Select two time periods and places in which Jews have lived. Compare and contrast Jewish society and/or culture in one time period and place with the other time period and place.
(e.g., Judea under Persian rule and the State of Israel, or the Kingdom of Poland from about 1400 to 1648 and the Russian Pale of Settlement).
The Jewish Experience:
First experience: Jews in Poland in the 16th Century
The Jews who lived in Poland in the 16th century were a flourishing and distinct cult and following the death of Zygmunt II who was the last king of the Jagiellon dynasty, the Polish and Lithuanian nobles signed a decree which allowed for the limited toleration of the Jews and other religions. Unfortunately the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth was devastated by several conflicts during 1648 with the Jews losing thousands of people to massacres chiefly those conducted by the Cossacks who massacred thousands of Jews in the eastern and Southern areas of the commonwealth. The Jewish population decreased by an estimated 100 to 200 thousand during that period.
Deaths and disease also affected the Jews during this period especially in the 1648 uprising against the Polish nobility conducted by the Cossacks which saw around 20 per cent of their number being killed. However after a considerable period, the Jews began returning to rebuild their homes and this created a sense of belonging in Poland. The Cossacks treated the Poles very badly but at least the whole situation saw around half a million Jews lose their lives when compared to at least three million Poles in the 1648 Cossack uprising.
In fact when Charles X of Sweden attacked Poland and overran cities such as Krakow and Warsaw, the Jews of Great and Little Poland found themselves getting both ends of the stick. On one side they were attacked by the Swedes and on another by the Poles. This was due to the fact that the Poles perceived Jews to be enemies of the state whilst the Swedes saw them as a hindrance to their conquest of the whole country.
The Polish General Stefan Czarniecki actually devastated the whole country when he retreated from the Swedes and he left several thousand Jews massacred in his wake. However as already mentioned, the Jews although impoverished began returning slowly to their homes. In addition to all this mayhem there was the plague which in its wake left several hundreds of thousands of people dead and this added to the terrifying experience of the Jews in Poland who could not actually continue living their lives in a peaceful and harmonious way.
Learning from the experience:
The Jews in Poland could not but learn from this experience and they were much more wary in dealing with the Poles after this incident. Naturally enough the pogroms created had a huge effect on their existence and all this was actually increased by the constant uncertainty in which the Jews continued to live in Poland. The Jews continued to decline under the Saxon dynasty as they lost support of the government in this situation. Additionally the Polish citizens were continually at war with the Jews and treated them very much as sub humans and enemies of the state. In fact the liberal tendencies of previous Polish Commonwealth governments was forgotten completely with the new attitude of the Polish citizens. The Jews continued to suffer intensely and were also incredibly adept at creating situations in which they could continue to flourish.
Still the decline under the Saxon dynasty continued and the old customs of the Jews were continually threatened. Quarrels between the Satins who were the inhabitants of the Polish towns and the Jews continued at a fast pace and the situation continued to be ever more intolerable.
Jews in the United States in the 20th Century
The Jewish civilization flourished in the United States in the 20th century with a considerable influx from several eastern European countries. The Jews were noted entrepreneurs and one could cite the experiences of those such as Bob Moses who singlehandedly almost reconstructed New York with vast buildings and skyscrapers. The Jews which came from Russia offered considerable opportunities for expansion inside the US which was also a land of opportunity for many. Obviously there were situations where the American Jews could expand and buy up large tracts of land for development and they did so with considerable aplomb throughout.
Notwithstanding all these problems and failed opportunities, the US was continually seen as a safe haven for Jews who were escaping from persecution elsewhere. Obviously enough the vast Nazi persecution which practically eliminated all of European Jewry was another important issue and this saw the considerable influx of Jews into the United States in the 1930’s and the 1940’s.
Comparisons:
There is a long period between both the Jewish settlement in Poland and that in the United States so comparisons are a bit odious. However one can draw two logical conclusions from this, first of all, the Jews who lived in Poland were constantly under the threat of execution or extinction during the Polish uprising in conjunction with the Cossacks while those in the United States could practically continue living their lives as normal. Customs in Poland were obviously under constant threat but the Jews assiduously guarded their customs in more ways than one enabling proceedings to be quite run of the mill at times. When one compares this to the Jews in the US, the situation is quite different as these Jews were consistently trying to make the grade in society and were consistently achieving greater heights in the world of capitalism. In fact the Jews of the US practically control all of the financial system in the United states and will continue to do so for many years. Their knack at creating opportunities out of nothing is surely their greatest asset in this sense.
One can also observe the fact that the Polish Jews were much more attuned to survival in a hostile environment whilst those in the US practically had it good as the US government was always committed to create equal opportunities for those who entered its shores. One has to compare the vastly inferior situation in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th Century with the one where the Jews in the United States could live relatively trouble free and uninterrupted.
Another comparison could be that the Jews in Poland were not in any way tapped for their economic opportunities and these could actually have been pretty substantial if tapped properly. However this was not the case unfortunately and the United states could have been seen to be very wise in the sense that they always did their utmost to encourage Jews to settle down in their society. These comparisons basically show the intrinsic differences between both periods of Jewish settlement and expansion which are quite striking and extremely different in several ways.
Conclusion: The Jews as an evolving and changing nation
These two vastly different and incomparable experiences have shown us that the Jews are a nation of sorts which comes in different guises and which has continually developed over the years and centuries. The Polish experience was indeed a terrible one but still the Jews flourished whilst the American experience was a fine one and yet again the Jews flourished. This teaches us lots of lessons on the survivability and strength of the Jewish nation as a whole and this will continually be the case for many years to come.
References:
A & K Woźniak (2010). "Żydzi dzisiaj. Tablica 23". Fundacja Stefana Batorego. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
Gedeon (2011). "Żydzi w Polsce. Dzieje najnowsze (po 1945)". Serwis Izrael. Retrieved July 23, 2011. (Polish)
Article on Ynet news site, Hebrew (Google translate: "Polish passport" by Naama Sickoler).
Poland, at that time, was the most tolerant country in Europe"From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution" by Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper University of Chicago Press 1992, page 51
