Jewish Settlement in the Polish Countryside in the 19th and 20th Centuries: The Problem of Identification, Definition, and Statistics in Relation to the Phenomenon of the ‘Jewish Farmer’

Abstract

The article addressed the presence and character of Jewish settlement in rural Poland during the 19th and 20th century, focusing on the question of whether Jews engaged in agricultural activity formed a recognisable social group. Historically, Jewish communities in Poland were only marginally associated with agriculture, animal husbandry, or other forms of primary food production. Instead, their economic roles in rural settings were varied but predominantly centred on craftsmanship and trade, both stationery and itinerant. Since the medieval period, Jews also operated within specific legal frameworks that granted them certain economic privileges, most notably the right to produce and distribute alcohol within defined territorial units, such as landed estates. The study is structured in five parts. The first interrogated the definition of ‘Jews’ tracing the etymology of the term, its historical meanings, and the evolution of its conceptual scope. The second challenged assumptions of homogeneity within Jewish communities by analysing their internal political, ideological, and identificatory stratification, with particular reference to its implications for census methodologies. The third situated the legal recognition of Jewish religious, ethnic, and national identities in 19th and 20th century Poland within a broader European context. The fourth addressed methodological issues in researching Jewish populations, focusing on the censuses of 1921 and 1931, and the challenges involved in identifying Jewish agriculturalists. The fifth outlined the history of Jewish rural settlement, with particular attention to agricultural rights, and presented available statistical data on Jewish participation in agriculture, also pointing out the problem of potential underestimation of this group. The article was based on own an analysis of a range of written sources, including legal documents, statistical data from censuses conducted in the Second Polish Republic, and post-war records of Holocaust survivors.