Trudy Gold
Zionism in Vienna: Student Protests

Trudy Gold - Zionism in Vienna: Student Protests

- Right. Well, good afternoon, good evening, everyone. And now we come on to looking at what’s going on at the University of Vienna. And can we see the first slide please, Judi? Yeah. That’s a wonderful slide of the University of Vienna and it’s important to remember that University of Vienna…

• I’m going to jump in. I’m so sorry to interrupt. I’m going to, I’m going to jump in and say go slowly.

• I’m going to go very slowly, I promise.

• Slowly today.

• Slowly, slowly. Yes, I made terrible error last time which lectures should not make.

• Not terrible.

• No, it was. It was much too fast because I had too much material. It’s a sterling mistake, but it was a mistake. And some of it when I was talking about Schnitzler, he’s so important that I will be referring back to him in another presentation. But today, I want to turn to the University of Vienna because it really does become the seed bed of a student organisation called Kadimah which is the first Jewish nationalist student society in Europe. And it became the model that was emulated all over the Habsburg Empire. And later on, it’s going to be the backbone of support for Theodore Herzl. One of the group actually remarked, but I thought that she thought that it was invented, that the ideas first came out of Russia. Well, the point is, I’m going to be talking about two fascinating Eastern Europeans today, Perez Smolenskin and also, the extraordinary Leon Pinsker. But they became, if you like, the mentors and the spiritual leaders of the group Kadimah. And Nathan Birnbaum, who was a member of the group, he’s terribly important because he actually coined the phrase Zionism. We use it to predate, but he actually coined it in 1891. And of course, at the University of Vienna, In order for you to really take on what the atmosphere was like, I’m going to read to you from the Austrian student Convention of 1878. Bearing in mind 1871 the unification of Germany, Prussia had defeated Austria in 1866. We already have looked at the various race theories of the time, social Darwinism. And you can just imagine 13 different national groups, all represented at the university.

What is the yeast that binds them? Tragically, it was antisemitism. Also, a contributing factor was the incredibly large number of students at the university. They came from all over the empire. And it must be said that the majority of the students in Kadimah, except for Birnbaum, were not born in Vienna. They came from Moravia, they came from Galatia. They were the outsiders and they saw what was going on. Because tragically, as we’ve already began to establish, the majority of Jews in Vienna really wanted to be German. This is from Isador shallot in his memoirs. Throughout the 19th century, the Jews as a whole were German through their education since German culture dominated the multilingual empire. They learned and taught German in schools. The Jews were German because the German nation in Austria was the symbol of freedom and progress. The Jews remained not only the bearers of German culture, they were also the most conspicuous defenders of German policy. So, you’ve got the majority of Jews trying so hard to be German in Vienna, some wanting to be Austrian German.

There are a few who want to turn to Germany, but in the May, it’s German culture, just as you find Jews in Hungary also aspiring to German culture. In Prague, the bulk of the Jewish students did not go to the Czech university. They went to the German university. And also, don’t also take on the theory of race and also the theory of revolt because it’s become so important at the university. And then, never forget the figure of Pius IX. In Catholic Vienna, in Catholic Austria, subversive free thinking mask of Jewishness to that pope, everything that was Jewish was wrong. So, you have that and you also have the anti-capitalist rhetoric. The anti-capitalist rhetoric of George Juan Scherler, which I’ve already talked about. The anti-capitalist rhetoric of the mayor of Vienna. These are socialists. Capitalism, therefore, is Jewish. Think Rothschild. For those who hated socialism, socialism is Jewish. The leading Austrian socialist was, of course, a man called Victor Adler. And I was doing a bit of work also on Frederick Osterling. I’m going to be mentioning him to you in another lecture. He is a member of the Socialist Party and he is an uncle of a man you will all have heard, of Fred Astaire. Now, so this is in a university, this is in a city where liberalism is on the way. Now, let me read to you the Austrian Student Convention. In full appreciation of the fact there is so deep a moral and physical difference between Arians and Jews, and that our special characters suffered so much from Jewish trickery, in full appreciation of the many truths which this Jewish student has provided of his lack of honour and character and since he is any case, holy divode of honour according to our German concepts, today’s conference of German students fencing corporations resolved no Jewish to be given any satisfaction with any weapon.

