Jewish Life in the Eastern Galician Triangle, 1860-1939

The Eastern Galician Triangle made its way into history as an ethnically and religiously heterogeneous population which at the beginning of the 20th century had been inhabiting 49 eastern districts of the Habsburg crown land. During the considered time frame of eight decades, the population consisted of 3 - 5.5 million people; 60-66% of those were Greek Catholic Ukrainians, 20-30% were Roman Catholic Polish people and 10-13% were Jews. Additionally, there were small groups of Germans and Armenians. The project centres on the social co-existence of Eastern Galician Jews with their neighbours in various social milieus in the countryside, in smaller and larger towns, in the oil producing area around Boryslav. It is the aim of the project to on the one hand reconstruct the social co- existence as detailed as possible based on individual perspectives and to on the other hand put it into an economic-historic and socio-historical context. This includes the change of the political framework in that Eastern Galician area between 1860 and 1939 starting in the time of the Habsburg monarchy and continuing through to the Polish nation-state. The sheer volume of sources for this project consist of comprehensive economic and population statistics, numerous social-historical sources and the contemporary Jewish, Polish and Ukrainian media; it further draws from ego-documents mainly memoirs and literary personal testimonials from the different cultural and social spheres. The interconnectedness of those sources facilitates an approximation towards numerous forms of social co-existence without losing sight of the bigger picture with its main strands. This project makes use of an innovative method by combining socio-historical approaches with numerous individual perspectives. These perspectives not only represent three ethno-cultural communities; they are also structured according to social and gender-related aspects. What is more, these aspects are to be compared thereby contributing to a more comprehensive but simultaneously more differentiated overall picture. The overarching term is culture, which here includes not only the symbolic order with its encryption and codes, the attitudes, norms and values but also experiences, ways of perception, of thinking and processing which are shown in our behaviour. Further, the term encompasses the immediate environment of people, their economic and social positions and their living conditions. Accordingly, intercultural contacts, conflicts and delimitations between the Eastern Galician Jews and their Ukrainian and Polish neighbours will be reconstructed and analysed as a connected whole. Due to the interconnectedness of a lifeworld approach and the socio-historical perspective the development which went hand in hand with social, economic and political changes between 1860 and 1939 will be spelled out and will illustrate intercultural patterns of perception and behaviour.

No additional funding sources recorded.