The Jewish Struggle: Emancipation Dreams and Harsh Realities

Life for Jews in Muslim countries was historically more stable compared to their lives in Europe. In Europe, Jews faced frequent pogroms (violent riots against Jewish communities) and expulsions. In many Islamic lands, Jews lived in a sort of uneasy balance, they paid the jizya (a special tax for non-Muslims), bowed to the authority of Islam, but were not forced to convert under threat of death or banishment from their cities.

But in modern times, things began to change.

In the 18th century, the winds of the Enlightenment swept through Europe. The “old world” was being reexamined in the hope of building a “new,” enlightened, and advanced society. Among these new ideas came a shift in thinking about Judaism and the Jewish people. For centuries, Jews had been excluded from citizenship and subjected to countless restrictions. Now, they were offered emancipation, full and equal citizenship, with the same rights as other citizens.

For the first time, Jews in France could be considered truly “French,” and Jews in Germany, “German.” Many saw this as a kind of redemption. Why wait for the Messiah to bring us out of exile, when we could now be part of the nation around us? If Jews gave up their distinct customs, ate non-kosher food, and spoke the local language, they could blend in completely.

Gentiles also voiced such ideas. The German playwright Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, in his play Nathan the Wise, portrayed a Jew who, by embracing the moral and cultural ideals of the Enlightenment, was seen as the equal of any German. The underlying message was clear: behave properly, and anti-Semitism will vanish.

For a while, it seemed to work. Jews integrated into European culture and rose to positions of influence. They entered politics and sometimes at the highest levels. In Britain, the great Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli had been born Jewish (though baptized as a child). In Italy, three Jewish Prime Ministers served, Alessandro Fortis, Sidney Sonnino, and Luigi Luzzatti. Jews contributed greatly to global economics, to German music, to poetry.

But it wasn’t enough.

In Germany, Jews became “more German than the Germans.” In France, “more French than the French.” Yet anti-Semitism remained and it simply took on a new form. If in the past Jews were hated for their religion, or accused of being moneylenders and “Christ-killers,” now the hatred focused on their very identity. Jews were branded as greedy usurers, traitors, or a parasitic race that threatened European culture. Under the banner of “freedom of the press,” newspapers published venomous articles, vicious cartoons, and open calls for hatred.

This led to the infamous “Jewish Question”: How could it be that Jews, who spoke the local language perfectly, dressed like everyone else, sent their children to Christian schools and universities, and lived completely immersed in European culture, still remained Jews in the eyes of others?

Some Gentiles, and even some Jews desperate to be accepted, claimed the answer was that Jews had not reformed enough. Assimilated Jews tried again and again to change themselves, but nothing worked. Anti-Semitism spread further, and many Europeans began to see Jews as a dangerous race—one that could not and should not be integrated. They believed that strict measures were needed to keep Jews from “harming” the nations in which they lived.

For Jews in Europe, the feeling of alienation deepened. No matter how loyal they were to their countries, no matter how much they tried to blend in, they were still treated as outsiders.

This painful reality became impossible to ignore in 1894 with the eruption of the Dreyfus Affair in France. A letter was discovered from a French officer to the German embassy, revealing that a spy had infiltrated the French general staff. Without real evidence, the authorities blamed the only Jew on the general staff—Alfred Dreyfus.

The accusation was absurd: the handwriting on the letter was different from Dreyfus’s, yet it was claimed that he had deliberately altered it to create an alibi. The press erupted with anti-Semitic attacks, calling Jews traitors and enemies of the nation.

Dreyfus was sentenced to exile and subjected to a public humiliation. In a degrading ceremony, his military ranks were stripped, his epaulettes torn from his uniform, and his sword broken in front of a crowd. The air was filled with cries of “Jewish traitor!” and “Death to Jews!”

The Dreyfus Affair left a deep scar. For many Jews, it was the final proof that emancipation had failed to solve the problem of anti-Semitism in Europe. The belief spread quickly among Jewish communities: there was no lasting answer to this hatred within European society.