And this is a Pan German flyer that was posted around the university. The battle amongst the peoples is an issue not of right but of might. From the German point of view, only German concerns are valid and not those of other people. No man can serve two masters who have been enemies for century and must needs be natural enemies. We are enmeshed in battle. So, that is the kind of background. And what happened was a group of young people met at the university and they decided they had enough and they were going to do something about it. And the name Kadimah was actually suggested by Perez Smolenskin. So, let’s have a look at those young men. Let’s first look at Moritz Schnirer. We could see them. Yes, that’s Moritz Schnirer in later life. His dates are 1861 to 1941. Now, he was older. He’d been born in Bucharest. So many of them, as I said, they don’t come from Vienna. He qualifies as a doctor in 1897. He studies medicine at the University of Vienna. And you should know of course, that 45% of the medical faculty were Jewish. And the professors, a disproportionate number of them Jewish. So, how are those who are not doing so well faring? He becomes very important in the Zionist organisation. He later assisted with Herzl in the preparation of the first Zionist Congress. And he accompanied Herzl to Palestine to meet Phil Helm II. And I’ll be dealing with all of this in a later lecture. He was a very, very strong character. I mean, I’m talking about his early days. He had big disagreements with Herzl. They were two very strong, egotistical, interesting characters. And he a accompanies him, as I said, to the Zionist Congress where he is very important. He’s in Palestine when Herzl went to meet the Kaiser.

He becomes a member of the Zionist Executive. But he withdraws more and more, though he’s a committed Zionist, he still remains in Austria. Not only does he study medicine, he becomes a very, very important doctor. He wrote the Encyclopaedia of the Practise of Medicine. It took him three years to write it. He was one of the most important doctors in Europe. He sailed as an editor of all sorts of professional journals. And his reminisces were later published by Nahum Sokolow. He was an important figure. Now, tragically, he and his wife committed suicide during World War II in Vienna. So, it’s terribly difficult when I’m giving a lecture like this because you’re going to say, well, of course the Zionist were right. It’s important to remember that nobody could have predicted what was going to happen. And for many of those Jews who had thrown in their lot with German culture, it was bildil, it was special. It didn’t all have to go that way. And can we now have a look at the next. This is the other young man, Reuben Bierer. He also, as I said, very few of them actually came from Vienna. This is important. They come to the university. That makes them double outsiders. They’re not religious, but they are ethnically Jewish. They’re totally aware of what’s going on in Vienna and at the university. So, he’s born in Lemberg, he comes from Galatia. That is the largest centre of Jews within the Habsburg Empire. He completed his studies earlier in 1863. He was already involved in all sorts of activities in Galatia. In the 1880s, he moves to Vienna where he gets in touch with this young group, of course, which included Moritz Schnirer and he’s going to be one of the founders of Kadimah. He published from then on, he’s going to publish all sorts of articles on Jewish nationhood in German magazines, in Jewish magazines. He also had a glittering career as a doctor. He was actually invited to Belgrade, really, to be the court doctor.

And what he did was he was therefore very involved. He then moves on to Sofia where he becomes the centre of Zionist activities there. And when Herzl finally wrote the Der Judenstaat, he sent his first copy to Reuben Bierer with the words, “To the first pioneer of the Zionist idea.” Now, can we look at the third of the trio? This is Nathan Birnbaum. What a fascinating character he was. He was born in Vienna of parents who migrated to the Capitol. So, he’s the only one of the inside group that’s actually born in Vienna. But his father was the son of a Hasid. So, he’s the grandson of a Hasid from Krakow. And in his mother’s family, they are a distinguished line of rabbis. So, they originally come from Northern Hungary, and according to the family legend, they traced descent from Russia. So, on both sides, he comes from a deeply pious family. He had been educated in Viennese schools. His father went into business, so made a certain amount of money. He became very estranged from the Orthodox background. His orthodox background was nothing like that of his grandfather. It was moderately orthodox, but he becomes more and more estranged. But like many of his contemporaries at the university, he doesn’t want the assimilationist class. He’s already, when he was at school, he shocked his contemporaries by stating that Austrian Jews were not German but belonged to a distinct nation whose destiny must lead it to regain Palestine.

