JUDAIC 386 Lecture Notes - History Of The Jews In Europe
Document Summary
Prior to world war ii, the jewish people made up a huge part of the european population. From western europe, to central europe, to eastern europe, over ten million. Jews resided amongst gentiles in the years leading up the second world war. The jews across the continent of europe varied greatly, however. In western europe, many jews found that they obtained more freedoms than the jews of eastern europe because. Western europe was more industrialized than the east. Additionally, sectors of judaism varied; some jews were incredibly religious, while others intermarried; some jews were. Ashkenazi, meaning they were central or eastern european descendants, while others were sephardic, meaning they were spanish, portuguese, middle east or north african descendants. Though jews across europe varied immensely, one thing was common amongst them all; they were a targeted and persecuted religion. In some countries, jews were restricted from being a part of society, and eventually, all jews across europe became huge targets.
