History of the Jews in Europe: Difference between revisions

Jews have had a significant presence in European cities and countries since the fall of the Roman Empire, including [[History of the Jews in Italy|Italy]], [[History of the Jews in Spain|Spain]], [[History of the Jews in Portugal|Portugal]], [[History of the Jews in France|France]], [[History of the Jews in the Netherlands|the Netherlands]], [[History of the Jews in Germany|Germany]], [[History of the Jews in Poland|Poland]], and [[History of the Jews in Russia|Russia]]. In Spain and Portugal in the late fifteenth century, the monarchies forced Jews to either convert to Christianity or leave and they established offices of the [[Inquisition]] to enforce Catholic orthodoxy of converted Jews. These actions shattered Jewish life in Iberia and saw mass migration of [[Sephardic Jews]] to escape religious persecution. Many resettled in the Netherlands and re-judaized, starting in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In the [[religious tolerance|religiously tolerant]], Protestant [[Dutch Republic]] Amsterdam prospered economically and as a center of Jewish cultural life, the [[Jerusalem of the West|"Dutch Jerusalem"]]. [[Ashkenazi Jews]] lived in communities under continuous rabbinic authority. In Europe Jewish communities were largely self-governing autonomous under Christian rulers, usually with restrictions on residence and economic activities. In Poland, from 1264 (from 1569 also in Lithuania as part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), under the [[Statute of Kalisz]] until the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Jews were guaranteed legal rights and privileges. The law in Poland after 1264 (in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in consequence) toward Jews was one of the most inclusive in Europe. The [[French Revolution]] removed legal restrictions on Jews, making them full citizens. [[Napoleon and the Jews|Napoleon]] implemented [[Jewish emancipation]] as his armies conquered much of Europe. Emancipation often brought more opportunities for Jews and many integrated into larger European society and became more secular rather than remaining in cohesive Jewish communities.

 

 

The Jewish population of Europe in 2010 was estimated to be approximately 1.4 million (0.2% of the European population), or 10% of the world's Jewish population.<ref name="auto1"/> In the 21st century, France has the largest Jewish population in Europe,<ref name="auto1"/><ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-jew/|title=Jews|work=Pew Research Center|date=December 18, 2012}}</ref> followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.<ref name="auto"/> Prior to the Holocaust, Poland had the largest Jewish population in Europe, as a percentage of its population. This was followed by Lithuania, Hungary, Latvia and Romania.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jewish Population of Europe in 1933: Population Data by Country |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jewish-population-of-europe-in-1933-population-data-by-country |access-date=2023-10-04 |website=Holocaust Encyclopaedia |language=}}</ref>

 

In May 1923, in the presence of President [[Michael Hainisch]], the [[First World Congress of Jewish Women]] was inaugurated at the [[Hofburg]] in [[Vienna]], Austria.<ref name="Ben-GavriêlBen-Gavrîʾēl1999">{{cite book|last1=Ben-Gavriêl|first1=Moshe Yaacov|last2=Ben-Gavrîʾēl|first2=Moše Yaʿaqov|last3=Wallas|first3=Armin A.|title=Tagebücher 1915 bis 1927|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n_LwUNv72jQC&pg=PA473|year=1999|publisher=Böhlau Verlag Wien|isbn=978-3-205-99137-3|pages=473–}}</ref>

 

==World War II and the Holocaust==

===Demographics===

{{main|Jewish diaspora|Jewish population by country}}

 

{| class="wikitable sortable"

{{Main|Jewish ethnic divisions}}

* [[Armenian Jews]]

* [[Crimean Karaites]] and [[Krymchaks]] (Crimean Jews)

* [[Georgian Jews]]

* [[Mizrahi Jews]]

* [[Romaniotes]] (Greek Jews)

* [[Turkish Jews]]