I would like to express my thanks to the staff of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, in New York City, where some of the research for this article was carried out. I would also like to thank Herbert Leventer of Brooklyn College for several helpful suggestions.

1. The city will be referred to here as Lvov, following the Russian form which has become standard in English.

2. According to the census of 1900, as reported in Ostaszewski-Barański, D. K., ed., Wiadomoś'ci statystycsne o miescie Lwowie, 8, pt. 1 (Lvov, 1901): 19 Google Scholar, Roman Catholics constituted 52.5 percent of the population, Greek Catholics 16.5 percent, and Jews 29 percent. By language 76.86 percent were Polish-speaking, 9.65 percent Ukrainian-speaking, and 13 percent German-speaking. The great majority of those who wrote “German” on the census reports were, however, Jews. See Pazyra, Stanisław, “Ludność Lwowa w pierwszej ćwieci XX wieku,” in Słudja s historji społecsnej i gospodarcsej poświęcone Prof. Dr. Francisskozvi Bujakozvi (Lvov, 1931), p. 430 Google Scholar; Müller, Sepp, Von der Ansiedlung bis stir Umsiedlung: Das Deutschtum Galisiens, insbesondere Lembergs, 1772-1940 (Marburg/Lahn, 1961), p. 77.Google Scholar In 1910 only 2.3 percent of the city's population listed German as their language, the result of a campaign (disallowed by the authorities) urging Jews to “write in” Yiddish. See Lwów w cyfrach, 6 (June 1911): 4.

3. On the German orientation of the Galician Enlightenment see the remarks in Mahler, Refael, Ha-khasidut ve-ha-haskalah (Merkhaviah, 1961), p. 55–56.Google Scholar Joseph Perl, one of the most influential of the Enlighteners, opened a German-Jewish school in Tarnopol in 1813. On the relationship between the Hapsburgs and the Enlightenment see Mahler, , Divrey yetney Yisrael, 1, pt. 4 (Merkhaviah, 1956): 69 ff.Google Scholar; Balaban, Majer, Dzieje żydów w Galicyi i w rzeczypospolitej Krakowskiej, 1772-1868 (Lvov, 1914), chaps. 2-6Google Scholar; Gelber, N. M., “Toldot yehudey Lvov,” in Entsiklopediah shel galtiyot, 4 (Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv, 1956): 185 ff.Google Scholar

4. Balaban, Majer, Historia Iwowskiej synagogi postępowi (Lvov, 1937)Google Scholar. So great was the hostility of the Orthodox toward the Temple that its first rabbi, Abraham Kohn, was murdered by fanatical enemies of reform in 1848.

5. There is some disagreement as to when the Shomer was founded. Gelber, N. M., Toldot ha-tenuah ha-tsiyonit be-Galitsiah, 1 (Jerusalem, 1958): 68 Google Scholar, gives the date as either 1868 or 1869. The first issue of the society's journal, Der Israelit, appeared in 1869 in German with Hebrew letters, in the style of the German Enlightenment. In 1873 the gothic script was introduced. In that year the society claimed a membership of some four hundred, including the outstanding intellectual, business, and political figures of Lvov Jewry. See Der Israelit, no. 25 (Dec. 12, 1873).

6. Der Israelit, no. 5 (Feb. 28, 1873); no. 25 (Dec. 12, 1873).

7. For example, at least one-third of the delegates and alternates representing the Jewish community in the Lvov City Council in 1866 later affiliated with the Shomer. See the list in Miasto Lwów w okresie samorządu 1870-1895 (Lvov, 1896), pp. 42-43, which I have compared with data in various issues of Der Israelit. In 1879 members of the society were elected to important positions in the Jewish community. See Gelber, “Toldot yehudey Lvov,” p. 317; “Zikhronotav shel Mordekhai Zeev Braude,” in Zikaron Mordekhai Zeev Brande (Jerusalem, 1959), pp. 53 ff. The Orthodox founded their own organization, Makhazikey ha-dat (Upholders of the Faith), in opposition to the Shomer.