So, as a young boy, an alienated, clever, they’re all clever, as a young alienated, clever boy, he realises, you know, you can smell it in the atmosphere, and maybe the outsider smells it better than anyone else. He becomes very involved in Hebrew and Hebrew journals when he meets Perez Smolenskin. This is going to be very important to him. And he’s going to become one of the major contributors to Smolenskin’s very important work, HaShachar . So, when he’s 18 years old at the university that it’s he who comes together with Reuben Bierer and under the auspices of Smolenskin and also of Leon Pinsker. They are going to create Kadimah. Now, he writes a lot about it. He says this, the individual Jew may have a fatherland, but the Jewish people has none and this is his misfortune. Now, this is his definition of Zionism. Zionism comprises the following factors. Recognition, remember he’s coined the term. Recognition the Jewish people as an entity, which by virtue of its cultural gifts has a natural right and obligation to exist as an entity and to act as such. You see, we’re back to the old canav, what does the word Jew mean? His grandfather would not have puzzled over that word, but Jew was a Jew was a Jew. His grandfather was a religious. He would not have thought in himself as a subject of the Habsburg Empire. Because remember, Krakow came under Habsburg rule, or a subject of the Polish crown. That’s not how they would’ve thought. This whole notion of are you a citizen of the country in which you live of the Jewish religion? This is what most Western and middle European Jews are aspiring to. And because of the rise of anti-Semitism, because he sees it palpably, he’s saying, you know, it’s not real, it can’t possibly be real.

Now he goes on to say, the realisation that the situation of the Jewish people is thoroughly degrading and unfortunate. The conviction that it’s necessary completely to transform the international legal and economic situation of the Jewish people. We must find a territory that will shelter and a rallying place for Jews fleeing from the Roth of perpetrators as well as a support centre for the entire Jewish people. Why is he saying this. Kadimah is going to be found? Why? What has happened in 1881, 1882. The pogroms in Russia after the assassination of Alexander II. We’ll be dealing with Russia after Pesak just as we’ll be dealing with the Habsburg empire. So, I’ll be talking a lot. My colleagues will be talking a lot about that then. The view that only one country is suited to be this shelter and rallying place, this support centre, Palestine, the ancient national home of the Jewish people. He goes on to have a career in the Zionist movement. He becomes Secretary General of the Zionist organisation. He was far more of a cultural rather than a political Zionist. He quarrelled dreadfully with Theodore Herzl. Theodore Herzl is a fascinating man, and of course we’ll be giving him a whole lecture. So, suffice to say they didn’t get on very well, and he actually begins to move away from the whole idea of political Zionism. And ironically, his next phase was the Gallup nationalism. Is it possible in the empire for Jews to have their own space? And he really switches because in 1908, he becomes the chief convener of Yiddish language conference held in Czernowitz.

He took the place of Sean Larkin, who was critically ill. And again, as he grew older, he became more and more religious. He goes back to orthodoxy. By the first World War, he is again an Orthodox Jew. And he wanted to be a saviour of his people. He continues to write and lecture. But what I’m concerned about, in his early days, it’s very much the whole notion of Zionism, as if you like, the only way out of antisemitism. Now, so what they do is they come together. Of course, where do they come together? They come together in one of Vienna’s coffee houses. It’s actually the first meeting as at the end of 1882. And this is a declaration in Hebrew proclaimed by Schnirer and Birnbaum. This is the purpose. Their first public act by the way, was to fly post the University of Vienna with a new message of Jewish nationhood. And you can just imagine what it did. So, you’ve got the anti-semites flooding the university. Now this young organisation is flooding the university with its own publications which made it even more… It embarrassed, I think, Jewish assimilationists even more than the Gentiles. That was their first public of attitude. And this is the declaration, the actual proclamation. Its purpose is to treasure and sustain the spiritual wealth of our people. Only from the abundant riches of Jewish literature can the next generation learn to love the Jewish people and only from any exhaustible sources of Jewish history can it draw any useful and fruitful lessons for the future of the Jewish people.

To attain this goal, the young society will need all the moral material support of those in whose breast a Jewish heart still beats. Give us your helping hand in the firm conviction of contributing towards a sublime and multi purpose the regeneration of the Jewish nation. And what they do is, within Kadimah, they develop a cult of the Maccabees and the climax of every year’s programme was the Hanukkah celebration. And at the first Hanukkah celebration in 1883, this is what Birnbaum said, the spirit which inspired Yehuda Hamaccabi to his unforgettable deeds has been revived. The spiritual creator free Israel united in brotherhood. Now, you can imagine the kind of responses that this is going to have. Now, this is Schnirer. We have the pride and joy to be the first to have ignited the remnant of Jewish spark in the heart of our students in Vienna. First resounded the cry, I am a Hebrew. Soon it will come from Berlin, Paris and the response will be from other students. We are all Hebrews. And interesting, it emerged as the major defender of Jewish honour. Can we see the picture of a group of students? We don’t know their names. There you have four students who are members of the Kadimah Fraternity in 1895. Now, what was fascinating? They become the main group that would take on, they would challenge the German students to Jews. Do you remember yesterday when I was talking about one of the great works of Schnitzler, the way to the open. I talked about the young student who had managed to defeat the anti-Semite in Julie. They became expert fencers. And of course, the one of the reasons the German Student Fraternity didn’t said Jews had no honour, too many of them were being defeated by, in the main, these Eastern European Jews who were working at the University of Vienna.

