The State intended to fix their economic position, by pushing the Jewish communities out of seclusion, thus making them valuable members of the market. To achieve this goal, Joesph II implemented a series of reforms that would provide members of the Jewish populace the means to join secular society. This was done …show more content…
According to McCagg, the State Authority created hundreds of schools that would provided Jewish children with a German language education. The introduction of the German language is the second important tool given to the Galician Jews by the Habsburg State. It was this German education that would expose the Galician Jewery to secular ideas of Enlightenment. Furthermore it would produce a new class of Jews who saw assimilation and inclusion with in the German liberal culture as a means of obtaining validity. In his work Diaspora nationalism and Jewish identity in Habsburg Galicia, Jewish Historian Joshua Shanes discusses Joesph II educational reforms. He cites that Jewish children were required to attend either German language schools. Though there was no official punishment for noncompliance, attendance to these schools was required to obtain a marriage license. Similarly, the State also encouraged the adaption of the German language by the Jewish populace, by making it compulsory requirement for holding any local office. These decrees were made official in May of 1789, with the issue of Judenordnung for Galician Jews. According to