8. In 1896 Jews constituted 18.3 percent of all gymnasium students in Lvov, but 50 percent of the student body in the only high school which retained German as its language of instruction. See Miasto, p. 638, and Müller, p. 121. In 1914/15 more than one-third of the students at the privately run Deutsch Evang. Schule und Gymnasium Lemberg were Jews; see Müller, p. 102. For examples of Jews who went to German high schools in order to prepare for German universities see Aharonpreiz, Mordekhai, Beyn mizrakh le-maarav (Tel-Aviv, 1953), pp. 27 ff.Google Scholar It is interesting to note that the Ukrainian gymnasium in Lvov had no Jewish students at all—the “Ukrainian orientation” never interested the Jews of Galicia, who regarded Ukrainian as a “peasant language.” The Ukrainian national movement, however, did have an impact on Jewish intellectuals, some of whom were moved by its example to advocate equal national rights for Jews as well (see note 17).

9. Jewish participation in the Kościuszko revolt is the subject of Ringelblum, Emanuel, żydzi w powstanie Kościuszkowskiem (Warsaw, n.d.).Google Scholar For a survey of Jewish participation in the struggle for Polish independence see Urbach, Janus, Udzial żydó w walce o niepodległość Polski (Łódź, 1938).Google Scholar On the activities of Rabbi Ber Meisels of Cracow, champion of the pro-Polish orientation in western Galicia, see Kupfer, E., Ber Meisels sayn ontayl in di kampf far der frayhayt fun poylishn folk un der glaykhberekhtikung fun yidn (Warsaw, 1952).Google Scholar

10. Among them were Marcus Dubs (born 1805), who taught himself Polish as well as German; Oswald Hönigsmann (born 1824), the only Lvov Jew (according to Der Israelit) to know Polish perfectly in 1848; and Dr. Moyzesz Beiser, who was a member of the Polish national Rada in 1848 and was the first Jew of the city to attain the status of “honorary citizen.” On Dubs and Hönigsmann see Der Israelit, no. 23 (Nov. 19, 1874); no. 17 (Oct. 8, 1880). On Beiser see ibid., no. 18 (Oct. 22, 1880); Miasto, p. 208. For remarks on the late appearance of pro-Polish sentiments in Lvov see Thon, Yehoshuah, “Demuiot mi-Lvov,” Pirkey Galitsiah (Tel-Aviv, 1957), pp. 343 ff.Google Scholar

11. On Zucker, one of the heroes of the assimilationist generation of the 1880s, see the eulogy by the rabbi of the Temple in the proassimilationist Warsaw journal Israelita, 22, no. 4 (Jan. 16, 1887): 30-31. Said the rabbi, who by this time was something of a Polonophile himself, “He was a patriot when the rest of the Jews were submerged in darkness, Germanized, or apathetic.”

12. Rappoport, Maurycy, Bajasso, Ein Gedicht (Leipzig, 1863)Google Scholar, as quoted in Balaban, Dzieje, pp. 197-99. Rappoport, a doctor as well as a poet, ends his poem on the pessimistic (but prophetic) note that “Ein Jude und ein Pole sein, dass ist des Unglücks Doppelkrantz.”

13. In 1877 Goldman, along with Zucker, founded the first Lvov society for Jewish- Polish cooperation. According to the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, 43, no. 7 (Feb. 11, 1879): 103, the society lasted for only six months. See also ibid., no. 19 (May 7, 1878): 295.

14. This was in marked contrast to the situation in the adjacent province of Bukovina, where no single nationality dominated and where, for that reason, German retained its privileged status. The German orientation of Bukovina Jewry was never challenged. See Hügelmann, Karl Gottfried, ed., Das Nationalitòtenrecht des alien österrcich (Vienna and Leipzig, 1934), pp. 724 ff.Google Scholar; Kassner, Salomon, Die Juden in der Bukowina (Vienna and Berlin, 1917)Google Scholar. Also important was the fact that Polish culture was able to attract Jewish interest, while the cultures of the Ukrainians and Rumanians were not; similarly, the Jews of Prague retained their pro-German orientation long after the city had lost its German character, owing in large measure to the late revival of Czech culture

15. See Der Israelit, no. 1 (Jan. 12, 1872). The article praises German as a “world language” which no educated man should be without, and which is especially vital for Galician Jewry because of its connection with the Enlightenment and its proximity to Yiddish.

