Tomenable
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:useless:Angela said:This Polish writer from the 16th century who said that the Jews didn’t fight in wars? Well, they sure fought in wars when they were in Israel, to the point that they tried to take on the Roman Empire, and paid for it by having their country smashed and having many of their people scattered to the four winds. They wouldn’t have fought in wars in Europe because they were excluded from all aspects of communal life. Instead, they were sitting ducks waiting for the next mob to attack them and burn them in their synagogues. Well, after generations of isolating them, restricting them to only certain professions, refusing to grant them citizenship, taxing the heck out of them, and subjecting them to pogrom after pogrom, certain eastern European governments did finally decide in the 19th and early 20th century to use them for cannon fodder and tried to conscript them for thirty years of service. What a surprise that the Jews didn’t jump at the chance, and tried desperately to emigrate.
The 16th century writer was obviously referring to 16th century Jews, not to those Jews in the Roman Empire in Ancient times.
Have you maybe read "Abyss of Despair" written by Nathan Hanover (it is about the Khmelnytsky Uprising) ??? If you read it then you will see, that Jews in Poland-Lithuania were not excluded or isolated, but were quite privileged, were living under protection of the Polish nobility, and rather than paying high taxes, they were themselves employed as Poland's tax collectors in Ukraine.
OTOH, it is true that Jews were quite restricted to certain professions, since Polish nobles employed Jews in those professions.
Ukrainian peasants and Cossacks hated the nobility and hated Jews, employed as tax collectors & administrators by the nobility.
Hanover refers to the Cossack leader as "Chmiel the Wicked", while describing his main Polish opponent, Jeremi Wiśniowiecki:
"(...) he [Wiśniowiecki] carried them [Jewish refugees] like on eagle's wings, until he brought them to wherever they wanted. When they were threatened from behind, he ordered them to go in front of his forces, and when they were threatened from the front, he was marching first, as a shield and a buckler, so they could camp and rest behind him. (...)"
That passage refers to the evacuation of Jews and Poles from Ukraine when they were under ferocious attacks of the Cossacks.
There is a 1999 war movie, a joint Polish-Ukrainian co-production, about the Khmelnytsky Uprising.
It is "With Fire & Sword", based on Henryk Sienkiewicz's 19th century novel of the same name:
Here a version with English subtitles (just switch them on) - Part 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UME_FMc4_RI
The movie was made to be quite pro-Ukrainian and rather portrays the Poles / the Polish nobles as evil oppressors, without mentioning the other aspect - i.e. Cossack / Orthodox war crimes against nobles, Roman Catholic Poles, and against Jews.
At that time ethnic identity in Ukraine was mostly determined by religion, as well as by class.
Roman Catholics of all classes, as well as great majority of nobles, identified as Poles. Orthodox peasants identified as Rusyns.
Small part Orthodox nobility (itself not very numerous) also identified as Rusyns / Ruthenians.
Cossacks were ethnically mixed, they included also Poles (few of them were even of Jewish descent), but most of them were Orthodox, so they identified as Rusyns (Ukrainians is a modern name), even if they descended from other ethnic groups.