POVERTY, DIVERSITY, AND CONFLICT: SOME REMARKS ON SUBCARPATHIAN JEWRY
The following article authored by Harm Ramkema Utrecht, first appeared in Carpatho-Rusyn American Summer 1994, Vol. XVII, No.2 and is copyright as such. No unauthorized duplication/distribution of the below article is permitted.
The Hasidic Mukacevo Rabbi Chaim Eleazar Spira was clearly wearing his heart upon his sleeve when he called his Zionist opponent Chaim Kugel, the head of the Hebrew gymnasium of that city, ''a rebellious son who forsakes the way of the Torah," and vilified him later as a "traitor to one's country.'' For Rabbi Spira, Zionists were "heretics.'' For their part, the Zionists called Spira power-hungry, corrupt, and incompetent. After World War I, the Jewish communi ty of Subcarpathian Rus' was more divided than ever before. The changes in the geographical, political, economic, cultural, and spiritual situation during the interwar years strained relations most especially between different communities within Subcarpathian Jewry, and to a lesser degree between Jews and Rusyns.
Jewish settlement in Subcarpathian Rus' dates back to the fifteenth century, although it was during the eighteenth century that large numbers of Jews crossed the Carpathian mountains and settled in the northeastern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, including Subcarpathian Rus'. Most of them originated from Galicia, where over-population, political unrest, and military conflicts made living conditions difficult. Civil war and revolts also caused material and human losses in Subcarpathian Rus' until 1711, after which the region was able to absorb larger numbers of newcomers. According to the 1787 census 6,311 Jews inhabited the Hungarian counties of Ung, Bereg, Ugocsa, and Maramaros. In the first half of the nineteenth century immigration from Galicia took place on a massive scale. This was the result of the loss of traditional Jewish autonomy and extreme poverty. Continuing immigration and high birthrates led to an enormous population growth: in 1910 the Jewish communities of the above- mentioned four Hungarian counties contained 128,791 people.
The Jewish immigrants soon got used to their new surroundings-not in the least because the region was also populated by Rusyns, whose way of living was familiar to the Jews, since Rusyns also inhabited the southern parts of Galicia. Following the Austrian-Hungarian Ausgleich of 1867, Jews were afforded equal legal status to their Christian neighbors. Although this formal emancipation in the Habsburg monarchy eased the life of the Jews, they were denied the corporate status as a nationality. Instead, they were regarded as Hungarians of the Israelite faith.
The new influx of Galician Jews into Subcarpathian Rus' caused a number of conflicts within Hungary's Jewry. While emancipation in 1867 created new possibilities for economic advancement, it also contributed to a greater differentiation within the community. A sharp rift developed between rich and poor Jews, in particular in Subcarpathian Rus'. As among Rusyns, a portion of the new Jewish economic and intellectual elite in towns like Mukacevo, Uzhhorod, and Berehovo acculturated or assimilated with the dominant Hungarian nationality . These ' 'elitist' ' Jews spoke Hungarian, took part in Hungarian culture, and many eventually moved to Hungary's capital of Budapest. The pro- Hungarian Jews felt superior to the great masses of Subcarpathian Jews, who had no part in the process of economic and social advancement and stuck to their own Yiddish culture and language. At best these Jews survived on a subsistence level as workers in forestry and agriculture or as artisans and small shopkeepers. In many ways their economic status was like that of the masses of Rusyns. It was this form of Rusyn-Jewish solidarity that led several authors to conclude that anti-Semitism never became deep-rooted in Subcarpathian Rus' as it had in neighboring regions. While the Jewish and Rusyn communities had their own distinct cultures, at the same time there was extensive interaction and mutual influences.
The economic contrasts within the Jewish community of northeastern Hungary were sharpened by religious ones. The poor Subcarpathian Jewish masses were for the most part Orthodox or Hasidic, whereas the entrepreneurial and commercial elite came to be more reform-oriented and liberal. But even among the masses there were divisions. Serious conflict existed between the Orthodox rabbi-dominated Mitnaggedim and the Hasidim, while at the same time Hasidic rabbis and their followers fought each other for control and influence. They only united to withstand the enlightened ideas coming from the assimilated and acculturated Jewish middle and upper class.