And in 1891 when Grand Duke Sergei became the, who’s the Czar’s uncle, became the governor of Moscow, the Jews were expelled. That was his present. They had 24 hours to get out of town. Kadimah was the only real organisation in Vienna that spoke out against it. And they screamed about the passive response of the community. And there was a fascinating meeting in May, 1893 where every Jew should give satisfaction. And we know that within that month, six Jews were fought with German students and they won every one of them. The Barkok was very much their hero. And later on, of course, when Theodore Herzl erupts on the scene, he becomes… This is the group that’s going to be the real centre of Herzl Zionism in Vienna, because we’re going to find out that he has a terrible time from the majority of the assimilating Jews of Vienna. But now I want to turn to Perez Smolenskin because he really is the man who really is their spiritual father. They meet with him and he and Leon Pinsker are going to become their honorary presidents. And of course they are both Eastern European. And I’m going to give you a bit of background to him. He was a fascinated… He didn’t live a long life. He was quite an ill man, unfortunately. He was a very spiritual man. He’d been born in a small little statral in the province of Mogilev. Life of poverty, sickness, hardship. At five, he witnessed his brother being taken as a cantonist. Many of you will know what that is and I’ll be dealing with it next term. Cantonist, back in the reign of Nicholas I, he was known as the military czar. Surfs were conscripted into the Russian army for 25 years. Jews for 31. Jewish boys for 31. The first six years was considered to be the Russification process.

So, these young boys were given treat to eat. They lived a life huge hardship. And basically, when a boy was taken, the family would sit shiver for them. And we know that he saw that happen to his brother. And he of course never heard from his brother again. His father died when he was very young. A year later he joined his brother at a yeshiva. He stayed there for five years studying and he had no money. And at the Yeshiva, various families would feed the young students. He called them the eating days. Not every day would he be given the meal, but say, three times a week. Members of the community would make sure that he ate. His brother introduced him to the ideas of the Haskalah and he learned Russian. He began to read secular books in a seriously bright Yeshiva student. And of course he was persecuted for it within the yeshiva for daring to look at the outside world. You know, that other big debate that we don’t ever have enough of. What may a Jew study. What is actually permissible. Is the language permissible? Is the literature of other… Maths says no problem. Sciences. But how much can you absorb yourself in the philosophy, the history, the culture, the language of the country in which you live?

So, he actually flees, he flees to various civic centres. He later on, he becomes very critical of them and he supported himself by singing in their choirs, by preaching. And we find him in Odessa in 1862. Odessa is a fascinating city and we will have at least one session on it. Because Odessa was a third Jewish. It was a port within the Russian Empire, but it was a long way from the centre and it was more free than anywhere else. And it was in Odessa that there was a whole group of young people interested in the Haskalah. They worked in Hebrew and actually in 1862, they created a society for the advancement of culture within Russia because that was in the reign of Alexander II, more about him next term, who was Czar liberator and he seemed to be lessening the burden of his minorities. Can we go back to that other. Can we go back to Smolenskin please, Judi? We slipped. Thank you. Yes. He had a very…

• [Judi] Trudy, I’ll just ask. Someone’s asked if you could just slow down a little bit.

• Yes, of course.

• [Judi] And also, I know you’re tapping your pen. If you wouldn’t mind not tapping. Thank you.

• [Judi] Thank You.

• I’ve stopped it. It’s a bad habit. He had a very, very interesting literary career. He wrote many articles in his Hebrew journal. Hamlets, his first story. His first story, he does describe the in gratitude of the polls towards the Jews who had helped in the Polish revolt. He’s already feeling very, very alienated. And already he’s looking for a new destiny. His first novel was the joy of the Godless and he trade… I mentioned that he had a Haskalah background. He was very smart. He took aspects of Hamlet, of Faust, and he attached them to the Book of Joe and Ecclesiastes. And he said, look, these great works. Think Hamlet, think Faust. People who sell their souls, people who have to go through all these terrible tribulations. They’re within the framework really of the Hebrew Bible. Anyway, he wanders off from Odessa, he travels through Romania, Germany, Bohemia. That he finally settles in Vienna where he survives as a proofreader and as a Hebrew teacher. He dreamt of studying at the university. You see, he’s got this strong Jewish education. He’s against Hasidism now. He’s against traditional orthodoxy. He’s against assimilation. He has many languages. He wants to study at the university, but he hasn’t got any money. He wanted a very systematic secular education. So, what he does is he has to make money as a proofreader, getting jobs wherever he could. He actually, as I said, he founded HaShachar which Bernbaum wrote for, and it becomes the most important Hebrew platform of the whole of the enlightenment. He worked on it for 17 years. It totally consumed him emotionally, intellectually, financially. What he wanted?

