Benno Straucher
Encyclopedia
Benno or Beno Straucher was a Bukovina
-born Austro–Hungarian lawyer, politician and Jewish community representative, who spent the final part of his career in Romania
. A Jewish nationalist influenced by classical liberalism
and Zionism
, he first held political offices in Czernowitz city. After 1897, he was one of the noted Jewish representatives in the Austrian Parliament
's Abgeordnetenhaus. Straucher, who was instrumental in creating the reformist Progressive Peasants' Fellowship, maintained his Abgeordnetenhaus seat throughout the remainder of Austria–Hungary's existence. From 1906, he led the Jewish National People's Party
locally and helped establish the pan-Austrian Jewish National Party
. He vied for political direction over the Bukovina Jews with several other groups, most notably the Zionist People's Council Party of Mayer Ebner, who became his personal rival.
Straucher supported maintaining tight connections between Jews and Bukovina Germans
while endorsing a personal version of Jewish autonomism
, and was a Habsburg
loyalist during World War I
. Upon the region's incorporation into Greater Romania
, he began cooperating with the larger Union of Romanian Jews
. Forming successive alliances with the People's Party and the National Liberal Party
, he also served two non-consecutive terms in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies. Despite such moves, and although he endorsed a version of Jewish assimilation
, Straucher made himself known as a strong critic of Romanianization
measures.
(later incorporated into Czernowitz, now in Ukraine
), Straucher was a student of law, a graduate of Vienna University
and a practicing attorney. He made himself known for supporting social policies, becoming a leader of the local Kehilla
in 1882 and a deputy to the Czernowitz local council (Stadtrat or Gemeinderat). He subsequently became involved in Jewish nationalist circles, and, as such, intensely campaigned for the Austrian authorities to recognize a separate Jewish community in Bukovina, as part of a process to grant all ethnic groups proportional representation
. Their request was supported by Yulian Romanchuk, a representative of the Ruthenians
(Ukrainians
) in Galicia (the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
), whose participation in the move followed a tradition of collaboration between Ukrainian and Jewish activists. Straucher also tightened his contacts with the region's large ethnic Romanian
community: as early as 1883, he spoke at a cultural meeting of the local Junimea society, offering his praise to the Romanian Orthodox
clergy.
In 1897, Straucher became a member of the Abgeordnetenhaus, which represented Bukovina as part of Cisleithania
. He was subsequently one of four deputies for the early Jewish National Party to be elected that year, alongside Heinrich Gabel, Arthur Mahler
and Adolf Stand
(all of whom were elected in Galicia). American
historian Joshua Shanes, who researched the political climate at the time of the election, noted that the result was "not so grand", since the list had also endorsed 19 other candidates throughout Cisleithania. Straucher, who was reelected with a large margin during the next suffrage, kept this office for the following decades, throughout World War I and down the end of the Habsburg Monarchy
. As parliamentarian, he did not rally with organized factions, but was briefly member of a "Jewish Club", formed by representatives in Vienna. After 1903, he was confirmed as president of the Czernowitz Kultusgemeinde (the Kehillas representative body), and the following year came to preside over the Czernowitz city council, where his followers controlled 20 out of 50 seats (giving him a decisive say in the election of a Czernowitz mayor).
As a representative of the Jewish community in urban Bukovina, Straucher stood for the political and economic regional elite: at the time, the Jewish community was much represented among investors in the city's industry and, according to his own estimate, provided some 75% of the tax income in Czernowitz and almost 50% in all of Bukovina. In this context, Straucher represented the movement identifying itself with German-speaking Europe
and Austro–German liberalism
, favoring secularism
and the preservation of rule from Vienna
. One of statements called Bukovina Jews "followers of the gigantic German culture". According to historians Michael John and Albert Lichtblau: "Since [...] there was no traditionally established, non-German elite to speak of in Bukovina and the hegemonial powers of German-Austrian domination in the areas of education and administration still played a leading role, the Jews of Bukovina oriented themselves in this direction. The positions of power of the two large national groups, the Romanians and the Ruthenians, were still too weak to cause a shift in this orientation on the part of the Jews. In their situation as a people living in a Diaspora, the Jews were forced to rely on the protection of the hegemonial powers and this seemed, as before, to emanate from Vienna."
However, according to historian William O. McCagg, the "inimitable character" Straucher made a point of opposing Jewish assimilation
, and was elected on this platform, while also speaking out against all forms of Zionism and suggesting that the Jewish destiny was linked to Central Europe
. McCagg refers this agenda as being addressed to "the 'little man' who was overlooked by the elegant elders of the Jewish community"—an outlook he also attributes to the Galician supporters of Jewish autonomism
, as well as to the Transleithanian Vilmos Vázsonyi. He also believes that Straucher's role was similar to that of assimilationist Josef Samuel Bloch
(editor of the Oesterreichische Wochenschrift), who believed that Jews were supposed to prove themselves modern Austrian citizens.
A significant part of Benno Straucher's pre-1918 political activity was dedicated to combating antisemitism: himself exposed to antisemitic allegations voiced by his colleagues in parliament, Straucher was among those who dismissed blood libel claims made during the Hilsner Affair
of 1899. According to Lichtblau and John, the rise of antisemitism among Austrian German communities was a contributing factor to the rift between German and Jewish liberalism in Bukovina: "Naturally, those secular Jews—whose acculturation
had been a modern one, for whom religion and tradition retained little significance and for whom German [culture] had assumed almost mythological stature as a substitute for the traditional culture they had given up—were shocked by the rise of German Nationalist anti-Semitism in the western provinces of the Monarchy, since it endangered their perspective of their own identity." The first tensions between the two communities had occurred in the early 1890s, when Bukovina German
students began organizing themselves into bodies which promoted a Christian identity and religious antisemitism, and took on a political character during 1897, when the Society of Christian Germans in Bukovina was founded (being soon after joined by parliamentarians Arthur Skedl and Michael Kipper). In reaction, young Jewish activists such as Mayer Ebner embraced Zionism. Their group was subsequently divided between supporting immediate Aliyah
or investing their energies into a local political movement. In this context, Ebner reluctantly endorsed Straucher, and, in 1904, founded with him a pan-nationalist group called Jüdischer Volksverein ("Jewish People's Union").
Lichtblau and John illustrate the split between the German and Jewish communities with a sample from one of Straucher's parliamentary speeches, which reads: "Why [...] are the Germans engaged in an economic and political war against the Jews? I as well have been raised and educated only as a German. Why am I inferior? [...] [In stating we are Jews and not Germans,] we are drawing the obvious conclusion! And nevertheless we remain friends of the German people because we are admirers of the prodigious German culture. We as a people want to be loyal friends of the German people and of other peoples, if and to the extent that they acknowledge our equal rights and equal worth!" Straucher also reacted against the claims of Viennese politicians that Bukovina was destitute and "semi-asiatic", deeming them "most unfair". His other statements of the time evidence Austrian patriotism
and loyalism toward Hasburg Emperor
Franz Joseph
.
