Return to Western Europe

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=150 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="03cd4c00dduajq.gif"> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Science and Jews"><U>Science & Jews</U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Mental (Building) Blocks</B><FONT SIZE="6" COLOR="#333399" FACE="Arial" >  </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#333399" FACE="Arial" >  |      </FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#333399" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mental Blocks"><U><B>home</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div>                                                   </div> <bR> <div> Return to Western Europe 1500 - 1800</div> <div> <A HREF="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~iwaniw/europe_1740.jpg" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/"><U><IMG SRC="095588a0.gif" border=0 width="600" height="394" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> <IMG SRC="0971a8f0.gif" border=0 width="538" height="143" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Various migrations are projected here on a map of around 1740. As easily can be verified there is a world of difference between the political situations of today and those of the mid-18th century. Since a large empire like Austria-Hungary has been split up into smaller countries, whereas in modern times several electorates merged into Germany. Local conditions varied considerably, either economical or political. Almost invariably the Jews had a precarious subsistence between clashing interests. Expelled from their homes by warfare, poverty or persecution, they took to their heels to find a new livelihood elsewhere. On the one hand sometimes recruited and protected by the rulers because of their economic impact, but on the other hand approached with hostility by the common man who experienced the economic competition from the “outsiders”. The hostility was quite often poked up by the clerical authorities that fought their own competition. All over Europe there was much diversity of decrees that were promulgated at different times and at different places. There was nowhere consensus, so that it always depended on the party or person that had at any one situation a decisive influence on the public affairs; and a decree once issued could always be changed overnight. Even in a country like “the Republic”, where the government took legal advice from famous lawyers like Hugo de Groot and Adriaan Pauw, they could not decide on a common policy, to the effect that each city had to define its own course of action. Frequently the actual situation could differ from the official rules because many decrees were not brought to effect.</div> <div> The migration flows were very unequally distributed over time. So Sephardic Jews - quite often as forced converts, properly called “New Christians” and denounced as “Marranos” (= swine) - were gradually entering France from the South, whereas simultaneously Ashkenazi Jews were still being expelled from Germany towards the East. When the direction of this migration of Jews reversed around 1650 towards the West it not worked out as a continuous flow. Massacres and other horrors caused many a time congestions along the well-known emigration routes. During a considerable period Altona, the Elzas and Amsterdam were popular destinations. Around 1800 Amsterdam ended up as the town, where the largest urban Jewish population of the world was concentrated.</div> <div> The Sephardic and Askenazi Jews were almost two worlds asunder. They differed in prosperity, language and liturgy. Most Sephardim were bankers or wealthy merchants, whereas at least 75 % of the Ahkenazim were reduced to poverty. The economic impact of the Askenazim was dwarfed by the Sephardim, although the Ashkenazim outnumbered the Sephardim to a large extent. The segregation was almost complete; intermarriage was rare. Yet the <A HREF="http://www.jewfaq.org/tzedakah.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.jewfaq.org/tzedakah.htm"><U>sacred duty to support their poor co-religionists</U></A> made them transgressing the boundaries. In general Sephardim supported the poor Ashkenazic refugees, and if they were not able to do so they paid the travel expenses to other destinations. In Amsterdam the Sephardim even founded a charitable society to provide food and clothing. Some went even so far as to taking many into their home, providing them with food and clothing, and giving each one some money.     </div> <bR> <div> References</div> <div> M.A. Shulvass, <I>From East to West</I>, Wayne State University Press, 1971</div> <div> C. Roth, <I>A history of the Marranos</I>, Schocken Books, 1974</div> <div> E. Barnavi, <I>A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People</I>, Schocken, 1992</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>