FRANCISZEK BUJAK

PROFESSOR OF CRACOW UNIVERSITY

THE JEWISH QUESTION

IN

POLAND

PARIS

IMPRIMERIE LEVÉ

1919
THE JEWISH QUESTION

IN

POLAND

WHY HAS THE JEWISH QUESTION BECOME

ACUTE NOW?

Among the questions which the Polish state is facing at the moment of its creation, one of the most vexatious is the Jewish question. The difficulty is constituted in the three following facts:

1) The high percentage of the Jewish population in the territories of the Polish State.

2) The development of the Jewish national spirit, based mainly on the Jews in Polish territories, and the effectiveness of their intellectual activities.

3) The great part played by the Jews in the world’s politics, thanks to their extraordinary activity, and more especially, thanks to their importance in finance and in the press.

Taking advantage of the circumstances arising from the organization of the state of things in the whole of Central and East Europe, they endeavor to assure themselves the best possible conditions of existence in the future on Polish territories, from an economic as well as a political point of view.

I. — HOW HAS THE PRESENT STATE OF THINGS

BEEN BROUGHT ABOUT?

The Jewish immigration into Poland.

Already in the first centuries of history Jews were in Poland, though not in large numbers, until the XI century and probably only as traveling merchants, mostly caravan merchants. It was not until the XIV and XV century, in consequence of oppression, pogroms and banishment, to which they were exposed in Bohemia, Germany, and also in the Pyrenean peninsula, that the Jews immigrated to Poland. They did not bring with them however much opulence, for they were mostly deprived of it, but they brought the German language which was passed on by them to a handful of the Jews of eastern extraction. For it is a characteristic trait of the Jews, that they come under the cultural influence of the countries where they have been most persecuted, taking the languages of these countries with them to foreign lands. Such was the case with the Spanish and with the German Jews in the Middle Ages, as it is now with the Russian Jews.

Jews as a vanguard of Germanism in Poland.

While a considerable number of Germans, settled in the Polish towns and villages, became entirely polonized in the XV and XVI centuries, the Jews remained there as a vanguard of Germanism, with respect to the language as well as to economic relations. They contributed greatly to the development of German industry and commerce, by traveling in masses from Poland to fetch German goods from Breslau, Leipzig, Frankfurt and other towns.

The economic basis of their welfare in Poland.

Apart from trade, usury, and in a certain measure handicraft, the foundation of their existence consisted in taking on lease custom duties and other state revenues, and in participating in the management of estates as innkeepers, shopkeepers and commercial agents of large landowners. Poland never drove them away, never confiscated their property, which has won for her the name of “the Jews’ paradise” (paradisus judaeorum) {NOTE (1) If Jewish pogroms occurred in Poland in the XVII and XVIII centuries, the Poles suffered equally from them, as it was exclusively the work of the Cossacks and Ukrainian peasants, who massacred one as much as the other and destroyed their estates.}.

The juridical basis.

As juridical basis of their situation in Poland must be considered the privilege granted by prince Boleslas of Kalisz, issued in 1264, and subsequently given to the whole of the Polish State by the king Casimir the Great (1334, 1364, 1367). He ensured them perfect safety and possibility of making their livelihood. As far back as in the XIV century Jewish confessional communities (kahals) were founded and enjoyed full autonomy. The elected chiefs of these communities occupied themselves with all religious, scholastic and charitable matters, also settling disputes between Jews conforming to the Talmud codicil, while the discerning of contests between Jews and Christians was subjacent to the voyevods as the king’s representatives. In the last quarter of the XVI century higher organs of Jewish autonomy were established: Jewish diets, called “waad” composed of deputies who were elected by the kahals or by minor diets comprising a greater number of kahals. These “waads” took place every year and lawfully regulated the interior life of the Jews, distributing the State taxes and representing the Jews in all State affairs. This institution lasted till 1764, whereupon it was abolished in consequence of abuse by the Jewish oligarchy, which caused great satisfaction among the Jewish masses.

The outcome of the mediaeval conception which looked upon the Jews as a social class, and the State as an assembly of organized classes, the Jewish diet, had to disappear since Poland became definitely a modern state.

The increase of the Jewish population.

