ABSTRACT
If we want to understand why the liberal era, which started so hopefully, ended in the cruelest catastrophe ever experienced in the history of Jewish-Gentile relations, we must recall once again the close affinity of the Jews and the princes at all times, but especially at the beginning of the modern era. This affinity was reinforced with the emergence of the nation-state because of the enormously increased financial needs of the newly established bureaucracies, the enlarged armies, and the expanding means of transportation. These needs could not and would not be satisfied by the Gentile middle classes, partly because they were lacking the necessary organizational set up, but chiefly because they were traditionally mistrustful of the central authorities. The Jews, on the other hand, although economically beginning to rise to the level of the middle classes and in some cases even beyond that level, remained socially outside the established class structure. Apart from France, their political emancipation, not to mention their social integration, remained incomplete well into the second half of the nineteenth century. Emancipatory efforts were carried forward from above, that is, by the governments, against the inertia and, frequently, the opposition of the citizenry. The masses of Jewish beggars, peddlers, and occasional hunters indeed, remained a problem and were finally disposed of either by education or emigration, but the Jewish moneyed elite had become indispensable. Their inter-European connections enabled them to be of service whenever needed, while their lack of a secure footing in the social structure of a particular country made them loyal supporters of the central state power. Thus, contradictory as it may seem, the international bankers became reliable patriots and pillars of the nation-state. The Jewish middle classes followed the lead of the financiers,124with the emphasis on loyalty reinforced by the fact that their commercial activities were more localized. In retrospect, one can say that the liberal honeymoon lasted as long as the nation-state, and the inter-European system of nation-states remained the order of the day. With the replacement of the nation-state in the twentieth century by the twin forces of imperialism and racism, the civic position of the Jews was corroded and ultimately laid open to the destructive onslaught that cost the lives of millions of innocent men, women, and children. It is this fateful development that we must now retrace.
