The Jews of Austria-Hungary on the Eve of World War I

Abstract

Abstract Numbering over two million, Austro-Hungarian Jews in the early twentieth century were a group that defies simple description. They were not monolithic with a universally held identity or life-style. As the Dual Monarchy itself was a complicated mosaic of disparate national, ethnic, religious, linguistic, economic, and social groups, so the Jews of the Monarchy embraced a whole range of radically different identities. These identities all took Jewish tradition as a starting point, but they developed differently depending on the region of the Monarchy in which the Jews resided, on the degree to which Jews had experienced socioeconomic modernization, and on the dynamics of Jewish involvement in the contentious nationality politics of Austria-Hungary. The Jews of Austria-Hungary did not share an occupational profile, even if they all differed from the prevailing economic patterns. They did not have a common language, although many did share a second or third tongue. They did not live in the same region, even if they concentrated in a few provinces, or hold a common political ideology, even if they agreed on some issues. They did not even all practice the religion of their ancestors.