Editing Orthodox Judaism (section)

===Eastern Europe===
The much belated pace of modernization in Russia, [[Congress Poland]] and the Romanian principalities, where harsh discrimination and active persecution of the Jews continued until 1917, delayed the crisis of traditional society for decades. Old-style education in the ''[[heder]]'' and ''[[yeshiva]]'' remained the norm, retaining [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] as the language of the elite and [[Yiddish]] as the vernacular. The defining fault-line of Eastern European Jews was between the [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidim]] and the ''[[Misnagdic]]'' reaction against them. Reform attempts by the [[Czar of Russia|Czar]]'s government, like the school modernization under [[Max Lilienthal]] or the foundation of rabbinical seminaries and the mandating of communities to appoint clerks known as [[Crown rabbi (Russia)|"official rabbis"]], all had little influence. Communal autonomy and the rabbinic courts' jurisdiction were abolished in 1844, but economic and social seclusion remained, ensuring the authority of Jewish institutions and traditions de facto. In 1880, there were only 21,308 Jewish pupils in government schools, out of some 5&nbsp;million Jews in total; In 1897, 97% of the 5.2&nbsp;million Jews in the [[Pale of Settlement]] and Congress Poland declared Yiddish their mother tongue, and only 26% possessed any literacy in Russian. Though the Eastern European ''[[Haskalah]]'' challenged the traditional establishment – unlike its western counterpart, no acculturation process turned it irrelevant; it flourished from the 1820s until the 1890s – the latter's hegemony over the vast majority was self-evident. The leading rabbis maintained the old conception of communal unity: In 1882, when an Orthodox party in [[Austrian Poland|Galicia]] appealed for the right of secession, the [[Netziv]] and other Russian rabbis declared it forbidden and contradicting the idea of Israel's oneness.<ref name="BBR">Benjamin Brown, [https://www.academia.edu/5121242 "As Swords in the Body of the Nation": East-European Rabbis against the Separation of Communities]. In:  
''Yosef Da‘at: Studies in Modern Jewish History in Honor of Yosef Salmon''. [[Ben-Gurion University of the Negev]] Press, 2010.</ref>

While slow, change was by no means absent. In the 1860s and 1870s, anticipating a communal disintegration like the one in the west, moderate ''maskilic'' rabbis like [[Yitzchak Yaacov Reines]] and [[Yechiel Michel Pines]] called for inclusion of secular studies in the ''heder''s and ''yeshiva''s, a careful modernization, and an ecumenical attempt to form a consensus on necessary adaptation of ''halakha'' to novel times. Their initiative was thwarted by a combination of strong anti-traditional invective on behalf of the radical, secularist ''maskilim'' and conservative intransigence from the leading rabbis, especially during the bitter polemic which erupted after [[Moshe Leib Lilienblum]]'s 1868 call for a reconsideration of Talmudic strictures. Reines, Pines and their associates would gradually form the nucleus of [[Religious Zionism]], while their conservative opponents would eventually adopt the epithet ''[[Haredim]]'' (then, and also much later, still a generic term for the observant and the pious).<ref>Joseph Salmon, ''Enlightened Rabbis as Reformers in Russian Jewish Society.'' in: David Sorkin, ed. ''New Perspectives on the Haskalah''. Litmann (2001). esp. pp. 166–168, 172–173, 181–183.</ref>

