army. 


"The First World War, the most appallingly savage international conflict in all preceding history, had a profound impact on world Jewry. This was due to the existence of a large concentra­tion of Jews within one of the principal arenas, the enlistment of unprecedented numbers of Jews to the armies of the belligerent nations and the success of Jewish leaders in influencing the political policies of the major powers. Furthermore, increasing tensions during the war years deepened the hostile attitudes towards the Jews, particularly in Germany and in Eastern Europe."
                                                                       
This pogrom was sparked by an assassination
From 1871 to 1921, many pogroms were going on in towns of Russia that were anti-Jewish.  The movie, Fiddler On the Roof tells it well.  Note that pogroms went on after WWI ended.  They had their own reasons to pick on Jewish way before the war started and after it ended.  The Russian Jew lived in misery, never knowing when they would be attacked.  My own grandmother, Zlata had her legs broken in Lithuania.  Golda Meir was in a pogrom and she was able to escape and get to the USA .  Ukraine had many in 1905 and from 1918-1920 which was after WWI.  In January 1918, a regime of national autonomy was established in the Ukraine.  Crimea's Jews lived with Kararites until 1917.  Ukraine's captive Jews were also sent to Crimea to live.  Jews lived under lots of disabilities until Revolution of 1917.  More Jews came to live in Crimea after 1920.  A Communist Revolution started in 1919.  Austria-Hungary was involved in that.  
                                                  

Lithuania was a part of Russia from 1795 to 1918.  During WWI, 100,000 Jews were expelled or emigrated to the Russian interior.  In independent Lithuania, Jews received national AUTONOMY from 1918 to 1924.  Belarus was called White Russia (also Belorussia), settled originally by Polish Jews, suffered during WWI which became a war area and many Jews were expelled to the interior, partitioned after the War in 1921 between Russia and Poland.  Bessarabia was a Romanian Province, went to Moldavian and Ukrainian Republics.  were not alliowed to live near the frontier along with Gypsies, remainaed a focus of anti-Semitism and 90,000 Jews escaped from Soviet Russia through Bessarabia from 1919 to 1925.  Britain had been in the war since August 4, 1914.  Their campaigns of 1917-18 in the course of WWI led to the termination of Turkish rule of the Ottoman Empire in Eretz Yisrael.  

The loss of the city of Vilna to Poland in 1919 weakened the Jews of Lithuania.  It had been the capital and center of Lithuania, the hub of Jewish learning with the Gaon of Vilna from here.  Poland became independent after WWI and undertook to protect its minorities, but its attitude toward the Jews left much to be desired.  The Jews'economic position deteriorated as the new Polish middle-class tended to push them out of trade, handicrafts and industry.  Latvia, annexed to Russia in 1795,  became independent in 1919.  Their national minorities possessed autonomy until 1931. Jews were able to develop a Hebrew and Yiddish school system.  Estonia's Jews became independent with their state from 1917 to 1940, also suffering from anti-Semitism like all others in the 1930s. Belarus was under Russia rule from 1795 to 1918.  Eventually by 1795 Poland was partitioned by its neighbors. Thus a new period in Belarusian history started, with all its lands annexed by the Russian Empire, in a continuing endeavor of Russian tsars of "gathering the Rus lands" started after the liberation from the Tatar yoke by Grand Duke Ivan III of Russia.
                                                       
Tevyeh in Anatola, a Shtetl in Poland
 Europeans were being hit with ENLIGHTENMENT in their thinking  from 1700 to 1914 with a German Christian, Mr. Dohm, writing something people had not thought of, evidently:  That didn't stop Russians from attacking Jewish villages, driving many out to seek refuge in the Ottoman Empire's Palestine, their ancient homeland.  

  "If Jews seemed superstitious, unsocial and unsavory it was because they had been subject to oppressive conditions for many generations. Lift the oppressive conditions, argued Dohm, and the Jews will better themselves. They will become productive, useful members of the state."  
                                                       
Jews from Poland, Russia 


  " The two most popular destinations for Jewish immigrants during this period were America and Palestine. More than 2 million Jewish immigrants entered the United States between 1880 and 1924; 25,000 Russian Jews emigrated to Palestine as part of the first aliyah (wave of immigration) to in 1881; 40,000 followed as part of the second aliyah between 1904 and 1914. These immigrants, along with other Jews,  whose journeys were purely intellectual, changed the character of the countries they called–or came to call–home.
                                                       

How it all started:  1914

28th  June-Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo
5th July-Kaiser Wilhelm II promised German support for Austria against             Serbia.
28th July-Austria declared war on Serbia
1st August-Germany declared war on Russia
3rd August-Germany declared war on France, invaded Belgium
4th August-Britain declared war on Germany
29th October-Turkey entered the war on Germany's side. 
1917 6th April-USA declared war on Germany
16.5 million died-both soldiers and civilians. 
9.7 million were soldiers. 
35 million casualties included dead and wounded.
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-history-1914-to-1948/
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/wwi-and-the-jews/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Belarus
https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-one/timeline-of-world-war-one/
Resource:  facts about israel,  Division of Info Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem,p. 32
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-history-1700-to-1914/
http://ww1facts.net/quick-reference/ww1-casualties/
Thank you Laurie David for giving me the idea of writing about 1914 and problems ensued.
Updated on Belorus at10am.

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