At the outset of the XVI century there were in Poland about 100,000 Jews (3.5% of the population of the country), in 1676 their number increased to 200,000, in 1766 to as much as 626,000, and at the time of Poland’s second partition (1793), though the area of Poland diminished, they numbered 900,000 (10.2% of the whole population), the reason for this being partly; that the Prussian and Austrian governments banished the poorest Jews from the annexed Polish territories. No wonder that the impoverished country was unable to entertain such a large number of Jews; consequently the question of improving the material position of the Jews and of turning them into citizens began to occupy the minds of the most prominent Polish politicians in the last years of the Commonwealth, but the last partition did not allow the carrying out of a thorough reform.

The situation under the rule of the three partitioning powers.

After the partitions, the Jewish question passed entirely into the hands of the alien powers. Prussia, Austria and Russia took away their former rights and tried to get rid of them as much as possible, the Poles having only had the opportunity of taking a standpoint with regard to the Jewish question at the time of the Duchy of Warsaw, of the Congress‑Kingdom, and later on in Galicia.

The Polish standpoint after the partitions.

The government of the Duchy of Warsaw was quite decided to bestow upon the Jews perfect equality of rights, according to its constitution. However the Jews themselves tried to hinder the fulfillment of this project; these were mainly the khassids, a sect which rigorously stuck to all the ritual regulations in life and which at that epoch developed prominently. It feared a coming together of the Jews and the Christian population, and their assimilation. Later in the Congress-Kingdom the government took up earnestly the Jewish question, but had no time to carry out serious reforms. When, for a short period, the Poles regained self-government under the rule of the marquis of Wielopolski, one of the first reforms which was brought about was, in 1862, the abolishment of all legal restrictions concerning the Jews.

In Posnania the provincial diet also claimed equal rights for the Jews (1847).

The same question was decided upon in the Austrian parliament by the Poles, and afterwards the Diet of Lwów, 1868, ordered the carrying out of this principle, notably on Galician territory.

The banishment of Jews and prohibition of sojourn edicted in Prussia against the Jews.

Thus, conforming, to their traditions of tolerance, which were one of their characteristic traits of social organization, the Poles acknowledged the right of equality, whenever they had the chance to manifest their will after the partitions.

Far-reaching social changes and considerable economic progress, thanks to the ruling liberal policy, contributed to the development of the welfare and to the increase of the Jewish population in the Polish provinces. Further, two political events occurred which brought about artificially a conglomeration of Jews in Poland. The Prussian government proclaimed on the 26th of March 1885 an order banishing from Prussia instantly not only the Poles but also all Jews originally from Austria or Russia who had no Prussian citizenship, forbidding them to settle down in future within the limits of Prussia without special permission. This unscrupulous law still in force prevented the Jews entirely from immigrating into Germany.

Limits of Jewish settlements in Russia.

Soon after this a similar method was adopted in the Russian empire (the notorious count Ignatiew’s rules) for clearing Russia proper of the Jewish element, which was pouring in from Poland, contrary to ancient forgotten prohibitions, and so, the so-called “line of settlement” has been decreed, behind which the Jews were not allowed to dwell. This line corresponds more or less to the western frontier of the former Polish Commonwealth, including also the provinces situated to the south. The sphere of Jewish settlement in Russia comprised in all 945 thousand sq. kilometers.

The second anti‑Jewish stage followed in the first decade of the XX century, when the propaganda and the pogroms, organized by conservative bodies (the so called “true Russian men”) and supported to a certain degree immediately by the Russian authorities, began to drive out the Jews from the so called “western” provinces and force them to settle in Poland or to emigrate abroad.

In Poland these banished Jews became an excellent instrument of Russian policy; they increased those elements which were in favor of upholding the Russian State, they thus contributed to the uniting of Poland and Russia and moreover strengthened Jewish separatism and national feeling, hampering Polish national aspirations.

II. — THE PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS

1. THE NUMBER OF JEWS.

As it results from the preceding chapter, the Jews were artificially concentrated by the Russians on Polish soil.

