Oy, it's so crowded, or Pale of Settlement shrunk

[raharris1973]

Tsar Nicholas I, around 1825, decides to constrict the Pale of
Settlement, the region of the Russian Empire where Jews are allowed to
reside. [Russian history what-ifs are easy, because with such
autocratic government, the leader can just try something nutty because
he feels like it, more than in a democracy]

Under his decree, the Ukraine and Byelorussia are removed from the
Pale, and Jews in the Russian Empire can basically only live in
Congres Poland and Lithuania. This removes over half the land area.

His rationale [the reactionary rat bastard he is] is twofold- "the
Jewish presence may be acceptable for the Papist heretics, but is an
abomination in the lands where the people belong to the true Orthodox
Church. Ivan the Terrible thought so when he expelled the Jews from
Muscovy, and what's good enough for Ivan, is good enough for me."
Additionally, in its administrative policy, the Russians attempted to
treat Ukraine and Byelorussia the same as other parts of Russia,
without special autonomy [like Poland before 1830] or special
repression, like Poland after 1830, or Chechnya, or Finland. The one
glaring administrative difference between Ukraine-Byelorussia and
Russia's Muscovite core is that the Pale of Settlement includes the
western territories. Nicholas does away with what he judges to have
been an administrative mistake.


Consequences (my first vague impressions):

1. Polish ghettos get more crowded after the decree. There's
heightened Polish-Jewish-Lithuanian tensions, and unrest. However, its
uncoordinated unrest, which assists in divide and rule strategies.

2. The concentration of the Jews in the western fringe of the empire
encourages many people to leave the empire entirely. Polish and
Jewish outmigration flows in many directions, some to the Ottoman and
Austrian empires, but mostly to points west: Prussia and the German
states, especially the Rhineland, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Paris,
Brussels, London, Stockholm. This gets started in a significant way in
the second half of the 1830s. Europe was developing economically at
this time, and border controls weren't terribly tight.

3. Consequences, the newcomers bring with them the Orthodox Judaism
that German Jews were starting to abandon at this time. Some urbane
folk in the west initially welcome these people, but the novelty wears
off after awhile and anti-semitism increases, although not
necessarilly to murderous proportions in most cases.

4. Some Jewish and Polish newcomers participate in the political
thinking of the time by the late 1840s. There's a "Young Israel"
student movement much like the Young Italy, Young Germany and Young
Poland movements that emerged at that time. It can't decide if its a
cultural movement or a Zionist movement in the years leading up to
1848. Many Jewish students also at least attempt to join the national
movements of the states where they live.
The German Confederation may do something to define ethnic
German-ness, although this would be awkward for Austria.

5. The countries where these migrants move to,the UK, Sweden,
Denmark, the Germanies, the Netherlands, were also the countries that
were exporting lots of people to the United States around this time.
In France, this leads to a bit more of a 'Rainbow France' situation,
as France was not a net exporter if emigrants. Bottom-line, alot more
Jews and Polish Catholics participate in the 1840s thru 1880s waves of
emigration to the US.

6. In the US, Old Testament loving Protestants have an initially
favorable attidue towards Jewish newcomers. However, the novelty soon
wears off, and the added non-Protestant element of the 1840s and 1850s
immigration may strengthen nativist movements. Yankees, Germans,
Jews, Poles, Irish and blacks [always in last place] are competitors
in urban areas, with shifting political allegiances depending on
circumstance.

7. Jews might be more pro-Abolitionist than other immigrant groups at
the time, but the commitment to social justice for other people might
not be that strong a trait at this historical juncture, how the migration
would effect cultural evolution in unpredictable ways, as it is coming
at the dawn of reform Judaism and only a generation and a half after
the relaxation of West European ghettos..

8. Possibly, the Jews, as non-Christians, are as ill-received as the
Chinese in the US [and other areas of white settlement], but I kinda
doubt it.

9. By the 1860s, Jewish analogues of the Fenians may show up in the
United States [the Maccabee clubs?]. Tales of Tsarist oppression by
Jewish and Polish witnesses may worsen Russia's reputation in the US
earlier [could this affect Alaska sale?]

10. There may be some attempt at agricultural settlement in the
Plains states, but this is likely to be no more popular than similar
attempts that were made later in OTL.

11. Somebody probably tries some durn fool expedition to take
Palestine: 'Operation Filibusterowitz'. Maybe Garibaldi or would-be Lord Byron
will give them some money or encouragement.

12. Back in Ukraine, some economic niches vacated by the Jews go
unfilled, and others are filled by Russians, Armenians, expatriate
Greeks and Lebanese Christians. The overalll # of uniiversity
students in Russia may be smaller too, although Russia will still make
some big cultural and economic achievements by the end of the century.

 

[Leo Caesius]

Crowded? You want crowded, already? You don't know from crowded! Now, at my Daniel's bar mitzvah, oy, let me tell you - that was crowded. I couldn't tell where my pupik ended and his tukhus started... now that's crowded.

