Emancipation and Racial Antisemitism
Why doesn’t emancipation solve the problem of the Jews? How is antisemitism different from the 18th century up to the Nazis?
Why doesn’t emancipation solve the problem of the Jews? How is antisemitism different from the 18th century up to the Nazis?
February 18th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Emancipation doesn’t solve the problem of the Jews because the non-Jews have always seen themselves in competition with the Jews when it came to getting jobs. Also, since the Jews entered the workforce, the wages had sunk because more Jews were working in it; as a result, some people were better off economically and others suffered socially.
February 19th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Antisemitism had gone from being centered on religion to being focused on their race. The non-Jews and the French were now saying that they don’t belong among the French because they are not natives of France. Also, the Jews didn’t have the same traits like the French people. Even if they tried to act like French people, they still wouldn’t fit in with the French and non-Jews.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
The emancipation freed the Jews and gave them the same rights as everyone else in their country, but it never allowed them to be accepted by their fellow fellow citizens. The Jews were still treated differently with animosity. They became competition for the Christians in the country and were either envied or pitied they just could not win. The anti-Semitism that was being portrayed to the Jews after the emancipation was based on racial and cultural differences rather than the religious differences. In a way, this is worse than criticizing them because of their religious beliefs since they cannot change their racial background, there is not chance for conversion. The only choice that would be left to solve the “Jewish problem” would be to eliminate the entire race, or create a nation for the Jews.
February 19th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
The European Jews may have been freed upon their emancipation in France BUT just like everybody else the Jews really were not free because they were still blamed for being successful in tradework/jobs and taking money from non-Jews and were still treated horrible. They could live and breathe in France as long as they stayed in their little Jewish sector. I find it sad to read why so many people felt threatened by the Jews. The Jews had no meaningful place to call home and if they did they died trying or forced to live a lie under another religion. Antisemitism only seems to build more intensely towards the Jews by 1933, it was never any better but just kept getting worse.Emancipation does not help solve the Jews problem because as long as there were people like George Moss naming the Jews as most dangerous, Treitschke’s view, and the Enlightenment all helped pave a path not to free the Jews but lead to their annihilation…Hitler simply took into account what history simply provided him with…an answer to his demise.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Why emancipation doesn’t solve the problem for the Jews because it allowed the bourgeoisie to push the Jews in to the despised city and urban dwellings. The Jews where frowned upon doing agricultural work this pushing of the Jews not only forced them into a society that is looked down on but also the Jews did not have the proper foundations in which to start city employment. These French Jews had the civil rights that they desired but economical struggle they were now going to face.
The main reason that antisemitism is different from the 18th century up to the Nazis war; was because the Roman Catholic Church and “royalist circles” did not agree with the breaking away from traditional Catholic ran society. The Catholic Church up to this point had been in complete charge of the religious and political status. The Church liked it that way. With the new society that was forming, in which Protestants and Jews could be apart of society the Church sternly rejected. The new Society allowed the Jews and the Protestants to benefit politically and the rights to their own religious practices. These rights the Catholics had had for centuries but now these two groups would finally have the same freedom.
February 21st, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Yea the emancipation, in my opinion was like a lesser of two evils because it did not really help the jews but it did not hurt them. yes it gave them more rights and the oppurtunity to be lik evertyone else, but that was no good because no matter how hard they tried they still never fit in. They were always going to be jews no matter how many rights they had. Because of them having more rights other people felt threatened(christians), then wanted to do away with them even more by like making them resettle in ghettos and burn down their buisnesses and synagoguies. After this anti-semitism just got worse, instead of better by making the jews”equal”.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:58 pm
No matter what was done to help the Jews, such as the emancipation. They were never going to be accepted in European society. At the time it seemed like this was a turning point for the Jewish people in finally being looked upon as equal. But as they were given more rights they were persectued and frowned upon more. The 18th century and Nazi anti-semetism was based upon more physical and social characteristics that Jews were known for. Therefore more and more abuse came from the fact that instead religion Jews were inferior due to physical characteristics.
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
The French thought that emancipation was the answer to the “Jewish Problem.” They thought if they treated the Jews like everyone else, then the Jews would act like everyone else. This did not solve the problem because no matter how hard the Jews tried to fit in, they were still considered outcasts.
Prior to the 18th century the idea of Jewish anti-Semitism was based on religious differences between the Jews and the Christians. After the emancipation of the Jews a sense of Nationalism took over throughout the world. This sense of identifying people by their national identity gave a new take on anti-Semitism. The motives behind anti-Semitism slowly moved away from religious differences and instead race became the distinguishing factor contributing to Jewish hatred. No matter what the Jews did they could not change their biological blood line so this new reasoning for not accepting the Jews guaranteed for other nationalities that Jews would never be accepted.
