JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

emancipation
Romania shall not entail any limitations in the acquisition of
civic and political rights), the Romanian authorities included
articles on “aliens” which permitted civic rights to be given
to only 885 Jews while enabling the government to withhold
these rights from more than 250,000 Jews (1885) who were declared
aliens and required to undergo naturalization.
The peace treaty concluded with Romania after World
War I (Dec. 9, 1919) included an article stating that “all those
born in Romania, who are not subjects of another country
by birth, shall become Romanian citizens on the strength of
their birth in the country.” In addition, a special article (7) was
drafted into the treaty according to which Romania “commits
herself to recognize as Romanian citizens the Jews living on
Romanian territory who do not have any other nationality, by
the actual fact of their living in the country, without requiring
any formal demands of them.” Another article (8) declared
that “all Romanian subjects shall be equal before the law and
shall benefit from the same civic rights without any distinction
based on race, religion, or language.” However, the motion to
include article 7 in the constitution of 1923 was rejected, and
the Jews were again required to provide documents attesting
their right of citizenship causing about 10% of the Jewish
population to remain without rights.
POLAND. Demands for Jewish emancipation in *Poland were
presented at the end of the 18th century, amid the social and
spiritual agitation resulting from the collapse of the regime
and the state. During the interim period between its second
and third partition, Poland’s struggle for existence compelled
it to seek ways of exploiting all available resources, including
the increased economic resources which would accrue from
“reform of the Jews.” Thus “reform” was proposed by Mateusz
*Butrymowicz, Tadeusz *Czacki, Kołłątaj, and others, mainly
in the spirit of mercantilist exploitation of Jewish economic
activity and their “improvement” through assimilation into
Polish culture rather than as the natural result of a liberal regime
in which Jews would be permitted civic equality and access
to Polish cultural life. The Jewish population in Poland,
which was the largest and most specifically Jewish in the Diaspora,
could not be considered a mere collectivity of individuals.
Influenced by Western political liberalism, Polish theorists
formulating the methods for Jewish “reform” believed
that the state should be based on the principles of civic equality
legislated systematically and implemented with persistence
by the state. It was the conflict between the theoretical liberal
and the practical mercantilist orientations which caused
the complete failure of the projects to “reform the Jews.” The
constitution of May 3, 1791, did not mention the Jews, and the
law on the municipalities was based on the principle that municipal
citizenship could be granted only to Christians. After
the dismemberment of Poland, Polish legislation concerning
Jews was applied only within those territories which enjoyed
intermittent independence: the Grand Duchy of Warsaw,
1807–13; Kingdom of Poland, 1815–30; and Republic of *Cracow,
1815–46. Polish attitudes continued to influence the sta-
tus of the Jews under alien rule, especially during the Polish
uprisings, and in autonomous Galicia from 1848 to 1918.
The Grand Duchy of Warsaw tortuously followed Napoleon
Bonaparte’s policy toward the Jews. On Oct. 17, 1808,
the duke decreed that “the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy
of Warsaw of the Mosaic faith” could not make use of their
political rights for a period of ten years, though “this law will
not prevent us from authorizing individual members of this
religion to benefit from political rights even before the lapse
of the said period, should they be found meritorious and suitable.”
However, all petitions presented by a group of individuals,
who considered themselves deserving of full equality, were
dismissed by the government which emphasized that “equality
before the law does not transform the inhabitants of the
country into citizens.” The government also took pains to issue
special laws against the Jews, such as prohibiting the acquisition
of estates, and restricting residence in Warsaw.
The Kingdom of Poland followed a similar but simpler
course: it promised and did even less to emancipate Jews. In
its draft constitution presented at the Congress of Vienna, an
article promised that “all the civic rights, which are guaranteed
in the present laws and regulations, shall also be reserved
for Jewish people; special reforms should also be introduced
in order to facilitate a larger Jewish participation in the rights
of citizens.” During the same year (1815), however, the Jewish
question was studied by a reforms commission, headed by
Prince Adam *Czartoryski, which endorsed the principle of
emancipation only in theory, withholding it in practice until
the Jews took up agriculture, abolished their community organization,
acquired modern Polish education, and refrained
from trading in and sale of alcoholic beverage (see *Wine
and Liquor Trade). The decree which abrogated the equality
of the Jews was prolonged by the Sejm (parliament). All suggestions
advanced by “progressive,” wealthy, or enlightened
Jews (maskilim) to be considered “reformed” and separate
from Jewish society as a whole and, therefore, worthy of civic
rights brought no legal change in the condition of the Jews.
An extensive polemical literature emerged, which was overwhelmingly
and violently opposed to the Jews.
During the Polish uprising of 1830, there were those who
favored the equality of the Jews, and there were some Jews, especially
among the youth and the masses, who openly manifested
their sympathy for the uprising and wished to participate
in it. The leaders of the uprising and the Sejm generally
adopted a negative attitude toward the desires of the Jews. A
step toward Jewish emancipation was made later by Marquis
Wielopolski who obtained from Czar *Alexander II permission
to grant the Jews “partial civic equality.” As a result, Jews
were allowed to acquire land, and residence restrictions in
several towns and regions were abolished, as were the Jewish
oath and other limitations. But the use of Hebrew or Yiddish
in bookkeeping or documents was forbidden on May 24, 1862.
The national revolutionary government of 1863 addressed itself
to “the Polish brothers of the Mosaic faith” in a special
manifesto in which it promised that “the people’s government
382 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6