Helga Embacher, Gertrude Enderle-Burcel, Hanns Haas, Charlotte Natmessnig (Hrsg.): Sonderband 5. Vom Zerfall der Grossreiche zur Europäischen Union – Integrationsmodelle im 20. Jahrhundert (2000)
Von der alten zur neuen Ordnung - Marsha Rozenblit: The Crisis of National Identity: Jews and the Collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy
whatever language they preferred, and at the same time members of the Jewish nation. Max Brod, the writer and literary critic, who served as vice-president of the Jüdischer Nationalrat of Czechoslovakia, explained Jewish national identity most eloquently. Brod described himself as a friend of all things German, but “nicht Angehöriger des deutschen Volkes", rather a man related by culture, but not by blood, to the Germans. After all, “Sprache, Erziehung, Lektüre, Kultur haben mich zum dankbaren Freunde des deutschen Volkes gemacht’’, but not a German. Jewish national identity most accurately reflected his views.40 The Zionist press regularly made the case that a Jewish national identity best suited the Jews in Czechoslovakia. In an appeal of November 15, 1918, for example, Selbstwehr reassured readers that they could be loyal citizens of Czechoslovakia, staunch adherents of Czech or German culture, and also work for the interests of the entire Jewish people through the Jewish National Council.41 Appealing to the Jews to declare themselves on the census to be members of the Jewish nation, the Jüdischer Volksrat in Brünn argued that membership in the Jewish nation allowed Jews to avoid the nationality conflict and assert their loyalty to the new state.42 43 Moreover, Zionist leaders assumed that antisemitic violence resulted from Jewish involvement in “fremdnationalen Lagern”. Only a Jewish national identity would cause Czech antisemitism to subside.4’ Many non-Zionist Jews, at least in Moravia and Silesia, agreed with the Zionist assessment. In December 1918 Dr. Theodor Sonnenschein, the president of the IKG of Troppau, Silesia, and a prominent member of Bnai Brith, explained to the readers of the Österreichische Wochenschrift why a Jewish national identity was necessary in Czechoslovakia. Sonnenschein reminded his readers that Jews were not merely a religious group. “Was uns verbindet ist nicht der Glauben”, he insisted, “sondern die mehrtausendjährige gemeinsame Geschichte, die gemeinsam erduldete Verfolgung und Unterdrückung.” Conceding that Jews did not form a nation by conventional standards, he argued that Jews nevertheless formed a special people, “eine völkerrechtliche Gruppe sui generis”. While in nationally unified states Jews had to identify with the dominant nation, in mixed-language countries Jews had to declare themselves a separate nation, “wenn sie nicht das gleiche Schicksal erleiden wollen, wie die Juden in Lemberg oder in der Slowakei”. In The Crisis of National Identity: Jews and the Collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy 40 Brod, Max: Juden, Deutsche, Tschechen: Eine menschlich-politische Betrachtung. Im Kampf um das Judentum. Berlin-Wien 1920, pp. 7-36, quotations on pp. 15, 17. 41 Selbst wehr: (15 November 1918), p. 2. 42 J V S : (1 January 1919), p. 5. 43 Speech of Angelo Goldstein, Jewish National Council, to Jüdischer Volksrat, Ung. Hradisch, Moravia (28 January 1919); Selbstwehr: (7 February 1919), p. 7; In: interview with Hugo Bergmann, Selbstwehr: (28 March 1919), p. 4; J V S : (23 May 1919), p. 1. 51