16. See the speech by Emil Byk as published in Der Israelit, no. 3 (Feb. 6, 1885). In 1899 Byk, then president of the Jewish community, declared “Polonia judaeorum paradisus,” expressing the familiar assimilationist theme that the Jews should be grateful to Poland for having opened her doors to them during the persecutions of the Middle Ages. See Feldman, Wilhelm, Stromictwa i programy politycsne w Galicyi, 1846-1906, 2 (Cracow, 1907): 295.Google Scholar On the agreement to join the “Polish Club” see Gelber, “Toldot yehudey Lvov,” pp. 317-18.

17. According to the account in Der Israelit, no. 3 (Feb. 6, 1885), only Reuvan Bierer objected, insisting that the Jews were a nation like the Ukrainians. Bierer was to become one of the founders of Lvov Zionism.

18. In 1869 only 8.2 percent of all Galician gymnasium students were Jews; see the figures in Friedman, Filip, Die galisischen Juden im Kampje um ihre Gleichberechtigttng (1848-1868) (Frankfurt am Main, 1929), p. Main Google Scholar. By 1896, as we have seen, 18.3 percent of all Lvov gymnasium students were Jews. Of these, 189 attended the German gymnasium (which also taught Polish, of course) and 340 attended Polish schools. In 1901/2 21.9 percent of all students at the University of Lvov, which was by then almost completely Polonized, were Jews, as were 14.3 percent of the students at the Lvov Technical School. See Die Juden in österreich (Berlin, 1908), p. 104.

19. The statutes of the society, formally approved in 1882, are published in “Lwowianin” (Alfred Nossig?), “Ruch postępowy między israelitami w Galicyi,” Israelite, 17, no. 37 (Sept. 10, 1882): 299-300. “The aim of the society,” we read, “is to propagate the spirit of citizenship among the Jews of Galicia” by demonstrating the “inevitability” of assimilation, by holding lectures, by establishing schools and libraries, and so forth. The society's Polish organ, Ojczyzna (Fatherland), first appeared in 1880, and a Hebrew journal was also published. The membership included representatives of the academic youth, “oldsters” such as Goldman and Zucker, and Polish liberals. It is noteworthy that one of the founders of the Covenant, Nathan Loewenstein, was the son of the rabbi at the pro-German Temple. And even that institution was eventually obliged to hire a Polish-speaking preacher in response to the decline of German in the city.

20. The Jews were particularly important to the Poles in eastern Galicia, where the Ukrainians formed the majority of the population. The possibility of a Jewish-Ukrainian alliance at the polls could not be taken lightly by Polish nationalists. Indeed, one of the major points in the Galician Zionist program was the denunciation of those Jewish representatives who adhered to the “Polish Club” in Vienna; in 1907 the Zionists created a “Jewish Club” in the Reichstag, having been elected with the help of the Ukrainians (see note 54).

21. Diamand (1860-1931) was active in the work of the Vienna-based Izraelitische Allianz, which promoted (among other things) reform in Jewish education. After a brief period as president of Zion, the first Zionist society in Lvov, he became a leader of the Polish Social Democratic Party in Galicia. On his involvement in Jewish affairs in Lvov see Izraelita, 21, no. 20 (May 9, 1886): 160-61.

22. For biographical material on Feldman see Eisenberg, Filip, “Wilhelm Feldman, szkic biograficzny,” in Pamięci Wilhelma Feldmana (Cracow, 1922), pp. 7–33 Google Scholar; J. Grabiec, “Wilhelm Feldman, jako publicysta i działacz społeczny,” ibid., pp. 60-104. According to both Grabiec and Jan Rawicz, “Z profilu,” ibid., pp. 143-53, Feldman was already a Polish nationalist before his departure from Zbaraż, having delivered a pro-Polish speech in the town's synagogue. There is some confusion as to the exact date of his arrival in Lvov; since his correspondence in the Izraelita begins in 1884, it seems clear that this is the correct year, Eisenberg (who has Feldman arrive in 1886) notwithstanding. As a literary critic Feldman was associated with the “Young Poland” school. For evaluations see A. Brückner, “Historyk literatury,” ibid., pp. 34-54; Ign. Chrzanowski, , Studia i szkice, 2 (Cracow, 1939): 339–61Google Scholar. As a political activist he became, after a brief socialist period, a leading figure on the Galician nonsocialist left as editor of Krytyka in Cracow. Students of Polish history know him as the author of Stronnictwa i programy politycsne w Galicyi and Dsieje polskiej myśli politycsnej w okresie porozbiorowym, 3 vols. (Cracow and Warsaw, 1914-20). A complete bibliography is available in Pamięci, pp. 203-4.

