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Jewish question, the expression, has several meanings.

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The expression refers to discussions and debate on the relationship between the Jews and non-Jews in their respective countries; in particular with reference to issues of Jewish emancipation and assimilation, particularly in Western Europe and Central Europe in the Nineteenth Century after the French Revolution. Various societies, political powers, politicians and writers stated and treated the question in different ways. In this context, the "Jewish question" historically included issues related with the creation of a separate Jewish state (Zionism). A notable part in this context is also related to antisemitism. The two word-term also makes reference to the Jew's own sense of identity with respect to nationalism, the choice of assimilation, and the rise of Zionism.

Early usage

An early use of the expression "Jewish question" appeared during the Jew Bill of 1753 debates in England. According to Otto D. Kulka of Hebrew University, the term became widespread in the 19th century when it was used in discussions about Jewish emancipation in Germany (Judenfrage).

The Jewish Question

On The Jewish Question

A famous negative reply to the issue was penned by Karl Marx, On The Jewish Question, (Braunschweig, 1843). He asks the question "The German Jews desire emancipation. What kind of emancipation do they desire? Civic, political emancipation." And answers: "The social emancipation of the Jew is the emancipation of society from Judaism." Karl Marx responded to Bruno Bauer's two studies on the Jewish Question focusing on religious differences by seeing a corrupt capitalist nature to be essential to Judaism, and thus preventing its assimilation.

After Marx

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Werner Sombart turned Marx on his head and praised Jews for their capitalism and presented the 17–18th century court Jews as integrated and a model for integration. By the turn of the 20th century, the debate was still at large raised to prominence by the Dreyfus Affair in France. Some favored political engagement in Europe while others, such as Theodore Herzl, proposed the advancement of the Zionist cause.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a literary fraud alleging a Jewish and Masonic plot to achieve world domination, played a key role, as did interpretations of events such as World War I, the Great Depression and the rise of Communism. All helped to raise suspicions and advance conspiracy theories.

Zionism

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With the rebirth of ethnic nationalism and the formation of the ethnic state, the Jews were clearly no longer wanted by the governments of such states. Nazi Germany adopted the term Jewish Question (in German: Judenfrage) to refer to the question (or issue) of what to do with the Jews. At first, the "answer" was visible in the form of persecution and reduction to second-class citizenship through the Nuremberg Laws, promoting their extradition out of the country. Later, during World War II, it became internment in concentration camps until finally, the genocide of the European Jews, The Holocaust, took place as the so-called Final Solution to the Jewish Question.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

The Final Solution

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Once the term was established, later the expression was also applied to earlier historical periods.

In retrospect, the half-amalgamated position of the Jews put them in a prime position to be seen as peripheral and disloyal as well as internally cohesive and conspiratory. Amidst rising anti-Semitism and the threat to the established Old Order, the Jews became a scapegoat – it did not help that a number of radicals of Jewish background were associated with these causes. Nevertheless, for reasons as complicated as this and as "simple" as historic prejudice, such conditions helped to transform the Jewish Question into what was ultimately a questioning of Jewish loyalties and a mulling over what to do with them.

See also

• Useful Jew
• Armenian Question, a similar topic about Armenians

References

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1. ^ Alex Bein (author), Harry Zohn (translation) (1990) "The Jewish Question: Biography of a World Problem", ISBN 0838632521
2. ^ Otto D. Kulka (1994). "essay based on the introduction to 'The 'Jewish Question' in German Speaking Countries, 1848–1914, A Bibliography'". The Felix Posen Bibliographic Project on Antisemitism. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Retrieved 2008-03-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
3. Karl Marx (1844). "On The Jewish Question". Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher. Retrieved 2008-03-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
4. Werner Sombart (1911). "The Jews and Modern Capitalism" (PDF). Batoche Books. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
5. Theodor Herzl (1896). "Der Judenstaat: Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage" (in German). M. Breitenstein's Verlags-Buchhandlung. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
6. Philip Graves (1921-08-16). ""Jewish World Plot" – An Exposure – The Source of the Protocols – Truth at Last" (PDF). The Times. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
7. The New York Times, September 4, 1921. Front page, Section 7 (this is a reprint)
8. • Herman Bernstein (1921). The History of a Lie. J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Company. Retrieved on 2008-03-25 at Project Gutenberg
9. Hermann Goedsche (1868). "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-03-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
10. Nora Levin (1973). "The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry 1933–1945 (small excerpt)". Schocken Books. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
11. ^ Stig Hornshoj-Moller (1998-10-24). "Hitler's speech to the Reichstag of January 30, 1939". The Holocaust History Project. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
12. Adolf Hitler (1935-09-15). "Nuremberg Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor". Retrieved 2008-03-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
13. Adolf Hitler (1935-09-15). "Reich Citizenship Law". Retrieved 2008-03-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
14. Doris Bergen (2004–2005). "Germany and the Camp System". Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. Community Television of Southern California. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
15. Niewyk, Donald L. The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, 2000, p.45: "The Holocaust is commonly defined as the murder of more than 5,000,000 Jews by the Germans in World War II." Also see "The Holocaust," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2007: "the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women and children, and millions of others, by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Germans called this "the final solution to the Jewish question."
16. Gord McFee (1999-01-02). "When did Hitler decide on the Final Solution?". The Holocaust History Project. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
17. For some extra depth, the interested reader might read Wannsee Conference as well.

• Israeli Foreign Policy and the Jewish Question

• Jewish history
• Antisemitism