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Jewish question

"The Jewish question" redirects here. For the 1843 book, seeThe Jewish Question.
For the question "who is a Jew", seeWho is a Jew?For other uses, seeJewish question (disambiguation).

TheJewish questionwas a wide-ranging debate in 19th- and 20th-century Europe that pertained to the appropriate status and treatment ofJews.The debate, which was similar to other "national questions",dealt with the civil, legal, national, and political status of Jews as aminoritywithin society, particularly in Europe during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.

The debate began withJewish emancipationin western and central European societies during theAge of Enlightenmentand after theFrench Revolution.The debate's issues included legal and economicJewish disabilities(such asJewish quotasandsegregation),Jewish assimilation,andJewish Enlightenment.

The expression has been used byantisemiticmovements from the 1880s onwards, culminating inthe Holocaust(1933–45), specifically aNazi plancalled the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question".Similarly, the expression was used by proponents for, and opponents of, the establishment of an autonomousJewish homelandor a sovereignJewish state,leading to the state ofIsraelin 1948.

History of "the Jewish question"

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Further information:History of the Jews in Europe

The term "Jewish question" was first used in Great Britain around 1750 when the expression was used during the debates related to theJewish Naturalisation Act 1753.[1]According toHolocaust scholarLucy Dawidowicz,the term "Jewish Question", as introduced inwestern Europe,was a neutral expression for the negative attitude toward the apparent and persistent singularity of the Jews as a people against the background of the rising political nationalism and newnation-states.Dawidowicz writes that "the histories of Jewish emancipation and of European antisemitism are replete with proffered 'solutions to the Jewish question.'"[2]

The question was next discussed in France (la question juive) after the French Revolution in 1789. It was discussed in Germany in 1843 viaBruno Bauer's treatiseDie Judenfrage('The Jewish Question'). He argued that Jews could achieve political emancipation only if they let go their religious consciousness, as he proposed that political emancipation required asecular state.Bauer's conclusions were disputed byKarl Marxin his essayZur Judenfrage,in which he argued that society cannot be free from the oppression of capitalism without removing Jews from society: "As soon as society succeeds in abolishing the empirical essence of Judaism—huckstering and its conditions—the Jew becomes impossible, because his consciousness no longer has an object... The social emancipation of the Jew is the emancipation of society from Judaism."[3]

According toOtto Dov Kulka[4]ofHebrew University,the term became widespread in the 19th century when it was used in discussions aboutJewish emancipationin Germany (Judenfrage).[1]In the 19th century hundreds of tractates, pamphlets, newspaper articles and books were written on the subject, with many offering such solutions as resettlement, deportation, or assimilation of the Jewish population. Similarly, hundreds of works were written opposing these solutions and offering instead solutions such as re-integration and education. This debate however, could not decide whether the problem of the Jewish question had more to do with the problems posed by theGerman Jews' opponents or vice versa: the problem posed by the existence of the German Jews to their opponents.

From around 1860, the term was used with an increasingly antisemitic tendency: Jews were described under this term as a stumbling block to the identity and cohesion of the German nation and as enemies within the Germans' own country. Antisemites such asWilhelm Marr,Karl Eugen Dühring,Theodor Fritsch,Houston Stewart Chamberlain,Paul de Lagardeand others declared it a racial problem insoluble through integration. They stressed this in order to strengthen their demands to "de-jewify" the press, education, culture, state and economy. They also proposed to condemn inter-marriage between Jews and non-Jews. They used this term to oust the Jews from their supposedly socially dominant positions.

The topic was also taken up by Jews themselves.Theodor Herzl's 1896 treatiseDer JudenstaatadvocatesZionismas a "modern solution for the Jewish question" by creating an independent Jewish state, preferably in Ottoman-controlled Palestine.[5]The 1934 science fiction novelZwei im andern Land[de]by the German rabbiMartin Salomonski[de]imagines a refuge for Jews on the moon.[6]

The most infamous use of this expression was by theNazisin the early- and mid-twentieth century. They implemented what they called their "Final Solutionto the Jewish question "throughthe HolocaustduringWorld War II,when they attempted to exterminate Jews in Europe.[7][8]