23. He found both these ideals embodied in Mieczystaw Darowski, a veteran of the nationalist movement who befriended him in Lvov. In Feldman's own words: “Thirty years ago, as a young boy arriving in Lvov, I met the venerable Mieczysław Darowski, a Pole of the old style, radiating Polish graciousness and freedom; his hand, which had once held the sword of war, and had pressed the palms of Mickiewicz and Slowacki, blessed the head of the autodidact emerging into the Polish world from the ghetto… ,” as quoted in Eisenberg from Dsieje polskiej myśli, 2: 132-33. Darowski was active in the Covenant of Brothers; see Izraelita, 24, no. 12 (Mar. 10, 1889): 93-94.

24. See, for example, his warm tribute to the martyred Rabbi Kohn of the Temple in Izraelita, 23, no. 40 (Oct. 7, 1888): 344-45, despite the fact that Kohn was outspokenly pro-German.

25. On the practical activities of the Covenant see Izraelita, 19, no. 7 (Feb. 3, 1884): 52-53; 20, no. 11 (Mar. 1, 1885): 84; 21, no. 31 (July 25, 1886): 249-51. For the aims of the fund see Statuten der Baron Hirsch Stiftung sur Beförderung des Volksschulesunterrichtes in Königreiche Galizien und Lodomerien, mit dem Grosshersogthume Krakau und im Herzogthume Bukowina (Vienna, 1891).

26. For Feldman's views on the cheder, shared by most progressive Jews of the time, see Izraelita, 20, no. 4 (Jan. 11, 1885): 29-30; see also his article “Kwestja chederow w Galicyi,” ibid., 22, no. 4 (Jan. 16, 1887): 35-37. His views on Yiddish, also quite typical of the Enlightened Jew, were summarized in his brochure O żargonie sydowskim (Lvov, 1891), which was not available to me; I quote from Grabiec, p. 74. The Polish assimilationists disliked Yiddish not only because it was a debased “jargon” but also because it was dangerously close to German. Bross, Jacob, “The Beginnings of the Jewish Labor Movement in Galicia,” YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science, 5 (1950): 67, Google Scholar quotes Feldman as follows: “There is no room in the sphere of civilization for this jargon… . It is ultimately a tool for germanization.”

27. The play was not available to me; I quote from Eisenberg, p. 9. For summaries of this obviously autobiographical work see Izraelita, 24, no. 12 (Mar. 10, 1889): 95-96; Przyszlość, no. 1 (Oct. 5, 1892), pp. 2-5.

28. “Cuda i dziwy, obrazek skreślony z natury,” in Jak w życiu, obraski (Złoczów, 1890), p. 166. In Feldman's story “Dwie storony medalu,” published in Izraelita, 24, no. 11 (Mar. 3, 1889): 84-86, continued in no. 12 (Mar. 10, 1889): 92-95, the overriding concern of the young mother is to protect her child from the cheder. On her deathbed she makes her husband promise never to send him there.

29. Cudotworca (Warsaw and Lvov, 1901), p. 22.

30. This is the theme of “Dwie storony medalu.” See also Das Gottesgericht, Drama aus dem galisisch-jüdischen Leben, translated from the Polish by Samuel Meisels (Vienna, 1902), p. 18.

31. Die schöne Judin, translated from the Polish by Sylvester Wisnerowicz (Amsterdam, 1892), p. 14.

32. Cudotworca, pp. 58-59; Das Gottesgericht, p. 6. Feldman's story “W mrokach,” published in Israelita, 31, no. 25 (June 14, 1896): 210, attempts to evoke the misery of the little Galician Jewish town.

33. Cudotworca, p. 8.

34. In the first case the protagonist decides to emigrate, while Klara, converted by an unscrupulous Ukrainian priest who fills her head with anti-Semitic nonsense, learns that anti-Semitism is as evil as the ghetto whence she fled.

