Opalski, Magdalena. "The Concept of Jewish Assimilation"

The problem of how to assimilate jews into the culture of Europe at that time is discussed and Walery Przuborowski's idea is to get them to marry into the families of nonjewish Europe. Intermarriage. 371 The question of Jewish assimilation in polish lit was fairly advanced when the P got a hold of it in 1870's. It was limited to questioning how the upper strata of Polish Jews only would join in. 372 the Question had been raised in 1821 for the first time in a novel only about this subject called "Leib and Sarah." it discusses the need for moral reform in Poland and with a combination of Jews and Polish aristocrats of the most enlightened caste took it up. 372 Assimilated Jews showed up in lit only in the 1840s. 373 they reached the zenith of debate in the 1860s when Wielopolski's reform gave then legal rights. It disintigrated in 1880s and so only the 70s had a decade of social ideology and literature to accompany it. The trend to speak of it in lit came about with the end of Romanticism and the beginning of the realist period. 373 the posistivist period and the discovery of Jews in literature marks a widening of social horizons in Polish literature. 374 They also left the gentry and wrote about the lower classes. In the 1880s the jews failed to assimilate and the realization of this fact helped cause the end of Positivism. 374 The P view was not the only side to the Jewish discussion. The uprising did not bring about a complete end to anti-semitism, but it did halt it a bit and even the conservatives understood that to speak in epithets was not socially acceptable. 374 P saw a future not independant, but also not utopian. They were more realistic in what they thought they could get for people's basic needs. The P looked for new ways to strengthen the entrapenurial and middle class elements in society and called on the jews to do that for them. However they didn't see an end without the total assimilation of the Jews. The jews that ended up as characters in the literature of the P period represent a great widening of Jewish characters in lit overall. they also gave greater visibility to the Jews in society and their culture and issues. 375 Writers drew on the enlightenment idea of the clash between modernism and traditions to understand the Jews. The result on the rest of the society to understand the Jews in order to address the Jewish Question was only moderate. 376 Orzeszkowa's Meir Ezofiwicz is emblematic of the P jewish lit that didn't address Anti-semitism. Jewish land owenership was quickly becoming the most talked about theme in Jewish lit. 378 Jews had the money and were taking advantage of the Poles inability to pay for their land. In Orzeszkowa's Eli Makowaer the promise to show restraint with the new rights given them is doubled by the Pole;s showing them the light of modern civilization. 378 ALthough the Polish authors showed them to be good people the jews were thr brainwashed of an oppressed cultural system. There is also little shown of the transition into the Polish world. 379 Jews were not shown to be too concerned with holding on to their traditions or having too many nuances that differed from Christianity. They were just different. 379 There was almost a dream of getting rid of Jewishness that only needed the light of modern education and Polish Culture ot cure. 380 Orzeszkowa and others didn't paint the Yiddish language in good terms. It was basically just retarded polish and laughed at. 380 Prus's Lalka shows a society that tries to reduce the new rights allowed to Jews. 381 The P press also had articles complaining of the speed at which the Jews were assimilating. 381 The Warsaw riots in 1881 saw the ending of the P illusions. Swientchowski wrote that the filure to assimilate was at the root of the problem and Orzeszkowa changed her position in an article a year after the riots. 381 She wrote about the dangers of assimilation and failed to see Jews as a separate nationality. Post 1881 the literture on Jews recognizeda more realistic view of anti-semitism impact on Jewish attitudes. It became rather pessimistic. 381 Jews in lit became more entrenched in their own cuture as a result. 382 Prus showsin lalka more strianed relations to come. The 1860s view of capitalism as a way to assimilate jews was short lived. 382 It began to show the devastation that capitalism and Jewish inclusion in the system would have on Poland. This marks a trend away from P to realism and naturalism. It was also less optimistic and more realistic if pessimistic. P showed the potential for gettingalong, but by showing the lack of Jewish nationality and opposition to yiddish it engendered a culture in the future that wouldn't offer such optimism again and lost an oportunity. 383