Bruno Bauer –The Jewish Question

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In his bookThe Jewish Question(1843),Bauerargued that Jews could only achieve political emancipation if they relinquished their particular religious consciousness. He believed that political emancipation required asecular state,and such a state did not leave any "space" for social identities such asreligion.According to Bauer, such religious demands were incompatible with the idea of the "Rights of Man".True political emancipation, for Bauer, required the abolition of religion.[9]

Karl Marx –On the Jewish Question

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Karl Marxreplied to Bauer in his 1844 essayOn the Jewish Question.Marx repudiated Bauer's view that the nature of the Jewish religion prevented assimilation by Jews. Instead, Marx attacked Bauer's very formulation of the question from "can the Jews become politically emancipated?" as fundamentally masking the nature of political emancipation itself.[10]

Marx used Bauer's essay as an occasion for his own analysis of liberal rights. Marx argued that Bauer was mistaken in his assumption that in a "secular state",religion would no longer play a prominent role in social life. As an example, he referred to the pervasiveness of religion in theUnited States,which, unlikePrussia,had nostate religion.In Marx's analysis, the "secular state" was not opposed to religion, but rather assumed it. The removal of religious or property qualifications for citizenship did not mean the abolition of religion or property, but rather naturalized both and introduced a way of regarding individuals in abstraction from them.[11]On this note Marx moved beyond the question of religious freedom to his real concern with Bauer's analysis of "political emancipation." Marx concluded that while individuals can be 'politically' free in a secular state, they were still bound to material constraints on freedom byeconomic inequality,an assumption that would later form the basis of his critiques ofcapitalism.

After Marx

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The Jewish ChroniclepromotingHerzl'sJudenstaatas "a 'solution of the Jewish question.'"

Werner Sombartpraised Jews for their capitalism and presented the seventeenth–eighteenth centurycourt Jewsas integrated and a model for integration.[12]By the turn of the twentieth century, the debate was still widely discussed. TheDreyfus Affairin France, believed to be evidence of anti-semitism, increased the prominence of this issue.Theodor Herzlproposed the advancement of a separateJewish stateand theZionistcause.[13]

Between 1880 and 1920, millions of Jews created their own solution for thepogromsof eastern Europe by emigration to other places, primarily the United States and western Europe.

The Nazi "Final Solution"

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InNazi Germany,the termJewish Question(in German:Judenfrage) referred to the belief that the existence of Jews in Germany posed a problem for the state. In 1933 two Nazi theorists,Johann von LeersandAchim Gercke,both proposed the idea that the Jewish Question could be solved byresettling Jews in Madagascar,or somewhere else in Africa or South America. They also discussed the pros and cons of supporting the German Zionists. Von Leers asserted that establishing a Jewish homeland inMandatory Palestinewould create humanitarian and political problems for the region.[14]

Upon achieving power in 1933,Adolf Hitlerand the Nazi state began to implementincreasingly severe legislationthat was aimed at segregating and ultimately removing Jews from Germany and (eventually) all of Europe.[15]The next stage was the persecution of the Jews and the stripping of their citizenship through the 1935Nuremberg Laws.[16][17]Starting with 1938Kristallnachtpogrom and later, duringWorld War II,it became state-sponsored internment inconcentration camps.[18]Finally the government implemented the systematic extermination of the Jewish people (The Holocaust),[19]which took place as the so-calledFinal Solutionto the Jewish Question.[7][20][a]

Nazi propagandawas produced in order to manipulate the public, the most notable examples of which were based on the writings of people such asEugen Fischer,Fritz LenzandErwin BaurinFoundations of Human Heredity Teaching and Racial Hygiene.The workDie Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens(Allowing the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Living) byKarl BindingandAlfred Hocheand the pseudo-scholarship that was promoted byGerhard Kittelalso played a role. Inoccupied France,thecollaborationist regimeestablished its ownInstitute for studying the Jewish Questions.

