Antisemitism in France - Antisemitism in Europe in The New Era

Antisemitism in Europe in The New Era

The Renaissance, Enlightenment and imperialist eras led to a series of increasingly xenophobic and non-religious expressions of anti-Semitic phobias and outrages in the continent, even as much of the continent had experienced significant political reformations. By the time that a number of republican and other non-monarchical systems were established, romantic ethnic nationalism, xenophobic Orientalism,

In western Europe Jews were largely limited by the local monarchs especially as a consequence of the growing fear of competition with the local merchants due to the fact that the main occupation of Jews were commerce and banking. Number of notable examples are the limitation of number of Jews allowed to settle in Breslau issued by Frederick II of Prussia in 1744 and in the same year Jews were banished from Bohemia by the archduchess of Austria Maria Theresa who later also stated that Jews had to pay for their staying in the country.

With the development of the banking system and the need of rulers for financing their growing state apparatus the term "court jew' was issued in some western Europe states. The court jews were businessman and bankers who received privileges from the sovereign and acted as their treasurers and tax collectors. In many cases the court Jews obtained significant power as the "right hand" of the sovereign, in other cases the court Jews were blamed in the financial problems of the states or when the sovereign lost his power. One of the most notable court Jew was Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, (1698 –1738) the financial planner for Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg in Stuttgart. Oppenheimer was executed after the death of the Duke and his story was used later on by the Nazi propaganda.

In eastern Europe Jews were mainly concentrated in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth where they had religious and cultural autonomy. Nevertheless the Cossack uprising of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in polish controlled Ukraine (1648) devastated the Jewish communities and approximately 200.000 Jews were massacred, immigrated or sold as slaves by the Tatars. The partition of Poland by Russia, Prussia and Austria brought up most of the polish Jews under Russian rule. In order to restrict the Jews from spreading throughout the Russian Empire and to avoid competition for the local merchants the Pale of Settlement was established in 1772 by the empress of Russia Catherine II and Jews were restricted to the western parts of the empire with the exception of number of Jews who received permeation to live in the major cities such as Kiev and Moscow.