THE emancipation of the Jewish population ranks among the most significant of the profound social changes that occurred in Europe during the nineteenth century. Emancipation for the Jews involved gradual acquisition of citizenship, and civil, and finally political, rights. This long process, which evolved over several decades, became the foundation for the formation of the modern Jewish nation, and thus is one of the central issues in contemporary Jewish history.

In each European country, Jewish emancipation proceeded in a different way; its onset, pace, inner dynamics, and final results varied from one state to the next. The lengthy duration of the process was especially characteristic of east central Europe, including the Polish territories. Jewish emancipation within this region generally followed the pattern of changes initiated by the French Revolution, although changes were implemented much more slowly and gradually than within western Europe. Another important difference between east central and western Europe was the frequency and importance of state-sponsored reform imposed from above. Initiatives from the top down were generally inconsistent, often halted or recalled, and largely responsible for the torpid pace of actual reform. In the case of the Polish territories, the non-existence of the previously partitioned Polish state presented an additional problem.

Emancipation means liberation, which, in the case of the Jewish population, was represented by leaving the ghetto. As soon as Jews acquired the ability to settle freely outside the small, isolated, and administratively delimited urban districts, they gained the right to unlimited participation in the economic, social, and political life of the state. This new situation introduced the mass of the Jewish population to European culture, a confrontation that was to have far-reaching consequences.

Two diverse, but parallel, mechanisms brought about emancipation and the consequent clash of cultures. The first was the gradual liquidation, initiated from above, of the legal and fiscal limitations on Jews. The second was the Jews’ gradual acquisition, together with fellow subjects, of civil and political rights, a process that often took place under great social pressure and even revolutionary upheaval. The subsequent exercise of these hard-won rights by Jews and others often met with various difficulties and obstacles, and constitutes a separate but important chapter in European history.