The Mikra Kodesh: The Role Of Anti-Communism In Galicia

Anti-semitism had risen steadily in Galicia, due to the Jewish Polish political split. Many of the Galician Jewry turned to Zionism as a means to combat anti-semitism, while reaffirming their traditional identity. The Mikra Kodesh, would change its name in 1888 to Zion. It began to focus more on political aspirations, than the cultural goals of the past. Some of its key members included, Marcus Braude, Ozjasz Thon, and Alfred Nossig. They worked to drum up support from young Jewish intellectuals. The Society offered courses in German for new secular studies, while helping to retain their Jewish traditions. This was done through the implementation of a series of cultural programs such as the language and history course. They focused on

The moment gained a more general audience through the use of Hebrew and Yiddish literature. By the Cracow Conference in 1906, Jewish politician became more vocal and won twenty seats in the Reichsrat elections of 1907. Their political platforms opposed anti-semitic legislation, and opposed pure assimilation. The Zionist movement reached its peak with Theodor Herzl, though his brand of Zionism would cause more division amongst the Galician Jewry. Herzl was able to ignite the masses interests in local politics, and therefore solidifying Zionist participation in the Diet. By 1895, the Jewish nationalist movement had about four thousand members, though most of them were intellectual students. Zionism tried to gain popularity amongst the Galician Jews, through its use of the education system and media. Students were trained in Nationalist clubs, as to prepare for University. This created a class of newly educated, politically active Jews. Many of these clubs and fraternities published weekly’s, in Yiddish and Hebrew to spend their message to the

But if so, they clearly belonged to the class of small, retrograde economically insignificant ethnic fragments who only clutter the machinery of progress and ought to be absorbed into the large, economically progressive and politically viable, national states.

Any special rejection of the Jewish plight would undermine the larger socialist movement. Instead Jewish socialists such as Otto Baur remained advocates for the German nation in its entirety. He opposed the Palestine platform, claiming that it was no more than an interest group for politics, or a populism proposal. Simply Karl Renner advocated for a cultural community based around a shared language and the arts. He advocated the differences between a nation and a State, and claimed that a multinational state was possible through the advent of democratic reforms. Ultimately Jewish Socialism was unable to gain wide support amongst the working class, like Zionism the collapse of the Empire and the coming of the Great War caused mass migrations of the Habsburg Jews, established institutions fell to the