It was on the Eastern front that the largest armies clashed and the most territory was occupied by the Central Powers. The German military viewed the East-European Jews as potential allies in their fight against the Czarist regime and tried hard to win them over. The German Foreign Ministry, with the help of the Committee for the East [Komitee für den Osten], founded by German Jews in 1914, helped the cause by providing relief for the economic deprivations of the East-European Jews. Members of the Komitee represented leaders from German-Jewish communities and organizations of various ideological leanings with a large Zionist faction.
As German troops moved further East, the non-Jewish population started pogroms against the local Jews, who were seen as sympathetic with the occupying forces. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were driven from their homes in Galicia and Ukraine
The confrontation of World War I – especially between the Eastern and Western fronts- changed Jewish perceptions on both sides. Many assimilated Western Jews were initially appalled and repelled by the impoverished conditions in the East. But upon observing shtetl culture more closely, they came to wonder whether these communities steeped in tradition did not represent a more authentic Judaism that Western Jews had abandoned in favor of precarious assimilation. Many turned to Zionism as the answer, but for most that infatuation was short-lived. Modernity was still appealing, even if assimilation was still a long way off. |