The struggle within the Jewish community of Subcarpathian Rus' did not subside after World War I, when the region became part of the new state of Czechoslovakia. In fact, many new conflicts made their way to the region. After twenty years of Czechoslovak rule (1919-1939), the old struggle between Orthodox Hasidic Judaism and Reform Judaism came to the fore again, at the very time when unity was most needed: in the face of Hungary's steps towards the Holocaust.
The incorporation of Subcarpathian Rus' in the new Czechoslovak Republic in 1919 created a new situation for Jews. According to the 1921 census, Subcarpathian Rus' was inhabited by 93,341 Jews-15.4 percent of the total population of the province. In all, Czechoslovakia had 354,342 Jews, which meant that one of every four Czechoslovak Jews lived in Subcarpathian Rus' (not ''roughly half' as Abramson states in his very interesting essay on the Holocaust). By 1930, the absolute number had risen to 102,542, or 14. 1 percent of the Subcarpathian population. How and where did these Jews live? The Prague Zionist weekly Selbstwehr, which devoted a lot of attention to the fate of the Subcarpathian Jews, outlined their situation as follows:
Of the 100,000 Jews in Subcarpathian Rus', about 60,000 live in villages. While Jews in cities and provincial towns live in scantily furnished houses, the dwellings of the village Jews are in a miserable state and hardly differ from those of non-Jews. They are mostly made from wood, containing a front room (or entrance- hall) and a living room. The living room serves at the same time as a kitchen, bedroom, dining room, etc. A Jewish house in a village can be recognized by its windows, which are larger than those of other houses. In addition, Jewish houses are adjacent to each other. Characteristically, the center of every village is inhabited by Jews, while non-Jews live on the edge of the village. It is rare to find a solitary Jewish settlement. A Jewish family counts an average of 7 or 8 souls, but families with 10 to 12 members are not uncommon.
Although the majority of Jews lived in rural areas, the most important cities of Subcarpathian Rus' also counted large Jewish communities (up to 48 percent). The 1921 census, which is elaborately discussed in Selbstwehr, also offers data concerning the professional structure of the Subcarpathian Jews:
Agriculture, forestry and fishery 26.9%
Artisan and manufacturing
industry 23.6%
Business and finance 26.4%
Transport 3.9%
Public service and free professions 5.2%
Army 0.2%
Housekeeping, no
(mention of) profession 13.7%
The census further differentiated social groups within Subcarpathian Jewry. About 70,000 were self-employed and about 18,000 were laborers. Looked at another way, 75 percent of all Subcarpathian Jews were dependent on the work of the remaining 25 percent.
Since about 26 percent of Jews lived from agriculture, Subcarpathian Rus' had the largest percentage of Jewish peasantry in all of Europe. In the 1920s, a small group of Jewish large landowners profited from Czechoslovakia's agricultural reforms, although the economic dislocations of the interwar period caused widespread hunger, especially in the mountainous areas. Conditions were a little better in the Subcarpathian cities and provincial towns. In Mukacevo and Slatina, the new rich could be found. Nonetheless, a great part of the self-employed Jewish artisans were unable to share in the opportunities offered by the improvements in municipal infrastructure. Small workshops were not in a position to compete with the mass-produced industrial products from the more developed Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. Jews also had new economic rivals in a rising Rusyn middle class of shopkeepers and merchants, who were encouraged by the Czechoslovak authorities to form cooperatives. Another factor aggravated the situation: the improvement of the Subcarpathian school system created a new layer of educated Rusyns, who competed with the Jews for government and civil service positions. As a result of these developments, relations between Rusyns and Jews became more strained in the 1920s.