35. Cudotworca, pp. 91, 121.

36. Die schöne Judin, p. 251.

37. It is interesting to compare Feldman's stories with those of Karl Emil Franzos (born 1848) who grew up in eastern Galicia and whose stories are also based on Galician Jewish life; see, for example, The Jews of Barnow (London and Edinburgh, 1882), which presents a far more sympathetic portrayal of Jewish life in the Galician small town.

38. The first quotation is from Feldman's article on the Jewish artist Samuel Hirszenberg, who is praised for depicting the ghetto as it really is; see Krytyka, 10, pt. 2 (1908): 307-8. The second quotation is from his “Sprawa żydowska w Polsce,” ibid., 15, pt. 4 (1913): 201. See also Die schöne Judin, pp. 188-90, in which a wise father rebukes his son for wishing to return to the “good old days.”

39. “Sprawa żydowska,” p. 223.

40. As one of the characters in Die schötte Judin, p. 220, declares: “Sie [the Jews] haben ihre Rolle als Religion und Volk ausgespielt—und jetzt haben sie keinen Grund, dass ist kein Recht und Zweck zur Existenz als ein selbständiges Reich.” The same point was made by the Hebrew organ of the Covenant, Ha-Mazkir ahavah le-erets moladto (The Herald of Love for the Fatherland), 5, no. 8 (Apr. 15, 1885): 30. The journal was careful to point out that assimilation did not imply apostasy, and Feldman never advocated mass baptism.

41. “Utopia,” in Na posterunku, szkice publicystycsne (Cracow, 1903), pp. 152-53; Asymilatorzy, syoniści i Polacy (Lvov, 1894), p. 13. Feldman's remarks on the decline of the Jewish people are not unlike the Zionists’ “negation of the exile,” though the latter drew very different conclusions.

42. In Die schötte Judin, p. 165, the same wise father comments: “Die Geschichte der Juden ist gross, glänzend, herrlich… .” And in Asymilatorzy (p. 58) Feldman points out that the Jews have produced such great men as Moses, Hillel, Christ, Spinoza, Lassalle, Heine, and Joselowicz (leader of the Jewish legion which fought with Kościuszko).

43. Feldman never denied his Jewish origins, though he was accused by the Zionists of having declared himself “without faith” (“bezwyzniany“) when involved in the 1891 socialist trial in Cracow. For his denial of this charge see Przyszlość, no. 9 (Feb. 5, 1893), p. 94. For further comments on Feldman's relationship to his Jewishness see Finkelshtayn, Leo, “Wilhelm Feldman, der gikh-fargesener kritiker fun der poylisher literatur,” Literarishe bleter, no. 66 (Aug. 7, 1925), pp. 4–6 Google Scholar; Rawicz, pp. 143-44.

44. “Asymilacya,” Krytyka, 11, pt. 1 (1910): 175; Asymilatorzy, p. 58; Stronnictwa, 2: 292. Economic progress may well lead to assimilation, as Feldman believed, but it also led to Zionism, which in Lvov was the creation of Jewish students, as was the Covenant

45. The quotations are from Feldman's comments in Israelita, 19, no. 36 (Aug. 31, 1884): 288; 20, no. 2 (Dec. 28, 1885): 12. In 1885 the Covenant's budget was 2, 800 złoty yearly; in 1889, despite a subsidy from the City Council, the society was running a considerable deficit. See ibid., 20, no. 11 (Mar. 1, 1885): 84; 24, no. 20 (May 12, 1889): 162. The desperate poverty of Galician Jewry is the subject of Mahler, , “The Economic Background of Jewish Emigration from Galicia to the United States,” YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science, 7 (1952): 255–67.Google Scholar

46. See his remarks in “Z obozów żydowskich,” Krytyka, 16, pt. 3 (1914): 136. The pattern displayed here—of an intellectual who, despite his contempt for Yiddish, sanctions its use in the attempt to reach the masses—was repeated many times in Eastern Europe. Thus the leaders of the Jewish Labor Bund in Russia turned to Yiddish only as a means to implement their agitation program.