According to McCagg, his was by then "a vaguely Zionist platform". Other academics agree: Jess Olson describes Straucher as "the Zionist Reichsabgeordneter [Member of Parliament]"; Emanuel S. Goldmith calls him "the only nationally inclined Jewish representative" in the Viennese Parliament.
and the Ukrainian Nikolai von Wassilko, with whom he set up the Freisinnige Verband ("Freethinkers
' Alliance", as in Germany
's Freisinnige Partei), a group noted for condemning the spread of antisemitism. The unifying idea of the Verband was electoral reform
, that is the attempt to reduce the number of seats allocated to boyar
s and reallocate them based on a system designed by Straucher; all nationalities involved agreed to follow their own agendas to greater emancipation. More likely to interpret political events as evidence of class conflict
rather than national emancipation, it notably reacted against the regional conservative
groups (who generally sought to slow down the devolution
of Bukovina) and the newly-founded Romanian National People's Party (PPNR) of boyar Iancu Flondor
(whose platform was linked to the Romanian national revival
).
Onciul, who was convinced that reform was in the benefit of Romanians, negotiated with Flondor, hoping to create unified district committees for the Romanian factions, and even a "Unitary Romanian Party". The divergence between the Freisinnigen Verband and Flondor escalated when the latter used his position in the Diet of Bukovina to reject Straucher's proposal for electoral reform, and peaked when the democrats accused Flondor of supporting antisemitism, based on speculation that he had been the author of virulent unsigned pieces published by the Bukowinaer Journal. The matter was investigated by a special Diet commission, who found in favor of Flondor, reportedly evidencing that the newspaper's editor, Max Reiner, had been paid 1,000 Kronen
to incriminate the PPNR leader. The attempt to defame Flondor, attributed by some to Onciul and Straucher's frustration over Flondor "anti-democratic" stance, became known locally as Die Flondor Affair ("The Flondor Affair"). Reportedly, Straucher was personally involved, speaking in Diet against Flondor and his family, accusing him of having intrigued against PPNR co-founder Gheorghe Popovici.
For a while, Benno Straucher was involved with a new union formed by the 1903 "Freethinkers", which was to facilitate the adoption of radical reforms. Called Progressive Peasants' Fellowship, it was presided by him and Onciul, together with Skedl, Georg Graf Wassilko von Serecki and "Young Ukrainian" Stepan Smal-Stotskyi, taking the majority vote in 1904 elections for the Diet (when Georg Wassilko became Landeshauptmann
).
. At an imperial level, he joined up with Austrian Zionists to set up a new Jewish National Party, which adopted the "work in the present" ideology of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, that is the focus on autonomy for the more sizable Jewish communities of East-Central Europe
. Some of his efforts were dedicated to building the Kehilla-run Jewish House of Culture, a major Art Nouveau
palace, decorated with his bust. In parallel, allegations about "Jewish" corruption in the Czernowitz local council, targeting Straucher's leadership, resulted in ethnic tensions. During autumn 1910, after the accuser, engineer Woitechowski, was called to order by Straucher, the city's Christians organized vigils and strikes.
By that moment, Straucher's option in favor of Jewish secularism and modernization
possibly implied his reevaluation of Yiddish
as a national Jewish language. Reportedly, his advocacy of both autonomy and Yiddishist identity was largely shaped by the Folkist
ideology of Jewish groups in the Russian Empire
. The Yiddishist view, which placed him among the first Jewish intellectuals to identify with what had been hitherto viewed as a regional dialect of German
(reportedly, Straucher himself had earlier designated Yiddish as merely a "jargon
"), brought him into conflict with Jewish traditionalists, who supported instead a Hebrew revival. However, Straucher did not support education in Yiddish, and favored German-language schools, for which he demanded special Jewish inspectors and teachers.
Notably, Straucher received support from scholar Nathan Birnbaum
, who spoke in his favor at Jewish National Party caucus
es during the 1907 Austrian elections. Together with Diamant and Birnbaum, Straucher organized the first Conference for the Yiddish Language, held in Czernowitz between August 31 and September 3, 1908. The initial demand was for the proceedings to be held at the Jewish House, but the Conference was ultimately hosted by a similar institution of the local Ukrainians and the local Music Society. The reason for this failure is disputed: some attribute it to opposition from the "Hebraist" adversaries, others suggest that Straucher was in reality unconvinced about the Conference platform, sabotaging his own Yiddishist campaign.
), the Ukrainians (Georg Wassilko) and the Jews (Straucher himself), who subsequently negotiated the matter with Oktavian von Bleyleben, Bukovina's Landespräsident. Cultural historians Amy Colin and Peter Rychlo view it as "one of the most progressive accords between ethnic groups in the Austro-Hungarian Empire", and argue: "Growing ethnic tensions necessitated such a treaty to protect peace in Bukovina by insuring ethnic autonomy in political decisions [...]. The fruitful cooperation [...] proved that peaceful ethnic interaction was still possible [in Bukovina] five years before the outbreak of World War I
." The agreement provided for a highly complex electoral reform which provided proportional representation to Bukovinan ethnic groups within the local Diet, but, in accordance with the wishes of mainstream Jews and in an effort to combat antisemitic agitation, did not generally award separate recognition to Jews (apart from a few separate electoral district
s, they were included in the same group as Germans). Lichtblau and John argue that, through this measure, the Austrian monarchy marked "the final demarcation point [...] which linked together the Jews of Bukovina and the Germans."
The failure to acknowledge Jews a separate group disappointed the Jewish National People's Party leadership, and caused Straucher to produce a number of official letters of protest. The 1911 elections consecrated a split between Straucher's group. and Zionists such as Ebner. They accused Straucher of having set up a dictatorship and of having failed to obtain Jewish representation, and moved on to create the separate People's Council Party. Together, the two competing parties won 10 seats, one more than secretly predicted by the Bienerth-Schmerling
cabinet in Vienna. At the time, Straucher's liberal group was also competing with the regional Bundistn and sympathizers of the Poale Zion
movement, who supported Jewish autonomism within a socialist
framework.
The Kultusgemeinde became his prime basis of support for maintaining his parliamentary seat, and, after the 1911 elections (during which he faced no opposition from Ebner's group), he was the only one among the four of his fellow candidates in the 1907 suffrage to maintain his seat. Of the latter, Arthur Mahler
left the Jewish nationalist movement and returned to his career as an art historian.
