Misunderstanding and Misusing Jewish History

[Ibn Ezra] Joseph the II, Jewish Emancipation and the Palestinians

What can the policy of Joseph II of the Hapsburg Empire towards the Jews teach us about the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank by the Israeli government? On the surface, not to much but if we are to think theoretically, some important considerations arise from the policies of Joseph II.

Joseph II introduced a number of Toleranzpatent for the Jews living in his empire at the end of the 18th century. Perhaps the most famous and studied is the so called Edict of Tolerance issued to the Jews in 1780-82. The primary goal of this edict was to incorporate Jews into society for the benefit of the state. The primary vehicle for this transformation was education reform. Joseph II wanted the Jews to be included in German speaking schools and to be engaged in secular study. The idea was incorporation. At the time, this was revolutionary. But this document is only one in a series of important documents in the long and bumpy road of Jewish emancipation in Europe, which in my estimation ended in failure but that is a different post.

Toleranzpatent

So what do the Palestinians have to do with this aspect of Jewish history? First, I am struck by the wording of the Edict especially if we change the names from Jews to Palestinians and Joseph II to Israel. Have a look and decide for yourself here. I have always thought that it would be a creative form of graffiti to post the Toleranzpatent throughout Jerusalem but with the terms changed.

[Click here to read the entire article.]

Any discussion of Joseph II’s Edict of Tolerance must take into account the First Partition of Poland and the role that Jews played in historic Poland.

The Holy Roman Empire had recently incorporated a tremendous number of Ostjuden (Eastern European ethnic Ashkenazim). They represented both an opportunity and a threat.

They were an opportunity because they were the perfect native collaborators in newly incorporated territories as long as they could be linguistically Germanized, but they were a threat because Yiddish business practices while acceptable in historic Poland in the 18th century were by Central European standards often perceived as cheating. The desire of the Austrian government to prevent the importation of such behavior into rump Austria was quite understandable.

The Hapsburgs were attempting to rule a very complex multiethnic empire. They were not ethnic cleansers, but they were realists.

In contrast, already in 1881 Zionist writers are conceptualizing a racist Jews-only state and planning ethnic cleansing.

It is pointless to bring the Edict of Tolerance into Israeli political discussion without explaining its historic context, which has no connection to the reality of Israel today.

I briefly discuss the issue of 18th and 19th century Jewish business practices in the 2nd hypothesis of Martillo’s Three Hypotheses Plus One.

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