47. For the position of the City Council see Miasto, pp. 32 ff.; a speech by Smolka in the Sejm in 1868, illustrating the above point, is reproduced in Balaban, Dzieje, p. 208. For an example of what the assimilationists had to contend with see Bujak, François, La Question juive en Pologne (Paris, 1919), p. 21 Google Scholar; Bujak, professor at the University in Cracow and an expert on Galicia, writes: “Contrairement à ce qui passe dans l'Europe occidentale, il ne peut pas d'être question en Pologne d'une assimilation culturelle, même superficielle, des masses juives par la population locale.” See also his Galicya, 1 (Lvov and Warsaw, 1908): 99 ff., in which he is extremely critical of the assimilationists.

48. Izraelita, 18, no. 20 (May 13, 1883): 167.

49. Ibid., 22, no. 17 (Apr. 24, 1887): 135.

50. In Izraelita, 29, no. 4 (Jan. 13, 1889): 29-30, Feldman blames anti-Semitic journalists and discrimination against Jewish professionals for the failure of assimilation to proceed at a normal pace. Almost all of Feldman's reports from Lvov in the Izraelita touch upon the problem of anti-Semitism; in this respect he differs little from the contributors to the old Der Israelit and the Zionist Przyszlość.

51. “Asymilacya,” p. 176. Feldman persisted in attributing Zionism's success to outside influences, citing in particular the Russian pogroms of 1881-82. On the rise of Zionism in Galicia see Gelber, Toldot ha-tenuah, vol. 1. The Zion society was founded in 1888, but there was pro-Zionist activity in the city well before that time.

52. An unfavorable article on Zionism, signed “Lwowianin” and most probably written by Nossig, appears in Izraelita, 19, no. 3 (Jan. 6, 1884): 21-22. For his conversion to the nationalist position see his article “Z ‘rzuta oka na dzieje Judaizmu, '” ibid., 21, no. 41 (Oct. 1, 1886): 331-32, continued in 21, no. 42 (Oct. 17, 1886): 341-42. On the impact of his departure from the assimilationist camp see “Zikhronotav shel Mordekhai Zeev Braude,” pp. 97-98. For Feldman's views see his “Alfreda Nossiga ‘poezje': Szkic literacki,” Izraelita, 22, no. 47 (Nov. 27, 1887): 382-83. Another prominent defector to the nationalist side was Tobias Askenazi, also among the founders of the Covenant. Other Covenant activists joined the socialist movement, and still others (much to Feldman's disgust) withdrew from public life. On the former see Bross, p. 68.

53. See Przyszlść, no. 6 (Dec. 20, 1892), pp. 55-56; “Zikhronotav shel Mordekhai Zeev Braude,” pp. 80 ff., 101 ff. Braude describes the tension within the young Zionist movement between these new converts, who joined in response to anti-Semitism and knew little about Judaism, and those whose Jewish consciousness had much deeper roots. Nossig's first speech in the Zion society was coolly received by the latter because it dealt with Moses in a “gentile manner.”

54. See “Utopia,” pp. 152 ff.; “Asymilacya”; Asymilatorsy; Stronnictwa, p. 307; “Sprawa żydowska.” Like many opponents of Zionism, Feldman equated the nationalist creed with anti-Semitism. As a Polish nationalist, moreover, he feared that the Zionists would harm the Polish cause by uniting with the Ukrainians. An electoral agreement between the two Galician minorities was concluded in 1907 (see Gelber, Toldot ha-temiah, 2: 531 ff.), but a stable alliance between Jews and Ukrainians never materialized.

55. Izraelita, 22, no. 17 (Apr. 24, 1887): 135-36. On the situation in 1886 see ibid., 21, no. 40 (Sept. 26, 1886): 321-23.

56. As quoted in Grabiec, pp. 71-72.

57. Przysslość, no. 9 (Feb. 5, 1893), p. 94; Shpitser, Tsvi, “Wilhelm Feldman,” Yudisher folkskalender (Lvov, 1909/10), p. 192 Google Scholar

58. See Shpitser, pp. 189-93, and Chrzanowski. The article on Feldman in the Encyklopedia powszechna Ultima Thule, 3 (Warsaw, 1930): 525-26, notes that Feldman was unable to understand Catholic writers. See also Finkelshtayn, pp. 4-6.

59. See, for example, the comments on Feldman's last years by A. Chołoniewski, Pamięci, pp. 55-59. The encyclopedia article referred to above accuses Feldman of having “blindly” followed the German line during World War I.