. Before Bukovina was turned into a battleground (see Brusilov Offensive
) he, like other Jewish leaders, expressed hopes that Eastern Front
victories against the Russian Empire would signify the effective emancipation
of Russian Jews, as well as the end for a threat on Europe's safety. Soon afterward, he participated in a large political debate regarding the creation of a central democratic institution for Austria–Hungary, which was intended as a replica of the American Jewish Congress
, a test of Jewish autonomy and an instrument in combating antisemitism. Speaking in 1916, he offered his full support to the initiative, and argued in favor of replacing the various other representative bodies, but the move was opposed by the non-Zionist lobby (who preferred a Kehilla-based structure of shtadlan
im).
Straucher subsequently used the Abgeordnetenhaus tribune for condemning the antisemitic violence linked with the various political changes. In spring 1918, soon after Austria signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
with the Ukrainian People's Republic
, granting it territories claimed by Poles
, he expressed alarm that Polish nationalists were attributing the events to the Jews, organizing pogrom
s and planning their eviction from Galicia. Straucher, like fellow Jewish nationalists Hermann Kadisch and Robert Stricker
, continued to express his support for Habsburg ruler Charles I throughout those years but. Nevertheless, according to social historian Marsha L. Rozenblit, their views on the matter were by then contrasting with those of their Jewish partners in the Czech lands
(a group formed around Selbstwehr journal, and more mindful of the local independence movement
). In a statement of 1917, the Bukovina delegate claimed Jews were "an upholding element [standing] unconditionally and without reservations for Austria." He was however also demanding autonomy within a new democratic Austria, in terms which Rozenblit finds similar with those proposed by both mainstream Zionists and the Galician Poale Zion.
Straucher was still at the Abgeordnetenhaus during late autumn 1918, as the monarchy was collapsing. On October 4, shortly before German Austria
emerged as a rump state
, he was among the regional delegates to Vienna who voted in favor of keeping Bukovina in union with the central government. At home, the situation was degenerating, as Romanians openly demanded incorporation into the Romanian Kingdom
and Ukrainians opted for the Ukrainian People's Republic. These tensions flared into riots, quelled when the Romanian Army entered the region and brought into Romania (a union internationally sanctioned by the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye).
In this context, Straucher joined Ebner and the socialist Iacob Pistiner
in founding the National Jewish Council, which stood for the defense of community rights. The new group's program was generally suspicious of union with Romania, where Jewish emancipation had not yet been enacted, and looked into other political alternatives—for this reason, it was placed under close supervision by the new authorities. The Council clashed with Ion Nistor
's nationalist Romanian group, the Democratic Union Party
, which, using antisemitic language, spoke about a Jewish danger to the Romanian cause. At the time, other segments of Bukovina's Jewish community began criticizing Straucher for his settlements with Wassilko's Ukrainians, allegedly to the detriment of his own coreligionists.
Shortly after the creation of Greater Romania
, the Council boycotted the 1919 general election, thus refusing to send its representatives into the Parliament of Romania
. Ebner voiced the mistrust of his coreligionists for the Romanian electoral law, arguing that it was meant to dilute the Jewish vote in that region. This decision was contested by businessman Jakob Hecht, who stood as a Jewish candidate on the same platform as Nistor. Hecht's statements, which gave recognition to an unconditional union, were received with consternation by other Jewish activists, who called him a "traitor". By 1923 however, the entire community leadership had come to accept Romania's rule over the region, and Ebner even claimed that there was never any opposition on its part.
. In the early 1920s, he and his followers began a close cooperation with Wilhelm Filderman
's nation-wide Union of Romanian Jews
(UER). The UER nevertheless failed in rallying to its cause the other representatives of Jewish nationalism, such as the Zionists following Straucher's old rival Ebner. The UER initially supported the People's Party of Alexandru Averescu
(despite signs that the group was sympathetic of antisemitic causes). Standing in for the deceased Hecht, Straucher and Ebner became the Jewish Council bids for the 1920 election, with additional support from the German Council; Straucher ran in the "Cernăuţi-city" circumscription, for both Chamber and Senate
. At the time, those Jewish voters who did not agree with such maneuvers rallied behind Friedrich Billig, founder of a Jewish Democratic Party. Straucher was the only one elected to the Chamber, effectively on Averescu's ticket.
The entire UER eventually threw its support behind the National Liberal Party
: in the 1922 suffrage, alongside Nistor, former leader of the Democratic Union Party, Straucher endorsed the National Liberal platform for Bukovina. In contrast, Ebner's Zionist faction had entered an alliance with Averescu, and, in the 1926 suffrage, the move got Ebner elected to the Chamber. Straucher too was elected after running against Ebner's colleagues (Karl Klüger, Henric Streitman), a second term which marked his split with the Bukovina Zionists. Straucher, who did not present himself for the 1926 vote, was reelected in the 1927 vote. He had extended his agreement with the National Liberals and, remarkably, ran against a bloc of minorities formed nationally around the Magyar Party
, the German Party
and Zionist organizations. Ebner, also reconfirmed as deputy, subsequently rallied with the National Peasants' Party
. Opposing all alliance with the UER, he formed a Jewish parliamentary club of non-UER Jewish nationalist representatives, and defined Filderman's policy of alliances with groups suspect of antisemitism as immoral. In the 1928 election, having again obtained Nistor's support, Straucher again took his parliamentary seat. With support from the National Liberals, he became a Senate candidate in the 1932 suffrage, but did not receive the vote.
Taking precautions against the Ebner's goal of propagating Zionism through Jewish day school
s, Straucher gave his approval to the teaching of Romanian language
classes, and therefore to a measure of assimilation, while preventing Zionists from reforming the curriculum. In this context, he made himself known for protesting the Romanianization
policies promoted by the governments in Bucharest
, in particular in the educational field
. During the mid 1920s, he was in correspondence with National Liberal leader Ion I. C. Brătianu
and Filderman, documenting cases in which Bukovinan schools had been "purged" of Jewish teachers and administrators were being dismissed, pensioned or demoted by the Ministry of Education, as well as the state-condoned underfunding of state-run Jewish schools. He contrasted these incidence with the traditional status of Jews in Czernowitz (then designated as Cernăuţi), whom, he assessed, formed 50% of the city's population and 90% of its taxpayers. At the time, the authorities had restructured the secondary education institutions into five high schools, divided by ethnicity, and Straucher's writings attest a significant reduction in attendance numbers for the Jewish Lycée No. 3. Jewish parents were then opting in favor of sending their children to privately run day schools
.
According to McCagg, Benno Straucher's last years were spent in a dispute with younger Yiddishist activists "who felt that one could only get through to the Jewish masses by using Yiddish." The aging politician died in 1940, one year after the outbreak of World War II
.
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
-born Austro–Hungarian lawyer, politician and Jewish community representative, who spent the final part of his career in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. A Jewish nationalist influenced by classical liberalism
Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....
and Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
, he first held political offices in Czernowitz city. After 1897, he was one of the noted Jewish representatives in the Austrian Parliament
Reichsrat (Austria)
The Imperial Council of Austria from 1867 to 1918 was the parliament of the Cisleithanian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a bicameral legislature, consisting of the Herrenhaus and the Abgeordnetenhaus...