He wanted the Jewish people to be aware of their terrible plight. He wanted to strengthen their eternal resources. But also, he wanted them to have a real enlightenment. You see, he believed you could walk both worlds but remain a Jew. But he was very critical of those who aped the Gentiles. Can we see the next quote, please, Judi? This is from his famous book Let Us Search Our Ways. He says this, “He is very upset by the way the Jews of Vienna are aping the Gentiles.” This is of course what Schnitzler writes about. This is what so many other on the edge Jews, whatever their role, they see something very unwholesome in it. Remember, this is a man who has studied his own history. He thinks that the Jew, our history is just as good as anyone else. And this is what he wrote. We have no sense of national honour. Our standards are those of second class people. We find ourselves rejoicing when we are granted a favour and exalted when we are tolerated and befriended. Jewish writers sing aloud for joy when a Jew happens to be honoured. They do not tyre of praising the graciousness of this or that Gentile who overcomes his pride and make some slight gesture towards a Jew. He warned of the Haskalah of Berlin and Vienna. He said, you’re taking away the pillars of Israel. We will have nothing left. He wore himself out though. I should mention that in the first copy of HaShachar, he said this, “I feel like I am honoured walking amongst the population in the prarta during a fest. He absolutely loathed the attitude of the Viennese assimilationists towards the a Austrian. And he said this. I’m summarising for you. I really think you should read some of his works. There’s a brilliant book by, it’s now by Gil Troy.

The first one was by Arthur Hertzberg. It’s called Zionist Idea. Gil Troy has updated it and it gives you all the major tracks of Zionism. And those of you who want to take it deeper, it’s a really the Zionist idea. I’ve recommended it before. So this, I’m summarising. He said, "Jews have cast out their group solidarity. They’ve abandoned all hope of Zion. They’ve abandoned all hope of reviving the Hebrew language. And the reformers who so much want to be part of Vienna are undermining the unity and the memory of the Jewish nation. We are obsequious in the face of anti-Semitism. We blame ourselves for it. If they hate us, we think it’s our fault. We try and ape the Gentiles.” But remember, he doesn’t deny the value of Western civilization. On the contrary, his objective was to modernise the way the Jews think and to the whole range of Jewish thought. He believed you could walk both worlds. He said, we have a struggle on two fronts. Counterfeit assimilation of Western Jewry and the reactionary orthodoxy of Eastern Jewry. If you like the perfect mentor for this group of young students, as I said, they come from outlying parts of the empire and they all live in a margins of the Viennese society. And they all are very much horrified by the way Jews are trying so hard to ingratiate themselves into a Vienna that is more and more despising them. Because let us think where we are now. 1880s, 1890s. By 1897, Karl Lueger, the anti-Semitic man is mayor of Vienna. He said this. He said assimilation is national suicide. Can we have another one of his quotes please, if you don’t mind, Judi? If you could go onto the next slide. I think I have another quote telling not…

• [Judi] We have it. We are on the next slide, Trudy.

• Oh, sorry. Its basic intention which was presented as a very word of God was quite simple. Imitate the Gentiles. And as a reward for such great achievement, so these upright and wise teachers are such shortest our children and our children’s children or their children will be accepted as equals. The consequence of this doctrine were first the destruction of the sentiment, which is the unifying principle and the strongest foundation of Israel that we are a nation. And second, the abandonment of the hope of redemption. Thank you. Thank you for that, Judi. And the last quote, the sense of history alone is a great and uplifting thought, an inspiration to respect and to hold on it dear. For 4,000 years, we have been brothers and children of one people. How can I sin against hundreds of generations and betray this brotherhood? So, important to remember, this man is their major. He’s very much their mentor. And the other one is of course, the extraordinary Leon Pinsker. So, can we please see him? Leon Pinsker. 1821 to 1891. Again, born in the Russian Empire and he, of course, is going to be with Kadimah in Vienna. He’s born in Tomaszów in the Russian Empire. His father was a Hebrew language teacher and a scholar. He went to a private school in Odessa. I’ve already mentioned that Odessa was a much freer place than anywhere else in the Russian empire.

