Banking and Finance

In 1897, Jews and converts owned over half of Warsaw's major private banks and an even higher percentage in the rest of Congress Poland. However, after World War I, the new Polish state did not offer an encouraging environment for Jewish bankers, whose numbers fell drastically.

The importance of Jews in the financial economy of Eastern Europe dates back to the Middle Ages. As immigrants from regions of Central Europe with better-developed economies, Jews were able to take advantage of their long experience in exchange and moneylending. Even kings and members of the nobility often made use of Jewish bankers. However, it's important to note that Jews had been forced into this profession by restrictions imposed by the Catholic church and governments. Jews were forbidden from working in certain activities and pushed into those considered socially or morally inferior, like moneylending. Legal restrictions and discrimination against the Jewish population and their economic success continued into the 1800s and 1900s in Eastern Europe with laws defining what jobs were open to Jews and where they could settle. For example, the establishment of Jewish quarters were meant to weaken Jewish economic activities and separate them from non-Jewish society.

Moneylending became less attractive to Jews by the 1500s. But when the pace of modernization in Eastern Europe picked up in the second half of the 1800s, Jews’ roles in the financial world grew significantly. Jews and converts owned over half of Warsaw's major private banks and an even higher percentage in the rest of Congress Poland. At the time, Poland was divided and occupied by the Russian, Prussian and Austrian Empires. Congress Poland was a region created by the Russian Empire, within their area of occupation, to placate the desire for a Polish nation. It was an independent and semi-constitutional state. Prominent Jewish bankers were directors of banks throughout the 1800s. However, after World War I, the new Polish state did not offer an encouraging environment for Jewish bankers. Therefore their numbers, and prominence, sharply declined.