The official statistics demonstrated in 1910 or the following number of people of Israelite faith.

population

The regency of Opole (Silesia) . . . . . . . . . . . 18,217 0.8%

Posnania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26,486 1.3%

West Prussia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,813 0.8%

The regency of Olsztyn (East Prussia) . . . . . 2,587 0.5%

Total in the Polish provinces of Prussia . . . . 61,103 0.9%

In Teschen Silesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19,900 2.6%

In Galicia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872,975 10.9%

Total in the Polish provinces of Austria 883,875 10.5%

In Congress Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,770,000 14.6%

In Lithuania and White Ruthenia . . . . . . . . . 1,770,000 14.1%

Ruthenia (3 south‑eastern provinces) . . . . . . 1,520,000 12.5%

Total in the Polish provinces of Russia 5,060,000 13.7%

Of this number 1,920,000 Jews dwell on territories which the Poles do not claim, according to the Polish Delegation map, viz. the province of Kovno, Witebsk, Mohylow, Kiew, as well as parts of Suvalki, Wilno, Volhynia and Podolia.

Inaccuracy of Russian statistics.

The total number of Jews, in free Poland, according to the statistics of 1910 relatively 1911 will be 4,085,000, 3,140,000 of which resided in the Russian part of Poland. In reality however the number of Jews in Congress Poland and in the country which belonged to the Russian empire, did not reach this figure at the time indicated. Indeed the Russian statistics were far from exact, not being based on the only census taken in 1897, but upon the movement of the population.

In 1897 the Jews numbered:

population

In Congress Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,321,100 i.e. 14 %

In Lithuania and in White Ruthenia . . . . 1,422,400 i.e. 14.1%

In Ruthenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,200,100 i.e. 12.5%

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,943,600

Natural increase.

As in the whole of Russia the Jews numbered them 5,110,500 one can estimate that 77.1% Russian Jews inhabited the territories of the ancient Polish Commonwealth (including Kiew), and that 26% inhabited Congress Poland. The natural increase of the Jews amounted, according to the official statistics, in the Russian empire (excluding Congress Poland) to 1.8%, in Poland (1904) 1.76% and in 1906 ‑ 1908 1.31%.

Should we admit 1.8% as the yearly increase for all the Jews on Polish territories from 1897 till the war, which would be an exaggeration, considering the decrease in the number of births in the last years, the yearly accretion would amount to 71,000 (23,800 of which being in Poland).

Jewish emigration from Russia.

Meanwhile in the years from 1897‑8 to 1910‑11 the Jewish emigration to the United States from Russia numbered 858,226 Jews, at least 80% originating from Poland, for there is no doubt that the other provinces had a certain Jewish immigration. Every year 49,000 Jews left the Polish territories and settled in United States, while their emigration to other countries (England, Canada, France, Belgium, Africa, Palestine) amounted to 12,000. Thus their number decreased yearly by about 61,000, it means that, as a matter of fact, their increase did not amount to more than about 10,000. During the years from 1911‑12 to 1913‑14 237,060 Jews left Russia i.e. 79,020 yearly, or in other words, their decrease by emigration was a great deal larger then their increase by natural accretion, taken even from the most optimistic point of view.

The difference in the number of Jews in Poland which we notice between the census of 1897 and the year of 1910 amounts to 449,000 and corresponds with the yearly accretion of 34,500, this being nearly 250% greater than the real accretion of Jews on the whole Polish territory. There is no doubt, that many Jews arrived in Poland from other provinces, but, on the other side, their emigration must have been considerable if, for instance in 1909, it probably amounted to 25% of Jewish emigrants from Russia.

The state of Jewish matters.

The census of the population in 1916 in the 3 provinces of Poland which were entirely under the Austrian occupation, gives the number of Jews at no more than 397,503 i.e. 14.4% less than was indicated by the Russian authorities in 1910. The increase of the Jews from January 1897 to October 1916 amounted there only to 45,738 i.e. 0.66% yearly and 13% in general.

