Max Nordau comments on Jewish emancipation, by Ari Sclar

Jewish misery has two forms, the material and the moral. In eastern Europe, North Africa, and western Asia – those regions which shelter the vast majority, probably nine-tenths of our race – the misery of the Jews is understood literally. It is the daily distress of the body…In western Europe, the question of food and shelter, the question of the security of life, tortures them less; there the misery is moral.

The emancipation of the Jews was an automatic application of the rationalistic method…the strict logic of the men of the Great Revolution deduced Jewish emancipation. They formulated a regular equation: Every man is born with certain rights; the Jews are human beings, consequently the Jews are born to own the rights of man. In this manner, the emancipation of the Jews was pronounced, not through a fraternal feeling for the Jews, but because logic demanded it…Allow me then an expression which implies no ingratitude. The men of 1792 emancipated us only for the sake of principle.

• Max Nordau, First Zionist Congress (1897)

1. What is the purpose of Nordau’s specifying the French Revolution in the speech? What is the implication for Jews regarding the emancipation that took place during and after the 1790s?

1. Does Nordau believe that emancipation was a success? Use two direct quotes from the passage to explain how you reached this conclusion (do not simply underline the quote – you must explain the significance).