In the United States

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Main article:History of antisemitism in the United States

According to historians Ronald J. Jensen and Stuart Knee, by the 1870s Russian-American relations were strained by the mistreatment of American Jewish visitors in Russia. President Ulysses S. Grant responded to American Jewish requests for action to protect visitors.[21]By the 1880s, the outbreak of anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia and consequent mass emigration of Jews to New York made relations worse. After 1880, escalating pogroms alienated both elite opinion and public opinion in the U.S.[22]In 1903, theKishinev pogromkilled 47 Jews, injured 400, and left 10,000 homeless and dependent on relief. American Jews began large-scale organized financial help and assisted in emigration from Russia.[23]More violence in Russia led in 1911 to the United States repealing an 1832 commercial treaty.[24]

In the 1920s, according to historian Leo Ribuffo, auto magnateHenry Fordsponsored a major outburst of attacks on Jews in his magazine, theDearborn Independent,bundles of which he sent to all Ford dealerships every week. It especially promotedThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion,and also published new articles that blamed Jews for America's problems. In 1927, following a lawsuit by Aaron Sapiro, Ford publicly apologized for his anti-Semitism, retracted his earlier views, and closed his magazine.[25]

A "Jewish problem" was euphemistically discussed in majority-European countries outside Europe, even as the Holocaust was in progress. American aviator and celebrityCharles A. Lindberghused the phrase repeatedly in public speeches and writing. For example in his diary entry of September 18, 1941, published in 1970 as part ofThe Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh,he wrote[26]

[John T.] Flynnsays he does not question the truth of what I said at Des Moines,[27]but feels it was inadvisable to mention the Jewish problem. It is difficult for me to understand Flynn's attitude. He feels as strongly as I do that the Jews are among the major influences pushing this country toward war. He has said so frequently and he says so now. He is perfectly willing to talk about it among a small group of people in private.

Contemporary use

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A dominantanti-Semitic conspiracy theoryis the belief that Jewish people have undue influence over the media, banking, and politics. Based on this conspiracy theory, certain groups and activists discuss the "Jewish Question" and offer different proposals to address it. In the early 21st century,white nationalists,alt-righters,andneo-Nazishave used the initialismJQin order to refer to the Jewish question.[28][29]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^For some extra depth, seeWannsee Conference.

References

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  1. ^abKulka, Otto D. (1994). "Introduction". In Auerbach, Rena R. (ed.).The 'Jewish Question' in German Speaking Countries, 1848–1914, A Bibliography.New York: Garland.ISBN978-0-8153-0812-6.Freely available at"The following essay, by Prof. Otto Dov Kulka, is based on the introduction to Rena R. Auerbach, ed.:" The 'Jewish Question'".The Felix Posen Bibliographic Project on Antisemitism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.Archived fromthe originalon 25 November 2005.
  2. ^Dawidowicz, Lucy S.(1975).The war against the Jews, 1933-1945.New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. pp.xxi–xxiii.ISBN978-0-03-013661-0.OCLC1103005.
  3. ^Johnson, Paul (1 April 1984)."Marxism vs. the Jews".Commentary Magazine.
  4. ^As of 2008 Otto Dov Kulka's works are out of print, but the following may be useful and is available on microfilm:Reminiscences of Otto Dov Kulka(Glen Rock, New Jersey: Microfilming Corp. of America, 1975),ISBN978-0-88455-598-8,OCLC5326379.
  5. ^Herzl, Theodor(1988) [1896]."Biography, by Alex Bein".Der Judenstaat[The Jewish state]. transl. Sylvie d'Avigdor (republication ed.). New York:Courier Dover.p. 40.ISBN978-0-486-25849-2.Retrieved28 September2010.
  6. ^"Jews in Space. Six questions for Lena Kugler".11 September 2022.
  7. ^abStig Hornshoj-Moller (24 October 1998)."Hitler's speech to the Reichstag of January 30, 1939".The Holocaust History Project.Archived fromthe originalon 14 March 2008.Retrieved25 March2008.
  8. ^Furet, François.Unanswered Questions: Nazi Germany and the Genocide of the Jews.Schocken Books (1989), p. 182;ISBN978-0-8052-4051-1
  9. ^Peled, Yoav (1992)."From Theology to Sociology: Bruno Bauer and Karl Marx on the Question of Jewish Emancipation".History of Political Thought.13(3):463–485.ISSN0143-781X.JSTOR26214177.
  10. ^Karl Marx(February 1844)."On the Jewish Question".Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher.Retrieved25 March2008.
  11. ^Marx 1844:

