The Figure of the Jew in the Texts of Ruthenian Activists from Habsburg Galicia in the 1830s and 1840s

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper examines references to Jews in the texts produced within the framework of the Ruthenian (Ukrainian) national movement in Habsburg Galicia during the 1830s and 1840s. Looking at literary texts, journalism, correspondence, and minutes produced by the Ruthenian activists, the paper gauges them for “antisemitic sentiments.” This paper offers the first systematic study of antisemitism in Ukrainian national discourse in Galicia during its Romanticist phase. Tracing the origins of Ruthenian antisemitism, this article disentangles nationalism proper from historical tradition, folk culture, and other intellectual influences. It also argues that there have been important differences between the images of the Jew in Ukrainian and Polish romantic nationalism, as well as between the Ukrainian national movement in the Habsburg and Russian empires.