The attitude toward Jewish nationalism, particularly [[Zionism]], and its nonobservant if not staunchly secularist leaders and partisans, was the key question facing the traditionalists of Eastern Europe. Closely intertwined were issues of modernization in general: As noted by Joseph Salmon, the future religious Zionists (organized in the [[Mizrachi (religious Zionism)|Mizrahi]] since 1902) were not only supportive of the national agenda per se, but deeply motivated by criticism of the prevalent Jewish society, a positive reaction to modernity and a willingness to tolerate nonobservance while affirming traditional faith and practice. Their proto-''Haredi'' opponents sharply rejected all of the former positions and espoused staunch conservatism, which idealized existing norms. Any illusion that differences could be blanded and a united observant pro-Zionist front would be formed, were dashed between 1897 and 1899, as both the Eastern European nationalist intellectuals and [[Theodor Herzl]] himself revealed an uncompromising secularist agenda, forcing traditionalist leaders to pick sides. In 1900, the anti-Zionist pamphlet ''Or la-Yesharim'', endorsed by many Russian and Polish rabbis, largely demarcated the lines between the proto-''Haredi'' majority and the Mizrahi minority, and terminated dialogue; in 1911, when the 10th [[World Zionist Congress]] voted in favour of propagating non-religious cultural work and education, a large segment of the Mizrahi seceded and joined the anti-Zionists.<ref>Joseph Salmon, ''Zionism and Anti-Zionism in Traditional Judaism in Eastern Europe'', in: Jehuda Reinharz, ed. ''Zionism and Religion''. University Press of New England, 1998. pp. 25–26, 30–32.</ref>

In 1907, Eastern European proto-''Haredi'' elements formed the Knesseth Israel party, a modern framework created in recognition of the deficiencies of existing institutions. It dissipated within a year. German Neo-Orthodoxy, in the meantime, developed a keen interest in the traditional Jewish masses of Russia and Poland; if at the past they were considered primitive, a disillusionment with emancipation and enlightenment made many young assimilated German Orthodox youth embark on journeys to East European ''yeshivot'', in search of authenticity. The German secessionists already possessed a platform of their own, the ''Freie Vereinigung für die Interessen des Orthodoxen Judentums'', founded by [[Samson Raphael Hirsch]] in 1885. In 1912, two German FVIOJ leaders, [[Isaac Breuer]] and [[Jacob Rosenheim]], managed to organize a meeting of 300 seceding Mizrahi, proto-''Haredi'' and secessionist Neo-Orthodox delegate in [[Katowice]], creating the ''[[World Agudath Israel|Agudath Israel]]'' party. While the Germans were a tiny minority in comparison to the Eastern Europeans, their modern education made them a prominent elite in the new organization, which strove to provide a comprehensive response to world Jewry's challenges in a strictly observant spirit. The Agudah immediately formed its [[Council of Torah Sages]] as supreme rabbinic leadership body. Many ultra-traditionalist elements in Eastern Europe, like the Belz and Lubavitch Hasidim, refused to join, viewing the movement as a dangerous innovation; and the organized Orthodox in Hungary rejected it as well, especially after it did not affirm a commitment to communal secession in 1923.

In the [[Interwar period]], sweeping secularization and acculturation deracinated old Jewish society in Eastern Europe. The [[October Revolution]] granted civil equality and imposed anti-religious persecutions, radically transforming Russian Jewry within a decade; the lifting of formal discrimination also strongly affected the Jews of [[Second Polish Republic|independent Poland]], [[Lithuania]] and other states. In the 1930s, it was estimated that no more than 20%–33% of Poland's Jews, the last stronghold of traditionalism where many were still living in rural and culturally-secluded communities, could be considered strictly observant.<ref>Jaff Schatz, ''Jews and the Communist Movement in Interwar Poland'', in: ''Dark Times, Dire Decisions : Jews and Communism''. Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry. Oxford University Press, 2005. p. 35.</ref> Only upon having become an embattled (though still quite large) minority, did the local traditionalists complete their transformation into Orthodox, albeit never as starkly as in Hungary or Germany. Eastern European Orthodoxy, whether Agudah or Mizrahi, always preferred cultural and educational independence to communal secession, and maintained strong ties and self-identification with the general Jewish public.<ref name="BBR"/> Within its ranks, the 150-years-long struggle between [[Hasidim]] and [[Misnagdim]] was largely subsided; the latter were even dubbed henceforth as "Litvaks", as the anti-Hasidic component in their identity was marginalized. In the interwar period, Rabbi [[Yisrael Meir Kagan]] emerged as the popular leader of the Eastern European Orthodox, particularly the Agudah-leaning.