His father was already enlightened and provided him with a secular as well as a Jewish education. You see, it’s very interesting, isn’t it? This is something that we still have to play with today. Those Jews who live in the diaspora have a real sense of being Jewish. What does that mean? Is our knowledge of Jewish history, is our knowledge of Judaism going to be as good as our knowledge of the outside world? This is what these people are grappling with. Whereas, in what’s happening to the majority in Vienna, in Berlin and it has to be said in Paris and London, the Jews who are emancipated, they are saying, we are citizens of the countries in which we live of the Jewish religion. And religion for many of them is being more and more likely warm. So, it’s far more likely that they are going to be writing French books, German books than they are going to be writing Hebrew books. And they’re not going to be writing Jewish history. Its fascinating how so many of them became great historians of Germany, of France, even of Britain. So, which way do we go? So, his father though provides him with both. He went to a Russian high school. He studied law at the University of Odessa and he received a medical degree as well. So, he is both, a lawyer and a doctor. He goes back to Odessa, he’s on the staff of the local hospital. He became one of the leading physicians in Odessa. He was even honoured by Nicholas, the First, which is absolutely rare. Why? Because of his services during the Crimean war. There was a terrible outburst. There was a terrible outbreak of typhus. And he was extraordinary that he really gave everything to try and help those tragic characters who were suffering from typhus in the infirmary. He took a great interest in Jewish affairs. He was a very big, wide man intellectually and physically. He wrote for two of the earliest Russian Jewish papers. Now, this is fascinating. Why am I mentioning Russian Jewish papers. Switch, if you will, to Russia. After the death of Nicholas I, till he is known as the czar liberator, his son, big upon, his son Alexander is known as a czar liberator. Nicholas I was the one of the cantonists. He was very harsh. But he lost the Crimean war very, very, very badly.

And his son realised he had to reform. That’s why there’s a small number of Jews in his reign. What he does is he relaxes many of the oppressions against his minorities because he has to modernise. Much more about him later on. But the point is it affects people in his realm, including the Jews. And there was this brief period in the early years of Alexander II reign, when Jews particularly in centres like Odessa really believed that maybe Russia would emulate the West. And they set up a Hebrew language newspaper. They even suggested that Jewish women take Russian wet nurses for their babies to imbibe the milk of mother Russia. And he was active in the society for the promotion of culture amongst the Jews of Russia. What I’ve mentioned before when I talked about Smolenskin. He believed that Alexander II would make a difference. And he believed that we could have Jewish culture, Hebrew culture, and Russian culture. There was a terrible pogrom in 1871 in Odessa which shook him, but it didn’t shake him enough. And it wasn’t until 1881 that he completely changes. What happens is, of course, Alexander II is assassinated. One of the people associated with the plot, very tenuously associated with Jewish. And the czarist government under Alexander III very cynically decided that the Jew was going to be the scapegoat because all the reforms of Alexander II were gradually being eroded. The son… You know that line in the Hebrew Bible, when Solomon dies, the representatives of the 10 of the tribes come to see his son, Rehoboam, and they say, you know, lessen our burden, make it easier for us. And Rehoboam consults his advisors and he says, no, you’ve got to be tough. They say to him.

So, he comes to see them and he says, my father chastised you with whips. I will chastise you with scorpions. In other words, I’m going to make it much more worse. You know, the 10 pronged whip. And that signals the great divorce between Israel and Judah. However, this is exactly what happened with Alexander III. He and his advisors, they pushed the lid back on. They used the Jews as a scapegoat. And there were over 200 pogroms. Unbelievable horror. 1881 to 1882. And this is what changes him. He sees terrible outrage. The American ambassador actually writes, “The acts that have been committed are more worthy of the dark ages than the previous century.” And the problem was they were government inspired. Can you imagine, you know, in the 19th century, this whole notion of progress. What is progress? It’s a fascinating in the light of what happened, of course, with the 20th century. One wonders what we mean by progress. And, of course, Pinsker leaves the society. He said, we must have new remedies, new ways must be found. He went to central and Western Europe to advocate. The idea of working with the bulk of Jewry to create a national state. Now, Adolf Jellinek, who I’ve mentioned to you before, he was the rabbi and preacher at the great Ashkenazi Synagogue in Vienna. He was a close friend of Pinsker’s father. So, he contacted him and the response from Jellinek was, you need help. So, can we please see the quote of Jellinek?

