Download - Jews In Weimar Germany
JEWSin the Weimar Republic
Outline of Topics-A history: the Jewish-Christian
relationship
-Shifting 20th Century Ideologies
-Separatism and Freedom
Rootsof Antisemitism
BELIEFS OF THE CHURCH•Jews were cursed or abandoned by
God
•failed to recognize Jesus as the
Messiah
•were responsible for his crucifixion
•are consequently no longer the
"chosen people”
• accusations of Church fathers have
been handed down from generation to
generation
FORMATION OF AJEWISH ARCHETYPE
•Propagation of Jews as
sinners, blasphemers, demons, outcasts,
depraved
•Archetype bleeds into popular culture
•Ahavser: wandering Jew who mocked Jesus
•several symbols in the public’s
consciousness assume the stylized features
of an Ahasver
•vampire, goat-hoofed devil, Satan with a tail
RESULTINGCHRISTIAN FEELINGS
•Jews were regarded by Christians as
"irksome [and] intolerable”
•Many described feeling a "completely
irrational aversion”
•Antagonistic Christian-Jew relationship
has been passed down for centuries
and cultivated since birth
DIVERGINGTHOUGHT
PROGRESSIONTOWARDS EQUALITY
•ironically, the more rights they obtained, the more Jews conformed to popular social identity
•the more Jews conformed, the more unrest anti-Semites felt
•"the Jew who is unrecognizable–that is the dangerous Jew"
ISOLATION OF JEWS
•Motivations:
•counteract increasing equality
•strengthen anti-Semitic relationship
•Modernization processes and emphasis on rationality caused Churches to lose power
•Reactionary: economic setbacks, political instability, more aggressive nationalism
•Attempts to stigmatize Jews:•Satirical songs, jokes, and verses teaching Germans how to recognize Jews by their names
THE SECULAR JEW
•Movement from Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism
•Emphasis on Jews as a race with specific traits, rather than a religion with specific beliefs
•Isolation ideologies thus catalyze “annihilation” ideologies
THE NEWISH JEWISHARCHETYPE
•New words used by theologians, politicians, literary people, and publicists in Germany to describe Jews
•Parasites, degenerate, poison, bacilli, trichinas,
rats, blowflies
•Implied Jewish “racial
characteristics”•Live at cost of others•Uses flattery and submissiveness to profit•Unproductive and lazy
ISOLATIONAdvantage or Disadvantage?
VIEWS OF JEWS IN WEIMAR
Separatism
•Formation of more ethnic and cultural identities rather than religious ideologies
•Ethnic solidarity
•Freedom from general German public
Acculturation
• Benefit from
urbanization• Most Jews lived
in urban areas, few in the country
• “Threatened” German livelihoods
GEMEINDE•Means community in German
•-organization unique to central Europe
•focal point of Jewish life-centralized local
Jewish activities
•empowered by government to organize local
Jewish affairs
•ex: hired rabbis, religious
functionaries, maintained and built
synagogues, etc.
•youth movements
•Ex: Zionist groups, Jewish
schools, fraternities, libraries, singing societies)
COMMON CAREERS•Jews were prohibited from many professions
•As a result, they concentrated in a small
number of professions
•Usually found in urban areas
•Include: journalists, lawyers, doctors, or salesmen
•Some were industrial workers, artisans or peddlers;
•few Jews were unaffected by the mark's
hyperinflation
SYNOPSIS
•Christian-Jewish relationship underlying cause of Jewish persecution
•Paradigm shift to anti-Semitism
•Isolation allowed for
freedom
QUESTIONS?Feel free to raise your hand and speak up.