The world economic depression only worsened conditions, especially in the agricultural sphere. In 1932, Selbstwehr stated that ''this winter tens of thousands of Jews in Ruthenia suffer from hunger," and although the masses of Rusyns shared their fate, a familiar scapegoat entered the scene. In 1935, a Jewish member of the Czechoslovak parliament from Subcarpathian Rus', Chaim Kugel, protested "against any attempt to blame the poverty of the Subcarpathian peasantry on the Jews."
Illustrative of the change of climate was an accusation in 1930 against two Jews, who were accused of wounding and bleeding Rusyn children for ritual purposes. The affair was widely covered in Czechoslovak press organs. It was not until January 1932, however, when the economic crisis was at its height, that the Zionist weekly, Selhstwehr, reported the rise of a real state of pogrom in the region of Velykyj Bereznyj, where the Jews, according to the 1921 census, comprised only about 7 percent of the population. The existing social tension was in part related to rumors that Jews were trying to bribe the judges to cover up the affair. Nonetheless, the Selbstwehr did not report any lootings or physical attacks. In the end, the accused Jews were acquitted because of lack of evidence. Although other kinds of anti-Jewish denunciations were reported in the 1920s and 1930s, such as a widely reported blood-libel affair in 1924 and accusations of Jews exploiting Rusyn peasants by selling them alcohol at exorbitant prices, the conditions for Jews in Subcarpathian Rus' were in no way as difficult as in neighboring countries of eastern Europe like Hungary, where state-supported anti-Semitism seemed to be the norm.
In interwar Czechoslovakia, the rights of ethnic minorities were recognized by the state and each person could express openly his or her national affiliation. It soon became clear that Jewish national consciousness among the Orthodox and Hasidic Jews of Subcarpathian Rus' had firmly struck root. In the 1921 and 1930 censuses, 87 and 93 percent respectively of all Subcarpathian Jews considered themselves to be Jews by nationality. It was, therefore, the least assimilated, Yiddish-speaking group which formed the nucleus of nationally-conscious Jews within Czechoslovakia. The political party which propagated Jewish nationalism was, however, to become the source of bitter conflict in Czechoslovakia's most eastern province. These were the Zionists.
After World War I, Zionism formed a new challenge for Subcarpathian Jewry. Czechoslovakia's Jewish Party, founded in 1919 by Zionists from Prague, not only propagated the Jewish right of self-determination in Palestine, but also tried to represent the interests of all Jews throughout the new country. Initially, the party functioned more or less as an umbrella organization for all kinds of Jewish groups. But by the end of the 1920s the party came to be identified exclusively with Zionism. This process culminated in 1931, when the Jewish Party of Czechoslovakia (Zidovskca strana Ceskoslovenska) was officially established. In January 1932, the party's first district convention took place in Subcarpathian Rus'. The party was most adamantly opposed, however, by the Hasidic Rabbi of Mukacevo, Chaim Eleazar Spira. He abhorred any kind of secular influence on Subcarpathia's Jewry, in part because of religious conviction, and in part because it undermined his own position of authority in the region. In his resistance against the Jewish party, Rabbi Spira cooperated with the Czechoslovak Agrarian party and urged the Jews to vote for it. His efforts were in general not successful.
In the 1924 electlons in Subcarpathian Rus', the Jews were unable to unite, and instead two parties competed with each other: the Zionist Jewish People's party and the Orthodox Jewish Democratic party headed by magyarized Jews. The Zionist party garnered more votes, but neither received enough for a seat in parliament. Even though the Jewish party succeeded in uniting all Jewish political forces in the country during the 1925 elections, it was not until 1929 that it finally obtained two seats in parliament. This achievement was repeated in 1935, when in combination with other parties, the Jews of Subcarpathian Rus' got two deputies elected to the Czechoslovak parliament, one of whom was Chaim Kugel .
