Relations with the Christian Population and with the Rabbanite Jews
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CHAPTER FIVE THE KARAITES AND THEIR NEIGHBOURS: RELATIONS WITH THE CHRISTIAN POPULATION AND WITH THE RABBANITE JEWS 5.1. The Karaites and the Slavic Population (Poles and Ruthenians) 5.1.1. Everyday Interaction We do not have that hatred towards the ‘goyyim’ (infidels1). We live in perfect peace with peasants and with all Christians. Every- one is our neighbour and we love him as God commands us. Samuel Mordkowicz to the Polish traveller Grzegorz Smólski (1903)2 The Slavs (the Ruthenians and the Poles) and the Rabbanite Jews represented the majority of the population of Galicia from 1772 to 1918. In 1910, for example, the Ruthenians constituted 62% of the population of Eastern Galicia, the Poles—25%, and the Rabbanite Jews—12%.3 The population of the largest cities of the area (Lwów, Stanisławów, Brody, and Kołomyja) was largely Polish and Jewish, whereas the small towns and villages were predominantly Ruthenian. In some cases there was no strict division between the Poles and the Ruthenians because of the fact that many Ruthenians living in the cities were assimilated by Polish culture, whereas many Poles living in 1 This is how Smólski translated this Hebrew term which in fact means “peoples” or “Gentiles.” 2 Smólski, “U Karaimów,” 523. 3 Bihl, “Ruthenen,” 561; Ivan Rudnytsky, “The Ukrainians in Galicia under Aus- trian Rule,” Austrian History Yearbook 3:2 (1967): 400. The whole Polish population of Austria was 4,967,984 souls (9,9%) in 1910 (Henryk Batowski, “Die Polen,” in Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848–1918, vol. 3:1, 526). There were 3.2 million Ruthenians and 871,895 Rabbanites in Galicia in 1910 (Bihl, “Ruthenen,” 560; idem, “Die Juden,” in Habsburgermonarchie 1848–1918, vol. 3:2, 882). In some Galician towns (Brody, Buczacz, Stanisławów, Kołomyja) the Jewish population constituted as much as 50–70% in 1900 (ibid., 885). For detailed statistics, see also John-Paul Himka, “Dimensions of a Triangle: Polish-Ukrainian-Jewish Relations in Austrian Galicia,” in Focusing on Galicia: Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians. Polin. Studies in Polish Jewry 12 (London-Portland, 1999), 25–26. 192 chapter five rural areas, on the contrary, were culturally and linguistically closer to the Ruthenians. Furthermore, there existed a few transitional groups with mixed ethnic self-identity. Among them were the so-called Latyn- nyky (Roman Catholics of Ruthenian origin; many were subsequently Polonized); Polish-speaking Ruthenian Greek Catholics; Polish colonists (the Poles living in Ruthenian villages).4 The Ruthenians, Poles, and Rabbanite Jews were the Karaites’ imme- diate ethnic neighbours, with whom they were engaged in constant everyday contact and under whose influence they came volens nolens. It may be recalled that it was from Halicz that the Jew Jankiel, a character in Adam Mickieiwcz’s “Pan Tadeusz,” used to bring texts of kołomyjki, i.e. Ruthenian lyrical songs.5 A few less well known ethno-religious groups lived in Halicz in the nineteenth century and in the interwar period. Among them were the Latynnyky, Subbotniki (Slavic converts to Judaism), Russian Old Believers (Starovery), and certain Judeo-Catholics (possibly Frankists).6 The towns of Halicz and Kukizów were predomi- nantly Ruthenian and Jewish.7 Nevertheless, it was usually the Poles, the minority in these two towns, who constituted the administration. Use of Yiddish, wearing of traditional Jewish dress, engagement in money-lending and petty trade, elaborate and solemn celebration of the Sabbath—these were the features that drastically differentiated the Ashkenazic Jews from the local Karaite and Slavic population. Most travel reports and official accounts agree that the Karaim-, Polish- and Ruthenian-speaking Galician Karaites, with their active involvement in agriculture and physical work, in many respects were certainly much closer to their Gentile neighbours than to the Ashkenazim. There were a few features that evoked a justifiable sympathy for the Karaites on the part of the surrounding Slavs. As the earliest Austrian reports after the annexation of Galicia state, by that time most Galician Karaites did not wear distinctive clothing. According to these sources, their dress was similar to that of the local Polish and Ruthenian popula- tion. Moreover, the Karaites used to cut their hair—and even shaved 4 Kubijovyč, Etnichni hrupy, xx. 5 Jadwiga Maurer, Z matki obcej (London, 1990), 123. 6 If the presence of the Latynnyky in Halicz is well attested, other “exotic” sectarian groups (Starovery, Subbotniki, and Judeo-Catholics) are mentioned only in one interwar report (Wachsmann, “Halitsch,” 13). 7 This is according to the interwar statistics, which also reflect the situation before 1918 (Kubijovyč, Etnichni hrupy, 48, 82)..