Jewish Studies: Compare the Jewish Society and Culture in Two Different Time Periods - Term Paper Example

Jewish Studies: Jewish Society and Culture in Two Different Time Periods Iberian Jews The history of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula can be tracedback to the time the Second Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem. This is approximately 2000 years ago when the Jews fled their homes in search of better places to live in Europe, Northern Africa and Asia. It is during these times that some of these Jews made their way to Spain and Portugal, or the Iberian Peninsula (Pasachoff and Littman 11). The two main Jewish groups in the Iberian Penisula are the Marrano and converso and they collectively refer to themselves as the Sephardi Jews.

During the 13th century A.D., the Jewish population in Spain and Portugal was among the most prosperous in the region. During the 14th and 15th century this community faced widespread ill-treatment and persecution from Christians who forced many of them to convert to Christianity (Baskin and Seeskin 26). Many Jews fled, while others remained and chose to convert. Some of the converted Jews, or converses, did so as a formality as they continued practicing Judaism in private. The term crypto-Judaism comes from this period, when Jews could only worship while hiding.

The Jews mainly associated and married among themselves. Konner2 (146) notes that “The accession to the Spanish throne, in 612, of a king who forced the Jews to convert or leave the kingdom was a milestone in Christian persecution”. The Sephardi c Jews were highly successful in trade and administration and this caused animosity from the Christian communities living in Spain and Portugal (34). The Pale of settlement Jews The Pale of settlement is the term used to describe the territory established in 1791 by Czar Catherine the Great as a residence of Russian Jews.

The settlements were established as an effort to rid Moscow of the unwanted Jewish population (Pasachoff and Littman 13). These Jews had come to Russia after Poland’s first partitioning in 1772. They were forbidden to engage in merchant gilds unless the groups were of White Russia. The Czar at that time extended their citizenship to areas near the Pale such as Taurida and Yekaterinoslav. The limitation of Jewish movement was meant to protect the locals against what might have been considered to be economic enslavement by the enlightened and economically savvy Jews (18).

Jews faced a lot of difficulties inside the shtetls or small towns inside the Pale of Settlement. However, they were able to organize themselves and form organizations that were responsible for providing for the poverty-stricken. This was in accordance with the Jewish tradition known as tzedakah, or charity. Records show that 14% of all Jews living in the Pale of settlements relied on relief food, clothing, education and shelter (46). The Pale Jews were easy targets for anti-Jewish activities and devastating attacks known as pogroms.

The most devastating of these attacks occurred from 1881 – 1883 and again from 1903 – 1906 when targeted communities were almost wiped out and their property damaged. The Pale Settlements gave rise to the modern-day yeshiva system in which each town within the settlement supported its own students (49). There was also the controversial Haskalah movement, which aimed to modernize the culture of Jews in the settlements. The harsh living conditions inside the Pale led to the emigration of about 2 million Jews to the United States and other countries between 1881 and 1914.

However, the Pale population was not affected much since more than 5 million Jews remained in the settlements. During the WWI, the Pale lost most of the influence it had on the Jewish people after many o them immigrated to the inner parts of Russia to escape from the German army. The Pale of Settlements was officially abolished on Marsh 20, 1917 and much of it was integrated into Poland (111). Similarities and Differences The Iberian Jews were to be found in Portugal and Spain during the 1st to 15th century while those in the Pale of settlements were found in Russia between the late eighteenth and the early twentieth century.

The Jews in Iberia had a few successful years in which they were allowed to practice Judaism and live anywhere before forced conversion to Christianity occurred. The Jews in the Pale of Settlements on the other hand suffered many years living in poverty and their movements were restricted (Pasachoff and Littman 103). “They hawked their wares and services in the streets, yelling up at the tenement windows in singsong advertising chants” (Konner 255). Jews in Pale were not forced to convert to any religion and they could worship in synagogues without hiding.

The Jews living in the Iberian peninsula went through a lot of persecution when they practiced their religion, the situation being at its worst 1492. Some of them were expelled from their land especially if they refused to convert to Catholicism. I other words, both of the Jewish populations suffered oppression from among the people with whom they lived. Both groups of Jews had a propensity of acquiring wealth through trade and commerce and this made many of them successful, and also despised by other groups.

Many of the Iberian synagogues had a bipolar structure. The tebah, or bimah was situated near the wall that was opposite to the Ark. The Hekhal’s parochet or curtain was inside the doors and not outside as is common in most Jewish synagogues (117). The Pale Jews built their synagogues with minimal or no modifications to the synagogues used by Jews the world over. “New schools taught Polish literature in Yiddish, and classic cheders used it to teach Hebrew prayer and Scripture, It was spoken by porters and bagel peddlers in the urban ghettos, rabbis and ritual slaughterers” according to Konner (256)They used Yiddish in their Synagogue worship, unlike the Iberian Jews who used variations of Spanish and Portuguese for their worship services.

Works Cited Baskin, Judith and Kenneth Seeskin. The Cambridge Guide to Jewish History, Religion and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print. Pasachoff, Naomi and Robert Littman. A Concise History of the Jewish People. Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Print. Konner, Melvin. Mameh-loshn: how the Ashkenazic Jews spoke and thought. In Unsettled” an anthropology of the Jews. New York. Penguin Compass. 2003. 0142195320. Ch.12. pp247-267. Konner2, Melvin. Spain and Beyond: how the Sephardic Jews found romance.

In Unsettled” an anthropology of the Jews. New York. Penguin Compass. 2003. 0142195320. Ch.8. pp 145-173.