11-1-650 TRAINING BUREAU FOR Jl •ISH CGii.UNAL SERVICE .Y0rk 16, N.Y ׳״e״ ,lh$ -ast 32nd Street ~ INSHTUTij ON ADViJICuD STUDIES IN JL ISH COLLUNm ORGANIZATION SULLJi SEMESTER - 1950 ISH LIFE״COURSE UNIT II - SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF Al.ERIC AN JE Syllabus and readings for? Session 1 - July 3, 1950, A.M, - Historical Backgrounds CONTENTS: 1. PRE-EMANCIPATION TRENDS a, Jews and Non-Jews in the Ancient and medieval #orld, by Abraham G, Duker, from Jewish Survival in the World Today, Part II-A, New York, 1939. ~~ 1 " b. Ghetto and Emancipation, by Dr, Salo »/» Baron, reprinted from Menorah Journal, June, 1928• 2. THE L10DERN WORLD a. The Larch of ^mancipation, by Abraham G. Duker, 1 ,orld Today, Part II-A״ from Jewish Survival in the New York, 1939. ! b« Communal Organization Since ^mancipation, .G. Duker״ by Abraham c. The Hitler Catastrophe, by Abraham G. Duker• Bibliographies by Abraham G, Duker, P ־״jj״KOT TO 02 D v;1i (COIii-.lEHTS VZLC0I,:2D) Coordinator: Dr, ,Sidney Axelrad Session Leader: Abraham G. Duker THE JEWISH INDIVIDUAL IN THE JEWISH COMMUNITY BEFORE EMANCIPATION by Abraham G, Duker ־ Jews and Non-Jews in the Ancient and Mediaeval World .1 Adaptation to the Non-Jewish Group: The primary fact of Jewish group life since the destruction of the Second Temple is that it has been carried on mainly in a non-Jewish milieu. The social environment of every Jew has been both Jewish and non-Jewish, but the social environment of the Jewish group has been non-Jewish, Hence throughout Jewish history outside of Palestine the relationship between the Jewish and non- Jewish group has been of great importance. Any adequate understanding of the life of the Jews involves an understanding of the relationship between the Jewish and non-Jewish groups, ?Wherever they live, Jews undergo a process of adaptation to their environment. This is normal, Wherever two individuals or groups associate with each other it is natural that they should be mutually influenced. In the cultural field, the majority is less affected than the minority, though it, too, is to some extent affected, The process of adaptation, it should be noted, does not depend on inferiority or superiority of cultures or mores. It is merely the result of different people coming in contact with each other. While adaptation takes place to some extent among all peoples, it is strongest among the Jews since nowhere outside of Palestine do they live in an environment of their own. At no time in their existence were the Jews free from the influence of the life around them. The problem of how far the influence of the genera! environment can be allowed free play without jeopardizing their continued existence has concerned the Jews ever since the dispersion. The perennial problem of Jewish life in the Diaspora is to maintain at least the min- ima of Jewish group existence. These minima vary. They depend not only on what constitutes Jewishness at any given time in history, but also on the nature of the population in whose midst the Jews live. Not only do these points of judgment vary from age to age, they also differ from country to country, from class to class and party to party. In Ancient Worlds In the Roman Empire the prime characteristics of Jewishness were religion and ethnic descent. The concept of exclusivist nationality as we know it today was non-existent. The idea of Roman citizenship implied political allegiance to an empire dominated politically by the Romans, culturally by Hellen- ism with wide religious tolerance. It is true that in the beginning such practices as emperor worship caused conflicts between the Jews and the dominant non-Jewish power. These were settled by exempting the Jews, The idea of race, or rather of tribal identity was also current, but only the Egyptians regarded race and its purity highly, The other peoples of the Empire, including the Jews, did not object to intermarriage on racial grounds. The Graeco-Roman world was truly a melting pot in which common citizenship and culture were the great levellers. Jewishness was regarded mainly as a faith confessed by a peculiar people which anyone who fulfilled certain purely religious requisites could join. peculiar", bat he certainly would not lose caste by,׳ He would be looked upon as doing so. It is true that after the fall of the Jewish state, two measures, affecting Jews only, were passed. One of them was the head tax in lieu of the Half-Shekel formerly paid o the Temple in Jerusalem, The second was the release of the Jews from military conscription because of Sabbath observance and dietary requirements. -2- The Jews outside of Palestine, though linguistically and culturally adapted to the culture of the people amon^ whom they lived, frankly set themselves apart as far as their religion was concerned, believing that their religious-national customs were commanded by divine revelation. Nor, unlike the wandering people of the Mediterranean area, the Syrians and Phoenicians, did the -Their religio-national senti .