From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 1997 11:44 PM
To: Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup
Subject: The Jewish Diaspora in Germany
From: JUICE Administration <juice@virtual.co.il>
To: diaspora@virtual.co.il
Subject: JUICE Diaspora 8
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World Zionist Organization
Student and Academics Department
Jewish University in CyberspacE
juice@wzo.org.il birnbaum@wzo.org.il
http://www.wzo.org.il
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Course: Actors on the World's Stage: Jewish Life in the Diaspora
Lecture: 8/12
Lecturer: Rabbi Zvi Berger
Shalom to everyone! Today's lecture will take us to Germany, during a
period of revolutionary upheaval in Jewish life. I realize that the very
mentioning of German already leads to all sorts of horrible associations for
many of us, who immediately associate Germany with the Shoah, that is, the
Nazi Holocaust. So let me make it perfectly clear from the outset, I'm not
going to be dealing with the Shoah in this lecture, nor will it be dealt
with in a comprehensive way in future lectures. This is not to say that the
subject is not of critical importance, which it obviously is. But to give
the Shoah the comprehensive analysis which it deserves would go far beyond
the framework of this course. Still, we'll see that much of what we
describe today relates to the Shoah, in that it will provide the background
to those terrible events. Our topic, then, is Western and Central European
Jewry in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th Centuries. We'll focus primarily on
German Jewry, and we'll examine the far reaching internal and external
changes which result from the transition from a medieval to a modern
society. The story of modern German Jewry is of course deeply tragic, not
only because of the unspeakable horrors of the Shoah, but also because this
community exhibited such a profound optimism and faith in its future. For
it was this optimism which contributed to its ruin.
The transition from the Middle Ages to modern times was a gradual process,
which took place over hundreds of years. Let's describe the process in
general terms by referring to a number of "bridges to the modern world".
The first "bridge" which I would mention is that refreshing 14th-15th Cent.
artistic movement known as the Renaissance. Here was a refreshing movement
which took its primary inspiration from the ideals of the classical
Greco-Roman world. It placed the glory of man as its focus, and in its
deeply humanist, "this worldly" orientation, it certainly represented a
major challenge to the spiritual and intellectual authority of the Roman
Catholic Church. Similarly, the Protestant Reformation also challenged
Roman Catholic authority, in its affirmation of the ability of individual
Christian worshippers to interpret Holy Scripture. Of course, you may be
wondering, "this is all fine, but what does all this have to do with the
Jews?!" Well, remember that the medieval church was a major source of
anti-Jewish agitation. So any major movements which lessened ecclesiastical
authority would quite likely be "good for the Jews". But there's a deeper
factor operating here. The challenging of Papal authority also represented
the beginnings of a process toward the creation of a more open society, in
which there would be greater tolerance for different points of view. The
voyages of the great explorers, such as Magellan, Columbus, Vasco de Gama,
etc. also played an important role in "opening the eyes" of European society
to the existence of other peoples and traditions. Similarly, the
"Scientific Revolution" of the 17th Century had a profound effect on the
world view of many educated people. Men like Rene Descartes and Francis
Bacon held that truth is not something to be accepted on faith, but rather
that one arrives at truth only after a long process of investigation and
experimentation. I suppose the "social counterpart" to the Scientific
Revolution manifested itself in the ideas of the philosophers of the
Enlightenment, led by such figures as Rousseau, Voltaire, and John Locke.
Enlightenment philosophers believed that Reason would open our eyes and
liberate us from the shackles of preconceived notions and superstitions.
Reason, of course, was a human quality available to all, it was not limited
to any one people or to followers of any particular tradition or way of
life. So this underlying faith in the power of Reason to liberate the self
and society was the background for Locke's vision of a civil society, based
upon equal rights for all citizens.
It should be remembered that the gulf between the liberal views of the
philosophers and the actual reality of European society in the 18th Century
was still a large one. Nonetheless, it is in this environment that the
seeds of change in Jewish life begin to sprout. Jews are beginning to
relate to European countries as their home. The best example of this lies
in the life and thought of an important Jewish figure who has come to
symbolize the Jewish world in transition, Moses Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn
was born in 1729 in the German town of Dessau. The son of a learned Torah
scholar, Mendelssohn never abandoned his love of Torah and his commitment to
observance of the commandments. But he hungered for general, secular
knowledge, which led him at the tender age of fourteen to leave home and
walk all the way to the great city of Berlin. Battling poverty and disease,
Mendelssohn applied for permission to live in Berlin, which was ultimately
granted. Once there he applied himself diligently to the study of German
language and literature. He was particularly interested in philosophy, and
within a few years of his arrival in Berlin, Mendelssohn had already
published an essay on metaphysics which won first prize in a contest
sponsored by the Prussian Royal Academy for the Sciences! The young prodigy
quickly developed a reputation, and with the publication of Phadon, a
discussion of immortality which uses Plato's dialogue Phaedo as a model,
Mendelssohn became known to many as the "Jewish Socrates", or even as the
"German Plato"! This was a far cry from the isolation of the ghetto. Here
was a Jew who truly viewed himself as a German, and was viewed by many
educated Germans as such.
