Jewish Question

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For other uses, see Jewish Question (disambiguation).

The "Jewish question", in general usage, usually refers to questions about the essential nature of Jews, often in reference to the nature of their relationship to non-Jews.

The term the "Jewish Question" first appeared during the Jew Bill of 1753 debates in England. According to Otto D. Kulka of Hebrew University, the term became widespread in the 19th century, it was used in discussions about Jewish emancipation in Germany (Judenfrage). Later in the 19th century, the term was used by many writers and theorists, Jewish and non-Jewish, to reflect on the state of the European Jews as a half-assimilated entity that lacked a consensus regarding the future. Simply put, some Jews wanted to assimilate while others did not. By the turn of the 20th century, the debate was still at large. Some favored political engagement in Europe while others, such as Theodore Herzl, proposed the advancement of the Zionist cause. Although the Jews had been expelled from Europe during various points in history, "answering the question" was largely in Jewish hands until it was conceivably too late.

In retrospect, the half-amalgamated position of the Jews put them in a prime position to be seen as peripheral and disloyal as well as internally cohesive and conspiratory. Amidst rising anti-Semitism and the threat to the established Old Order, the Jews became a scapegoat - it did not help that a number of radicals of Jewish background were associated with these causes. Nevertheless, for reasons as complicated as this and as "simple" as historic prejudice, such conditions helped to transform the Jewish Question into what was ultimately a questioning of Jewish loyalties and a mulling over what to do with them.

The forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion played a key role, as did interpretations of events such as World War I, the Great Depression and the rise of Communism. All helped to raise suspicions and advance conspiracy theories. With the rebirth of ethnic nationalism and the formation of the ethnic state, the Jews were clearly no longer wanted by the governments of such states. Nazi Germany adopted the term Jewish Question (in German: Judenfrage) to refer to the question (or issue) of what to do with the Jews. At first, the "answer" was visible in the form of persecution and reduction to second-class citizenship, promoting their extradition out of the country. Later, during World War II, it became internment in concentration camps until finally, the genocide of the European Jews took place as the so-called Final Solution to the Jewish Question (in German: die Endlösung der Judenfrage), or just the "Final Solution" (German: die Endlösung).