The number of Jews in the whole of the Kingdom of Poland can be stated only on the strength of fragmentary notes, with regard to the population of the particular parts of the German occupation in Poland in 1916, which give a smaller number of Jews than the total computation, and on the strength of the pre‑war Jewish emigration from the territories subsequently occupied by the Germans: Suwalki, Lomza, Plock, Siedlce. In spite of their increase in Warsaw and Lódz, their number in the whole of the Kingdom of Poland in 1916 amounts to 1,490,000. It means that since 1897 they increased by 169,000 i.e. at the rate of 8,700 annually. Therefore the result of the above is that on the territories of Lithuania, White Ruthenia and Ruthenia the increased of the Jewish population must have been insignificant and, their percentage in the total number of the population, which increased greatly, must have been diminishing. In fact, the fragmentary figured we possess from the census, the German military authorities ordered in Lithuania and White Ruthenia, demonstrate a great decrease of the Jewish population (f.i. in the province of Kovno the Jews numbered in 1897 13.8%, and according to Russian statistics of 1910 16%, while in 1916 they numbered only 5.4%).

The Jewish emigration during the war.

During the war, instead of emigrating over the seas, they removed in masses to Russia, at first under the force of military considerations, and then of their own accord, in consequence of the abolition of the “line of settlement” in 1915. At present the number of Jews in Polish provinces certainly does not exceed the figures of 1897, perhaps it is even smaller.

It is also probable that the number of the Jewish population in Galicia, the percentage of which was since 1890 slowly diminishing, decreased to such an extent in consequence of the considerable emigration to other Austrian countries during war‑time, that it has not increased since 1910. From 1881 to 1910 the number of Jews that emigrated from Galicia to the United States was 236,504. Besides this they emigrated to other countries, especially to Vienna, Ostrava in Moravia and to Budapest.

In the same degree as in the preceding decades the Jews in the Polish provinces under German rule must have been diminishing in number since 1910, so that most probably they number only about 52,000.

On the whole it has been scientifically proved that at present (1919) the real number of Jews in Polish territories is the same as in 1897 (relatively in 1910) and that their percentage is smaller. They are distributed as follows:

In the Polish provinces of Prussia . . . . . . . . . . . . 52,000

“ “ “ “ Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . 884,000

In the Kingdom of Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,430,000

In the other Russian provinces belonging

formerly to Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,620,000

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,986,000

Of this number there are on the area claimed by the Polish State 3,520,000.

2. WHAT IS THE JEWS’ OCCUPATION?

Jews in town and country.

Conforming to the Russian law the Jews were only exceptionally allowed to dwell in the country; thus in Poland we find 13.5% Jews living in the country, representing 2.7%, of its rural population and 86.5% had returned to the towns, representing 38% of their inhabitants. In the two largest towns: Warsaw and Lódz 24% of the total number were Jews. However, the same state of things manifested itself in Galicia, though there was no restriction whatever as to their settlement, and the Jews had lived there for centuries; they only numbered 5% of the rural population and 34% in the towns.

Ghetto.

In bygone times, in Western Europe the Jews were ordered by the State authorities to dwell in a separate Jewish quarter, the so called Ghetto; however, nowadays they themselves do not want to leave the ghettos; they even organize new ones, as f.i. in New York. This proves that the creation of concentrated quarters of religious and social life emanates from a deeply rooted need of the Jews and is not a consequence of oppression.

Professions.

The statistics of professions afford the best basis for the economic situation and the social part, played by the Jews on the Polish territories. As for their professions, the census of 1897 in Russia and the computations of 1910 in Austria give the following picture of it:

Jews professionally occupied in Russia in Galicia

In agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.55% 14 %

In industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.43% 24 %

In transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.18% 4.1%

In trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38.65% 46.3%

In domestic service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.61% 3.8%

In official and free professions . . . . . . 5.22% 4.9%

Without particular occupation . . . . . . 5.49% 7.5%

In military service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.07% 0.9%

In Congress Poland.

The conditions of the professional existence of the Jews in Poland differ but little from the conditions of the Russian Jews generally. They are less numerous in agriculture (2.33%), more numerous in domestic service (8.1%), the same being the case in official positions and free professions, and still more numerous are those without a concrete occupation (6.56%). The difference, on the contrary, is so much greater, if we compare the Russian and the Galician Jews. Many of the latter are occupied in agriculture (as proprietors of estates, as tenants, as foresters and wood cutters in the great forest enterprises); a considerably smaller number make their living in industry and domestic service, while a greater number of them are without a definite occupation (mostly living from occasional trade enterprises, as well as from public charity).

Jews in agriculture.

