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Occupational structure of the Jewish population
No figures exist that would allow us to
describe the professional structure of the Jewish population in the
Middle Ages and modern period. Somewhat more is known about the
traditional social hierarchy of Jews at that time, which differed from
that of feudal Christian society, where good birth and wealth brought
prestige. Jews' greatest authorities were the learned Talmudists.
Intellectual professions and those related to religion, such as the
rabbi, dayan, sofer, shoychet (shekhita) and yeshiva teacher. Next on
the social ladder were the merchants, but individuals who had a
religious education and wealth were most esteemed. The Community elders
were most often chosen from this group. The physical professions were
least valued, which meant that artisans were on the bottom of the social
hierarchy. This was even more the case because they often came from the
poorest strata of society, which meant they rarely had the opportunity
to acquire a thorough religious education.
Attitudes towards physical labor and the crafts began changing only
in the early twentieth century, as Jewish lay culture and political
movements were developing. The professional structure of the Jewish
population in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was typical for a
burgher class. Jews rarely worked in agriculture because they were
banned from owning land, though this rule was not always strictly
enforced. They were usually engaged in trade (along with credit
activities and brokerage), trade and inn-keeping. Many Jews were
employed as servants in private homes and estates, trade enterprises and
factories. Relatively few Jews worked as clerks (employed in government
offices and private enterprises), while the proportion of teachers was
higher than in the Christian community. Jews had a long tradition of
involvement in the medical professions, where they served as physicians,
medics and barber-surgeons. In 1794, there were more than a dozen
Jewish doctors in Warsaw alone. Rabbis and synagogue caretakers were
important, though numerically small, professions, and were present in
all Jewish communities. The lowest class in society, comprised of
beggars, procurers, pimps, thieves and smugglers, was smaller than in
the Christian community.
The partitions of Poland also divided Jewish society. As the result
of legal and economic differences in the three partitions, the
occupational structure of Jewish society developed somewhat differently
in each. In Wielkopolska in 1849, approximately 10% of the Jews were
wealthy bankers, merchants, hoteliers, and members of the free
professions; 52% were employed in small-scale trade and crafts; 28% were
journeymen and servants. In Wielkopolska, as many as 10% of Jews had no
specific profession.
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In the Russian partition, the proportion of
trade in the occupational structure fell at first, as Jews were shut out
of rural trade. In the later period, when Jews were driven out of many
professions and concentrated in the Pale of Settlement, the number began
to grow again. After 1882, most Jews were engaged in small-scale trade
(primarily stall-keepers and peddlers) and crafts. Transport and
shipping began playing a significant role: Jews operated four-fifths of
the transportation, shipping and foreign trade firms. Jewish cabbies and
carters (balagula) became an intrinsic element of most railway stations
and markets.
Jews also represented a high proportion in the service sector,
particularly among those running inexpensive restaurants, beer halls and
inns. In the second half of the nineteenth century, increasing numbers
of Jews were members of the intelligentsia, which included clerks,
employed above all in private offices, teachers, and members of the free
professions.
The occupational structure of Galicia's Jews, however, was
different. Trade and crafts did not play as large a role as they did in
the Russian partition. In 1880, 27.4% of Galician Jews were engaged in
trade; in industry and crafts, this figure was 26.2%, and among
inn-keepers and publicans the proportion was as high as 21.8%. The
percentage of farmers was significantly higher than in the other
partitions - 13.4%; as well as those living off the interest of their
investments - 10.2%. No figures exist regarding the proportion of Jews
in the free professions, or what their proportion was of the lowest
classes in Galicia.
During the interwar period, most of the Polish Jews made their
livelihood in the production sector. In 1931, the proportion was as high
as 42.4%, of which the majority was involved in crafts, based in small
production and service enterprises; these were either family-run, or
numbered just a few employees. In industry, the highest number of people
was engaged in the clothing sector (17%), food (7.1%), metal-working
(3.0%), wood-working (3.4%) and textiles (3.0%).
Trade provided a livelihood for 36.6% of the Jewish population (this
included insurance and finance). But here, too, most Jews were engaged
in old-fashioned and rudimentary forms of trade, either in retail or as
peddlers and door-to-door salesmen. The number of Jews involved in
insurance, finance, wholesale and cooperative trade was significantly
lower.
The third largest Jewish professional group (4.5%) was in transport
and communication. In the areas of this sector owned by the federal or
local government (post, telephone, telegraph, railways, trams, and city
buses), the Jewish presence was only negligible. Jews were employed in
private shipping companies and traditional forms of transportation, such
as cabbies and drivers of horse-drawn carts, and as porters. Very few
drove modern means of transportation, such as taxis or trucks.
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The proportion of Jews in agriculture increased
to 4.3%, and included vegetable and fruit growers, forestry and
fishing. A few Jews even owned farms themselves.
Jews comprised 2.1% of those involved in the medical professions and
hygiene. These included doctors, pharmacists, medics, nurses, midwives,
barbers and cosmeticians.
The proportion of Jews in the field of education was similar (2.3%),
and included teachers at private and public schools, tutors, melamdim
(cheder), preschool teachers, employees of academic institutions and
instructors at institutions of higher learning.
In the sector "public servants and the free professions" (1.8%) the
highest percentage were lawyers and attorneys in private practice,
individuals employed in religious organizations and social service
institutions, as well as writers, painters, sculptors, and those
involved in the theater, for example. State employees represented a much
smaller proportion of this category. The most weakly represented were
domestic servants (0.7%).
There was a large group of people who were not gainfully employed
for various reasons (4.7%). This included people of various social
ranks: pensioners, the disabled, disabled veterans and their families,
those living off the income from their investments, beggars, those
supported by welfare benefits, and individuals in hospitals and prisons.
Most of the professions in which Jews were strongly represented had
low income levels. After the Second World War, an attempt was made to
construct new occupational patterns for the Jewish population by
steering Jews towards different sectors of the economy. In 1947, as many
as 32.6% of Jews were employed in heavy industry and in agriculture
(ORT), 15% in crafts, both in private workshops and in cooperatives
("Solidarnosc").
Under communism, only a few Jews owned shops, while most who were
engaged in trade did so illegally, at markets or door-to-door. Jews
began to be employed in the state and local administration
(approximately 25% of the total Jewish workforce). In the years
1949-1950, after independent Jewish institutions were liquidated and the
administration and offices purged, this number fell. Statistics on
Jewish employment patterns were not kept after that time.
(G.Z./CM)
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