's Abgeordnetenhaus. Straucher, who was instrumental in creating the reformist Progressive Peasants' Fellowship, maintained his Abgeordnetenhaus seat throughout the remainder of Austria–Hungary's existence. From 1906, he led the Jewish National People's Party
Jewish National People's Party
The Jewish National People's Party was a regional Jewish political party founded in 1906 in the Bukovina Austrian crown land by Benno Straucher, elected at the Austrian Parliament's Abgeordnetenhaus for the Jewish National Party since 1897...
locally and helped establish the pan-Austrian Jewish National Party
Jewish National Party
The Jewish National Party was an Austrian political party of the Jewish minority.During the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, there was already a Jewish National Party which took part in elections, gaining four member at the Austrian House of Representatives in 1907: Benno Straucher , Adolf Stand ,...
. He vied for political direction over the Bukovina Jews with several other groups, most notably the Zionist People's Council Party of Mayer Ebner, who became his personal rival.
Straucher supported maintaining tight connections between Jews and Bukovina Germans
Bukovina Germans
The Bukovina Germans were a German ethnic group that mainly lived from about 1780 to the 1940s in Bukovina, part of present-day western Ukraine and northern Romania...
while endorsing a personal version of Jewish autonomism
Jewish Autonomism
Jewish Autonomism was a non-Zionist political movement that emerged in Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century. One of its major proponents was a historian and activist Simon Dubnow, who also called his ideology folkism....
, and was a Habsburg
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
loyalist during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Upon the region's incorporation into Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
, he began cooperating with the larger Union of Romanian Jews
Union of Romanian Jews
The Union of Romanian Jews was a political organisation active in Romania in the first half of the 20th century.The UER targeted all Romanian Jews who had obtained citizenship and accepted its programme of integration into the Romanian state. It was organised based on geographic Jewish...
. Forming successive alliances with the People's Party and the National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
, he also served two non-consecutive terms in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies. Despite such moves, and although he endorsed a version of Jewish assimilation
Jewish assimilation
Jewish assimilation refers to the cultural assimilation and social integration of Jews in their surrounding culture. Assimilation became legally possible in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.-Background:Judaism forbids the worship of other gods...
, Straucher made himself known as a strong critic of Romanianization
Romanianization
Romanianization or Rumanization is the term used to describe a number of ethnic assimilation policies implemented by the Romanian authorities during the 20th century...
measures.
Early career and 1897 election victory
Born in the village of Rohozna near SadhoraSadhora
Sadhora is now a microraion of Chernivtsi city, which is located 6km from the city center. Previously, it was an independent town.-History:During the Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army in Moldavia and Wallachia took measures to enhance the economic and...
(later incorporated into Czernowitz, now in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
), Straucher was a student of law, a graduate of Vienna University
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
and a practicing attorney. He made himself known for supporting social policies, becoming a leader of the local Kehilla
Kehilla (modern)
The Kehilla is the local Jewish communal structure that was reinstated in the early twentieth century as a modern, secular, and religious sequel of the Qahal in Central and Eastern Europe, more particularly in Poland's Second Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukrainian People's Republic,...
in 1882 and a deputy to the Czernowitz local council (Stadtrat or Gemeinderat). He subsequently became involved in Jewish nationalist circles, and, as such, intensely campaigned for the Austrian authorities to recognize a separate Jewish community in Bukovina, as part of a process to grant all ethnic groups proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
. Their request was supported by Yulian Romanchuk, a representative of the Ruthenians
Ruthenians
The name Ruthenian |Rus']]) is a culturally loaded term and has different meanings according to the context in which it is used. Initially, it was the ethnonym used for the East Slavic peoples who lived in Rus'. Later it was used predominantly for Ukrainians...
(Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
) in Galicia (the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria was a crownland of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian Empire, and Austria–Hungary from 1772 to 1918 .This historical region in eastern Central Europe is currently divided between Poland and Ukraine...
), whose participation in the move followed a tradition of collaboration between Ukrainian and Jewish activists. Straucher also tightened his contacts with the region's large ethnic Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
community: as early as 1883, he spoke at a cultural meeting of the local Junimea society, offering his praise to the Romanian Orthodox
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
clergy.
In 1897, Straucher became a member of the Abgeordnetenhaus, which represented Bukovina as part of Cisleithania
Cisleithania
Cisleithania was a name of the Austrian part of Austria-Hungary, the Dual Monarchy created in 1867 and dissolved in 1918. The name was used by politicians and bureaucrats, but it had no official status...
. He was subsequently one of four deputies for the early Jewish National Party to be elected that year, alongside Heinrich Gabel, Arthur Mahler
Arthur Mahler
Arthur Mahler was a Czech-Austrian archeologist. He was a cousin of composer Gustav Mahler....
and Adolf Stand
Adolf Stand
Adolf Stand was a Jewish politician in Austria-Hungary. Stand, president of the Zionist organization in Galicia, stood as a candidate in a parliamentary by-election in 1906. Stand obtained 454 votes, defeated by Joseph Gold . The election was, however, marred with irregularities...
(all of whom were elected in Galicia). American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
historian Joshua Shanes, who researched the political climate at the time of the election, noted that the result was "not so grand", since the list had also endorsed 19 other candidates throughout Cisleithania. Straucher, who was reelected with a large margin during the next suffrage, kept this office for the following decades, throughout World War I and down the end of the Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
. As parliamentarian, he did not rally with organized factions, but was briefly member of a "Jewish Club", formed by representatives in Vienna. After 1903, he was confirmed as president of the Czernowitz Kultusgemeinde (the Kehillas representative body), and the following year came to preside over the Czernowitz city council, where his followers controlled 20 out of 50 seats (giving him a decisive say in the election of a Czernowitz mayor).
As a representative of the Jewish community in urban Bukovina, Straucher stood for the political and economic regional elite: at the time, the Jewish community was much represented among investors in the city's industry and, according to his own estimate, provided some 75% of the tax income in Czernowitz and almost 50% in all of Bukovina. In this context, Straucher represented the movement identifying itself with German-speaking Europe
German-speaking Europe
The German language is spoken in a number of countries and territories in West, Central and Eastern Europe...
and Austro–German liberalism
Liberalism in Austria
This article gives an overview of liberalism in Austria. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in that scheme...