Of the 18,987 Galician Jews working independently in agriculture 533 were great landowners, possessing 301,619 hectares of land, and about 2,000 tenants of smaller and larger estates, the rest of the Jewish farmers having only taken up agriculture accidentally. In the Kingdom of Poland only 2,509 Jewish families were making their living on the land, on an area of 13,500 hectares.

Jews in industry.

In the industry of the Kingdom of Poland and of other Polish territories, the part played by Jews is very prominent. Wet find them mostly as simple artisans, some of them employing assistants. Of the 500,986 persons working in industry (as counted in the JCA inquiry) 259,396 were maskers, 140,598 workmen and 101,062 apprentices, besides 46,313 industrial workmen. The Jews are working chiefly in the clothing line (tailoring, shoemaking), which embraces 45.5% of all Jews working industrially. Next come the Jews who make their living in the provision line (8.7%), such as bakers, butchers, pastry cooks, 8% are in timber yards, 7.8% in tin factories and 6.5% in textile industries. In comparison with factories the handicraft is overcrowded with Jews; in the clothing industry there are 51.4% of Jews in the paper and polygraphic industry 59%, in the tobacco industry 74%. Their handicraft has favorable conditions of development in those parts of Poland, which are economically behindhand and in distant Ruthenian provinces, at the fairs and on markets. Often hand in hand with the handicraft goes factoring with retail trade.

The statistics of 1897 show that:

In Congress Poland the Jews possessed 1,416 or 33.6% factories with 43,011 or 17.5% workmen.

In Lithuania and White Ruthenia 1,402 or 51% factories with 30,105 or 58% workmen.

In Ruthenia 913 or 34% factories with 23,969 or 27% workmen.

In Poland the greatest part of these enterprises are private concerns, and employ people working in their homes; the small percentage of Jews among the industrial workmen finds explanation in the observing of their sabbaths, and in their revolutionary disposition (frequent strikes).

In Galicia 43% of the industrial Jews were occupied in the making of clothes, 21% in the manufacture of provisions, 8%, in the timber trade, 6% in metal industry, 6% in the building industry, 4% in paper industry. In this country handicraft also occupies the largest part of the Jewish population, and it is highly subdivided (43% independent workers, 34% workmen, 9% apprentices), and does not enjoy any favorable reputation, even in the opinion of Zionists, because of its lack of professional efficiency among the workers. If we remember also that they are opposed to using various new arrangements for improving the handicraft and against co-operative associations, we shall understand that the situation of these workers is getting gradually less and less satisfactory.

Jews in trade.

However the main domain of their social occupation is trade; in Russia nearly half (46%) of the Jews make their living in commerce, trading in agricultural products, in corn and cattle, a fifth of them carry on trade in all sort of articles.

In Congress Poland we find them especially in the corn trade, in leather and fur trade (93‑94% of all merchants occupied in these branches), in the cattle trade, dairy produce, building materials, machines and sale of spirits (the percentage of Jews varies between 80% and 90%). Of special importance is the part they play as intermediaries between Poland’s industry and that of European and Asiatic Russia. In Galicia the Jews occupied in trade in 1910 numbered 150,660, 80% of which negotiating in merchandise, 18.7% being licensed innkeepers and the rest money‑lenders. In the whole of the Galician merchandise‑commerce there were 87% Jews and among licensed innkeepers 76%. The Jewish monetary commerce had often the traits of credit‑co‑operatives (advance‑banks, like the Schultze Delitsch system); the members of these institutes are peasants, but the proprietors Jewish families who hold all the places in the offices. There were in Galicia in 1912 as many as 912 of these credit banks.

As to the free professions the Galician statistics before the war show that of 1531 lawyers 984 were Jews (68%) and of 1,464 physicians 411 were Jews (30%). This shows very unhealthy social conditions. Not less numerous are the Jews represented as lawyers in Russia; in the Odessa law district there were before the war 49% Jewish lawyers and in Poland and Lithuania 34%.

The characteristic feature of Jewish commerce is the inadequateness of capital and the operation with credit, this state of things, often bringing about an unavoidable rise in prices and, on the other side; frequent bankruptcies. A further mark of their commerce is a considerable scattering, which leads to a very keen competition and makes it difficult for the workers to make their living, in spite of their professional efficiency, and an unusual capacity of adapting themselves to the economic conditions.