It's hard for us today to truly comprehend what a major transformation
Mendelssohn's life and thought represent. Let's consider what life in the
Jewish ghetto was really like. According to Dr. Eva Jospe, the ghetto was
much more than simply a place providing physical segregation. On the
positive side, the ghetto provided the framework whereby Jewish communal
life could flourish; where the Torah truly reigned as Law, where the Jew
could live a life which" signifies a sense of purpose and destiny, enabling
the Jew to draw meaning for his existence...". On the other hand, the
ghetto cut off virtually all contact with the outside world, thus turning
intellectual, cultural, and social isolation into a virtue. Isolation,
originally imposed by non-Jewish governmental authorities, became a
self-imposed positive value as well, which was often enforced by Jewish
rabbinical authority. Here's an example of how rabbis tried to forbid
German Jews from adopting non-Jewish styles of dress and leisure pursuits.
"Let us first turn our attention to the new and immodest clothes which
certain members of our community have begun to wear...The leaders of the
community and our Beit Din have therefore decided to impose a herem ( a ban)
on those articles of clothing. Let no one dare to wear clothes open at the
front or back of the neck as is common among people of low character. The
Torah of Israel commands its adherents to bear themselves modestly, as did
our fathers. It has also been decided to declare a herem on card
playing...We have also decided to issue a warning against mixed dancing of
any kind..." - (From regulations adopted by the Jewish Community
Council of Eisenstadt, 1730)
Of course, the fact that the rabbis felt a need to publish these regulations
points to the fact that German Jews at this time were beginning to adopt
certain non-Jewish customs. Getting back to Mendelssohn, it can be stated
that he saw his task as providing the philosophic rationale whereby Jews
could become full citizens of the countries in which they lived, and full
participants in the general societal and cultural life of those countries,
while still remaining faithful to the Divinely revealed legislation of
Torah. He described this challenge in his classic work, Jerusalem:
"Adopt the mores and constitution of the country in which you find
yourselves, but be steadfast in upholding the religion of your fathers, too.
Bear both burdens as well as you can."
Mendelssohn has been described by many as the first "Modern Jew". His
influence on all modern Jewish religious movements has been profound. But
how well have we succeeded in fulfilling his vision? As I'm typing these
words, I'm listening to music composed by Felix Mendelssohn, one of the
great composers of the 19th Century, (and Moses Mendelssohn's grandson). I
certainly appreciate Mendelssohn's music, but it pains me that the
"admission ticket" for Mendelssohn the grandson into the world of European
culture seems to have been the discarding of Judaism. For Felix's father
saw to his son's conversion to Protestantism. As we shall soon see, this
was not at all uncommon in the 19th Century, when Jews all over Western and
Central Europe were becoming active contributors to the general culture and
society of the countries in which they lived. This process could take the
form of integration into European society, (as Moses Mendelssohn so strongly
advocated), where Jewish identity, commitment, and observance would be
maintained, or it could lead to full assimilation of the Jews, whereby
Jewish identity would be lost in the transition. But this process could
only take place if Jews received equal rights. Let's describe this
important development in its historical context.
In 1789, the slogan of "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite" was echoed throughout
France. The French Revolution was the "watershed" event, both for Europe in
general and for European Jewry. The question soon arose, did the promise of
the Declaration of the Rights of Man, "All men are born, and remain, free
and equal in rights...", apply to the Jews? The debate in the French
National Assembly was long and vigorous. Today, in retrospect, it might
seem obvious to us that the internal logic of the revolutionary ideology
required that the Jews be emancipated. It wasn't so clear at the time,
however, as many revolutionaries argued that the revolution was French by
nature, and that the Jews, accustomed and content with the isolation of
ghetto existence were a people apart, who could not truly be viewed as
Frenchmen! But emancipation was finally granted, though the rights granted
came with clear conditions. Listen to the famous words of Count Clermont
Tonnerre, a deputy to the assembly who strongly supported Jewish emancipation:
"The Jews should be denied everything as a nation, but granted everything
as individuals. They must be citizens...It is intolerable that the Jews
should become a separate political formation or class in the country. Every
one of them must individually become a citizen; if they do not want this,
they must inform us and we shall then be compelled to expel them. The
existence of a nation within a nation is unacceptable to our country...".
And so, Jews in France, for the first time, could become true Frenchmen.