Let me read it very slowly. Do you really expect me to accept all your propositions and conclusions to join with you in raising up the sky blue flag of a Jewish state and political nation? In such a case, I should have to deny my entire past and retract all the sermons I have delivered for more than 30 years. From the days of Moses Mendelssohn, and particularly since the great French Revolution, the Jews have sent their best men out to fight for their recognition and civic equality in European states. Have they done all this to abandon, in the year 1882, everything that they have achieved, to gave up all they have fought for and gained and to acknowledge that they are strangers without a fatherland and with a wondrous staff in hand set out for an uncertain new fatherland. And of course, it’s him, with Smolenskin that really crystallises Kadimah. He writes his ideas in a pamphlet called Auto Emancipation and he places 150 copies of it at the disposal of Kadimah. And in a letter from Odessa, he praises the Viennese fraternity commitment to the raising of Jewish self-awareness. Now, what happens to that particular group? If they have a Hanukkah, they become more and more involved in the cult of the Maccabees and more and more interested if you like creating almost a fighting force to liberate the Jews. So, this is a thread and I think you can see how these various threads are coming together. So, you have a small group of students who are now challenging German students to Jews who are affronting the bourgeois Jews of Vienna, who now have two great mentors with Pinsker and Smolenskin. And the word Kadimah was actually given by Smolenskin. It means upwards and also eastward. So, where we look?

And Jellinek also was very worried about this whole notion of trying… He was worried that if you get this idea in your heads, because Pinsker hadn’t completely focused on Palestine, Smolenskin had. Pinsker said, one of the problems with the Jews is we have a ghost-like appearance on the face of the world. Who are we? We’ve got to become real men again. And of course what’s happening in Russia, there’s going to be more and more young people who are going to be thinking this way and it all comes together really with Theodore Herzl. He’s the one who creates political Zionism. So, what I’m going to do in my next presentation, I’m going to look at Max Nordahl, then I’m going to have a look at Theodore Herzl. But bear in mind please that this is minority. The bulk of Viennese Jews believed on one level. You see, this is the problem. Yes, there was anti-Semitism. Yes, there was an anti-Semitic mayor. Yes, there were all these crazy racists with their very weird theories. But on the other hand, Jews were doing very well economically, not so much the Eastern Europeans. And it must be said that Jews who’d made it were not that good to those who were coming in. But tragically, that always happens. It happened in England, it happens everywhere. There were some who would give charity like the Rothschild family. But if you think about it, they could go to the opera, they could go to the theatre. There was so much they could do that they could never do before. So consequently, we must be careful with hindsight. If you lived in Vienna in 1900 or in Paris or in Berlin, you would still on balance have to say, this is the best century we have experienced in the old Christian world for really since the beginning. So, which way will we go? And never forget also that Zionism was a minority movement, right up till the second World War. You know, in 1933 there were only 215,000 Jews in Palestine, out of 18 million Jews in the world. So, on that note, I’m trying not to be too prescriptive because I realise when I’m teaching you this, you know what happens. But I’m trying as it were to try and set it for you. So, shall we have a look at questions, Judi? If that’s all right. Okay.

Q&A and Comments:

Also, it means forward and upwards, Mary, but also, they meant it to meaning eastwards, which is interesting. Elliot, please define social darwinism.

Okay. I talked about that when I talked about racial madness in Vienna. Taking the ideas of Charles Darwin, they took these ideas. There was a group of sort of spurious, phoney philosophers. They took those ideas and transferred them to races and they said some races by blood are best able to survive.

Q: Kadimah. How much is pan journalism pro Prussian considering that Prussianism became the dominant nation of the German peoples?

A: It’s a very good question, David. It was split. I’ll be looking at the Linz Programme and Victor Adler in a couple of weeks. Some Jews believed passionately in trans Joseph and Austrian German. Others believed in being part of the Prussian wanting unity with Germany. But in the end, the group that was in charge of that, of the Linz Programme characters under George I, they banned Jews.

Oh, sorry Michael. The first part of the name of the series is Fall of Eagles, Fall of Eagles. Those of you who don’t know, it’s a very good British production on the end of the empires. The end of Franz Joseph’s empire, the end of Wilhelm II Empire and the end of Nicholas II Empire. And there’s also an excellent film, which stars wonderful Janet Suzman called Nicholas and Alexandra. And this is giving you a sort of warning in advance when we moved to Russia after Pesak later on, Janet, who plays Alexandra, she’s agreed for me to interview her about that. So, Fall of Eagles. Very good programme. And don’t forget that tonight. And don’t forget tonight, of course, that I’m interviewing Frank Tallis about his wonderful series, Vienna Blood. You mentioned Odesa and Pesak.

Q: Can you mention Jabotinsky?

