La question juive en autriche-hongrie 1867-1918
Institution:
Paris 7Disciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
The jewish question is obscured by the confusion between two entities : the jewish religion, whose history is very old and which is widespread ; and the yiddish ethnic community, which was formed a few hundred years ago in poland and has almost disappeared to day. Austria is one of the three powers which shared the territory of poland. The jewish question takes there a particular form : the liberal era has lead to a large migration from galicy to vienna and hungary, where the jews have been culturally assimilated to their christian surrounding ; whilst there remained in galicia a strong yiddish speaking population cut off from the modern world. None of the great ideological streams which have appeared in europe during the fifty years preceeding the first world war have freed themeselves from this confusion. Liberalism, and socialism after it, wanted eastern jews to become poles of jewish faith. In reaction to antisemitism, sionism suscribes to the idea of a jewish people which would consist of both assimilated and yiddish speaking jews, whose language would be hebrew. Even the few who defended yiddish culture like birnbaum were not totally free from this idea of one single jewish people. This lasting refusal of the yiddish ethnic community has certainly contributed to its destruction.
Abstract FR:
La question juive est obscurcie par le mythe du peuple juif qui recouvre en fait deux entites : la religion juive, dont l'histoire est ancienne et la repartition geographique etendue ; et l'ethnie yidich, qui s'est formee il y a quelques siecles en pologne et qui a presque disparu aujourd'hui. L'autriche est l'une des trois puissances qui se sont partage la pologne. La question juive s'y pose de maniere particuliere : l'ere liberale a entraine une importante migration de galicie vers vienne et la hongrie, ou les juifs se sont assimiles culturellement a leur entourage chretien ; tandis que s'est maintenue en galicie une forte population de langue yidich relativement coupee du monde moderne. Aucun des grands courants ideologiques qui se succedent en europe au cours des cinquante ans qui precedent la premiere guerre ne s'est libere de cette conception. Le liberalisme, et le socialisme qui en est issu, veut faire des juifs de l'est des "polonais de confession mosaique". En reaction a l'antisemitisme, le sionisme croit en une "nation juive" qui regrouperait assimiles et yidichophones, et dont la langue serait l'hebreu. Meme les defenseurs de la culture yidich comme birnbaum ont du mal a se liberer de cette idee d'un peuple juif. Cette negation persistante de l'ethnie yidich a sans doute facilite sa destruction.