Reviews for Democratic And Capitalist Transitions In Eastern Europe, Vol. 55

The average rating for Democratic And Capitalist Transitions In Eastern Europe, Vol. 55 based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-09-16 00:00:00 Donald Steirer Outstanding perspectives on the incredible diversity of Jewish life in Poland before its destruction by the Germans. Here are a few of my notes ... ... in 1939, more than 3 million Jews lived in Poland (10% of the total population) ... Polish Jews formed a separate community in the full sense of the word ... many (not all?) adhered to a different culture with separate forms of social organization ... between the two world wars, the Jews of Poland bore the earmarks of a conquered population, both in social status and in their treatment .. the allies insisted Poland sign the Minorities Treaty guaranteeing equal rights to national and religious minorities ... raised the expectations of Polish Jews, especially the young ... Poles saw the treaty as an unfair imposition ... saw Jews as intruders, strangers, foreigners ... political leaders among the Jews behaved as if minorities rights specified in the treaty were their de facto rights ... resentment ran high when Polish Jewry called the government to task for not living up to the provisions of the treaty ... the exultation of observing the Sabbath and holidays was a way of transcending the misery and degradation of everyday life by a people strangled by poverty and subject to hate and oppression ... some converts saw in their conversion a mystic link to the Polish nation ... assimilationists hoped their children and grandchildren would merge completely into the Polish nation ... religiously, they were just as removed from Jews as from Catholics ... if all that was needed to prove themselves Poles was a ceremony, why not be nominally Catholic rather than nominally of the "Mosaic religion" ... for Jews in the Polish atmosphere of hatred ... merely carrying on day after day ... as if things were normal ... planning for tomorrow ... in a deeper sense, this constituted resistance ... Zionist leaders believed that antisemitism would not disappear in Europe as log as Jews remained ... Jews could solve their problem only by regaining their ancient homeland

Review # 2 was written on 2020-07-02 00:00:00 Jarrett Tomey Extremely difficult read as this is a series of papers cobbled together. The assumption in this series of essays is the underlying understanding of the topic. From this point of view I did not have the knowledge of the topic and therefore struggled with the understanding of the points or issues being discussed. I would not therefore recommend this to anybody other than students with knbowledge of the topics being discussed.