, favoring secularism
Secular Jewish culture
Secular Jewish culture embraces several related phenomena; above all, it is the international culture of secular communities of Jewish people, but it can also include the cultural contributions of individuals who identify as secular Jews...
and the preservation of rule from Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. One of statements called Bukovina Jews "followers of the gigantic German culture". According to historians Michael John and Albert Lichtblau: "Since [...] there was no traditionally established, non-German elite to speak of in Bukovina and the hegemonial powers of German-Austrian domination in the areas of education and administration still played a leading role, the Jews of Bukovina oriented themselves in this direction. The positions of power of the two large national groups, the Romanians and the Ruthenians, were still too weak to cause a shift in this orientation on the part of the Jews. In their situation as a people living in a Diaspora, the Jews were forced to rely on the protection of the hegemonial powers and this seemed, as before, to emanate from Vienna."
However, according to historian William O. McCagg, the "inimitable character" Straucher made a point of opposing Jewish assimilation
Jewish assimilation
Jewish assimilation refers to the cultural assimilation and social integration of Jews in their surrounding culture. Assimilation became legally possible in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.-Background:Judaism forbids the worship of other gods...
, and was elected on this platform, while also speaking out against all forms of Zionism and suggesting that the Jewish destiny was linked to Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
. McCagg refers this agenda as being addressed to "the 'little man' who was overlooked by the elegant elders of the Jewish community"—an outlook he also attributes to the Galician supporters of Jewish autonomism
Jewish Autonomism
Jewish Autonomism was a non-Zionist political movement that emerged in Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century. One of its major proponents was a historian and activist Simon Dubnow, who also called his ideology folkism....
, as well as to the Transleithanian Vilmos Vázsonyi. He also believes that Straucher's role was similar to that of assimilationist Josef Samuel Bloch
Josef Samuel Bloch
Joseph Samuel Bloch, Josef Samuel Bloch was an Austrian rabbi and deputy.-Biography:Bloch's parents, who were poor, destined him for the rabbinical career, and he devoted himself to the exclusive study of the Talmud...
(editor of the Oesterreichische Wochenschrift), who believed that Jews were supposed to prove themselves modern Austrian citizens.
Early political activities
According to Lichtblau and John, Straucher initially stood for "an unusual mixture of German Liberalism and Jewish Nationalism—a sort of half-hearted Zionism." By the 1890s, the Jewish leader, whom Lichtblau and John designate "the most important political representative of the Jews of Bukovina", decided to end cooperation between local Jews and ethnic Germans, and concentrated on advancing the interests of his community—a gesture which broke with the tradition of Jewish politicians such as Josef Fechner representing a common German-Jewish vote.A significant part of Benno Straucher's pre-1918 political activity was dedicated to combating antisemitism: himself exposed to antisemitic allegations voiced by his colleagues in parliament, Straucher was among those who dismissed blood libel claims made during the Hilsner Affair
Hilsner Affair
The Hilsner Affair was a series of anti-semitic trials following an accusation of blood libel against Leopold Hilsner, a Jewish inhabitant of the village of Polná in Bohemia in 1899 and 1900...
of 1899. According to Lichtblau and John, the rise of antisemitism among Austrian German communities was a contributing factor to the rift between German and Jewish liberalism in Bukovina: "Naturally, those secular Jews—whose acculturation
Acculturation
Acculturation explains the process of cultural and psychological change that results following meeting between cultures. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both interacting cultures. At the group level, acculturation often results in changes to culture, customs, and...
had been a modern one, for whom religion and tradition retained little significance and for whom German [culture] had assumed almost mythological stature as a substitute for the traditional culture they had given up—were shocked by the rise of German Nationalist anti-Semitism in the western provinces of the Monarchy, since it endangered their perspective of their own identity." The first tensions between the two communities had occurred in the early 1890s, when Bukovina German
Bukovina Germans
The Bukovina Germans were a German ethnic group that mainly lived from about 1780 to the 1940s in Bukovina, part of present-day western Ukraine and northern Romania...
students began organizing themselves into bodies which promoted a Christian identity and religious antisemitism, and took on a political character during 1897, when the Society of Christian Germans in Bukovina was founded (being soon after joined by parliamentarians Arthur Skedl and Michael Kipper). In reaction, young Jewish activists such as Mayer Ebner embraced Zionism. Their group was subsequently divided between supporting immediate Aliyah
Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
or investing their energies into a local political movement. In this context, Ebner reluctantly endorsed Straucher, and, in 1904, founded with him a pan-nationalist group called Jüdischer Volksverein ("Jewish People's Union").
Lichtblau and John illustrate the split between the German and Jewish communities with a sample from one of Straucher's parliamentary speeches, which reads: "Why [...] are the Germans engaged in an economic and political war against the Jews? I as well have been raised and educated only as a German. Why am I inferior? [...] [In stating we are Jews and not Germans,] we are drawing the obvious conclusion! And nevertheless we remain friends of the German people because we are admirers of the prodigious German culture. We as a people want to be loyal friends of the German people and of other peoples, if and to the extent that they acknowledge our equal rights and equal worth!" Straucher also reacted against the claims of Viennese politicians that Bukovina was destitute and "semi-asiatic", deeming them "most unfair". His other statements of the time evidence Austrian patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
and loyalism toward Hasburg Emperor
Emperor of Austria
The Emperor of Austria was a hereditary imperial title and position proclaimed in 1804 by the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and continually held by him and his heirs until the last emperor relinquished power in 1918. The emperors retained the title of...
Franz Joseph
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
.
According to McCagg, his was by then "a vaguely Zionist platform". Other academics agree: Jess Olson describes Straucher as "the Zionist Reichsabgeordneter [Member of Parliament]"; Emanuel S. Goldmith calls him "the only nationally inclined Jewish representative" in the Viennese Parliament.
Freisinnige Verband and Progressive Peasants' Fellowship
In 1903, he had established personal ties with members of Bukovina's other main communities, the Romanian Aurel OnciulAurel Onciul
Aurel, knight of Onciul, was a Romanian moderate political leader in the Austrian Bukovina, prior to its union with the Kingdom of Romania. He advocated a division of the province along ethnic lines, into a Romanian-controlled southern Bukovina, and a Ukrainian-controlled northern Bukovina...
and the Ukrainian Nikolai von Wassilko, with whom he set up the Freisinnige Verband ("Freethinkers
Freethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...
' Alliance", as in Germany
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
's Freisinnige Partei), a group noted for condemning the spread of antisemitism. The unifying idea of the Verband was electoral reform
Electoral reform
Electoral reform is change in electoral systems to improve how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of:...
, that is the attempt to reduce the number of seats allocated to boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
s and reallocate them based on a system designed by Straucher; all nationalities involved agreed to follow their own agendas to greater emancipation. More likely to interpret political events as evidence of class conflict
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
rather than national emancipation, it notably reacted against the regional conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
groups (who generally sought to slow down the devolution
Devolution
Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. Devolution can be mainly financial, e.g. giving areas a budget which was formerly administered by central government...
of Bukovina) and the newly-founded Romanian National People's Party (PPNR) of boyar Iancu Flondor
Iancu Flondor
Iancu Flondor was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian activist who advocated Bukovina's unifion with the Kingdom of Romania....
