Galicia
Galicia (Yiddish: גאליציע; Polish: Galicja) officially The Jewish National Republic in Galicia, also know as Arts Glus (ארץ גלות) is a landlocked nation in continental eastern Europe bordering Poland, Russia, Romania & Magyaria. The country is notable for being the only Jewish majority nation on earth
The Jewish National Republic in Galicia | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
| Capital and largest city | Lemberg |
| Official languages |
|
| Recognised regional languages | Polish |
| Religion | Judaism Catholicism (Minority) |
| Demonym | Galician |
| Government | Unitary National Republic |
| Establishment | 1940 |
• Ben Abraham Scheme | 1936 |
• Lemberg Conference | 1939 |
• Declaration of the Jewish National Republic | 1940 |
History
Main article: History of the Jewish People
Jewish history in Galicia dates back roughly 1,000 years with early settlers and merchants immigrating to the area during the First Duchy of Poland under the Piast dynasty. The 15th - 17th centuries saw the region evolve as a cultural center of Judaism & a principal heartland of the 'Yiddish Golden Age'. During this period the Jewish community operated as autonomous subjects of the King of Poland with the 'Council of the Four lands' operating as the central institution of Jewish self governance until the early 19th century. After the coalition wars of the 1830's and the partitioning of Poland, Galicia fell under the Hapburg crown of Austria. Under Hapsburg rule Galicia's Jewish population increased sixfold due to a high birth rate and emigration of Jewish refugees from the Russian empire fleeing pogroms. Lemberg in particular became a hotbed of Yiddish literature & culture. The turn of the 20th century came with it the rise of political movements across eastern Europe, including ethnic nationalism in Poland, Russia & Austria as well as more totalizing ideologies like Faramundism, Neostabilism, Communardism & National Republicanism. In Poland & Russia unrest & nationalist sentiments created new violent strains of antisemitism. In Poland this manifested in the Anti-Jewish 'new codes' of 1902, which shattered years of relative Jewish peace in Poland and led to increased Jewish immigration into Austrian Galicia & abroad. This trend expanded during the European Economic Crisis with the nations of Eastern Europe being hit particularly hard by unemployment and deflation- ethnic, political & ideological tensions flared in between 1922 - 1938 and with it came pogroms across the continent. 'Red Summer' is the moniker given to the summer of 1925 in which an estimated 200,000 European Jews lost their lives and an equal amount fled from the terror which was concentrated in Russia (undergoing revolution against the Tsar) & in Poland in which Ruthenian, Polish, German nationalist terror and militias started to the state into insurgency. In Poland Jewish self-defense militias called Yidisher Bunds grew in number as a result of antisemitic laws and antisemitic violence; many of these organizations took inspiration from writers such as Achille Ferré Bazaine and the Russian Vosstanists and called for a national awakening of the Ashkenazi Jewish people.
Government and Politics
Galicia operates under the ideals of a unitary National Republican form of government with influences from the Jewish diaspora & Israeli traditional forms of government. The chief executive of Galicia is the 'Chairman of the National Kahal' while the legislature of the country is the 'National Knesset'.