But this required them to give up on any vestiges of a Jewish national
identity. Henceforth, Judaism was to be a religion alone, and Am Yisrael,
(the Jewish people) would need to be redefined as a solely religious
community of believers. I suppose it should come as no surprise that many
Jewish Frenchmen began referring to themselves as "Frenchmen of the Mosaic
Persuasion"...At any rate, Jewish emancipation would not be confined to
France. It reached most of Central Europe in the wake of the Napoleonic
conquests, and even though many German and Austrian principalities revoked
the emancipatory decrees after Napoleon was defeated, (thus returning their
Jews to the life of the ghetto), eventually Jews were to be emancipated all
over Western and Central Europe in the 19th Century.
What effects did this emancipation have on the Jews? Try to imagine how you
would react if you were growing up in a time when the ghetto walls had been
broken. For the first time, the great European universities are open to
Jews, opportunities for professional advancement are opened up, Jews may
become full participants in the cultural life of the time, etc. Quite an
opportunity, right? WE ATE IT UP!! Jews flocked to the universities,
quickly becoming highly represented not only in the student bodies, but also
in the faculties. Jews distinguish themselves as actors, artists,
composers, musicians, writers, etc. Some Jews become involved in European
politics, and in many respects, Jewish Emancipation becomes a profound
success story! But still, the question remains, will we succeed in "bearing
both burdens", (as Mendelssohn put it)...will we succeed in retaining our
Jewish identity in this changing and complex modern world? (As you may have
noticed, this question remains with us today...some might change "modern" to
"post-modern", but it's the same question, and it's probably as difficult
now as it ever was...!). Many important figures, such as Felix Mendelssohn,
the great German writer Heinrich Heine, and the British political giant
Benjamin Disraeli, saw conversion to Christianity as the price that had to
be paid for full social acceptance into European society. Many others
assimilated to a large extent, without actually undergoing conversion.
Others tried to adapt their Jewishness and their Jewish religious
observance, to the demands of a modern society. Thus, the modern Jewish
religious movements came into being. The process was centered in Germany,
but it included France and England as well, and by the mid 19th and 20th
Centuries, it would reach its greatest development in the United States.
The emergence of the Reform movement was a gradual one, in which certain
German synagogues began to institute specific changes, such as the use of
choirs, mixed seating, prayer and sermons in the vernacular, etc. The
reforms were a clear result of the exposure of German Jewry to non-Jewish
influences; many of the changes were specifically patterned along the
religious expression common in German Protestantism of the period.
Eventually these synagogues formed a united movement, (Reform Judaism), with
its primary spokesman being Rabbi Abraham Geiger. The movement stressed
that Judaism was in need of fundamental reform, in order for it to adapt to
a modern society. The external forms of Jewish observance, (as embodied in
the ritual commandments of the Halakha) became optional. What needed to be
retained at all costs, the Reformers argued, was the core of Judaism, which
was "ethical monotheism", the set of eternal morals and values, based
primarily on the teachings of the great Hebrew prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Amos, Hosea, etc. Among the changes in the siddur which the movement
advocated were the removal of prayers referring to the Messianic hope of
national return to Eretz Yisrael and the rebuilding of the Temple in
Jerusalem. "Berlin is our Jerusalem", they proclaimed, and "the beit
knesset, (the synagogue) is our Temple". Thus began the practice of
referring to Jewish houses of worship as temples, a term which is
commonplace in the U.S. and other Western countries today.
By the mid 1800's the movement had become a major force in German Jewish
life. But obviously, not all German Jews flocked to its banner. An
important Biblical commentator and Talmudic scholar, Rabbi Samson Raphael
Hirsch, became the chief spokesmen for a movement which was known as
"Neo-Orthodoxy", or "Modern Orthodoxy". This movement insisted upon full
observance of the Halakha and a continued commitment to a traditional Jewish
lifestyle, while at the same time opening itself up to acceptance and
integration of European culture. Rabbi Hirsch's ideal Jew would feel
equally at home in the yeshiva and in the university, and he also insisted
that Jews become actively involved in the general political life of the
societies in which they lived. Today, Modern Orthodoxy is most associated
with the approach of Yeshiva University in New York City. Finally, Rabbi
Zechariah Frankel, originally a Reform rabbi in Germany, led a group which
broke away from the Reform movement in 1845. Frankel believed that reform
was indeed necessary, including reforms of Jewish religious observance, but
that in their zeal the Reformers had gone too far. Specifically, he
condemned the discarding of the Hebrew language in prayer, which Frankel
viewed as a critical aspect of the Jewish national heritage. He also
insisted that change should take place within a Halakhic framework; that the
Halakha would have to develop (as it always had), but that Halakha remained
obligatory in Jewish life. This movement, originally known as
"Positive-Historical Judaism", ultimately became known as Conservative
Judaism. It too would reach its fullest level of development across the
ocean in the United States, under the leadership of Solomon Schechter.
