Haredi Conceptions of Obligations and Rights: Polish Jewry, c.1900-1939

In their speeches and articles, Orthodox politicians and publicists in Eastern Europe devoted scant attention to the issue of individual rights. The author theorizes that, beyond a predilection in Jewish tradition for obligations rather than rights, the specific historical context of East European Jewry played the major role in shaping Orthodox concepts of oli garchic rabbinic leadership. Long-term institutional factors, such as the nature of the Jewish communal structure and the strong influence of Hasidism in Eastern Europe, plus more immediate historical factors, such as the rise of secularist Jewish political parties, led to the development of the ideology of daat Torah.