(whose platform was linked to the Romanian national revival
National awakening of Romania
During the period of Austro-Hungarian rule in Transylvania and Ottoman suzerainty over Wallachia and Moldavia, most Romanians were treated as second-class citizens in their country...
).
Onciul, who was convinced that reform was in the benefit of Romanians, negotiated with Flondor, hoping to create unified district committees for the Romanian factions, and even a "Unitary Romanian Party". The divergence between the Freisinnigen Verband and Flondor escalated when the latter used his position in the Diet of Bukovina to reject Straucher's proposal for electoral reform, and peaked when the democrats accused Flondor of supporting antisemitism, based on speculation that he had been the author of virulent unsigned pieces published by the Bukowinaer Journal. The matter was investigated by a special Diet commission, who found in favor of Flondor, reportedly evidencing that the newspaper's editor, Max Reiner, had been paid 1,000 Kronen
Austro-Hungarian krone
The Krone or korona was the official currency of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1892 until the dissolution of the empire in 1918...
to incriminate the PPNR leader. The attempt to defame Flondor, attributed by some to Onciul and Straucher's frustration over Flondor "anti-democratic" stance, became known locally as Die Flondor Affair ("The Flondor Affair"). Reportedly, Straucher was personally involved, speaking in Diet against Flondor and his family, accusing him of having intrigued against PPNR co-founder Gheorghe Popovici.
For a while, Benno Straucher was involved with a new union formed by the 1903 "Freethinkers", which was to facilitate the adoption of radical reforms. Called Progressive Peasants' Fellowship, it was presided by him and Onciul, together with Skedl, Georg Graf Wassilko von Serecki and "Young Ukrainian" Stepan Smal-Stotskyi, taking the majority vote in 1904 elections for the Diet (when Georg Wassilko became Landeshauptmann
Landeshauptmann
Landeshauptmann is a former German gubernatorial title equivalent to that of a governor of a province or a state....
).
Jewish National People's Party creation and Yiddishist Conference
In 1906, Straucher and lawyer-activist Max Diamant together created Bukovina's Jewish National People's PartyJewish National People's Party
The Jewish National People's Party was a regional Jewish political party founded in 1906 in the Bukovina Austrian crown land by Benno Straucher, elected at the Austrian Parliament's Abgeordnetenhaus for the Jewish National Party since 1897...
. At an imperial level, he joined up with Austrian Zionists to set up a new Jewish National Party, which adopted the "work in the present" ideology of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, that is the focus on autonomy for the more sizable Jewish communities of East-Central Europe
East-Central Europe
East-Central Europe – a term defining the countries located between German-speaking countries and Russia. Those lands are described as situated “between two”: between two worlds, between two stages, between two futures...
. Some of his efforts were dedicated to building the Kehilla-run Jewish House of Culture, a major Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
palace, decorated with his bust. In parallel, allegations about "Jewish" corruption in the Czernowitz local council, targeting Straucher's leadership, resulted in ethnic tensions. During autumn 1910, after the accuser, engineer Woitechowski, was called to order by Straucher, the city's Christians organized vigils and strikes.
By that moment, Straucher's option in favor of Jewish secularism and modernization
Modernization
In the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...
possibly implied his reevaluation of Yiddish
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
as a national Jewish language. Reportedly, his advocacy of both autonomy and Yiddishist identity was largely shaped by the Folkist
Folkspartei
The Folkspartei was founded after the 1905 pogroms in the Russian Empire by Simon Dubnow and Israel Efrojkin. The party took part to several elections in Poland and Lithuania in the 1920s and 1930s and did not survive the Shoah.-Ideology:...
ideology of Jewish groups in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. The Yiddishist view, which placed him among the first Jewish intellectuals to identify with what had been hitherto viewed as a regional dialect of German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
(reportedly, Straucher himself had earlier designated Yiddish as merely a "jargon
Jargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
"), brought him into conflict with Jewish traditionalists, who supported instead a Hebrew revival. However, Straucher did not support education in Yiddish, and favored German-language schools, for which he demanded special Jewish inspectors and teachers.
Notably, Straucher received support from scholar Nathan Birnbaum
Nathan Birnbaum
----Nathan Birnbaum was an Austrian writer and journalist, Jewish thinker and nationalist. His life had three main phases, representing a progression in his thinking: Zionist phase ; Jewish cultural autonomy phase which included the promotion of the Yiddish language; and religious phase...
, who spoke in his favor at Jewish National Party caucus
Caucus
A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...
es during the 1907 Austrian elections. Together with Diamant and Birnbaum, Straucher organized the first Conference for the Yiddish Language, held in Czernowitz between August 31 and September 3, 1908. The initial demand was for the proceedings to be held at the Jewish House, but the Conference was ultimately hosted by a similar institution of the local Ukrainians and the local Music Society. The reason for this failure is disputed: some attribute it to opposition from the "Hebraist" adversaries, others suggest that Straucher was in reality unconvinced about the Conference platform, sabotaging his own Yiddishist campaign.
"Bukovina Settlement" and 1911 election
Largely as a result of political restructuring at a provincial level, the Austrian authorities granted the "Bukovina Settlement" in stages between 1909 and 1911. This followed an agreement between the three ethnic groups: the Romanians (represented by Onciul and Alexandru HurmuzakiAlexandru Hurmuzaki
Alexandru Hurmuzaki was a Romanian politician and publisher. He was one of the founding members of the Romanian Academy.-References:...
), the Ukrainians (Georg Wassilko) and the Jews (Straucher himself), who subsequently negotiated the matter with Oktavian von Bleyleben, Bukovina's Landespräsident. Cultural historians Amy Colin and Peter Rychlo view it as "one of the most progressive accords between ethnic groups in the Austro-Hungarian Empire", and argue: "Growing ethnic tensions necessitated such a treaty to protect peace in Bukovina by insuring ethnic autonomy in political decisions [...]. The fruitful cooperation [...] proved that peaceful ethnic interaction was still possible [in Bukovina] five years before the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
." The agreement provided for a highly complex electoral reform which provided proportional representation to Bukovinan ethnic groups within the local Diet, but, in accordance with the wishes of mainstream Jews and in an effort to combat antisemitic agitation, did not generally award separate recognition to Jews (apart from a few separate electoral district
Electoral district
An electoral district is a distinct territorial subdivision for holding a separate election for one or more seats in a legislative body...
s, they were included in the same group as Germans). Lichtblau and John argue that, through this measure, the Austrian monarchy marked "the final demarcation point [...] which linked together the Jews of Bukovina and the Germans."