(Schechter, you may recall, was the great Geniza scholar mentioned last week.)
Unfortunately, I can't go into greater depth concerning the three major
modern Jewish religious movements here. But I do wish to stress that all
three movements certainly viewed themselves as the fulfillment of the vision
of Moses Mendelssohn. I also wish to emphasize that Modern Orthodoxy is as
much a child of the modern world as the other two movements. And while it
may be true that the major dividing line within American Jewry today is
between Orthodox Judaism and the non-Orthodox movements, we should remember
that there is a major difference between Modern Orthodoxy and the
ultra-Orthodox, (such as the Hasidim) who fundamentally still live in many
respects, outside of the modern world.
But back to 19th Century Europe, and in particular, to Germany. So far
we've seen that the Jews have undergone a major transformation. The ghetto
walls have been broken, and Jews have entered virtually all areas of German
cultural, social, and political life. German culture is enthusiastically
adopted by Jewish Germans, and children spend long hours at their piano
lessons, learning the great works of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart! The ideal
which so many Jews lived by could be summed up in one German word, Bildung.
"Bildung" referred to "education", but in particular it involved moral
education and the cultivation and natural unfolding and development of the
human personality. An important scholar of the period, George L. Mosse,
describes it in the following way:
[Bildung] "was an inward process of development through which the inherent
abilities of the individual were developed and realized...its purpose was to
lead the individual from superstition to enlightenment...such
self-cultivation was a continuous process which was never supposed to end
during one's life...Surely here was an ideal ready-made for Jewish
assimilation, because it transcended all differences of nationality and
religion through the unfolding of the individual personality."
The problem, however, was that this universalistic and rationalistic ideal
was not accepted by all Germans. In the second half of the 19th Century,
Modern anti-Semitism reared up its ugly head of hatred and fear. A number
of important German intellectuals, such as Hermann von Treitschke and
Wilhelm Marr, (as well as the great German composer, Richard Wagner), began
to write of the conspiracy of the Jews to takeover German political,
economic, social, and cultural life. The movement was not religious in
nature, rather, it spoke of the Jews as a racial threat. The Jews were
supposedly among the lowest representatives of the "Semitic race", while the
Germans were the purest manifestations of the "Aryan race". The mission of
the Jews supposedly was to corrupt the Aryan race. Since their complaint
was not with Jewish religion per se, they preferred to use the term
"anti-Semitism" rather than "anti-Judaism", ( Wilhelm Marr actually was the
first to use the term "anti-Semitism", which appeared in one of his pamphlets).
Now most Germans did not take the extreme views of these ultra-nationalist
anti-Semites very seriously. Neither did German Jews. But these views
formed the basis for the Nazi racist and anti-Semitic ideology of the 1930's
and 40's. There was very little which was new in Mein Kampf.
Unfortunately, German Jews were such deep believers in the ideal of Bildung
and the tremendous promise of enlightenment, that many couldn't see the
writing on the wall until it was too late...As some say, in many respects
the German Jews became "more German than the Germans themselves".
Please don't misunderstand me. I do not wish to condemn German Jewry here.
I know that I myself am basically an optimist by nature, and I believe that
had I lived in Germany during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, I also
probably would have belittled the importance of these anti-Semitic
"crazies'. I too, would have insisted that the true Germany was reflected
in the glories of Goethe and Schiller, of Bach and Beethoven, and that
Enlightenment ideals of rationalism, equality and justice would ultimately
prevail. I also believe that a large degree of optimism was necessary in
this period, in order that Jews could seize the great opportunities which
the modern world had to offer. But let's face it, the story of German Jewry
in modern times leads to Buchenwald and to Auschwitz. A relatively small
Jewish community still exists, of course, and it may well be that the story
of this fascinating and vital Jewish community has not yet ended. Perhaps
there are a few students reading these words who live in Germany today who
have opinions on this subject...feel free to write me with your thoughts!
It's about time to wrap things up for today. Here's something to think
about. The last lecture (in 4 more weeks) is going to deal with different
scenarios for the future of the Jewish people in the Diaspora. I would like
to make that lecture more "interactive", and therefore I encourage you to
begin sending me your thoughts, opinions, concerns, etc. concerning the
Jewish future. I will not only respond to you personally; I'll also try to
integrate as many comments as possible into the lecture! Similarly, Lecture
11 will deal specifically with American Jewry, and here too your input would
be much appreciated! In the meantime, next week its off to 19th Century
Russia. Shalom, and L'hitraot!
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