Excerpt from Jewish Disabilities in the Balkan States, American Contributions Toward Their, Removal: With Particular Reference, to the Congress of Berlin The present work arose out of a paper prepared by Max J. Kohler and Hon. Simon Wolf, bearing the title "American Contributions Toward the Removal of Jewish Disabilities in the Balkan States." It was presented by Mr. Kohler at the twenty-fourth annual meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society held at Philadelphia, Pa., on February 20, 1916. Since that date he has considerably recast it and somewhat widened the scope of its inquiry so as to conform it to the new title under which it is now submitted to the public. The subject-matter of this volume has practical importance as well as historical interest. It shows that the disabilities in some of the Balkan States which prevailed prior to the Berlin Congress of 1878 were removed; that the United States more than forty years ago, when its power and importance were much less than at present, was nevertheless willing to make strenuous exertions on the grounds of humanity in the interest of oppressed Jews in Eastern Europe. Unfortunately the efforts made on behalf of the largest population of Jews settled in any Balkan country, namely, Roumania, were without result, and the conditions in Roumania are still much as they were before Roumania obtained independence. The present volume may perhaps assist in bringing the unfortunate condition of the Jews of Roumania to the attention of the statesmen and thinkers of the world, and will furnish to those who are engaged in the struggle for full rights for the Jews the needed information wherewith to conduct their fight for justice. The publication committee charged with the issuance of this volume consists of Albert M. Friedenberg, chairman; Prof. Alexander Marx and Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach. Because of the present-day value of the subject, the chairman has bent his efforts to secure a prompt publication of the book. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The untold story of how American Jews reinvented modern humanitarianism during the Great War and rebuilt Jewish life in Jewish homelands.

In the second half of the 19th century, Southeastern Europe was home to a vast and heterogeneous constellation of Jewish communities, mainly Sephardic to the south (Bulgaria, Greece) and Ashkenazi to the north (Hungary, Romanian Moldavia), with a broad mixed area in-between (Croatia, Serbia, Romanian Wallachia). They were subject to a variety of post-Imperial governments (from the neo-constituted principality of Bulgaria to the Hungarian kingdom re-established as an autonomous entity in 1867), which shared a powerful nationalist and modernising drive. The relations between Jews and the nation-states’ governments led to a series of issues relating to the enjoyment of civil rights, public and private education, and political participation, which found varying solutions, sometimes satisfactory for the Jews, but often undermined by the political instability of the region. In this book, the position of the Jews is also approached from the point of view of contemporary western Judaism, perhaps more sensitive to the sufferings of “our poor brothers in the East”; a western Judaism, emancipated, integrated, intellectually advanced, liberal, and able to intervene in situations under observation through diplomatic networks, its international philanthropic agencies and its political representatives. For readers interested in modern history, this book offers a detailed survey of the Jewish question in the various states of Southeastern Europe before the Shoah.