Jewish Europe Between the Wars If we could use one word to
characterize the political, social and economic situation of
Jews in Europe between the world wars that word would be
“turmoil.” It is hard for people who live in a politically
stable society to imagine what it is like to live in an unstable
society, one that is so dangerous that no one knows what
tomorrow will bring. That, in effect, is a description of the
Jewish world in the 1920s and 1930s in Europe. The destruction
of European Jewry really began with the First World War: the
uprooting of millions of Jews, the destruction of old
communities, the breakdown of religious infrastructure, habits
and social observances, etc. All of that was accelerated by what
happened after the war. The Russian Revolution in 1917 changed
all the foundations upon which Jewish Russia was built. In fact,
the revolution proved to be one of the great disasters in Jewish
history, even though the full impact of the disaster did not
become apparent until decades later, and is