It seems paradoxical that a Zionist Jewish party was able to gather so many votes in an otherwise Orthodox and Hasidic setting, as was Subcarpathian Rus'. According to Ezra Mendelsohn, the explanation in part was that many Orthodox Jews who were not "too friendly to secular Jewish nationalism, voted for the Jewish Party because they believed in the need for a strong Jewish political organization devoted to protecting general Jewish interests in the new state.'' In that sense, the Subcarpathian Jews supported something of a dual leadership: a secular-national leadership that represented them in parliament and a traditional religious leadership that dominated the local religious community. Nevertheless, Zionism did gain ground in Subcarpathian Rus', especially among the youth, and this was something Rabbi Spira found hard to bear.
With the recognition of the Jews as a national minority in Czechoslovakia, they were entitled to all kinds of state-sponsored cultural facilities in regions where they formed more than 20 percent of the population. This was the case in several of Subcarpathia's cities. The Czechoslovak authorities did not always fulfill their constitutional obligations, a phenomenon all too familiar to the Rusyns, who were denied the autonomy promised to the province. Despite discontent with Czechoslovak rule among both Jews and Rusyns, this did not lead them into political cooperation. On the contrary, whereas the Rusyns distanced themselves more and more from the central authorities in Prague, the Jews tried to improve their situation by demonstrating even greater loyalty to the state. This divergence in political attitudes was deepened by educational developments.
The incorporation of Subcarpathian Rus' into the Czechoslovak Republic led to enormous improvements in the educational system. New public as well as Christian and Jewish parochial primary schools were set up which were freely accessible to every child. There were separate schools or classes in the Rusyn, Hungarian, and Czech languages. Children from magyarized Jewish families attended Hungarian schools. As for the majority of Subcarpathia's Jews, many at first sent their children to the Rusyn schools, especially because they were familiar with Rusyn language, customs, and habits. Before long, however, the central authorities in Prague tried to change this situation. The Czechoslovak government, dominated during the interwar years by the Agrarian party, set up many Czech schools in Subcarpathian Rus' not only for the children of Czech officials sent to the province, but also as a means to attract local Jews to support the state and the party. From the point of view of the state, this policy proved successful. By the 1930s, a large proportion of the increased number of Czech schools was attended by Jewish pupils. This development was not particularly appreciated by the Rusyn majority, nor for that matter by Subcarpathia's Zionists.
In the view of the Zionists, Subcarpathia's primary schools were characterized by too much Orthodoxy and too little modernism. In response, the Zionists set up their own Hebrew primary and secondary school system, which was recognized but not financed by the state and thus dependent on private donations. Among the more famous institutions was the Hebrew gymnasium in Mukacevo, under the direction of Chaim Kugel and, not surprisingly, damned by Rabbi Spira. Nevertheless, Subcarpathian Rus' was the only region in Czechoslovakia where Hebrew schools could be found, and therefore the province became the most important breeding-ground for Zionism in Czechoslovakia. Thus, on the eve of World War II, the Jewish community of Subcarpathian Rus' was more heterogenous than ever before, with divergent and convergent interests and loyalties resulting in a tangle of conflicts. However strong these conflicts were, they took place within a democratic political context.
The situation changed drastically after the international political crisis set in motion by the Munich Pact of September 1938. Less than two months later, on November 2, 1938, Subcarpathian Rus', which in the meantime was renamed Carpatho-Ukraine, lost 12 percent of its territory to Hungary. This included about 25,000 mostly urban magyarized Jews. Complete annexation of the remainder of the province came in March 1939. In Hungary, Subcarpathian Rus' was called simply Carpathia (Karpatalja). Within this new political configuration, a number of anti-Jewish laws were passed that endangered the Subcarpathian Jewish community. Those laws were only the first stages of the Holocaust, carried out later by the Hungarian authorities.
After the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, the Final Solution was implemented. As a result, about 80 percent of Subcarpathian Jewry perished. The remaining 20 percent who survived the camps did not return to what after the war became the Transcarpathian oblast of the Soviet Ukraine. Instead, they tried to start a new life elsewhere, most especially in the United States and Israel, taking their memories with them.
Harm Ramkema Utrecht, The Netherlands