‘One of Them’ as ‘One of Us’ Jewish Demands for National Autonomy as a Means to Achieve Civic Equality during the First World War

Abstract

This chapter examines the connection between Polish views on civil rights and equality for Jews during the First World War and the increasingly vociferous Jewish demands for national rights. It argues that this connection is crucial to understanding the increasing popularity of autonomist ideas and demands amongst Polish Jews during the First World War and subsequently. The chapter first focuses on the dynamics of viewing Jews in the Polish lands simultaneously as ‘one of us’, and therefore entitled to representation, and as ‘one of them’, aligned with ‘foreign’ interests and therefore requiring that their participation in shaping the ‘common good’ be limited. Next, the chapter describes the way this dynamic was reflected in the behaviour of the elected institutions of the emerging Polish state. Finally, the chapter focuses on how autonomist demands attempted to transform ‘one of them’ into ‘one of us’ or, in other words, how the autonomist discourse of nationality tried to find an appropriate place for Jews in the new Polish state.