Tekinalp’s Anti-socialism as a Modern Ottoman Jewish
Rıdvan TurhanTekinalp is an intellectual of Jewish origin, who lived in the period of transition from empire to nation state with radical social, economic and political changes. Tekinalp was, for a certain period of time, a fervid advocate of the Ottomanism ideal, which envisaged the Ottomanization of Jews and their adaptation to the society they lived in. Tekinalp also expressed his opinions on such modern ideologies as Zionism and socialism on various platforms. In the political arena of the period, Tekinalp took an explicit position as an antagonist of socialism. Nevertheless, a significant proportion of the Jewish intellectuals living in Europe at that time gathered around socialism and it was to such extent that the most prominent socialist theoreticians stood out among Jewish intellectuals. In this paper, Tekinalp’s negative stance against socialism was outlined and the underlying reasons for the dissenting opinions between European Jewish intellectuals and Tekinalp, an Ottoman Jew, during the early 20th century were discussed. In this context, such discussion hopefully aims to introduce an unassuming contribution to the understanding of the relation between Judaism and socialism.
Modern Bir Osmanlı Yahudi’si Olarak Tekinalp’in Sosyalizm Karşıtlığı
Rıdvan TurhanTekinalp toplumsal, ekonomik ve siyasal açıdan köklü dönüşümlerin yaşandığı imparatorluktan ulus devlete geçiş sürecinde yaşamış Yahudi bir entelektüeldir. Belirli bir dönem Yahudilerin Osmanlılaştırılması ve içinde yaşadıkları topluma uyumu ekseninde Osmanlıcılık düşüncesinin ateşli bir savunucusu olan Tekinalp, çeşitli platformlarda Siyonizm ve sosyalizm gibi modern ideolojiler hakkındaki düşüncelerini dile getirmiş ve dönemin siyasi arenasında kendisini açık bir biçimde sosyalizm karşıtı olarak konumlandırmıştır. Diğer yandan aynı dönemde Avrupa’da yaşayan Yahudi entelektüellerin önemli bir bölümü sosyalizmin saflarında bir araya gelmiş, hatta en önemli sosyalist teorisyenler yine Yahudi entelektüeller arasından çıkmıştır. Bu çalışmada Tekinalp’in sosyalizm karşısındaki negatif tutumu ana hatlarıyla tanıtılmış ve buradan hareketle yirminci yüzyılın ilk çeyreğinde Avrupalı Yahudi entelektüellerle bir Osmanlı Yahudi’si olan Tekinalp’in sosyalizm karşısındaki farklı tutumlarının sebepleri tartışılmıştır. Bu eksende ortaya koyulacak bir tartışmanın Yahudilik ve sosyalizm ilişkisinin anlaşılabilmesine mütevazı bir katkı yapması hedeflenmektedir.
In this paper, I mainly intend to discuss the reasons behind the anti-socialism of Tekinalp, whom I describe as a modern Ottoman Jew. With this discussion within the framework of the various models of Judaism, Jewish cosmopolitism and the sensitivity of Tekinalp about class distinctions, my initial purpose is to make a contribution to the understanding of the relationship between socialism and Judaism. Tekinalp was a Jewish intellectual who lived throughout the process of transition from the Empire into the nation state. He spent a certain period of his life in Thessaloniki, one of the most significant social, economic and political hubs of the Ottoman Empire. In addition to such characteristics, Thessaloniki was one of the cities of the Ottoman empire with the largest working class population. In parallel, the Ottoman socialist movement, similar to many other modern currents of thought, emerged and flourished in Thessaloniki.
Another characteristic of Thessaloniki was that more than half of its general population consisted of Jews. Therefore, a significant part of the working class, the social group where the socialist movement could have its basis, consisted also of Jews. In this framework, it is not surprising that the Jewish workers massively supported the socialist movement that was rising in the city after the 1908 Revolution. The Thessaloniki Socialist Workers’ Federation, founded by a Bulgarian Jew and mainly a Jewish organization, was the principal organization that embodied the massive support of Jewish workers towards the socialist movement.
Nevertheless, not all of the Jews of Thessaloniki supported the socialist movement. One of the prominent members of the Jewish community, Tekinalp, not only avoided supporting the socialist movement but also harshly criticized the involvement of many Jews in Thessaloniki in the socialist movement. In this respect, Tekinalp also regarded the critical approach of the socialist Jews towards the Committee of Union of Progress as unacceptable. According to Alp, the Jews could not have any reason to oppose the government party. This was because of Tekinalp’s belief that loyalty towards the governments of the countries they lived in was the essential character of the traditional Jewish identity and culture. Moreover, according to Tekinalp, a distrust, resentment and indignation towards the opposition party is the nature of the national dignity of the Jewish people. Therefore, Tekinalp built his anti-socialist approach upon the “irrelevance” of the Jews and Jewishness to socialism.
However, several of the European intellectual contemporaries of Tekinalp asserted that there is a strong relation between socialism and Jewishness, and more generally, Judaism had a revolutionary essence. Lazare defines the Jew as a rebel by the nature of his/her religion and culture. In the same period, Ernest Renan also had a similar approach. Shortly after Renan, Max Weber also explained the revolutionary nature of the Jews in relation to their historical position. Robert Michels, who mentioned the relation of Judaism with revolution and socialism in a more detailed and systematic manner, argued that socialism was one of the most significant forms of expression describing the Jewish cosmopolitism.
How can these differing opinions of the intellectuals that were contemporaries and lived in different regions towards the relation between socialism and Judaism be explained? This paper seeks the answer to this main question. Within the framework of this question, first of all, it must be underlined that Judaism does not have a mono-block structure and the Jews, as a diasporic people, developed different models of Judaism in different periods of time and regions that outline their approach and ways of thinking. Within the German model, which was determined by cultural assimilation and political segregation, Judaism showed a remarkable inclination towards [socialist] internationalism. Nevertheless, French Judaism, which had always been in connection with republican institutions, took the position of representing political conformism. French Jews became loyal citizens who love and serve their country, because of their gains through liberalization and thus, unlike the German Jews, they did not feel the need to conflict with the powers of the establishment. This perspective also spread around the Ottoman territory through the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU), founded in 1860 by the French Jews. Therefore, among the Ottoman Jews, who were largely influenced by the AIU ideology, the stance of a Jew who opposed the government did not gain acceptance among the Ottoman Jews, regardless of the severity or mildness of such opposition. This claim was most conspicuously voiced by Tekinalp, who had for long adopted the Alliance ideology. In short, the anti-socialism of Tekinalp was first and foremost due to the impact of the French Jewishness model.
In the territory of the Ottoman Empire, the fact that anti-Semitism, pogroms and exiles had not taken place unlike the examples of Russia and Europe was another reason why Tekinalp and many other Ottoman Jew intellectuals stood in distance from anti-establishment movements including socialism. Another factor that had an influence on the anti-socialism of Tekinalp was due to his anxiety upon class distinctions.
