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.
"How the Prague Jews Live"
Describe Jewish life in 19th Century Prague. In what various ways did these Jews make a living? What roles did women have?
Does this description make sense in the context of the other pieces that you have read about Prague Jewry in the 17th and 18th centuries (David, "The Solemn Procession,", "A Successful Jew")?
Stefan Kieniewicz, "Polish Society and the Jewish Problem in the 19th Century"
Can one speak about Polish Jews still after the partitions of Poland?
What kinds of reforms did the ideology of the Enlightenment prescribe toward Polish Jews? What Jewish stereotypes were assumed by some of the Polish reform programs?
How were assimilation and emancipation related to one another in the Polish case? Did all Poles wish the Jews to become Poles?
Were Jews considered good Polish patriots?