History of the Jews in 18th-century Poland

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article relies entirely upon a single source, which became part of the public domain recently: the unedited, nevertheless directly copy-pasted content of, the no longer available, full article in the original Jewish Encyclopedia previously at http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=479&letter=R/. The book was published between 1901–1906 when sovereign Poland did not exist following the century of Partitions and its blatant anti-Polish rhetoric by occupying powers. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Find sources: "History of the Jews in 18th-century Poland" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2012) This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. You can help. The talk page may contain suggestions. (November 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

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The 18th century for the Jews of Poland was a tumultuous period as political unrest in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth led to changes in the treatment and behavior of Jews living within its territory. The ascent of the Wettin dynasty to the Polish throne, as well as the government's difficulties in procuring taxes led to a waning of previous policies of religious tolerance in Poland, and the partitions of Poland during the second half of the century led to widespread violence as the government's power faltered and various regional powers and separatist movements fought for control of the territory.

In terms of religious and spiritual practice, the 18th century saw the development of Hasidic Judaism. Stemming from the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and drawing on the traditions of Kabbalah, Hasidic Judaism emphasized emotion and religious ecstasy over the academic dogmatism that had previously come to define Orthodox Judaism in Eastern Europe. During this time period, the Jewish community of Poland would also experience the tail-end of Sabbatianism in the form of the followers of Jacob Frank, who claimed to be a successor of Sabbatai Zevi.