The failure to acknowledge Jews a separate group disappointed the Jewish National People's Party leadership, and caused Straucher to produce a number of official letters of protest. The 1911 elections consecrated a split between Straucher's group. and Zionists such as Ebner. They accused Straucher of having set up a dictatorship and of having failed to obtain Jewish representation, and moved on to create the separate People's Council Party. Together, the two competing parties won 10 seats, one more than secretly predicted by the Bienerth-Schmerling
Count Richard von Bienerth-Schmerling
Baron Richard von Bienerth, after 1915 Count von Bienerth-Schmeling , was an Austrian statesman.He was the son of the Austrian Lieutenant-Field Marshal Karl von Bienerth and a grandson on his mother's side of the Minister of State and later President of the High Court of Cassation Anton von...
cabinet in Vienna. At the time, Straucher's liberal group was also competing with the regional Bundistn and sympathizers of the Poale Zion
Poale Zion
Poale Zion was a Movement of Marxist Zionist Jewish workers circles founded in various cities of the Russian Empire about the turn of the century after the Bund rejected Zionism in 1901.-Formation and early years:Poale Zion parties and organisations were started across the Jewish diaspora in the...
movement, who supported Jewish autonomism within a socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
framework.
The Kultusgemeinde became his prime basis of support for maintaining his parliamentary seat, and, after the 1911 elections (during which he faced no opposition from Ebner's group), he was the only one among the four of his fellow candidates in the 1907 suffrage to maintain his seat. Of the latter, Arthur Mahler
Arthur Mahler
Arthur Mahler was a Czech-Austrian archeologist. He was a cousin of composer Gustav Mahler....
left the Jewish nationalist movement and returned to his career as an art historian.
World War I and the National Jewish Council
During World War I, Straucher supported Austria–Hungary's commitment to the Central PowersCentral Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
. Before Bukovina was turned into a battleground (see Brusilov Offensive
Brusilov Offensive
The Brusilov Offensive , also known as the June Advance, was the Russian Empire's greatest feat of arms during World War I, and among the most lethal battles in world history. Prof. Graydon A. Tunstall of the University of South Florida called the Brusilov Offensive of 1916 the worst crisis of...
) he, like other Jewish leaders, expressed hopes that Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War I)
The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...
victories against the Russian Empire would signify the effective emancipation
Jewish Emancipation
Jewish emancipation was the external and internal process of freeing the Jewish people of Europe, including recognition of their rights as equal citizens, and the formal granting of citizenship as individuals; it occurred gradually between the late 18th century and the early 20th century...
of Russian Jews, as well as the end for a threat on Europe's safety. Soon afterward, he participated in a large political debate regarding the creation of a central democratic institution for Austria–Hungary, which was intended as a replica of the American Jewish Congress
American Jewish Congress
The American Jewish Congress describes itself as an association of Jewish Americans organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts....
, a test of Jewish autonomy and an instrument in combating antisemitism. Speaking in 1916, he offered his full support to the initiative, and argued in favor of replacing the various other representative bodies, but the move was opposed by the non-Zionist lobby (who preferred a Kehilla-based structure of shtadlan
Shtadlan
A Shtadlan was an intercessor figure starting in Medieval Europe, who represented interests of the local Jewish community, especially those of a town's ghetto, and worked as a "lobbyist" negotiating for the safety and benefit of Jews with the authorities holding power...
im).
Straucher subsequently used the Abgeordnetenhaus tribune for condemning the antisemitic violence linked with the various political changes. In spring 1918, soon after Austria signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (February 9, 1918)
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918 between the Russian SFSR and the Central Powers, but prior to that on February 9, 1918, the Central Powers signed an exclusive protectorate treaty with the Ukrainian People's Republic as part of the negotiations that took place...
with the Ukrainian People's Republic
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...
, granting it territories claimed by Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
, he expressed alarm that Polish nationalists were attributing the events to the Jews, organizing pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
s and planning their eviction from Galicia. Straucher, like fellow Jewish nationalists Hermann Kadisch and Robert Stricker
Robert Stricker
Robert Stricker was a Jewish Austrian politician.Born in Brno on 16 August 1879, Stricker graduated from high school at the technical college...
, continued to express his support for Habsburg ruler Charles I throughout those years but. Nevertheless, according to social historian Marsha L. Rozenblit, their views on the matter were by then contrasting with those of their Jewish partners in the Czech lands
Czech lands
Czech lands is an auxiliary term used mainly to describe the combination of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia. Today, those three historic provinces compose the Czech Republic. The Czech lands had been settled by the Celts , then later by various Germanic tribes until the beginning of 7th...
(a group formed around Selbstwehr journal, and more mindful of the local independence movement
Czech National Revival
Czech National Revival was a cultural movement, which took part in the Czech lands during the 18th and 19th century. The purpose of this movement was to revive Czech language, culture and national identity...
). In a statement of 1917, the Bukovina delegate claimed Jews were "an upholding element [standing] unconditionally and without reservations for Austria." He was however also demanding autonomy within a new democratic Austria, in terms which Rozenblit finds similar with those proposed by both mainstream Zionists and the Galician Poale Zion.
Straucher was still at the Abgeordnetenhaus during late autumn 1918, as the monarchy was collapsing. On October 4, shortly before German Austria
German Austria
Republic of German Austria was created following World War I as the initial rump state for areas with a predominantly German-speaking population within what had been the Austro-Hungarian Empire, without the Kingdom of Hungary, which in 1918 had become the Hungarian Democratic Republic.German...
emerged as a rump state
Rump state
A rump state is the remnant of a once-larger government, left with limited powers or authority after a disaster, invasion, military occupation, secession or partial overthrowing of a government. In the last case, a government stops short of going in exile because it still controls part of its...
, he was among the regional delegates to Vienna who voted in favor of keeping Bukovina in union with the central government. At home, the situation was degenerating, as Romanians openly demanded incorporation into the Romanian Kingdom
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
and Ukrainians opted for the Ukrainian People's Republic. These tensions flared into riots, quelled when the Romanian Army entered the region and brought into Romania (a union internationally sanctioned by the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye).
In this context, Straucher joined Ebner and the socialist Iacob Pistiner
Iacob Pistiner
Jacob Pistiner was a Romanian politician and lawyer.He was born in Chernivtsi, 1882, then part of Austro-Hungarian Empire, in a Jewish family....
in founding the National Jewish Council, which stood for the defense of community rights. The new group's program was generally suspicious of union with Romania, where Jewish emancipation had not yet been enacted, and looked into other political alternatives—for this reason, it was placed under close supervision by the new authorities. The Council clashed with Ion Nistor
Ion Nistor
Ion Nistor was a prominent Romanian historian and politician. He was a member of the Romanian Academy after 1911, and served as administrator of its Library.-Biography:...
's nationalist Romanian group, the Democratic Union Party
Democratic Union Party (Bukovina)
The Democratic Union Party was a political group in Romania, one of the political forces which claimed to represent the ethnic Romanian community of Bukovina province. The PDU was active in the wake of World War I, between 1919 and 1923, having for its leader the historian and nationalist militant...