General characteristics of the distribution of professional Jews.

On the whole the Jews occupy themselves professionally in quite other ways than the Christian population; their professional differentiation is not sufficient, constituting one class which corresponds with the towns, being too numerous with regard to the economic development of the whole population in the country. In consequence, though very numerous, the Jews do not represent a full and independent social and economic body, but depend entirely upon the still more numerous Christian population surrounding them, and chiefly upon whether this population is producing and consuming enough to give so numerous a trading people a chance to earn their living, and lastly upon whether this population is not adverse to economic relations with them.

3. GENERAL ASPECT OF RELATIONSHIP OF THE JEWS

WITH THE POLISH SOCIETY.

Western and Eastern or so-called Polish Jews.

Contrary to the West‑European Jews, those in Poland do not try even superficially to assimilate in a cultural way with the Polish population, so that, to define this difference, they were lately called “Eastern Jews” (Ostjuden) instead as heretofore “Polish Jews”. They have many deep‑rooted characteristics, as it has been stated by several Jewish authors, especially the German scientist W. Sombart with whom we agree in the following remarks:

The religion based upon an agreement between Iehowa and the Israelites as a chosen nation, and a strict observation of numerous rules and prohibitions arouse in the Jews a sense of superiority, and of their secretion from all non‑Jews or strangers, “goiim”. Led by laws of their own and a different morality, prescribed by their holy books, the Jews sever themselves and do not allow the Christians to participate really in their life, hiding themselves as in ancient times in ghettos. Contrary to this, however, an insignificant part of them, those with progressive tendencies, try eagerly and sometimes, it may be said, in an intruding way to obtain a part and influence in the social life.

Orthodox and Khassid Jews.

The study of their religion is the sole object among the orthodox Jews. In their childhood they are taught in the “khedarim”, or primary schools. This religion codified in a series of theologic and juristic books which form a chain of supplements and commentaries to the “Torah”, or the pentateuch of Moses, as the only subject being taught to children in the schools, called “khedarim”. At a more advanced age they study religion in the Talmud Torah schools, or privately if they have the means for it.

The mass of Polish Jews is composed of orthodox, but a considerable percentage are the so called “eager Jews” or Khassidim who play a great part in many Jewish settlements.

Their appearance.

Apart from their physical traits (anthropologic) they can be recognized much easier by their distinct national dress and distinctive cut of beard and hair, for they remain faithful to these customs obstinately for religious reasons, and contrary to the local public opinion, demanding a long time observation of the generally European customs in this respect. They decide upon their chance only when emigrating from the Polish territories in order to facilitate their earnings.

Their language.

The Jewish idiom used amongst them in Poland is a German dialect with addition of Hebrew and Slavonic words (Yiddish), and is mostly written in the Hebrew alphabet. Among educated Jews living near the western frontier of Poland and in Germany they speak German, the Yiddish is being used only in Slavonic, Romanic and Anglo-Saxon countries. In the last decades this dialect, which is divided in three main parts (Polish, Lithuanian and South Ruthenian), becomes gradually a literary language, used by a large number of newspapers, journals and theatres. Moreover there is a Jewish literary movement in the German, Russian, Hebrew and Polish languages.

Their part in economic life.

In strict connection with these national traits is their part in economic life. Scattered as they are over the whole territory, they have the best opportunities to intermediate in trade. Thanks to the contact with other Jews and to their dialect which, incomprehensible for the local population, ensures them in commercial relations considerable benefits, and facilitates their commercial relations with the neighboring countries, the Jews are able to overflow the Polish provinces with products of German and Austrian industry, hampering in a great degree the development of industry in Poland, and at the same time preventing cultural progress there.

The Jews are typical representatives of the capitalistic spirit i.e. of an unbounded and unrestricted covetousness for money. They busy themselves mainly in undertakings in which invention and cunning have a fairer play than capital and physical work, and render to others all sorts of services, as honorable as that of physicians, and as dishonorable as that of the white slave trade. The intermediation in commerce as well as in reporting or in journalism belongs, in fact, to the category of services they render.

The antagonism between Jews and the local population.

Being quite strange in society, they can employ so much easier all unscrupulous means of dealing in relations with the economically weaker population.