־Jews ever cut their spiritual ties with Palestine ment, expressed in the revolts against Roman domination during the first centuries^ turned later into a Messianic hope and a religious ideal. This exclusiveness of the Jews in religious and particularly dietary observances was resented by the Pagans but did not hinder the tremendous increase of the Jewish population through ־conversion of Pagans Early Christianity was fought bitterly by the Jews who con- sidered it a disruptive and heretical movement within Jewry, After the Church captured the Roman Empire, first by persuasion and later by political pressure, it would not tolerate Judaism, its chief rival in missionary activities, and the least affected of all faiths by Christian missionary efforts, With the domination of Christianity by non-Jews came the end of the acknowledgment of Judaism as a divinely sanctioned or true religion. The separation of the Jews from the Christians, as a result of the Jewish rejection of Christianity, was turned, once Christianity dominated the Roman Empire, into an exlusion of the Jew from general society. The edicts of the Christian rulers beginning with Constantine the Great were instrumental in transforming the legally recognized position of the Jew within the Roman Empire to his degraded status in Medieval Europe, In Medieval World: The civilization of Europe during the Middle Ages was essentially a religious one and the Catholic Church was the dominant power and influence throughout Europe. The hostile attitude of the Catholic Church to the the continuance of the ־׳Jews originated in the religious challenge implied b3 Jewish faith. But as the Church grew in political and economic power, its enmity to the Jews increased because it involved other than purely theological consider- ations. Jewish landowners did not pay the customary tithe to the Church, hence the legislation against them which resiiited in the gradual prohibition of owner- ship of land by Jews, Furthermore, since the Church owned a. large proportion of the land it resented the competition of the Jew in the supplying of grain and winec . In the early Middle Ages a very large number of Christians were but recently con- verted barbarians and their social contacts with Jews caused them to lapse in their faith. Hence social legislation against Jews. The Jews, like the clergy, engaged in slave dealing and were in the habit of converting their slaves to Judaism. Hence the various edicts which forbade the Jews to own Christian slaves or to convert pagan ones, The Jews, slowly but inexorably, were forced to become mer- chants and money lenders, principally. The secular rulers took advantage of them in this capacity. First they gave the Jews protection and finally they assumed control over them. When the feudal system replaced the Roman territorial conception of the law, favoring the Germanic or personal law, the Jews were put in the posi- tion of permanent aliens. Toeir rulers would tolerate them so long as they felt -usefulness was in doubt they were exiled. The Cru •־ them useful, but once their "of the Church and the later rise of a "native ״sades, the dominant positi1 burgher class combined to 1: ing about the decline in the number of the Jews and their economic importance,. rieir degradation and continuous migrations in search of a haven, Thus the Church finally saw its hope of isolating the Jews from the Christians fairly well realized. However, the life of the Jewish community in the ghetto of the later Middle Ages was the result of voluntary, as well as enforced,isolation of the Jews• The Jewish community was subject to the regulations of both the State and Church, but internally it was regulated by a voluntarily created and maintained Jewish communal organization, governed by Jewish law as derived from the Bible and Talmud and interpreted by the rabbis, the virtual leaders of the community. This internal authority, like its own counterpart in the outside world, the state and church authorities, ruled every walk of Jewish life, the political, cultural and religious, Jewish autonomy was recognized by the State and enforced by it. This internal government was the practical application of Jewish religious tradition and thus was the actual medium for the survival of the Jew, The most important factor which sustained Jewish life and morale in the Middle Ages was the faith of the Jews, their practice of the Jewish religion, and their profound belief in the coming of the Messiah, who would re- store Palestine to its ancient glory and at the same time usher into the world a millennium of peace and belief-in-God among all the nations.