Use these questions to help you through the readings. Write a one-to-two page (2 pages double-spaced tops) essay based on some aspects of these readings, and be prepared to discuss the readings and your reactions to them in class. Be sure to include comments on all the readings in your essay.
"The Expulsion of the Jews by Maria Theresa", "An Eyewitness Account", "Petition of 28 December 1744. . ."
What do you make of the Jewish procession on the occasion of the birth of Maria Theresa's son, the future Joseph II? What useful historical information about Czech Jews can you glean from this contemporary description?
3.5 years after the celebratory procession staged by Prague Jewry in honor of their empress and her heir, Czech Jews found themselves on the run. What caused this reversal of fates?
Describe the violence perpetrated on the Jews of Prague. How did they attempt to deal with their misfortune?
How did the expulsion affect the Bohemian economy?
"A Successful Jew"
How do you understand the life of Israel Honig and his relations with the Habsburg emperors?
What did his "usefulness" to the state consist of? How was he rewarded for his services?
About the issue of being both a good Jew and a good
"citizen" (45): why would anyone question the
co-existence of these two elements?
"The Enlightenment of the Bohemian Jews"
1. N. H. Homberg, who was himself Jewish, seems to subscribe to a highly stereotypical view of Jewish characteristics (66+)? How do you explain this? Do these views relate to Jewish assimilation? to the Enlightenment?
2. What did Homberg and Beer have against traditional Jewish education, and Orthodox Jewish religion in general? What do you think of their proposals?
"The Emancipation of the Jews"
In his introductory paragraph, Blanning writes that Joseph II was both "concerned to make . . . [the Jews] more useful to the state. . ." and "influenced by the humanitarian teaching of the Enlightenment." Analyzing the document itself, give examples of these two components of Joseph II's motivation.
What information can you glean from this document about the conditions of Austrian Jewry prior to the 1780s? Make a list.
Putting yourself in the shoes of an 18th century Austrian Jew, would you be pleased with your emperor's ordinances, or appalled at the changes these would effect upon the Jewish community?
Was Joseph II offering his Jewish subjects total emancipation?