A: Shelly, the problem I have is I’ve given lots of lectures on Jabotinsky in the past. I will be talking about Jabotinsky. Jabotinsky is absolutely seminal. But remember, he’s not born till 1880. He comes later. I attended a Perez school in after the war in Lodge. You know, I don’t know the answer to that, Bernice. It’d be fabulous to find out. Lodge was a fascinating city. You know, it was a third Jewish, a third German, and a third polish. There’s a very good film by Andre Vida, the great Polish filmmaker on Lodge. I know, the subtitle is The Plutocrats of Lodge. No, that was Île Perrot.

Why do I even bother? There’s always someone online who knows it. That’s lovely. How did Haskalah work in Hebrew when HaShachar was not modernised. It wasn’t HaShachar modernised it, it was Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, David. And you are a little bit off time wise. They were going back to the original sources already. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda codified it.

Q: I’m curious about descendants of these early zionists. Did any of them make it out of Europe to achieve their dreams?

A: You know, that’s an excellent question. A lot of them didn’t, no. No. Herzl’s children didn’t. One grandson of Herzl survived. His family were tragic. Max Nordahl had a child by a Gentile. She was brought up as a gentile. Smolenskin didn’t have children. Bierer died, committed suicide rather than faced the Nazis.

I’m the director of one of them now. Who are you? Who are you? Some of them did. Who are you?

Rose, we have studied this history for a long time. Now, what do we learn? The ugly resurgence of the freedom to be anti-Semitic. Today, I read, in UK alone this year there’s been 2000 anti-Semitic attacks and somewhere other. Yeah. Look Rose, well, we can’t go around in, Rose, tinted spectacles, but we’ve also got to be careful. There is, look, we have social, economic and political crisis in the West. We also have a pandemic. And we all know or do we not, that we are not all rational beings. Perhaps none of us are rational beings all the time. And it’s easy to blame scapegoat. What I find most worrying is that other victim groups blame us too. The other victim group see us as perpetrators. Now having said that, I think the situation is very different now. I don’t often get involved in political conversations because I think we all have our own views. But my view is quite… Look, to start with, there is a Jewish state which makes a huge difference. Number one. And also, may I suggest to you if it’s true that many great historians think we’re living in the decline of the West, new empires will rise.

The empire of China and the empire of India. India has excellent relations with Israel. China, you say… I don’t really want to get into the politics of China because I’m sure that… No, I’m not going to go there. But what I’m saying is, historically, the world is very different for the Jews. And also, never forget that we do have a lot of friends who also find antisemitism quite sickening. And we have to wait and see. What I really think is when society stabilises and it probably will, then I think we will live at a different level. But yes, of course it’s worrying and we must be vigilant. But the question you have to ask yourself, is there’s anything that you can’t do because you’re Jewish? And I think that to me is the line that I never want to cross. So, I think it is different, Rose. Just finishing reading Cald by Isaac. See a stunning picture of Orthodox nine. Yes, you see, we had a whole session, few sessions with lovely David Hermann on Yiddish literature. I think probably when we do Russia, we should bring some Yiddish in again.

Q: Yes, Kitty, I did see Leopoldstadt. I saw it three times, actually. What did I think of it?

A: I think it got much better by the end. I think it was Tom Stoppard’s own journey. These amazing leaders have made major streets in Israel named after them. It’s fascinating. There is a very good book called The Streets of Tel Aviv. You can teach Jewish history through the streets of Tel Aviv Smolenskin Eve. It means Kadimah.

Marilyn, repeat it. It means forward, but it also means, I think, it means Eastwood. The idea is both Eastwood and Westwood look forward. Some are saying I’m not too fast. I don’t know. I’m trying to slow down. I get too excited. So Jack, we’ve got them.

Oh, I’ve lost the questions again. Sorry. I’m sorry if you see my hand, but my machine goes up, not down. Still life in Longe, yeah.

That’s interesting. Max Nordahl’s daughter was married to my grandfather’s brother and I knew her. She saw herself as a Jew and often came to Israel.

That’s interesting, Edna. She claimed descent from Abbra Benell through her father. He was a fasc… I’m going to talk about Max Nordahl on Tuesday. He was a fascinating character.

Marcy, its Vienna Blood. You’ve just about got time to watch it. Well, some of it. The truckers amassing on the borders are shouting anti-Semitic statements. Did you actually hear them or got it from news?

Michael Block is talking about Jewish self-hatred. I must mention to you that Professor Ken Gemes is going to be giving a presentation on water and vinegar who really did suffer from Jewish self-hatred. Michael is being very militant, so I’m not going to repeat it. Anyway, I’m going to stop now so that you have a chance to have a cup of tea and I hope you will listen to Frank tonight. So, thank you all very much and I will see you hopefully in an hour.

• [Judi] Hey, Trudy. Bye bye everybody.