, which, using antisemitic language, spoke about a Jewish danger to the Romanian cause. At the time, other segments of Bukovina's Jewish community began criticizing Straucher for his settlements with Wassilko's Ukrainians, allegedly to the detriment of his own coreligionists.
Shortly after the creation of Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
, the Council boycotted the 1919 general election, thus refusing to send its representatives into the Parliament of Romania
Parliament of Romania
The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:*The Chamber of Deputies*The SenatePrior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses...
. Ebner voiced the mistrust of his coreligionists for the Romanian electoral law, arguing that it was meant to dilute the Jewish vote in that region. This decision was contested by businessman Jakob Hecht, who stood as a Jewish candidate on the same platform as Nistor. Hecht's statements, which gave recognition to an unconditional union, were received with consternation by other Jewish activists, who called him a "traitor". By 1923 however, the entire community leadership had come to accept Romania's rule over the region, and Ebner even claimed that there was never any opposition on its part.
Final activities in Romanian Bukovina
In later years, Benno Straucher stood for a platform advocating the preservation of Jewish rights in Bukovina and throughout the Jewish-Romanian communityHistory of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
. In the early 1920s, he and his followers began a close cooperation with Wilhelm Filderman
Wilhelm Filderman
Wilhelm Filderman was a leader of the Romanian-Jewish community between the two wars and a representative of the Jews in the Romanian parliament....
's nation-wide Union of Romanian Jews
Union of Romanian Jews
The Union of Romanian Jews was a political organisation active in Romania in the first half of the 20th century.The UER targeted all Romanian Jews who had obtained citizenship and accepted its programme of integration into the Romanian state. It was organised based on geographic Jewish...
(UER). The UER nevertheless failed in rallying to its cause the other representatives of Jewish nationalism, such as the Zionists following Straucher's old rival Ebner. The UER initially supported the People's Party of Alexandru Averescu
Alexandru Averescu
Alexandru Averescu was a Romanian marshal and populist politician. A Romanian Armed Forces Commander during World War I, he served as Prime Minister of three separate cabinets . He first rose to prominence during the peasant's revolt of 1907, which he helped repress in violence...
(despite signs that the group was sympathetic of antisemitic causes). Standing in for the deceased Hecht, Straucher and Ebner became the Jewish Council bids for the 1920 election, with additional support from the German Council; Straucher ran in the "Cernăuţi-city" circumscription, for both Chamber and Senate
Senate of Romania
The Senate of Romania is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 137 seats , to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using Mixed member proportional representation in 42 electoral districts , to serve four-year terms.-Former location:After the Romanian...
. At the time, those Jewish voters who did not agree with such maneuvers rallied behind Friedrich Billig, founder of a Jewish Democratic Party. Straucher was the only one elected to the Chamber, effectively on Averescu's ticket.
The entire UER eventually threw its support behind the National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
: in the 1922 suffrage, alongside Nistor, former leader of the Democratic Union Party, Straucher endorsed the National Liberal platform for Bukovina. In contrast, Ebner's Zionist faction had entered an alliance with Averescu, and, in the 1926 suffrage, the move got Ebner elected to the Chamber. Straucher too was elected after running against Ebner's colleagues (Karl Klüger, Henric Streitman), a second term which marked his split with the Bukovina Zionists. Straucher, who did not present himself for the 1926 vote, was reelected in the 1927 vote. He had extended his agreement with the National Liberals and, remarkably, ran against a bloc of minorities formed nationally around the Magyar Party
Magyar Party (Romania)
The Magyar Party was a political party in post-World War I Romania.The party had a heterogeneous structure, including bourgeois and landowners, peasants, workers, intellectuals and city-dwellers...
, the German Party
German Party (Romania)
The German Party was a political party in post-World War I Romania, claiming to represent the entire ethnic German community.The German Party went through a rather lengthy period of creation. It was founded on the initiative of part of the ethnic German bourgeoisie at Timişoara on September 6,...
and Zionist organizations. Ebner, also reconfirmed as deputy, subsequently rallied with the National Peasants' Party
National Peasants' Party
The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...
. Opposing all alliance with the UER, he formed a Jewish parliamentary club of non-UER Jewish nationalist representatives, and defined Filderman's policy of alliances with groups suspect of antisemitism as immoral. In the 1928 election, having again obtained Nistor's support, Straucher again took his parliamentary seat. With support from the National Liberals, he became a Senate candidate in the 1932 suffrage, but did not receive the vote.
Taking precautions against the Ebner's goal of propagating Zionism through Jewish day school
Jewish day school
A Jewish day school is a modern Jewish educational institution that is designed to provide Jewish children with both a Jewish and a secular education in one school on a full time basis, hence its name of "day school" meaning a school that the students attend for an entire day and not on a part time...
s, Straucher gave his approval to the teaching of Romanian language
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
classes, and therefore to a measure of assimilation, while preventing Zionists from reforming the curriculum. In this context, he made himself known for protesting the Romanianization
Romanianization
Romanianization or Rumanization is the term used to describe a number of ethnic assimilation policies implemented by the Romanian authorities during the 20th century...
policies promoted by the governments in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, in particular in the educational field
Education in Romania
According to the Law on Education adopted in 1995, the Romanian Educational System is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Research . Each level has its own form of organization and is subject to different legislation. Kindergarten is optional between 3 and 6 years old...
. During the mid 1920s, he was in correspondence with National Liberal leader Ion I. C. Brătianu
Ion I. C. Bratianu
Ion I. C. Brătianu was a Romanian politician, leader of the National Liberal Party , the Prime Minister of Romania for five terms, and Foreign Minister on several occasions; he was the eldest son of statesman and PNL leader Ion Brătianu, the brother of Vintilă and Dinu Brătianu, and the father of...
and Filderman, documenting cases in which Bukovinan schools had been "purged" of Jewish teachers and administrators were being dismissed, pensioned or demoted by the Ministry of Education, as well as the state-condoned underfunding of state-run Jewish schools. He contrasted these incidence with the traditional status of Jews in Czernowitz (then designated as Cernăuţi), whom, he assessed, formed 50% of the city's population and 90% of its taxpayers. At the time, the authorities had restructured the secondary education institutions into five high schools, divided by ethnicity, and Straucher's writings attest a significant reduction in attendance numbers for the Jewish Lycée No. 3. Jewish parents were then opting in favor of sending their children to privately run day schools
Jewish day school
A Jewish day school is a modern Jewish educational institution that is designed to provide Jewish children with both a Jewish and a secular education in one school on a full time basis, hence its name of "day school" meaning a school that the students attend for an entire day and not on a part time...
.
According to McCagg, Benno Straucher's last years were spent in a dispute with younger Yiddishist activists "who felt that one could only get through to the Jewish masses by using Yiddish." The aging politician died in 1940, one year after the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.