Jews in the Galician Oil-Business, 1860-1914: Social Stratification and Ethnic Solidarity

The case of Jewish communities of Boryslav and Drohobych, two Galician cities, which became the center of oil explorations in the second half of the 19th century challenges traditional vision of Galician Jewry as backward and deeply traditional. It shows how the industrialization of the cities creates new elites, provokes the rise of Jewish working class and changes life of other social groups. Boryslav oil extracting industry became the place, where Jews were involved at different stages of production, as entrepreneurs, overseers, and workers. In my presentation I want to analyze how the participation of the Jews in oil business changed the relations between different social groups, trying to understand the transformation of a Jewish community in industrial town.
The new challenges which arose after rapid industrialization and growth of the cities deeply influenced Jewish community. The rapid increase of Jewish population changed the community needs for philanthropy. Multiethnic character of the industry, which involved also Polish and Ruthenian workers often provoked interethnic conflicts. Using the Jewish press of the region and archival documents of Kraków Mining Department I will analyze the changing philanthropic strategies among Jewish elites, the reaction of the former on the rise of the labour movement and attitude to the interethnic conflicts among the workers.
The case studies, like this, are very important to the growing field of economic and social history of Jews. They help to analyze and compare different reactions of the Jewish community to the modernity and understand typical patterns of behavior.