re: #59 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Perhaps a bit hyperbolic there, but one major reason they had so many Jews is that Poland was within the Pale of Settlement, as Jews were banned from owning land in Russia

Ya learn new stuff here every day. I was unaware of the “Pale of Settlement,” so I looked it up.

That was the area the Russian Empire permitted Jews to live in (which at times included parts of pre-WW1 Poland). Jews were only permitted to live outside that area in very limited circumstances.

That said, many of Europe’s other nations weren’t exactly fans of Jewish citizens either. (Spain notoriously expelled Jews immediately following the Reconquista, leading to most fleeing to Ottoman Empire controlled lands.)