 

[raharris1973]

I think my TL is more realistic than Straha's

Who is trying to steal my thunder. -

Seriously, social effects in the USA an West Europe of the Jewish, Lithuanian and Polish portions of the "new immigration" occuring in the middle of the "old immigration". Will this end up provoking earlier restrictionism and screw over Italians and Greeks who were ready to emigrate in the 1890s?

 

[Matthew Craw]

Presumably Polish and Jewish immigrants to teh US will be greeted with some hostility, but IMHO, probably not mnore than OTL's Irish so I doubt attitudes to immigration as such will be changed much.

The most decisive i9mpact might be that the influx of large numbers of fiercely orthodo Jews could seriously disrupt the assimilation of Western Europe's "native" Jewish communities.

 

[raharris1973]

It could make the sectarian divisions more militant -

With reforming western Jews stressing even more, "We're not like.....them".

Or, those who dislike Orthodoxy might just convert to liberal Protestantism.

 

[Leo Caesius]

In this period, however (the 1820s and 30s) the Jews pushing for reform within the various communities were presumably a very small group.

I assume that longstanding Jewish communities in the Balkan and the Mediterranean would be the preferred destination of Jews expelled from the Pale, followed by the New World. I was under the impression that the US did not become a major target for emigrants until the latter half of the 19th century.

 

[carlton_bach]

In this period, however (the 1820s and 30s) the Jews pushing for reform within the various communities were presumably a very small group.

I assume that longstanding Jewish communities in the Balkan and the Mediterranean would be the preferred destination of Jews expelled from the Pale, followed by the New World. I was under the impression that the US did not become a major target for emigrants until the latter half of the 19th century.

Not from Eastern Europe AFAIK, but there were quite a few WEsternEuropean Jews going across. Now, whether they would be less likely to go if the Eastern Jews were not coming into their countries, I don't know (but for the record, the Jewish stereotype used in European anti-semitic propaganda from the 1880 oinwards is overwhelmingly the kaftan-wearing, bearded, pajess-sporting Ashkenazi, hardly ever the urban, integrated Sephardi).

A weird development could be rather greater hostility to the Jewish immigrants. I meanm, OTL they were basically being forced out. ATL they would still be suffering poverty, resentment and discrimination, but quite a few more people in Western Europe and America might fail to see how that was an excuse to come and live in their place. At any rate, I'm gauging this by the European reactions to African immigrants based on their country of origin. Living in Ghana or the Chad is certainly not nice, yet immigrants from these countries (regardless of their personal motivation) usually face much greater hostility than those from, say, Sudan, Somalia or Zimbabwe.

 

[raharris1973]

They'rd probably have the pogrom excuse too -

I would imagine there'd be more anti-Jewish riots in Poland with a larger Jewish population - The Jews could have the reputation of the poor persecuted East Africans, and the Poles could have the rep of the jerkish, bullying economic migrant like the West Africans. Carlton, does the public at large where you're from have the sophistication to tell the difference between the different African nationalities? Wow.

But of course if they have a revolt with newspaper-selling stories of doomed heroism, the Poles could get some sympathy too.

Leo, what destination communities were you thinking of on the Med - Salonika and Istanbul? Would the Ashkenazi fit well there, weren't those comunities Sephardi and Mizrahi?

In terms of blending in, Jews crowded into the teeny pale would feel most comfortable in the Jewish communities of Prussian Poland, the Austrian Empire and Romania, all of which were Ashkenazi I believe (except for the Hungarian community which was more unique?)

Of course, Jews, and Poles who move west can take part in the great German migration west to America. German officials line the roads to America-bound ships with Yiddish and Polish signs. German state officials in the 1800s were notorious for emptying prisons and giving letters of good character to inmates who were ready to get on a boat to Brazil or America. I could see the Prussian authorities doing the same with new arrivals from the east.

 

[Leo Caesius]

If Salonika and Istanbul won't do, perhaps Sarajevo and Izmir will - there were Jewish communities throughout the Balkans and the Asian portion of the Ottoman empire, some of which were quite substantial. As for whether Sefaradim and Ashkenazim would get along with their inhabitants, well, the Jews of the 19th century were a surprisingly international lot. In fact, I was under the impression that those cities with substantial Jewish populations in Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires were the often the most cosmopolitan ones. It's true that most of the Balkan Jews spoke Ladino or Djudezmo, but Yiddish was not unknown. Furthermore, many men were literate in Hebrew, and made use of it in correspondence with Jews around the globe and during pilgrimages in the Holy Land. In fact, Hebrew was usually the only common idiom that Jews had in common, even before it was "revived" by Eliezer ben Yehuda.

The only obstacle to the Jews in these lands would have come from the governments, who may not have wanted Jews settling en masse within their borders. I'm not sure what the policies of these governments were towards immigrants and refugees, or whether they could have effectively prevented the Jews from settling down within their territory.