A Murder in Lemberg: Modern Jewish History

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The term Jewish History is used to describe a detailed study of the Jewish people that revolves mainly around their religious and cultural backgrounds. The history of the Jews is spread out over a span of more than four thousand years and affects very different groups of the Jewish generation. Our topic of study revolves around the study of Jewish history from the point of view of the Jews that had been sold into slavery and now lived outside Palestine or modern day state of Israel. These have historically been referred to as Hellenistic Jews and were mainly spread out throughout the Roman Empire. In the effort of some to embrace modernization while others chose to stick to their culture a lot of conflicting issues arose that have greatly influenced the shaping of modern Jewish history.

Modern Jewish History

On November 1, 1995, the world experienced a very rude shock. Israeli Minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered. This raised great concern all over the world, as there was fear of a flesh Jewish/Arab conflict in the event that the murderer turned out to be a Palestinian. But an Orthodox Jew, an action that raised questions on the minds of several people as to how a Jew could have murdered a fellow Jew, murdered the Prime Minister. Now that fears of a fresh Jewish/Arab conflict was out of the way the world’s attention was back to the usual events such as the existing Arab/Jew conflict in the Middle East and the Hindu/Muslim conflicts in Asia. But an historian by name Michael Stanislawski refused to be carried away from the issue. After remembering a similar event in the history of the Jews in medieval times, he decided to engage in a study that would probably give answer to the questions that crowded so many people’s mind.

In his book “A murder in Lemberg:Politics, religion, and Violence in Modern Jewish History ” Michael Stanislawski revisits history to unravel the events that led to the murder of Jewish reformist Abraham Kohn and his daughter on September 6, 1848. He too had been murdered by a fellow Jew in a conservatists Vs reformists kind of scenario and a detailed study could probably reveal the reason behind such kind of murder happening again in the Jewish society. The author in this book wipes out the general assumption that all Jews share a common Orthodox religious background and goes on to reveal that Jews have been diverse in their way of life as way far back as the mid 19^th century. He undertakes to trace the root cause of the Prime Minister’s murder to underlying issues that have characterized the history of the Jews over the period of time since the murder of Rabbi Abraham Kohn to the present. In this dramatic story, the author brings together a murder, the trial that followed as well as the religious and political climate at the time and puts these factors together to try and unravel the mystery of a similar murder in modern times.

A cloud of fear normally hovers over every effort to uncover a mysterious occurrence especially a murder and the author was not an exemption in his endeavors to unravel the story behind this murder. His worst fear though was whether the materials he required to create this volume would still be available since the event took place in 1848 and the world had gone through a series of wars since that time that could have led to the destruction of such materials. But the Harvad Ukrainian Research Institute was a good place from which to source material and it provided the author with materials on topics such as the story and life of Rabbi Abraham Kohn and the Jewish community in Eastern Europe.

The story revolves around a Jewish Rabbi, Abraham Kohn whom Australian authorities appointed to serve a community of Jews in Lemberg that was growing very fast. Most members of the Jewish community did not embrace this appointment especially the Orthodox Jews who opposed it from a religious point of view. This is because Abraham Kohn belonged to a group of Jews that embraced reform in the Jewish society and also advocated for the abolition of the special taxes that were imposed on the Jews. He also had religious and political ideas that were reformist in nature and this was bound to raise a lot of opposition from the traditional conservartists.

The author in his book gives us a brief history of the mid 19^th century Jewish community in Lemberg and in this narrative; he clearly shows that the Jews were oppressed by the Austrian authorities a kind of oppression that was facilitated by a section of the Jewish community. According to the author, the Jewish community at the time was divided into several groups. There were those who were completely opposed to reform referred to as extreme traditionalists. This was a minority group but the most influential as it constituted of the very wealthy Jews or tax farmers. Another group was the Hasidim who opposed the taxation method used by the Austrian authorities and blamed it for dividing the Jews. There was another group that embraced modernization but opposed taxation and these were known as moderate traditionalists. Another group embraced modernization but opposed any change to the Jewish religious practices and those were the moderate modernists. To widen the division was a group of extremists who advocated that everything Jewish should be modernized.

This type of division in the community was bound to raise problems because the community could no longer have a common perspective in their approach of community matters. Advocated changes were also bound to bring changes to their religion. Political and religious differences began to surface and a heated wave of hatred now characterized the Jewish community in Lemberg. The Jews were now divided into two major groups. There was the Orthodox community that chose to maintain royal to the Hasburg Empire and those who pledged their allegiance to Rabbi Kohn and joined him in his demand for independence. A wave of revolution was fast spreading across Europe at the time and the murder served a serious setback to the Jewish efforts towards reform and liberalization.

The narrative brings out four main issues that affected the Jewish community at the time and the effects of which may have gone down in history into modern times to lead to the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Though Rabin may have been assassinated for his stand on the Jewish/Arab peace process, the root cause of such extremist ideals lies in medieval history. The pace and extent that led to modernization and religious reform was bound to bring out reactions by those opposed to reform. Also at hand was the relationship that the Jewish community had with the government as they felt that some of their own were betraying them. How the Jews related with other religious and ethnic groups was also another issue and one that affects the community even today.

It is true from the author’s point of view that the Jewish culture from 1848 to 1995 has been one characterized by a lot of tragedy and massive violence as the political and religious views of the Jews continue to differ. This complexity in the religious and political environment according to the author is a phenomenon that is characteristic of practically every society in the world and what the Jews have been going through is therefore not unique to their culture. Such complexity in religion and politics has turned out to be very dangerous and seems to lead to events that are completely unpredictable.

To every problem, there always exists an underlying cause. The murder of a Jew by a fellow Jew could only result from some feeling of hatred that is not instant but that has built over a period of time and one that has probably been passed on from generation to generation. This story proves that in the course of history, there are always those that are opposed to change versus those that are ready to embrace change and that conservatism can be dangerous.

Works Cited

Michael Stanislawski. A Murder in Lemberg: Politics, Religion, and Violence in Modern Jewish History (2007). Princeton University Press.

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A Murder in Lemberg: Modern Jewish History

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