Key Concepts in Jewish History, Nationalism, and Ethnic Identity

Anti-semitism

Fear of and exclusion of jewish. Originally religious based on the idea that the jews were responsible for Jesus' death, as they joined society, people (middle class especially) feared them taking their jobs and resented them.

Assimilation

changing to fit into majority identity,

Civic nationalism

Sense of solidarity from common acceptance of a set of institutions and political values. People who felt their nation was specifically chosen for a divine purpose or unfairly victimized were especially drawn into this.

Dreyfus Affair

Jewish Captain Alfred Dreyfus was wrongly convicted in 1894, but the actual culprit was caught in 1906. Officers tried to suppress evidence, and the public response (chanting death to the jews) illuminated the antisemitic nature of the case.

Ethnic nationalism

Groups that got their solidarity from a common language, ethnic identity, or ancestry. Arose most easily where ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and religious diversity was minimal and there was already a unified state. It also developed strongly where ethnic minorities felt persecuted.

First Nations

Indigenous populations in Canada. Slowly lost land, were forced onto reserves, suffered malnutrition and savage epidemics, forced children into government funded residential schools that destroyed their indigenous identities.

Ghettos

Jewish areas in European cities gained a particular name-gþetto-named after the Jewish area in Venice established in 1516. Ghetto means "foundry." The Jewish area in Venice was located next to a foundry, so it and all other restrictive Jewish areas in cities soon were given this name.

Jewish Diaspora

From the roman period to 1740, the jewish spread across the world and throughout europe from israel

Jewish Emancipation

From 1789 to 1878, the granting of citizenship to jews in France which was soon followed by other nations in europe

Haskalah

The Jewish Enlightenment of the second half of the eighteenth century, led by the Prussian philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. (integration into non Jewish society)

Kishinev Pogrom

The Kishinev pogrom was a three-day, anti-Jewish riot and massacre that occurred in Kishinev (now Chișinău, the capital of Moldova), then part of the Russian Empire, on April 19-21, 1903. The event, fueled by antisemitic propaganda and rumors of a Jewish ritual murder (blood libel), resulted in the deaths of 49 Jews, hundreds injured, and extensive property destruction

La Marseillaise

The song chosen as the french national anthem in 1795. It inspired many countries to designate national anthems, which became a part of growing nationalist cultures around the world

Moses Mendelssohn

a German-Jewish philosopher and one of the most important figures of the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment, translated the hebrew bible into german

Minority Nationalism

In large multiethnic empires, minority groups bonded together and formed their own communities. Most minorities did not want to be fully independent, but sought some autonomy within their own governments.

Multiethnic Empire

An empire made up of many ethnic groups with examples including Canada, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and the Habsburg empire. These empires had trouble promoting nationalism because of their many small groups, and sometimes they would force them to abandon their minority nationalism, which didn't end well.

Nation-State

a political entity where a defined territory, permanent population, government, and the ability to enter into relations with other states are united with a shared cultural identity, such as language, ethnicity, or history

Otto von Bismarck

Aristocrat and chancellor of prussia, fused patches of predominantly german-speaking lands to prussia through small wars and strong armed negotiations. He encouraged the development of a German national identity using the school, the army and the press.

Russification

Promoting Russian nationalism by repressing other minority nationalisms by forbidding the use of these languages and imprisoning poets and professors. Inflamed minority nationalist sentiment.

Shtetls

Rural Jewish farming towns were called shtetls, and were predominantly found in central and eastern Europe. There were hundreds of shtetls in Russia in an area known as the Pale of Settlement, which was the only place in that country where most Jews were allowed to live.

Theodor Herzl

A journalist from Budapest who lived in Paris during the trial of Dreyfus. Credited as the Father of Modern Zionism

Turkification

Promoting Turkish nationalism in the Ottoman empire through processes similar to russification. All branches of government were increasingly required to use only the Turkish language. Minorities were urged to consider themselves Turks. Christian minorities were encouraged to convert to islam and speak Turkish. Brought scanty results and irritated many of those who were its targets.

Yamato Race Theory

A fictional idea developed in the 1930s. It held that all Japanese people shared a common ancestry to an ancient race that was superior to other nearby peoples, including Koreans and Chinese.

Yiddish

Spoken by Ashkenazi(german) Jews, built up of mostly german, some russian, and arabic)

Zionism

the aspiration to create and sustain a Jewish state in the Holy Land, created by Theodore Hertzl