Economic Origins of Antisemitism: Poland and Its Jews in the Early Modern PeriodAnalyzes the position of Jews in Poland in the 16th-18th centuries, up to Poland's final partition. States that Poland was not able to modernize its backward social, economic, and political systems. Jews were blamed for failure to modernize, which contributed to economic antisemitism. Shows differences in treatment of the Jews in Western countries and in Poland, and discusses the causes - among others, the strong influence of Catholicism (Counter-Reform), the mentality of the nobility, and their ambiguous attitude towards trade. In the second half of the 18th century, Jews were considered as unproductive and parasitic, or too enterprising, always a convenient scapegoat for Poland's economic and political decline. |
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Economic Origins of Antisemitism: Poland and Its Jews in the Early Modern Period Hillel Levine No preview available - 1993 |