February 23rd, 2008 at 6:56 pm
The emancipation was not the answer to the Jewish problem. The French believed this would work but their way of doing had a twist to it. All though they said they wanted to treat the Jews like everyone else, they didn’t. They thought that the Jews would eventually act like the rest of the French if they were treated equally but that wasn’t that case. No matter what rights they were given, Jews were going to be different in all European eyes. Antisemitism in the 18th century was primarily race oriented and no longer religious. The fact that the Jews did not have the same blood backgroung as the French or even the same traits, the hate for Jews grew stronger, not only for their religious preferences but now for family roots.
February 28th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
The Jews being emancipated was just another way of the French people saying that the old anti-semitic ways in which we were trying to get the Jews to really get the message that we don’t want them here are not effective enough. So we need to find a more effective manner in which we can really single these people out to the fact that they can really see that we definitely belong there. So that’s why they started to single the Jews out based on their race.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:30 am
The emacipation of the Jews did not solve their problem because ultimately they religious practices and culture was still considered unacceptable. Thier emancipation was essentially done with the hopes that the Jews, not being restricited and singled out anymore, would convert over to the main stream way of life and culture. Since the Jews did not abandon their religious traditions, they still came into conflict with the common culture surrounding them. Basically they were your free to be anything you want as long as it not the same Jewish culture and religion that you have been embracing for so long. In this light it is extremely easy to understand how the emancipation did not at all mean their total freedom to be Jewish without any persecution. We also saw a switch from the antisemitism in the 18th century right into the Nazi period. Prior this, antisemitism was mainly religious, focusing the Jews as mainly religious outsiders. However after the 18th century and leading into the Nazi period, we began to witness racial and ethnic antisemitism with the Jews now seen as racially inferior and as ethnically polluting to the German blood. This was largely because the Chruch was losing power with the rise of the Enlightenment, and this largely contributed to a new reason and basis for antisemitism to continue on and provide a path for the Nazi regime.
March 6th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Emancipation did not solve the problem of the Jews because now althought they were going to free to act and do as they please, they were still being discriminated against and considered outcasts. Essentially they were free to do and practice whatever they wanted as long as it was in accord with what the ruling class and common culture deemed fit. The Jewish emancipation was done with the hopes that Jews, no being tossed in with the common people and not be sectioned unto themselves, would ultimately assimilate with the majority of the peoples. As we all know this was not the case at all. Consequently, the emancipation was not really an emancipation at all rather a ploy to make a homogeneous culture and disolve Jewish tradition. Also we witnessed a change in antisemitism from the period before the 18th century and the period leading up to the Nazi regime. Jews, once saw as the religious outcast, were now stepping into the light of racial and ethnical outcast. This is largely in part because of the Enlightenment period which brought about secular thoughts and largely dissapted the churchs authority and presence in everyday culture. Since the Jews were still considered a problem in the new enlightenment period, people had to find and secular way to now see them as outcast and prove that they were a problem. Here is where we see the rise of racial antisemitism which perpetuated all the way into the 20th century and the Nazi party.
March 10th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
The emancipation of the Jews didn’t really solve any of the problems. Even though the French emancipated them, they were still hearing a bunch of flack from the French people. They were givin the lowest of the jobs, and they made the best of it. they ended up becoming very successful, and ended modernizing France. That just made them hated even more.
March 11th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
The emancipation of the Jews only seemed to make things worse. It is hard to believe, but they seemed to be safer when their persecution was limited to their religion. Emancipation ushered in the study of and creation of racial antisemitism. While any form of discrimination is wrong, it is obvious that the latter form of discrimination led to scientific research and the eventual efficient implementation of hatred and viloence towards the Jews.
March 13th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Emancipation never really helped the Jews at all. I don’t see how giving someone “freedom” can come with so many stipulations. Basically they were saying you can only be free if you act more like the majority. What right did they think they had to take away these people’s identity and everything they know. It’s scary to see how something like this could take place and no one stepped in to help these people. Where did these governments come up with these ideas and how did they just single out the Jews, why were they such easy scapegoats as compared to everyone else?
March 13th, 2008 at 9:08 am
The emancipation simply allowed Jews to enter into new areas of occupation. The expectation that Jews would eventually assimilate themselves into oblivion is an arrogant attitude that insists that everyone wants homogeneity. The emancipation does little to nothing to change the root causality of European Anti-Semitism. In fact emancipation allows Jews to compete in new areas against others further causing more friction between peoples.
March 14th, 2008 at 9:53 am
It was so sickening to watch that Holocaust Documentary because the way those kids were treated was so inhumane. It reminds me of how the white masters had burned the black children out of the womb of the women slaves and how they just killed them on the spot. The skeleton-like creatures they had become was so terrifying to witness; it was those Jews could be used as skeleton models for a science class. It was so awful how they appeared after all that long-suffering in those terrible camps. I really do feel for those survivors and the lost but not forgotten Jews of the Holocaust.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
It was better for me to read about it than from hearing it first hand from the Holocaust survivors. When I read the 2 volumes of Maus, I had a good idea of what was happening because of the pictures that he had along with retelling his story about living during that horrible time. I liked the fact that Art had pics for the major aspects of his experience so people can get a good sense of what it was like to be there in those concentration camps.