''The Wandering Jews'' is a short non-fiction book (1926–27) by

Joseph Roth Moses Joseph Roth (2 September 1894 – 27 May 1939) was an Austrian journalist and novelist, best known for his family saga '' Radetzky March'' (1932), about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, his novel of Jewish life '' Job'' ...

about the plight of the Jews in the mid-1920s who, with other refugees and displaced persons in the aftermath of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the Russian Revolution and the redrawing of national frontiers following the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

, had fled to the West from Lithuania, Poland and Russia. "They sought shelter in cities and towns where most of them had never been and, unfortunately, where they were made despicably unwelcome." Poverty stricken villagers, they were set apart by their origins, their piety and their dress. In the last five months of 1926 he visited the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

where he wrote the final section, ''The Condition of the Jews in Soviet Russia''.

Walter Jens Walter Jens (8 March 1923 – 9 June 2013) was a German philologist, literature historian, critic, university professor and writer. He was born in Hamburg, and attended the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums from 1933 to 1941, when he gained his Ab ...

called it the best book on its subject in German. An English translation by

Michael Hofmann Michael Hofmann (born 25 August 1957) is a German-born poet who writes in English and is a translator of texts from German. Biography Hofmann was born in Freiburg into a family with a literary tradition. His father was the German novelist Ger ...

was published in 2001.

Attitudes

Joseph Roth wrote the book for, "readers with respect for pain, for human greatness, and for the squalor that everywhere accompanies misery; Western Europeans who are not merely proud of their clean mattresses." The book displays his "lifelong sympathies with ''simple people'', the dispossessed ''guests on this earth'' and his antipathy to a selfish, materialistic, and increasingly homogeneous bourgeoisie." Roth is warm to his subjects, with "the exception of the middle-class, assimilated, denying Jews in the West." Jews in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, believing themselves to be assimilated, tended to look down on the newcomers to the West. And, "Roth sensed that the countries of Europe, stumbling out of one war and into another, floored by inflation, willing victims of atrocious right-wing propaganda and nationalist rhetoric would not be hospitable to the Jews who were being turned out of the East." Born in Galicia, a Central European province of the

Habsburg Empire The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...

, Roth witnessed the end of this empire, yet continued to call it his only homeland. He regarded it as "something that contained multitudes, something not exclusive", and, according to his English translator Michael Hoffman, the Jews represented "human beings in their least packaged form" - "the most anomalous, individual of peoples", fissured by history and geography. Roth believed in "

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

, in the sense of a somewhat separate presence of Jews within and throughout and inspiriting Europe." Communism he believed would eliminate

anti-semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

and Jewish identity alike. He never went to Palestine, but he objected to the creation of a nation state there for the Jews. "The young ''halutz'' is also the disseminator of a culture. He is as much a European as he is a Jew". In a preface to the 1937 edition, all Roth could hope for,

wrote in the 2001 edition, was for "conditions for Jews getting steadily and bearably worse. What happened instead was the Holocaust."Hofmann, Michael (2001). "Translator's Preface". ''The Wandering Jews''. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, p. xix.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wandering Jews 1927 non-fiction books Austrian books Works by Joseph Roth Works about the interwar period Works about refugees Books about Jews and Judaism