Political History of Europe and the Middle East

Political History of Europe and the Middle East

            The Jewish Question on political emancipation has received considerable critiques by the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Europe. The Jews’ emancipation underscores the difference between the acceptance and legal empowerment of the Jew in the French Liberated continental Europe.[1] The Jewish mainly contested on patriotic conduct which indicates conflicting visions of these community and its leaders. Jewish elites like “Club des Intimes” postulated that common good gets served when one works to save the community’s public face at all costs. Besides, the Jews posited that the lack of national self-confidence and self-respect of unity and political initiative implicates national renaissance. The French, on the other hand, indicated the national religion of the Jews, Judaism, does not undermine the civic responsibility and morality expected of Jewish citizens.

Colonialism in the Middle East and North Africa considerably impacted the political affiliations of the Jewish. The development of science and arts’ branches in the wake of European expansion transformed how the Europeans viewed the Jews, and hence the enlightenment that all individuals are created equal. Colonial reforms sought to make the Jewish nations serviceable and useful to the state via youth enlightenment and education. The decree promised social benefits to the Jewish community and repealed legislation that mandated the Jews to wear beards and humiliating and distinctive clothing.[2] Political emancipation in Prussia ensured the abolishment of town and body taxations and allowed the Jews to leave their homes.

However, the Jews had to exhibit certain behaviors to benefit from the benefits of political emancipation. The Jews enrolled in German language schools and adopted German surnames to facilitate cultural and aesthetic changes. They got barred from using Yiddish in written legal and business transactions. In the course of the French revolution, Jewish and Protestant ideologies of political emancipation lead to the decree that the Jews should become granted everything as an individual and not as a nation. As a result, the Jews got granted citizenship at the communal autonomy with the guarantee of individual rights, equality, and liberty on the coalition that they become French and practice relegate religion to the private realm.

Conversely, political movements and ideologies of the Middle East and North Africa in the nineteenth and early twentieth century significantly different from those of Europe. The Ottoman Zionists, for instance, envisioned a Jewish community with a patriotic stand. They brought in new Jewish inhabitants, thereby stimulating growth and creating an autonomous and vibrant Jewish community without threatening the empire’s territorial integrity. The Jews have a small population dispersed across the empire, making them indispensable to learn and accomplish their Jewish duties. The Jews in Austria, Romania, and Russia have significantly pushed for reinforcing English Judaism, reviving French Judaism, and spurring the expansion of American Judaism.[3] Besides, the legal regime Zionism has transformed dramatically as the leaders in the Jewish National Movement no longer undermine the Jewish community. The existing laws are currently applied, and special privileges got excluded for Palestine and the entire empire, thereby stimulating and favoring the creation of new industrial and agricultural Jewish centers. The moral, intellectual, and material regeneration of the “Holy Land,” therefore, became achieved. The Zionist attained enormous victory with their utterance and expression of their Ottoman identity via several languages they learned in the wake of colonialism.[4]

[1] Mendes Paul, and Reinharz. (The Jew in The Modern world: A documentary History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 122

[2] Elfron john, Lehmann Mathias, and Weitzman Steve. (The Jews: A History. New York and London: Taylor &Francis Group. 2019) 274

[3] Philips, Cohen, and Stein, Sarah. (Sephardi Lives: A documentary history, 1700-1950. California: Stanford University Press. 2014), 220

[4] Philips, Cohen. (Becoming Ottomans: Sephardi Jews and Imperial Citizenship in the Modern Era. Oxford University Press. 2014), 4