Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Dzieje Spolecznosci Zydowskiej: Poltusk i Makow Mazowiecki, by Janusz Szczepański. 1993

Jewish Economic Hegemony. Jewish Occupational Structure [Surveyed in Detail] Featured the Usual Jewish Avoidance of Physical Labor

English-language title: THE DEEDS OF THE JEWISH SOCIETIES OF THE COUNTIES OF POLTUSK AND MAKOW MAZOWIECKI. This in-depth history of every aspect of Jewish life has an English-language summary. (pp. 165-179).

JEWISH LOYALTY AND JEWISH DISLOYALTY TO POLAND

Szczepanski paints a mixed picture of Jewish attitudes towards Poland’s long drive for independence. There was some Jewish support for Poland’s cause during Napoleon’s time, as had been the case during the Kosciuszko Insurrection (1794), but some Jews supported the tsar in exchange for money. (p. 30). In contrast, Jewish support for the November Insurrection (1831) was, in Szczepanski’s words, “negligible”, and Jewish collaboration with tsarist authorities was considerable. (pp. 57-58). Jewish support for the January Insurrection (1863) was variable, and differed by geographical region, local circumstances, etc. (pp. 61-62). In the years up to Poland’s resurrection (1918), local Jews often supported the Polish forces. However, the Jews in formerly Prussian-ruled Poland, notably in the Poznan (Posen) area, remained strongly pro-German well after 1918. (p. 86).

JEWISH ECONOMIC HEGEMONY AND ITS POLE-DISENFRANCHIZING CHARACTER

Much of this work focuses on professions. Jewish economic dominance, in terms of handcraft professions, was a fact by 1830. (p. 51). The kind of rates charged by Jews tended to discourage or suppress nascent Polish competition. (p. 70). (No wonder that the Endeks, and later the ONR, resorted to the boycotting of Jews as a means of creating business opportunities for Poles.)

THE SKEWED JEWISH OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURE; FEW JEWS DID PHYSICAL LABOR

Did Jews tend to avoid professions that required heavy physical labor [thereby facilitating the impression that they were privileged]? It appears so. Szczepanski (pp. 105-108) provides two tables, surveying Pultusk County and Makowski County, effective January 1, 1931, that list 41 handcraft professions, apportioning Poles and Jews in each. (The respective totals of Polish and Jewish handcraft workers were subequal, even though Jews constituted only 10% of the local population.) The cap makers were all Jewish, and the tailors, shoemakers, confectioners, and photographers were overwhelmingly Jewish. On the other hand, all the coopers and carpenters were Polish, and, pointedly, the overwhelming majority of stonecutters, blacksmiths, masons, cabinetmakers, and butchers were Polish. Note that the latter occupations involve considerable physical labor.

THE RESTRICTED OCCUPATIONS MYTH: JEWS NOT PREVENTED FROM ENGAGING IN AGRICULTURE

The common argument about the relative rarity of Jewish farmers, being caused by policies which kept Jews out of this occupation, is a half-truth. Already in the 19th century, Polish Jews also voluntarily chose work in towns in preference to agriculture. (Kolodziejczyk Introduction, p. 5). See:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/jews-forced-into-commerce-a-myth-chajes/

THE LITWAKS: A TOOL OF RUSSIAN RULE OVER POLAND

Author Janusz Szczepanski notes the Litvak (Litwak) problem and the Russian pogroms of 1881. (pp. 80-81). The tsarist authorities, in order to set Poles and Jews against each other during an anti-Russian strike in 1905, lifted the 10% limit on Jewish admissions to a high school (gymnasium) at Pultusk. (p. 83). The revolutions of 1905-1907 facilitated local elected representation in the Duma (Russian parliament), and the local Jews supported pro-Russian candidates. It was then that Dmowski and the other Endeks retaliated by calling for boycotts against Jewish businesses. (pp. 84-85).

SUBSEQUENT EVENTS

Polish-Jewish relations during the 1920 Polish-Soviet War are summarized here (see more details, see the Peczkis review of Wojna 1920 roku na Mazowszu i Podlasiu (Polish Edition)):

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/jewish-disloyalty-1920-war-szczepanski/

In the present work, Szczepanski reiterates the fact that Poles (p. 93) and Jews (p. 97) were both punished for crimes against each other. During the late-1930’s boycotts against Jews sponsored by the militant ONR (O.N.R.), Jews were sometimes subject to beatings, and windows of Jewish shops were broken. The Polish police, and notably the mayor of Rozan, acted firmly to quell the disturbances. (pp. 137-138).

As for the Zydokomuna in the interwar (1918-1939) period, the author comments: “Jewish Communists played a tremendous role in the actions of the Polish Communist Party…They were quite visible also in the Pultusk and Makowski Counties.” (p. 119).