ABSTRACT
The universalistic character of the early Galician Haskalah and its strong links to men and cultural centers beyond Galician borders paralleled the expansion of the centralized state along Prussian and Austrian lines. The German Haskalah had been less bound to Germanness than to the Enlightenment's rationalist-universalist message. This message could be absorbed in any Eastern European city in a purely Jewish context thanks to the rationalistic tradition of medieval Jewish thought. The maskilim recognized that alienation in the polarization which took place within the Jewish society of Galicia, and discerned the anti-German traits in the language, beliefs, and opinions of the anti-Haskalah society surrounding them. Development in Galicia remained similar to that in the areas of Poland annexed to the Russian Empire, demonstrating the similarity of Galician Jews to the other Jews of Russia and Poland. Probably the most important obstacle in the path of Germanizing traditional Galician Jewish society was Galicia's ethnic and social composition.