    [T]he political annulment of private property not only fails to abolish private property but even presupposes it. The state abolishes, in its own way, distinctions of birth, social rank, education, occupation, when it declares that birth, social rank, education, occupation, are non-political distinctions, when it proclaims, without regard to these distinctions, that every member of the nation is an equal participant in national sovereignty, when it treats all elements of the real life of the nation from the standpoint of the state. Nevertheless, the state allows private property, education, occupation, to act in their way – i.e., as private property, as education, as occupation, and to exert the influence of their special nature. Far from abolishing these real distinctions, the state only exists on the presupposition of their existence; it feels itself to be a political state and asserts its universality only in opposition to these elements of its being.
  12. ^Werner Sombart(1911) [translated in 2001].The Jews and Modern Capitalism(PDF).Batoche Books.Retrieved25 March2008.
  13. ^Theodor Herzl(1896).Der Judenstaat: Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage(in German). M. Breitenstein's Verlags-Buchhandlung.Retrieved25 March2008.
  14. ^Dr. Achim Gercke."Solving the Jewish Question".Archived fromthe originalon 6 February 2007.Retrieved15 September2009.
  15. ^David M. Crowe.The Holocaust: Roots, History, and Aftermath[permanent dead link‍].Westview Press, 2008.
  16. ^Adolf Hitler;Wilhelm Frick;Franz Gürtner;Rudolf Hess(15 September 1935)."Nuremberg Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor".Archived fromthe originalon 19 March 2008.Retrieved25 March2008.
  17. ^Adolf Hitler; Wilhelm Frick (15 September 1935)."Reich Citizenship Law".Archived fromthe originalon 21 March 2008.Retrieved25 March2008.
  18. ^Doris Bergen (2004–2005)."Germany and the Camp System".Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State.Community Television of Southern California.Retrieved25 March2008.
  19. ^Niewyk, Donald L.The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust,Columbia University Press,2000, p.45: "The Holocaust is commonly defined as the murder of more than 5,000,000 Jews by the Germans in World War II." Also see "The Holocaust",Encyclopædia Britannica,2007: "the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women and children, and millions of others, by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Germans called this" the final solution to the Jewish question. "
  20. ^Gord McFee (2 January 1999)."When did Hitler decide on the Final Solution?".The Holocaust History Project.Archived fromthe originalon 2 June 2015.Retrieved25 March2008.
  21. ^Ronald J. Jensen, "The Politics of Discrimination: America, Russia and the Jewish Question 1869–1872."American Jewish History75.3 (1986): 280-295online.
  22. ^Stuart Knee, "Tensions in nineteenth century Russo‐American diplomacy: The 'Jewish question'."East European Jewish Affairs23#1 (1993): 79-90.
  23. ^Philip Ernest Schoenberg, "The American Reaction to the Kishinev Pogrom of 1903."American Jewish Historical Quarterly63.3 (1974): 262-283online.
  24. ^Stuart E. Knee, "The Diplomacy of Neutrality: Theodore Roosevelt and the Russian Pogroms of 1903-1906."Presidential Studies Quarterly19#1 (1989): 71-78online
  25. ^Leo P. Ribuffo, "Henry Ford and 'The International Jew'"American Jewish History69.4 (1980): 437-477.online
  26. ^Lindbergh, Charles Augustus(1970). "Thursday, September 18".The Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh.New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 541.ISBN978-0-15-194625-9.LCCN78124830.OCLC463699463.
  27. ^"Des Moines Speech"ArchivedJanuary 30, 2017, at theWayback Machine.PBS. Retrieved: January 19, 2011.
  28. ^Kestenbaum, Sam (21 December 2016)."White Nationalists Create New Shorthand for the 'Jewish Question'".The Forward.Retrieved25 May2017.
  29. ^"JQ stands for the 'Jewish Question,' an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that Jewish people have undue influence over the media, banking and politics that must somehow be addressed" (Christopher Mathias, Jenna Amatulli, Rebecca Klein, 2018,The HuffPost,3 March 2018,https:// huffingtonpost /entry/florida-public-school-teacher-white-nationalist-podcast_us_5a99ae32e4b089ec353a1fba)

Further reading

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