The American Jewish world. [volume] (Minneapolis ;) 1915-current, 1920-04-23
ELECTIONS IN PROFESSIONALLY
AND THE JEWS.
BY L. Taubes, Our Vienna Core
spOndent.
Copyright, 1920, by I. J. P. b.

tionality was not recognized. The
government persisted in its stand that
in order to find out the nationality of
the various races which inhabit Austria
a definite characteristic is necessary,
in this case, language. Let the Ian
guage which man speaks in the init.
macy of his home determine to what
nationality he belongs. Thus thru
statistics it found that there are nine
nationalities living in Austria, each
using different language: Germans,
Czechs. Poles, Ruthenes. Italians,
Serbo- Croats, Slovenes, Rumanians
and Maygars.-but no Jews. 1t is in
terestino. to note that in the last CEN
sus of 1910 there was in the whole
Of Bukowina only one Serb who gave
Serbian as his mother tongue, altho
he has no one with whom to speak
word of Serbian. At the same time
it did not show single Jew, not there
and not even in Galicia, where in
reality the Jews speak their. own
tongue iddish
The result of not recognizing dis
tinct Jewish nationality was that the
Jews became an "object" which was
willingly or otherwise exploited by
the others. especially by the ruling
larger national groups and parties to
the injury of the smaller, whose
hatred they melted thereby.
In Bukowina alone, where there
was no so-cal1ed ruling nationality,
the Jews carried on their own, jew
ish-national politics. With that ex-
ception however. others benefited by
the Jewish voting strength: that
usually occurred during elections
where we truly often played very
tragic role.
In Galicia where the ruling power
was welded by the Poles. these count
ed the Jews, against their will, as
part Of the Polish nationality 1t
was with this added population that
the statistics registered a "Polish"
majority in the land. thru which it
became possible to limit the rights
of the Russian minority" and to sup
press them. Again, in Bohemia and
jMoravia the Jews always considered
themselves as Germans on account of
their prevailing language, thus
strengthening the German position
against the real Czech majority. Of
course, thru this voluntary or en-
forced foreign political stand the
wrath Of the suppressed nationalities
turned upon the Jews as accomplices
even more than upon the oppressors
themselves.
Even more tragic was the part
played by the Jews in the nom Magyar
provinces in the Hungarian State
such as Slovakia Here the Hun
garian government numerically ad-
vanced it's Magyarizing politics, using
the Jewish power to the utmost. At
first, perhaps, compelled to play, the
Jews in time were habituated in the
role of "Magyars of Mosaic Convic-
tion," and considered it their holy mis-
sion to spread the peculiarly Magyar
brand of enlightenment" among the
"unenlightened" on-Magyar popula-
ton. A complete upheayal of rela-
tions between the various nationali-
ties came as a result of the collapse
of the old political structure in all
the new states.
The Jews soon realized that to swap
their Germanism or Magyarism over
night and suddenly become national
Czechs or Czecho- Slovak would hard
ly do. They simply would not be be-