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Jewish Emancipation
Summary
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Political liberalism facilitated the emancipation of European Jews, to varying degrees and at various speeds in different nations. In the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, Jews gained rights approximating those of other citizens in most western European states. In Russia, traditional discrimination persisted. After the revolutions of 1848, the situation for most European Jews improved, with further political and citizenship rights being granted to Jews in most of Western Europe. Even Jews in Austria-Hungary gained full legal rights in 1867. Institutionalized prejudice seemed to have dissipated in western Europe, though certainly not in Russia and only sporadically in eastern Europe. Anti-Semitism grew in the 1870s and 1880s, though, largely as a byproduct of economic stagnation. Jewish leaders had faith in liberal government structures to protect their rights.
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