Without giving here detailed proofs it is sufficient to call to memory the agricultural strike of 1902 in Eastern Galicia, which was due to Jewish abuse; more than 3/4 of the farms affected by this strike were in the hands of the Jews, either their property or rented by them. The agricultural disturbances which took place in Roumania in 1907 were also caused by the Jewish abuse of the peasants.

This is bound consequently to stir up an animosity and contention, though free of any racial hostility, a contention which can be compared with the antagonism between masters and workmen.

The antagonism we notice between the Christian population and the Jews in Poland is chiefly visible on the part of little landowners and commercial intermediaries.

The producer and the consumer look upon the intermediary in an unfriendly spirit, especially in money affairs, for the mediaeval opinion: “mercator sine peccamine vix esse potest” finds as well in these times many followers. In Poland, it must be stated, the Jewish agents affirm only too often by their dealings the above mentioned sentence. The credit banks which, as alluded to, even in small towns are very numerous, serve as intermediaries in obtaining loans with a benefit of 8 to 9%, usually however raised by additional fees to 10‑11%, and with such guarantees that there is no risk whatever, while they themselves only pay 5‑6%. Just as unhealthy are the conditions created by the Jews in the merchandise trade, where bankruptcies are very frequent, and fraudulent bankruptcies are not at all exceptional.

The law statistics show that there are whole series of offences committed more often by the Jews than by the Polish population, viz. usury, imposture, concealment of stolen goods, horse-stealing, fraud in alimentary provisions, false coinage, bribery of functionaries, false bankruptcy, etc.

4. THE POLITICAL ATTITUDE OF THE JEWS.

Assimilation as basis of Jewish politics.

The Jews political attitude depends entirely on their sense of estrangement and the defense of their interests. In politics they are no more divided than in professional matters. Formerly, ten or twenty years ago, the wide masses in Galicia as well as in the Kingdom, indifferent to the political questions and national matters, were under the influence of the so-called assimilators, i.e. that group of the Jewish intelligent class which, partly without personal interest, led by their conviction, partly in order to gain importance in the country, was fostering friendly relations with the political circles, acknowledging the political and economical solidarity of Jews with the Polish nation, and ready, up to a certain point, to oppose themselves together with the Poles, to the Austrian and Russian governments. These assimilators had the lead in Israelitic communities, in the “kahals”, and in Galicia they also obtained mandates in the Viennese parliament and the Lemberg diet, held posts in the chambers of commerce, and had influence in other social institutions.

Nationalism.

The first Russian revolution and universal suffrage law of the Vienna parliament had the effect that the nationalistic currents, long developing, came to an open conflict against the assimilators, and soon gained the upper hand, so that the political organizations of past times lost their influence, at least temporarily, and the number of Jew‑Poles, or Poles of Jewish confession, diminished to an insignificant number.

The "Litwaks."

Apart from the strong Zionist current from the West, an important part in the political evolution of the Jews was played by the “Litwaks”, Jews from the western Russian provinces, who began to transfer their homes to Poland about 1890, coming either direct from these provinces or from Russia proper, from where they had been expelled. These Litwaks have taken the attitude of entire strangers, and created in Poland a Jewish press, were at first the chief representatives of the Jewish national movement. Thanks to their brutal, aggressive ways, they won for their cause by and by, the masses of local Jews.

The language of the Litwaks is a German‑Jewish dialect, however in external relations they prefer the use of the Russian language to the Polish language; as to cultural and political aims, they took also from the very first a hostile attitude, favorable to the Russian State’s unity, which seemed important to the Jews’ welfare, they were opposed to every movement of independence, and this obviously was in the highest degree distasteful to the Poles.

The Jews’ radicalism.

Another characteristic trait of the Jews in politics is their radicalism approaching the limits of social revolution. This is the consequence of their heated temperament and their inclination towards analysis and criticism. All their political dealings are now more or less radical. Apart from the official Zionism, which is democratic and progressive, there is in Poland a Zionist Democratic party as well as a Zionist-socialist party (Poale Zion). There is also an ultra-radical People’s Party and a Jewish socialist party, the “Bund”, of international tendencies. Identical political organizations exist in Galicia and in Lithuania.