If you look at the map of pre-Holocaust Jewish populations, it’s striking how many Jews there were in Poland and, to a much lesser extent, Romania and Russia.
So why Eastern Europe and, more importantly, why Poland? If I had to guess I’d say that Eastern Europe was furthest from the old Catholic centres (see Spain for a truely low figure), but that doesn’t explain the Poland anomoly.
In the Middle Ages, Poland gave Jews more freedoms and was more tolerant of Judaism than most of the other European countries. So, there was a lot of Jewish immigration. Also, in 1793, Russia set up the “Pale of Settlement”, which was made up of the Ukraine, the Baltic countries, and Russian Poland, and almost all the Jews in Russia were forced to live in the Pale.
I had the same general question.
See this thread for discussion.
And Jews lived side-by-side with Muslims in Spain during the Middle Ages.
Robin
I don’t thinkI wouldn’t emphasize the tolerance of the locals during the Middle Ages in what is now Poland. I think the significant European powers in general put less value in that region and the Jews had to go somewhere . Poland was one of there areas that Jews tended to settle as it may have been perceived as the least of the many evils available, and the locals were the least empowered of the Europeans to pull off a forced exile.
I believe one the main reasons the Jews maintained a distinct language from their neighbors was because they were distictly separate. They did not wish to assimilate, and their neighbers certainly didn’t want them to assimilate either.
In the end, there was mutual diffidence in the best of times.
Not only was the Polish nobility more welcoming than in the average European country, Poland didn’t have repeated expulsions like most Western European countries did. England, for example, expelled its entire Jewish population in 1290, and didn’t allow Jewish residents until the time of Oliver Cromwell. France and the Germanic states had cycles of expulsion and readmittance. Once the Christians conquered all of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella expelled all non-Christians (both Jews and Muslims) who refused to convert in 1492.
And Poland didn’t have a very strong state, either. Countries like England and France were developing a strong central government that could actually take independent action, like expelling Jews. The governmental structure of Poland meant it couldn’t get anything done, for good or evil.